Rad.

As in radical, which is definitely what IHP RG is. In a good way! A weeklong retreat in West Virginia was a whirlwind: 20+ new friends who are essentially family, intense "community building" discussions and orientation, and some crazy alternative education. 

We're learning all sorts of things, all at once. In brief: education is indoctrination (see "Schooling the World" documentary), capitalism creates poverty, sustainability is a useless term, and the economy is a belief. This might not make sense to you, and it doesn't really make sense to me (yet?) but that's the point-- question, question, question.

We realized that as students we hadn't been fully sure of what we'd signed up for.. IHP says it will be like this: 

1/3 of the time on the trip is in academic classes (but not really in classrooms)

1/3 is "active learning" i.e. doing stuff, on site

1/3 is "autonomous study," exploring any theme/idea we want, comparatively in each country, and sharing our findings with the group

So far it feels inspiring and awesome and exactly the right place to be. This morning we arrived in DC and have all rushed off on errands and have invaded the public library near where we're staying. This week will be spent visiting different environmental and political NGOs, the World Bank, and hopefully some museums (Textiles Museum!) and generally lapping up the luxury of American life before flying to India on October 7th-8th.

p.s. That previous post about packing? LIES, all lies. I have tooo much stuff, Mom & dad expect a package....