New York, Kenya, Slovakia, New York

I booked a flight today from New York to Kenya (where I will spend 10 days on business) to Slovakia (where two of my friends are getting married!) and back to New York. The woman at the airline was OBVIOUSLY perplexed by my strange flight routing.

It raised a very funny question in my mind..."How many people, in the history of the world, have booked a flight from the US to KENYA to SLOVAKIA and back to the US?" Is it possible that I could be the first person ever in the history of the world to fly this route? If there was anyone out there who has flown it before they definitely either
1) ARE A HIGH-POWERED DIPLOMAT or
2) ARE AN AIESECer

Musings of a Workaholic

I have officially worked 35 of the last 41 hours. Hmm....35 hours.....that's the work week in France, right? So If I was French I could go to the beach for the next 5 days and do nothing :)

I have 3 jobs now. Yep, that's right. What? you don't believe me? I'll send you a care package with all 3 of my business cards just to confuse you even more. I am still doing consulting, I am starting up the US operations of a Dutch company, and I am starting my own business focused on Africa and the Middle East.

Truth be told ... I love everything I am doing so much and it is so exciting that I can't help but work these kind of hours. You know those times when you are watching something new and exciting emerge and you can't help but want to keep working harder to see what is going to come next?

The next few months are going to be fun..as long as I remember to sleep every once in a while !!

My off-broadway premier

Yesterday I was invited to do a "Talk-Back" session following a great off-broadway play which is showing here in NYC...The God Botherers. The play is about NGO workers in "Tambia" a made-up Arab country. The play was amazingly funny and really highlighted the kind of challenges that foreigners face when trying to work in another country with a very different culture.

Youssef came with me for the play, and together we fielded questions from the audience about what it is really like to live and work as a foreigner in an Arab country. It was so interesting to hear the kind of questions that people asked and the kind of perceptions that they had of the region.

On the Road Again

After 45 days during which I only made ONE trip out of New York, I am back on the road again. Sunday I was in New York City, Monday in Michigan, and Tuesday in Baltimore (which is where I still am as I write this.)

It feels good to be travelling again... I have to admit I missed it. And with another trip to Michigan, a trip to Kenya, and possible trips to El Salvador and Rhode Island all in the next 45 days, it seems like my life is getting, well, back to normal. Some people might find it strange that this is "normal" but after 5 years of travelling like a nomad, its weird to sit still for very long...and yes, 3 weeks is very long :)

Touring the Middle East...in Manhattan

I just got home from an amazing evening...the kind of evening that reminds me why I love New York. The amazing thing about this city is that you can travel to other parts of the world, without ever leaving home...

Carly and I went tonight to see an amazing movie in Egypt. OK, not really in Egypt, but it was an Egyptian documentary film and it was so great to sit in Greenwich Village listening to Egyptian Arabic...and realizing that I am actually starting to understand a lot more Arabic now that I am trying!!

We then went to dinner in Afghanistan. Well, not really Afghanistan, but this amazing Afghan restaurant where I made friends with the waiter by impressing him by reading the menu which had writing in Arabic script. I even learned a few words in Farsi during the course of the dinner!

After dinner we went to a party sponsored by the Network of Arab American Professionals...in Tunisia...ok, well, not Tunisia, but this new place called Carthage Palace, where all the music, people and sheesha are Arabic as can be...except of course the two random tall girls who stand out like a sore thumb :) But we showed them that blonde girls can belly-dance too!

It is so great to live in a city where you have the whole world right on your doorstep....pick a culture, any culture, and you can experience it here! Of course, I can't hide my arabphile tendencies :)