Hello, ’11s, and happy holidays! (Yes, I realize you will be reading this in February but I’m currently staring at a Christmas tree, so forgive the time warp.) Yet again the unsolicited updates have been a bit slow to come my way, so please, stop being modest and tell me about all the amazing things you’re doing. Or the not-so-amazing things—those are great too.


To the updates, which in this edition are mostly international: Kyung Ho Paik is back in South Korea fulfilling his military service. He started boot camp late last year and tells me he hopes to return to the United States for further studies after he completes his service. And Nathan Potter is in India until May. He’s been working in a hospital and traveling around the country. 


Eve Ahearn is spending the year in Panama teaching U.S. and world history and also working as an SAT and ACT tutor to Panamanian teenagers. She is living with another ’11, Amanda Pechman, who is doing similar work. Proving just how small the world is, they live in the same building as an ’01. Eve writes about Panama: “On the plus side there is a lot of great tropical fruit, and on the negative side there is no postal service.”


Justin Varilek is working as a business reporter in Russia for the English-language Moscow Times (check it out at themoscowtimes. com). He writes: “Some days are truly amazing. On Veteran’s Day I was taking shots with the U.S. ambassador and a group of 60-year-old Russian veterans to ‘build ties’ between our two nations. I even had the opportunity to travel to Siberia and speak with a grizzled zookeeper about his liger (yes lion-plus-tiger). Other days just suck. Dealing with Russian bureaucracy, I spend hours being tossed around from official to official—angry because I’m making them actually do their jobs—just to discover that none of them actually knows anything. And nothing starts off a day better than the Moscow rush-hour metro. You think you need a bubble for personal space? Forget it. Cars are stuffed so tightly that people literally take running starts to claim a spot in what is more similar to a cattle car than a convenient form of public transportation.”


Spenser Mestel is spending the year in Cairo learning Arabic. He’s also working as a tutor for fourth- and fifth-graders. Those of you who want to hear more from him about the cultural differences, dealing with a stubborn landlady and what it’s like to be in a country undergoing a revolution should get in touch with Spenser and ask to be put on his blitz list (can we still call them that?).


Of course, not everyone headed abroad after Dartmouth. Brandon Cohen is in southern California, for example, recently joining a startup called CapLinked in Manhattan Beach. He says it’s a free online platform for private companies, investors and advisors to network, manage a capital raise or asset sale and exchange updates. He’s living in Beverly Hills and he said a highlight has been skiing at Mammoth with Matt Schenker ’09.


That’s it for now, but keep the updates coming. 


—Drew Joseph, 2727 29th St., NW, Apt. #233, Washington, DC 20008; (510) 418-2244; aqjoseph @gmail.com