good timing, bad timing, closing arguments

the last post! i am leaving at the end of this week, so here are some reflections. get ready for some bad grammar...

this trip was well-timed because it came at a good juncture in my personal life, because it helped me write law school applications immensely, because i had a subletter covering part of the rent, because the courses fell right in with the gallatin/nyu machinery where i needed them to, because the african winter is wonderful, because the ending date lets me go back to work for a while before i go back to school, and because i genuinely enjoyed the company of the students participating this year & look forward to keeping in touch.

this trip was poorly timed because i missed all the volunteer opportunities in an election that has me caring about a candidate for the first time ever, because just now the rand hit 10 to the US dollar and i am about to leave, because i wish i could have worked more before i left, because i wonder if the ny board of elections ever got any of the forms i sent, and because i have to sort out my book list before nov 1st.

IHRE has a lot to improve on, especially in terms of academic difficulty and administrative organization, but as long as you're not a big old crybaby and have realistic (read: low) expectations, you can adapt it to be a pretty positive and useful experience by pursuing the things you find valuable and slacking on the things that do not benefit you. pretty obvious advice. surprising how many people would prefer to complain though. in many ways the problems that IHRE as a program had are not very different from problems i notice sometimes at NYU, so i was not overly frustrated by a new host of constraints/obstacles here. the educational consumer mindset is strong but that's endemic, it's not unique to IHRE or NYU or Bard.

so, on a scale of awful to amazing, i would suggest 'good'. i hope to return another time, not as a college student, hopefully with a local source of income and not just a chunk of savings, and see what more there is to do and learn.