I must let myself let you go
and just see you from the distance
so you can remain beautiful
and do not blind my eyes
*for those remaining meaningful
RDS, 22 December 2010
White rose (from http://www.mooseyscountrygarden.com/rose-garden/white-astrid-rose.jpg)
Clinton School of Public Service
I go to the Clinton School of Public Service, one of presidential school in Arkansas, United States. United States has seven presidential schools named after president of the United States. Most of the schools focus on public administration, government, and governance, while the Clinton School focuses on service since it is inspired by the services President Clinton is doing even after he is no longer in charge as United States president.
Being a Clinton School student is interesting since we have to do three public services projects while we are at school. In the first semester, three students will be grouped to work with local organizations in Little Rock (Arkansas state capital city). Then, in summer, all the full-time students have to partner with a national or international organizations doing international public service project all over the world. The school awards amount of money for each student to do these projects. The third one is a capstone project, where the students will partner again with an organization in the United States. The best part is we will choose the organizations we want to work with. These opportunities enable me to try working with three different organizations.
I worked with two of my colleagues with the Arkansas Baptist College (ABC) at the first semester. A historically black college, ABC involves in community revitalization efforts surrounding the school. On a team, I developed a booklet recorded ABC’s efforts in renewing the community with the hope that the similar organizations could use the booklet if they wanted to rejuvenate their communities. Read more…
Good opinion, internally and externally (source: http://www.cassidyadvertising.com)
Hi Dewi, I thought your background is in communication. So, why do you choose to be in an internship with HR? They are different!
That kind of questions I got from several friends that know me better. They ask me regarding my choice work in HR field and not in communication (in particular public relations), the subject that I have been studying and working with in last 10 years since college. I had always thought that human resources are more the knowledge about communication. Having working for almost a month focusing on human resources, I found that it is true. Human resources deal a lot with human. In fact, one of my undergraduate instructors said that about 90 percent problems in the world are about communication. While we can argue about this, it is the nature of human to communicate. Read more…
I know. I am on my international public service project now with the Nature Conservancy. But it doesn’t stop me to still enjoy the World Cup 2010. Yey!
WC 2010 logo (source: http://coda.co.za)
Many people think that I love football for the sake of watching handsome players. Well, it is not totally wrong! But, I love football because I enjoy watching the game. And I love to see my team win a game. I love football since I was in my 6th grade of elementary school. My father has no son in the family, so that he tries to influence all the girls with football. Something that I don’t regret. I have been cheering for Argentina since then. I remember not many Argentina players, but I always remember Maradona (who doesn’t?). I think it is because my father talks about him a lot even until today. Today, he joined the world cup not as a player, but as a coach. Isn’t it cool? Read more…
I write slowly. I know.
Today is Wednesday, June 15. I have been working for almost two weeks now.
My first week went well. I familiarized with the people, the office, and for sure the work. I even joined the staff meeting. There are not so many people working in San Antonio office. This makes everyone knows each other quite well. San Antonio is one of the TNC’s offices in Texas.
I just knew that Texas itself is the land for diverse natural resources and habitats. When I was kid, I knew Texas for its cowboys. I assumed that most of the land was desert. I was wrong. Wikipedia writes that only less than 10% of the land area is desert. There are also prairies, grasslands, forests, coastline, swaps, and piney woods. This geographical conditions make Texas is one of the biggest operations in TNC in the US. Read more…
Finally, this was my first weekend in San Antonio. As I stated in my previous post, I arrived in San Antonio on Thursday, June 3, 2010. I was still in the process of settling down.
My two classmates Judy and Nathanial from the Clinton School told me that they would introduce me to their friends in San Antonio. That would be great to meet their friends here. However, I just wanted to rest and settle down before start working on Monday.
Garage sale (source: http://www.gladstone.mo.us/)
My landlady Socorro, though, had a better idea to spend my Saturday. She asked if I would join her shopping and see the city a little bit. Even though I was still tired, I agreed to join her. She wanted to go to Sam’s and Walmart to buy her groceries and medicine, but before she would like to take me to see some garage sales. Wow! I love garage sale.
I learned for the first time about garage sale from TV and movies. Basically, garage sale is done at somebody’s yard or garage. Garage sale, according to Wikipedia, also known as a yard sale, rummage sale, tag sale, attic sale, moving sale, or junk sale, is an informal, irregularly scheduled event for the sale of used goods by private individuals, in which “block sales” are allowed, so that sellers are not required to obtain business licenses or collect sales tax. What interesting that in San Antonio, the home owners are just able to conduct garage sale twice a year. If they conduct more, they should pay tax to the government for the goods they sell. Not all people agree since they already pay the tax for the goods when they buy them first time in the store. But, regulation is regulation. Read more…
Texas State (source: http://mceakin.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/texas.jpg)
Okay. So I am in Texas now. For the readers who haven’t familiar with Texas yet, it is the second biggest state in the United States in regards to size and populations. By size, Texas is the second biggest state after Alaska, and by populations, Texas is the second biggest after California (according to Wikipedia). I read about Texas as well as in Wikipedia and found the fact that the name of Texas was taken from Caddo language meaning friends or allies. I am in a friendly place, that’s what I assume!
Here is a bit of geography of Texas (268,820 square miles (696,200 km2)). This state is located in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Mexico in the South, New Mexico State to the west, Oklahoma State to the north, Arkansas State to the northeast, and Louisiana State to the east. According the US Census Bureau, by 2008, the estimate of Texas population is 23,845,989 people. Read more…
Life is fast lately. I spent two nights of orientation in Arlington, Virginia.
In front of WB Hq (private pic)
Then, I flew to San Antonio in the next day. My group finished presenting around 11AM. Then I was in a rush to go since my former World Bank boss was in Washington, DC. He came to attend training, and then had vacation with his wife. Then, he wanted to meet with me since he brought me the Aceh coffee. WOW! I am lucky six times now, LOL (read here for I am lucky five times).
Say goodbye is never easy for me, even though the Beatles said “You said good bye, I say hello”. Thuy, my roommate, was giving her presentation when I should leave. I brought my entire luggage and rode a taxi to one of coffee places in front of the World Bank Headquarter in DC. I arrived then had a chat with my boss and his wife. It is funny that I barely had a coffee with him in Aceh, but we had it in DC. Yey! Read more…
TNC leaf log (private pic)
I consider myself lucky since I can pursue my master degree in the United States with Fulbright scholarship. I am twice lucky since I can work at a big conservation organization, the Nature Conservancy (TNC). I am three times lucky since I can work not only with random TNC project, but I will be able to still help my country Indonesia since TNC project will have a pilot program in Indonesia. Alhamdulillah!
So, before working at TNC in San Antonio office, I should join an orientation training for all the interns in TNC worldwide office (they call it WO) in Arlington, Virginia. I was very excited because I would meet interns from some schools, states, and even countries. There are 38 interns including me that will work at TNC offices in some states in the US. Some of them even have better choices since they can visit other TNC offices in Latin America and Asia Pacific. I met one of the interns that is placed in Honolulu, Hawaii, and she will go to Bali office. That sounds like a vacation! And, I am four time lucky since I will be able to go home to Jakarta to conduct a pilot project with Jakarta office. WOW!
God is great. God is! Read more…
The trip to Arlington was fun! I didn’t have any trouble in the security guard at the airport as I told earlier that it had been three times they screened my head scarf. Oh no!
It cost USD 25 from the airport to Holiday Inn in Ballston, Arlington. It was a not-too-long road to the hotel. On the way to the hotel, I thought a lot about who my future roommate would be since we will be paired with an intern. I came earlier than my roommate, so that I haven’t met her when I arrived. From the name, I could tell that she must be from Southeast Asian as well. I was true!
Not until an-hour, my roommate came. She is a Vietnamese coming from
Thuy, Dewi, and Mr. Stanley at DCA Airport, DC (private pic)
Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam. She introduced me as Thuy. She is beautiful girl and she is now still studying at Williams College in Massachusetts. She studies in a liberal college, but she has been concentrating in economics and environment. She will work with The Nature Conservancy in San Francisco Office. Her title is so cool. She will work as Climate Adaptation Intern.
I knew that we’ll be a very good friend since we met. She has a big smile and bright eyes, such indicators that she is smart. And my guess was true. Even though that she is still so young, she travelled a lot. In fact, she was in Denmark when the climate change conference took place last December 2009. And she has been to Greenland. Gosh! So cool! It didn’t take long time that we discussed many things from the hard stuffs such as the economic crisis in Greek, the climate change, and just random stuff such as marriage and religion. I saw that we had many things in common. I am blessed to have such a new friend like her.
Now, we already start our internship. She will be fine in San Francisco!
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