All Entries in the "September 2009" Category

Studying Strategy in Afghanistan

By Paul Kane

On 3 July, after sixteen hours in the air and one night in Dubai,fellow SAISer Gabe Serrato and I arrived at Kabul International Airport.  After walking across the tarmac to the terminal, we cleared immigration, and met our point-of-contact, an Afghan contractor.  An armored Toyota Land Cruiser shuttled us to a compound not [...]

Politics in Moscow

By Nadine Szablya

This summer in Moscow I shared a two-bedroom apartment with a 45-ish year old writer and professor of history and political science and her 20-year-old daughter. We lived in an old Soviet-style apartment building with 18 floors and closet-sized elevators made to hold approximately two people and one tiny dog. The apartment itself [...]

Two for one: first year, Bologna reps share thoughts

By Jinny Lee
I had the opportunity to interview new SGA representatives Larina Helm, the Bologna Representative, and Sean Healey, one of two first year representatives.  What follows is the personal interviews of these two new SAIS figures in the SGA.
Jinny:  Tell us a bit about your background.
Larina: I’m from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. I studied international [...]

Interview with SGA Vice President Sebastian Muehlbauer

By Chris Liu

Sebastian Muehlbauer is from Vienna, Austria and naturally grew up with a passion for classical music. He sang in a choir since he was 12 and was the singer for a rock band for 2 years.  As he grew older, Sebastian also began to explore a wide variety of other interests and initially [...]

Interview with SGA Treasurer Anayo Osueke

By Jessica Lambertson

Jessica: Why did you decide to go to SAIS in the first place?
Anayo: SAIS is an outstanding community. Just meeting and chatting with a fellow classmate is often just as educational and fascinating as a full lecture in an academic course. The challenging curriculum and rigorous competitiveness of SAIS also attracted me to [...]

Interview with SGA President Paul Alois

By Scott Abrahams

Paul Alois is a second year M.A. student concentrating in International Law and is the president of the Student Government Association (SGA). He sat down with the Observer to talk about SGA, SAIS, and even some things that do not start with ’s’ and are abbreviated.
Scott: (in Chinese) So, I hear you speak [...]

Ask the SAIS Guy/Ask the SAIS Girl

Dear SAIS Guy:

I’m mired in my first semester at SAIS and I can’t find time to cook. Any ideas?
- Ravenous in Rome
Dear Ravenous in Rome:
They didn’t tell you in the SAIS calendar, but a serious (and common) side-effect of starting graduate school is cooking regress-itis. This is the technical term for regression to the state [...]

Ask the SAIS Guy/Ask the SAIS Girl

Dear SAIS Guy: It’s November and I haven’t seen anything in DC except the 7th floor of the library and the Airline Pilots Building. You got a prescription? – Bored in BOB

The first week of November is to SAIS what the inter-war period was to Europe. It’s the eye of the storm between midterms and [...]