Fox Trotting

Well, as most of you would know, I hate having to write people and keep in touch.  Okay, so 'hate' is a strong word, but I definitely tend to find it a chore.  Since I'm not really sure what to write right now, I thought I would just upload some pics which help show you what I've been up to.... Last Saturday I went to a potluck at a fellow intern's house.  This is her roommate Dario playing darts in their ridiculously nice apartment. I had to take the pic so you guys could see the contrast between the plasterwork on the ceiling and the lack of furniture + dartboard. This is one of my new friends who kept throwing darts much higher than  she could reach to get them down The weather has been so unbelievably nice this week.  This last Sunday I  went to the beach and it was lovely. I mean I was still in jeans and a sweater... and a scarf. But without the wind it must have been close to 20!  This coming weekend is supposed to be nice aga...

My first day here, Effie and I travelled to the beach.  It was so windy, and although it was sunny, it wasn't that warm. Crazy locals thought this was lying on the beach weather (so long as you are fully clothed?)! I think I found Grandma and Pappa's perfect car - a VW and named after the family! Inside the Rijksmuseum. The Night Watch by Rembrant is at the far end. That's Effie in the dark foreground.  The cafe where we had lunch was TINY and packed. The "floating" flower market in Amsterdam How much do YOU pay for your pop-tarts?! It was so sunny I couldn't resist taking some pictures on the way to work and back. Look at that blue sky!!! The Dutch architectural details are so much lovelier in the sun...

So I've now been in the Den Haag for a week and had some time to get a little more comfortable.  I've got my OV Chipkart which is kinda like a Presto pass and is used for all of the transit in the Netherlands. I take the tram to work everyday.  I've at least figured out where some things are in the grocery store, although I still get overwhelmed by all the Dutch. I've gotten used to having to watch out for bikes on the red path and I'm slowly but surely memorizing the map of the Hague. I mentioned in last week's post that all of the interns seem really great - and that feeling still stands.  Thursday Night Drinks (or TND for short) is a pub night organized by the Hague Intern Association for every Thursday.  I went last week and it was a lot of fun meeting all the new interns - apparently quite a few Canadians came in the week before me! I only stayed for a bit though - still trying to rest and recover. On Friday the two other new interns on my team, Brendan...

Welcome back to my travel blog! This summer I'm working (well unpaid interning, yet again...) at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the Hague, Netherlands.  I arrived on Sunday and will be working until August 7. So far the Hague is... cold. It feels like it is early April! If I was riding a bike home from work today, I definitely would have wanted mitts!  It's also quite windy because we are right on the North Sea and it rains frequently... soooo there goes any idea of summer. Pretty sure the 3 pairs of shorts I brought will not see daylight within this city.  I've decided the weather in the Hague is the anti-Kampala and I miss UG weather dearly. However, I will say the biggest benefit is CHEAP CHEESE!!! I can get Steph's favourite Boursin cheese for less than 2 euro.  I've been to the grocery store twice now - yesterday and today (I can't carry much in my backpack and it's right around the corner...).  Yesterday, ...

At the Gaddafi Mosque in Kampala Welcome to the Mara Slightly vulgar, I know- but also really cool! Sleepyhead A one week old baby elephant! The safari crew: Lauren, myself, Naveen, Nav, and Sylvia (and yes we got out of the car...) The second time I have seen a leopard and not been able to take my own picture.  Guess I'll just have to come back again.... (photo cred goes to Lauren) Sunrise on the Mara - one of my favourite things

I mentioned back in one of my first blog posts Naveen and I's trip to Luzira prison to interview treason suspects, and I thought an update on their case was necessary as Naveen and I have become extremely attached to the men (and 2 women!). As a refresher, these 53 men were rounded up in late February of this year by CMI (the intellegence agency in UG), tortured, and then taken to the police station a month later.  All were charged in court on March 23 and they have been on remand at Luzira since then.  Unfortunately it doesn't seem that this type of case is all too unusual.  Naveen and I went back to interview a large portion of the men a second time to find out more details about their 'kidnapping' as quite a few were all arrested at the same bus park in Kampala. While we were at Luzira, we found another 8 who had been there since last summer! with basically the same story! Today Naveen and I visited court for the third time with the treason suspects.  The cour...

Disclaimer: This was written last week, but the internet at work wasn't working very well for most of last week and then I forgot about it until now. So Naveen and I have done a couple of things since then, like visit the Gaddafi Mosque. Pictures will come, but probably not until after we get back from safari this weekend. So I thought I should do a blog post about my work, seeing as one of the reasons why I decided to do a blog was to help me with the course I will be taking in the fall about my internship. Plus Naveen and I haven’t travelled for the last couple of weekends. So I think I’ve mentioned before that Naveen and I have been working on research for a report on multiparty democracy and political pluralism in Uganda.  For me it has honestly been fascinating.  Although I did my undergrad in global political science, I mostly concentrated on Asia and I did very little on Africa because a lot of people took those courses. Before coming to Uganda I had so ...