On tap today

Eating: Brunch at the British High Commission Club. Full English breakfast = awesome. And awesomely filling.

Listening to: The Smiths, Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack, and the Magnetic Fields's "No One Will Ever Love You" on loop.

Reading: Fantastic blogs, as always. Lately, I'm reading Hollister Hovey (who isn't, after yesterday's fabulous New York Times article?), Awkward Family Photos (sheer genius!), Decorno (because it is design but hilarious)...

Dreaming about: Vietnam and Cambodia. An 1866 photo of Angkor Wat:


Can't wait. Time to do more hotel research--yippee!

Friday ponderings

Freshman year of college I took a turn way into a left field of hippy activist types. I feel like people who meet me now would find it unlikely that I used to have long heated arguments about whether community service or advocacy is more important; that I met my husband in the Progressive Student Labor Movement (he doesn't really seem like much of an activist either); that I used to march chanting "Si Se Puede" (okay, fine, I kind of hated chanting) during a living wage campaign alliteratively titled "Justice for Janitors."

Horrible as it sounds, I've long since lost my energy for tackling the world's ills. While what I do now is titled "public service" by some, I still have some issues with that. I feel like my conception of service didn't--and doesn't--have national boundaries. And yet people want to call me a public servant, and I serve my country, but that means I don't serve everyone. So sometimes I feel uncomfortable with people I know from my old life who are working in inner-city clinics or organizing migrant farm workers or something like that. Because I am doing this, and we both know it's not the same.

I think the way I think about it, though, when I wonder if this matters in any larger sense, is that I have a chance, over the course of my career, to shape positively America's role in the world. And it is the truth that what the U.S. does reverberates broadly. Maybe I have the chance to make a big difference. Maybe I don't. Sometimes in the Foreign Service having a real impact seems like a matter of being in the right place at the right time. But I guess I'll take that chance because it's a pretty cool thing to even have a chance at doing.

And I wasn't any good at chanting anyway, alas.

Perspective

Every morning on the way to work, I pass hundreds of garment workers, mostly female, walking to their factory jobs. The apparel sector (referred to as "ready-made garments" here) is one of the biggest drivers of Bangladesh's economy. I hadn't really given much thought to the young women carrying their tiffins and chatting together as they walk. Mostly they would strike me as an annoyance--they tend to spill out into the middle of the street, run out into traffic without paying much attention to oncoming cars, and generally behave in ways that annoy motorists.

But I was talking to a professor who has worked a lot in the women's movement here. She was talking about how proud she is of the progress Bangladesh has made and pointed to these garment workers as the prime example. When they might have in the past been stuck at home, possibly abused, or else gone into domestic service (where they might also have been abused), now they are supporting themselves and making their own decisions. And she said every time she sees them walking with their lunch tiffins, she is deeply happy. Maybe I'll look again next time.

By the way, I had a rare "Dhaka is sort of pretty" moment last night... lights from the tall new apartment buildings reflecting on Gulshan Lake. Night hides all sorts of ills and drapes a sense of possibility over it all.

And then the rains came...

Okay, the monsoon has finally convinced me of its might. The night before last, we got over 17 inches of rain over the course of about seven hours. The drainage system was overwhelmed pretty completely, and there was widespread flooding in Dhaka. Sweet. I was lucky, only getting a puddle of water in my dining room, but many people had it much, much worse--including our local staff, many of whom were on the road for three hours or more before realizing there was no way to get through to work.

The other fun thing that happened this week was that I got pink eye. Crusty eyes=yummy. I had actually never had it before, and I thought it would be more uncomfortable than it was. Now that I can't wear my contacts, I am deeply regretting not getting glasses in my new prescription as I have fun squinting through my old pair.

Add that to James being away (taking his bar exam right now!) and it adds up to not a super fun week. Though Tony did graciously invite me to a baul concert (my first, believe it or not) at his apartment, which was a highlight. And, before it started raining like crazy, I saw a huge snail in the driveway and got insanely excited about it. It's the little things. How did the snail find the giant seashell thing it was living in? Do they make their own, or do they have to stumble across a seashell?

Update on the frog

From Teresa's latest note:

"Hi madam,

I am find the frog in planter. So I am through out from the apartment.

Thank you
Teresa"

Something I forgot

Yesterday when I was pedicuring it up at Avera, I ran into some ladies with vague European accents. Then I heard them speaking amongst themselves and thought it sounded like Polish. But then I was all, why on earth would there be Polish people in Dhaka? But finally, it was clear that they were, so we started talking. Hooray! I loooooooooove Polish people. They are very nice and we decided to meet up soon, you know, to embarrass me further because my Polish had gone so far downhill :)

Passive-aggressive notes

I rarely see my housekeeper/cook, Teresa, since she leaves by the time I get home. It's a huge help that she's able to read and write in English, so we mostly communicate through a series of notes. Our notes are generally mundane ("Today please cook eggplant parmesan"), but occasionally they reflect the undercurrent of tension that is a constant in our relationship ("Do you not wash the napkins before putting them back in the drawer?? These are very dirty!!!!! Always wash before putting away!" or "The apartment looks dirty to me. There is a big spiderweb in the corner of the TV room, and the top of the dresser in my room is covered with dust."). And sometimes, when I feel bad about writing bitchy notes, they are filled with extravagant praise ("Your chicken is SO GOOD!!! James really liked it.").

But perhaps I most enjoy the notes where Teresa's idiosyncratic English gives the message a tone of childish whimsy and the rhythm of a children's book. Like today--I left a note telling her there'd been a frog in the apartment and asking her to chase it out if she saw it. And she wrote back, "I am check the whol house in, all cobard down, sitting sofa down, every corner, kitchen but I do not see that frog."

Girls night out etc.

Weekend update: last night was a girls night out. What does this mean in Dhaka? Pretty much that we do the same things we always do, but only invite women.

First we hit the bar at Prego, on the 23rd floor of the Westin. Or, should I say, we attempted to hit the bar. We sat down, put in our drink orders, and lounged in our comfy armchairs awaiting sweet beverage bliss--until another waiter came up to us and informed us that we cannot order drinks at the bar.

Um, isn't that why they call it a bar? Apparently, on Fridays, the few bars that exist in Bangladesh cannot serve alcohol. But, we were informed, if we moved twenty feet to the left into the restaurant area, we would be a-okay. So we grabbed a big old round dinner table and drank our pretty cocktails, unfazed:


So after finishing our drinks and spending some quality time in the ladies room ooh-ing and aah-ing at the Westin's pretty blue glass tiles, we moved on to Uttara to eat at Nagasaki. Andrea brought some sake she had bought at the Commissary--impressive foresight!--and while the restaurant supposedly doesn't sell sake, they suspiciously had all the correct sake servingware:


Fun night. Today we hit Nordic Club brunch, browsed through interminable rows of weirdly fuzzy upholstery fabrics, and hit Avera. Once again, my mother and James nixed my fabric choices via webcam. I swear this was a really SUBTLE zebra print that I picked out. They have doubts.

I realized that visiting Ho Chi Minh City (Is it really so wrong to call it Saigon? Like they did in Miss Saigon, my entire source of childhood information on the Vietnam War? I love musicals. So much.) gives me a good reason to reread Graham Greene's The Quiet American. Not the most positive view of the U.S. government, but a beautifully written account of many other things.

Rainy Friday morning

I love to travel, so should I be concerned that not a single one of these items on this list of the Top 10 Travel Gadgets seems useful to me? Maybe this just shows what a dedicated urbanite I am, but seriously, why do I need a first-aid kit and a flashlight? Aren't there 24-hour pharmacies and streetlights?

Raining today. I need to spend some quality time planning for Vietnam and Cambodia. I very much enjoy choosing hotels. I am completely and utterly obsessed with Trip Advisor for this purpose. But first I have to nail down which nights we will be on the Mekong. I don't know whether to devote one more night to Ho Chi Minh City or to Phnom Penh. Any arguments for one over the other?

WHOA!

Solar eclipse tomorrow! HOW DID I LET THIS SNEAK UP ON ME??? I'm not even prepared with the glasses thingies! So apparently there is a tiny town in northern Bangladesh where you can see the total solar eclipse--wowee!--but Dhaka will still have a 93% eclipse, which I guess is still cool?

Okay, in other my-life-in-Bangladesh news, James has left for New York to take the bar exam, but thankfully will be back pretty soon. Work has been going well lately though. Yesterday was great and reminded me why public diplomacy is so much fun. I went with the Ambassador to meet a group of American students in Dhaka learning Bangla on a USG-funded program. They were so enthusiastic and embodied the reasons why exchanges are great. It is just as important to get Americans into countries like Bangladesh and have them fall in love with another culture and want to further that relationship for their whole careers as it is to send Bangladeshis to the U.S.

Then after that I headed downtown to watch the students in the leadership course we funded give their final presentations. The course was implemented by the Bangladesh Youth Leadership Center, a fantastic new NGO that runs leadership training for students from vastly different educational backgrounds, bringing them together to tackle service projects. The students are wonderful--they are so energized by the idea of giving back to their communities and taking action themselves to bring change.

So nope, I don't regret my choice of cone at all. Tomorrow I get to meet some brilliant young academics for Fulbright student program interviews, before going to a dinner to honor the high school students leaving for a year in the U.S. under the Youth Exchange and Study (YES) program. So another good day :)

Thoughts for a Tuesday night

I am being put in the mood to be soothed by the smooth sounds of Beirut. So good, and I say that never having been the L train type. Though I did go see them in Central Park in that glorious, glorious New York summer of 2007.

Seriously, time is flying by, in my life, generally. That was two years ago! That was the summer I spent my birthday in the beer garden, that we finally got Shakespeare in the Park tickets, that we watched the fireworks over the East River a few blocks from our apartment and all the car alarms went off, that we sipped St. Germain at the Guggenheim and then hit the all-night McDonald's, that we hung out and took total advantage of the city and didn't go anywhere until our honeymoon in October. Which reminds me that we somehow also managed to plan a wedding that summer. Crazy, glorious, delightful, hectic summer. Yup, the best


summer

of my life:

Any Vietnam or Cambodia travel advice?

It looks like that's the plan for September's Eid travels. I'm having fantasies, and they involve a river and some cool hats:

Where's the whale on stilts that we were promised?

Okay, I know I am six months behind the literary chatterati on this, but this poem is sheer brilliance. The poet's fondness for commenting multiple times on any blog entries about him? Less cool. But I can forgive much of the man who writes lines like "I translate the Bible into velociraptor."

Long summer

Hooray for the weekend! I feel like I really need the weekend lately... I find turnover in the Embassy and our section sort of emotionally stressful to handle. I find the weekend a key tool for getting myself together (and keeping myself together all week long), so I am not sure I could handle a job that required a lot of weekend work. Though I'm sure I'll have one at some point in the Foreign Service...

Today I took my sponsoree shopping and then hit a friend's barbecue. We're pretty low-key here in Dhaka. The last two nights we went out in big groups for dinner. I think I do need some new activities. Since I think the only people who read this blog are in A-100 or soon will be (hello out there!), let me dispense some advice: be prepared for the fishbowl. You see the same people every day at an Embassy; you work and socialize with many of the same people. At the end of the day, be prepared with some way to keep yourself sane despite this odd way of life.

Problem is, I'm not sure I've found any coping mechanism beyond rereading the entire Twilight saga repeatedly. There must be a better way...

Now I am going to try and figure out how to use my United miles. I feel like it may not work, but we'll see.

Wow

Why is this blog so insanely beautiful?

Miscelleneous

Hmm... I don't have much inspiration today, but I thought if I started writing, I might think of something.

Today we had a Hail and Farewell at the Embassy--it was crazy to see how many people are coming and going right now. Some people who are leaving I'll miss horribly; others I barely knew. And all the new people are like question marks who are yet to turn into real people... such is the way of Embassy life, I guess.

For the last two days, James and I have been having dinner out of leftovers from a party I had--I got my housekeeper to make hummus, tzatziki, tapenade, and homemade pita. We still have a lot of dip left after two nights of it, but I think we're done with this because I am sick of smelling like a head of garlic. Plus, I would hate to repel hot vampires. But it has done a lovely job of reminding us of our honeymoon in Greece. Oh Greece. So far away right now.

Celine, my friend from the German Embassy, gave me German candy for my birthday. Those Haribo green gummy frogs? Dangerous.

Things that make me miss New York

Taking Time Out's "Do You Belong in New York?" quiz and being reminded that, yes, I do.

But on the other hand, I have to keep feeding my wanderlust, and I had insufficient vacation time at my old job to do enough traveling. So here I am. Oh, and did I mention how thrilled I am that this gig has nothing to do spreadsheets?

Plus, the bosses are pretty sweet.

Happy birthday to me

Last night we had some people over to celebrate a few birthdays etc. It was nice to have people over, to catch up with people after a busy week, and to spend some quality time with people about to leave post. I didn't take a picture of the birthday cake because tragically it was very normal looking and would not be a good Cake Wrecks entry at all. Also, Ann and I figured out we had photographed the exact same cake at the same mall bakery in Kuala Lumpur and sent it in.

This morning James and I slept in and then made a lovely birthday breakfast:


Ham, green pepper, and gouda omelet (overstuffed!), toast, leftover bacon roll-ups from last night (bacon wrapped around white bread with garlic and herb cream cheese--it's breakfasty enough), and kaya pastries. And plenty of tea with milk and sugar because it's my birthday so I can.

It's been an eventful-enough quarter of a century... if things keep unfolding at the same pace, I won't have time to get bored. Stuff coming up: figuring out where we're going next! Looks like we'll know in September.

Package from my mom

Birthday cards (including a recordable one of my dad wishing me happy birthday)
Jhumpa Lahiri's The Interpreter of Maladies
A skirt and top from Talbots, the store I tell her I don't like but she likes so she buys me stuff from there anyway... but they're not bad
A bag of York Peppermint Patties (mmm...)
Makeup, including assorted perfume samples and blending sponges

Sadly, this package did not contain a bag of seashells like the last one.

In other news, I hate misbehaving digital video conferencing technology that malfunctions and leaves us no choice but to hear the speaker using a cell phone with a microphone pointed at it because we don't have a phone with speakerphone on it. Gah.

Moody much?

My birthday is in three days. Somehow birthdays overseas never turn out right. I think my problem is having trouble guaranteeing fun in a foreign context. In New York, I could be absolutely certain what would be fun; but I find the pursuit of fun overseas to be a hit-or-miss game, much as I love travel and living abroad. A great night in a foreign country is a piece of serendipity, I think--stumbled upon without planning or certainty, since I never quite have my bearings enough to be sure what will occur. Which makes for a great lifestyle but crappy special occasions. Anyway, we'll see what turns up.

I feel like I'm on the borderline--young enough that I still vaguely think my birthday should be a big deal, but getting just old enough to be ashamed of that sentiment. I've been thrust into a world where my age is sometimes a negative--in getting things done, in gaining respect. I've been told I look nineteen and I've been told I look like a mom. So maybe age is in the eye of the beholder, too.

I feel like recently my life has been on fast-forward. I did some major life things pretty early--getting married and joining the Foreign Service. Not sure what's left to look forward to--childbirth and arthritis? Okay, maybe it's time to stop writing. Can you tell I'm in a sort of bad mood?

I should comment on something positive. Well, on the plus side, the BBC miniseries of The Way We Live Now is AMAZING. Anthony Trollope is my homeboy.

Long weekend that still feels short

Happy 4th of July!

Okay, I am a day late, but yesterday was a busy day. Though surprisingly (or not, given I'm living in Bangladesh) not filled with 4th of July festivities. I took a few people down to Dhanmondi to go shopping and look at the art galleries. I think people liked the shops. I saw myself as the group's fearless leader, guiding them through the fray, and thus did not plan to actually buy things myself. Fat chance. I got some more pottery at Clay Image and some cards and gift boxes at Source. Plus we had lunch at Nando's which is always amazing. Those peri-peri potato wedges are like a gift directly from heaven. Peri-peri sauce is like the sweet tears of angels seasoning my food.

And last night I had dinner at a friend's home, which is always the best kind of dinner in Dhaka. After attending so many dinners in the past week, I am more and more feeling the need to get some silk saris--and, more importantly, learn how to wrap them. My outfits never quite seem to cut it in comparison.

Today I am going to the dentist in Bangladesh for the first time. Remember how I felt going to get a haircut here for the first time? You can only imagine the trepidation I feel today.

An old favorite, recently remembered

EPITAPHS

Fu I

Fu I loved the high cloud and the hill,
Alas, he died of alcohol.

Li Po

And Li Po also died drunk.
He tried to embrace a moon
In the Yellow River.

-Translated by Ezra Pound