New students click here for information on how to submit your own photos for posting on the blog.

Today’s photos were submitted by Monoswita Saha, an Masters is Public Administration student.

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The Sunderbans December 2007

I have always wanted to visit the Sunderbans and finally got my chance during my senior year as an undergraduate when I was researching sustainable living initiatives for my thesis.  The Sunderbans are an otherworldly experience, at once dangerously enticing, beautiful and delicate, but set against a harsh reality.

The Sunderbans (Beautiful Forest) are a mangrove estuarine forest in West Bengal and Bangladesh.  These photos were taken on the West Bengal side. The only way in and out of the Sunderbans is through boat.  As a result all imports must be ferried in.

During the monsoons the water levels rise.  Today with global warming and deforestations whole islands are drowned and swept away.   Residents near and in the Sunderbans have always built pathways high above the river levels as a barrier from the monsoon floods.

Mother and daughter harvest baby shrimp for further cultivation at dawn outside of Bali Tiger Camp.

New students click here for information on how to submit your own photos for posting on the blog.

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Today’s photos come from Huimin Zeng, an incoming MPA student.

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This photo was taken in the summer of 2009. After my exchange period to Lappeenranta University of Technology in Finland, my friends and I traveled across the Europe before going back home. I never thought about saying Hi to an elegant swan at such a short distance.

This photo was taken at the back of Cathedral of Notre Dame in the summer of 2009. I loved those bright-colored flowers around the historical buildings.

It is a photo of my group doing an advertisement for Listerine at the International Business Curriculum class. My friend and I acted as mice while the other was a cat and a rabbit. It was a story about how a cat fall in love with a mouse.

New students click here for information on how to submit your own photos for posting on the blog.

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This set of photos comes from Andrea Bustard, an incoming MIA student.

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West Java, Indonesia. The newlywed, shown center, in a semi-traditional Batak wedding as guests take their last look before the couple leaves. The bride carries a live chicken and a basket of rice – representing future prosperity.

West Java, Indonesia. A young boy gets a chance to walk on water in the parking lot of a department store promotion.

Astoria, Oregon. Passing through on a road trip to Seattle, I took this photo of a bridge that borders Oregon and Washington.

New students click here for information on how to submit your own photos for posting on the blog.

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The photos today come from Nick Culver, an incoming MIA student.

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These two pictures were taken in Jordan in 2009. The first is taken at Wadi Rum, a beautiful desert area in the Southwest near Aquaba. Near sunset on a misty day, the landscape began to resemble Mars and I wondered if that was the Sun or the Moon on the horizon. The second picture is a couple hundred miles north of the first, a Moses-like view facing west from atop Mount Nebo.

New students click here for information on how to submit your own photos for posting on the blog.

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The photos today come from Andrea Moore, an incoming MIA student concentrating on International Finance and Economic Policy.

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This photo was taken in Chicago’s Grant Park on Election Night in 2008. The city had been buzzing for weeks with now-President Obama in the race, and since I work right across from Grant Park, I knew I wanted to try for tickets to the Election Night rally. Luckily, I happened to be at my desk the minute the invitation was sent, and I pounced on the chance. We ended up way in the back (people were already lined up outside the park at 9 am or earlier), but I think we had the best vantage point: looking out on millions of people who all were having the same “this is history in the making” feeling. It was a big day no matter what your politics were.

This was taken in June 2008 from the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. I was doing an impromptu night walk of the monuments with some friends, and when we got to the Lincoln Memorial, it started getting stormy and we stayed put for a while. It ended up just being an epic lightning storm, and I was trying to capture some of the strikes. Somehow, through blind luck with my point-and-shoot camera, I caught a lightning strike that was perfectly placed to mirror off the Reflecting Pool.

The last photo was taken in April 2005 in Madrid. I was studying there when Pope John Paul II passed away. With almost Catholicism the dominant religion there, it was huge news and spawned memorials all over the city. This picture was taken at a statue of the Pope that’s outside the Catedral de Almudena. People had flocked to the statue the day after he died, just standing and praying around the statue, lighting candles. I had done so much studying of the importance of Catholicism in Spain throughout history, like with Ferdinand and Isabela, but I hadn’t realized how central the religion still was in the present. Even though (full disclosure) I identify as Catholic as well, I almost felt like I was a stranger intruding on a private moment here.