1. A Video – Film making at its best.
2. The Language Test – One of the final things you have to do before you can leave the Peace Corps is take an oral language exam. While the results of the test are pretty arbitrary, they are kept in your Peace Corps/Government file so some people take it pretty seriously. I didn’t care at all about the test and wasn’t even going to study, but then everyone else started getting their scores back and comparing them with each other. Now all of a sudden I’m two days away from taking mine and for the first time in well over a year I’ve started studying Khmer again. What a joke.
3. The Tribunal: Round Two – “We are addressing probably the most serious crimes committed since the Second World War – 1.8 million people at least were killed in the space of [four] years – and I think the Cambodian people still expect answers,” Andrew Cayley, the international co-prosecutor in the case, said last night from the Cambodian capital. “Certainly, the relatives of those who perished and the handful of those survivors who are left are seeking justice.” Time for round two (Case 002), which started this week with drama in the court room. The trial is expected to last two years and while I’m not sure if the people in my village will be watching, I certainly will. 
4. Human Trafficking – The State Department just released its Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report which ranks countries according to how hard they are working to stop trafficking. Cambodia, was classified as a Tier Two country, which means, “it does not meet the minimum standards and also has a large number of victims.” Yet apparently a lot of people think even that is too kind. This is from the Phnom Penh Post: “Cambodia should have been downgraded. They have done nothing to end the abuses in the labour recruitment centres,” Phil Robertson, deputy director of the Asia division at Human Rights Watch, said yesterday. Robertson also expressed concern that Cambodia had retained its ranking in the report, despite a failure to combat human trafficking and regulate the labour recruitment system. “There’s no way that [Cambodia] should be Tier 2,” he said. “There’s been no sign of any political will by the government to crack down on recruitment related to trafficking.” (US Critical of Efforts on trafficking)
5. Orientation Events - Reading the schedule of events for the Michigan Law orientation week makes me feel really really old….
- Game Night: Pool tables, foosball, Wii, Xbox and board games, plus snacks and soft drinks will be available. Hosted by members of the Law School Student Senate.
- Walk to the Nichols Arboretum: A student favorite! Enjoy the natural side of Ann Arbor, walking to the 123 acre nature area between central and north campuses. Campus-Quad
- Scavenger Hunt: ”Find” Ann Arbor and discover the Law Quad’s quirks while meeting other incoming students. Participants should bring a camera or camera phone, although not absolutely necessary. Orientation Leaders will host.
6. The Lawyer Surplus – This week the Economix blog breaks down the lawyer surplus state by state by comparing the number of people who passed the bar exam in each state in 2009 with an estimate of annual job openings for lawyers in those states. It isn’t pretty and of course NY and NJ are right at the top of the list…
- New York (7,687)
- California (2,951)
- New Jersey (2,193)
- Illinois (1,679)
- Massachusetts (1,450)
- Pennsylvania (1,074)
- Texas (897)
- Florida (755)
- Maryland (717)
- Missouri (581)
Across the country, there were twice as many people who passed the bar in 2009 (53,508) as there were openings (26,239). You can find the rest of the list and analysis here: The Economix Blog
7. The Hangover Part II – I finally saw the Hangover Part II and while I thought parts of it were funny, overall it was pretty disappointing. I think for Hangover Part III they should film a documentary of the K3 Peace Corps group running wild in Phnom Penh. I know some people here with stories that give the movies ridiculous plot a run for its money. (That’s right JT and KK.)
8. Internet Dating - Nick Paumgarten has a really funny article on internet dating in this week’s issue of The New Yorker: Looking for Someone. Here’s a little taste…
The obvious advantage of online dating is that it provides a wider pool of possibility and choice. In some respects, for the masses of grownups seeking mates, either for a night or for life, dating is an attempt to approximate the collegiate condition—that surfeit both of supply and demand, of information and authentication. A college campus is a habitat of abundance and access, with a fluid and fairly ruthless vetting apparatus. A city also has abundance and access, especially for the young, but as people pair off, and as they corral themselves, through profession, geography, and taste, into cliques and castes, the range of available mates shrinks. We run out of friends of friends and friends of friends of friends. You can get to thinking that the single ones are single for a reason.
But if you really are eager, to say nothing of desperate, for a long-term partner you may have to contend with something else—the tyranny of unwitting compromise. Often the people who go on the sites that promise you a match are so primed to find one that they jump at the first or the second or the third who comes along. The people who are looking may not be the people you are looking for. “It’s a selection problem when you round up a bunch of people who want to settle down,” Chris Coyne, one of the founders of a site called OK Cupid, told me. Some people are too picky, and others aren’t picky enough. Some hitters swing at every first pitch, and others always strike out looking. Many sites, either because of their methods or because of their reputations, tend to attract one or the other.
“Internet dating” is a bit of a misnomer. You don’t date online, you meet people online. It’s a search mechanism. The question is, is it a better one than, say, taking up hot yoga, attending a lot of book parties, or hitting happy hour at Tony Roma’s?
I’m giving myself until I’m 30. If I’m still single then, go ahead and OK Cupid me.
9. Bad Ass - Most people who bike across America do in a couple of months. Christoph Strasser did it in 8 days 8 hours 6 minutes. Just in case you don’t understand how insane that is, consider this: he averaged nearly 400 miles a day and slept for seven and a half hours TOTAL. Read the NYT’s article (In Cycling Race Across America, Sleeping is Shunned). The guy is nuts.
10. Dear Photograph – And finally, check out the very cool blog: Dear Photograph. It’s a tumbler blog of old photos held up over the same place years later.
Nothing harder than the long goodbye. We feel your pain. Might help to think of how much fun the welcome backs will be. And the trip to Beijing.
Never easy though.
“Bridesmaids” probably a better choice than “Hangover II.” Kristen Wiig is so clever and the movie itself is legitimately funny. Maybe you can get it for the long plane ride home. And don’t forget “Midnight in Paris.”
Love Dear Photograph and The Race Across America. Crazy, indeed. And don’t blow off those orientation events (which might just spare you the OK Cupid drill). You never know who you’ll meet on a scavenger hunt, game night or a walk through an arboretum. Or at a road race! Erin says she has a whole crew from the DAC running the Georgetown (CO) Half which she says is downhill and will be more fun than the Heart and Sole Half.
Think it fills up though so let us know and we’ll sign you up. I’d rather do the downhill…
xo
ps/Puppy is to die for!
is the puppy coming to nyc?
had to share this only in new jersey/ chris christie article;
http://www.salon.com/news/chris_christie/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2011/06/29/chris_christie_democrats
will telling you to be less awkward when you come home help you be less awkward when you come home? can’t wait.