There’s a Chapter Closed
From my balcony in Rio
I write this in cold gray morning light as I wait for a connecting flight to Rio. I’m in the São Paolo airport. My mind is scattered by a year of graduate school, a nine-day whirlwind harmony joy ride through DC and NYC, and one sleepless night on the flight down here. These words come slowly.
I’m glad to be writing again and I hope I can maintain the interest of at least a few readers. More importantly, I hope I can adequately record my experience down here. I don’t foresee having the time to write nearly as much as I did when I interned for the State Department in Brasilia and that’s probably a good thing. My long-winded reflections on life in Brasilia weren’t borne of the richness of my experience there, but rather of the endless empty hours I had to fill. I pray for fewer empty hours this summer.
My prayers have been answered thus far. The past nine days in DC and NYC were non-stop, full of family and friends, balmy evenings, rock shows, night swimming, milkshakes, all night diners, and a lot of nostalgia. I unceremoniously exited my childhood home yesterday afternoon for the last time in my life. Since I left DC last August, my father got a new job and my parents are in the process of returning their lives to Utah. I still haven’t figured out the best way to explain that I’m from DC, but was born in Utah and my family lives in Utah, but I grew up in DC, etc. I’m more than happy to claim both places as my home.
I deliberately left DC about 10 months ago to get a master’s degree at UCSD. I could have stayed east, but my burgeoning aversion to politics prompted me to leave Sin City behind and investigate the west coast. I have no regrets so far; although I’m finding that the city and my friends in DC still have a great deal of pull. There’s something about a master’s in international relations that points to DC and my friends make it enticing, but I suppose I can put off that decision for a while yet. In the meantime, I’m lucky to be in Brazil and I look forward to another school year in gorgeous San Diego. I’ve got a stack of books to read, some software to learn, a movie to make, and some trips to take. Oh, and I’ve got a job too.
I’ll be working for a group called the Committee for Democracy in Information Technology (CDI). I’m going to help them plan their budgets and I’ll be doing my own research on the rapidly growing Brazilian open source software movement/community/industry. The fruits of my research will be featured on another blog, right here at push.agentlebossanova.net.
Anyway, welcome back to my internet. Many pictures and words forthcoming.