joe survived

Dad and I survived this week without Mom with quite a bit of success. Cousin Jamie got a free lunch everyday this week, Grandma F got schlepped and the house is looking decent... Not a thing that can really be complained about. Mom will be happy when she gets home.

I also have talked to alot of people this week, but not everyone! If you have not received an IM, email or a phone... I apologize. I've actually had to work at work. Considering that was a foreign concept at my last job, this is something that I had to really mentally prepare for. Thank goodness I can pretty much leave whenever I want (Dad is the boss and if I say "leaving for a mental break" I don't think that he'll mind) and I get some baby time with Cousin Jamie's baby Jilli. I love baby time. She is so happy and smiley! I still don't want one, but this is pleasant for 5 days a week.

OK, take care and have some fun!

bridezilla wannabe

I have survived the attack of the brides. I went to Columbus this weekend and worked at Friend Laura's travel business' booth for honeymoon planning and destination weddings. 13 hours later and many, many brides, grooms, mothers of the bride, bridesmaids, fathers of the brides and various siblings later, we had a mulititude of contacts and were dog-tired. I want to run away to the Chapel of Elvis and just do it simply.

While I was down in Columbus, I spent the night with Friend Heather andFriend Alison. Talk about a good time had by all! (OK, I'm just speaking for myself now). I can't wait to go back down and have more of a good time.

So, I have to go to bed now and get up early enough to pack lunches for Dad and me. Mom is in Florida with Aunt Carolyn. Somehow that makes me in charge of feeding Dad. Hang on a sec! I am not the one with the seniority on this ship! How does this work? I'm not sure if I'm getting the good end of the stick on this one. And now he wants me to go to King Kong with him, since Mom won't. My price to view this 3 hour boy-flick: popcorn and a drink. I like to think that I'm reasonable. :)

happy new year!

Happy New Year! I am writing this entry in flannel pajamas, very cute slippers and at my mom's kitchen table. It was nice to spend the holidays at home and to see what everyone was up to. I played with babies, talked to everyone and just waiting for the cultural shock to be over.

This past weekend helped me a little with the cultural shock some. I went down on Friday and met Sweetie and his folks, Berkley and Stella at the Tuttle Mall and had dinner with them. Sweetie and I parted ways with them and then went on a small tour of Upper Arlington to view the Christmas lights and a quick stop to Caribou to drink a Hot Apple Blast. My tummy was so happy! We went back to his place and crashed for the night. The next day we had a lovely breakfast out at Cracker Barrel for Sweetie's belated birthday treat - too much food! We then went and did a little shopping at Target and watched a movie - The Producers - it is too funny! Sweetie got ready for a New Years' wedding and I bowed out of going out with Alison for New Years. That's right, I stayed at home, ordered in pizza and watched Scooby Doo on TV, falling asleep by 11:00 that night. I loved every minute of it! I needed that little bit of 'Laura Time'. Sweetie woke me up at 2 a.m. while I was sleeping on the couch and I think that we talked a little bit. The next morning, we just lounged around and read the Sunday paper. I met up with Heather Hissom and had a wonderful Mexican lunch and shopped for South Asia spices. I met up with Alison in Worthington and we did a little more shopping and we ate at the Happy Greek. I now love Happy Greeks..... soooo tasty! I finally went home with all of my new spices and cute pink with coffee mug slippers and am now enjoying a quiet day home.

OK, while my life is boring, I'm soooo stinkin' happy to have a boring life for the moment!

However... with that being said, life should not be too boring, so I have decided that I have a personal goal of learning various things before I'm 30 (July 24, 2007). Here is my list. If you have any suggestions or anything like that, please let me know...

Things to Learn Before I'm 30

1. learn to shoot rifles and handguns

2. learn to drive a motorcycle

3. learn to properly ride a horse

4. learn how to play a string instrument (banjo or guitar)

I'm not sure of anything else... I know there must be something else I really want to learn, but I just can't think of it at the moment. hmmm....

between holidays

Christmas is finished and New Years is on the way. It's hard to believe how much has happened in the last year! I left Peace Corps, came home for a month, went back to Bangladesh, stayed for 6 months and now I'm home for quite some time.

Christmas is lovely to experience in a Christian country. I was overwhelmed at the amount of stuff given and received (the malls were frightening), but I'm not sure if I want to become habituated to it. Talk about alot of rampant materialism! And everyone has so much stuff! It makes me want to weed out my stuff (that's my heart speaking and not my lazy butt!).

Well, I hope that everyone had a good holiday and I hope to see all my American friends soon.

Take care!

the day that wouldn't end

I'm home! I left Dhaka, flew to London, flew to Chicago and finally landed in Columbus all in one day. That's right... over 30 hours of travel and I arrived the same day I left. International time zones and constant travel can really screw up your head. I'm very excited now that it is actually Sunday.

So, I'll catch up with everyone soon... once I've caught up on my sleep. Take care.

and the beat goes on

I've been sick for the past couple of days and it reminded me of what will and won't happen in the States. Here is a small list of stuff that I've been thinking about in the last week.

I probably won't contract a parasite. (I'm currently infested with pin worms! GROSS!)
I won't have black snot from the pollution and dust.
I will be able to eat pork and cheese.
I won't be able to wear extremely funky clothes.
I will freeze my butt off.
My work week won't start on Sunday, but on Monday. Therefore, I can say "Thank Goodness for Friday," instead of "Thank Goodness for Thursday," which doesn't have the same ring.
I'll be home for Christmas just like the song says.

There is probably more, but I can't think of it now...

Take care and I'll be seeing you soon.

repeat

So, a few more bombs are going off in Bangladesh this past week. This morning ('Deshi time) another one went off and possible one went off last night in a tiny village up near where my PC friend Peter and Helyn live in Naogoan. So, they got off the plane after a vacation in Thailand today and they are consolidated in Dhaka. This is just a regional consolidation, so not all the PCVs will be brought into Dhaka. For of those not habituated in PC talk, consolidation is taking where you take all the volunteers and make them stay together, so if you must evacuate, then they are easier to reach. What is really translates to, Helyn, Peter and their sitemate Mr. Bill-O get a free trip into Dhaka and I'll be seeing them this evening at Happy Hour in the American Club.

Please note, I was very calm when I wrote this and please don't worry about the bombs. It's ok, no one panic. All the exits are clearly marked....

As for my own leaving plans, the plane leaves on the 17th and arrives 30 hours later on the 17th. Confusing? Slightly. Will I be mildly insane from the travel? Definately. Since I'm arrive at 9 pm, Mom asked if I wanted to stop at Schmidt's for a bratwurst on the way home. We'll see... We'll see... A nice brat with a cold beer will be heaven on earth. Mmmmm... pork and cheese. Will this make up for the cold? Hmmm.... I'll think about it....

For this evening however, it is a post-GRE/good-bye Happy Hour for fellow B-5 Wendy. She is has finished her 6 month contract and will be leaving the 'Desh for good in the next day or two. First, she's going to travel around India and also other parts of South Asia before going home to Arizona. Sounds like a ton of fun! Good luck to her!

purgatory

I've seen my own personal version of purgatory. While it wasn't hell, I sure could see it from where I was seated. This morning, Danielle and I met in Gulshan-1 circle and caught a CNG (baby taxi) down to Dhaka University area to an auditorium for the World AIDS Day program. We had to get down about two blocks from the auditorium for security reasons, so we had a lovely walk down there. We come across one of our colleagues also walking to the program and follow him in. We are shown where every NGO that has something to do with HIV/AIDS has information booths and look around. We are then informed the starting program (to officially start the whole kit and caboodle - we were officially not started before, I guess) is starting and we should really watch it. So off we go. We find seats in the lower section, in the back row and on the end. This was a little after 10. We didn't get up until after 1. We were supposed to leave at 12. They were on Bangladeshi time and we believe that they were on American time. Silly us. The thing that got me was the fact that everyone was 'rude' in an American sense, but it didn't faze a single person there. A huge group of people got up to leave in the middle of a speech and the guy in charge of my office had to go and convince them to sit down. He did this multiple times! Finally, the talking heads have finished talking about the same crap that the fella in front of him said and then the cultural program started. The first group was about 7 young adults who were singing songs about AIDS in a traditional form, with a haromium, tabula and small cymbals for background music. It was so loud that I couldn't focus on what was being said. Luckily, they only sang one song. Then came on another group of traditional singer and they sang two songs about AIDS and were more entertaining overall. They didn't give me a bigger headache, in other words. Then! A minister stood up and started to talk more!!! I finally translated that he was opening the main programs and then finally.... our suffering was over! We hurried out and said our good-byes and fled.

Outside the auditorium, we walked back the two blocks to a larger road and tried to get a rickshaw. A group of well-dressed men came over to us and asked what we are doing there. We said that we had gone to the AIDS program and were going home (all this in English) He told us that it was a hartal and that we would have to take a rickshaw all the way to Banani. I whipped out my Bangla, informed him that we know about that hartal and that didn't stop us getting there that morning. He then told us that he would manage a rickshaw for us. He called one over to us and I asked the wala if he was going and the jerk shushed me and told the rickshaw wala that we would give taka 100 to go to Banani. I said that I was a cheap bhabhi and that I would not give 100 taka when the meter for a CNG was 60 taka (thus making the rickshaw price 40-50 taka for the same distance). I thanked him and asked which direction was Banani. At the next road was a ton of CNGs and rickshaws and I paid 80 taka to go where I wanted to (hartals equal baksheesh). I hate it when men tell me that they will 'manage' stuff for me that I can do perfectly fine for myself. However, since he was probably in charge and could hire local ruffians to break my knees, I decided that silence was the better part of valor and kept my mouth shut. But, I'd pay good money to give him what for.

As a treat to ourselves for sitting through multiple talking heads, we ate lunch at Pizza Hut. The week is done and yeah for the weekend!

On the 'Don't worry front': There was a bombing in Gazipur today and some people were killed, but they are still targetting the courts and justice system, so good for my foreign self.

Take care!

a little too calloused

I think that I have been here a little too long, when 2 bombings killing 9 people doesn't even faze me any longer. Albeit, it was in Gazipur and Chittagong (not too close) was where it happened. All I asked was, 'Where did it happen? Will there be a hartal?' So, there will be a hartal tomorrow. Again. The extremists are targetting judges and the court-system, since they want Sharia law to be the law-system of the country, rather than the British non-secular law that is currently in place.

So, with that said, I still have to come to work tomorrow and look cute in a sari. No rest for the weary or the wicked. Tomorrow is World AIDS Day and there is a big program (that is going to be cut shorted, due to hartal) and I gotta go, sit and look pretty. Ugh. All it's going to be is bigwigs saying the same stuff they say all the time. Maybe they'll have a good tea and snacks to offer.... hmmm... maybe I should take a big purse.... hmmm.... Hopefully, fellow intern Danielle will come with me and we can keep each other amused. Keeping my fingers crossed.

turkey day bonanza

Turkey Day was bideshi filled and the amount of food was obscene!!! There was so many turkeys for the party of 30+ people that one entire bird was not even cut into. This translates into 'someone will have a crapload of turkey sandwiches for the ensuing year'! The party took place at Roomie Carrie's boss' house, so alot of USAID people came to celebrate. Carrie and I really took to two of the girls and thus planned a lovely shopping trip on Saturday with them.

Friday was a jammie/recovery day from the Turkey indulgences and then Saturday, we shopped. First was Sally Ann's Salvation Army for waffles and tea. That's right, I eat waffles at the Salvation Army. And go shopping there. I spent an large amount of money on stuff that I always wanted and now will ship home. Then we met up with Angela and Brandy for shopping after lunch at the American Club. We hit Aarong and I really went a little nuts at the jewelry counter. 3 nose rings and 4 earrings later (with one of them for Mom) and a cup of tea later, we went to Bata (shoes). I came home with two pairs of shoes that actually fit (ok, one pair better than the other, but they were really cute!) and then we went plant shopping. I didn't come back with anything (which is considerate of me considering my black thumb) and then Brandy had to go home. However, Carrie and Angela were up for more shopping (I was drooping, but hung in there). So off we trotted to Melange for comforters and pillows for Carrie. By then it was 8 o'clock and no dinner. Angela and Carrie took pity on my drooping self and fed me Japanese for dinner. Yeah! Rolls rock! Then off to home to look at our loot and go to bed to actually make it up the next morning. Ugh.. I'm still tired from that shopping!

Ok, here is the deal... I'm coming home for Christmas. I think that I will be living with Mom and Dad between Christmas and grad school starting, but a job would be a good thing. I'm hazy on the details, so I'll keep you posted as soon as I have a clue.

Take care and be safe in this holiday season.