Ten things

1. I’ve moved in with two amazing women. Eva is a 30-ish year old française who works (really hard) for UNPD and salsas like she's trying to hypnotize. Livy is a 25 year old grad student from Southern Mississippi who swears like a sailor and dresses in J. Crew.
2. My roommates and I sharing a car. Driving is soooo nice (compared to being driven everywhere). I’m getting good at averting potholes.
3. I leave Saturday to go to Nairobi to see my mom and then to Cairo to see Garza. Expect full-on giddiness for the next two days.
4. I have found where to go for good hot chocolate. With the rainy season underway, my new favorite retreat will be to sit under the awning at Botanica hotel and watch the rain with a cup of thick drinking chocolate.
   
5. A little crisis occurred at work when I realized that the surveys – the core of my evaluation – that I thought were sent to the police officers a month ago (you know, only because someone told me they were sent) were actually still sitting in sealed envelopes in a filing cabinet at the Police Headquarters. All 250 of them. This week has been full of damage control meaning me calling policemen and saying, yeah that due date of October 22, you just want to ignore that…
6. Work otherwise is getting interesting. I've done about 20 interviews so far and some are duds (completely useless, officers trying to sound impressive but never actually answering the questions) but some are really quite rich. This is one area where I particularly appreciate the Burundian tendency to, shall we say, soliloquize.
   
7. December travel plans are finalized! On December 7^th I hop from here to Addis Ababa to Ramallah to Paris to Portugal to London to New York to home on December 23^rd. It’s about time I fill up that passport. Also I’m broke.
8. I’ve applied to 7 jobs in the past couple weeks and will be spitting out cover letters and resumes until someone responds. I know it takes a while but seeing as I’ll be unemployed and broke come January I could really go for a quick response… Don’t these people know how good I am at things? Just give me a chance (and a paycheck), you’ll see, I’m really good at things.
   
9. Clarification: the dress broke before the Marine Ball. About 30 minutes before, to be precise. After trying it on and having it fit perfectly that afternoon, I put it on at home to feel the zipper pop, followed by a cluster of girls descending to fiddle and fix until after several more pops we gave up and I borrowed clothes. Thank goodness for roomies with cute clothes. And arrrgghhh.
10. As for the Marine Ball, the best part of the evening was probably when the Marines formally paraded a cake in with pomp, circumstance and swords. And yes, they used the sword to cut the cake. It was a treat to see pastries put on such a high pedestal. And I finally met the American Ambassador who was sparkling in a hot little strapless dress and, if I'm not mistaken, fishnets. That's my kind of diplomat.