Week 3 (July 26th- Aug. 1st) This was a pretty trying week. My days of fun and playing around were officially over! Well, maybe not officially over... but definitely unofficially over until the weekend. No more introductory lectures. My first course started out with my professor asking us, "what causes war?"An intriguing question with several varying responses but the one he was fishing for was when a student replied, "human nature." I kept quiet, seeing as I have never studied International Relations before and my professor has a PhD in the field, it's probably in my best interest not to question it. However, being a hopeless eternal optimist, I couldn't help but disagree. Not even 10 minutes into my program and I'm already questioning authority. Honestly, who do I think I am? I guess I can't help but feel that while conflict is human nature, war is an outcome or product of conflict, and therefor a conscious decision that can be controlled. I disagree with the sentiment "what always has been, always will be." I'd like to think that our ability to evolve and adapt might take us to a point someday where war is unacceptable instead of inevitable. Although kind of forced, some may argue we have reached that point already in a sense regarding a future third world war. That's the thing with international theory, we would like to try and predict the outcome of future situations based upon the history of similar previous ones, but there are too many unforeseen variables in a constantly changing world that it's all speculation until it happens, and then it becomes history.
Sorry for the tangent, but that's a little insight for you into what my courses are like and that was just scratching the surface of how analytical/ theoretical they require us to be. But thought the question was fascinating enough to share. If you give it some thought let me know what you come up with, I'm curious to get a consensus on it.
I'll be honest, there were moments when the professors were giving their lectures this week and I thought to myself, "What have you done?!? You've picked up, moved to another country, got in over your head. Same mess, different continent." But then I reminded myself (and I'll remind you, so that you don't think I'm being all whimsical and flighty) that there's a lot more to this move than getting a masters and living in another place. I promise (and as you well know by now) there is always a method to my madness, and everything I say and do is weighed, calculated, and thought through ahead of time. Although I can not predict the outcome of this journey, I'm happy to say that so far it has been living up to its intended meaning. BUT, I really miss all the loves of my life back home - family, friends, meh kittehs, and In-N-Out. For the first time I experienced the feeling of being homesick - not a good feeling. You really have to work through it and psych yourself out of it.
The weekend couldn't come fast enough to pull me out of this travel funk I was in. We decided to check out the West End on Friday and ended up finding the BEST Greek restaurant, I was in heaven. We went out after and found a cool spot called Archive. To give you a better idea as far as social night life scene, The Valley is Hollywood and the West End is Santa Monica. The next day we hopped on the train to Surfers Paradise - my sanctuary - to celebrate Lina's birthday. It was a good time and being so close to the ocean put me in the relaxing state I had been craving.
Once again I had a reflective train ride home. I came to the conclusion that I'm at an interesting juncture of school paralleling life and vice-verse. On a daily basis I learn about and form theories on an international scale, while learning and forming theories about myself and my life. And life is just like international theory, you can plan and predict future events and outcomes all you want but there's always unforeseen variables that inevitably change everything. It's okay though, I've figured out that while planning may work for some, it doesn't work for me. I do best just living day by day.
Eternally Optimistic (who knew?),
Jillian aka - Jilly, Jillypet, Jillybean, J-Dilla, J-Bones, and sometimes Crab Cakes
PS - looking at some of my favorite photos of my luvs always eases the homesickness.
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