Another Week Gone By

There goes another week. It's been really busy at the embassy as we've been transitioning to a new electronic travel program and preparing for some big visits in the next couple of weeks (no, nothing newsworthy).

Thanks to Stephanie, I had a wonderful birthday. We had planned to go to the Hyatt for their business lunch on Friday (a week ago), but when we got there we learned that they had cancelled the business lunch for the week because of the holiday. It would have been nice if they had announced that before we went all the way there. I guess that wasn't such a nice start to things. But Stephanie more than made up for it.

Last Saturday, she baked me a delicious carrot cake and we had some friends over for a game night. On Sunday, I had chocolate chip pancakes for my birthday breakfast and we feasted on leftovers all day. Unfortately, by the time we were ready to go out for my birthday dinner, we were both too full so we postponed it until this weekend.

My family was also very generous and sent a bunch of Girl Scout cookies, most of which have already been devoured. I haven't had Samoas or Tagalongs for two years, so they were a welcome treat.

The week was a generally blur, but Friday was a perfect spring day and my morning commute stands out in my mind. As I was walking to catch a marshrutka, the sky was blue, birds were singing, leaves were budding on the trees, and the sun was glinting off the gold teeth of a local man, who was greeting a friend with a smile.

I decided to spare my wasteline a bit and took some of the Girl Scout cookies into work on Friday. None of my staff had ever heard of them, but they were devoured before 9am. There are lots of ways to share the American experience, and I think that was one of the most delicous.

Yesterday, we rescheduled my birthday dinner and had a wonderful meal of sushi at the local steak house. The sushi is very good quality and not just by Dushanbe standards.

Stephanie has started taking tennis lessons once a week with a local instructor and is keeping busy. We're both starting to think ahead about our transition from here to Moscow. It's hard to believe we'll be leaving Dushanbe in a little less than 5 months.