And *today's* story is...

I spoke again to the PM about my schedule, and whether or not I should expect to come back here, and whose approval I was waiting for. He said “Vell, he hass alrready said he vood like you to stay now sroo Decembah, yah? So I sink you book za ticket.” So I guess I book za ticket. (His English really is excellent, but the accent still cracks me up.)

This is good, because it gives me a little finality on these things (although my time between here and Pakistan is still changing, so that’s kind of fuzzy), and I know the experience is going to be really great. It’s a great professional opportunity for me, and it gives me more of a chance to explore the country and see different places. There’s tons to see here, so I’m excited to have that opportunity. I may even look into a weekend or two in Bangkok – it’s so close, the flights there are both cheap and frequent, and Thailand is a place I’ve wanted to see for a long time. I also think that my mother’s cousin’s daughter is working in Vietnam, but she’s in a different part of the country. If I’m here for a few months and she’s still here, I’d like to see if we could possibly meet up, as I’ve never met her. It could be a really fun opportunity to connect more with my mom’s side of the family, since geography has always been an obstacle to that in the past.

The big downside is that three of my close friends are going to be having babies in the time that I’m gone, so I’m really sad to miss out on that. Not that I expected to necessarily be present at the big event, but now I have to wait months to see the new additions! No one else is allowed to give birth or have any other major life events while I’m gone – I’ve decided. I’ll let these three be grandfathered in because I’m an understanding sort of girl and they’ve all promised to send pictures, but let’s not let this happen again, okay? Sheesh.

It has occurred to me over the past few days that the folks at Heathrow Airport might take an extra minute or two with my passport, seeing as how it looks as though the bombings in London were suicide bombings carried out by British citizens of Pakistani origin. So someone coming from Pakistan might give them pause, even a US citizen coming from Pakistan. It might not be any kind of a problem, but you never know. Argh – what a horrible situation. I am so thankful that my family and friends in London are all safe and sound. Talk about echoes of September 11^th – it’s awful to see the people on the news looking for any sign of their loved ones. Well, here’s hoping that I have no problems getting into the country, I’m really looking forward to being there.

After some more thought, I’ve come to realize that, although the place where we’re located now is perfectly adequate, it’s just too dang far away from the office. I’d prefer somewhere within a mile, so I could walk to and from work, or at least not have to take a cab every day. Technically, I could walk the 3 ½ miles to the office from the place we’re staying now, but that would take a while. It’s not that the cab is expensive – it usually runs around 35,000 – 40,000 dong, which is less than $3, it’s just that needing the cab every day gets old. So we’ll see what shakes out – I’m going to check out a place tonight that sounds promising so far. It was described favorably in one of our travel books, so it can’t be that bad…right? Let’s hope so, because the price is great.