Two weeks to go!

(Memorial Chorten, Thimphu. I just want to roll around in snow right now.)

My thoughts turn almost constantly towards the Himalayas these days, especially as the heat of the global-warmed Minnesota summer melts my body from the inside out. One thing is for sure when we return to Minnesota: our apartment criteria will include air conditioning.

Despite the oven-like apartment, I am preparing to go in two weeks and beginning to pack and take care of logistics. There are so many little things to think about when you move abroad, and I'm sure that I will miss something that I will only begin to realize once I'm in Thimphu. If you want a window into what that's like, stop and think for a minute about every subscription, utility, and service that cycle through your life every month. Then imagine calling, emailing, or trying to figure out how to cancel each one of those (and these services don't want to get cancelled, so they make it extremely difficult to do so). Then imagine trying to figure out what to bring to a country you've never been, and that most people have never been. Then imagine taking all of your other possessions and packing them and figuring out where to put them. I make it sound worse than it is, but it is a lot of mental juggling to do.

Anyway...

I booked my stay in Delhi, and I found a great little place called Tree Tops (https://sites.google.com/site/treetopsbedandbreakfast/home) located in South Delhi. The Bed & Breakfast is run by Murad Ali Baig, a journalist and travel writer, and his wife Tannie, who is a chef and writes cookbooks. It should be a fun experience!

The other day I was told that I received a Travel Grant from the University. It's certainly not enough to cover even one plane ticket, but at least it's something extra. My time at the Institute on Community Integration is wrapping up as I submitted my last task the other day: a journal article based on the study we did around diploma options and graduation requirements for youth with disabilities. I also have a few other articles that are single-authored that I have been working on this summer that should be published soon.

Besides preparing to move to Bhutan and writing journal articles, I have also been teaching myself Comparative World Politics since that is one of the courses that I will be teaching in the autumn. It's not too much outside of my understanding, since I am interested (and, if I do say so, well-informed) on politics and world events. I am now just learning some of the technical definitions for things and specific theories such as Aristotle's classification of governments and Weber's classification of political authority. You know, stuff like that...

This weekend, Emily and I will be traveling down to Iowa to visit my grandparents (both paternal and maternal) as kind of a farewell tour before we leave. Should be an okay drive ... at least the car is air-conditioned.