Me and UIDC

Hey hey~

Me and UIDC. What does it mean?Me and Understanding International Development Cooperation. My graduate school major is international development cooperation. From the all-knowing Wikipedia:

International development is related to the concept of international aid, but is distinct from, disaster relief and humanitarian aid.[citation needed] While these two forms of international support seek to alleviate some of the problems associated with a lack of development, they are most often short term fixes — they are not necessarily long-term solutions. International development, on the other hand, seeks to implement long-term solutions to problems by helping developing countries create the necessary capacity needed to provide such sustainable solutions to their problems.

Basically, helping countries to pull themselves up in the world, but for the long run, instead of just meeting immediate needs.

After about five years off from formalized education, I’m back in school full-time.  We’ll see how this goes.  Now that you know a bit about the UIDC bit, here’s something about me.

My name is Kandace. I’ve not used my true name before, but now you know. I’m from the US, and I’ve always wanted to travel the world. I do love my family, they’re my world, but I think the world is far too small to stay in one place forever. My interests lie in Asia more than anywhere else. I’m a total dork and still watch Japanese anime and yell at the TV when things happen. I play video games and enjoy them. I scream at the TV when my characters die because my medic doesn’t heal fast enough. To say that I enjoy food is a gross understatement. Everything about food just fascinates me. I wake up and think about what’s for lunch as I’m eating breakfast. My favorite channels are FoodTV and Nickelodeon. I look at pictures of food and read delivery and takeout menus for fun. By all accounts, I should be 3~4 times fatter than I am. The reason I’m not: good genes and a love for exercise. (True story: I once rode my stationary bike while eating macaroni and cheese and playing Devil May Cry 4) I really enjoy running and weightlifting.  I like working until it hurts and feeling sore the next day.

Having read that, how old am I? Forget that I’m entering graduate school or that I’ve been traveling for years. If you had only read the previous paragraph, how old would you peg me?  Chances are, your guess is younger than I am.  Not far from 30 and my idea of a good evening is dinner, video games, dancing and drinking (because yes, I do enjoy a drink *or two or three*).  Young at heart? Perhaps. More like painfully immature with far too much to learn.

This blog is going to track my journey as I study IDC and learn more about that and myself.  You’ll find out about International Development, life in South Korea, being a graduate student, being a foreign student, and being a 20-something trying to figure out what’s next.