Post-Cuba, I returned to Monterey and finished up my credits in order to graduate. I had not pursued a career with the Alphabet Agencies, so my focus was on a career. I searched and found two separate two agencies, ACCION in Albuquerque and Women’s World Banking in New York City. I phone interviewed with both agencies. The opportunity with ACCION was through the Americops Vista Program, a year long opportunity on basically poverty wages with the opportunity to gain a stipend towards student loans. Having attended both DePaul and MIIS, my student loan debt was extraordinary as was my credit card debt. My parents had moved to Reno, Nevada as my dad was now working in the private sector focused on diesel fuel that did decreased harm on the environment. I was no longer communicating with Kico as he had come to visit me in Monterey, met all of my friends during a communal Thanksgiving, and he waited until after he returned to the Dominican to call me and say “what would you do if I told you I had a kid ?” I said, “Is that true?’ He said yes, and I said “I guess that means that you and I are through’, and I hung up. He attempted to contact me via Messenger on the computer stating that he loved me and we needed to talk. I did not feel that I could continue with him, and was hurt that he could have spent so much time with me and blurt out that he had a child with another woman but stated that he loved ME. When it was time to graduate, students from foreign countries came in their traditional clothing and when we walked across the stage, I mouthed thank you to my all-time favorite teacher, Dr. Garrett. It was now time to start my new life

In the winter of 2001, I was able to go to Cuba through the Global Exchange Organization. This was BEFORE the embargo was lifted. A group of us went under the direction of Professor of Dr.Black and her husband, Marty. We started our trip by touring Cuba by BICYCLE! It wasn’t scary as there was hardly any traffic. We got a great feel for the country by bicycle. I took a picture of a billboard near the Malecón that said basically “Americans we don’t need you for absolutely anything “. We would do some other touring by bus with our two hosts who tried to show us the positive side of Cuba; thus the visit to a Hospital where the staff could accomplish a great job with few resources. Many of the doctors had practiced in Angola as they were used to caring for patients with few resources.

We would see Havana, Bay of Pigs, Trinidad, and Cienfuegos. We got to see Compay Segundo in concert and everyone danced. We were introduced to Santería and Palardades, restaurants run undercover but simultaneously very visible by the Cuban government, Cuban food is delicious and simplistic. Congri, or black beans and rice, and Tostones, fried plantains. I don’t know what Cubans do to Tostones, but they are delicious. I am not able to comprehend Cubans love of pork, maybe due to Spanish influence?

While in Cuba, I roomed with Laurenteen. I have a picture of us in front of a huge tower where there’s a huge portrait of Che Guevara. One time we went searching for a Coca Cola; we were unsuccessful. Dr.Black later dissuaded us from going out unaccompanied

I was in communication with friends of mine from MIIS that were in South Korea. I flew to Korea and checked into the WOW guesthouse. Korea was much different than Japan for me. Many of the people in Korea were tall, and many spoke English and were not embarrassed to speak with me in English as I found many Japanese to be. I was able to eat Jeon, a vegetable pancake- like street food. I was accompanied by by friends Effie and Kevin. Effie’s father was Greek, and her mother was Japanese. She spoke English, Greek, and Japanese as well as some French. Together we went to the Korean Folk Village, where we learned about traditional Korean culture. We would also go to Lotte World theme park where we would see a concert by a boy band named G.O.D. They were extremely popular with Korean youth. Not

The train arrived in Shanghai and we exited for the faculty dorm that Cho had arranged for us to stay in. We would walk along Nanjing Road and it was stunning. To my surprise, Cho had difficulty communicating with the bus driver as she spoke Mandarin and the bus driver spoke Cantonese. It was difficult but not impossible for Cho to speak to him. I got very ill in Shanghai, and Cho went to the local pharmacy to get me some medicine. I was able to get a bit better over time, but I now wanted to eat food that I was familiar with, so I had Cho join me in the Pizza Hut. I felt ashamed as there was so many Chinese Food options and yet I coerced my friend to eat pizza! We stayed in Shanghai for roughly a week before we boarded a train back to Beijing. I flew back to Nagoya.

I had the opportunity to go China from Nagoya with my friend Cho. She lived in Tianjin with her parents. I have pictures of me making gyoza with her mom and meet her dad. Her dad was a police officer, and I called him Kojak. Tianjin had a lot of dirt and sand blowing about. We were able to go to see the Forbidden city and the Great Wall of China. I also got to see a traditional medicine practitioner who took my pulse. He said that my pulse indicated that my blood was centered around my heart and didn’t flow through my body correctly, so he prescribed me a tiger skin medicine to help make my blood through my better. I declined as I did not want to try to bring that back through customs!

We also got to go to Beihai park which was founded before the US was founded!! Many of the Chinese people would get up early to do exercise in the park such as tai chi.

I was approached by a lot of people who wanted to take a picture with me because I am Caucasian. That was something that made me feel uncomfortable.

We left Beijing and took the train to Shanghai.

I was back in Monterey for a few more credits when I had the opportunity to do non-proliferation work in Mexico or return to Japan. This time, I would study in Nagoya. I lived at Wago College Heights in apartment 509. The apartments had a slew of mailboxes, but none of them had locks. The Japanese were not like Americans, there was not a need to have locks on everything. Kico had started his own company, but most of his work was in Fukuoka. With some effort, I managed to get him in touch with a car parts man in Nagoya so that we could stay in touch. In Nagoya I would again love riding my bike, but this bike was not a Mongoose, it was a standard ladies bike. I would ride my bike to the gym and to the grocery store as well as explore areas of Nagoya. There was a man-made lake where Japanese young adults would practice rowing, and there was a track around the lake.

I taught ESL in Japan to young students. In Japan, there is not a lot of time for Japanese youth to relax. They go to school and then they go to juku, or cram school, to learn English usually. I had two great friends, Gillian and In-ter, whose name in Japanese reading of Kanji was Cho. We would travel to many places, but the most beautiful was the Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavilion. I had seen Hiroshima the first time I was in Japan, but this time I saw Nagasaki. Nagasaki had been more heavily influenced by outsiders , including the Portuguese. There was even a Chinatown! My friend and I enjoyed that greatly.

Nagoya introduced me to water aerobics. I would join the other ladies, mostly seniors, and workout harder than I ever had before

I visited Little World north of Nagoya, and it had tiny replicas of other countries. I really enjoyed exploring Little World. I also loved getting my hair cut in Japan; one person would massage my head, one person would cut my hair, and one person would rinse out and blow dry my hair. Japanese ladies would shave their eyebrows; they don’t wax or thread.

Again, i taught English, this time to adults. I taught in classroom situations, and I learned something peculiar; I learned that I was not allowed to wear deodorant while teaching. One of the professors took me aside and told me that I was not allowed to continue teaching if I persisted because, he said, the students were not used to it and I would be fired if I continued, so I stopped wearing deodorant just during class hours.

The adults I tutored were mostly men, or salarymen as they are called in Japanese. I learned that salarymen had difficult lives as they worked, studied English, and then went all night drinking. I would sometimes have to avoid walking in pools of vomit in the morning hours.

A lot of things were available in vending machines; cold drinks, hot drinks, food. My friends and I would visit the hyaku-en store, somewhat like the dollar store in the states. We would also go to the Bukkuri-donkey, surprised donkey in Japanese. for food and guru in soda, or cream soda that is green.One of the Marine Security Guards that was assigned to protect the Embassy in Barbados was in Okinawa, and I went to visit him. I was able to go to the base exchange, and I was blown away; it was like being at a Walmart! I didn’t appreciate the way that having soldiers in Japan changed the surrounding Japanese community. The immediate surroundings were deplorable and brought out a nasty side of Japan; there were strip clubs, and American food nearby.

I spent time on Graduate School applications while I was in DC. I felt that International Studies was not specific enough, and I wanted to narrow the focus. I applied to a number of schools, and was accepted with scholarship to Pepperdine University. My soon to be roommate, Carla, wanted to meet me, so we set up time where she could meet with me at the house. I flew to the nearest airport to Malibu, and my uncles came to pick me up and take me out to eat. I had not been able to meet with my uncles much; they followed my Dad to California, and they stayed when he went back to the East Coast. A few days later, a huge box came for me that included pots and pans and everything else I would need for my new apartment. I shared my apartment with Carla, Missy, and Hanna. We had a task calendar on the refrigerator for who would clean up the bathroom, who would vacuum, etc. I met some amazing friends at Pepperdine, and enjoyed being able to go to Santa Cruze, Muscle Beach, and other famous sites. I didn’t have a car, and I had to depend on others for transportation. We would play inter mural tennis and volleyball. We went to Knotsberry Farm, and it was packed. I attempted the LSAT, but law school was not in the cards for me. I got tired of having to ask for a ride all the time, and I transferred to the Monterey Institute of International Studies. Monterey allowed me to transfer credits to the school and I felt good about being in a more vibrant community. Prior to the first semester, I took a Winterim in Japanese. I stayed at the old Fort Ord, most of which was a Superfund site due to all of the leftover ammunition from the Military.

At the time, I had my bike and would ride along the Monterey Coast. I met my friend Kelly during this time. She was studying Spanish. We had some good talks and were out and about often. I was looking forward to MIIS. I did work study and was a Bilingual Literacy tutor for the Pannetta Institute, opened by Leon Pannetta and his wife. I lived in a house with three other students. I had a roommate who was a Spanish interpreter, and one roommate from Vietnam. We knew when she was cooking because the whole house smelled like fish sauce. I would hold movie nights at the apartment and we would all kick back and have fun. Wine helps with that.

During the summer of 1999, I was chosen to be a State Department intern at Bridgetown, Barbados for the Narcotics Affairs section. I was beyond excited to be selected. Barbados was the first place I had been where there was no McDonalds. It didn’t matter because there was so much amazing food. I was living with the secretary to the Ambassador at first. I would take her dog for a walk to the nearest university that had a track. I wished that I could run but I was not very athletic at the time.

Since we were part of the staff, we had to get our IDs with photos on them, and the Embassy had Marine Corps guards. There were three male security guards, and, to my surprise, a female guard. I was impressed with some of the beautiful places in Barbados. We would spend some time at the Casuarina, a beautiful hotel that had a swim-up bar, and each year Barbados they would have Crop Over when the Bajans would dance down the street and have floats and dance to Soca and Calypso music. At the time, Alyson Hinds was a popular artist. I had the opportunity to go to Dominica while I was on my internship. It’s a beautiful island known for its lush beauty. My job there was to interview Police Officers and see if the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program was making a difference in the West Indies. I would speak to the officers and take notes and soon found out that the DARE program was not having its intended affect due to the DARE program being developed in the United States and was not culturally appropriate to those in the Western Caribbean. Kico came to visit me in Dominica, and he could not get over how bumpy his incoming flight had been. He and I could not get over how SLOW the customer service was. You could order food and wait for an hour until it arrived. We would ride in a van, and the driver took us to a magical place called Trafalgar Falls. The police officers I had interviewed arranged to get me a T shirt that said “Commonwealth of Dominica Police Force ” when we were ready to go back to Barbados for me and the Dominican for him, the driver gave us a huge bag of giant avocados. I wore my new T-shirt back to Barbados, and I awaited Colleen to pick me up ( I had moved to Colleen’s house in the middle of my internship) a lady was staring at me. I asked her ” Do you need my help with something ma’am? , and she responded that she had never before seen a white Police Officer. Laughing, I explained to her that it was a gift and I was not an officer. I had plenty of good times and memories of Barbados, but I had to go back to school.

I finished my credits up in the Spring, but I wanted to walk in Graduation. So I packed my bags and went to Washington, DC where my dad was doing a fellowship at the Office of Environmental Policy at the Old Executive Office under Bill Clinton. While I was in DC I worked for a couple of temp agencies. One was for law offices. One was Hogan and Hartson , which is where John Roberts worked before the Supreme Court. I took some classes and had a professor Robert Donihi who had been an attorney during the Nuremberg trials. He was older, but I found his class fascinating.

We didn’t actually live in DC but in Bowie, Maryland. Each day my dad and I traveled on Route 50 to get to DC. It was densely crowded traffic and was not the most scenic route to the Nation’s Capital. Each day we would pass a homeless man on the side of the road with a leaf in his mouth and we would pass by a shuttered African restaurant called NKWOBI. We would sometimes take the rail, our closest stop to the house was New Carolton, near the IRS building. I was working with a few others who quickly became friends. One of my favorite new friends was Catrice. She was always up to exploring with me, and we would go for empanadas or other delicious food in DC. She had a necklace that said ‘African Queen’ and was still in touch with her Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority sisters.

I stayed in touch with Kico, and he flew to visit me in DC. My mother plowed him with food to the point he almost popped. I can remember picking him up at Reagan National Airport and my heart raced as I saw him come down from the plane. He was exactly as I had remembered him: clean cut, smelling good and all smiles. He stayed for a few weeks and we made plans for me to go to the Dominican.

My father took me to the airport on the day I flew to the Dominican Republic. The man checking us in had the last name Holder, and my father said “Any relation to Eric Holder?” The man seemed impressed and said yes. I firmly believe that was why I got to fly first class to the Dominican Republc. We landed and the whole plane clapped. Kico picked me up from the airport and we went to his mother’s house. Much like my mother, his mother plied me with food: habiquelas, arroz, avocado in slices and platanos Fritos. I met his sister and her children and he lived in Villa Juana, and there were always people who would come up to visit and say hello while we sat outdoors on the covered patio. A few days into our trip, we went to stay at a hotel. It was there that I had Mangú for the first time. I was an immediate convert. I was reading a Laura Van Wormer book during the time he had to go to work. We went to Boca Chica the whole time listening to Janet Jackson’s CD. We also went to Puerto Plata. Kico was disappointed with the hotel arrangements, but I couldn’t complain. I was in paradise.When it came time to leave, I told Kico I didn’t want to go, and he said “so don’t go” I could not stay in a place where I had no job, no house, and no idea how to navigate where to go, could I? Crying, I boarded the plane back to DC. This time in COACH….

I went Japan for the first time in 1996 as an American International Exchange, Japan scholar. I had my first cell phone and made the ringtone of Doraemon. We had a great time exploring the Kansai area by bus and train. Once we went to Bob’s bar where one of our students was a DJ. We saw a group of men playing pool. At first, I assumed that they were Cuban, but you know what they say about assuming! They were actually from the Dominican Republic and were working as exporters of Japanese auto parts to the Dominican. They were working under the direction of a Chinese woman who was very demanding. We saw a lot of them over the course of the time we were in Japan and played a lot of pool and went bowling and explored a lot of restaurants and landmarks such as the Kiyo Mizo-dera. We saw Noh theater and had our first introduction to Geisha and Sumo. One of our teachers showed us Shiko Funjatta, a film about a woman Sumo wrestler. It sticks with me to this day. We also found an international food store where we could buy things like Brownies. I made brownies for my friends one day and they were appalled with how much oil was added. On the same evening, we had umeshuu, plum wine. It was boiled and put over ice cubes.

Our dorms were for two roommates to sleep on futons on tatami mats with ONE phone per room. I enjoyed the simplicity of life in Japan and learned how to make Raku pottery, although I SUCKED at it haha. I also took Japanese and tried Kenpo Karate.

I started dating one of the Dominican men we met at Bobs. He went by the nickname Kico and he took chances like ice skating with me. The day I was due to return to Chicago, he asked me to marry him. I let him know that I wanted to finish school before I committed to marriage. So, teary-eyed, we said our goodbyes and I headed back to Chicago to finish up my credits and graduate. Kico and I stayed in touch by phone and made plans to see each other again.