Embezzlement 101

I'd like to share with you a piece of advice I received from a senior as I first stepped on campus as a freshman-"Your goal for the next four years: get as much money from Yale as you possibly can". I chuckled at it then, but have come to realize the wisdom of it. I'm not out to be the next embezzlement CEO champion of the modern world, but instead, I'm finally taking advantage of how much money Yale will give me to do stuff. My new year's resolution for this year was to travel (preferably on somebody else's dime). Lo and behold, only a few months into 2009, I've made some sweet headway on that front. I think when resolution time rolls around in 2010, I'll be giving myself enthusiastic high fives for what I'm about to do.

For spring break, I'm going to Ecuador to hang out with birds! This semester, I've been enrolled in Evolutionary/Ecological Biology 273: Ornithology. Through that, I'm getting complete funding to spend two weeks out of spring break in Ecuador, exploring the cloud rainforests and doing some ornithological field work with the 12 other students in the lab. The Biology department is covering all the expenses for the expedition, and all I had to do was take care of my own injections (I got yellow fever and typhoid shots on the same day... ouchies. Although it's kinda fun to tell your friends that you just got yellow fever).

See that tiny red hut in the lower right? That's one of the stops we'll be making through this valley
of one of Ecuador's largest cloud forests. I'll have tons of crazy bird photos to share on my return.

I also won a fellowship to study abroad in Japan this summer- I haven't decided where just yet, but I'm looking at a couple different language institutions that cram a whole year's worth of Japanese study into an intensive summer session, staying with a host family, and going out on cultural excursions over the weekend. The Richard U. Light fellowship is amazing, covering my travel expenses, tuition costs, living costs, even incidental spending money. Read more about it at http://www.yale.edu/iefp/light/.

This sign outside of one of the classrooms in Hakodate is a reminder of the "日本語だけ" rule- most of the programs come with a language pledge to speak only in the language you're studying while in class (the Light Fellowship applies to language programs all across East Asia). In case you're wondering what the sign says... the question "English, OK?" is asked by an alien and receives the response "dame, NIHONGO!" ("that's bad, JAPANESE!") from what I can only assume to be an ostrich. Sometimes I really love Japanese sign making.

The Tokyo program I'm looking at has classes right outside this urban park- classy, no?

I'm way excited for these opportunities to spend Yale's money. I leave for Ecuador in just a week and a half (maybe I should start packing...? Nah.) and would hop a plane for Japan sometime early June. I'll keep you posted how these turn out.