Judgement Day

What a week.

I've lost my roomates, my mobile, and now I'm losing my mind trying to get ready for this presentation tomorrow. Clearly I'm working hard at it since I've taken a break to write in my weblog. Anyway, Thursday morning at 11:00am we three Jr. Fulbrighters will be presenting our research to a crowd of friends, colleagues, and generally interested people. I'm a bit nervous since I'm still actually collecting data, and I'm not yet 100% sure what I'm looking for. The title of my presentation is "Love and Lajja: Exploratory Research on Women, Men, and Sexuality in Bangladesh." I stress the EXPLORATORY portion.

I'm so worried that some know-it-all in the audience is going to stand up and say something like "well, that doesn't happen in MY home district. Let me tell you what you SHOULD have done..." In my experience, South Asian people pull no punches at these sorts of things. I remember in 2001 when I did a research project at MSU on Indira Gandhi's political career and this Nepali student's father proceeded to lecture me on my questionable research methods while I was presenting my poster. I usually love presenting, but this time I just hope for a quick and painless twenty minutes. Kinda like a band aid.

Anyway, wish me luck. Or as people here would say, "Amar jonno doha coren" (pray for me).