Halfway through my 2nd week at my new job. I started working for a defense contractor last week and haven't done a whole lot besides reading hundreds of DoD doctrines on CWMD which is pretty boring because the State Department is still hanging onto my clearance lol. BUT at least I know that I don't have to worry about job searching while finishing my thesis so that's nice. Right now I'm trying to decipher my benefits options...

What else...

I'm a semi-finalist for a Fulbright grant to Kosovo which I'm trying not to get too excited about because movement on that is going to be glacial (again, thanks State Department) so thinking about it isn't helpful. But it's news.

I'm taking a course on Roots and Trajectories of Extremism and the professor is super smart and energetic but doesn't really have direction for the class. We've been reading classics in Arab thought which is somewhat of a review for me but since it's a close read this time around, it's fascinating to see that the same things being debated in the Arab world in the 19th century and the turn of the 20th are STILL relevant today (Islamic State yay or nay, how to govern, who should govern etc). In class though it's mostly our professor (who's a young Jordanian woman who just rails against how awful the state of education in Jordan is which is just hilarious to me after my semester abroad because it was truly abysmal) pulling up videos she's enjoyed of secularist conversations happening online for the first time. I'm enjoying it but wishing it was just a tad more structured.