Rapporteur's Report

This is my final blog about Canberra. I have a few final photos to share, along with further details of my internship.

Final thoughts about my internship:

I think I have neglected to write enough about my internship, especially considering it’s the whole reason I came to Australia, not to mention I’ve been working there full time since I got here.

I’ve been interning at the Australian Institute of International Affairs (a lot to say when I answer the telephone!) Most people immediately ask: What does the AIIA do?

Good question. The stated goal of the AIIA is to “increase awareness of international affairs in Australia.” They do all sorts of things to achieve this goal. They publish an academic journal (the Australian Journal of International Afffairs) and a book series chronicling Australia’s foreign policy over 5 year periods, organize conferences such as the National President’s Forum I attended in Brisbane, hold lectures and other events for their members, and lots more.

But what do I do? Like the Institute, all sorts of things! I open and sort the mail, answer the telephone, and other administrative (intern-y) tasks. I also get to do really important projects, like copy-editing and writing the abstracts and keywords for a special issue of the International Journal of Global Energy Issues, drafting the Strategy Day papers, etc.

My last project was planning a new publication for the AIIA – the Emerging Scholars series. The National Office hosts many interns who are writing papers for academic credit, like me. Now these papers will be published! This is one of my favorite projects, as I think it’s a great development, and I have control over every aspect of the series. Not to mention, there’s also a good chance that my paper will be published by the series (once it’s finished, of course.)

Here are Martha and I. We were dressed to go out for a function at the US Embassy. I am going to miss Martha; we had a lot of fun together. My last afternoon at work we used GoogleEarth to find maps of our hometowns. Charlotte is not in 3D yet, but Groningen, Holland was (it was lovely!) She also showed me where she lived during her gap year in London, and true to form, as we took a virtual stroll down the streets, we got lost!

I’m not sure how I let this happen, but I didn’t get a picture of myself with my host family until the night before I left. (Please pardon the fact that I am in my pajamas.) They were so wonderful, and I really hope (and believe) that the feeling was mutual. I look forward to going back to visit. Perhaps in the summer next time…

This blog post had a relatively large number of pictures that included me. The picture above explains why: this is what I looked like every day commuting to work, and it’s not a pretty picture. The brown boots with the black “tracky-daks” (track pants) are not as obvious in the picture as they are in real life, but trust me, it was not pretty. I was warm though, and that’s about all I cared about.

Next post: Sydney!