Dang It!

I just received an e-mail from Amazon, cheerfully informing me that my copy of “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” will be on my doorstep on Saturday! Hurrah for Amazon! The only problem in that scenario is that I will be many thousands of miles away from my doorstep. So I have to wait a whole month to read it. I’m so sad… No one spoil it for me, or you’ll have to contend with the wrath of Mandy. (Like the wrath of Khan, but without that gross bug-in-the-ear thing. And no space ships. And no Ricardo Montauban with a fake chest piece. Thankfully.) As it is, I’m hoping that stupid Yahoo headlines doesn’t ruin something for me, as they are notorious for doing.

It looks as though we’re moving forward with finding a local counterpart for me in my absence, so that’s a big relief. Currently, I’m the only game in town on this project, and while it’s a great opportunity, I’ll also be leaving for about eight weeks, and we’ll need someone competent to keep things going at that time. It’s kind of fun watching things come together like this. I like being able to move things forward. What’s even funnier is that our local expert who isn’t available until October (hence the need for another guy to supplement) said that his main concern about this guy was that he is so young. He’s actually a year older than I am. Of course, he looks about 12, but that’s not the point. We’ve figured out a way to work around the communication issues, fortunately, so as long as he can do the work, I think we may have our guy. Hurrah!

My return home is getting closer, and I’m really excited. As of today, it’s officially been two months since I left, and as of Sunday, it will be exactly one month until I return. In some ways, time has gone by really quickly, and it’s very easy to fall into a normal-feeling routine. I think that will help to make the next chunk of time here easier as well – just remembering that it all starts to feel like life eventually. Because it does, much as the things that are different from home still stand out sometimes. But I also want to try to see more of the country when I’m here next time. Since my time here has slowly extended in fits and starts, it’s been difficult to plan things, and I haven’t been as proactive as I might. So it’s good that I’ll be getting another chance. I might also want to take on the daunting task of looking into learning at least a little Vietnamese. The real trick with Vietnamese, and Chinese and Thai are the same way, is that it’s a tonal language, meaning that each vowel can be pronounced differently, and each different pronunciation gives the word a different meaning. So you can say the same combination of letters six different ways, and it will mean six completely different things. This is hugely confusing. What I sometimes do is write down addresses so cab drivers can read them – saves everyone a lot of time and frustration.

To get to the elevator that leads you up to our office, you have to walk through this very wide, tall hallway, through which people will drive their motorcycles – I think there’s parking in the back. The hallway is also an art gallery, so we’re surrounded by stacks and stacks of paintings as we walk down this brief corridor. Some of them are really beautiful, some qualify more as “interesting”, and some are just…well, for example, I’ve seen two copies of the Mona Lisa. One is actually not bad – I haven’t seen the real thing, but this copy looks pretty good. The other one looks like Mona Lisa With A Gland Problem. Seriously, it looks as though someone stuck an air hose in her, or she was painted by the guy who used to draw “Ziggy”, it’s remarkable. (“It was just as though she had swelled…”) There’s one painting in particular that is actually really tempting to purchase, but I’ll need to think on it. Specifically, I’d need to think about how the heck I’d get it back to the US unharmed, because I can virtually guarantee you that it’s not expensive. Like I said, I’ll think about it.

Things with work are actually getting complicated – the people in Pakistan are actually really hacked that I’m staying in Vietnam. It feels like, among other things, more internal company politics stuff. I really don’t’ want to get stuck in the middle of anything, I’ve tried to do the right thing. The problem that has arisen is that, when I’ve said things like “make sure you discuss this with so-and-so”, that hasn’t been done. I am staying here because I’ve been told to stay here by a couple of people, including a division VP. So now I feel like I’m in the middle of squabbles that I don’t want any part of, which isn’t good. And apparently the house staff in Karachi told the PM there that I didn’t behave “properly”, and apparently had unauthorized guests. I have no idea what they’re talking about, but I’m absolutely livid. Not to mention offended. Any thoughts that I might have had about wanting to return to Pakistan after this trip is over have basically been nuked by that. Not only is it completely untrue, but I’m a grown woman, and having a bunch of guys “report” on my activities to someone is both creepy and offensive. As you might have noticed, this has me a bit worked up.