Hello there,
Welcome to what promises to be an eventful semester. It is great to experience a little bit of a campus whose liveliness stems from the activities of its students, instructors and administrators, not forgetting those of the squirrel and ground hock communities. I hope you had a lovely summer and that the long awaited break from school was not only deserved, but also well enjoyed.
If you ask me, my summer was eventful as I spent most of it in Redwood City, California. California is beautiful. The sun shines, the wind blows, and the auspicious weather, which I find confusingly amazing, calls for a recreational activity every now and then despite the fact that there are other things to be done in life. By confusingly amazing, I am referring to the microclimate, which means high temperatures in inland areas, moderate temperatures in some bay areas and low temperatures in a place like San Francisco all on a given day.
But how cold does it get in San Francisco in the summer? Well our very own author and humorist Samuel Langhorne Clemens – well known by his pen name, Mark Twain – is said to have remarked that the coldest winter he’s had is summer in San Francisco. Putting the debate of whether Mark Twain really said this or not aside, I say it can get cold and chilly in SF in the summer.
Anyway while in Redwood City, I did an internship with Omidyar Network (ON). Omidyar Network is a philanthropic investment firm dedicated to harnessing the power of markets to create opportunities for people to improve their lives. It invests in and helps scale innovative organizations to catalyze economic, social, and political change. eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and wife Pam established Omidyar Network based on their conviction that every person has the power to make a difference. Of course it was an enlightening experience, analyzing and reviewing some of ON’s impact investments during my time there.
While the entire Californian experience – beaches, weather, culture, attractions, etc. – was great, it is also very exciting to be back and to be preparing for a semester abroad. From the many things I have heard, Paris is a nice city to live in – I guess the French would say tres chic. While I am excited and a bit uncertain about how things will turn out in Paris, I know one thing for sure. There's an opportunity to learn, and to have some myths and stereotypes debunked and cleared. Also I see an opportunity not to become entirely French, but rather to have a part of me understand the French culture, philosophy of life, and way of doing things.
On that note, I shall update this post with findings and thoughts as and when they come up. Thanks for reading.