Another slight change in plans

In, what I consider to be, a spectacular and uncharacteristic display of advanced notice for my company, it appears that I will be staying here a few weeks longer than originally planned. We’re having a few issues with the project, and essentially, I have to stay here until my co-worker Judy returns in August. So this means that, if all goes according to the plan I have in my head, I’ll leave Karachi on August 10, stop in the UK for a few days for some time with family and to decompress, then home the following week – no later than the 17th. I have mixed feelings about it, because although I am adapting to being here, and Lois will be back July 25th, and all of those things – I miss my friends and my family and my life! Ah well – you guys will all still be there when I get back, right? This is actually a good opportunity for me with my company, because…well, because no one is under the impression that I’ve had the time of my life here, so the fact that I’ve said I’ll stay a few extra weeks to help us out of a potentially sticky situation is good for me. (Team player, dedication, blah, blah, blah…) So, I guess that’s my biggest bit of news. I think I would be feeling a lot worse about it if I weren’t going to Vietnam in the middle, but that’s going to be a nice break. I leave for there next Friday night, the 24th, and I come back here Wednesday July 13th.

Apparently, they have my visa all sorted out for Vietnam, but they had to get it changed, because the first version had my name down as “Mr. Amanda Goebel”. I found this particularly funny because my co-worker and officemate, Miho, has a difficult time with making people who have never met or spoken to her understanding that Miho is, in fact, a Japanese woman’s name. One of our colleagues in the Philippines, who has worked with her over e-mail on a number of things over the past year and can never seem to remember that fact, continues to address all his e-mails to “Dear Mr. Miho”, despite her signing her name “Ms. Miho Ihara” and our boss saying “MIHO IS A WOMAN.” I can see how he might miss the first part if he wasn’t looking too carefully. But I thought that my boss’s clarification was hard to misinterpret.

I’ve been out two nights in a row, which is something of a record for me here. Wednesday night, I went out with Samina and Faruq, the furniture designers that I met. They are just about the coolest people, very funny, smart, well-traveled, and just very interesting. We had a lovely conversation over dinner, Faruq told me about driving from London to Karachi when he was 21 with a group of friends. Apparently London to Karachi and back is about 16,000 miles. You’d better pick your road trip buddies really carefully if you’re going to make that haul. They actually reminded me a lot of my own parents, who I think are also very cool. We went to this place called Okra, off of Zamzama Street, which is, semi-jokingly, referred to as the “Rodeo Drive of Karachi”, with all kinds of super chi-chi boutiques and restaurants, and the most upscale Pizza Hut I’ve ever seen. Okra is very trendy with really tasty and creative food, everything was delicious. I had mango carpaccio for dessert, which was served with sugared coriander. Very, very interesting!

Last night, a bunch of people from the project went out to an Italian restaurant – the same one I went to with Lois and Judy a few weeks ago. It was as good as I had remembered, which was a relief, because you never want to be the one to give a crappy recommendation. It was in the same general area as Okra, and right across the street from a phalanx of shoe stores. (I made a mental note and will be heading back there soon…) We all had a really nice time together, but it made for two late nights in a row, which meant two mornings in a row that I’ve missed working out. I’ll get back on the wagon, but I am definitely dragging a little bit. With insufficient sleep and exercise, my post-lunch blood sugar crash feels worse, and keeping my eyes open feels like a Herculean task. If only I lived in a country where people took siesta, I would be the happiest girl ever. At the very least I’d be a pretty darn well-rested girl. I know, I know – my life is just so hard. I’ll stop.

I just realized something – I arrived a month ago today. Wow – time has gone faster than I thought it would. It’s a very strange thing, being here. It’s surreal and it feels like this isn’t really life, but of course it is, because I’m here and time is passing. When I get home, everyone will have been busy doing things and experiencing things for the past few months, just as I have been doing things and experiencing things here. It’s odd to think that I may have to go home for the fact that I’ve been gone to sink in. I’m having jetlag of the subconscious, which Barbara Kingsolver talks about in one of her books. My dreams are mostly still about things from home, people and places, etc. But I’m sure that when I get back, my dreams will be about things in Pakistan, Vietnam, and England. Maybe that’s how our minds keep us connected to several places at once, I don’t know. But it’s interesting. And it will be nice to get back to my life, even if that time is still a couple of months away. (I need to remind myself that the first month has gone by quickly in order to not feel freaked out by that sentence.)