Four More Years? I'm in Tears...

Wow.

There's really nothing much I can say about the election that you, my loyal readership, aren't thinking right now. I was glued to the TV from Tuesday night our time, cursing and yelling at the TV as if I were watching an intense Pistons game.
Anyone I know from Ohio who didn't vote in this election is gonna get it from me big time.

Anyway, in a fitting salute to our renewed repression under the Bush regime, I spent most of my day at work on The Can, fighting off more Dhaka water stomach bugs. Being perpetually ill is just one of the many perks of living in the developing world. I'm just slurpin' down the saline and livin' off bread until this wave of intestinal fun passes.

In non-political news, I started my Bengali lessons a week ago at the HEED language center, a wing of a Christian NGO where everyone is ridiculously nice and almost suspiciously polite. I go three times a week for two hours. It's intense, but I'm REALLY enjoying it. I'm surprised how quickly I've been picking up the script. I'm even able to read a few signs and things while passing by storefronts in the car. I often find myself excitedly shouting out the select phrases which I am miraculously able to decode: "Eid Sale, 50% all Saris!!" or "Pubali National Bank!!!" I'm sure it drives the drivers nuts. It's funny how much of the Bengali language here is just English transcribed into Bangla. I saw a sign for a product called "Super Clean" and in Bangla the sign read something like "Shoopar Kileen."

I went out last night with my BRAC buddies to get "the best pizza in town" at a place called Bella Italia. It was literally the best pie I've ever had. I guess the owner had lived and studied culinary art in Italy, and now he's running a pizza shop in Dhaka. Good tiramisu, too. Maybe the Bangladeshi touch is massive stomach cramping you have the next day?

We have a three-day weekend this week (Fri-Sat-Sun) since Sunday is "national solidarity day." The BRAC office is closed, and there's only one thing I hope is solid by then...

Off to enjoy the freedom,

TKP