(no subject)

We went to the beach yesterday after work. It was lovely. We didn't actually go swimming, because we didn't get there until 6 or after, but we lay on a blanket in the sun, ate strawberries and bruschetta with pesto, and generally relaxed and enjoyed the sunshine. Then we came home and I sewed a little, and we watched part of Harvey.

It was actually the first entirely-down day that we've had after CONvergence. Tuesday and Wednesday featured visits from out of town friends. It's been good to hang out with those folks on a more low key level - and also really nice not to be the out of town friends this time around.

Work's been intense, there is a lot of grant-writing going on and people (not me) are busting their chops over that. I hope that at least one of the big ones in the offing comes through.

In less than a week, we leave for Cyprus. Woah! How'd that come up so quickly? I'm excited for the trip, but oh so glad we have at least a little time between CONvergence and that trip. I still need to unpack and do laundry before I pack up again!

5 questions from springbok1

Leave a comment telling me you want me to ask you questions and:
❶ I'll respond by asking you five questions to satisfy my curiosity.
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1. What advice would you give to parents who are raising their children abroad?

I'd never thought about this before you asked. Thanks for asking!
Relax. This will be good for your kids. They'll have challenges, but they'll also learn a lot. Know a good doctor and take the smart, normal precautions. But kids are kids - they'll play, and get in minor trouble, and learn, and so on, just like kids anywhere.
Encourage your kids to learn the local language. Kids will learn what they need to, but no more than that. Make them need to learn the language.
Take advantage of the stuff around you, the stuff that's unique to where you are. Chances are you won't be there forever.
Assuming American parents, if possible, I'd recommend an international school. They tend to be really good schools, and will at least slightly prepare the kids well for the eventuality of returning to the US. Re-entry shock is hard enough (talk to your kids about this!) but if you at least have the right educational background to make the transition, that helps a lot. And home schooling when you're in a context like that seems socially cruel to me - it's difficult enough to get to know kids who are anything like you, and speak your language, but it would be far more difficult without the social place of a school.
Your kids are likely to either turn out quite extroverted or quite introverted. I don't know why, but that seems to be the trend.

2. What book have you lent out to friends and family the most? (Or, if you're an avid library-goer, what is a book that you find yourself recommending often and enthusiastically?)

Lately, I often recommend and lend out Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma. Not only is it a useful explanation of why I eat the way I eat, but it's well written and a fascinating exploration of food, at several different levels, in the U.S.

3. What was your favorite part of running the Bollywood party at CON?

The dancing, I think. Which is funny, because that wasn't "my" part, that was windelina's. But maybe that's part of what made it fun - I got to watch the swift transformation of a group of uncoordinated geeks who'd never done anything like this before into a surprisingly decent group of Bollywood dancers, and I was really not expecting it to be such a dramatic transformation!
Also, I always enjoy having a "job" at CON for at least part of my time there. I don't do well with all of my time being unstructured. So running a room party was (mostly) good for that. (Next year, hopefully we will have more help; I would like to spend a little less of my time in the room.)

4. Is there anything you miss about living in DC?

The public transportation, and how accessible everything was. The Metro was only a few blocks from our apartment, and it was easy to walk to everything. Within about a three-block radius of our place, there must have been 4 coffee shops, 6 restaurants, 3 liquor stores, a grocery store, a Target, etc. And it wasn't just the stuff in our neighborhood - we regularly hopped on the Metro to go to shows, bars, events, etc. There was a lot of fascinating free stuff to do, also, which adds a different dimension to "accessible". Minneapolis/St. Paul has some of that, and we live in a good neighborhood, but improving the public transportation would really help with that. Which is why I try not to complain too much about the fact that our neighborhood in Lowertown St. Paul is under construction, with all the roads torn up, and will be until 2014... when the light rail will come in there.

5. How old were you when you embraced your geeky side, and was there anything that precipitated it?

I've been reading science fiction and fantasy for as long as I can remember, and I think I probably played in my first D&D game when I was all of 6 years old. My father is to blame for the reading (it's what was around, and I liked it) and my brothers are at fault for the gaming (there was a shortage of players, so they allowed me to join the group). There was a gap in high school because none of the guys who did play role-playing games wanted anything to do with a girl... but I got back into it in college. It's been a while, again, since I've played a RPG but that's more because of other things taking higher priority in the limited amount of time I have available.