IAC wrap-up
hmm, how do I attempt to summarize 16 days in Mexico, half at a conference and half on vacay into a blog post? I already tried to make it into a facebook album and perhaps i'll addd some pics here.
Wellllll, I attended the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City. Was it fun? Not exactly, since I barely saw an inch of Mexico City that wasn't a conference center the entire week. Educational? Not in the traditional sense, since I didn't attend a session where the goal wasn't to disrupt it with a cheer of "Housing is a human right!" (in English and espanol). But it was inspiring and exciting. As long time readers might remember, I attended the 2006 IAC in Toronto, where I dutifully attended sessions to complete my half-assed research on "AIDS activism" in order to swag some grant money from Northwestern even though I had not a clue what was going on (Oh, I wish I could go back to college---Avenue Q). I barely spoke to anyone and had lovely nights hanging with Anne.
But actually I don't wish I could go back to college. Because now my life and job is maybe harder, but it's better. This time I spent the entire time doing press and writing about and participating in and in some cases helping organize daily protests about the need for AIDS housing. It was tiring and crazy but also exciting, like when we disrupted Bill Clinton's protest and he responded to us, and meeting the tons of people who responded positively to our message. I saw tons of people I know, met more people who I will know, and in a short year am integrated into this weird AIDS activist community.
And also feeling like part of a community of people at HW (I just realized I could abrev my place of work as to not show up on the google alert, duhh). Anyway, just hanging at the hostel w/HW folks, I totally still feel like the young white girl from Westchester especially when I tried to salsa dance.repeated that apparently Spades is a "black person game" which I was mocked for all week and Though one Latino colleague kindly noted, "I'm not a traditional white person." But despite feeling different, I also feel the same. I have never felt so accepted by a group in my life. As one colleague said, "I am so HW" and I feel sososo fortunate that this was where I happened to land after college and to be a part of and loved by this crazy group of people. And just hanging out at the hostel with them made all the getting up at 7am days worth it.
Ok, I will blog about the vacation part soon, I promise! It was amazing. I just need to go to bed now. Plus it's good to break these things up and to give you something to look forward to.
Wellllll, I attended the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City. Was it fun? Not exactly, since I barely saw an inch of Mexico City that wasn't a conference center the entire week. Educational? Not in the traditional sense, since I didn't attend a session where the goal wasn't to disrupt it with a cheer of "Housing is a human right!" (in English and espanol). But it was inspiring and exciting. As long time readers might remember, I attended the 2006 IAC in Toronto, where I dutifully attended sessions to complete my half-assed research on "AIDS activism" in order to swag some grant money from Northwestern even though I had not a clue what was going on (Oh, I wish I could go back to college---Avenue Q). I barely spoke to anyone and had lovely nights hanging with Anne.
But actually I don't wish I could go back to college. Because now my life and job is maybe harder, but it's better. This time I spent the entire time doing press and writing about and participating in and in some cases helping organize daily protests about the need for AIDS housing. It was tiring and crazy but also exciting, like when we disrupted Bill Clinton's protest and he responded to us, and meeting the tons of people who responded positively to our message. I saw tons of people I know, met more people who I will know, and in a short year am integrated into this weird AIDS activist community.
And also feeling like part of a community of people at HW (I just realized I could abrev my place of work as to not show up on the google alert, duhh). Anyway, just hanging at the hostel w/HW folks, I totally still feel like the young white girl from Westchester especially when I tried to salsa dance.repeated that apparently Spades is a "black person game" which I was mocked for all week and Though one Latino colleague kindly noted, "I'm not a traditional white person." But despite feeling different, I also feel the same. I have never felt so accepted by a group in my life. As one colleague said, "I am so HW" and I feel sososo fortunate that this was where I happened to land after college and to be a part of and loved by this crazy group of people. And just hanging out at the hostel with them made all the getting up at 7am days worth it.
Ok, I will blog about the vacation part soon, I promise! It was amazing. I just need to go to bed now. Plus it's good to break these things up and to give you something to look forward to.
posted by diana at 6:57 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home