As you may have noticed, I've been slipping on this blog lately. Honestly, part of it is just not knowing what to write anymore and part of it is prioritizing my attentions. I'm not going to explain any of that, excuses are like butt holes, everyone has one. Instead I'm just going to post some random stuff on life.
Bangladesh has gotten hot again. Very hot... I looked at the temperature gauge the other evening and at 9pm it said 87 degrees with 73% humidity. The bad news is that I have to live in that! One thing that is nice is that I now work in an office with air conditioning. I had my room's AC unit set for 83 degrees yesterday and it felt freezing cold. Part of the reason for this has to be that AC's are also dehumidifiers which really makes a huge difference here. One thing that isn't so great about working in my current office compared to the old one is that I can now tell the difference if I forget to put deodorant on. In the old office, I was working with a bunch of field workers who travel on public buses and don't have an AC office. I'm sure we all smelled but no one noticed. Now I have to manage my stinkiness.
Bicycle rides to visit Esther have also gotten a whole lot warmer. They have also shut down one of the roads that I ride on. I can't tell if it is because the Prime Minister's house is on that road or because they are trying to reroute traffic more efficiently but it is now frequently blocked off every night and at random times otherwise. This results in me having to ride an extra mile on every journey which gets pretty old when you're riding a bicycle that constantly falls apart. My chain alone came off twice last night on my way home. All these 6-7 mile rides have got me thinking very thoroughly about bicycles. I've looked into the possibility of upgrading my parts on my bicycle so that it is more reliable, bringing over my bicycle from America, and purchasing a new bike in Bangladesh. The upgrading of parts is probably the cheapest option and quickest. I've also heard that you can put your bike in a bike box and carry it with you on your flights as checked luggage so that is one thing I've considered for Christmas time this year. The idea being that I could resell it when I'm done next year and that it is worth way more in Bangladesh because of the lack of good quality bikes here. The final idea of buying new bike just came recently. Someone told me that there is a company that makes bikes for the European market in Bangladesh. They said they are a bit pricey but good quality. I looked them up and they are even in my neighborhood! The only problem is that they are an exporter so I'm not sure if they will sell to the local market and at what rate they may do this? It can't hurt to call and find out I guess. My bicycle is a great source of joy and sorrow in my life. When it works and all is well, I have a real love for riding it and find it very therapeutic as it gives me time to think about life. When it doesn't work and it breaks along the way, it makes for a miserable journey and ruins one of my most peaceful times of the day. Biking is when all the frustrations of the day just seem to melt away and when it doesn't work properly, I just feel even more angry than before.
Wedding Stuff. That's right, wedding stuff is something I'm actually going to mention on my blog! Things have been progressing lately. I'm now in the time frame in which I can submit my marriage visa application. American's don't have to submit visa applications for the UK for tourism reasons but you do when you want to get married there and boy is it getting long. I'm supplying a lot of documents to them to prove I'm the real deal. I think I'm about 1.5 weeks away from being really truly ready to submit a fully complete document that will knock their socks off and convince them, this is a man who should marry a Northern Irish woman. Esther and I are working on putting together our final order of service right now. It is an interesting process. I feel kind of bad for Esther because I rarely seem like I take anything serious and am always cracking a joke about it all. We went to the tailors the other day and ordered a suit. They said it would be ready for fitting in a week and then finalized a few days after that. I thought that was pretty impressive because most the tailoring that I've had done in the past took 2-4 weeks. I'm getting a jacket, vest, and 2 pairs of pants made. They were super helpful and even thought to ask us about things we never would have thought about when ordering a suit. Those qualities are rare in Bangladesh where you normally face a situation where if you don't ask it they don't mention it. They even listened to me and understood when I explained that I have broad shoulders and therefore a fitted style works best on me (at least until I get that big gut that everyone says is coming with marriage). All in all, things are progressing. Not always as fast as we would feel comfortable with but they are progressing.
So that is a small taste of my life lately. As I told a friend the other day, I'm trusting that God will carry me through all of this because it certainly isn't going to be my strength!
Bangladesh has gotten hot again. Very hot... I looked at the temperature gauge the other evening and at 9pm it said 87 degrees with 73% humidity. The bad news is that I have to live in that! One thing that is nice is that I now work in an office with air conditioning. I had my room's AC unit set for 83 degrees yesterday and it felt freezing cold. Part of the reason for this has to be that AC's are also dehumidifiers which really makes a huge difference here. One thing that isn't so great about working in my current office compared to the old one is that I can now tell the difference if I forget to put deodorant on. In the old office, I was working with a bunch of field workers who travel on public buses and don't have an AC office. I'm sure we all smelled but no one noticed. Now I have to manage my stinkiness.
Bicycle rides to visit Esther have also gotten a whole lot warmer. They have also shut down one of the roads that I ride on. I can't tell if it is because the Prime Minister's house is on that road or because they are trying to reroute traffic more efficiently but it is now frequently blocked off every night and at random times otherwise. This results in me having to ride an extra mile on every journey which gets pretty old when you're riding a bicycle that constantly falls apart. My chain alone came off twice last night on my way home. All these 6-7 mile rides have got me thinking very thoroughly about bicycles. I've looked into the possibility of upgrading my parts on my bicycle so that it is more reliable, bringing over my bicycle from America, and purchasing a new bike in Bangladesh. The upgrading of parts is probably the cheapest option and quickest. I've also heard that you can put your bike in a bike box and carry it with you on your flights as checked luggage so that is one thing I've considered for Christmas time this year. The idea being that I could resell it when I'm done next year and that it is worth way more in Bangladesh because of the lack of good quality bikes here. The final idea of buying new bike just came recently. Someone told me that there is a company that makes bikes for the European market in Bangladesh. They said they are a bit pricey but good quality. I looked them up and they are even in my neighborhood! The only problem is that they are an exporter so I'm not sure if they will sell to the local market and at what rate they may do this? It can't hurt to call and find out I guess. My bicycle is a great source of joy and sorrow in my life. When it works and all is well, I have a real love for riding it and find it very therapeutic as it gives me time to think about life. When it doesn't work and it breaks along the way, it makes for a miserable journey and ruins one of my most peaceful times of the day. Biking is when all the frustrations of the day just seem to melt away and when it doesn't work properly, I just feel even more angry than before.
Wedding Stuff. That's right, wedding stuff is something I'm actually going to mention on my blog! Things have been progressing lately. I'm now in the time frame in which I can submit my marriage visa application. American's don't have to submit visa applications for the UK for tourism reasons but you do when you want to get married there and boy is it getting long. I'm supplying a lot of documents to them to prove I'm the real deal. I think I'm about 1.5 weeks away from being really truly ready to submit a fully complete document that will knock their socks off and convince them, this is a man who should marry a Northern Irish woman. Esther and I are working on putting together our final order of service right now. It is an interesting process. I feel kind of bad for Esther because I rarely seem like I take anything serious and am always cracking a joke about it all. We went to the tailors the other day and ordered a suit. They said it would be ready for fitting in a week and then finalized a few days after that. I thought that was pretty impressive because most the tailoring that I've had done in the past took 2-4 weeks. I'm getting a jacket, vest, and 2 pairs of pants made. They were super helpful and even thought to ask us about things we never would have thought about when ordering a suit. Those qualities are rare in Bangladesh where you normally face a situation where if you don't ask it they don't mention it. They even listened to me and understood when I explained that I have broad shoulders and therefore a fitted style works best on me (at least until I get that big gut that everyone says is coming with marriage). All in all, things are progressing. Not always as fast as we would feel comfortable with but they are progressing.
So that is a small taste of my life lately. As I told a friend the other day, I'm trusting that God will carry me through all of this because it certainly isn't going to be my strength!
