Another Sunday...

...another day at the pool! It is 104 in the shade today, so clearly the best place to be was by the pool. As Lois pointed out, I'm so pale, I'm "practically blue". So I'm working on that. The swimming is coming along nicely, too, so that's fun.

Judy left on Friday, and called me Saturday morning from Lahore, when she was supposed to be in New York, because her plane had "structural difficulties", which is apparently what PIA says when the wing is about to come off the plane. Seriously. Although really, it's still better to take care of that kind of thing when you're in a place where you can actually land. I'm hoping she's made it to New York by now. Yeeshk.

It's been quiet since she left, but I've been reading, and I even saw "Scrubs" the other night with Urdu subtitles - there are a few other familiar shows on cable, which was surprising, to say the least. The thing that is funniest about being here is looking at signs and things. Most signs are actually in English, which was very surprising to me. Someone I know here said that it's almost a status symbol to speak and read English, and you're almost looked down upon if you can't understand it. Very strange to see people almost reject their own culture, when it's interesting and unique, I would think they'd want to embrace it. Although, it does make it a little easier for me to get around, so I'm not exactly complaining.

The translation factor is interesting, though. Gas tankers, which are painted the way the buses are, have "DANGER: HIGHLY INFLAMMABLE" written on the back. I also saw an advertisement for a weight loss clinic that said "We Kill Your Fatness!" I am not making this up. I also see plenty of cars and trucks with license plate numbers painted on. If only we had such a simple and efficient system in the US, registering your car would be a snap! Of course, it would be harder for them to keep the naughty words off license plates that way. Ah well, pros and cons.

G-man invited me to come over to his house for dinner - very nice invitation, so I said "oh, that's very kind of you - that would be lovely", but honestly, I see him way more than I want to already. Ah well, it is a very nice invitation, so I must be gracious. I can have hermit tendencies, and I think this is the perfect situation for me to indulge them. I can't decide yet if I'll be going out all the time once I get home, or if I'm just going to want to enjoy being back in my own place and stay home. But it will be very nice to have my mobility and independence back - that's what's nice about the pool at the American school - there's a big wall surrounding the whole school, which is topped by about 4 feet of barbed wire, and it's patrolled by armed security guards, and surrounded by 200 Army officers. Lois, who lives next door, has the only door through that wall leading onto the cricket field. She said that I could use her door to get to the pool once she's gone back to the US for home leave, thereby making it the only thing I can do by myself, no driver, no supervision, no "protection" - and that cricket field is probably the safest place for me to be in the whole city.

I'm heading over to Lois's house to watch a movie and have some dinner - so I'd best be moving along. I'm going to try to find a place to get pictures developed and placed on a CD, since Judy has taken her digital camera with her. Once I find a place, I'll be posting some more pictures. I'd best be going - got to finish making dinner!