I Wonder

So, if it was my job to play FreeCell, do you think I’d end up writing urban master plans to procrastinate?

Reasons Why My Parents Are Awesome (Today's Short List)

I arrived back at the hotel today to find that there was another package waiting for me – whee! Now, what makes this even better? The fact that when I opened it, I found a copy of Eloise, which if you’ve never heard of it, is just about the best book in the world, and my favorite book as a kid, only made it better. If you’ve never heard it, you must go out and buy it immediately. Really, it’s okay – I’ll wait.

The other thing that was so great? They enclosed a card with a cute lil’ unicorn and a glittery rainbow on the front. The front said “Sometimes life is all sunshine and rainbows.” The inside said “Other times, it’s just a steaming pile of crap. (We’re there for you in any case.)” I almost snorted. I’m woman enough to admit that.

We had another guy arrive yesterday from our Paris office – a transportation guy about my age, and it’s nice to have someone my age around. I realize it shouldn’t really matter, and TL really is a nice guy (and is certainly talkative enough for me and a few other people), but it’s just different. He’s here for a week, and J leaves tomorrow, so we’ve got quite the revolving door going here. Franz had us all over for drinks tonight – he and his wife are really nice, so it was a fun evening. It has been so incredibly windy lately, especially at the hotel since we’re perched on top of a hill. I was almost knocked over when Franz dropped us off at the hotel last night – as I’m not a small girl, this was no mean feat.

N called me earlier to see if he could come over and ask me some questions about project stuff, and I had to explain that he couldn’t come to my room and I couldn’t come to his room – we had to meet somewhere else. He was a bit perplexed, but I gave him a brief introductory lesson to appropriate gender interactions in Yemen. (I think he’s still perplexed. But on the bright side, he can hold hands with TL as much as he wants.) He said “Is…um…is TL…is he always that…talkative?” I laughed and said yes, but I’ve been working on my extraction technique.

I think we’re going to drive around the city tomorrow to let N see the sights and help him familiarize himself with the city. I may go with them to take a few more pictures, but I’ve still got plenty of work to occupy myself with tomorrow. Hey – at least I’m consistent, right?

Oh. My. Gosh.

They just extended my visa to stay here, and they apparently have a policy/practice under such circumstances that is not universally applied. In order to get a visa or visa extension while in Yemen, they wanted me to take an AIDS test. Men don’t have to do this. Arab women don’t have to do this. I realize that I sound repetitive with my “Western woman are assumed to be whores” thing, and this policy may cover more than just “Western” women, but the frequent reminders I get of this mindset are infuriating. Why am *I* considered more likely to have, and spread, AIDS than a man? Or than an Arab woman? What is that about?????? They made S take her a test when she arrived, since she got her visa at the airport. TL said that he’d rather pay them a “bonus” than make me do it, which he did, and which I appreciate. I cannot believe this place sometimes.

Things like this make it really, really, really, really hard to be positive about being here. And I am really, really, really, really trying – I promise I am. Although it may not look like it.

One thing I’m really glad about? My church started doing podcasts of their messages that I can download and listen to on my own. It provided some important chill time for me tonight, gave me a little perspective, and took my mind off things. I know that I need to take things like this in stride a lot more, and I know that I need to be less sensitive – I think that there’s a degree of this I’d find objectionable anyway, but yeah…these days my patience isn’t what it usually is.

Penance

It’s 10:30 and I’ve got my laptop out, not just to write, although this is when I usually do my blogging for the day (posting it the next morning), but to get some work done. This is because, as I said, I was a whirlwind of non-productivity. Or something like that. I mean, it’s all fair and stuff, but I’m really looking forward to taking an entire day off – an entire day when I don’t think about work even a little tiny bit. I am so glad my life isn’t always like this. This is also why I could never be a workaholic; to use the technical term, I think it “sucks” – what kind of freak does this voluntarily? I mean, it’s good to be into your job and committed and dedicated and all of that stuff. But there are limits.

But here I am, sitting up and writing about maintenance for public amenities and buildings, and maximum allowable population densities. Oooh…sexy. Much as I poke fun, though, I actually do find my job interesting. (Fortunately.) Not that there aren’t some things I would change, but the actual work I do is usually interesting. If I could do more of it at home, that would be ideal, but I’m working on that.

J is leaving soon (I think) and TL seems to be only too glad to be rid of him. For my part, I’m not going to be crying too hard either. He just…well, he just keeps whining. About everything. I will bet anyone $5 that tomorrow I will hear the words “My cheeken is burned…” at lunch. Um, Dude – it’s GRILLED and those are GRILL MARKS. He thinks that our living allowance for this project is too low, and it *is* awfully low, but he brings it up at every possible opportunity, attempting to make a joke out of it – sadly for him, the frequency of his commentary makes it totally clear that he’s not remotely joking. Today, I told him that he’s really going to have to get over it – which made TL snort. (And since J makes twice as much money as me, I’m not too sympathetic.)

Apparently it is the Islamic New Year today – but because it’s done by a lunar calendar, people don’t know what the exact day is going to be until the day before…or something like that. I’m not sure why that is, but there you have it. So TL told people that, even though it was a holiday, he expected them to show up (I suppose it’s only fair, since we work over our own holidays when we’re here). There were a few people, however, who just didn’t turn up. I guess I don’t feel so bad now, but I’m a little shocked that they’d ignore him like that. Tomorrow morning should be interesting, because he is hacked. As I’ve said before – I’m happy to stay on his good side.

Oops...

Today flew by in a whirlwind of non-productivity. I don’t think that’s actually a word, but nonetheless, the concept should be clear. This means that I actually have some catching up to do. As you can see, I’m getting right on it.

Umm…yeah.

So, while you can’t see much on women here besides their abayas (the long black robe), you occasionally catch a glimpse of their shoes. I’ve noticed among many women a preference for huge, chunky platform heels that would make any drag queen proud. I do wonder at the contrast of a highly conservative culture where the footwear preference for women tends to favor the “hooker shoes” genre. But I suppose that’s the advantage of the abaya – you can wear anything you want underneath it.

I know I’ve commented on the road that leads up to the hotel before. But I don’t think that really does it justice. I took some pictures as we were driving by the other day, heading up the twisty-turny S-shaped road that winds up the mountain. These are taken looking up from the lower level of the road at the soil eroding away from underneath the upper level. Keep in mind that they have improved the situation (sort of…) by piling lots more soil into the hole that had formed underneath the road, causing the overhang you see there to be much more pronounced. Notice, if you will, the intricate lattice of crushed concrete and twisted rebar. To say that this feat of engineering doesn’t inspire confidence is an understatement. I just hope that I am out of here once and for all before the rainy season hits, because the entire road is going to slide down the mountain when that happens. They’re going to have to put in a ski lift or something.

Heh. A ski lift in Yemen. Because that’s something you expect to see.

Peace

Today is my day to stay back from the office and work at the hotel, for the previously mentioned reasons. Well, I didn’t set my alarm and woke up feeling nice and refreshed at 7:45 this morning, trundled down to the restaurant to get breakfast, and have been seated in front of my computer for a good while – reading and cranking out text and methodology. And playing the occasional game of Free Cell. I may even take a lunch break and head down to the gym. There are some things that I like about being in the office, chief amongst them the fact that I think it’s a little unhealthy to spend the entire day in a single room, so getting out and talking to people is good. Plus, I like to check my e-mail… However, when I’m at the office, I get so little done. The things that I *do* accomplish require Herculean efforts, so life is, in many ways, easier if I just stay here, listen to some music, and write, write, write. It’s been blissfully quiet so far, except for the music I’m listening to and the occasional beep of the elevator. So, despite having a lot of things on my mind, my setup for today is okay.

TL called to check in and see if I wanted to join them for lunch. I said that I was fine here – besides, I’ve got enough soup and oatmeal to feed a small army. I could never leave my room, except to get bottles of water with breakfast (the breakfast buffet is included in the room rate) and have plenty to eat for the remainder of my stay here. I also know that if I meet up with them for lunch, I will completely break my concentration. I did, however, head down to the gym for a mid-day break and I am back up to running two miles! Wahoo! If anyone reading is one of those irritating, natural athlete types (no offense, I’m sure you’re a lovely person), I realize this may not seem like a great accomplishment. But something I have come to accept about myself is that, much as I may enjoy it, I am just not a natural runner. Swimming? No problem. Biking? Bring it on. Running? Eh…it will always be *work*. Good work. You know – the kind of work that makes you feel all kinds of exhausted, yet satisfied. But still…it’s work. So, two miles is a good “maintenance” run for me – although I’d like to work up to a three or four mile run, if my body will cooperate. It has a pretty clear way of letting me know if it thinks I’ve gotten too ambitious – it’s called pain.

Patience, Grasshopper.

Something That Made My Day

After a short(er) day at the office that felt very long, I was walking through the hotel lobby last night, when the manager informed me that a package had arrived for me and had been placed in my room. Knowing what to expect, sort of, I walked to the elevator with a spring in my step. My mom had put a package in the mail for me a couple of weeks ago, and I knew this had to be it.

The things that crack me up, and that I totally love, about my mom are exemplified by this:

• She and I have been referring to it as “La Boite Enorme”, which means “the enormous box” in French. I don’t know why some things sound funnier in French, but they do.
• The box weighed 11 pounds. That is E-L-E-V-E-N pounds of soup, oatmeal, herbal tea, and nutrition bars. This is what is referred to as “a gracious plenty.”
• The box was wrapped in approximately three pounds of packing tape, in a tamper-evident box, to make sure that customs wasn’t tempted to peruse the contents.
• The box took me approximately 20 minutes to open, as a result of the tape situation, and owing to the fact that the only opening implements I had were the miniature sewing scissors in my emergency sewing kit and my nails.
• My mom had taped cards and notes to me over every “seam”, so that no one could open the box without tearing through them. What’s more, the note on the top casually stated the entire contents of the box, in a very breezy and conversational way. Like you do.
• The cards and notes all said “Amanda” on them. As a kid, my parents would only “full name” me when I was in trouble – apart from that it’s always been Mandy. However, the box was addressed to “Amanda”, so I guess my mom didn’t want anyone to think that there might be some covert, clandestine, or nefarious purpose to said boite enorme.
• Everything was carefully and lovingly wrapped in bubble wrap and/or plastic baggies – including the packets of soup and oatmeal, the nutrition bars, and the books she enclosed because she thought I’d like them.

When we were IMing this afternoon (it was morning for her), I mentioned that it hadn’t arrived yet. Which I then realized meant that it would, of course, arrive today.

Et La Boite Enorme est arrivé!

Merci beaucoup, Maman, je t’aime!