Sorry

OK, I have been remiss in my blogging, I admit it! My last week in Botswana was bittersweet. I got to spend some one-on-one time with Judge Dow and did two draft judgments by July 31. We had a nice luncheon with the Penn folks and I spent some quality time with Ronald. While I was excited about working at HIAS and looking forward to my fall courses, I was not looking forward to leaving. So fate decided to teach me a lesson.

My flight out of Gaborone was delayed so I missed my flight from Johannesburg to Washington D.C. They told me they could try to put me on a flight to New York if someone didn't show up (it was fully booked). I got a seat and ran to the gate. There are only two flights from JFK to Philadelphia a day on Delta and I missed the 8:15 am flight. My luggage didn't make it of course, so I filed a missing luggage report and settled in to wait for the 5:25 pm flight. At about 3 pm I looked up at the board and saw that the flight to Philly said CANCELLED. Bummer. So I went to the counter and the guy said he would send me to Cincinnati and then to Philadelphia. That is how it worked out and I ended up in the Philly airport only 12 hours later than originally scheduled. My friend Lindsay picked me up and took me to her place. I was certainly glad to be home.

Lindsay has a beautiful long-haired cat named Cleo and is fostering Gracie and her kittens Shirley and Mo for the shelter I got Gordon from. They all have upper-respiratory tract infections, of course, so they get antibiotics and eye goop twice a day. Poor little Mo cut his eye trying to get it open after it crusted shut, so he needed some extra TLC. It was nice to have some kitty time after all those weeks. I had to go to my apartment to grab some clothes because my bags were somewhere between Africa and Philadelphia. Then I SLEPT. It was so nice to be in a bed again!

On Monday I started at HIAS, it has turned out to be a great internship. It is nice to feel like the work you are doing is making a huge difference in someones life. I have had the opportunity to work on lots of very different kinds of cases and even got to go to a Master hearing with one of the attorneys. I've worked on asylum, spousal petitions, victims of domestic violence cases, change of status petitions, and work permit renewals. The people in the office are great, but after tomorrow I will be the last intern. I also got my fall schedule, I will be taking Immigration, International Trade Regulations, International Human Rights, Lawyering in the Public Interest, and Professional Responsibility. It should be a wonderful semester. I also have my interview schedule for fall On Campus Recruiting. I am excited to be interviewing with some very exciting firms. The future looks pretty promising right now.

Between the Olympics airing really late and the jet lag I have been pretty tired lately. I am slowly unpacking all the things I put away before I left and following gymnastics and swimming. The women's all-around competition is winding down as I type. I'll try to be better at posting in the next few weeks, there should be some pretty interesting things happening!