Category: Uncategorized

Not Very Old Turtles

On By liicranberryIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

After a flight up on Saturday and a Sunday filled with grocery shopping, I got up at 5:45 this morning to get in to the Field Museum early so as to fill out my HR paperwork on my first day. The hour-long train ride in was delayed a further twenty minutes due to negative temperatures and snow (the weather in Chicago is not my favorite part of the city) but I somehow made it in by 9. After sitting in an office and signing a bunch of forms, I met my supervisor and was led through the basement of the museum, which was clearly designed with intent to restrain a minotaur. I’m definitely going to get lost every day this week. Finally, though, we made it to a door which displayed the following sign:Image

It looked promising, to say the least. Full disclosure; I abandoned all pretenses of maturity and was grinning like an idiot and looking around at femurs twice my height so fast that I think I may have given myself mild whiplash. 

Of course, I wasn’t put in charge of anything that important on my first day. For now I’m labeling a new shipment of fossils and making and organizing display trays, which is actually sort of fun if you’re the type of person who gets very excited about hot glue and Xacto knives. 

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These are my very scientific supplies. 

Basically, what you do to make a display tray is you take a piece of styrofoam and a template and cut it out. There are approximately 11,000 sizes of templates (probably closer to 15, but math has never been my forte) so you have to do a bit of eyeballing to figure out the size you’ll need. Then, you cut off a square inch from each corner, take an appropriately sized box, and squish the styrofoam in as a lining.

The fun part comes after that, all of which takes about 15 minutes to do your first time and maybe 30 seconds by the end of your first day. The fossils themselves are in little boxes, organized by animal, and you have to arrange them in the trays, label and number them, and make little dividers around them. You end up with something like this:

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Incidentally, I asked my supervisor how old these fossilized turtle legs and claws were. His casual reply was, “Oh, not very. Only from fifty or sixty million years ago.” 

So, yeah. Welcome to paleontology time, where sixty million years is barely vintage.

xx

liicranberry

 

The Oscars at The Huffington Post

On By Taylor GriffithIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

03-03-14

My first day at The Huffington Post went beyond my expectations! Julee Wilson is a glowing bundle of energy and enthusiasm that, combined with her wonderful coworkers in the Black Voices Section, made me feel like a part of the team immediately. As she toured me around the incredible office building,  I got a feel for the quiet and calm atmosphere of the reporters’ floor and the thrilling buzz of the Huff Post Live domain. One of the highlights from my day, aside from going out to lunch with some of the writers, was getting to watch a segment of Huff Post Live in person! Julee, along with a few other style and beauty experts, discussed their favorites and least favorites of the dresses from the Oscars.

Not only was my time at The Huffington Post great, but I’m getting more and more used to the city life. Upon arriving in New York, my dad and I walked around the Grand Central Station area as well as took the subways down to where I’d be working. After having familiarized myself with the atmosphere, I feel confident that within the next day or so, I’ll be taking the subways to The Huffington Post by myself. To top it off, I’ll be added into The Huffington Post‘s system tomorrow and will officially begin blogging for them! Keep an eye out for my picture, a short biography, and my first entry!

Day one and this experience is already incredible! It can only go up from here 🙂

Taylor

The Holy City

On By johnbaird1799In UncategorizedLeave a comment

imageI woke up yesterday morning in Jerusalem to the sound of doves cooing outside. It was the start of a stunning day in the Holy City. Sitting here again in the quiet hotel with everyone I their rooms, it’s hard to believe all that we have already experienced, and difficult to conceive of what we have to look forward to. After breakfast (we’ve been eating delicious hummus at every meal!) walked to the Old City from our hotel, passing through Herod’s gate. When I first set eyes on the Wailing Wall was I felt that we had truly arrived. We could see the Dome of the Rock over the Western Wall, and our guide pointed out that we were in the midst of the most sacred and sensitive places in the world.

We split into male and female groups to approach the Wall, and I made my way up  with a group of boys. Each of us donned a kippa, and we wove our way gingerly through throngs of  fervently praying men and boys. We each wrote a note on a page torn from my journal; I wrote a prayer and put it into a fissure as high over my head as I could reach: “Let there be peace on Earth, and let it begin with me.”  Stepping back from the Wall, I sat in a plastic chair to take it all in.  I closed my eyes and was engulfed in all of the sounds surrounding me –  passionate praying and loud chanting and the singing of the birds perched on the Wall. I opened my eyes and an elderly man in Orthodox garb smiled at me. I no longer felt like a stranger or a tourist – I felt a connection. The rest of our morning included walking the Via Dolorosa (Way of Sorrows) and visiting the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, as well as King David’s Tomb and the Upper Room on Mount Zion. There is so much to see and to absorb- and to do so in the company of such a fine of seniors and adults is truly a gift. More to come!

Standing at the Middle of the World

On By jeremygevansIn Uncategorized1 Comment

The meaning of this title is two-fold. One very literal, a supposed central place of the entire world, and another whose meaning is much more complicated than a mere two folds: the Palestine Israel conflict being central to the entire world’s attention. Today I stood under a mural of Jesus Christ in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher which is/was considered by many to mark the center of the world. There just happen to be a few other significant places in the Church. It is home to the site where Jesus is believed to have been crucified, another space where he was washed and prepared for burial, as well as his tomb. To stand in the place where a man, who was an epitome of morality, had his life ended for his beliefs and the threat that those beliefs posed to the status quo of the standing rulers is a powerful experience. In a place of such strong religious purpose, you have to wonder where the religious mainstays of equality and compassion get to in this tension-filled pocket of the world.

Following our morning walk through the Old City of Jerusalem with our guide Salim, which included walking the Via Dolorosa (Jesus’s walk through the streets to his crucifixion), stops at the Wailing/Western Wall (Where a few of us went up and placed messages in the wall), the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Dome of the Rock, among many other sites and some delicious Shwarma/Falafel sandwich lunches, we met with Jeff Halper. Jeff is an American Jew who moved to Israel 40 years ago. He is the Founder and Director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD). He met us at our tour bus outside of the Old City. We began by driving out to a hill overlooking the Eastern side of Jerusalem (The Palestinian Side). The air was dusty and visibility was poor, but he was still able to give us an overview of the Separation Wall/Security Fence, whatever your preferred name, and its relation to Palestinian Villages and Israel’s claim to 25,000 House Demolition Orders for Palestinian homes in the area.

Palestinians who live there are not citizens of Israel. According to Israel, even though the Palestinian homes have been there since before Israel’s creation, they do not have legal permits to hold residences on the land. By that claim they declare the right to demolish houses at their choosing. Leaving the occupying family to find alternative living. Even if your house is not demolished, the living conditions are not to be envied. Israeli State services such as trash pickup are not directly offered in the region, and so the vacant plots of land are covered in trash and ruble from wrecked houses. 70% of Palestinians live below the poverty line. The ever decreasing number of living spaces due to house demolitions only drives housing prices up to unaffordable levels. Water is strictly controlled by Israel, and per capita water usage is 5x greater than Palestinians. Israel has the power to cut off water supply at will. The sure-fire way to identify a Palestinian home is to locate the large black water tank on top of the house which collects rain water in case the water supply is cut off in summer droughts. Meanwhile, Israeli Settlements in the same location have large, decorative man-made lakes with fountains (Picture Below; You can see what I mean by dust), and Olympic sized swimming pools.

Settlement Lake Fountain

After giving us these, he made some very thought-provoking statements about how this was being allowed to happen. Reasons like, Israelis not needing to care due to their high living standard, or their need for protection (which is absolutely legitimate, but not to the point of oppression), the United States’ need for our Military Industrial Complex to be subsidized and so fearing any opposition to Israeli strategic overtaking of the land. The most thought-provoking to me was the idea that the rest of the world was allowing Israel working space in order to use the Palestinians like lab rats for the worlds oppressive regimes to observe and model after. Mr. Halper, an Israeli mind you, was pointing out the fact that they are able to do it by boring administrative/legal induced ways. Things like zoning and creating permit requirements that Palestinians can’t fulfill. Things that a lot of people don’t understand in the first place, let alone know how to change.

I am assuming that this post looks STRONGLY biased. Let me be clear. I believe Israel has the right to exist. Do I believe they have the right to systematically humiliate Palestinians to the point where they are forced to leave their land? No. There is no arguing that Israel’s approach is to siphon off Palestinian’s land until they possess the entire land including the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Do I understand the Israeli concern for security? Absolutely. It’s indisputable.  However, as I head to bed I point to one of the quotations that I saw spray painted on the portion of the wall we saw today.

“When Ignorance reigns, Lives are Lost”

This applies to both sides. Suicide bombings from the Palestinians are what gave the Israelis the excuse to build the Wall. Needless to say any attack from the Palestinians now is made into justification of all portions of the Israeli system. Violence, particularly of the blind fashion, will only lose lives.

It has been a long day and a half. I have no doubt my opinions will be swayed day by day. The only thing that is certain is that I am standing in the Middle of the World. The world will take its cues from the situation here. The lynch pin of the Human Rights struggle is right here, and we can only hope that justice, whatever that looks like, is what prevails.

Standing at the supposed center of the world in the Church of the Holy Sepluchur
Standing at the supposed center of the world in the Church of the Holy Sepluchur

Till next time,

Jeremy

Day 2 in Israel

On By lizsextonIn Israel/Palestine Trip 2014, Uncategorized1 Comment

Location: Azzahra Hotel in Jerusalem

I can’t believe that this is only the end of our second day…we’ve done and learned so much already. Yesterday night after a long eleven hour flight from Philadelphia to Tel Aviv, we went to the Dar Ramot family in Neve Neeman for a delicious welcome dinner and discussion. The pita bread, hummus (pronounced hoomus), cheesy bread, chocolate, and cookies were all greatly appreciated after the meals provided by US Airways that most people slept through. After dinner and cookies, we got to hear the prospective of the conflict from an Israeli family with a son in the army. We learned about why they felt safer with the wall being built and their perspective on whether peace can be achieved. This conversation was a good lead into today’s events in touring Jerusalem.

At 7:00 AM we all went down to breakfast where we were met with more delicious pita bread with all kinds of spreads and pastries. Full, and ready for the day, we left at 8:00 for a walking tour of the Old City (in 70-80 degree weather). The narrow and labyrinth like streets in the Old City had merchants along the sides selling candy, fresh fruit, clothes, and jewelry. We were led by our tour guide to The Church of the Holy Seplechure and The Wailing Wall (The Western Wall). At The Wailing Wall, women and men are separated for prayer.

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After lunch we all boarded the bus for a bus tour of East and West Jerusalem. I learned more about the conflict during this four hour bus ride than I had known two days ago. Our tour guide, Jeff Halper is an Israeli Jew who belongs to the Israeli Commission Against Housing Demolitions gave us his perspective about the conflict, some of which was completely opposite of the Dar Ramot family. Driving around East Jerusalem in the city of Silwan, which has been changed to The City of David, where the Palestinians live opened our eyes to the stark difference between the living conditions of the Palestinians and Israelis. Jeff said, “This is where the sidewalk ends.” At this point on the street Israelis will not continue to walk, and the infrastructure is completely different. There are no sidewalks and trash litters the streets and yards everywhere since there is no trash collection. There were also demolished homes and barren land that is zoned for future Israeli Urban development. The illegal Palestinian homes are easily recognizable because they have black barrels on the roof to collect water since their water has been shut off. We continued to E1, an Israeli settlement nearby is vastly different than the Palestinian city less than a mile away. It is a comfort zone where Israeli’s can have a higher standard of living for lower costs in a depoliticized area. The biggest, and most shocking difference is that they have three Olympic sized pools and a giant man made lake for aesthetics while the Palestinians down the street cannot depend on having water for a shower.

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These two days have given us first hand interactions and experiences where we have heard truths from two sides of the complex conflict. While most of us are still jet-lagged we are ready for another early morning when we will be going to Zohar Badeshe Kibbutz Dalia.

My Homeland Awaits Me…

On By meilikonell18In UncategorizedLeave a comment

Hi everyone, my name is Meili Konell and I will be traveling to China in 6 days! I was adopted there when I was only 4 months old and this will be my first time going back. We will be visiting Beijing, and Shanghai for about five days each and taking a day trip and Zhouzhuang. We will explore the different cities while site seeing historic places such as the Great Wall, Tian’anmen, the Forbidden City along with many more tourist attractions. We will also be volunteering at two orphanages which I’m looking forward to since we have been given the opportunity to collect donations for the children. It will also give me a chance to see the environment and culture  where I came from for the first time in 18 years.

Until next time, 

Zai jian! Meili 

One-Hundred and Four Years Later… and Here I Am!

On By Emma L.In UncategorizedLeave a comment

3/1/14

Hello, everyone! My name is Emma Leibman, and over the next month, I’ll be in Easton, Maryland, renovating and restoring the old house where my younger brother, Atticus, and I grew up. Almost three years ago, my mom took a job in Frederick, Maryland, and the house has stood vacant, apart from an odd weekend here or there, since then. As much as we LOVE this house and would hate to get rid of it, a second household – particularly one we’re not living in – is an increasingly unbearable financial and logistical burden, and we’re likely going to have to put it on the market. 😦

The small, beautiful 1910 Sears Kit Foursquare of my childhood is located on Winton Avenue in the town’s Historic District. This is lovely and convenient… until you’re trying to rent or sell your home from across the state, work full-time and raise two kids, one of which is three hours away at boarding school (kudos, Mama!). The rental codes in town are very strict and specific, and the house would need some work in order to sell for what it’s worth, and either scenario involves availability and an investment of time and energy that my family hasn’t had — until now!

Over the course of the next month, I’ll be living at the Winton Avenue house and working with a former neighbor, Ginna Tiernan, (and my mom, on the weekends) to start the work necessary to get the house to be in selling condition. Mom did a large-scale renovation of the property herself almost ten years ago, after flooding from Hurricane Isabel forced us out of the house we’d previously been renting, and her diligent, loving fingers have since touched every square inch of it. Fortunately for me, this means that most of the projects on my to-do list are manageably small-ish (i.e. painting/varnishing, sanding, paint stripping, patching walls, simple carpentry, etc.), because many of the largest projects don’t have to be taken care of again right away. I will be blogging at least every few days, if not at every major milestone, with plenty of renovation stories1 and before/after/in-the-process photos, so that you can all see the progress as it takes place!

Although I’m not traveling anywhere new or exotic, this Senior Project holds tremendous personal value for me. Between my family’s move and the past two and a half years I’ve spent at Westtown, I’ve barely spent any of my adolescence in the place I truly consider “home;” I can feel at home in many places, given the right circumstances, but this is the only physical location that has always, consistently been home to me2, and I can’t wait to spend an entire month there. While I’m in Easton, I’ll be returning to worship at Third Haven, the Monthly Meeting where I officially became a Quaker almost 17 years ago, and getting together with old friends and mentors before moving into the next chapter of my life. These closure and reconnection pieces of my Senior Project are as important to me as the gathering of new, practical skills and the doing something for/with my family, and I intend to share updates from this part of my Project, in addition to posts about the renovation’s progress. 

If you have any questions or comments for me, there should be a space below to post them. Thanks for reading… I promise not all my future posts will be as long as this one, so hang with me, here! 🙂

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1I’ve watched enough HGTV and remember enough of our reno to know that there are ALWAYS renovation stories… so stay tuned!

2Westtown and wherever-my-family-happens-to-be are the next-closest things, but my favorite place is the Winton Avenue house, without a doubt.

3If my last name sounds familiar, you might know my dad (Greg Leibman ’78)… it’s a small world, especially when you’ve gone to Westtown!

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Thank you for your response. ✨

And the Adventure Begins….

On By katiradobbinsIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

We had all lugged our massive bags down the stairs to central where we met the rest of our group. Then we couldn’t find Tom. Well, he showed up just in time and we all laughed, wondering how often that would happen on our trip. We heaved our luggage into the van and headed on our way to the Wilmington Train Station. The train was delayed a whole hour so I spent my time people watching. After a not-so-long train ride, because I slept most of the way down, we arrived at Union Station. We left the station and walked probably what was about 15 blocks to the William Penn House where we were staying. This a Quaker hostel where people stay while they are doing service in the direct community. After finding our beds and getting settled, we went to search for some food. I’m not going to lie, food is probably the thing I am most excited about. Not to mention creating friendships with the other people on this trip. The group walked up 7th street and the onto Pennsylvania Avenue where we found this incredible Mexican place that was similar to Chipotle called District Taco. If you’re ever in DC, I recommend it. We walked back to the house in the bitter cold, and decided to have a game night. So, we picked the best ice breaker game ever, Apples to Apples. We are already connecting as a group and it looks like we have a lot more fun times ahead of us.

Up, Up, And Away!

On By billyhavilandIn Uncategorized6 Comments

That time is finally here! Tomorrow I will be leaving to go to Ghana. We will leave from Westtown at 1:30 PM, and drive to JFK airport in NYC. Our long 10 hour flight takes off at 8:45 PM. The excitement has been building up inside me for this whole week and knowing that the day is finally here is extremely hard to bear. In Ghana I will be able to learn about a culture, and way of living of which I have never experienced before. It will be total cultural immersion, and the lack of technology from our daily lives, will be a great addition to the experience. My goal is to get to know the students of Heritage academy, and to enjoy the course which I will be teaching them.

I have chosen to teach a course called “Environmental Problems Around the World.” The goal of this course is to inform the kids about the environmental problems that have been affecting our world for so long. I am telling them about all kinds of places, for example: the Alps, pollution in major U.S. cities, coral reefs, rain forests, and the poles suffering from climate change. I hope that they take away some valuable information that will make them see the world in a whole new way. We are living as one, and it is very important to know about each others problems.

I finished my lesson plans this week, and I can say that I am exuberant to get into the classroom. The plan is to teach for 10 or 11 days, with 2 courses a day. I also believe that while doing this, I will also learn so much about myself. I will gain important traits which I will use in college and life after my schooling.

I will see you all when I return! To my Westtown family, I love you guys. Have fun on your projects if you are going on one; and to the kids staying at school, try and have fun. See you after Spring break!

Bye mom and dad! ❤

A Return to My Birthplace

On By jeremygevansIn Uncategorized2 Comments

My name is Jeremy Graf Evans, and I was born in East Jerusalem. That’s a pretty cool thing to be able to say, so props to my parents for giving me such a unique opening statement. It serves a fantastic purpose in games like “Two Truths and Lie” or when asked for a “little known fact about you” when playing name games. However, it means a lot more than that. It means a deep affinity for the area and everything that is going on there. As physically distant as I am from it, I declare it part of my identity. I spent barely any more than a year there, and yet it has led me to feel a certain loyalty to it, particularly to the Palestinian side due to the fact that it is where my family was based. It hasn’t been very difficult to keep it present in my life, or in my mind as we all often see the region in the news. I have taken the Hiroshima to 9/11 Advanced class at Westtown, where one of the main capstone projects of the Winter Term attempt to formulate a peace plan between the Israelis and the Palestinians as well as the Arab nations nearby, a difficult task to say the least. If it were easy, it would have been done. In other walks of life I have enjoyed remaining connected through our 2009 Christmas family trip returning to visit family friends as well as being able to meet the annual sophomore who comes to Westtown from Ramallah Friends School. Ramallah Friends (RFS) is Westtown’s Quaker Sister school in the West Bank and is also where my mother taught in their years living there, before I was born (AKA The better years, although they wouldn’t admit it). RFS is where we will be matched with host families in the second half of our trip.

Really, amidst all of this rambling that I can go about forever, I’m going to attempt to keep this concise in saying that this trip is going to be fantastic. I am ecstatic to be able to share this part of my identity with so many of my great classmates, as well as learn everything that I do not know about the area, while enjoying the irresistible food. When I am too tired to put together my thoughts about the politics, I would not be surprised if I take a little break to blog about the food. In short, it is my favorite. I hope I will be able to harness my energy to be focused on the vitals, and yet it is so hard to know how to prioritize what to focus on, as it is a 24/7 whirlwind of things to be present for.

I hope I can use this blog to process my thoughts, to inform others, and to have something to look back at and reflect upon. Tomorrow begins the 2 week journey back to my Birthplace, and I could not be more excited to see what I come back with.