At 7:45pm on Wednesday, we had just finished eating the grilled pizza I made, inspired by an article in that day’s WP food section. The pizza turned out great. Only problem was we had to leave for the airport by 8, and I still needed to shower. And pack. Well, I got everything done, and got to the airport with time to spare. My flight left at 11pm, got to Doha at 6pm, and stepped off the plane into 100 degree temperatures. As I waited for the second leg of my flight, another 11pm departure, I couldn’t help but feel like I was stuck in some kind of combination of Endless Summer and Groundhog Day. The flight wasn’t too bad, I was hoping to get some more sleep, but this particular AirBus seemed to be the most impractically designed craft for that. Oh well.
I got to the airport, walked through the baggage claim area, and saw Donny waiting for me. Except it wasn’t Donny. It was the huge AkTel poster he modeled for a while back. I really regret not taking a picture, because Donny had no idea the ad was still running.
We took a CNG back to his apartment, set down my stuff, and went out to get some traditional Bangladeshi breakfast and went for a walk around the nearby lake. It was Friday, so many people were off work, enjoying the morning. We met up with a friend of Donny’s, walked around in search of air conditioning, which we found at a mall. We checked out some Bangladeshi music, then Donny and I headed back to the apartment. I hadn’t really intended to sleep until night rolled around, but somehow, my bed was just that comfortable. I ended up waking up 5 hours later, still tired, but we got up anyway to head down to New Market to do some shopping. We went to Donny’s tailor to see about getting some shirts and maybe a suit, but he was out of the shirt material Donny wanted so we’ll go back on Sunday. I ended up buying a pair of plastic sandals for when the rain hits, and a Lungi (a type of loincloth) to wear around the apartment when the heat gets bad, or when the power (and therefore the ceiling fan) goes out.
We also got “the” Bangladeshi snack, which reminded me of a Samosa in some ways. Either way, it was delicious, so I’m looking forward to more of those.
As we got ready to head back to the apartment, the wind started blowing. It reminded me of the time I got caught in a sand storm in Cairo, but this time the dust and grime was just blown up from the streets. We hailed a rickshaw, and just as we got in, the rain came. So we rode through Dhaka in the rain, which I would say was worse than the rain on the way to Wilmington a few weeks ago, and my shoes got soaked. Good thing I have sandals to wear tomorrow, I guess.
Donny and I started watching the new Indiana Jones on DVD, but since the quality was just too poor we watched Good Luck Chuck instead. And, inevitably, the power went out twice during the movie. At the second outage, we went to get dinner at the same place we got breakfast. They served us a huge plate of rice, plus a smaller plate of rice. While I wouldn’t eat that much normally, the rice shortages make me feel like I can’t waste a single grain. The rice was served with chicken, a mixture of vegetables, and a plate of Bitter Gourd. That was truly the most bitter thing I’ve tasted, but it was an interesting culinary experience. While I don’t think I’ll go out of my way to order it again, it’s good to know that I’ll be able to eat it if I were served it at someone’s house.
We got back, finished the movie, and went to bed. Fortunately, my nap hadn’t killed my sleep schedule completely, I was still exhausted. But I couldn’t fall back asleep after hearing the Azaan, or call to prayer, at about 4:30.

I took a few pictures yesterday, but not a whole lot. Hopefully I’ll be taking more soon and will be able to post them.

Ok, so the reason I was so rushed to get those lasts post out was because I wanted to start with a clean slate for my big trip.
Most of my readers probably already know all about it, but here it goes. (Actually, that can’t be true because I don’t even know “all about it” yet.)

Anyway, today I’ll be leaving for Dhaka, Bangladesh to visit Donny for about 2 weeks. The I have a flight from Delhi to Stockholm, where I’m stopping rather quickly for Midsommar. Then I fly on to Hahn, Germany for 2 days, where I hope to do some biking and hiking along the Rhine and Mosel rivers. Then I fly to Fez, and will take a train to Casablanca where I’ll meet up with the Pauls (Robbie’s family). Our families have known each other since Robbie and I were in strollers, and we’ve done plenty of traveling together, including South Africa, Sweden, and Grand Canyon. We’re meeting in Morocco because Chris and Anna are volunteering with the Peace Corps in Mauritania. After Morocco I’ll be meeting Chris and Amit, probably in the UK where we’ll catch up with Greg, and then travel through Europe to Austria for the World Rowing Championships. Then we’ll head down to Greece and see what happens after that!

In an effort to pack light, I’ve minimized what I’m bringing.

Contents:
-2 pairs of REI Adventure pants (field tested in Grand Canyon, and at countless rainy regattas and practices. And you can even wear them to work.)
-1 pair of Nautica Rigger shorts (also quick-drying)
-1 REI sahara shirt. also supposed to be quick-drying and offer good sun protection
-1 merino wool undershirt
-1 synthetic undershirt (it will be interesting to compare the two)
-3 pair ex-officio travel underwear
-1 silk travel sheet
-1 camp towel
-1 headlamp
-4 pair synthetic/wool socks
-rain jacket (field tested in 2 consecutive rainy Philadelphia regattas)

Keep checking the blog for updates and pictures!
I don’t know how often I’ll be able to update, but hopefully it’ll be pretty regular.

After the Stotesbury Cup, I returned to DC to help coach the Varsity Womens 8+, the O’Connell boat that was advancing to SRAA Nationals.
Thompson Boat Center, where O’Connell stores its boats, is located right next to the Swedish embassy, which I’ve always found pretty fascinating. In how many countries can I do jumpees on the lawn of the Swedish Embassy? I’ll let you know at the end of summer.

On Saturday I went over to Eric’s (one of my former coworkers) apartment for a get together. It was nice to see those guys one last time before I left. Lots of shop-talk; it seems like I may have set off quite the trend with my resignation! I introduced them to Kubb, which they seemed to enjoy.

On Sunday, Robbie came through on his way from Wilmington to Martha’s Vineyard, where he’ll be spending the summer. He and I drove out to the Chesapeake bay to visit one of his friends from school. It was pretty incredible to wake up and be able to have coffee on the dock.

On Monday, Robbie and I came back to Kensington and decided to take a bike trip into DC. Of course, since it was Memorial Day, there were all sorts of celebrations going on. We visited all three War memorials and saw some monuments.

Then we went down to Constitution Avenue, to get a better look at the White House, and we turned out to be just in time for the National Memorial Day Parade!

Monday afternoon Mom and Dad hosted a Memorial Day cookout, which of course featured more Kubb!

Well, obviously I’m way behind on my blogging.
I don’t really have an excuse, since I’ve had a lot of free time. Oh well.

I’m going to go ahead and post all the pictures and briefs of what I’ve been doing since Robbie’s graduation party.

I stayed in Raleigh for a few more days.
On Monday we went out to Lily’s Pizza (some of the greatest Pizza I’ve ever had, and a Raleigh favorite) to say goodbye to Alyce, on her way back to Louisiana, and Errikos, on his way back to Greece.

The picture quality here isn’t great because I was messing around with the settings. Oh well.

An enormous amount of pizza:

Which we somehow managed to finish.
Alyce and Ida and Errikos and Ben:

I came back up to D.C. to load the trailer for the Stotesbury Cup. We couldn’t even get out on the Potomac that week because of the flooding.
The team had a great hospitality tent, where I didn’t spend much time because I was running between the grand stand, the trailer, and the finish line, but still.

We started by rigging. See if you can spot the similarities between this Thursday rigging session and last week’s:

Well, I don’t know how many similarities there are, but here are some I noticed: Thursday rigging weather is gorgeous!! (“It’s always sunny in Philadelphia” seems to apply only to rigging Thursday and Finals Saturday… not Friday, the longest day of the regatta…)
Also, we’ve got a Danny Heater wannabe…

The course looked pretty nice on Thursday evening:

But, the heavens were ominous:

And those clouds didn’t disappoint; it rained on Friday and was just a typically muddy race day in Philadelphia.

A story that sort of runs parallel to this is my hunt for a Visa to Bangladesh.
As of that Thursday, I had no visas for any of my travel. I had turned in my application to the Bangladeshi embassy and was expecting it to come in the mail any time. On Thursday morning I rushed down to the embassy to ask about the status of my application. The woman took my receipt and seemed surprised. “You turned it in on May 1? That was a long time ago.” … Yeah. I know. That’s why I’m here.
Apparently because I was employed by the government, I needed a letter from my boss saying I was allowed to go. Well, never mind that that is absurd and that as a government peon I should be allowed to at least take a vacation without getting some form signed in triplicate. I explained that I didn’t have a job anymore and I hand-wrote a note saying the same, and they said it would be sent out that day.
Well, needless to say, it hadn’t arrived by Monday morning.
So I set off to the embassy again, had an impossible time finding parking because of some protest rally at the Ethiopian embassy, walked up to the door… and the embassy was closed for some holiday.
Well, about to throw myself into traffic, I get a call from my brother as soon as I get back to the car, telling me that an express mail package just arrived (at 11am) containing my passport and visa. Of course, if I hadn’t gone down there myself, the package never would have arrived. Visa in hand, I went to the agency to which the Indians have, in I suppose stereotypical Indian fashion, outsourced their visa application process, and got that straightened away with minimal hassle.

… more tomorrow.

On Sunday I drove down to Wilmington, NC for Robbie’s graduation party.
The weather was less than ideal, and just got worse and worse the closer to Wilmington I got.
By the time I got there, we were basically in the middle of a hurricane.


I got there a little early, so Robbie and his family were still setting up.

The party was great, the weather cleared up and plenty of friends and family showed up.

I even tried my hand at surfing. It was definitely fun, probably would have been more so if the weather hadn’t been as intense. I’m looking forward to doing more of it in Morocco with Robbie.

Our Grand Canyon group on the porch.