Good Day

Today was a really good day. After finishing it last week, I turned in my printed, bound, and beautiful ISP, trying not to think about the pen mark correcting the typo on my title page, turned 2010 into 2012. The rest of it's good, even if the title page isn't.

For the last two days, we've been presenting our research. I went today, second to last, which was unfortunate because I had about nine presentations before me to sit and be nervous. It really wouldn't have been a very big deal if our director hadn't invited all our lecturers and a few other government officials to the presentations. That was scary. Each of our presentations was followed by a time for questions and comments, and a few of those guys were really critical of people's research, though usually their degree of criticism was proportional to how critical the research was of the government. My presentation, on the other hand, was all about how Gacaca is an incredibly unique system and that those who say it doesn't provide a fair trial first need to step back and understand that it's entirely different from the typical Western court system, so, naturally, they loved it. I got some really glowing comments, including from the man I interviewed at the National Service of Gacaca Courts. I'm thinking about doing something similar for my senior thesis.

So that was a really great way to end all of my work for the semester! I am done! No more work! After the end of the presentations I watched a movie with my friend, took a nap, and I've been reading The Help ever since. My friend Jes let me have it after she finished it, and it is a great book. And, later tonight, we're going to watch Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban! It has been a really good day. Even though I've had plenty of free time over the last semester, it's different when I don't have any work I could/should be doing.

I should have known it was going to be a great day when I actually had a warm shower this morning. It's been a while.

Tomorrow we are leaving to go to Kibuye for the rest of the week. It's about 2-3 hours from here, on Lake Kivu I think. We're just going to be staying in a hotel, having ample amounts of free time and doing some end-of-program stuff. We'll head back to Kigali on Saturday, and then Sunday I get on a plane to go home! I am so excited! The first thing I'm going to do when I get home is take a hot shower, then do my laundry in a washing machine. I'm hoping some of my stretched-out shirts will regain their shape. Cross your fingers.

I'm scheduled to land in D.C. around 8:30 Monday morning, and then I have a four hour layover before my flight to Atlanta. While I am probably going to be really overwhelmed by the airport busy-ness, I am very much looking forward to that layover. I'm going to get some real coffee, and hopefully a decent breakfast after the gross airplane food, and then I'm going to hunker down and use the free wifi to catch up on my favorite tv shows without having to let each episode load for two hours. I've been trying to watch the same episode of Castle since Saturday. And then it gets even better when Julie picks me up from the airport- with a pink-sprinkled donut! I'm pumped. And then Mom is cooked a really great dinner, and Tuesday Julie and I have a whole fun spa day planned so I can groom myself to American standards again, then Mom is taking Wednesday off work so we can celebrate Mother's Day. So many things to be excited about! I'm going to be in Norcross for about two weeks before heading up to Wilson to work for the summer. I'm glad I go to a school where getting a summer job is so easy, and I'm looking forward to getting to spend my summer with my friends in such a beautiful place.

So, as you can see, I have a lot to look forward to in the next few weeks. Our time in Kibuye is going to be nice and relaxing, but I'm more excited about what comes after it.