Nick and Liz Go Global

And he's off

2012-01-14T19:51:00.004-05:00

After a lazy morning in bed, packing the last of Nick's clothes and eating one last Jimmy John's sandwich, we headed to the airport. Some members of the Kabul Krew gave us a lift and provided the libations we're holding in the picture below. We checked in his 107 lb bag (repacked so as not to exceed the airline's 99 lb limit, but paying $400 in excess baggage fees!) and said our goodbyes.

And then he was off. And now we're counting down 15 months until I joined him in Cairo.

I'm trying very hard not to be too sad because this separation was a voluntary choice. I chose to go to graduate school knowing full well that it meant spending time apart from Nick. He supported my decision knowing full well it meant going to Cairo without me. We haven't been forced into this separation, like we would if Nick was in the military, or like when he had to leave for Kabul before we knew whether or not I would be able to join him. The government hasn't forced this separation upon us.

But this reasoning doesn't help fill the space in my life he's left behind.

Safe travels Nick. Be safe, be healthy, be well. And know that I will never be able to thank you enough for letting me live out my dream.

One Day More

2012-01-13T15:51:00.002-05:00

Packout went fast. Really fast. Suspiciously fast. I am concerned.

The rest of the week has gone fast. Way too fast. Fun times included finishing season 4 of True Blood, lunch at Fogo de Chao, and a super fun going away party, complete with karaoke. I had fun.

Nick leaves for Cairo tomorrow. I have no more chores or tasks to distract myself with. I am sad.

Out with the old, in with the new, and on to the next post

2012-01-07T15:12:00.004-05:00

I apologize for the long silence. I wasn't kidding when I said I didn't really know what to do with this blog while Nick and I were both stateside. But that's all changing very soon, so I figured this was as good a time as any to get the blog going again. Plus I have to post my traditional New Year's questionnaire (click here if you want to review my 2009 and 2010 responses).

But first, a quick summary of all that's happened over the past few months:

It was a sprint to the finish, but I completed my first semester of grad school at NYU with a 4.0 GPA.
I landed an internship for the spring semester with the Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC), working in their institutional giving department.
Nick worked his ass off and passed Spanish on his first try!
Our packout for Cairo is scheduled for January 9. Nick departs for post on January 14.

We're in the middle of packout hell right now, spending money like there's no tomorrow and sorting through all of our belongings trying to determine what we're taking to Cairo, what we're putting in storage, and what we're getting rid of. It's a little easier than when we packed for Kabul, because we don't have to worry about not having enough space for whatever we're shipping overseas. Our apartment in Cairo has 4 bedrooms and 3 full baths. That's 2 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms more than we've ever had! Really we only own a 1 bedroom apartment's worth of furniture, hence why space isn't a concern. We decided to take advantage of the extra space by turning one room into a gym/office...so we bought a treadmill, elliptical and weights. But honestly, the thought of having so much space is a little overwhelming, especially since Nick will be living there alone for the first 15 months. However, having so much space means lots of room for visitor. So friends and family, start planning your vacations now. You've got until January 2016 to take advantage of our hospitality and proximity to the Pyramids!

After packout comes the farewell party, the last night together, and then the final goodbyes on January 14. And then I'll be sad for a really long time; until Summer 2013 ~~2015~~ exactly, by which point I will hopefully have graduated from NYU and be on my way to reunite with Nick in Cairo.

But more on that later. Or not, depending on how sad I am.

Anyway, as promised,here are my reflections on the year that was and my hopes for the year to come.

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?

Visited Hong Kong and Australia, went on a boondoggle to Panjshir, moved to New York City, pet (and ate!) kangaroo, watched horse racing, went to a Black Eyed Peas concert, learned how to use a squat toilet

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? Let's go through them one by one, shall we? My resolutions for 2011 were:

Figure out a long term career plan, even if it means going back to school – I’m still working on the career plan bit, but I did start the process by going back to school
Run more local races, at least one half-marathon; try to run the 2011 Budapest Marathon – Well, the Budapest Marathon plan went out the door when Nick lost his assignment there. I did fulfill the Sisters M tradition of running a Thanksgiving race, and Nick joined us!
Trek to Everest Base Camp – Nope. We scratched that trip in favor of Australia. I think it was a good swap.
Do at least one good deed each week -- Maybe?
Try a new hairstyle and/or hair color – nope, although I’m still toying with going darker.
Spend at least 2 hours per week reading – Yes, grad school requires more than 2 hours of reading each week. Although when I wrote this resolution, academic texts weren’t really the type of books to which I was referring
Get another piercing – Sigh, no. Still want to though. Come on Sister J!
Get plans in place for a kickass 40th wedding anniversary gift/celebration for my parents – Ugh. No. I suck.
Help my mom organize at least one charity drive for Afghanistan -- Nope
Write in this blog more often to keep a record of our transition from Kabul to Budapest – Well, I think I did an ok job recording our departure from Kabul. I’ll try to write more now that Nick’s departure for Egypt is imminent.

Ugh, not a great track record there.

Resolutions for 2012:

Stop chewing the inside of my cheek
Run a half marathon
Visit one NYC museum per month
Get another piercing and do something different with my hair
Write in the blog more often, and get Nick to write from Cairo
Plan something awesome for my parents' 40th wedding anniversary
Read at least one non-school book each month

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Yep. We’ve got two new members of Family X. And lots of friends and colleagues had babies, and even more are currently expecting.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
My mom’s cousin.

5. What countries did you visit?
UAE, Afghanistan, Hong Kong and Australia

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?
Lots of nights at the theater. I'm already staring to make that happen.

7. What dates from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

March 17: Nick and I and a few others threw a legendary Red Tent party, and I got accepted to NYU
May 6: Our first nephew joined Family X -- Evan James
June 11: We left Afghanistan
June 12: We arrived in DC
July 6: Nick started Spanish training
September 1: I moved to New York City
October 11: Nick and I celebrated 3 years of legally wedded bliss
November 10: Our second niece joined the family – Lily Demetra
November 24: ran the Troy Turkey Trot with Nick and Sister J
December 16: Nick passed Spanish, and I finished my first semester at NYU

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Getting accepted to NYU. Departing Kabul with my sanity relatively intact. For Nick it was passing Spanish.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Not being able to forgive and let go of hurt feelings. Allowing those feelings to fester and grow (same as last year. This will be a lifelong challenge for me.) Not being patient with my family when they came to visit us in DC after we returned from Kabul. Panicking unnecessarily over my management final.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
My knee went out while I was working out and now it makes crunchy noises when I squat or do bicycle crunches. But it’s not painful. Otherwise Nick and I have been surprisingly healthy this year.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
The whole of our trips to Hong Kong and Australia. Our fancy-pants digital SLR camera. Nick’s new wardrobe after he lost about 50 lbs. Our 14 Afghan carpets. The Insanity workout series. New bikes. Enrolling at NYU.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Nick's. He’s been so supportive of my decision to go to NYU, even as I wallow in guilt for being an absent wife and spending all of our hard earned money. I can’t believe how much we’ve grown as a couple, especially over the last few years. Kabul was hard, but I really think our marriage is better now than before we went.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
I know its cliché, but Kim Kardashian and Sinead O’Connor.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Hong Kong, Australia, Afghan carpets, Spanish tutors, NYU tuition, NYC rent

15. What did you get really excited about?
Legal gay marriage in NY state! Our trips to Hong Kong and Australia. My trip to Panjshir. Departing Kabul and being back in the US of A. Starting grad school. Weekends with Nick, especially when he came to NYC. My new internship with MTC. Nick passing Spanish.

16. What song will always remind you of 2010?
Anything that was on regular rotation at our Kabul dance parties: Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Kei$ha, etc.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

happier or sadder? A little of both. I’m happier being in grad school than being in Kabul, but I miss Nick. This time last year we had been together nearly non-stop for more than a year, and would continue to spend nearly all of our time together until I left for NYC in September. We’d settled into a pretty good routine last semester, but now that his departure for Cairo is imminent the separation anxiety is rising again.
thinner or fatter? I was thinner right up until the end of the year. I blew it over the holidays. Nick hit his lowest weight just before the holidays, but he too blew it over Christmas. We’re both getting back on track though.
richer or poorer? We were richer, until I started grad school. NYU is freaking expensive as hell!

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
More thought and concern for the needs/hopes/concerns/lives/feelings of others. More time in the company of friends and family.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Less complaining. Less navel gazing. Less watching TV. Less time sitting on the Bolt Bus. Less time working on my management final.

20. How did you spend Christmas?
With the newly expanded Family X in Chicago.

21. Did you fall in love in 2011?
Nope.

22. What was your favorite TV program?
Our must-watch shows are: How I Met Your Mother, Modern Family, True Blood, Boardwalk Empire, Dexter, Vampire Diaries. I’m also into Glee, Grimm, and Up All Night. I’d like to start watching Homeland.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Kim Kardashian

24. What was the best book you read?
I quite enjoyed The Family Fang, The Hunger Games, Bossypants, Just Kids, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and Free for All. It was fun to read In a Sunburned Country before we went to Australia and then experience some of what Bill Bryson wrote about for myself.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Mumford & Sons, although Nick’s been a fan since Spring 2010.

26. What did you want and get?
Nick getting healthy. Kickass vacations. A relatively easy return to the US. A great 2-bedroom apartment in Logan Circle for a 6-month lease with a sliding rent to maximize our per diem. Acceptance into NYU. A sweet apartment in the East Village. Nick’s first bid choice (after we lost Budapest).

27. What did you want and not get?
A transporter so I can go visit Nick in Cairo whenever I want

28. What was your favorite film of this year?
I really can’t remember all the movies I saw this year, let alone my favorite one. I can say that did not enjoy “Super 8”. Nick and I saw it right after we got back to US and it was just way too intense for us at that time.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 31, and I have absolutely no idea how we celebrated. I don't have any pictures, so I'm guessing it wasn't anything flashy.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Having Nick with me in NYC.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010?
Minimalist…ie, how few clothes can I own and still put together a reasonable number of different outfits?

32. What kept you sane?
Nick. Friends. Family. Working out. Megavideo. Knowing that we were in the final stretch of our time in Kabul.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Darren Criss

34. What political issue stirred you the most?
Afghanistan. The Arab Spring and the ongoing unrest in Egypt.

35. Who did you miss?
Everyone. My parents. My sister. My family. My friends. Caela Beagle. Nick.

36. Who was the best new person you met?
Friends in Kabul. My new niece and nephew.

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011.
When writing papers or reading for class, my eyes can hold out a lot longer when I blow up my computer monitor resolution to 130% -- in other words, I am getting old.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
This song doesn't really sum up my year, but it never fails to make me want to jump up and dance, and singing these lyrics at the top of my lungs never fails to be cathartic:

Pink: "Raise Your Glass"

So if you're too school for cool

And you're treated like a fool

You can choose to let it go

We can always, we can always party on our own

So raise your glass if you are wrong in all the right ways

All my underdogs

We will never be, never be anything but loud, and nitty gritty

Dirty little freaks

Won't you come on and come on and raise your glass,

Just come on and come on and raise your glass

Procrastination Station

2011-09-26T13:01:00.004-04:00

As you may have noticed, it's been a little while since I posted in the blog. I meant to update earlier, I swear! I've just been busy.

No, ok. Really, I've been procrastinating. And there's a fourfold reason I haven't written since the end of August.

First, I actually have been really busy with school and getting settled in NYC. My professors assign A LOT of reading, which I usually try to get out of the way while on the Bolt Bus thereby using up the time I usually dedicate to blog writing. Getting settled in my apartment took a little while; I've discovered that it takes about 10 minutes longer to get an errand done in NYC then it does in DC. It's very strange. But I'm all moved in now (thanks again to Jen for babysitting the truck and to Steve for helping move bookcases!) so I can no longer use that as an excuse for not updating.

On a side note, my apartment has space for an air mattress or two. So friends and family, feel free to hit me up if you need a place to crash in NYC!

Second, the 10 year anniversary of September 11 and the attack on the US Embassy in Kabul just two days later put me in a weird head space for a solid week. I really wanted to write something profound about it all in the blog, but found myself unable to articulate exactly what I was feeling. Which led to not writing in the blog at all.

Third, I've been trying to establish new routines, both daily and weekly. I'm not doing so great with the new daily routine. Without regular job hours around which to organize my life, I'm finding it very difficult to structure my days. All of my classes are at from 6-9pm, meaning that I have a lot of time to get my schoolwork and errands done. Really too much time. I end up wasting a lot of it trying to figure out the best way to organize my day. I find organizing my life much easier to do when I have set work hours. When I know that I have only my lunch break to get errands done and so must prioritize accordingly and then whatever is most important gets done and I can't worry about the rest of it.

The weekly routine is...ok. I'm managing my work fine, but the social life is another issue. I am free during the day but busy at night, which is the exact opposite schedule of all of my friends. And the nights when I am free -- namely the weekend -- I'm in DC. So I very much feel as if I'm juggling two lives, but I'm not really living in either of them. And then Nick (who is doing awesome in Spanish!) and I are trying to find yet another new normal routine, as we try to cram in a week's worth of togetherness into 3.5 days.

Lastly, I procrastinated on writing in the blog because I'm honestly not sure what to do with it right now. As the title and subtitle indicate, I started this blog to share with our families and friends (and current/future diplofamilies) our experience of' living and working overseas as part of the US diplomatic corps. I did not start this blog to share the rather boring details about the life of an NYU graduate student. I could ask Nick to take over posting duties, since he will actually be going global in a few short months. But you can see from the archives that this blog has pretty much been my pet project since day one. I could write about my days, but that'll get old pretty quick ("Today I read a lot. A lot A LOT. And I wrote some. And then I went to class. The end.")

Thus, I procrastinated on writing in the blog because 1)I mostly didn't know to write about, and 2) I didn't know how to write about the few things I did want to write about.

Still with me?

I'm open to receiving suggestions on what this blog should be about for the next two years, until the Liz of "Nick and Liz Go Global" is global once again. Until I join Nick in Cairo, maybe I should rename it "Nick Goes Global, Liz Goes to the Library...again"...

On the road again

2011-08-30T10:37:00.004-04:00

Oh Bolt Bus, you and I are going to become fast friends over the next several months, I can tell. Except for when the power outlets in the bus seats aren't working. Like now. Then I will hate you.

Some of you may be wondering what I did to keep myself busy in the weeks between our arrival in the states and the start of my transient NY/DC life. Well, other than unpacking, setting up our DC apartment, and finding NYC housing for myself, I kept myself busy by sorting and organizing all of our digital photos.

This was no easy task. We have literally thousands of photos, stored in a random manner across two laptops, one desktop, one netbook, and an external hard drive. I spent hours installing Picasa on all of those computers, hunting down the files, and sorting them into somewhat organized albums.

So, I now proudly present Nick and Liz's Australia Adventure.

Links to our other vacation albums will be posted as I finish adding captions to the photos. Unfortunately I can't post links to any of our "Life in Kabul" albums, because of security concerns. But if you're a friend or family member whom I see in person, the next time I visit you can ask me to play the slideshow for you.

And with that, my computer is out of juice. It's going to be a long, boring bus ride.

Home Sweet Home, minus one thing

2011-08-24T19:45:00.008-04:00

When we last left our intrepid heroine, one week ago, she found herself on a bus bound for New York, full of hope, energy and confidence, and ready to hit the streets to find her very own Big Apple apartment.

Where is she now? Back on the bus -- DC bound this time -- cynical, worn out, a little nauseous, and the proud owner of two very VERY tired feet.

And also the proud tenant of a lovely second floor, 1 bedroom walk up in the East Village.

My new home-ish, slightly edited to protect my privacy. Although knowledgeable New Yorkers who read this blog might be able to find the building based on this picture.

The ink on the lease is still wet.

It took a lot of hitting the pavement, hitting the internets, schlepping around the UES to the LES to Midtown and back again to find this gem. The rent is more than I wanted to spend, but once I walked in the apartment I just couldn't walk away. It had everything I needed: space enough for my bed, a big desk, and a pullout couch for all the guests I expect to crash with me (gotta pay it back for all of the couchsurfing I've done with NYC friends over the years). Space in the apartment to store my bike and stairs wide enough for me to carry it up and down easily. A kitchen with enough counter space for a drying rack and work area. I knew I was home.

Well, home-ish. One thing was missing: Nick. This apartment, as much as I love it, will never really be home because it will never be "our" home. Home is where Nick and I live together. This will just be my NYC basecamp. I won't really be "home" until I join Nick in Cairo in 2013.

Yes, I could have spent less money for a hole in the wall in the East Village, or the same amount for a bigger space elsewhere in the city. But the East Village has been, and I think always will be, one of my favorite neighborhoods in the city. Although, I haven't lived there yet. One year from now I may be singing a very different tune. But for now, I love it. I love the artists/punks /freaks/ravers/hippies who have long called the neighborhood home, the old Ukrainian immigrants who saw the neighborhood through its rougher days and who sell -- my landlord included -- some of the best meats and baked goods in the city, the small bars and coffee shops that I will soon call my study spots, Tompkins Square park, the relatively low presence of tourists...all of it. The fact that I am only 2 blocks from a subway, a 5 minute bike ride (or 15 minute walk) from my classes, and right in the middle of the downtown theater world (handy for future internships) only sweeten the deal.

So now I'm heading back to DC to spend some quality time with my wonderful, generous, amazing husband -- who, let's be honest, is essentially bankrolling this whole adventure -- and to concentrate on the real reason I'm moving to New York: school. This isn't about fulfilling some teenage dream of living in the Big Apple. This is about getting a graduate degree in field I love from a prestigious university located in the performing arts capitol of the world. I'm going to give it everything I've got.

End, Middle, Beginning

2011-08-17T16:10:00.005-04:00

The End

With our home leave over and done, with the last box unpacked, and with many of our Kabul friends now safely moved on to their next posts, I finally feel like we are officially finished with Kabul.

It's a weird feeling. I look back at photos from our time at post (and I've been looking at A LOT of photos, as one of my summer tasks was to organize all of our digital photo storage. Picasa and I are rather intimately acquainted now.) and I feel a strange sense of disconnect from the Nick and Liz in the pictures. The sensation is very difficult to describe and I can't really do it justice here. Let's just say that I'm still processing how I felt while there, and how I feel about it all now.

The end of our home leave came all too fast. This being our first home leave experience, we learned a few lessons about how to plan future home leaves.

Before I get into it, let me say FAMILIES X AND M WE LOVE YOU AND WE HAD A FANTASTIC TIME VISITING WITH ALL OF YOU. Please don't take any of this personally; it's not you, it's us.

From the time we landed in the US (June 12) to the time Nick started language (July 5) we were BUSY. We did 3 days in DC, then 10 days vising family X in three different cities. We came back to DC on the 27th, moved stuff out of my personal storage locker into our new apartment on the 28th, did our high stress outbrief on the 29th, and family M arrived June 30th to visit for the July 4th holiday. Throw in a healthy dose of jet lag and culture shock mixed with a side of leftover Kabul stress, and you've got the perfect recipe for a very short-tempered Liz. By the time my family arrived in DC, I really wasn't my best self. I was short with them and non-communicative and generally annoyed at the inconvenience of coordinating the movements and meals of 5 people instead of 2. Plus it was stressful trying to balance being a good hostess with my urgent need to GET STUFF DONE before Nick started language training.

The lesson learned for future home leaves -- especially home leaves that see us staying in the states for a while (ie for language training or when Nick is coming back to a post in DC) -- is that it's probably best if we give ourselves a little bit more time to adjust before we head out for family reunions. It's not fair to subject our families to less-than-pleasant versions of ourselves, Taking a bit more time to time to catch our breath, get some sleep, and make at least a little progress on getting settled in our new routine should make it better for everyone.

The other lesson is that it's better if we visit with our families in their towns, rather than bringing them to DC. There were very few items on our "to do" list that I could check off while in Nashville/Naperville/Lansing visiting Family X, which meant that all I really had to do was be on vacation. But once we were back in DC with Family M to entertain, a "to do" list a mile long and not enough time to do it all, my stress levels went through the roof, my patience levels dropped to zero, and I found it difficult to enjoy Family M's visit.

So Parents and Sister M, please accept my sincerest apologies for acting like a whiny, short-tempered ass during your visit. I guess it's just one of those lessons about life in the foreign service that you don't learn until you live it.

The Middle

Nick's smack dab in the middle of Spanish language classes. Well...almost in the middle. Seven weeks down, 17 more to go. But you get my drift.

He's working so hard, doing so well, and I couldn't be more proud of him. If you're reading this blog and speak Spanish, please feel free to post your comments in Spanish. It'll be good practice for him. But please limit the subject of your questions to the following topics: where he works, where his next post is, where the Ambassador wants to sit at the meeting, and what forms one needs to fill out to apply for a tourist visa.

The Beginning

The most common question I've been asked over the past few months is "What are you going to do while Nick's posted in Kabul?" It's a good question, a fair question, and for the most part I tried to dodge the answer. Because the answer was big, and kind of scary, and only recently became a reality.

And that answer is....I'm not going to Cairo.

I'm going to NYU.

I'm actually typing this post while on the Bolt Bus from DC to NY. I have to start looking for a place to live.

Everyone stop panicking! I'll try to answer all of your questions. First, Nick and I are FINE. More than fine. We're great. He is being the most supportive, wonderful husband as I take this giant, EXPENSIVE first step on a new career path.

For the past 5.5 years I've been trying to convince myself that a career in international development is what I want. Because my head tells me it's a smart career to pursue. But my heart was never really in it. My time in Kabul pushed me over the edge and gave me the courage to finally stop trying to make the international development career fit. It just didn't.

So what is the new career path? Well, you're looking at a first year NYU grad student pursuing a masters degree in Performing Arts Administration. It's essentially a business degree (courses in marketing, accounting, leadership in organizations, etc) with a focus on performing arts institutions. It's a 2 year program. Theater has and always will be my number one passion. I've tried to deny that for the past 11 years, and I just can't deny it any more.

Nick and I don't know how this degree will fit in with our life in the foreign service. We'll figure that out as we go. But I do know that for the first time in a long time my head and my heart agree that this is the right move, even as my heart is breaking as I leave Nick behind in DC, and my head is consumed with an overwhelming sense of guilt that I'm being a bad wife.

On my way to the bus station, I texted Nick to say that going to NYU is the most selfish thing I have ever done. His response? "I brought you to Kabul, so we're even." I pointed out that even though I didn't really like being in Kabul, I still got something out of the experience, namely a nice salary and some fantastic trips. He gets nothing out of my going to NYU except an absent wife and the joy of watching me spend our hard earned savings on tuition and rent. His next comment melted my heart.

"You're wrong, I do get something out of you going to NYU: a wife who is happy because she is doing something she actually likes."

What a great guy.

And thus the start of my life as an NYU grad student. More to come soon. After all, this is only the beginning.

Slow news day at the Washington Post

2011-08-03T21:49:00.002-04:00

I mean, if the Post really can't find something more important to report...

Cat fight at US Embassy in Kabul

The Final Reveal

2011-07-26T17:25:00.004-04:00

While most DC residents were cursing this weekend's record temps, I was praising them.

Due to a series of brownouts, FSI closed early on Thursday and cancelled classes for Friday (A Daring Adventure has a more detailed account if you're interested). Which meant that I had an extra pair of hands to help me unpack. And those extra hands were VERY useful, especially since they're attached to a big strong guy who can move cartons that weigh nearly as much as I do.

After hours of unwrapping and opening and sorting and trashing (and convincing the moving company to haul away the empty cartons to make amends for showing up at the wrong time), we once again have a livable space to call home.....at least for the next 6 months.

Nick and I were very lucky with this move. Since I am not working and we don't have children, I've been able to focus all of my energy on getting us unpacked and settled as quickly as possible. I can't imagine how FS tandem couples manage, with both people jumping immediately into new jobs. Or how FS families with young children manage....although I suppose I'll learn that one firsthand at some point down the line. I get a preview of my future reading Sherwood Family Nonsense, Email from the Embassy and The Perlman Update. Hats off to you ladies...

For now, I'm going to sit back, revel in the relative ease of this move, and enjoy the more reasonable* weather before we head back into the broiler this weekend, when I will no longer have a reason to praise the heat.

*reasonable=temps in the low 90s with less than 50% humidity.

Boxed in

2011-07-21T11:59:00.006-04:00

After spending the past week unpacking, sorting, cleaning, washing and stowing away all 2400 lbs of belongings that Nick and I put into storage in DC when we went to Kabul, I was all ready to take today to finally write a nice blog post about what we've been up to since we've been back in the US of A. The house was organized enough for Nick and me to get by, and most of the huge pile of moving detritus had been Freecylced to a new home. I would finally have a little time to write.

And then this happened.

And that's only some of what is now stowed in our apartment.

Yesterday we were contacted by the moving company to tell us that they would deliver our 400 lbs of unaccompanied baggage (UAB, ie mostly clothing) this afternoon.

Today at 9:30 am they showed up with our 2700 lbs of everything (UAB + our 2300 lbs of household effects [HHE for those of you who like acronyms]). Which two guys unloaded from one truck in about 2 hours flat....in 90 F heat that feels like it's 110 F.

Bye bye nice long blog post. Hello box cutters.

Oh, and if you call and I don't pick up my phone......

....please send help. I'm probably trapped at the bottom of a pile of butcher paper, choking on mouthfulls of Kabul dust.

Beep

2011-06-22T19:55:00.004-04:00

Hi!

You've reached Nick and Liz's blog.

Liz is too busy visiting family, buying new clothes and shoes, stuffing her face full of fruits and vegetables, and simply just enjoying being home from Kabul to come to the blog right now. Please leave a message at the beep, and she'll write you back just as soon as she tires of the Whole Foods salad bar.

Beep!

Lasts

2011-06-10T15:56:00.003-04:00

I thought I'd have something epic and poetic to say about leaving Kabul. Leaving here is all I've wanted for months. I thought I'd be tap dancing for joy, and that Nick I would go out in a blaze of party glory...just as we've sent off so many friends before.

Instead, I'm just.....kind of numb. And pretty much speechless.

There was no blaze of party glory. Just a regular Thursday night at the D&C, and a Friday night spent tossing our unused consumables into boxes for people to pick through in the morning.

Nick and I cracked open the two bottles of wine we saved from our wedding. We drank, we packed, we watched a little TV. I tried not to think about how much money we're throwing away in unused consumables.

And then tomorrow it's done. Breakfast, lunch, and then we leave. And life in Kabul will go on without us. With the high rate of turnover, pretty soon there won't be anyone here who remembers us ever being at post.

I'm sure the emotion and shock of the change will hit me later, and then the words will come spilling out, whether I want them to or not. But for right now, all I can really thinks or say is....I can't believe it's ending.

Brain, please be quiet

2011-06-09T05:19:00.002-04:00

Things about which I am worrying right at this moment:

the prospect of signing a short-term lease on an apartment, sight unseen

how to keep from going crazy with boredom spending every day by myself while Nick is in language training and all of my friends are at work

the fact that come Saturday I am unemployed

becoming overwhelmed by being back in the states and overindulging on groceries, new clothing, dinners out at restaurants, going to plays/movies, etc

what percentage of our belongings we shipped home from Kabul will arrive in DC intact. The movers already broke one of our big pieces of furniture while packing us out.

the horrible guilt over leaving so much work undone, so many goals unaccomplished, and so much additional work on my colleagues' shoulders

Here We Go Again

2011-06-07T10:30:00.005-04:00

Tomorrow is P-day....packout day.

Two years, done and gone. It's gone both excruciatingly slowly and surprisingly quickly, especially these last 30 days.

I wish I could say that everything is on track and we're ready to head out. Unfortunately that's not the case. For those of you that follow fellow FS blogger The Perlman Update, endless HR drama is nothing new. For those of you that don't follow her.....please enjoy our little tale of woe.

In order to get our belongings packed out and our plane tickets purchased, we have to get a Travel Authorization (TA) from HR here in Kabul. Nick filed for our TA one month ago...pretty much as soon as he received his assignment cable clearing him to depart post June 11, take some home leave, and then start language training in DC in July.

Cut to this week, and we still don't have the TA. The movers keep emailing us saying that they can't finalize our packout date until our TA is authorized. HR keeps telling us that the TA is coming any minute now. As late as this morning, HR told us that it was on the desk of the very last person who needed to authorize it, and that we'll be ok to packout tomorrow.

Cut to this afternoon, and we have now learned that our TA is LOST. As in gone. *poof* No more. And we have to start all over with getting it drafted and cleared.

And cut to Liz's brain exploding.

Oh yeah...did I mention that tomorrow morning I'll be serving as the communications officer for an event with Ambassador Eikenberry tomorrow morning? At exactly the same time as I'm supposed to be packing out.

Oh yeah x2.....did I mention that HR Washington just cancelled our mandatory high-stress outbriefing session that we booked for June 13 six weeks ago? The course around which we scheduled our home leave, which involves many expensive plane tickets? Yes indeed. They did suggest alternate dates: A) June 10 (when we're still in Kabul) or B) any time the week of June 20, when we're criss-crossing the midwest visiting Nick's family on our aforementioned home leave on the aforementioned expensive plane tickets.

All I can do at this point is repeat the mantra I stole from the lovely and wise Sister J -- "Everything will work out in the end. If things haven't worked out....it's not the end." I just have to trust that HR will sort itself out, go get the house ready for packout tomorrow, and keep my eye on Saturday as the day we'll fly back to the US.

Still satisfied....

2011-05-31T09:18:00.005-04:00

It's insane how happy my Panjshir pictures make me:

Crossing the wobbly bridge to the HLZ (helo landing zone) in Astana. While carrying 40 lbs of gear and facing 25 mph gusts of wind. Photo credit: Katherine Haddon

I think I look like a war correspondent. Please note the wreckage of the Russian chopper in the background....

Satisfied

2011-05-29T14:17:00.011-04:00

You guys, I saw Afghanistan this weekend.

I know what you're thinking. But Liz, you've been in Afghanistan for 18 months. You've been seeing it for the past year and a half. What in the world are you talking about?

I'm talking about this.

This weekend, I went to Panjshir. Picturesque, secure, awe-inspiring. The Province that gave birth to Ahmed Shah Massoud, which resisted both Soviet and Taliban occupation.

The province where my nascent squat toilet skills weren't needed....because I was mostly peeing in holes in the ground over running streams.

It was clean. It was rustic. It wasn't Kabul. It was exactly what I needed in order to make it through these next two weeks.

It was everything I expected Afghanistan to be.

Old Russian Tank

Villagers in Shahr Bland village

Shahr Bland elder

Snack from....and bare feet of...our lovely hosts in Shahr Bland. Yes, the server is walking where the food is served.

Old Russian artillery something or other

Curious kids in Shahr Bland

Kabul Randomness

2011-05-23T14:05:00.007-04:00

Things that have happened since we've been back from Australia:

a good sized earthquake

three Duck & Cover alarms, only one of which was for a real attack (the attack on the military hospital). The other two seem to have been false alarms.....at 12:30am and 1am.

I got recruited to join yet another working group, even though I told the chair that I'm only going to be in Kabul for 17 more days

I turned 31

I "made out" with a man who is not my husband, while my husband watched........I was in a play, people! Get your minds out of the gutter.

I walked out of my apartment yesterday morning and ran into Ambassador Todd (one of the five Ambassadors here). He was walking with 3-star General Allyn (A3), P4's replacement. A3 was trailed by a few 1-star generals. I chatted with Ambassador Todd as we walked toward the Embassy, where a squad of Marines was waiting for a meet & greet with A3. Just as we reached the Marines, P4 himself (and his squad of escorts) came running around the corner, out for his morning run. Then Ambassador Wayne came out of the Embassy. To recap, I started my morning yesterday surrounded by a 4-star, a 3-star, a few 1-stars, and two Ambassadors. Quite the nexus of power....and only in Kabul.

To Elizabeth, on her 31st birthday

2011-05-19T07:37:00.003-04:00

I would like to have written a long and reflective -- or at least short and funny -- post on the occasion of my 31st birthday. Alas I am too busy being a communications officer/program officer/program manager (only one of which is actually my job) to eke out more than a few words.

So much for my grand plan of extracting myself from my job in anticipation of departing post (23 sleeps)! I thought I was so smart: Nick and I would go on a nice, long 3-week leave, returning to Kabul with only 30 days left to go in our assignment. We'd already be out of the loop after being away for such a long time, so we would simply make it a point NOT to get back in the loop in order to focus our attention on departing post.

But the best laid plans.....

Anyway, I have pictures and notes galore to share about our Australia trip. I have my fingers crossed that I'll have time to get them up before we depart post. But at this rate, the odds are not good. Right now, I'm just hoping that I'll make it out of the office tonight in time and with enough energy remaining to enjoy my own birthday party.

Off to write my 3,756th email of the day.

A Farewell to Oz

2011-05-09T08:36:00.003-04:00

I went for a run late yesterday afternoon. This was my view.

Nick and I went for a bike ride on Friday. This was our view.

Nick and I went hiking the other week. This was our view.

Thanks for showing us a good time Australia. We'll be back....as soon as our wallets recover!

Kangaroo Song

2011-05-02T00:20:00.000-04:00

No time to write a full post, as we were up early for a tour of the Great Ocean Road. But here are some pics of a few friends we made during our visit to Fremantle.

Livin' in the Land Down Under

2011-04-28T07:09:00.004-04:00

G'day mates!

Just a quick note to confirm that Nick and I are 1) alive, and 2) having a grand time in Australia. Tons of good food, lots of good hiking and clean air, some beach time, some desert time, few movies , and some circus kids thrown in for good measure.

We've conquered Fremantle and Uluru, and we're off for Stop #3 -- Melbourne -- Friday morning. Hopefully I'll be able to upload some pictures there.

Lastly, we just heard about the attack at the Kabul airport. First, all of you can relax about us passing through there in early May. The attack was on the military base that sits next to the airport -- not in the passenger terminal. Second......yes, it's very scary and I'm nervous. But I just keep saying....30 days, 30 days, 30 days left.

Home is where you hang your hat

2011-04-17T14:44:00.007-04:00

I learned recently my humble little blog has been added to the list of suggested reading for students in the Afghan Familiarization course at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) -- the course that all USG employees coming to Afghanistan have to take before deploying. Of course I learned this just after I wrote the post on my new found ability to use a squat toilet.

Hi everyone at FSI! I'm Liz. With any luck I'll depart post before you get out here so that you don't have the opportunity to meet me face to face to discuss using squat toilets. Because that would be highly embarrassing and I blush easily.

So after learning that this blog had become training material, I started think about what sort of picture my posts paint about life in Kabul. And I realized that this blog is very biased towards apartment dwellers. Odds are if you are reading this blog and are soon to deploy to Kabul, you will not be living in an apartment. As I've mentioned before, Nick and I are very lucky that married couples are given priority and that we get to have a kitchen and a full bathroom. The hooches, while cozy, are far less comfortable. And quarters out in the field are another story all together.

So in order to make this an equal opportunity blog, my plan for posts between now and when Nick and I depart Kabul (June 11) is to gather as many pictures of USG staff quarters throughout Afghanistan as I can. That way I can give as many of you FSI folks as possible an idea of where you'll be living for the next year (or more). Because if you're in FSI right now and are anything like me, what your housing will look like is possibly your number one concern. Although, if you have a different number one concern, add it in the comments section and I'll do my best to answer!

I had planned to start this new mission with photos of the new Kabul hooches, but none of my hooch-dwelling friends sent any pictures by the deadline for this post (more on that below). So we'll start with a picture of some guest quarters out in the field:

My overnight quarters at FOB Finley-Shields. Kind of like summer camp meets a horse stall.

My friend Dave's cot in a storage closet at a PRT that shall remain nameless.

So why the deadline for this post? Well, it pleases me to no end to report that Nick and I are off to the airport in 1.5 hours for our very last R&R, an 18-day jaunt through Australia. It's been 80 days(!) since our last leave; the cabin fever is really getting to me. As mentioned in a previous post, the security office has tightened up restrictions on going out in the city. So other than a few trips to various government offices, I really haven't left the compound since we returned from Hong Kong. I need out, NOW!

It also pleases me to no end to report that the day Nick and I get back to Kabul -- May 11 -- is the day we start our 30 day departure countdown! I cannot even tell you how good it feels to type that. After 18 months in Kabul (24 for Nick) we are more than ready to close this chapter in our lives and move on to the next (Cairo!). Sorry all you FSI people. Not to be overly negative, but living on the compound can really get to you after a while.

As usual, posting will be light as we bounce our way from Kabul to Dubai to Perth to Uluru to Melbourne to Sydney and back. I think we might break down and finally buy a nice camera so that we can capture our adventure with good photos. Because HOT DAMN Australia is expensive, and unless we do another tour through Afghanistan I really don't see another trip to the Land Down Under in our future (thank you danger pay!). So we better do this trip right.

G'day!

Why squat toilets will always make me think of Canada

2011-03-31T14:16:00.007-04:00

Disclaimer: this post was written specifically for this week's State Department Blog Roundup. I do not intend to make it a habit to publish posts about toilets or my ability to use them properly.

Also, Donna, I hope you saw my comment about checking out Real Post Reports for more info on life in Kabul.

Hi, my name is Liz. I am 30 years old. And I just learned how to use a squat toilet.

Unfamiliar with the term “squat toilet” or what one looks like? It's called by a variety of names, all of which are probably no-longer PC. So here’s a picture, just so you know what I’m talking about.

Photo by Todd Mecklem. Used under Creative Commons license.

I was first faced with the question of how to use a squat toilet while visiting Meteora in Greece in 2005. In the 6 years since, I’ve been to quite a few countries where squat toilets are not uncommon: Afghanistan, of course, and also Israel, Egypt, India, Turkey and Indonesia. And I’ve been doing it wrong THIS ENTIRE TIME.

Insert red face here.

Yes, it turns out I’ve been doing it BACKWARDS this entire time….which I guess is why I was never able to use a squat toilet successfully. Not to go into gory details, but let’s just say I struggled with splashback. I knew my problems couldn’t be just because I didn’t have something to sit on; I have no trouble answering the call of nature when we’re camping in the woods. So I just assumed that something about my anatomy made it so that I couldn’t use a squat toilet, and made every effort to avoid using one. And when I was forced to use one…I would remove all of my bottoms. I know, I KNOW. It’s ridiculous.

So how did I discover that I was doing it wrong? No, I did not Google “how to use a squat toilet”…..and I shudder to think of the types of images such a search would bring up! No, I was, in fact, taught to use a squat toilet by a Canadian Army Major in the women’s bathroom in the Afghanistan Ministry of Agriculture.

Yes, in the middle of a ministry building, with me in my head scarf, my kind and very un-self-conscious military colleague (yes I just invented a double hyphenated word. Deal with it) listened to my sad tale of how I was unable to use a squat toilet, dropped trou, and gave me a live demonstration. In truth, the demonstration was a hundred times more informative than the meeting we had just finished.

I have not yet had the chance to test my new knowledge, nor am I going to actively seek out the opportunity to do so. But I know that mine and Nick’s global wanderings are sure lead to another encounter with a squat toilet. And every time I use one successfully – with no splashback – I will offer up my gratitude to the Canadian military.

Oh, and in case you’ve never had the pleasure of using a squat toilet and are wondering how to do it, my only piece of advice is to face toward the hole and aim carefully.

Because I don't feel like writing

2011-03-29T16:57:00.006-04:00

Today was a bad day. I don't feel like writing. If I did write, I'd probably end up putting in writing things I'll regret later. So to save myself from possible trouble and to save you all from listening to my whining, here's a video from a while back that I neglected to share. See if you can spot the big error!

Q&A 5

2011-03-21T07:02:00.016-04:00

Wa-hoo! Another blog reader submitted questions about life in Kabul! I have to say that I love having specific questions to write to. I find answering straightforward questions so much easier than trying to come up with interesting stories to tell about our insanely redundant daily life in Kabul. Also, I've found that working for the government has destroyed my ability to write in full paragraphs. My skills are now limited to thinking and writing in bullet-point format.

Before I get to answering Donna's questions, I have a few from my grandmother that I've been putting off answering because the answers aren't so simple.

Grandma 's Questions

1) I would like to know more about your duties

I do a lot of writing. Mostly internal communications stuff that I can't share here, like weekly reports, meeting minutes, memos, etc. I do some writing for external audiences as well. Here are a few examples:

ACAP Success Story
EGGI Success Story
RUFCOD Success Story
CDP Success Story
ASMED Press Release
CBSG Press Release
Stabilization sector fact sheet (I actually wrote a lot of the content you'll find on the Stabilization sector page).

I do some event management
I also help out with the management of a local governance program. This also involves a lot of writing, but also a lot of editing, some serious work in Microsoft Excel, and a lot of coordinating with military colleagues
I know this is a rather vague description. But honestly, giving you a more detailed description would either bore you all to death, or drown you in a sea of acronyms.

2) I would like to know about the dignataries you have met.

We've got 5 US Ambassadors roaming around the compound, and I've met them all.
I've been introduced to/spoken with: the late Ambassador Holbrooke, Senators Franken and Levin, former Dep. Secretary of State Jack Lew, USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah, the Afghan Minister of Mines, and the Afghan Minister of Finance.
I've been in/at meetings with or escorted: Gen. Petraeus, Gen. Rodriguez, other important Defense officials, lots of Afghan ministers. Gen. Petraus also complimented my friend Go and me on our running.
I've seen from afar: Sec. of Defense Gates and Sec. of State Clinton, and a bunch of random senators and representatives.
I'm sure I'm forgetting some others. I'll update if I remember.

Donna's questions

1) Could you tell us about clothes washing facilities?

It's kind of like college. There are laundry rooms throughout the compound: hooch dwellers have laundry trailers, and the apartment buildings have one laundry room per floor (4 washers, 4 dryers per room). The only difference from college is that the machines are free instead of coin operated.
However, it is EXACTLY like college in that if you are not quick enough getting your clothes out of the machines, people waiting to do their laundry will move your clothes for you. This means that you can't just "set it and forget it" -- you have to hang around and be prepared to come back to the laundry room to move your clothes at regular intervals.
Also, the number of people living on the compound has kind of exceeded the capacity of the laundry rooms. I find it near impossible to get laundry done on the obvious day (Friday). So Nick and I have designated Tuesday night as laundry night, and usually don't have a problem getting all four washers/dryers to use at once.
There are two dry cleaning services on the compound, but I've heard so many horror stories about them washing clothes in water and wrecking expensive suits that I don't even bother. Of course I'm lucky that I work for USAID and don't have to worry about wearing formal business clothes too often.

2) How much space do you and your husband have to put clothes in your quarters?

Donna, I'm going to assume that you'll be here with your husband and will be living in an apartment. The answers would be much MUCH different if Nick was here alone and living in a hooch.
Nick and I are very lucky to be living in an apartment, which are a jillion times better than a hooch. With that said, our apartment does have the smallest floorplan. You'd think the apartments would all be a standard size, but that's absolutely not the case. Some are small (ours), some are huge. Some have balconies, some don't (ours). Some have windows that open, some don't (ours). Some have bars on the windows so there's only one exit from the apartment (also ours).
The smaller floorplan means that our closets are significantly smaller than in other apartments. One friend lucky enough to have a large apartment has a walk-in closet! We have to be judicious in our use of space, so the clothes that we don't wear that often (ie my sundresses and other culturally inappropriate items) are kept in our suitcases, which are piled in a corner in our bedroom.
All in all, we have a double-wide closet and a long 6-drawer dresser in our bedroom where we keep most of our clothing. My shoes live in a box under the bed, along with all of the packaging from our more expensive electronics. We have two other closets in the apartment, but we use them for storing linens, cleaning items, and sports gear. I suppose that if I were a clothes horse we could use them for additional clothing storage, but we seem to be doing alright with the current setup.
If you're lucky to get one of the larger floorplans and need some more storage space, you could absolutely fit in some additional pieces of furniture.

3) How big are your quarters and how are they "furnished"? Did you bring over any furniture - is there room? (Do you have pictures you can share?)

Ask and ye shall receive! Pictures of our apartment are at the end of this post.
Like I said, our apartment is the smallest floorplan out of all of the apartments. I would guess that we're looking at about 700 sq ft, at the most. It's actually about the same size as our apartment in DC, so we manage to do pretty well sharing such a small space.
Other apartments are much, MUCH bigger. For example, whereas we can comfortably host about 8 people for dinner in our apartment, Nick and I hosted Christmas dinner for 40 people in a friend's apartment (check out the third to last photo in the linked post). The living room in that apartment is about the size of our bedroom and living room COMBINED.
Apartments are furnished in your typical US foreign service style -- UGLY. The apartments come with wall-to-wall carpeting, a bed (queen), a dresser, one nightstand, an entertainment/computer cabinet, one large bookcase, a couch, two easy chairs, a coffee table, a bar/entertainment cabinet, a dining room table for 10 with six dining chairs, 2 side tables, several lamps, a mirror, and a desk. You also get a TV and a DVD player.
With that said, Nick and I have made the following changes (you'll notice some of these in the photos): we don't have a desk because our apartment is too small; we had GSO remove the bar/entertainment center, and instead have our TV on a cabinet we bought at the bazaar; we have an additional small cabinet that we also bought at the bazaar; we brought our own coffee table from home; we put down some rugs we bought at the bazaar.
Obviously, people with bigger apartments have more room to furnish their spaces with additional furniture.
Looking back, the only thing I wish we had brought are floor lamps. Well, actually we did bring some cheap Ikea floorlamps but they didn't survive the move. It would have been nice to ditch the table lamps, which take up a lot of room and are super ugly to boot.
In the end, how much room you have to bring your own furniture is totally dependent on your luck of the draw in your apartment assignment.

4) Where do you do your grocery shopping?

First, remember that there's no reason for you to HAVE to do grocery shopping. All USG personnel can eat for free -- breakfast, lunch and dinner -- at the DFACs. Of course, I find the DFAC food to be essentially inedible, and therefore do a lot of cooking at home. Which means we go shopping.
If you plan to do a lot of your own cooking, TAKE FULL ADVANTAGE OF YOUR COSUMABLES SHIPMENT.
There's a small store on the USAID side of compound which stocks a very limited selection of staples (pasta, shelf-stable milk, tomato sauce, yogurt, peanut butter, frozen chicken breasts, frozen ground beef, eggs, some personal care items) as well as a limited selection of fresh vegetables (usually small eggplants, tomatoes, green beans, onions, potatoes).
The Embassy side of the compound has a small PX that stocks similar items.
There are three European PXs at ISAF, but they don't tend to carry anything we really need (except good European chocolates). There's a PX at Camp Eggers that stocks lots of American brand snacks and personal care items.
Liquor is available for sale at the KEEA store on the Embassy compound.
The Embassy has a "concierge" service that can get things from town and deliver them to the compound. We use them for veggies, bread, and meat on occasion. But be warned that their markup is pretty steep, and the staff might not always understand your order, to hilarious results. For example, Nick ordered 40 dinner rolls for a party we were having....and we ended up with 40 full sized loaves of bread!
Netgrocer, DrugStore, Amazon, and other online stores willing to ship via APO are a great resource for when you can't find what you need in Kabul but don't want to burdern your family with doing your shopping. Of course, the friends and family route is always an option.....
As a last resort, on occasion we do ask our Afghan colleagues to bring in items for us. Management doesn't exactly encourage this practice, although the Afghans are usually more than happy to help us out. They understand how frustrated we get being locked down on the compound.

5) How concerned are you about the suicide bombers?

Honestly, I try not think about it. Denial is more than just a river in Egypt.
Of course, there are times when I get nervous, usually when I get stuck in traffic. I mean, compared to the military US Embassy staff keep a pretty low profile when traveling. And there's nothing on the car that marks it as a diplomatic vehicle (unlike the UN!). But I guess anything can happen at any time.
I'm actually more scared of being shot at while in the car than blown up. There's foot traffic everywhere in Kabul. So when I get stuck in a traffic jam, the car is always swarmed by Afghan men (and a few women) weaving their way through the stalled cars to get across the street. And the windows on the SUVs aren't tinted, so the pedestrians can clearly see me, an expat woman, in the car. I feel like this makes me an easy target for being shot at, although I know the odds of this happening are slim (also the windows are bulletproof). But still....this is the type of situation that makes me feel vulnerable.
What I'm really REALLY scared of is earthquakes. Afghanistan is in an earthquake prone area, thanks to the crazy Indian continental plate, which millions of years (after the breakup of Pangea) ago flew north at a pretty good clip through what's now the Indian ocean (after the breakup of Pangea) and crashed into the Eurasian plate. This is how the Himalayas were formed. The Indian plate is still moving, which makes the whole area subject to earthquakes (like the 2005 Kashmir Earthquake). Becuase our apartment is on the ground floor, I'm actually really scared that we'll get hit with a big quake in the middle of the night (we had a little one yesterday afternoon -- didn't even feel it) and Nick and I will end up pancacked under the 4 floors of apartments above us. Or that we'll survive getting pancaked, but won't be able to escape from our apartment given the aforementioned lack of a second exit.
Also, fires. Fires are very scary when there's not a second exit.
Of course, if you're really nervous about bombings, it's entirely possible to make it so you never leave the compound ... depending on the nature of your job, of course. Many jobs require the you leave the compound at least once in a while, for meetings with government officials or implementing partners, site visits, etc. But I also know several people whose duties are completely internal to the US Embassy compound, who have no official reason to leave the compound, and who figure they are safer and better off if they keep it that way. The only part of Afghanistan they see is the road between the Embassy and the airport.
And there are others (like me) who would pretty much sell their souls to get off the compound to see some of the "real Afghanistan". Or any part of Afghanistan that isn't surrounded by a 10 ft wall and armed guards.

Lastly, I offer a quick photo tour of our place. There's not a lot of concealed storage, so it's a little cluttered.

View of the living room from the front door

Opposite view of the front door from the living room

Our TV cabinet and USG-owned TV

Our kitchen, just inside the front door.

Hallway, with the bedroom on the left, linen closet at the end, and the bathroom off to the right just before the linen closet.

Cluttered bedroom (I was in the middle of putting away laundry)

TV/computer cabinet and big cluttered bookcase

Cluttered double-wide closet

Bathroom, just after my shower.

Next stop II: the second time is the charm

2011-03-10T03:38:00.005-05:00

Let's try this again, shall we?

هل تعرف الطريق إلى أبو الهول؟

That translates to (I hope) "Do you know the way to the Sphynx?" in Arabic.

Next stop (and fingers crossed this one sticks): Cairo! Coming some time in 2011 or 2012....

And for those of you who have asked to know our whole bid list, here ya go:

Egypt
Egypt
Kosovo
Ecuador
Sri Lanka
Armenia
Philippines

Milestones

2011-03-06T13:45:00.004-05:00

This past Friday, Nick and I passed an important milestone in our relationship. I can't believe I forgot to blog about it on the day of. Can you guess what it was?

It wasn't our wedding anniversary.

It wasn't the anniversary of the day we met.

It wasn't the anniversary of the day we got engaged.

Give up?

As of Friday, March 4th......we have less than 100 days until we leave post and depart Afghanistan. Today is 97 days and counting. And with another three-week leave yet to go, we're down to about 76 days of work, give or take a few Fridays.

Not that I'm counting or anything........

When thundersnow isn't cool

2011-03-03T07:29:00.003-05:00

Compared to last year, winter in Kabul 2011 has been...wintry. We've had lots of snowy days, although accumulation has been pretty scarce. We did get one good snowstorm a few weeks ago, with some pretty decent accumulation building overnight. And then somewhat warmer temperatures the next day, which turned Kabul into a giant pit of mud. Of course that did happen to be the day that I went to visit Turquoise Mountain's new facilities. I was very glad I wore my Timberlands!

The wintry weather continues, even as we roll into March. Today we experienced the exciting meteorological phenomenon of thundersnow. Now, thundersnow is usually cool. It's freaky. I mean, snow happens when it's cold outside. Thunder happens when it's hot. By all reasonable logic, the two should NOT happen together.

The only time that thundersnow is not cool is when you're in a war zone, and you don't happen to see the flash.

I don't usually talk about this stuff on the blog because I don't want to worry any of our friends or family. But Kabul has been a little...um, unstable recently. Suicide bombers attacked a local grocery store popular with expats on January 28. Friends of ours were there 15 minutes before the attack. There was an attack on the Safi Landmark Hotel -- the second in a year -- on February 14. And last Saturday we were woken up at 6:30AM by three rocket attacks and a 15 minute Duck & Cover alarm. The rockets didn't hit close to the Embassy; luckily the bad guys don't really have the ability to aim. But they were close enough to make a loud boom, and it was a rather rude awakening.

So it's easy to understand why everyone has been a little jumpier than usual. The thundersnow strike that spooked everyone hit very close by. There was only about 1 second pause between the flash and the boom. And given that it was daylight, the flash wasn't easy to see. When the thunder hit, a lot of people jumped and held their breath for the alarm.

Our movements off compound have been restricted -- meetings are ok, but ~~dinners~~ meetings out at night are hard to come by. I understand why, and although I'm going a little stir crazy I can know the RSO has to put safety first. What gets me really worked up with worry are my Afghan colleagues who travel from their homes to the Embassy every day. Suicide attackers like to strike during the morning and afternoon commutes, when the streets are at their busiest. There are a few expats out and about at those times. But the majority of the people on the street -- and therefore the majority of the victims -- are Afghan. I worry it's only a matter of time before one of our FSNs -- out on their daily commute or running errands or taking their children out for the afternoon -- ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

And on that cheerful note.....in conclusion: Thundersnow = cool. Thundersnow in a city that's seen a few bombings in recent weeks = not cool.

And being an FSN = your safety and the safety of your families are always in my thoughts.

Q&A 4, with more Kabul content

2011-02-20T08:29:00.000-05:00

Well, it seems that my feelings of guilt for not writing a lot about life in Kabul are unfounded. Seeing as only two people responded to my call for questions, either I'm already telling you readers everything you want to know about our lives in Kabul, or else you're really not all that interested and only stop by the blog for the sake of being polite because you're either my family or one of my friends (I kid, I kid).

Melissa, you're up first!

1) What do you wish you had brought with you that you didn't?

Nothing, actually. I guess we did a really good job packing. Also we were lucky in that: 1) Nick came out here first, so he was able to get an idea of what we should have with us here before I packed out the house, and; 2) because we’re here for two years, we got a second consumables and HHE shipment, so we had a second chance to ship anything we missed the first time and to restock our consumables.
With that said, if I had known that we’d be cooking so much (because I find the DFAC food inedible) I would have brought more of our kitchen stuff. But that’s only useful advice if you’re going to be in an apartment in Kabul.
Hold a gun to my head, I probably would say that I wish I had brought more business casual work pants. I brought a lot of pairs of work pants (like suit material) with me, and they really only go with heels. After I got here I found that wearing heels is a pain and for the most part unnecessary. Everyone on the compound thinks USAIDers are tree-hugging hippies already -- I just decided to start dressing the part! So I switched to wearing flats and my Chucks, but that left me with only two pairs of business casual pants to wear.
If you’re going to be out in the field, bring lots of brown cargo pants.

2) Do you have to pay for the cafeteria food?

No, thankfully. It wouldn't be worth the money, no matter how cheap. At one point in time it was a pay system, but that system went out before I got to post.
If you tire of DFAC food for lunch, you can buy kabobs and some Afghan dishes at the locals’ cafeteria. Also a local café sets up shop on the compound during lunch, where they sell panini and pizza. There’s also a terrible restaurant (pub food) and a pizza joint on the ISAF compound next door. Neither is particularly good, but they do offer a bit of respite from the DFAC.

3) What is internet access like? How does it work, how much does it cost?

Access is free, although you do need to bring your own wireless router (or internet cable if you're hooking up a desktop). Speeds are good for the most part, although it gets a little spotty at peak times when everyone on the compound is Skyping with their families, and when it rains (which isn’t often).
I may be wrong on this, but I believe that the hooches on the CAFE side of the compound are on a different server than the Embassy side (where the apartments are). The CAFE side server has an international IP address, which means that websites that require a US IP address (like Hulu) won’t work. We don’t seem to have that problem on the Embassy side.
If you’re out in the field, internet access can range from good to terrible. But it’s still free!

4) What is housing like for those who can't bring their partners along? Is there any private space at all?

How long will you be here? If you’re in Kabul for a year or longer, you’ll either be in a hooch or (if you’re lucky) a shared apartment. However, management has to convert a bunch of the split apartments back to singles to accommodate all the married couples, so I'm not sure how many shared apartments will be available in the future.
The hooches aren’t anyone’s idea of paradise, but they’re also not terrible – kind of like a small dorm room with a private bathroom. There’s not a lot of space to have people over or anything, but it’s cozy and private enough. If you’re unlucky you may have to share a hooch with another woman for a while when you first get here until a single hooch opens up.
Unfortunately the hooches (and even the apartments) get claustrophobic after a while. But then there’s no anonymity once you leave the confines of your hooch/apartment. There are people everywhere you go, and everyone knows who you are. That’s one of the facts of life at the US Embassy Kabul that I find most difficult – I get really really tired of my apartment, but then there’s no where else to go.
If you’re here for 6 months or less, then you might be in a T-hooch, sharing a tiny room with up to 5 other girls and having to go outside to get to the bathroom. And I will feel very, very sorry for you!
If you’re posted out the field, you might have a private connex, or you might have to share. Either way, you’re almost guaranteed not to have a private bathroom.

5) What kind of facilities are available for recreation?

In Kabul, for sports: a tennis court, lap pool, 2.5 gyms, sand volleyball court, and a medium sized dirt field where people play frisbee or football on occasion. There’s also a field at ISAF where the international community sometimes plays soccer and softball. One staffer leads yoga classes 3x/week.
In Kabul, for leisure: a bar (the Duck & Cover, aka D&C), two firepits, a grill or two, and the Kabul Community Center with a TV, Wii, DVD, and a ping pong table. And that’s about it. There’s a movie theater over at ISAF, but I don’t know anyone who’s actually gone to see a movie there.
In Kabul, the CLO, KEEA, and various staff organize occasional events (like quiz night, game night, movie night) a few times per month.
But honestly? There’s not much to do. Nick and I spend most of our free time sitting in our apartment with friends or watching TV. Many folks spend a good amount of time drinking at one of the firepits or at the D&C, but since I’m not a big drinker that scene got old pretty quickly.
In the field: it depends on where you’re posted. You’ll likely have access to a gym, and some basic military MWR facilities. But that's not guaranteed.

6) Are you allowed to go out in the cities at all? (ie. for shopping or interacting with ~~native~~ local citizens)

USAID's Kabul office has many Afghan staffers, so you’ll be working closely with locals but still within the context of the USG. You'll only get bits and pieces of information about what their lives outside of the office are like. After 14.5 months in Kabul, I have yet to see the inside of an Afghan home. I really have no idea what Afghans or Afghanistan are like.
If you’re in Kabul: We used to be allowed out to a few restaurants for dinners meetings and special events (going away parties, etc) or shopping at a few local NGO shops for going away gifts. But recently the RSO has been denying these requests.
If you’re posted in a secure province: a few provinces are secure enough to be deemed self-drive (meaning you can drive yourself around in an armored SUV). If you’re lucky enough to get posted to one of those provinces, you’ll have much more freedom to get out and meet real Afghans.
If you’re posted in an insecure province: you will be mostly reliant on the military for your movements. You’ll still get opportunities to get out into the villages to meet locals, but in a completely different way than if you’re in a self-drive province.

7) What is the community like? Are people all crazy about working all the time because there is nothing else to do?

Yes and no. Many people do work all the time because there’s not much else to do. But many people also work all of the time because there is just so much work to be done.
If you're posted in the field, your community is going to be made up of mostly military folks. Learn to like them and speak their lingo.

8) How easy is it to get packages/mail from the US?

If you’re in Kabul, it’s moderately easy. APO (military mail) is the fastest, and there are APO offices on the ISAF compound and at Camp Eggers. Delivery times vary widely. We’ve had packages arrive in as little as 8 days, and as long as 6 weeks. Obviously mail times are slower around the holidays.
You can also use the DPO, but it’s much slower.
I have no idea what mail service is like for staff in the field. I’d guess that if you’re posted at one of the regional platforms (Bagram, Mazar, Herat, Kandahar) it’s probably mediocre. If you’re out at a remote PRT or DST….I’m guessing it’s pretty bad.

9) How does the health bureau work? Do officers mainly stay in Kabul, or are they spread throughout the country? Do they stay in place with occasional trips out or are they pretty much constantly out there overseeing sites and projects?

Yes to all. We have officers in Kabul; we have officers in the field. Some stay put behind their desks, and some are out meeting with implementing partners in the field. It’s highly variable from position to position. Sorry I can’t clear this up for you!

10) How much have you been able/not able to share events of your life with family that are not in the country? Is skype or other internet modalities for calling home something that works or is it horrendously annoying to try and use it?

Skype works pretty well in Kabul. The picture quality isn’t always great, and the audio delay is pretty severe. But I Skype with my parents about once a week, and it’s worked out pretty well. I actually would prefer to use G-chat (I think the quality is better) but I have yet to convince my folks to actually sign up for a GMail account!
If you’re in Kabul, you can call any US number from an Embassy land line. I call my Grandma every month or so, and the connection is fine.
Once again, I don’t really know what the phone situation is like for staff in the field, and it’s of course variable from location to location. I do have a colleague here whose husband is working out of Herat, and they’re able to Skype. But that’s a regional platform, where the living conditions and amenities are a little more plush than a remote PRT or DST.

Obsessing

2011-02-18T10:21:00.005-05:00

I'm obsessing over two things right now:

Bidding: Nick submitted his bids this week. I'll let you all know the seven countries we bid on once we know where we're going.
Mumford & Sons: Nick's been into this band for about a year now. I'd listened to a few of their songs since then, and thought they were good. I mean, at least it was real music, instead of auto-tuned, over-produced, repetative crap (I'm looking at you Justin Bieber.) And then I saw them perform on this year's Grammys.....and now I'm obsessed. They're the first band to play in the video embedded below (yes it's mirrored for copyright. They're not all left-handed). I mean, seriously, look at how much fun they're having! (especially around the 1:53 minute mark). I've watched this video about a hundred times. I've watched their Grammys red carpet interview. I've watched YouTube videos of their late night talk show performances. I've loaded their CD onto my iPod. We've set up a Mumford & Sons Pandora station.

I've obviously started to cross over the line of appropriate fandom here.

I hope you watch the video below and become a fan. I also hope you know to stay behind the line of obsession.

Gray skies are gonna clear up

2011-02-14T02:29:00.011-05:00

It rained for two days straight last week (the higher altitudes got snow), and when the precipitation finally stopped we were treated to a day full of lovely blue skies and blissfully clean air! Very kindly, the Embassy gave USG personnel permission to take pictures of Kabul and the surrounding mountains from the roof of one of the compound's buildings.

So here's what the view looks like from a roof at the US Embassy Kabul...at least on the very rare occasion of a pollution-free day! Credit for all of the photos (except the one of Nick and me) goes to my colleague Robert, whose camera kicks my camera's butt.

This is the infamous high-dive pool at the top of Bibi Mahru hill,

which the Taliban once used for executions.

This is one of the many wedding halls in Kabul. Weddings are big business here, and at night the neon lights from the wedding halls glow like the Vegas strip (although we rarely see them due to the pollution).

New and improved, with more Kabul content

2011-02-12T17:00:00.001-05:00

My office recently hosted a TDYer (short-term visitor from USAID in DC) who was very excited to learn that I've been keeping a blog about my time in Afghanistan. He said that USAID staff back in DC -- especially those soon to be posted to Kabul -- are always asking for information on what life is like here. And that with my permission, he was going to start directing them to my blog.

Of course I gave him permission to share the blog, but then realized that most of this blog's content is about getting away from Kabul, or at least the Embassy. Bidding, vacations, excursions to Kabul restaurants, etc. I feel that in the history of this blog, I've actually said very little about what life is like here. Except for complaining about the food.

So I'd like to ask for some assistance from those of you who read this post: what do YOU want to know about what life is like for USG civilians in Afghanistan? Feel free to put any and all questions that you've been dying to ask in the comments section of this post, and I'll do my best to answer them.

Ready, set....go!

What I learned about Hong Kong

2011-02-12T12:08:00.002-05:00

First things first. There's no news on the bidding front.

Second things second. All of our Hong Kong pictures are up on Facebook -- links are below. And no, you do not need an account to view them:

Third things third. Here's a rough account of what we did during our trip:

Wake up around 10am. Maybe 11am. Watch Nat Geo Explorer (the only English language channel). Shower. Maybe leave the hotel around noon. Or later.
Grab a hot dog and an eggy waffle to sustain us while we hunt for real food
Find real food. And coffee.
Walk. People watch. Walk some more.
Find more food. And more coffee
Walk some more. Admire all of the pretties that we can't afford and don't really want anyway but hey they're super nice to look at in the store windows. Watches and electronics for Nick. Clothes and digital cameras for me.
Get dinner around 9pm. Or later.
Get drinks. And maybe a late night snack.
Back to the hotel and in bed around 2am. Maybe

We've found that people here in Kabul are generally surprised to hear that we spent 8 days in Hong Kong. I guess it's not a place people think to go as a final destination; only as part of a grand tour through China. And people really don't think to go there from Kabul. Most of our colleagues seem to head for home (or wherever their families are safe-havened), the beach (Thailand), India, or Europe.

But as I probably said in my posts about our time in Bali --we're not really beach people. Nick doesn't like sand, I get bored just sitting around all day, and neither of us are much for water sports. And as much as we love the outdoors -- hiking, camping, etc. -- the bottom line is we are city people. We love living in DC, with all of the people, restaurants, and stuff to do. We really miss that life; Kabul is the exact opposite. Nowhere to go, no one new to see, nothing to do (especially now that we're not allowed to go out to restaurants for "meetings." This has intensified the feeling of being cut off from normal life). Hong Kong offered lots of everything we miss about normal life -- restaurants, shopping. movies, people watching, hustle and bustle. Plus, Nick and I are different in that he likes to sleep and take naps while on vacation, and I prefer to go, go, go. With Hong Kong, if Nick wanted to take a nap, I could quite easily head out to do something on my own instead of sitting around waiting for him.

So, as strange a choice as it may have seemed to others, Hong Kong was really quite perfect for us!

Fourth things fourth. Here's some stuff I learned about Hong Kong:

Sleep is for the weak. The city is open day and night -- even more so than NYC. We were out every night past midnight, and invariably all of the restaurants on our walks home were PACKED with late night eaters.

Style is in the eye of the beholder. Hong Kongers wear what they like, and like what they wear. We saw some very...interesting fashions on parade. Although as with every other major city in the world right now, riding boots over tights are de riguer for women. Also, Hong Kong women don't seem to wear jeans. Maybe jeggings. With boots, of course.

Maybe sticking out is a good thing. Usually when travelling in exotic lands, it's easy to spot other tourists. They're the other lost looking white people. They notice that you look lost. And then you bond over being lost together. But in Hong Kong, the expat community is so large there's always tons of white people around. So we didn't stick out as being tourists -- we were just another expat couple. So neither the expats nor the Asians reached out to us as travelers. I did kind of miss the random conversations with fellow travelers.

A girl for every guy. Attention all middle-aged, divorced expat men. Go to Hong Kong. You're sure to find someone attractive (and Asian) to keep you company. Not judging; just saying!

If you drink beer in a bar, everyone will know what you're drinking. Bars in Hong Kong serve beer in brand glasses. If you drink Carlsberg, you get a Carlsberg glass. Drink Stella Artois? You get a Stella glass. Hell, I was even served Strongbow in a Strongbow glass!

In Hong Kong people drive on the left, and walk...wherever the hell they want. Nick and I consider ourselves to be experienced city walkers. We know how to look up to admire tall buildings while not crashing into anything. We know how to pass slow walkers and merge into a surging throng when getting back on a sidewalk. But in Hong Kong....man, something about the way people walk there. We just couldn't get into the rhythm. Nick said it was because the locals don't walk in a straight line; they kind of drift side to side. So it's nearly impossible to get the timing right to pass a slow walker-- they're drifting, the oncoming pedestrians (and it's such a busy city that there's always oncoming pedestrians) are drifting. Everyone is drifting and all we could do was drift along with them.

All in all we had a great trip, and returned to Kabul much more energized than after our Turkey trip. Our friends here even noticed the difference.

I'm not sure when we'll get out again. We had planned to go on our last RRB in early March and our last R&R in late April. However, we found out this week that I'm only entitled to one RRB and one R&R during my last 6 months at post, because I'm not doing a full two years (even though Nick is doing two years and I'm on his orders). I finished the first year of my tour at th end of November, and I just used my one RRB to go to Hong Kong. So I have just one more vacation between now and when we depart post in June. Nick, however, has 2 more leaves. This news, on top of the bidding mess, Nick's new tablet breaking, his expensive headphones breaking, ~~and my beloved Chuck Taylors (Converse All Star sneakers, for the unhip) being stolen from outside our apartment~~ (update: my Chucks were returned!) pretty much killed whatever glow we had left from Hong Kong.

But I can still look at the pictures, and marvel at the fun we had, the food we ate, and just marvel at the simple fact that I've been to Hong Kong.

Change in Plans

2011-02-01T02:50:00.006-05:00

Note: Original post edited to reflect updates to available posts

We're back in Kabul, Sweet Kabul, after a relaxing, filling, and nearly perfect trip to Hong Kong. I'll finish reporting on what we ate, saw, and did during our trip soon. But first, some news.

The morning of our very last day in Hong Kong, Nick received an email from USAID HR informing him that due to the restructuring of USAID missions worldwide, his position in Budapest had been cancelled. So we will not be going there after completing our tour in Afghanistan, and have to re-enter the bidding process. Great way to end the vacation, right?

So we're back in limbo, looking at the positions on the bid list that are still available. We still get priority bidding, but we're bidding on what's left after the list has gone through several cycles and many of the positions have already been filled.

With that said, I'm hoping that some of the Diplo/expat types who read this blog might be able to provide some opinions on the locations that are still available. I've checked Real Post Reports on all of these, but many of the countries haven't been updated in four or more years. And I know that things can change a lot in that time, especially for expat quality of life.

With that said, here's what we're looking at thus far, in no particular order:

~~Ukraine~~
Armenia
Kosovo (I would really love to get current info on Pristina!)
Sri Lanka
~~West Bank/Gaza (living in either Tel Aviv or Jerusalem)~~
~~Ecuador~~
Kenya
Philippines
~~Tanzania~~ (Maryam and Denyse, I know you'll have lots to say about this one!)

So, fellow expat bloggers, any thoughts?

The couple that ate Hong Kong

2011-01-26T12:20:00.006-05:00

Since the last post, we've hiked for hours, walked for miles, stayed out past our bedtime, slept in late, and eaten:

whole clams
squid
roast pork and roast duck
charcuterie and cheese platters
crispy chicken
bean greens with crab
egg waffles
mango sago
boiled fish balls, pig skin, and turnip (while watching horse racing, of course)
mussels
hot dog
lots of tea and coffee
dinner at a 2-star Michelin restaurant, with delicious steamed glutinous dumpling with red bean paste for dessert
an avocado
Fage yogurt
eggs benedict, yogurt & croissant
chorizo omlette
and for breakfast on Monday: french fries, chili fries, bacon wrapped sausages, and chicken wings

I think I'm gonna explode. But at least I'd die full and happy!

Chorizo omelet at the Real Bread

Fish ball at Happy Valley Raceway

Cheese & meat at The Classified

Egg waffle

Eggs benedict and other stuff at The Real Bread

Breakfast, beers, and 'da Bears. At 4:30AM!

Squid, clams, and mustard greens with mushrooms

It's a great big universe...

2011-01-24T10:43:00.003-05:00

...and we're all really puny.

Picture pages p.II

2011-01-13T01:18:00.002-05:00

Hong Kong is cool.

Oh, did I forget to mention that I'm writing this from Hong Kong? We have a sweet hotel room in Causeway Bay. We've walked our legs off and stuffed our bellies full of....well, everything! The great thing about Hong Kong is that they have pretty much anything we want to eat. Chinese food? Yes (although they just call it "food" here. Heh.) French food? Yes. Pizza? Yes. There's even a Ruby Tuesdays and an Outback Steakhouse. Although I don't think I could get homesick enough to possibly want either of those! We've been here for 2.5 days, and so far we've had chili crab, spicy pork chops, sauteed green beans, hot dogs, egg custard tart, sausage roll, sushi, mochi, sweet potato fries (at an "authentic" Chicago bar, no less), dim sum, shawarma, waffles with berries, a sausage and egg skillet, banh mi, and kaya toast. And now I'm on the hunt for more Pepto Bismol. We also found a BLT Steak, a sister restaurant of one of Nick's favorite restaurants back in DC. We didn't go, but maybe we'll go back for a treat. Right now all I really want is a salad.

Mostly we've just spent a lot of time doing what we always seem to do when on leave from Kabul, which is walk. A lot. Because....you know, we can here. And we can't in Kabul. We've walked through lots of malls. Had a few drinks -- including a few courtesy of a drunk British expat in Wanchai. HK, at least the HK island side, is full of expats. Tons of them. A their kids too. I am very curious about expat kids because chances are we'll end up with one ourselves. I have to admit I kind of like the idea of raising a kid who is independent and world-wise and capable of wandering the streets of HK, or any other foreign city.

On a funny note, since the drinking age in HK is 18, the expat kids were out in force last night. It seems the cool thing to do is buy beers and wine coolers from the 7-11 (yet another little taste of home that I don't really miss!) and stand in the street in Lan Kwai Fong and drink. We tried it out. It wasn't that fun. I think this means we're getting old.

As opposed to the last two nights, this evening we've been chilling in our hotel room, recharging our batteries for our early morning excursion to a bar in Soho where we will be watching the Bears game. At 4:30AM. Nick really loves the Bears. And I must really love my husband.

So it's off to bed for us. But as we collect even more vacation photos from an incredible location, I'll leave you with some picture pages of what we got up to while on leave in November, as well as over the holidays back in Kabul.

Nick doing his best sherpa imitation in Tampa, after 32 hours of travel

Reunited with Chrissy, my college roommate, in Sarasota

Getting a little vitamin D therapy in Sarasota

With grandma in Chapel Hill

Everything with a shmear at Ess-a-Bagel in NYC

Breakfast blintz.

I said goodbye to my beloved Chucks, which had walked me through no less than 5 countries. And then promptly bought a new pair.

Our holiday corner. We did both a latke party and Christmas dinner.

The Embassy received it's very first visit from the USO tour -- we had Robin Williams, Lance Armstrong, and Lewis Black, seen here with Nick.

Christmas breakfast. Thanks again for the egg casserole recipe Mom X!

Nick and I organized dinner for 40 Embassy staffers. Cleanup is a pain when you don't have a dishwasher!

My boss and colleague. We love our jobs!

Compared to last year, New Years at the Embassy was really very boring. Although thanks to Nick and me, everyone was accessorized in the appropriate fashion.

Reflections on 2010

2011-01-01T12:46:00.003-05:00

And....we're back. Sorry for the long lag in posting. I made a resolution to update more often in 2011. Of course, I made the same resolution last year.

In case you were wondering, no Nick and I did not just decide to say the hell with Kabul and go AWOL while on R&R last month. We had a really, really, REALLY great trip home, although the last few days were a little rough. And then our return to Kabul was very very rough. And since then I just haven't really felt much like writing. In the wise words of the Animaniacs, "If you can't say anything nice.........you're probably at the Ice Capades."

The first thing that made coming back so difficult was that I really did not want to go back to eating Kabul food. Did I mention here that I had to stop eating the DFAC salads and whole fruits, ie give up 90% of my diet? I don't think I did. The story is that after our trip to Turkey -- another instance where the constant stomach issues that have plagued me since coming to Kabul mysteriously disappear within 24 hours of leaving the compound -- I decided to figure out once and for all what was making me so ill. I just couldn't take it anymore. In addition to the constant pain and discomfort, being sick was really affecting my mood. I couldn't work out in the gym because I was so gassy. I had to miss out on social events because my cramps were so bad. And it was affecting my marriage, because I didn't want to have..um...relations with Nick because I felt so disgusting and unclean. So one day I decided to not eat anything from the salad bar for one whole day. I did eat a couple of pears and plums though, and still got sick a few hours later. So the next day I didn't eat any vegetables or fruit....and I've been 99% fine ever since. However, this does mean that I'm missing sorely the foods that I LOVE to eat. I mean, when Nick's not around I'm essentially a rabbit. While on leave in November I made the most of every opportunity to eat fruits and vegetables. (A note to families M & X: sorry if I seemed non-commital or indecisive when you offered to take us out for pizza, BBQ, Chinese food, pasta etc to eat while Nick and I were visiting. It was just that all I really wanted was to be dropped off at the nearest salad bar!) But as we got closer to the end of leave, I started to get really down about returning to a no-veggies lifestyle. So down, in fact, that I threw a temper tantrum when we got in late to our hotel in Dubai and had to order room service for dinner and they didn't offer a spinach salad. Not a moment I'm proud of.

The second reason our return was difficult is that for me it marked one whole year in Kabul (18 months for Nick). One whole year spent spinning my wheels in a job that I don't really care for, in a location that causes me never ending cabin fever. Not exactly a date to celebrate.

The third thing that made coming back difficult was that a lot of drama went down on the compound while we were on leave. Drama that affected close friends of ours, and that has kind of cast a pall over everything. Combined with what seems to be a conscious effort by the people in charge to make sure that we have no fun at all and a general increase in the average age of the people on the compound, and life here has just kind of been a bummer.

So with all of that, the only thing I could manage to write for this blog were complaints. And I don't want to fill this blog with nothing but whinging and whining. I mean really, my life isn't terrible. There are so many people who are suffering more than I, dealing with cancer, divorce, death, unemployment. And complaining when I know how much sadness and struggle is out there makes me feel like a whiny, over-privilegded twit. So I just didn't write.

I'm still not really in the mood to write. Being stuck here over the holidays -- and missing out on the big snowstorm back east -- has me in kind of a funk. My spirits have picked up a little over past day or two, as Nick and I are now only 10 days away from our next break; we're going to Hong Kong for some sleeping, shopping, eating, hiking and movies. In that order.

But, I have decided to break my blogging hiatus with the start of 2011 in order to fill out this questionnaire again.

Reflection time (apologies in advance for the whining, and here's a toast a better 2011):

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?
Visited Singapore, Turkey, and Bali; wore leggings with a tunic; ran a half marathon; met Ambassador Eikenberry, Ambassador Holbrooke and General Petraeus; got bit by a leech; went through USAID's bid process; cooked a Passover Seder and a Thanksgiving dinner; got up close and personal with a monkey (watch the video); bought skinny jeans and a pleather coat; went to a Marine Ball; rode in a helicopter (3 in fact!); met Al Franken; visited Herat, Nangarhar, Kandahar, and Mazar-i-Sharif; ate durian and frog; turned 30.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? Let's go through them one by one, shall we? My resolutions for 2010 were:

Figure out a long term career plan, even if it means going back to school--Still working on this one
Run at least one 5k, and sign up in time to get the T-shirt for free --Done and done, in abundance.
Curtail my internet addiction -- Maybe? Nick would say no
Maintain my current weight and fitness level throughout our tour in Afghanistan, and motivate Nick to improve his -- Yes-ish. I'm the same weight as last year, but I don't think I'm as fit. All of that trapezing over the summer of 2009 did my body good!
Read more -- Yes, but mostly while we're on vacation
Be more patient with Nick -- Yes, but I think this will be a lifetime resolution
Get another piercing -- No. Sister J, one of these times when I'm visiting, can't we please go get your ears pierced?
Limit my navel gazing -- Maybe?
Say thank you to my parents more often -- Another lifetime resolution
Help my mom organize at least one charity drive for Afghanistan -- Nope. Mom M, are you still trying to do this?
Write in this blog more often -- Um. No

Resolutions for 2011:

Figure out a long term career plan, even if it means going back to school
Run more local races, at least one half-marathon; try to run the 2011 Budapest Marathon
Trek to Everest Base Camp
Do at least one good deed each week
Try a new hairstyle and/or hair color (I'm thinking of going darker. Thoughts?)
Spend at least 2 hours per week reading
Get another piercing -- Sister J, I might take care of this in Hong Kong unless you speak up...
Get plans in place for a kickass 40th wedding anniversary gift/celebration for my parents
Help my mom organize at least one charity drive for Afghanistan -- Mom M, I'm ready when you are
Write in this blog more often to keep a record of our transition from Kabul to Budapest

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
OMG it was the year of the baby! Three colleagues and lots of high school and Facebook friends. And the X family is expecting another new member come spring 2011!

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No, thank goodness.

5. What countries did you visit?
United Arab Emirates and India (if overnight layovers count), Afghanistan, Bali, Singapore, Turkey, USA

6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010?
A definite career path. A job which allows me to apply all of my skills and brainpower, and to which I will happily devote my time and energy (the same as I wanted for this past year). The freedom to come and go, walk and run, and otherwise occupy myself as I please. Better communications with my family.

Oh yeah. And I'm still waiting for that trapeze rig on the Embassy compound.

7. What dates from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

May 19: I turned 30
June 8: we returned to Afghanistan for the start of Nick's second year
October 11: we celebrated the first anniversary of our legal marriage with a ~~dinner~~ meeting at the Serena
November 25: ran the Broad Ripple Drumstick Dash with my sister. We also hosted our first Thanksgiving dinner.
November 29: the end of my first year in Kabul

And that's about it, because there's not much about this year that I want to remember.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Running a half marathon. Like I said, not really a banner year for me.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Not being able to forgive and let go of hurt feelings. Allowing those feelings to fester and grow (same as last year. This will be a lifelong challenge for me.) Blaming Nick during the times when I felt really low about being in Kabul. Picking fights with Nick. Not coming up with a good idea for a 60th birthday gift for my Mom. Speaking my thoughts frankly when I didn't know to whom I was speaking. Not writing in this blog often enough.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
No significant injuries. I developed sciatica and maybe a problem with my periformis. But otherwise nothing requiring medical intervention. I was sick though. A lot. Lots of colds, lots of stomach issues. Luckily I resolved most of the stomach issues by not eating any of the washed vegetables or whole fruits from the DFAC. Of course, this also means that I cut out a large part of my usual diet.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Anything having to do with our vacations (except for a few activities in Turkey), especially our time at the Sarinbuana Eco Lodge in Bali, at the 5oda in Istanbul, in NC with my grandmother for her 90th birthday, in FL for Rory and Steph's wedding, and our 2 days in NYC in November. Our second consumables shipment. And I really like my new pleather coat! (Thanks for making me buy it Jen!)

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Nick's. He's been so very very patient in dealing with my regular bouts of wallowing in my own self-pity. Being here is hard on him too, but he hides that very well and does his best to keep my spirits up. He's also gotten much better about picking up after himself, being proactive about doing chores...in general being an equal partner in our little family.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Pleading the fifth.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Towards our various escapes from Kabul: Singapore, Bali, Turkey, Florida, NYC

15. What did you get really excited about?
Our next post: Hungary 2011 baby! Escaping Kabul. Visiting my sis in her very first house. Meals out at the Serena. Glee nights. Our future nephew. The very very precious whole sweet potato that a friend gave me as a lovely Christmas surprise. Nick just cooked it up for me tonight (roasted with onions and EVOO, with some of the very very precious goat cheese we brought back from Turkey). The repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell!

16. What song will always remind you of 2010?
I dunno. Green Day's "East 12th St" has been stuck in my head ever since we saw American Idiot in NYC. Ke$ha and Lady Gaga songs are often in my head these days too.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

happier or sadder? Sadder. Last year I was newly reunited with Nick and life in Kabul was still new. Now I'm just worn down and so so so ready to be done.
thinner or fatter? About the same size, but not as fit as I'd like to be.
richer or poorer? Financially richer. Your tax dollars hard at work….in our pockets. Thanks for the salary everyone! ;-)

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
More serious thinking about and work on my career path. More thought and concern for the needs/hopes/concerns/lives/feelings of others. More time in the company of friends and family.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Less time being sick. Less complaining. Less navel gazing. Less watching TV. Less time sitting on my couch in my apartment.

20. How did you spend Christmas?
With Nick, in Kabul, cooking and prepping the Mission Director's apartment for a Christmas dinner for 40 friends. And performing as the Ghost of Christmas Past in the Embassy's production of the radio play version of A Christmas Carol. And enjoying a nice White Elephant exchange with the aforementioned friends.

21. Did you fall in love in 2010?
Nope.

22. What was your favorite TV program?
GLEE! As if there was ever any doubt. Nick and I are also really into How I Met Your Mother, Modern Family, and Dexter (we're only on Season 4, so don't reveal any surprises!) And, I'm rather ashamed to say, I've also gotten into the Vampire Diaries.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
I don't like to hate against people, but there are various USAID, Embassy staffers and military personnel who shall remain nameless for whom I don't really care.

24. What was the best book you read?
My memory is so bad that I can't remember most of the books I read this year. And I had to go to Amazon to remind myself of what I read because my Kindle's archive resets every time I take the Kindle out of the US. Ok, let's see. Born to Run was great. Dan Savage's The Kid was very interesting. I bought Room in 2010, although I didn't finish it before the end of the year. Can it still count?

I'm sure I read other books that I didn't buy for my Kindle (in fact I'm sure I read quite a few that I borrowed from the Eco Lodge's library while we were in Bali) but I can't for the life of me remember what they were.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I didn't discover it, but I'm really into Pink's "Raise Your Glass" right now. Also, American Idiot has been in heavy rotation on my iPod. It's nice to work out to a musical with a really good rock beat!

26. What did you want and get?
Kickass vacations. Diamond studs and gold hoop earrings. (Ugh, saying that makes me feel really materialistic)

27. What did you want and not get?
Clarity on the career front. Nick to commit to a diet and exercise regimen. And world peace?

28. What was your favorite film of this year?
Nine was good, because it was the first movie I saw in a movie theater after arriving in Kabul. Avatar was also good, because it was the second movie I saw after arriving in Kabul. Prince of Persia was....well, terrible actually. But for the most part, any movie I saw in a movie theater with good picture quality and stereo sound (instead of viewing a pirated copy with poor sound and picture while sitting on my couch in Kabul) was pretty good.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I spent it packing for our home leave and flying from Kabul to Dubai. Although since we were traveling on my actual birthday, Nick threw me a surprise birthday party a few days earlier.

Oh yeah. I turned 30. Don't ask me how I feel about that.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Not being in Kabul.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010?
Office drone in a Muslim country, where everything gets dirty and I have no access to any place to buy new clothes. But when we're on leave I've been trying to experiment a little more and move away from my standard look.

32. What kept you sane?
Friends. Family. Working out. The occasional foray into Kabul for a dinner out. Kabul kitties. Megavideo. Nick*.
*Some of these may or may not have also been the cause of some insanity.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Still stuck on Gavin Creel and Jonathan Groff (I know, I know). Benjamin Walker, Stark Sands, and other guys who aren't that well-known beyond the theater scene.

34. What political issue stirred you the most?
Afghanistan.

35. Who did you miss?
Everyone. My parents. My sister. True friends. Caela Beagle.

36. Who was the best new person you met?
Friends in Kabul.

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010.
Stop waiting for life to make you happy. Get the f**k up and make it happen for yourself. There is no time but now.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
From the aforementioned "East 12th St" from American Idiot:
Somebody get me out of here/Anybody get me out of here
Somebody get me out of here/Get me the f*** right out of here.
So far away/I don't want to stay/Get me outta here right now
I just wanna be free /Is there a possibility /Get me out of here right now
This lifelike dream ain't for me

Tasting freedom

2010-11-11T12:43:00.005-05:00

We're back in the US of A, and so far we're up to 31 hours of traveling. And we're not done yet. We're in Tampa, waiting for the brother and sister-in-law to arrive before we head out for the one hour drive to our final destination. I'm predicting that we'll make it to at least 34 hours before we can finally put down our bags and shower. Seriously, I would kill for a shower right now.

Although we have a hectic itinerary, this vacation is SERIOUSLY needed. Nick and I have been going non-stop since we came back from Turkey 6 weeks ago. Nick more so than me. He's been very involved in the security contractors issue (that's PSCs, for those of you looking to add to your acronym glossary). So even though we're going to be bouncing around the US for three weeks -- Florida to North Carolina to NYC to Albany to Chicago to Tennessee (Nick)/Indiana (me) and DC -- it'll still be a billion times better than working 80 hours a week in Kabul on issues that don't seem to have a good solution.

These next three weeks will be crazy and fun, and filled with family, friends, and good food. We plan to make the most of every minute of freedom. I'd say we're off to a good start.

Our first taste of freedom: Sushi and a smoked salmon sandwich in the Dubai airport

Breakfast of champions in Dulles Airport: a beer and a screwdriver.

Hey, 7am DC time is happy hour time in Kabul!

PS: On Veteran's Day, just a quick thanks to all who serve or who have served our country. I'm proud to know a bunch more of you now.

Set your DVRs

2010-11-06T04:07:00.003-04:00

For those of you out there who've ever been frustrated by how little I can tell or show you about what US civilians are doing in Afghanistan....it's CNN to the rescue. Starting this Sunday (I assume, but CNN didn't specify the date other than "Sunday", "Monday" etc) CNN will be airing a series of stories on the civilian effort in Afghanistan, gathered over a week-long embed with the Embassy this past summer.

Each part should be interesting, but I have to say that I'm most curious as to story that will be told in Part Five: A Day in the Life. I wonder whose "life" will be reflected.

CNN provided the following write ups of each of the five parts:

Part One: The Other Surge – Sunday 12p EST on CNNI/Prism and Monday on Situation Room on CNN-USA between 5-7p EST: Civilian surge: there are more than 1,000 U.S. civilians in Afghanistan, triple the number before the new Afghan strategy is announced. We see how Jeff Stanton, a long-time State Department diplomat, works with the governor of Wardak to help the local government stand up in the province, and Abdullah Sharif, an Afghan-American who has returned to his homeland to work with USAID as an advisor to the mayor of Kandahar. What are the challenges to helping rebuild Afghanistan and getting the government to stand up? What have been the biggest surprises?

Part Two: Sword to Plowshare – Monday 12p EST on CNNI/Prism and Monday on American Morning 6-9a EST: We meet Gary Soiseth, a 25-year old almond farmer who left his family farm in California to help train Afghan farmers in Wardak province and follow the "Dirt Warriors," a group of military reservists putting on a civilian hat to help farmers in the mountains of Kunar bring water to their villages. Afghanistan used to be the bread basket of South Asia and the U.S. is trying to help it regain that role, working with farmers throughout the country and building a farming infrastructure so they can get money to expand their farms, grow better products and get them to market.

Part Three: Women on the Move – Tuesday 12p EST on CNNI/Prism and Tuesday on American Morning 6-9a EST: Women couldn't leave the house under the Taliban and still are subject to repression throughout the country, but are grabbing opportunities to make a living. In Jalalabad, we meet a group of war widows learning house painting, carpentry, electrical and plastering as part of a U.S. cash-for work program and visit a U.S.-funded female journalist training program in Herat , where women are desperate to become journalists despite the objections of their families and intimidation by the Taliban. Another very visual piece involving women hard at work and dirty in the trenches as they refurbish a women's center.

Part Four: Judgment – Wednesday 12p EST on CNNI/Prism and Tuesday on Situation Room 5-7p EST: Jill meets with judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys in Kunar where the country’s first public trials were recently held. The challenge of creating a justice system and establishing rule of law in a dangerous security environment where Taliban intimidation is common. Afghanistan is a very tribal society, and the Afghans have a delicate balance between maintaining local structures - such as shuras, while trying to institute state justice with trials and prosecutions. Jill also joins Kandahar’s mayor for a shura where he discusses problems and seeks solutions from tribal elders.

Part Five: A Day in the Life – Thursday 12p EST on CNNI/Prism and Wednesday on American Morning 6-9a and Situation Room 5-7p EST: Take a look at life inside fortified U.S. embassy complex in Kabul. We followed Ambassador Karl Eikenberry through a day at the Kabul embassy to see what goes on behind the fortified walls, and why he and his staff risk living in a warzone to do this.

Do you know Dubai?

2010-10-30T09:32:00.002-04:00

This post is completely self-serving.

I'm working on all of the logistics for our upcoming R&R to the States. We will spend one night in Dubai on our return trip. Our only requirements for the hotel are:

close to the airport
close to a grocery store that's open until at least midnight.

This is where you, lovely readers, come in. Are any of you in-the-know on Dubai grocery stores? Can you recommend a hotel that meets our requirements?*

*By the way, we already tried the Intercontinental and Crowne Plaza hotels at Dubai Festival City. The Crowne Plaza has no vacancies, and the Intercontinental is over our per diem by about $500!

Every once in a while

2010-10-28T09:04:00.008-04:00

To be honest, I have been a little skeptical of the new themed format of the Weekly Foreign Service Blog Roundup. But, seeing as the new format has inspired me to write new posts for two weeks in a row, I suppose I need to change my position. This week's theme is "I never knew I'd"....

I have two. The first is just a random thought. The second was inspired by a little trip (and I mean LITTLE -- all of about 90 seconds) I took yesterday afternoon.

I never knew I'd....:

....actually like being a wife
....get to ride in a bad-ass Chinook* helicopter. You know, the kind where the back hatch stays open, with a gunner dangling his/her feet over the edge.

Photo used via a Creative Commons license.

I know that I mostly gripe about being in Afghanistan. But I have to admit that experiences like this do make me just a little giddy. But only a little.

*Disclaimer: Obviously I didn't take these photos. Of course I'd be the idiot to forget her camera. But I swear I really flew on one of these yesterday!

Where I'm at

2010-10-21T01:02:00.010-04:00

My brain is totally fried and just a little pickled and unable to form coherent sentences. There's been lots of drama this week.

In case you haven't heard, President Karzai is playing a very dangerous game of chicken with the international donor community.** I worked 17 hours on Wednesday; I got to the office while my USAID colleagues in DC were just going to bed and left the office at the same time DC staffers were heading out for happy hour. Nick worked 14 hours on Thursday. Today is Friday (our one day off each week, in case you forgot), and I'm getting ready to go to a 4pm meeting. Therefore I'll just post some pictures in response to this week's Foreign Service Blog Roundup theme "Where are you now?", and let the New York Times do the talking for me.

My field trip to the Kabul Women's Garden

**Update: Yeah....the DAI project mentioned in this CNN article and this NYT article....yeah, I'm involved in that project. Holy tenous situation, Batman.

Busted

2010-10-17T01:29:00.010-04:00

The history books tell us that the name"Afghanistan" comes from the Persian language, where the word "Afghans" referred to the Pashtun tribes that rose to power in the region during the 18th century.

The history books are wrong. "Afghanistan" does not mean "land of the Pashtun tribes." It means "land that destroys small household electronics."

In the 11 months since I arrived in Kabul, the following items have gone kaput:

coffee maker
immersion blender/food processor/most kick-ass kitchen gadget ever (aka the "Thunderstick")
electric tea kettle
several alarm clocks
Nick's beard trimmer
my hair dryer

Yes, they were all plugged into an adapter or step-down converter when they died. Yes, they were all working when we left the US.

We really don't know why all of these appliances bought the farm. Luckily only one was a must-have: my hair dryer. It died just this past Friday, and I was in a bad mood about it for 2 days! I know this makes me sound like a high-maintenance girl. In fact, all I could think about was the line from Spaceballs: "That's my industrial strength hairdryer, and I CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT IT!" I mean, anyone who really knows me will tell you that I am anything but high maintenance. But with my newly shortened hair (I got it cut in Istanbul -- letting a guy who didn't speak much English take a pair of scissors to my head was an interesting experience, and an exercise in trust!), I can't just hop out of the shower and into a ponytail. I need a hairdryer......and a straightener, ideally. But that's all I need, I swear! I am not a collector of useless hair and beauty gadgets and products! Fortunately Nick and I were able to locate the ONE hairdryer available for sale on the ISAF compound, after Nick had searched high and low at the Camp Eggers PX and bazaar.

Bye bye tiny blue hairdryer. Hello giant red (& very heavy) hairdryer

As for the other two priority items -- Nick's beard trimmer and the Thunderstick -- well, Nick and I are very lucky to have incredibly helpful and generous parents. Nick made use of the "spa" services over at Camp Eggers to keep his beard growth in check while his parents mailed him a new trimmer. And my folks kindly replaced our beloved Thunderstick as a gift for our first wedding anniversary.

The other busted items aren't so much of a priority, at least at the moment. We bought an alarm clock with an Afghan plug at the little grocery store on the compound. Since we don't eat breakfast at home (we eat at our desks -- best way to deal with the new mandatory 8am start time), we don't miss the coffee maker. And the stove works just as well as the electric tea kettle.

And now, I don't really know how to wrap this up. How about a lesson of the day?

Kabul blows...............the circuits of small household appliances. *tee hee*

Ups & downs. Mostly downs.

2010-10-09T15:05:00.005-04:00

We're just about to start another work week. I think it will turn out to be a long one.

Some days it's all just too much.

SSDD

2010-10-03T12:49:00.004-04:00

We've been home for just under a week. My tummy troubles have returned. The work-related stress is back, just as if we never left.

The vacation glow lasted all of two days. Le sigh.

I think this time around will disprove my theory that I'm more motivated to write in the blog just after we return from leave. I'm working on a post recapping our trip to Turkey, but you all saw how my trip report from Bali and Singapore worked out. And I was in much better spirits then.

But there are lights at the end of the tunnel: the Marine Ball on November 5, a trip back to the States five days later, a good friend's wedding and Thanksgiving with our families...and of course, Budapest. We're trying hard not to put all of our hope eggs in the Budapest basket, but it's hard not to be excited.

8 months to go.

Merhaba

2010-09-20T13:45:00.003-04:00

That's "hello" in Turkish. Thus far the trip is great. We just finished the lllooonnnggg drive from Pamukkale (which was really beautiful at sunset and not at all as touristy as I had feared) to Goreme in Cappadocia. Thus far we've seen ruins, cats, ruins, road, ruins, the biggest nothingness I've ever seen (the Anatolian plateau) and more ruins. Loads of pictures to share later on, and lots of stories -- about the shortcut through the industrial park, the shortcut on the dirt road, the motorcyclist we almost killed at a tollbooth. Road trips are always an adventure.

Off to bed soon. Tomorrow is a long day of mountain biking and hiking. But before I go, here's a quick photo of our trip. And yes, it's of ruins.

Next stop

2010-09-14T02:26:00.002-04:00

Egy hideg sört kérek!

That translates to "I would like a cold beer please" in Hungarian.

Next stop: Budapest! Coming Summer 2011....

The one where I remember that the blog doesn't write itself

2010-09-12T08:33:00.008-04:00

Hey. Hi. Sorry for not writing in a while. Work has been crazy busy and frustrating and just GRRRR! Which means I end up without any time to write, and in terribly bad moods that aren't exactly conducive to writing. And Nick was sick. And I was sick. And then sick again. And sick some more. But I made a promise to myself that I would try to do a quick update before we head out on our Turkey vacation. Three sleeps to go!

Speaking of vacation, I've noticed that there seems to be a direct correlation between the frequency with which I post in the blog and the number of days since our last vacation. When I first get back from leave, I'm not only rested, but I'm out of the loop at work. This means I am less busy, with both the time and the energy to write. So the frequency with which I post is higher. When I'm 3 months past my previous leave and 4 days away from my next, I am too tired and burned out to write. And thus the frequency with which I post is lower. Hence the monthlong gap since my last post.

Anyway, here's a quick recap of the exciting (or not-so-exciting) stuff that's been going on in our life over the past month or so:

We just discovered that while we are on leave, we will miss: Yom Kippur, the announcement of Nick's next post, and the season premieres of Modern Family and Glee! Trip scheduling fail.
Or...we might hear about Nick's next post before we go. I just heard a rumor that we could get word as early as tomorrow. Stay tuned....
If we don't hear before we leave, I bet they have internet in Turkey. Where we will be in 3 more sleeps!
Although it's been a summer of many goodbyes, I had my first really really sad goodbye on September 6, when our good friends G&S left for their next post. In addition to living across the hall from us, I worked with G in both of my offices. G and his wife S were great cooks and dinner companions, champion euchre players (I am pleased to report that the girls defeated the boys in our final showdown!), and offered a lot of wise council on life in the foreign service as a married couple. To top it all off, S was a Glee fan, and G was a video game fan. So while S and I were having our "Glee girls" nights, Nick and G were having "boys play video games where they kill enemy soldiers with big guns and OMG-did you just shoot that guy in the head?!" nights. I know that life in the foreign service means a life of many hard goodbyes. But this first one is really smarting.
I've been dealing with a pretty serious case of homesickness. Well, not exactly homesickness. Let's call it "normal life" sickness. A few weeks before he left post, the aforementioned G was searching for a hotel at which to stay during his brief two week training stop in DC. In a flash two of my colleagues and I were up out of our chairs, recommending hotels and neighborhoods, with arguments such as "But Hotel X is close to a WHOLE FOODS!" And we were shouting out restaurant recommendations and where to go shopping and OMG you have to go to Harry's for happy hour because they serve beer in FROSTED MUGS! Then we heard what we were saying....and realized that we were all really missing life in the U.S. See, it's not really that I love DC with all my heart. It's that I miss being able to do normal things, like going to a grocery store, or out to a bar. I can do that in any city or town in the U.S. I just can't do it HERE. I miss having things to do each day other than work.
I bet they have great food and grocery stores in Turkey. Where we will be in 3 more sleeps!
Recent field trips: Serena Hotel for G&S' going-away brunch (with sushi and lox and a dessert bar and SUSHI!); a day trip to Mazar-i-Sharif for me, and a 3-day trip for Nick; a day trip for me to Bagram airfield which turned into an overnight trip because it was raining and our planes can't fly in the rain even though it's only a 10 minute flight between Bagram and Kabul and oh screw it I'll just walk home kthxbye!; a going away dinner for another colleague at the Kabul version of TGI Fridays; brunch at Le Bistro; and a going away party at the Kabul Health Club, where we were treated to a performance by the Kabul Dreams.
Nick and I have grown so tired of the food that we're cooking dinner at home almost every night. We've happily rediscovered crockpot cooking, and it's amazing how useful the slow cooker has been in making delicious meals with limited access to fresh ingredients. A few weeks ago we made pulled BBQ chicken sandwiches. Last week we served slow cooker lemongrass-garlic chicken to a bunch of friends who aren't so lucky as to have a kitchen. This week it was meatballs and tomato sauce for a big pasta dinner for our hooch-dwelling friends. The weather is starting to cool down a bit, and I am already thinking about the day it will be cold enough to make Manhattan clam chowder or Mom M's Glorified Stew.
Did I mention that we go on leave in 3 more sleeps!? All I can think about at the moment is "turkeyturkeyturkeyturkey." I'm so over this work thing. And for those of you who are interested, the destinations for our remaining breaks are: the U.S. (November), skiing in Europe (early January), destination unknown (February), and Nepal for an Everest base camp trek (April). And then We. Are. Done! (Sorry to be whiny. Did I mention that we're going on leave soon? Hopefully a good vacation will help with my attitude). We'll have intermittent access to the internet while we're travelling, so I'll try to get a few posts up about what we're seeing and doing and eating in Turkey. Don't be surprised if all I get out is a picture and a few words (see: posts from the Singapore and Bali trip). And I will try to post pictures of subjects other than of food. Maybe.

Update: I just finished a nice 50 minute run with my friend Go. General Petraeus said we were looking good and to keep it up.

One of these things is not like the other

2010-08-15T15:44:00.003-04:00

I snapped this photo last week while attending a going-away dinner at an Embassy-approved restaurant. The restaurant had a small art gallery in the back corner.

As soon as I spotted it, I knew I had to take a picture.

Sometimes Kabul is just absolutely bizarre.

Listed Part II

2010-08-14T05:00:00.000-04:00

Last night, as I ran truncated loops around the Embassy compound, Nick submitted his bid list to USAID HR. Seven Missions, not all of them exactly desirable. Hopefully the bad luck associated with the date of our bid submission -- Friday the 13th -- won't rub off on the decision process.

And now we wait.

Picture Pages

2010-07-31T14:43:00.013-04:00

Holy crap I am so far behind on posting pictures. Over the last two weeks my work load has just exploded. As in Liz's brain has gone kablooey and is oozing out her ears. Also Nick and I are both fighting off the Kabul Krud.

So, not a lot of insightful thoughts today. Mostly picture pages. Here's a look at Nick and Liz's June 2010 in Kabul.

When Nick and I returned from home leave, we discovered that one of the Kabul Kitties had given birth to 4 kittens: one orange and white striped, one black and white spotted, one grey and white striped, and one calico. Given how different the kittens look I think Mommy Cat might be a bit of a tramp, although I leave it to Toad to educate me on cat genetics.

The British Ball took place about 2 weeks after we got back from home leave. With dinner, dancing, and way too much to drink, we were almost able to forget that we were in Kabul with 12 more months to go before the end of our tour.

We went to the Ball with a bunch of friends, including the lovely lady pictured below. That's Go, my awesome running buddy. She kept me company on my pre-3oth birthday half marathon (which I did finish, in about 2.5 hours under the blazing Kabul sun. And then two weeks later Go went and finished the Kabul Marathon in just about 5 hours, never mind the nasty stomach bug that kept her from eating for 5 days prior to the race. Show off).

A week after the Ball I spoke at the USAID-sponsored Afghan First conference, held at a hotel high on a hill on the outskirts of Kabul. The conference served to educate Afghan business owners about contracting opportunities with the USG. I was bombarded with questions that weren't really questions about USAID's stabilization programming ("The river cleaning program you did in City X. I do not think that was a good program." Okay, thanks!), with business cards from construction company owners, and with requests to pose for pictures with said business owners. And I spent 3 hours under a head scarf in a stifling hot conference hall. What was good about the conference? As always, the chance to leave the compound and get a different view of Kabul (and the air was remarkably clear that day!)

But the very very best thing about the conference? A non-DFAC lunch.

Lastly, at the very end of the month, Nick and I and my friend Sarah got to go out on a Thursday night for an "official" event -- a party at the Serena Hotel (Kabul's only 5 star hotel!) to celebrate the launch of Safi Airline's new plane. It was another night that was so pleasant as to almost make me forget where I was. The Serena would be a beautiful hotel in any city -- the fact that it's in Kabul only heightens its appeal. We sat in a lovely courtyard at tables with white tablecloths, sipping fruit juice and enjoying the sunset and a warm summer (dust free, for once!) breeze. We chatted with tablemates. Nick chatted up the Deputy Minister of Finance. We listened to some speeches and scored some Safi swag.

Of course, you can guess what the best part of the whole evening was, right?

It was absolutely the 20 ft long buffet dinner. With fish. And salads. And carrot ginger soup. And Singapore noodles, Afghan chicken, lamb, potatoes And vegetables that weren't cooked and salted to death. Not to mention desserts.

Oh yeah. The company wasn't too bad either.

Listed

2010-07-28T15:45:00.004-04:00

The bid list. It is here.

There are lots of positions open in Afghanistan. And Iraq. And Sudan.

There are slots at Missions other than these three, of course. At first glance, some are very appealing (eastern Europe). Some are not so appealing (a conflict prone country in the Pacific). There are one-year positions in CPCs, like Afghanistan. All of them make me ask whether the FS life is right for us.

Let the deliberations begin.

Leaks

2010-07-27T14:45:00.002-04:00

You might be waiting for a post with my thoughts and reactions the Wikileaks story. For propriety's sake, there's not much I can say except.....some days I feel like I know the answers, and some days I have nothing but questions.

Circus, circus, I love the circus!

2010-07-20T01:44:00.004-04:00

In another life I will have the skills and flexibility to be a real circus freak.

In the meantime, I will just have to live vicariously through those individuals who are doing it in this lifetime.

Coming this November....

J, please set your DVR NOW!

None of your bid-ness

2010-07-12T02:01:00.004-04:00

July 12 was supposed to be a red-letter day: the day USAID HR would release the priority bidding list. At last, Nick and I would be able to answer the question that everyone -- friends, family, and colleagues alike -- has been asking us: where are you going to go when you're done with Afghanistan?

For the uninitiated, the bid list is the process by which a foreign service officer (FSO) picks which post s/he goes to next. (I think the process is essentially the same for USAID and State, although of course we're looking at different positions and posts. But just FYI that any time I talk about FSOs in this post, I'm talking about USAID employees.) In very basic terms, HR sends out a list of all of the jobs available at all of the USAID missions throughout the world. Nick, and everyone else serving at a critical threat post, get to bid before the rest of USAID. Nick and I review the list, pick three countries that sound like fun, and then we get assigned to one of them. Quick and painless, right?

Wrong.

According to colleagues with significant bidding experience and the booklet we received from HR titled "Tips for first time bidders", bidding is a long and complicated process. Deciding which posts to bid on involves more than just looking at a map and picking what country we'd like to see next. We have to take into consideration:

Nick's career trajectory
how difficult it might be for me to get a job outside the Embassy (or if it's even allowed)
how far away from our families we want to be for the next four years (the duration of most USAID posts)
whether it's a language-designated post (requiring us to move to DC temporarily so Nick can do language training)
the different benefit packages associated with each mission (danger and locality pay differ from country to country)
the security situation, and
the overall quality of life.

The last two points -- as well as the second bullet -- are especially important as we move into the potential baby making/adopting years. Wait, don't get excited (I'm looking at you, Parents X, Parents M, and Sister J). It's not something we're looking at in the immediate future. But it is something in the back of our minds, and something we need to consider when picking where we're going to be living from ages 31-35.

Needless to say, the buildup to the release of the bid list has been intense. We've been tossing around our "dream" locations, trying to get inside information on what positions will be open, grilling our colleagues about the pros and cons of the missions at which they previously served, and doing a lot of thinking and talking about whether a career in the foreign service is right for us. Nick has even been counting down the days to the release of the bid list, until I asked him to stop because just thinking about all of the variables and the implications and the...bigness of it all made my head hurt. So I was really looking forward to today. July 12. Bid list release day. The day when the fuzzy, shapeless mess that is our future would become just a little bit more clear.

Except that it didn't happen. Saturday morning an email went out to all USAID staffers: "Due to unforeseen circumstances, HR must delay indefinitely the release of the bid list for priority bidders."

So today ended up being just another Monday, like all the other Mondays in Afghanistan before it. And the waiting resumes.

Awards

2010-07-08T08:26:00.003-04:00

In a rare change of pace, Nick and I have actually had a pretty busy social calendar. His birthday, the British Ball, the 4th of July, and lots of going away dinners and parties. It's a very busy turnover season -- I think something like 85% of Mission staff are departing this summer. And everyone gets a party. Or sometimes multiple parties.

I have lots of pictures and anecdotes to share. And I'd share them all with you in this post, except Nick left the camera at his office.

But I do have a few pictures that I can share right now, because they're from someone else's camera.

Pretty spiffy, huh? That's Nick with Ambassador Eikenberry, receiving one of his 3(!) awards at last week's Embassy awards ceremony. And that's me and a few of my colleagues receiving an award from the Ambassador in recognition of our work on the Marble Conference, one of the two group awards I received.

There are days where I can't stand my work. There are days where I can't stand being here. But even I have to admit that this was pretty cool.

They say it's your birthday

2010-06-19T14:53:00.009-04:00

Last year Nick celebrated his birthday -- his 30th birthday! -- all by himself in Kabul.

OK, so he wasn't quite all alone. Thanks to a little birdie, his colleagues knew it was his birthday, but he'd only been in Kabul for a few weeks. So he hadn't grown close to anyone yet, and in spite of his friends' efforts he spent most of the day feeling lonely and throwing himself a pity party.

I wanted to make up for that this year, and although a big blowout bash wasn't in the cards, a pizza party certainly was!

So last Thursday night we ordered in a ton of pizzas from a local restaurant, and served them up al fresco at the fire pit, with plenty of beer and wine. The pizza was....a little weird, with some pinkish mystery meat on the pepperoni. It was better than most of the DFAC's food, but a far cry from the delicious Chicago deep dish we were enjoying just a few short weeks ago.

The birthday boy indulging in 3 of his favorite vices: food, beer and smokes.
And doing it all at once, with one hand. An impressive display of skill.

Another indulgence: one of the Kabul kitties.

Yes, we had jello shots. Apparently not everyone was a fan.

We also had chocolate-dipped peanut butter cookies.

A quick note on the cookies. I had wanted to make Nick's favorite brownie -- Toad's chocolate-stuffed peanut butter brownies -- but completely forgot to carry the necessary ingredients back with me from the states. The cookies were the best chocolate-PB combo I could make with limited supplies.

We also had smores.

And cake. Stacy is our neighbor, whose birthday was also last week.

And lots and lots to drink.

It was a long, fun, rather intoxicated night. The next morning I woke up to make a special birthday breakfast: pancakes and bacon.

Just what the birthday boy wanted!

The rest of the day was spent browsing the bazaar, napping, and playing video games. A perfect day in Nick's world.

Happy Birthday Nicky!

Perspective

2010-06-14T10:19:00.002-04:00

If you're wondering if we made it back to Kabul safely, we did.

If you're wondering why I haven't posted anything since our return, it's because coming back has been hard. And when things get hard I find it difficult to motivate myself to post. And when I do post when things are hard, I tend to whine a lot.

My post about our return to Afghanistan was going to be a whine fest. I was going to whine about how discouraged I get trying to maneuver my way through US government bureaucracy. About how our trip back to US made me realize how much life I'm missing by being here. About how I've reached the limit on my ability to eat DFAC food. About how defeated I feel.

But then I read this article and looked at these pictures from the New York Times about U.S. military medical evacuation teams......and I realized that I have no right to complain about my experience in Afghanistan.

Perspective. It's a sobering thing.

We're still alive

2010-06-04T08:38:00.005-04:00

I did warn everyone that posting would be light while we soak up as much family time/friend time/DC time/freedom time while we're back in the U.S. For once I'm following through on something I promised on the blog. Heh.

We're coming to the end of our home leave -- just 3 short days left. In bullet form, highlights of the trip thus far are:

riding in a convertible with Nick driving
getting my hairs cut
visiting with the whole Marvin clan at my grandmother's 90th birthday party
finding vacuum packed fresh gnocchi and vacuum packed sausages, neither of which need to be refrigerated. Score!
clothes shopping in an actual store! I shelled out $200+ dollars at H&M in one go
watching Nick and my dad grilling together
eating my mom's home cooked food
watching Nick devour $42 worth of sushi by himself
visiting with the whole Vivio family
Mom X's fridge full of Greek goodies
seeing Iron Man 2 in a real movie theater. The movie wasn't that great, but my new philosophy about most things is "it's better than Kabul." So from that perspective, the movie was fantastic!
gorging ourselves on Chicago deep-dish pizza
watching a major sporting event (Blackhawks vs Flyers) at the appropriate hour while drinking beer in a noisy bar filled with other sports fans (instead of in a dusty tent with four guys sipping coffee at the butt crack of dawn)
watching the current episode of Glee as it airs
indulging in a fancy lunch at Central. I would crawl belly deep through hell for the gougeres alone
running from Foggy Bottom to far Capitol Hill and realizing just how much my running has improved. And Nick made the run too. I am so proud.
flying trapeze
seeing a show! The fact that is was the world premiere of a new musical -- Sycamore Trees -- at Signature Theater only sweetened the deal
having a little alone time with my Toad so that I could vent without worrying about hurting anyone's feelings
Nick finally getting his hands on his new bike
blasting Glee in the car with my sister (how could I forget this when I first wrote this post?)

We're planning to make the most of our remaining time, busying ourselves with a big happy hour party with our friends, more trapeze classes, more theater, more runs through the city, more visits with friends and family, and more shopping. It's busy busy busy, so I'm going to leave the post here and go get started on all of those things we stall have left to do.

But before I go, here's what our Year 2 consumables shipment looked like:

Here

2010-05-23T08:07:00.003-04:00

We're here. Safe and sound back in the good old US of A and already stuffing our faces full of yummy foods. Posting will be light over the next two weeks as we criss-cross the country visiting family. We've just about completed Stop 1 -- Chapel Hill, NC for my grandmother's 90th birthday. Step 2 -- Albany, NY to hang with my folks for a few days is next.

And for those of you who are curious as to what we did on our very first day back in the States....

They say

2010-05-19T00:00:00.001-04:00

They say that 30 is the new 20. I don't know many 20 year olds who have sciatica. That was the diagnosis I received yesterday for my recurring leg pain.

Yep, I'm officially old today. Although if I've been lucky enough to inherit my grandmother's good genes -- she turned 90 yesterday! -- I have many more years to enjoy.

We're on a plane in just about 12 hours, U.S.-bound. And there was much rejoicing.

Runnin'

2010-05-12T23:17:00.006-04:00

On May 28, the Embassy is hosting its second Kabul Marathon. I would run the half marathon, but Nick and I will be on home leave so we're missing the whole thing.

A few weeks ago I re-committed myself to doing the best I can to eat healthy and stay in shape while we're in Afghanistan.

A few weeks ago I committed myself to running the distance of a half marathon (13 miles) to mark the milestone of turning 30. Since I'd miss the marathon, I picked the last Friday before my birthday as the target date. And tomorrow's the big day. (Ignore the date on this post. In Kabul it's already Thursday, May 13)

8 loops around the compound. 16 times down and up the horrible tunnel hill. No one cheering me on or handing out beverages or presenting me with a medal when I finish. Just me, my iPod and a couple of strategically placed water bottles.

On your mark, get set.....

1 of 3

2010-05-11T15:31:00.011-04:00

The next 3 posts will be rather heavy on the pictures, and light on the self-reflection. As our leave date gets closer I find I have less and less brain capacity to dedicate to writing words. Most of my brain seems to be occupied with planning our whirlwind visit (DC-NC-NY-IL-DC), making lists of things we need to buy for our second year (consumables, toiletries, and clothes), and daydreaming of yummy food that tastes like...well, food!

Our theme for this first post is: The Turquoise Mountain Foundation (TMF). (I can't let a post go by without a new acronym!)

A few weeks ago I had a meeting out at TMF's Institute for Afghan Arts and Architecture. For those of you unfamiliar with this organization, TMF is a "non-profit, non-governmental organisation that was established in 2006 at the request of HRH The Prince of Wales and HE Hamid Karzai, The President of Afghanistan...Turquoise Mountain's aim is to revive Afghanistan's traditional crafts, and to regenerate Murad Khane, a historic area of Kabul's old city known for its rich cultural heritage." TMF also operates a school -- the Institute for Arts and Architecture -- where students learn traditional crafts and arts skills (jewelry & gemstones, woodwork, calligraphy & painting, and ceramics) from master teachers.

Cool fact: the chair of TMF is Rory Stewart, famed author of The Places in Between.

Full disclosure: TMF receives funding from USAID. Hence, why I was out at the Institute for a meeting.

Here are some of the sights from in and around the Institute.

A typical view from a drive around Kabul.

Another typical Kabul sight: an ad hoc bookstore.

The Institute is located in a restored 19th-century royal fort that in the 1920s was given as a bride price to the family of a wealthy merchant.

TMF rescued this beautiful doorway from the trash heap, and installed is a part of the restoration. The fort is filled with such rescued treasures.

The fort is quite beautiful. The gardens even more so. This is seriously the most greenery I've seen anywhere in Kabul.

This amazingly detailed painting is a work-in-progress from one of the Institute's students. I forget what the artist is demonstrating with her hands. She was so nice, answered all of our questions, spoke wonderful English, and was more than happy to take on commissioned work! Everything is done by hand, with the tiniest brushes and pens I've ever seen.

A display in the jewelry workshop. The pieces shown in the picture are nice, but not much different than what I find at the ISAF bazaar. But then the instructor showed us the "special" display case, with the most fantastic Afghan jewelry I've ever seen. I didn't snap of picture out of respect for the students' designs. But they were seriously amazing. There was a pin that we were all fighting over. Sadly the Institute doesn't sell the students' work. But one can commission a student to create a custom piece. I think I smell a birthday gift for a certain special someone....

The gemstone polishing workshop was very interesting. Here are some students polishing stones.....

....and here are some other students, also polishing stones. The students learn on both the modern and tradition polishing machines, ensuring that traditions are preserved while giving the students the skills they need to succeed in the modern industry.

We also visited the woodcarving shop, but my pictures didn't come out all that well.

In addition to operating the Institute, TMF is also restoring Murad Khane, a historic commercial and residential quarter in the heart of Kabul's old city, renowned for its rich cultural heritage of traditional Afghan architecture and crafts. Turquoise Mountain is working with Murad Khane residents to rebuild and conserve historic buildings, clear rubbish, and build schools and health clinics. Eventually the Institute will move to Murad Khane.

That's about it for the photo tour of my meeting at TMF. Next up: my visits to Jalalabad and Kandahar.

What a difference a year makes

2010-05-04T14:29:00.010-04:00

Wow. This blog is one year old today. One year ago, I was a newlywed, still dealing with the letdown from the wedding, lost in the chaos of packing Nick out for Afghanistan, unsure of when I would be joining him in country, and feeling overwhelmed by the sheer uncertainty, magnitude, and jumping-off-a-cliff feeling of it all.

So where am I now? I feel like I have come a long way in some ways -- after all, it's 6930 miles from DC to Kabul -- but in many ways little has changed. I'm in Afghanistan, obviously, so that's one major difference. I'm writing speeches for ambassadors, visiting military bases out in the middle of nowhere (more on that later), riding around in armored SUVs, and living in a place only a small number of Americans ever see. I've also collected a fantastic and diverse group of friends, who have lived in every country imaginable. And I've collected a whole bunch of new stamps in my passport, with more to come (we're looking at cycling the Dalmatian coast in September!)

But I'm still dealing with letdown, a feeling that plagues me every time we come back from leave. I'm still dealing with chaos, but now it's the chaos of trying to push out a massive development initiative, with many moving parts, to empower the Government of Afghanistan to operate at the district level. I'm still unsure, but now it's about where we'll go once our tour in Afghanistan is done in June 2011 (we start the bidding process for our next post in July). I'm still overwhelmed, now by the unbelievable amount of work that remains to be done in Afghanistan. I'm uncertain about the choice we made in coming here, and overwhelmed by the magnitude of what the people of Afghanistan and the US Government are trying to accomplish. That "jumped off a cliff" feeling has never really gone away.

Now that I've probably depressed and scared you all, I'm not really sure how to wrap this up. Nick and I keep taking it day by day, evaluating our choices and trying to figure out the best options for where we'll go after Afghanistan. We know that paying our dues now will open up more possibilities for our future, and that's what we focus on during the really bad days. We love each other, we support each other, we still find ways to have fun together -- even with our limited freedom while on the compound -- and we know that at the very least we'll come out of our tour with some cool stories and interesting experiences.

Thanks to all of you -- family, friends and strangers alike -- who have been following along and keeping tabs on our adventure. I'll keep updating as often as I can...or at least as often as I have something interesting to talk about. And Nick and I will see a whole bunch of you when we're stateside in just 16 more sleeps!

Lastly, as a thank you present to our loyal readers (or maybe just to M&D M and M&D X)...links to photos from our trip to Singapore and Bali, plus a video bonus!

I never delivered on my promise to tell you all about our trip. At this point I'm not sure I'll ever get around to finishing those posts, and I'm starting to get a backlog of photos (Jalalabad and Kandahar, coming soon!). So, enjoy. And thanks for sharing the past year with us!

Wedding photo by Lara Swanson, who rocks!

In lieu of a real post...

2010-04-27T03:00:00.005-04:00

....here's a picture of us shopping at last month's Embassy bazaar.

I swear I'll get a substantive post up soon. Maybe.

Acronymese

2010-04-21T03:10:00.008-04:00

I am working on becoming fluent in the government's primary language: acronymese. I'm really flexing my vocab muscles today -- here are the acronyms I've used thus far in putting together my office's bi-weekly newsletter.

ACBR	IT
ACCI	LARA
ACD	LLC
ADT	MAIL
AISA	MCIT
ANA	MOCI
ANP	MOE
ANSA	MOF
ASMED	MTO
ASYCUDA	N-ACEG
AT	NATO
AWBF	NCDO
CBS	OPIC
DAB	POS
EGGI	PRT
EPAA	RC
GDA	RUFCOD
GIRoA	SME
ICN	TAFA
IIFC	UNOPS
IMF	WTO

Ugh.

Shaken, not stirred

2010-04-19T05:09:00.004-04:00

Coming to Afghanistan, there were two things about which I was especially nervous: bombs, and earthquakes. I experienced a bomb less than three weeks after I arrived, so that left only the earthquake to worry about.

Last night I was reading in bed by flashlight, as Nick had already gone to sleep. I'm used to him being a little twitchy when he first starts to go under, so when the mattress started bouncing in a strange way, I assumed it was just Nick being really, really twitchy.

This morning I received an email confirming the occurrence of a 5.3 earthquake on April 19 at 12:58 AM Kabul time. The epicenter was in Samangan, 120 miles north.

Huh.

Now, don't get me wrong. After all of the recent catastrophic earthquakes, I'm quite glad that this was a small one. Given that many of the structures in Kabul -- and throughout Afghanistan -- look like this....

...even a small earthquake could be devastating.

But there's also a small part of me that's a little disappointed. After all of my worrying...that was kind of anti-climactic.

Out

2010-04-14T14:51:00.012-04:00

Let's see, what I have I been up to over the past week or so?

Oh, just the usual really. I ran 7.5 miles last Friday, although it took me forever because I had to stop to go to the bathroom 5 times (I caught the Noro virus that's going around the compound).

What else? Um, Nick came back from Greece loaded down with goodies: olives, bread, tins of eggplant and green beans, cheese, halva, salmon, dried meats, tea. So that was nice.

I think that's about all....

Oh yeah, I also wrote some remarks for some Embassy official. And for the Administrator Shah guy that he mentioned.

And on Tuesday I went here....

Which looks like this.....

...and this....

(photo courtesy of skyscapercity.com)

...and this.

I went to a conference where lots of important people talked about marble, about how important it is to Afghanistan's economic development (there's an estimated $1 trillion+ dollars worth in the ground), and how bad it is that the current practice of extracting the marble from the quarries -- otherwise known as blasting it out with dynamite -- results in a loss of 50-80% of the product, and the stone that isn't destroyed is pretty damaged. But there was still some cool stuff on display made from stone that survived.

And then these two high-ranking U.S. officials....
(that's Dep. of State Jack Lew in the middle, and Ambassador Karl Eikenberry on the right)

...stood up in front of the huge conference hall full of important people and said some more words that I had written.

And then I ate some yummy Afghan food, and then we flew home.

I can smell the pollution from here

Another day, another dollar. You know?

The end.

Gripety gripe

2010-04-08T16:24:00.004-04:00

My work week in a nutshell:
Words! Words! I'm so sick of words!
I get words all day through;
First from him, now from you! Is that all you blighters can do?

Bonus points if you can name that musical. Mom M -- you're excluded because I know you know it!

It's been an interesting week here at post. Lots of VIP visits. Lots more coming. Lots of speech writing. Lots of stress. Lots of very late nights. Lots of time hanging out by myself because Nick is off in Greece visiting with his folks. Not a lot of working out or sleep. Not a lot of fun.

I am out of words. I am sick of words.

And I have to work on my day off.

Vanity

2010-04-02T06:04:00.005-04:00

So I noticed this week that some of my pants are getting a little tight around the waist. Which is weird, because it used to be that all of my work pants were a little big on me and required belts. And oh, my belt. It feels a little tighter than it used to.

Today I put on my favorite jeans. They're tight too.

Crap.

So I'm either in a perpetual state of bloat (which is possible; something in the food or water here bothers my stomach) or I'm gaining weight. I hope hope hope hope that the first possible cause is the culprit, but I have a sinking feeling that it's the latter.

Life in Kabul is starting to get the best of me. I'm working incredibly long hours, which means I've been coming home too late and too tired and too fed up with everything to work out. I've been trying to eat as healthful meals as possible. But when I crash in the afternoon I've been reaching for chocolates, candies, too large servings of nuts, and cookies. I've been stress eating in the afternoons and evenings. Thirty minutes after I finish dinner I'm hungry again, and spend the rest of the night grazing. I've even fallen off the soda wagon, although luckily I've kept some semblance of common sense, limiting myself to diet coke.

Last but not least, I've been overindulging every time I have the opportunity to eat non D-FAC food. Last night it was Lebanese and Indian. This morning it was brunch, where in spite of my intentions to not eat chametz during Passover, I not only ate some leavened bread but a whole mini baguette, a chocolate croissant, and half of a fig pastry. Plus butter. And juice. And two lattes. And a whole damn omelet. 4.5 hours later and I'm STILL full. Yep, overindulgence at its finest.

I see a very bad pattern starting to form, and I say it stops here. I have to do something to commit myself to getting back on track.

So I'm putting these promises out there so that all of you can hold me accountable. From now on I will:

Work out Mon-Weds & Fri-Sat
Bring one serving of a healthy snack from home each day to get me through the afternoon (no more big bags of almonds in the desk drawer)
Pretend as if my office's candy drawer does not exist (which is near impossible to do considering it's right next to the printer)
No more snacking on goodies at night. If I absolutely must eat, I will limit myself to either fruit or plain popcorn
I will try to stop overindulging on non D-FAC foods. Best I can offer at the moment.

This place is doing everything it can to take me down. Time is sneaking up on me too , as my 20s come to a close in just over one month. I refuse refuse refuse to let either of them win.

PS update: I'm off to a good start. I just finished a strong 6 mile run (3 outside, 3 on the treadmill. Who decided it was ok for it to rain on a Friday, our one day off?!)

Chag Sameach

2010-03-29T14:57:00.006-04:00

Happy Passover to all of my fellow MoTs! The progressive Seder was a big hit. We ended up with about 20 people all together, which is a tight squeeze in our apartment. But we made it work.

This photo is actually from the end of the Seder, after the 4 (or more) cups of wine. Which is why we all look a little goofy. Hooray wine!

We hosted the "ceremonial" part of the Seder in our place, complete with charoset (made by Nick -- a big hit!), matzah & maror (thanks again to Mom M for the survival kit), eggs from the D-FAC, and karpas (parsley) provided by a contact outside the wire. We had a Seder plate, with a shankbone that was at least fresh and most likely hallal, if not exactly kosher.

Brad breaking the afikomen, which he diligently hid, but which we forgot to search for after the meal.

For the soup course, we moved upstairs to another apartment, for real, homemade matzah ball soup, with Passover popovers (Mom M to the rescue again!) The popovers were tasty, but were lacking the puffiness that makes my Mom's so delicious. Mine were dense and very filling. I think the altitude messed with them.

Nick, with his popover and matzah ball soup, sans matzah ball. It vanished pretty quickly.

We had dinner at a third apartment, with lamb, potatoes, and lots of salad -- the one thing that's easy to come by in these parts. We're pretty sure the lamb was actually an old sheep, as the meat was a little tough. But still delicious, and still not D-FAC food.

Not a bad spread for a somewhat ad hoc seder

For dessert we moved back down to our apartment, where we feasted on the macaroons I showed off yesterday, and a flourless chocolate cake. We let Elijah borrow the glass I gave to Nick as a wedding present, and we opened the door for him, drawing a strange look from a passing gurka (Nepalese guard).

Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that I'd be hosting a Seder in Kabul. But in the end, it was pretty much like any other Seder. Yes, we were sitting on the floor, we used mismatched flatware, and we served everything buffet style. But all of the important bits were there: good food, good friends, and LOTS of wine! It's been a really, really, really rough and bizarre and frustrating 5 days at work, so I was grateful for this opportunity to spend time doing something almost normal.

Chag Sameach to all. Next year....still in Kabul! But, fingers crossed for us hosting our 2012 Seder in Tel Aviv.

PS: On a completely unrelated note, I ran my first 10k (a personal best for distance!) last Friday, finishing in 1:03:54. Not half bad, I think, particularly given the thin and polluted Kabul air. Pictures to come, I hope!

A little taste of home

2010-03-27T15:04:00.004-04:00

Neither rain nor snow nor sleet nor 3 straight days of 12 hour work days

shall keep me from making macaroons!

Thank you Mom M for the Passover survival kit!

I'll be hosting the first leg of a progressive seder.....pictures to come once the first night is done!

Worst.Blogger.Ever

2010-03-23T15:48:00.003-04:00

Holy cow, Nick and I are really really bad at this whole blogging thing. Way back at New Years I resolved to post updates more often, and since then I've posted a whopping 11 times. 11. Lame.

I'm trying to figure out my damage.....why I can't get into a regular posting routine. Part of the problem is the work load here. Holy crap, this place is insane. We work 6 days a week (Saturday -- Thursday), and any day where I work less than 10 hrs is a miracle (I'm actually typing this while at the office, trying to keep my brain from falling out of my head as I continue to work at 10:39 pm). My typical day usually runs about 11 hours or more. And for the most part I am working (or sitting in meetings) that entire time. So by the time I get home from the office, work out, and do whatever chores need to be done, I find myself with little time to blog. Also, after spending all day sitting in front of a computer, the last thing I want to do when I come home is....sit in front of the computer.

The other problem is that I just don't have that much to say. Contrary to popular belief, life here on the Kabul compound just isn't that exciting. We wake up, we walk to the D-FAC for breakfast, we go to our offices, we go to the D-FAC for lunch, we go to our offices, we walk back to our apartment, and then work out. We live, eat, and hang out with the same people day after day. Evening entertainment consists of one of the following routines:

nothing, because we got home too damn late to do anything other than go straight to bed
working out, dinner, chores, bed
watching a movie or bad AFN TV, either at our apartment or a friend's, because there's no where else to go and nothing else to do

This does not make for very exciting blogging.

I follow a couple of Foreign Service blogs, and I'm so jealous of their wealth of material for posts. They're all at non-compound posts, meaning that they are really living in foreign countries, with interesting and/or frustrating encounters with the local culture of their respective cities. They also have very astute observations on the ups and downs of foreign service life. But they're doing it: living the dream, making their way as strangers in strange lands.

Living on the Kabul compound, in contrast, is like living in the smallest, most messed up and minuscule college town in America. I spend nearly all of my time with other Americans. The only time I interact with Afghans is in a work setting, and I don't really work that closely with any of them. The food in the dining hall is terrible, and there's only one pizza joint. The movie theater is small and uncomfortable and about 3 years behind in new releases.

Who wants to write/read about that every day?

I'm sure there are a few of you out there who would love to hear all about the minutiae of our daily lives, and I wish that I could satisfy your desire for info on our comings and goings (or in our case, staying-puttings?). But that doesn't seem to be in the cards.

So for now I'll give you a quick update on our lives, in bullet form, while I continue working on the posts about our vacation (which are approaching epic-novel length). And I promise that I will continue to try -- TRY being the operative word -- to write more often.

So what's new in our lives?:

Nick's cool maps that he makes every week showing the US Government's recent accomplishments in Afghanistan are apparently now being forwarded to seriously VIPs back in DC.
I'm now wearing two hats at work: I'm still doing communications work for the economic growth office, but now I'm also doing strategic communication for USAID Afghanistan's new stabilization unit, targeting delivery of Afghan government services at the district level. And it's super awesome when the two offices task me with preparing completely different documents that are of equal priority and have the same deadline...which is exactly why I am still at the office at this ridiculous hour.
I'm still sick; the plumbing system has yet to return to normal, so I'm thinking that it's probably time for a trip to the doctor.
There's been a fair bit of news/gossip about life in the foreign service recently. First The Washington Post published this story on how much life sucks for USG staff posted in Kabul. According to the Post, we're overworked, understaffed, under-trained, victims of drive-by taskings and all-hours meeting requests from DC, and -- as if all that weren't enough -- the infrastructure needed to keep us all going (housing, food, training system, etc) hasn't been upped to accommodate the civilian surge. I wish I could say the article is 100% inaccurate. But...it's not.

The second article is from the Atlantic Free Press, discussing the spoiled and cushy lives US. Diplomats lead in fantastic and exotic countries like Tajikistan and Somalia. I have nothing to add to what the commenters have already said, except that there's no doubt that life in the foreign service has its benefits. But is also has many many MANY challenges -- it's definitely not for everyone. I'd like to invite the author to join up and see if he can hack it, but it turns out he already tried to and was fired for inappropriate behavior two weeks into training. Methinks his opinion on the diplomatic corps might be just a wee bit biased.
One thing that definitely did not suck about this past week?.....My consumables and household effects arrived! They were late, a bit wet, but save for a few food items, everything survived intact. Unfortunately I've been so busy that I haven't had much time to enjoy the infusion of cooking ingredients.
Speaking of food: the Kabul compound is running out of it. Ok, not really out, but very low on key supplies. Our food company has gone a few weeks without a delivery, so they're pretty much out of produce and other non-frozen foods, such as eggs. Yesterday the police stopped 3 of our trucks from entering the city. Tonight's salad bar consisted of two vats of beets, soggy bean sprouts, watery cucumbers, and onions, and our fruit options at breakfast have been either canned fruit salad in syrup or applesauce.
I thoroughly embarrassed myself in front of my colleagues the other day by missing my chair when I went to sit down. I stood up to file a folder, and the uneven floor caused my chair to roll away, which I didn't realize had happened until I was on my ass on the floor. Yep, graceful. Luckily someone else did the same thing just two days later, so I'm not the only clumsy clod around these parts.
Last but not least: mark your calendars! With any luck, Nick and I will be in the states from May 20-June 6. Much of our leave is already reserved for family time, but we will have a few free days in DC -- likely May 31st through our departure date. We're looking for suggestions of great new DC restaurants to try. So give us your recommendations, and then make a date to meet us there!

I've caught the travel bug...

2010-03-08T10:46:00.004-05:00

..and it's kicking my ass.

Traveling to foreign countries and exotic lands is always an adventure. Staying healthy while enjoying the adventure can be a bit of a challenge. It's hard to remember to not open your mouth in the shower, to brush your teeth with bottled water, to stay away from fruits and vegetables that aren't peeled. And even if you're as careful as can be, it only takes one piece of contaminated meat, one undercooked piece of fish, and you're done for.

Nick and I ate our faces off in Singapore. We ate our faces off in Bali. Sushi, salads, fruits, steak tartare, all of it delicious, without any significant problems. Nick had a brief bout of GI trouble, but nothing serious.

After checking in for our departing flight out of Bali, we decided to treat ourselves to one last sushi feast at one of the airport's many Japanese restaurants. We shared a variety of different sashimi and nagiri, and I topped it off with an innocent looking seaweed salad.

Cut to twenty hours later, just as we're about to board our flight from Delhi to Kabul, and that innocent salad transformed into a raging monster. I went down. HARD. I'll spare you all the gory details, but let's just say that I became intimately acquainted with the bathroom on India Air flight 843.

I'm planning a long write up (likely to be delivered in several lengthy installments) of our whole trip, with pictures and video and the whole deal. But I think it'll have to wait until I've moved on from my current diet of rice and jello. I want my descriptions of all the wonderful food we ate to justice to its delicious-ness, but right now I can't even bear to look at the pictures.

So good going down; so vile coming up

I just came across an interesting chat on Chowhound.com about the risks and pleasures of eating local and street foods while traveling abroad. I'm interested to see what camp all you readers (all 15 of you?) fall into. I'm definitely of the "screw the risks; I'll have what the locals are having" camp. Unfortunately that means occasionally paying the price. But damn, that seaweed was worth it.

Back to life, back to reality

2010-03-05T04:38:00.005-05:00

Singapore was great. Bali was great. The vacation was....great.

We're sitting in Singapore airport right now, enjoying one last kopi-o, one last kaya toast, one last Burger King Whopper with fries before we board the plane for Delhi. By this time tomorrow we'll be back in Kabul. It'll be another 2.5 months before we get out again.

Whenever we go on trips I always say that I don't want it to end, that I never want to go home.

I'm saying the exact same thing now, and I've never meant it more in my whole life.

Be jealous...

2010-02-24T07:41:00.003-05:00

...because this is the view from our own private villa deep in the hills of Bali.

See you in a few days. If we can manage to work up the motivation to leave.

Detox time

2010-02-23T11:32:00.003-05:00

After a wonderful 4 days in Singapore, we are off to Bali in the AM. Sorry for not posting more during our stay here. One would think that such a place filled with so much technology would have free wireless all over the place. But they do not.

But Singapore has everything else one could possibly want, including:

this

and this
and this

The question we keep asking each other: do we really have to leave?

Thanks to Amanda for showing us a good time. And thanks Singpore for giving us just the vacation we needed. We'll be back!

Bali is next. The detox from the gluttony of Singapore will do us some good, I think.

Singapore is:

2010-02-21T10:39:00.002-05:00

shopping
shopping
shopping
eating
eating
eating
the exact opposite from Kabul in every single way

Yeah, we're having a good time.

Deliverance

2010-02-16T03:09:00.001-05:00

MY CLOTHES ARE HERE!!!

Just in the nick of time. And they arrived safe and sound and none the worse for the wear. I was really worried that the box had been sitting outside all these long months, getting rained upon and rotting away in the sun. I was 75% sure that I would open box of rotting, ruined, mildewed clothes. But everything is clean and dry and ready to be packed up for Singapore and Bali.

My HHE and consumables are still stuck in customs, but at this point I really don't care. Our apartment is fully furnished, although a bit starkly decorated. We have food enough, and I'm assuming that I'll be able to restock on some personal items (styling spray, some medicines) in Singapore.

Yep, I don't care. Nick and I have checked out. In our minds, we're gone. We're in Singapore, gorging ourselves on delicious hawker food and marvelling at the sight of a real city. We're in Bali, hiking through forests and rice paddies, and riding bikes along black sand beaches.

Vacation, here we come.

My thoughts are racing....

2010-02-14T01:38:00.005-05:00

....because I just found this:
Afghan Mobile Mini Circus for Children

I hope hope hope that they are still in existence. Brainstorming on how to get involved.

Stay tuned.

As requested by a loyal reader

2010-02-10T09:53:00.005-05:00

My wonderful Toad requested that I post pictures and recipes whenever Nick and I improvise a home-cooked meal. I would never deny my Toad anything she wants, so enjoy! Except that Toad is a vegan, so....um, she will just have to pretend to enjoy.

The food at the D-FAC has been particularly vile recently, so we've cooked a fair number of dinners at home in the past few weeks. The majority of our recipes weren't particularly blog-worthy: grilled chicken breast from the D-FAC, recycled into a chicken salad sandwich; day old D-FAC rice and vegetable side dish recycled for veggie fried rice. That sort of thing.

We did make our first attempt at making a frittata, using eggs from the store, veggies and cheese from the D-FAC, salmon from Mom M, and our shiny new Calphalon non-stick skillet from Aaron and Sierra (thanks for the awesome wedding present!). It was pretty damn good, although I think we should have used the 8-inch instead of the 12-inch pan. The frittata was a little on the thin side. But still very very yummy. Sorry I forgot to take pictures.

Last week I made baked eggs, in order to use up the rest of the salmon. This time I remembered to take pictures. I'll post the recipe, but this dish is so simple and flexible, there really isn't a need for a recipe. These are great for breakfast, lunch, brunch, dinner....whenever you feel like a yummy, eggy meal. And they're great for using up random leftovers.

Preheat the oven to 350F.
Grease the insides of a few small ramekins.
Add whatever ingredients you have on hand to the ramekins, being careful not to fill them up too much. Remember, you have to add the egg on top at the end. This time, we used some sauteed D-FAC veggies. In the past we've used pre-cooked, chopped bacon or a bit of prosciutto. Some cubed bread would also work. I bet some tomato sauce with a kick would be delicious.
Add just a little heavy cream to the ramekin, and a bit of whatever cheese you have on hand. Or not. These are optional. This time around, we made two cups with shredded D-FAC cheddar, and two with some of the excellent Parmesan I brought back from London.
Crack one egg into each ramekin. Add a bit more cheese on top. Or not. Whatever floats your boat.
Bake in the oven until the egg sets, anywhere from 10-15 minutes. The yolk can be left runny, or cooked over hard. Your choice. Make sure the whites are cooked through.
Transfer to a plate and enjoy straight from the ramekin.

Loading up, before the egg & cheese. Heavy cream comes in solid form here. It was the consistency of sour cream.
Almost ready for the oven. Just missing the eggs!

In they go!

A non D-FAC dinner. Yum! And thanks Mom X for the Greek beans!

We also took a break from D-FAC to celebrate the Superbowl. Neither of our teams were in it, but football is football, no matter who's playing (unless it's the Cowboys or Eagles), and the Superbowl must always be accompanied by a celebration. We weren't crazy enough to get up at 3:30 AM to see the game live; Frankie DVR'd the game for us, and we watched it via Slingbox on Monday night. I'm pleased to say that Nick and I both managed to avoid finding out who won before we watched the game, quite an accomplishment in the digital age.

Anyway, back to the food. We had a few friends over to watch the game, and Nick cobbled together a very delicious big sandwich using meats and cheese that he squirreled away from the D-FAC throughout the day, and a loaf of french bread from the grocery. Ya'll don't really need a recipe for a sandwich, do you?

On a fun note, check out the shape of Afghan Cheetos!

Although these meals were yummy and it's nice to have a kitchen so we're not forced to rely on the D-FAC, I know Nick and I are both looking forward to our holiday in Singapore and Bali. All of our friends who've visited Singapore practically drooled all over us when we told them we where we are going on vacation. Two weeks of fresh seafood, fresh veggies, fresh fruits, food with flavor and seasoning and.....taste. I can't wait. It will be wonderful.

Even if I have to go in sweaters and long pants.

All I want for Christmas....New Years...Valentines Day?

2010-02-09T01:50:00.005-05:00

My apologies for the long silence. An entry explaining everything -- or which at least attempts to make amends -- is in the works.

In the mean time, I would just like to announce that I am now taking bets on whether I will be going on vacation to Singapore and Bali with an empty suitcase.

Yes, it's been nearly three months since I packed out of DC, and none of my shipments have arrived. That includes my unaccompanied baggage (UAB; i.e. all of the clothing that I didn't carry with me on the plane) which HR estimates usually arrives at post anywhere from 2-3 weeks after packout. For those of you not keeping count, I'm up to Week 12.

But luckily for me, the UAB contains only unimportant, useless items. Like my winter coats and snow boots, which wouldn't have been at all helpful in keeping me warm or my feet dry in the rain and sleet and slush that that have descended upon Kabul over the past week. And like my entire summer wardrobe, which I definitely won't need when I go to Singapore and Bali 10 days from now. I'm sure I'll be quite comfortable trekking through the jungle in my winter sweaters and long pants.

I am at the end of my rope. The government could not have been less helpful throughout the entire process of getting me out to Kabul. Denied security clearance. Going incommunicado for nearly 3 weeks. Delay after delay after delay. Leaving me at the Kabul airport. Failure to add me to Nick's health insurance. Overcharging us on flights for our leave to the tune of $1400. And now, a potential ruined vacation.

So, any takers on the bet? Odds are 2-1 against.

On a different note....for those of you who are curious as to what I'm working on, you can some of my work here and here.

One more interruption...

2010-01-12T10:00:00.009-05:00

Part IV is coming. I promise. But I just had to post this, because it's cool.

In case you can't tell who that is Nick is talking to, here's a better pic.

All you SNL fans and Minnesota residents should be jealous.

Goodbye 2009 (a little late)

2010-01-04T03:36:00.003-05:00

I stole this from All & Sundry, a delightfully snarky blog that I quite enjoy following. She's hysterical, and very close to what I think I might be like as a mom. Give her a look-see.

And I beg your pardon for the interruption in the Welcome to Kabul series. I swear I'm toiling away on the final entry.

Reflection time....

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?
Got married, visited Belize, swam with sea turtles, climbed a Mayan ruin, became an aunt, Skyped, stopped a blogger at the Dupont Circle farmers market to tell her how much I liked her writing (item #7), caught my layout on the flying trapeze, ran a 5k, moved to Afghanistan, started working for the US government, started liking hot oatmeal.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don’t think I made any last year? Maybe I only resolved to make it through wedding planning in one piece! Which I did. But just barely.

My resolutions for 2010:

Figure out a long term career plan, even if it means going back to school
Run at least one 5k, and sign up in time to get the T-shirt for free
Curtail my internet addiction
Maintain my current weight and fitness level throughout our tour in Afghanistan, and motivate Nick to improve his
Read more
Be more patient with Nick
Get another piercing
Limit my navel gazing
Say thank you to my parents more often
Help my mom organize at least one charity drive for Afghanistan
Write in this blog more often

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yep. Nick’s older brother and his wife gave the family its first grandbaby/niece. And we couldn’t have asked for a cuter one!

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Not on my side. But Nick lost his Yia Yia in the spring.

5. What countries did you visit?
Belize, United Arab Emirates (if overnight layovers count), Afghanistan

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
A definite career path. A job which allows me to apply all of my skills and brainpower, and to which I will happily devote my time and energy.

Oh yeah. And a trapeze rig on the Embassy compound. Is that too much to ask?

7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

April 25: got weddinged
May 19: celebrated the start of the last year of my 20s
May 21: Nick left for Afghanistan
June 18: Celebrated the end of Nick’s 20s
November 19: packout
November 26: finished my first 5k hand in hand with my sister
November 27: departure for Afghanistan

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Planning a mostly DIY wedding was good. Extending my regular running distance to 4.5 miles was a pretty big accomplishment, especially given that I’m not a natural born runner. Packing us out of DC on my own was a pretty big deal as well. And I have to admit, surviving (thriving?) in the USAID front office with no orientation or prior USAID experience has been a bit of a confidence booster.

Also, I know this one is ridiculous, but I’m very proud of the fact that I managed to keep the tires on both my bike and my car inflated after Nick left. I have an irrational fear of tire pumps; I’m always terrified that I’ll over-inflate the tire and it will explode. I also tend to let more air out of the tire than I put in. Overcoming this fear was a big deal for me, ok? Stop laughing.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Not being able to forgive and let go of hurt feelings. Allowing those feelings to fester and grow. Not being as strong as I wanted to be for Nick during our separation. Not being able to organize a garage sale on my own and copping out by giving our unwanted stuff to Goodwill. Not coming up with a good idea for a 60th birthday gift for my dad in time for his actual birthday, then executing the idea late only to have it turn out less awesome than originally planned. Massive fail which is still ongoing.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I can’t think of any significant injuries. There were many poorly timed colds, such as the one I caught right before our packout. Or the one I caught on the day the Mission Director returned. Going home early because of a cold wasn’t exactly the best way to make a good first impression on the boss. The one I can feel coming on now is also quite unwelcome.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Nick’s wedding ring.

Also, trapeze and silks classes. And new running shoes.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
My parents. They were completely and utterly awesome throughout the whole wedding planning process, start to finish. They dealt with my crabby attitude towards weddings in general, listened to all my worries about money, pitched in with help and advice and money wherever and whenever we needed, knew exactly when to withhold their advice/comments and let us figure things out for ourselves, and give Nick and I everything we could have asked for in a wedding.

My sis was awesome throughout as well.

Ditto for their attitudes and assistance throughout my transition to Afghanistan.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Would it be too cliché and base of me to say Tiger Woods? Mostly just appalled though.

14. Where did most of your money go?
WEDDING, honeymoon, Minibar, circus classes, wardrobes for Afghanistan, tailoring of said wardrobes, groceries, camping gear, paintball gear, trips to visit family, NYC trip, repairs/replacements for all of the electrical items that have broken around me (laptop, computer monitor, immersion blender).

15. What did you get really excited about?
TSNY DC. Duh.

Visiting my sis in Indy, meeting her adorable puppy and rocking out at an outdoor Michael Cavanaugh concert with wine and cheese and many other delicious goodies on a fantastic summer night.

Oh yeah, and I got married.

16. What song will always remind you of 2009?
Jason Robert Brown’s "Someone to Fall Back On". Yes, it was the song for our first dance at our wedding. But that’s not exactly why I’ll remember it.

The DJ we hired for the wedding was a dope. He was cheap. He wasn’t a professional DJ. But as most of our guests weren't the dancing type, we weren’t worried about it. We basically just needed someone to play some music for the ceremony, during the meal, and for our first dance. And that was about it.

After several weeks of asking the DJ if he was able to locate the few songs on our “must play” list (a few pre-ceremony songs, the processional and recessional, a few cocktail songs and 1 dance song) without receiving a response, I told Nick to burn CDs with those songs, just in case the DJ flaked out. Nick burned several copies of our playlists.

Cut to the wedding: just as we’re ready to start our first dance, the DJ tells us that our first dance song was the only song he wasn’t able to find online. Ok, well, how about telling me this a few weeks ago when I first emailed you??!?! But fine, whatever, this is why I had Nick make the backup CDs.

Except that Nick failed to burn our first dance song onto any of the CDs.

So I’m trying not to be disappointed and/or panicked, and trying to figure out if any of our guests might have the song. Which I knew was unlikely given that it's a musical theater song and none of our guests were theater geeks. But hey! My sister has her iPod and she loves JRB, so there was hope.

Nope, she didn’t have the song. Nick had his laptop with him at the wedding (?!?!) Nope, not there.

Then Nick had a stroke of genius. He grabbed the laptop and my hand, dashed us over to the church’s main building, and starts waving the computer in the air hoping to pick up an unsecured wireless signal from the administrative office. Bingo! Balancing the laptop between us we locked on the church's signal, purchased the MP3 from Amazon, and dashed back to Hollin Hall. We tossed the laptop to the DJ and made our “grand entrance” for our dance, with "Someone to Fall Back On" playing right on cue. And none of the guests were any the wiser. Until now.

That’s still one of my favorite moments from the wedding

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
– happier or sadder? About the same. Which is not such a good thing.
– thinner or fatter? Same size. With intentions to stay that way!
– richer or poorer? Financially richer. Your tax dollars hard at work….in our pockets. Thanks for the salary everyone! ;-)

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
More serious thinking about and work on my career path. More dinners out in DC. More outdoor activities (hiking, camping etc.) More thought and concern for the needs/hopes/concerns/lives/feelings of others. More time in the company of friends and family.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Crying. Complaining. Navel gazing. Watching TV.

20. How did you spend Christmas?
With Nick, in Kabul, making brunch, opening presents, making mashed potatoes, potlucking with new friends and Skyping with his family.

21. Did you fall in love in 2009?
I certainly rediscovered my love of circus, and realized what a benefit it is to my mental and physical health.

I could be the lame newlywed and say that every day that I’m with my husband I fall more and more in love with him. But then I’d have to slap myself silly. And Nick and I don’t really work that way.

22. What was your favorite TV program?
GLEE! As if there was ever any doubt.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Pleading the fifth.

24. What was the best book you read?
Ugh. I'm going to hate myself for saying this but……the Twilight series. It’s not that they were the best books that I read. It’s more that they gave me exactly what I needed – mindless entertainment – at the exact moment I needed it.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Umm, the string quartet version of "Somebody to Love" that we used as the processional for our wedding? I don’t know! I am lame and mostly listen to musicals. When I had a car the radio was always tuned to WTOP for Traffic on the 8’s because DC traffic is an unpredictable beast.

Can I say that Glee was my greatest musical discovery?

26. What did you want and get?
My knee hang-return. A hair stylist who I love (finally!) A relaxed, backyard-esque wedding with awesome, international food and lawn games. A better job at USAID than what was first offered to me.

27. What did you want and not get?
Clarity on the career front. Nick to commit to a diet and exercise regimen. My clothes, household effect and consumables shipments in a timely manner, meaning we didn’t receive either my menorah or the Christmas surprise I prepared for Nick in time for either holiday. Bah humbug!

28. What was your favorite film of this year?
Dunno. Maybe Every Little Step? I can tell you with certainty which one was my least favorite: Terminator 4. What a load of crap, and probably the worst way for Nick and me to spend his last night in DC.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I worked that day. Nick took me, Pauline and Chris out to Tackle Box for lunch. And then he cooked me grilled veggies and squeaky cheese for dinner, but was very grumpy about it. Mostly my birthday was overlooked due to Nick’s impending departure.

I turned “not yet 30”.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Pleading the fifth.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
Office drone, followed by female office drone in a Muslim country.

32. What kept you sane?
Circus. Exercise. Toad. Bobo. Parents. Nick*.
*Some of these may or may not have also been the cause of some insanity.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Hmmmm. Probably Aaron Tveit. I’m embarrassed to say that too, because this blog links to my Facebook and I’m friends with people who went to school with him.

Can I change my answer? Neil Patrick Harris and Gavin Creel.

And now I just picked two (three?) gay guys. Maybe I should just skip this question.

34. What political issue stirred you the most?
I tend not to get stirred by politics, because I tend to find it a waste of energy. But change the question to “which political issue affected you the most?”, and the answer is most definitely Afghanistan.

35. Who did you miss?
Nick, while we were separated. My parents. My sister, especially during my loneliest times over the summer. True friends. Caela Beagle.

36. Who was the best new person you met?
Our wedding photographer is a pretty kick ass person. And the friends I've made thus far in Afghanistan are pretty cool too.

Oh yeah, and our niece!

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009.
True friends reveal themselves during your lowest and most vulnerable moments.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
Lyric? One measly lyric? Ha. Here’s a whole damn song.

“As We Stumble Along” from The Drowsy Chaperone
(Of course it’s a song from a musical. Did you expect anything less?)

As we stumble along on life's funny journey./As we stumble along into the blue.
We look here and we look there./ Seeking answers anywhere.
Never sure of where to turn or what to do.

Still we bumble our way through life's crazy labyrinth
Barely knowing left from right/ nor right from wrong.
And the best that we can do is hope a blue bird, will sing his song
as we stumble along.

It's a dismal little world in which we live./It can bore you til you've nothing left to give.
Seven over-rated wonders, seven underwhelming seas.
Six excruciating continents./Antarctica?-oh, please.
But you musn't let it lick you, this planet oh so bland.
Keep your eyeball on the highball in your hand.

As we stumble along 'cross life's crowded dance floor./As we push and we shove we live and we learn.
And when we fin'lly leave the bar/ And we see that morning star,
we pull our boot straps up and homeward turn.

Then we stumble away through dawn's blinding sun beams./ Barely knowing right from right nor left from wrong.
But as long as we can hear that little blue bird, there'll be a song
as we stumble along.
As we stumble, bumble, fumble, plumble, along….

Droppin balls

2009-12-31T15:17:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year from Kabul!

Welcome to Kabul, Part III

2009-12-27T07:03:00.010-05:00

Hello again! I am back amongst the living, finally over my cold and recovered from a llloonggg week at work. Today we continue on with Part III of Welcome to Kabul. As always, stop me if you have questions!

Food
Food and clothing….my two biggest concerns about packing for Afghanistan. Actually, when it came to food, concern probably isn’t a strong enough word. Scared, is more like it.

When Nick came home on leave in September, he came armed with horror stories about the food choices I’d soon be facing. Cheese & pepperoni-stuffed fried meatballs. Hash browns and bacon for breakfast every day. A fried food bar at every lunch and dinner. Everything processed and packaged and reheated and sitting on a warmer tray and NO FRESH PRODUCE!

I was pretty sure that I was going to starve.

So I panicked over what to pack in our consumables. Some items were obvious: healthy snacks, because food was only available in the dining facility (hereafter referred to as the D-FAC) during meal times. Low-calorie drink mixes because I don’t like tap water, and I knew that I’d need to drink a lot given Kabul’s altitude and dry climate. Basic items that we could use as a base for a variety of dishes, such as rice, pasta, plain tomato sauce, dried & canned lentils/beans. And of course, enough Kashi Go Lean to get me through at least a few months. Ok, who am I kidding? I packed 13 boxes; if I eat Kashi for breakfast every day, this will only last me about 6 weeks!

But there was no way for me to pack enough food to be able to eat every dinner (and most lunches) at home and not have to face the horror of the D-FAC. So I did my best to pack a variety of foods so that we could take a break from D-FAC food when necessary, and then tried to ready myself to eat some really unappetizing meals.

What I found upon arrival in Kabul is both better and worse than what I expected. First the bad news:

Nick wasn’t lying; there really is a fry bar at every lunch and dinner. Onion rings, potato logs, chicken wings, chicken tender, pepperoni-stuffed deep-fried meatballs. I find it pretty easy to resist, because none of it is good (except for the potato logs), but unfortunately fried food – even bad fried food -- is one of Nick’s weaknesses. He’s been pretty good about restraining himself, but I can’t imagine what it’s like to have to resist a buffet of one’s ideal comfort foods day after day.
Wait, yes I can. The D-FAC offers a sundae bar at every lunch and dinner, with soft chocolate chip cookies and caramel brownies making a regular appearance on the dessert menus. I’m clean for the ice cream and cookies; I caved on the brownies once. All I can do is try to avoid making eye contact with any of it, and remind myself that the taste is not worth the waist! And considering that I’m consuming more alcohol than usual (not too much – just more than I do in DC because there’s not much else to do here), I have to be careful of my empty calorie consumption.*

*I know that all this talk about calories makes me sound really vain, but weight gain is a serious concern. It’s not like I can run out to Macy’s if my pants start feeling tight. Going a size up is not an option. I have the clothes that I brought with me, and that’s all. So please excuse me if I seem to be obsessed with calorie intakes and workouts and such.

I find the main courses offered at 9 out of 10 lunches and dinners completely inedible. Square salmon fillets in a gelatinous cream sauce. Ick. General Tso’s chicken, with lots of breading, sans the chicken. Gigantic ick. Hamburgers swimming in what I can only imagine is dirty hot dog water flown in from NYC hot dog carts. A starch of some variety of fried potato, or rice and/or pasta with some sort of butter/gravy/cheese sauce. Various “meat in sauce” dishes that rack up an impressive 350+ calories per 4 oz serving. I don’t want to even think about the sodium content. I just can’t stomach it. I can barely even stand to look at it.
There are sandwich fixings, but the bread is always stale.

So, I’ve been sticking to a vegetable and starch-heavy diet. My lunches and dinners are pretty consistent: plain rice with whatever’s being offered as a vegetable side -- which is always cooked to death -- on top. Green salad. One potato log. I’m seriously lacking in protein; I try to boost my protein intake at breakfast to compensate. I’ll have cereal with a whole juice box of soy milk and a hard boiled egg. A buttermilk biscuit as a mid-morning snack…..Ok, there’s no protein in that. But it’s super yummy. My Kashi Go Lean cereal, once it arrives, should also help me to compensate.

So, with all that said, it’s hard to imagine how there’s a good side, eh? Well, I’m happy to report that it’s not all gloom and doom. Although that’s hard to write after the lunch I just had. Nick and I both ended up staring glumly at our plates, picking at yet another green salad and sandwich lunch. With reheated marinara sauce as a side of "tomato soup." Tomorrow they'll throw frozen veggies in it and call it "vegetable soup." But I digress.

Right. The good news:

The salad bar is open for every lunch and dinner. It’s not a great salad bar; the leafy greens are limited to either iceberg or romaine lettuce (I already have an intense craving for some dark kale!), the choice of toppings is meager and repetitive, and the produce isn’t always particularly fresh or tasty. But at least it’s clean, healthy food. Which is more than I can say for the entrees. There’s also a small selection of whole fruits available for snacking. So although it’s not my ideal diet and eating salads day in and day out gets awfully boring, I’m not going to starve for lack of edible food. And hey, I’m probably doing a good job of getting in my 5 servings of vegetables per day.
The food at the locals’ café, called Brothers, is pretty good, and makes for a nice alternative to D-FAC lunches. Fresh naan, chicken and beef kabobs and sour yogurt sauce sound like a simple meal, but after a string of salad and marinara sauce lunches, they just about add up to a 5-star dining experience.
There is a decent (but expensive) Thai restaurant and a pizza joint over at Camp Eggers, where we can go on Fridays for lunch. And there's a pizza joint over on the ISAF compound, where we can go for a long lunch on work days.
There is a grocery store on the compound. It's small and the selection is limited, but one can usually cobble together a decent meal whenever the D-FAC food becomes unbearable. There’s a selection of frozen meats and seafood (although I won’t risk trying the seafood in a land-locked developing country), and a limited selection of produce. We can get some real cheeses – although they’re of rather poor quality, but at least they’re cheese and not “cheese food product” – as well as fresh bread, usually French baguette. Unfortunately it’s all rather expensive. A tiny bag of flour (maybe 5 cups worth) is $6! A tiny round of poor-quality brie, about 3.5” in diameter, is $7. So although it’s nice to get a break from the D-FAC food, cooking all our meals at home is a bit cost-prohibitive.
The Americans here have a remarkable ability to procure special items and to improvise with the ingredients they have on hand. Our meals over Christmas are a perfect example.

1. For Christmas Eve dinner, I wanted to give Nick as taste of home for the holidays. That meant putting together a Polish dinner. So I started keeping my eye out for polish foods to pop up at the D-FAC. I lucked out when the D-FAC had sauerkraut out (trying saying that 5 times fast!) on the salad bar for Wednesday lunch. I boxed up a whole container and stuck it in the fridge. I didn’t luck out with polish sausage (D-FAC has it every once in a while), but Nick bought some beef sausage from the grocery. I bought milk, eggs and flour (at great cost) from the grocery store, and using some instant mashed potatoes from our consumables shipment and shredded cheese and onions from the salad bar, made homemade perogies. So, with a little ingenuity and improvisation (a wine bottle makes an excellent rolling pin in a pinch) we ended up with a lovely, home-cooked meal.

Showing off our perogie fillings

Stuffing the little beauties

Praying that they won't fall apart when boiled

Mostly homemade Polish dinner for two!

2. Every Christmas morning, Nick’s mom makes an egg and cheese casserole for breakfast. Again, with a little improvisation I was able to give Nick at least a taste of home for the holidays. We bought the bread, eggs and milk for the casserole at the store; the meat, cheese and veggies for the filling came courtesy of the D-FAC breakfast and salad bars. I used the leftover bread to make some French toast (topped with syrup from the D-FAC), and again we ended up with a lovely, home-cooked meal.

Breakfast casserole, fresh out of the oven....

...and ready to eat, with a side of french toast

3. The piece de resistance was Christmas Dinner for 17; really, it was a sight to see. One of our friends had the foresight to order some extra turkeys when the call went out for Thanksgiving orders; I think the order went in over the summer. The appetizers and side dishes were all potluck. It was truly amazing to see what people were able to cook up. Here’s the menu:

Hors d’oeuvres
Port wine cheese ball (carried from the States) w/ crackers
Pizza crostini
Pumpkin-cream cheese spread w/ crackers
Nuts and dates
Pretzels
Hot buttered rum and mulled wine

Dinner
Roasted squash soup
Green salad
Turkey, w/gravy and stuffing
Mashed sweet potatoes
Garlicky and cheesy mashed potatoes
Quinoa and black bean salad
Rice and olive casserole
Mixed bean casserole
Corn bread
Cranberry sauce (from a can, my favorite!)
Homemade brown bread
Honey and ginger glazed carrots
Cheese and roasted pears (a Southern dish that I couldn’t quite bring myself to try)
Enough wine and beer to float an aircraft carrier

Dessert
Homemade chocolate-chip muffins
Homemade apple and pumpkin pies
Caramel-pecan torte (insanely delicious, like a gourmet Snickers’ bar)
Homemade chocolate cake
Homemade spice cake
Homemade cookies
More wine, buttered rum, mulled wine, and Irish coffee

We sat at proper dining tables, with proper tablecloths, ate from proper plates and with proper flatware, and drank out of proper glasses, including proper wine and water glasses. Everything was mismatched and cobbled together from various kitchens and it was absolutely perfect.

Seating for 17!

A smorgasbord of deliciousness

Making it work: no gravy boat? Coffee pot of gravy it is!

I need desserts!

So, although one does have to be creative, improvise with limited equipment, take advantage of the food offered at the D-FAC, and plan ahead for any meals requiring special ingredients (like the turkeys), making a homemade meal isn’t entirely impossible.

So, like I said. The food situation is both as bad as and better than I imagined. I’m not going to starve, but I do find myself drooling over cooking blogs and day dreaming about all the good food we’ll eat on our first vacation. We’re looking at two weeks in Singapore and Malaysia in February. We’ve heard that both are foodie paradises, especially for people who like adventurous eating, and now our mouths are watering with thoughts of giant bowls of laksa, fresh seafood on a stick, handmade noodles, rotis of endless variety, and miles of hawker carts offering Chinese, Indian, Indonesian, Middle Eastern and Malay food. And to satisfy our Western cravings, maybe we’ll even stop in to a McD’s. But only if Nick is a good boy.

In the mean time, we'll get by with a combination of D-FAC food, Camp Eggers Thai and "cook what ya got" potlucks.

Oh, and to all of our family and friends: please DO NOT read this entry as an appeal for care packages full of delicious goodies. You all sent us such wonderful Christmas/Hanukkah packages that we are fully stocked on snacks and sweets. We're running out of food storage space, and we still have our big consumables shipment coming! So thank you so much for thinking of us, and we'll give a shout if our chocolate and dried sausage supplies start to run low. To Mom X and Mom M: please DO read this entry as an appeal for more lemon soup and dried sweet potato, respectively. Love you!

And I’m spent. It looks like my report on what Nick and I do on our downtime will be pushed back again, saved for yet another (and hopefully final) instalment of Welcome to Kabul. I wish I could say that I’ve saved the best for last, but……really, there’s not much going on here. We work, we eat, we workout, we watch seasons 1-4 of How I Met Your Mother on DVD. I’m sure that living in Kabul sounds exciting and exotic, but really it’s not.

But I’ll save that discussion for another day.

Until next time, here's wishing all of you lots of health and happiness in 2010!

"Post"ponement

2009-12-19T05:49:00.002-05:00

I am sad to announce that "Welcome to Kabul Part III" has been postponed due to author illness. I'm suffering from a major cold of the runny nose/watering eyes variety, and can't even keep my hands out of the tissue box long enough to type this sentence. In fact, I've sneezed 3 times and used up 4 tissues since I started typing.

I'll be back once I'm no longer surgically attached to the tissue box and I've come down off of my antihistamine-induced high.

Things that make you go boom

2009-12-15T01:03:00.004-05:00

This morning a suicide car bomb detonated near the Heetal Hotel, in the same neighborhood as the US Embassy. But not particularly close by. Nick and I are fine. All US government personnel are fine.
I have to say that I'm kind of glad that's over with. The waiting for my first bombing, I mean. For me, the worrying about unknown events is usually worse than the events themselves (see: Kabul packout). Now I just have to experience an earthquake and my two biggest "unknown" Kabul fears will both be "knowns."

Welcome to Kabul: Part II

2009-12-14T03:46:00.005-05:00

Seeing as no one suggested any specific topics they wanted to see addressed in Part II, I’ll just plunge right in. Feel free to stop me at any time for questions!

Clothing
When I was getting ready to leave for post, one of the most common questions that people asked of me was about what I would have to wear. Would I have to wear a burka? Keep my head covered at all times? Wear a suit every day?

I too, was very worried about my wardrobe and packing the proper clothing. Nick was nice enough to connect me with a female colleague to whom I could direct all of my clothing-related questions. Of course, this was after I asked him to find out what sort of dresses I needed to bring -- would I need a black-tie gown, or would nice cocktail dresses be ok? -- and he responded with “Yes, you need nice dresses.” Great, very helpful! I definitely needed a woman’s help to answer all of my “lady questions.”

Heather was kind enough to fill me in on how many suits I would need (no more than two), the office dress code (pants or long skirts, ¾ to full length sleeves, no cleavage – HA! Like I’d ever have trouble with that!), the deal with head covering (not necessary inside the compound; polite to do it when traveling in Kabul or meeting with Afghans), etc. She also told me that I would need to get a few long tunic tops to wear when I leave the compound, but that I could get them from one of the markets here. I haven’t purchased any yet, but neither have I had the need for them. Thus far my only off-compound experience was for a meeting with one of our implementing partners, and they’re staffed by Americans.

So, what do I wear every day? Well, I’m still waiting for my UAB shipment to arrive, so all I’ve got to choose from at the moment are the clothes that I carried with me on the plane. My standard outfit for the office is heeled boots, black pants, long cardigan or other sweater over a long sleeve shirt (lots of layering; it’s starting to feel like winter) maybe a scarf, earrings and tada! I’m dressed. When I’m hanging out at home I wear whatever I want; same goes for when Nick and I venture over to friends’ homes on our days off. Like I said, it’s getting cold here, meaning I’m wearing lots of layers. So dressing modestly isn’t really something to which I have to pay conscious attention. The only time I wear anything “revealing” is when I’m at the gym. But the Foreign Service Nationals (FSNs, i.e. Afghan staff), all leave the compound by 6 PM or so (many leave much earlier); I’m not usually in the gym before 8 PM, so exposure’s not really a problem.

My job
As previously reported, I was hired as a communications officer for USAID’s Office of Economic Growth. So what I should be doing is preparing reports, briefing materials, success stories, etc. about USAID’s economic growth programs. If you’re interested, you can learn about our work on the USAID Afghanistan website.

However, that’s not what I’m actually doing at the moment. My current tasks are calendar management, document management and answering the phone. Why? Well, it turns about that the Mission Director’s assistant would be going on leave for 6 weeks just as I arrived, and I was the only person available to cover for her.

So, here I sit, in central command; the new girl, who has no clue what’s going on or how things work or who people are or even how to place a simple phone call. Luckily I’m not completely new to the task of being an administrative assistant; I spent quite a bit of time at the World Bank providing support to Bank staffers of various levels. Had I not, I’d be completely in the weeds here. Wait, no that’s not quite right. What’s beyond the weeds? Maybe the highway….yeah, that’s about right.

Had I not had my Bank experience, covering the USAID Mission front office would have been like strolling into traffic on the NY State Thruway while blindfolded and being squished by a semi.

So, I’m managing to hold my own. I ask lots of stupid questions about how to work the phones, how to use Outlook (the Bank uses Lotus Notes, and the switch has been tricky), where I can find office supplies, what printer should I use, which ambassador to call to schedule a meeting on water projects……you know, the typical questions you ask when starting a new job.

The Security Situation
I know that everyone is worried about mine and Nick's safety. My little story about being stranded at the airport temporarily probably didn’t make you feel any better.

First, let me reassure you that as long as Nick and I are on the Embassy compound, we are safe. Or rather, we’re about as safe as we are when we’re in DC. On any given day in DC, there’s always the risk that we could get run over by a bus (increased by our reckless bike riding habits, I’m sure), or mugged, or what have you. But as long as we’re doing routine activities, we don’t think about the danger too much.

It’s the same way here. There’s always a chance that a rocket could fall on the compound (lessened by the terrorists’ lack of targeting systems), or that we could be squished in a building collapse during an earthquake (lessened by the fact that the USAID office building is made up of a connected series of pre-fab containers). But for the most part we go about our routine inside the bubble of the US Embassy compound and don’t register the dangers on a conscious level.

It’s only when we change up our routine – travelling in Kabul, making site visits, taking a helicopter trip to Bagram, etc. – that we really feel at risk. And even then we’re well protected by the security teams.

So I hope that none of you – and I'm looking at YOU, friends and family – are lying awake at night worrying about Nick and me, fretting about us wandering around Afghanistan, with danger and bad guys stalking our every move. We’re safe. And we kindly ask that you redirect all of those worries and prayers and good wishes to thoughts of the USAID/government staff in the field, and our military personnel on the front lines. They need your positive energy more than we do.

Wow, that’s a lot of writing. Looks like there will be an unexpected sequel to fill you all in on the food situation and on how Nick and I spend our downtime. I think I shall call it Welcome to Kabul Part III, or It's a Greasy & Repetitive Life. Maybe – if I’m in the mood to live dangerously – I’ll throw in a few pictures to give you all a peek into our lives here. And if I feel the need to be really dangerous, I'll attempt to wrangle Nick into writing an entry in the near future.