i'm only happy when it's complicated

The craziest thing--there is a couple here who once worked at the American Embassy in Kiev, and they were in Kiev about a month after my family left in 1994. We sat around after dinner and exchanged stories, although theirs are admittedly much better than mine, since I was twelve and they were in their twenties. However, it made me very nostalgic--Ukraine was a very formative experience in my life, for all that it now seems like a weird dream, and I wish I could go back and see it all through adult eyes. You can never go back, though, since the changes wrought by ten years of free-market capitalism and thuggery have made it a completely different country from what we saw in the summer and fall of '93.

I really want to start traveling; there is so much to do, see, and experience, and I feel like I am missing all of it because I'm chained to my desk. Since being chained to my desk is what I'm here for, I can't be too upset, but I would like to go to Goa, and Bombay, and Delhi, and see the Taj Mahal and Fatehpur Sikri and all sorts of other cool things. Thus far, I have seen one museum, one blown-up bus, a temple, and a bunch of ravaging monkeys, plus the insides of all the nicest restaurants in Hyderabad. I'm not acquiting myself so well, I feel. I keep saying that there is plenty of time--but if I'm really coming home in October, I'm already a third of the way through my time here! That's unbelievable, and also incredibly scary.

Here is where I must insert a shout-out to Vidya, who pleaded for a mention in my blog because she likes to ctrl-f and look for her own name. Knowing her prepped me for the insanity of India and Indians, and I am very grateful for it.

I'm sorry, kids, I'm too tired to think of else fun things to say tonight, so I'll have to leave you. Goodnight!