An overview of my activities

Hello blog!

It's been awhile, but life has gotten quite busy . I thought I'd dedicate this post to what my life consists of lately.

Classes are fully underway, and in one war or another, I'm involved in 8 classes:

For credit, I'm taking:

Theories of International Relations – a "core" couse that I'm required to take. Very philosophical, which I would have liked in undergrad, but in grad school feels out of place. Probably the class I'm least excited about.

Science, Technology and International Affairs – a course in my concentration. So far we've been focusing on the system around S&T, like funding priorities, patent system etc. The second half of the course is focused on specific new applications of S&T to IR, which I'm looking forward to.

International Monetary Theory – Another required course. SAIS has as one of its major goals to make sure all its students are fluent in international economics. We've been talking about exchange rates, capital flows, purchasing power parity, etc. On the dry side, but definitely something I'm glad I'm becoming more fluent in.

Corporate Finance – what? No, I don't want to go into corporate finance. But, we have to take 2 economic electives while here, and I felt like it would be good knowledge to have, and definitely something that will help should I ever be in a leadership position in an organization.

You'll notice a trend of me taking core courses this semester. The course offerings next year in DC are generally broader than here in Bologna, so I'm try to save most of my free choice classes until next year.

Then, I'm auditing two courses (doing some of the reading, attending lectures, but not doing the exams or papers)

Strategy and Policy – an introductory course on the strategic use of military power. This is just something I am using my time here to explore. It's actually quite interesting. I'm rather bummed I won't be doing the final project, which sounds very interesting But I won't let myself go that crazy.

Policies and Politics of the American Emergency State – A unique course (but doesn't fulfill any requirements for me, hence the audit) taught by a New York Times journalist who is writing a book on the american emergency state (i.e. A nonstop wartime sense of emergency), and wanted to teach a course on his ideas to test them out in a graduate school setting.

Then, my language course, Italian. Not much to say here. It's learning a language.

Finally, I am a TA for the Intermediate Macroeconomics, which means attending the lectures, grading problem sets, holding office hours, etc. I've actually been quite enjoying it so far.

In terms of extracurricular activities:

There are so many lectures here, it's like having another course. Almost every night someone famous is here talking about something really interesting. I wish I could go to all of them, but you really have to pick and choose otherwise you'd never finish your homework and reading.

I am teaching my usual dance classes on Sundays. Last week in honor of Halloween we did the Thriller dance. Soon we're going to have to really focus on the waltz to get ready for the Viennesse Ball in February!

For the first time in my life, I joined a band. So far I'm primarily singing (yikes!) but I'll also be playing backup guitar and maybe even a little bass thanks to my experience with classical guitar. So far I'm soloing "Brown Eyed Girl", "Pretty Woman", doing a duet with "Jackson" and then doing back up vocals on a few others.

Then there's a bunch of other little activities like my tango classes, going to wine tastings, having board game nights, etc. One especially noteworthy club is the "Students of the Vine" club. There's a student here who has done a LOT of work in the area of Italian wine (she's a walking encyclopedia of wine knowledge) and she's been teaching us how to appreciate wine, how to pair it with sweets, etc. I'm still an ignoramus, but getting better!