Back at School

Happy Khmer New Year!

I'm back in Southampton now since last Tuesday, I came back early to try and get some work done, but although I was able to finish some things I found it difficult to do as much as I'd hoped. It's okay now that friends are back on campus, it's always nice to have human contact. Also my mood has much improved from the depression of last week especially now that the weather has turned out so good. I feel as if i'm in Southern California, weather wise.

I was able to spend 2 weeks away from southampton. The first I spent in a small town called Bormio in Northern Italy (if you ever catch me saying I've had a hard life, please shoot me). It was such a good time to be with my parents, matt and hailey and the kids. I love my nephew and niece so much. Eoin is so cool, and has started calling me a combination of Uncle and Michael which comes out as "Mongol." I'll take it though, cause he's so cute. And Moia, still only 8 months old, but is absolutely gorgeous, and for some reason she likes me ( i.e. i can usually get her to stop crying).

I then spent a week at home, and probably one of the highlights was being able to meet up with loads of school friends who I haven't seen in years on my last night there. Well done Emma for organizing that.

Over break I was getting caught up on the news, and saw a CNN report of a woman interviewing students at Baghdad's main university. Over a hundred of their professors have been assassinated in recent months and car bombs going off on campus are a daily occurrence. Each day when these students get up for school they know they could easily be killed (targeted for trying to get an education) or that they could return home to dead or wounded family members. Yet they still press on. The courage of these students and the determination to get an education so that they can make things better for their families and their country was truly inspiring. How little I appreciate the security that I enjoy everyday, and how 'easy' it is for me to go about my studies.

I wonder what my generation in the West would be like under such circumstances. We're a generation that on the whole has known nothing but peace and prosperity. "Normal" life for us means being in "control" of our destinies and having "rights." This is actually abnormal life, most people do not have it this way. I wonder how we'd do. Would we react the same as those interviewed iraqi students, or would we have given up long ago? I wonder if some day we'll be forced to find out?