North to Chiang Mai

I spent the morning of Tuesday, December 23 in a bit of a funk. First of all, my Apple hard drive was full. It had been slow for a while and I knew it was nearing capacity – I had already moved some movies and music that people had given me to the external hard drive, but now I had to move some pictures – I moved all of the Azrou artisan product photos and many of Abdou’s rugs – and realized how much I missed everyone. I had spent so much time with those pictures, putting them on the web site, and with those rugs, sitting at Dar Neghrassi, that it felt a little like putting old friends out to pasture. Banished to the external hard drive! I had already told Martha that my first stop when I got to Los Angeles was the Apple store, but I still needed a stopgap – I bought additional photo memory cards so I could keep all my photos until I had additional memory and could download again. Mushkil solved, but funk not. I then heard that I wasn’t getting a call back from the National Peace Corps Association – again, that worked out for the best, but when you’re already in a funk, hearing news like that doesn’t help. I think the main reason I was down is that I was overcome with the feeling that the trip had reached a turning point – I was almost at the end of the Thailand portion, and even though I had more countries and weeks still to go – plus the Drive Across America – it seemed that I had reached the pinnacle and was on the downslope. But I pulled myself together and reminded myself that I was going north! Originally I thought I would go north or south and I was doing both!

I got up early to head to the internet again and confirm hotel reservations through January 1; that was far enough ahead. Did some email catchup too. To the post office to send a package to my sister and one to my friend Howie (i.e. things for him to store for me – I bought enough in Luang Prabang to justify a lightening of the load, and since I was going to the post office anyway…); once I decided to go north I also decided to save my major souvenir/support-team shopping for the Chiang Mai night market. And then it was on to Chiang Mai! By plane – not that the overnight train ride south wasn’t fun, but it would have been more like afternoon/overnight to go north; the plane flight was much faster and not expensive. And then I had some time in Chiang Mai!


My hotel didn’t have all of the rustic touches that it appeared to when I booked it, but it was in a good location, right in the center of town. Lonely Planet recommends a walking tour, so I went to three nearby wats, each different – architecture of the north is a different style (again, you can tell by the rooflines – but again, I failed to become an expert). You’d think I’d be watted out but no – although I’ll admit I was getting there. At one wat there was a fortune teller and I thought why not, my birthday was coming up. She told me I am a good woman, a hard worker, a happy person, a lucky person, not a lonely person, and that I would find a nice young (maybe in his 20s!) man with a similar temperament and that we would come back to Chiang Mai for our honeymoon next year. I’m not too sure about that last part but her description of me rang true so you never know.





At one of the wats there was “Monk Chat” (which made me think of “Coffee Talk”). You could ask the monks any question about their practice or about Buddhism. I sat and talked with the monks for a while – it was interesting!



There was also a marching band at one of the wats – it seemed out of place, but it was fun to watch. I always feel uplifted when I hear a marching band.


There are also modern parts to the city – one of which had a philosophy to which I could relate.


I ate dinner at a place called the Writer’s Café, which I thought would bring good karma, and then I headed for the night market. It was certainly big! I mostly scoped things out since I knew I’d be back. And then, since it had been a couple of days after all, and I had had a hard day, and I had done a lot of walking, it was time for another treatment – this time for the feet; soak, mask and massage!

Aye, Aye Ayuthuya

Chicago, Princeton, Manhattan, Philadelphia, Southampton and a taste of DC are all well and good, but now it’s back to Thailand. I wasn’t convinced that I needed to go to Ayuthuya (I wish I could have stayed in Luang Prabang an extra day) but it was on that piece of paper Linda had drawn up for me. And how could I compare it to Sukhothai without seeing for myself? I had the time to go. And it was a short train ride away, so I could go up and back in a day - though if you stay over, you can see the ruins lit up at night, which sounds dramatic. You can also get there by boat up the Chao Phraya river, seeing the Bang Pa-in, the former summer palace, as well, and then return by bus the next day. However, a day trip worked well for me.


I got up early and went to Wawee Coffee to confirm flight reservations I had made the night before for the next week – training-of-trainers was going to start for Marilee, so it was time to get out of her hair – and then took the BTS to the Metro to the train station going north, and then I got a third-class ticket for the hour-long ride. Ayuthuya was the capital of Thailand from the end of the Sukhothai age (founded in 1351; the seat of power by the 15th century) until 1767, when the Burmese sacked the city. In the 1500s, the Portuguese, British, Dutch and French came to call and remarked upon the riches of the city. In the 1600s, the population was over a million – larger than London’s at the time. As with Sukhothai, there are several temples (over 400 in its heyday!), and a good way to see a lot of them is by renting a bike – and this time I did. And since I experienced each of these UNESCO World Heritage Sites in different ways, I am glad I went to both. It was great to ride from one wat to another. The iconic one, Wat Phra Si Sanphet, has three stupas in a line.


Another iconic image is at the center of the old sacred city, Wat Phra Mathathat. The intertwining of a sacred image with nature is extremely auspicious in Thai Buddhism, per Lonely Planet.


There were modern, active temples too.


I could have biked all day – I certainly didn’t cover it all - but Marilee told me that when she went, she and her friend took a boat around the island (the city is built at the intersection of three rivers), and I love boat rides, so I decided to do that too. The boat ride went past houses and included stops at three more wats.



Wat Chai Wattanaram is everyone’s favorite sunset spot, but even during the day it was an impressive example of the Khmer style.


And I liked this picture of Thai heroes.


I got back in time to hear the King’s Anthem at the BTS station at 6 pm – a nice little bonus to the day. I met Marilee at a gourmet food court (kind of like Foodlife, you Chicagoans!) at one of the shopping malls of Bangkok. I don’t think I have talked about them yet. There are many shopping malls, with every kind of store you can think of, and going to the shopping malls is a typical thing for a citizen of Bangkok to do (so is going to the movies, but I didn’t get to one – though I did miss movies while I was gone and would like to catch up on any must-sees). We even did some mall shopping! And we stopped at the Erawan Shrine, which is actually of Hindu origin; many Thais make offerings there because it has a reputation for granting wishes.


I should also mention that when we got back from Luang Prabang on Sunday night we went for massages – I one-hour, Marilee two. Between my massage and an internet café visit, I went to a drug store and a grocery store – two of my favorite things to do when I go to other places. I bought some baking needs (chocolate chips, not available in Morocco, can be found in Bangkok – along with peanut butter and many other imported essentials!) so that I could make some brownies for Marilee as yet another thank-you. I didn’t need anything in particular at the drug store, but I like looking at the products (even if I don’t ever want to work in product marketing again!).

I hardly noticed the winter solstice – when you are this close to the equator, there isn’t much of a variation – maybe half an hour at most between winter days and summer days. While I was there, it got light around 6:15 am and dark around 5:45 pm. That said, I am always happy when the days start to get longer!

A Little (or a Lot) on the FSOT

You can find much of this information on careers.state.gov, but I’ll give you a little background and then tell you (what I can) about my personal experience, and then at a later point I’ll write more about my trip to Washington, DC and Virginia. I took the written test (the first time) on July 14 in Casablanca. In August or so, I learned that I had passed and that I was on to the next step, the QEP (which I think is Qualifications Evaluation Panel). Basically, it’s a more detailed on-line application than the one I submitted to take the written test, including essays on why I want to be a Foreign Service Officer. I had to provide references too, but I don’t know if they were ever called.

In December (i.e. early on in my visit to Thailand – prompting my hostess and Linda’s friend Linda, both of whom deal with the embassy and/or consulate on a regular basis, to say, “the Foreign Service could use more smart people like you,” making me wonder – are the people there not smart? They then both told me there’s a mix; I think I’m okay with that) I found out that I was on to the next step, the Foreign Service Oral Assessment; I scheduled it for March 19. So that was the end date of my travels – well, really a little before was, since I wanted to get settled before I went to Washington. Without this date, would I have kept traveling? I don’t know – since I was hoping to get the invite, I kind of budgeted for it in my mind when I was thinking about the trip.

So, bright and early (7:00 am) on the 19th, I arrived at the State Department Annex (not all of the Oral Assessments are in Washington; mine just happened to be). The time I arrived was noted – had I known that I might not have stopped at Starbucks first! Was this part of the test? At least I wasn’t the last to arrive! The confirmation letter (or the web site?) said to wear a suit – well, I didn’t have one with me, and I didn’t buy one for it – I thought I looked professional enough in blazer, slacks and interview shoes, but if I get that far again, I would get a suit.

There are three parts of the day – the group of people is broken up and some people do the same things in a different order, but the order for me was group exercise, structured interview, writing exercise (that’s why it’s called the Oral Assessment and not an interview). Somewhere in there is a lunch break too, and another break while the people in the other groups are doing what they are doing, and then at the end of the day a break while everyone is discussed, and then you get either a short thank-you discussion or a longer conditional offer discussion.

In the group exercise, you are given background on a country and you are a Foreign Service Officer. The ambassador is coming, and each of you has a position to support; you have to come to a consensus as a group about what the ambassador should do – he or she has time for only one person’s agenda and maybe one other activity. I had been told don’t take over and don’t hang back but help keep the group moving. Someone else took over and I looked at him and thought, “I’m not sure I like these people; if I don’t get the job that’s okay.” I knew the moment I said it to myself (if not the moment I realized I should have worn a suit – even though the evaluators were more casually dressed) that I had sent that thought off to the universe and that that was that. I have no real idea of how I was perceived but I think I held my own in the exercise. I’m not sure anyone in my group got a conditional offer, but they do make a point of saying you’re not competing against the other group members – you could all get offers or none could. But I don’t know what we could have done differently.


The structured interview is called that because they ask the questions and you answer – you don’t get to ask questions, as you might in another job interview. They also don’t ask many questions that follow up on answers you might have given, so again, you have no feedback on how you might be doing. It turned out (in my short thank-you) that this was the part on which I had done the best, though I didn’t think so at the time. My structured interview was right before lunch, and even though we weren’t allowed to talk about the test, the other people I had lunch with were so anxious and/or fatalistic that I didn’t feel good about myself either.


The last part of the day was a writing exercise – we’re given a scenario and have to write a memo. We were asked to make a choice, and rather than make a choice I tried to find a creative solution, and in retrospect I should have just made a choice, even if I didn’t like the options. Head-slap – follow the directions! On the other hand, if that’s a real-life scenario and I don’t want to choose between two unpalatable options, maybe I wouldn’t be a good Foreign Service Officer?


There are five tracks; when you apply for the written test, you have to declare which track you want to be in. Management (the administrative work of the embassy) and Consular (processing visas and the like) are the two easier tracks to get in. I had applied for Management after meeting the Administrative Officer of the U.S. Embassy in Rabat (a friend of the Peace Corps Administrative Officer), who loved her job. But as I read more about it in preparation for the Oral Assessment, it sounded to me too much like fixing window screens – sure, it’s more than that, but facilities is part of it and that doesn’t excite me. The other tracks are Economic (working on getting business abroad for American businesses and on tracking/influencing economic policy), Politics (monitoring the politics of the country and again influencing policy – everything but economic, I guess) and Public Diplomacy (outreach to the locals to present America and American values). The last one might be more up my alley but the Administrative Officer mentioned that those people are at events all the time and she had a life – I too want a life outside of work! I took a survey on the careers.state.gov web site to determine which track is right for me – I scored high enough in all but Consular to pick any. But – lack of suit and group-taker-overer aside - I also couldn’t get past the window screens. For this round, I picked Economic. So if I don’t make it further, it could be my written test, but it could also be that there isn’t as much of a need.

In my short thank-you, the evaluators said they couldn’t tell me much, lest it be construed as coaching. They did hand me a letter with my score – which was close to the cutoff – and when I asked if based on the score they would tell me to try again, they told me that many people who don’t pass the first time do so on the second or third try and that with my background they think I would be a good Management Officer (but I couldn’t get them to say if they thought I would be good in one of the other tracks). In addition to your total score, the letter also tells you if you were above the cutoff in any of the three parts, and I was above the cutoff in the structured interview (which is how I know I did better than I thought there).


I was hoping for a conditional offer – though I still would have had to keep looking for a job, because a conditional offer just puts you on the list and you may never get a call (at least I think that’s what they tell you in the conditional-offer discussion) so I was a little bummed. The day ended earlier than I had told my friends it would, so I took a walk (not far, though, since the interview shoes aren’t that comfortable) to the White House (I haven’t talked about the Obama Stalker Tour yet, but I had been to Obama sites in Jakarta, Hawaii, Los Angeles, and Chicago, so I had to go by). When I got back to my friends’ house, I told them I had to feel sorry for myself for a little while, and I did, and then it was on to the next activity (without looking at my calendar I can guess it involved some games-playing). I decided that since I was close enough, I might as well try again. So I took the written test this week. In a month or so I should hear whether or not I go on to the QEP. If I get past that, maybe the Oral Assessment would be in February? And with it another end point to any travels after the Philippines? I should point out that two people in my group came from overseas just for the Oral Assessment; also one of the people in my Peace Corps stage had traveled home for it and come back. Bottom line – we shall see!



P.S. (week of July 4) - how would I have done with this Brooks Brothers seersucker red, white and blue suit? My sister said to stick to basics...

Before I Go On...

I said I’d talk more about the Foreign Service Officer Test, and I shall, but first, some comments about Southampton. During the time that I was in Chicago and Princeton, all the hedges filled out and loads of flowers bloomed. It’s gorgeous out here. I’m outside writing this, in fact. I always wondered how those people on TV could look at their computer screens outside, and I must admit, I can’t see much, but it’s just warm enough and breezy enough and sunny enough and overcast enough for me to give it a try (as opposed to yesterday, when it was chilly and misty and it was fine to be inside for most of the day). It’s still not a beach day every day, but I am taking more walks by the ocean and also longer bike rides. So many birds to watch! I need to position the bird book on the table where I usually write. The market has fresh local strawberries, which might be the best I have ever tasted. This time of year always amazes me – the days are so long! And, perhaps more amazing in a way, soon I will be in a place where day length doesn’t change much, and then I’ll come back and the days will be short, the trees and hedges will be bare, and the cycle will begin again.


Today I did my first race since the Marrakesh half-marathon, a 5K (well, 4.97), http://www.christophersrun.com/index.htm. Reading the story of Christopher on the web site warmed my heart – I know there are so many similar stories but something about the small-town feel out here made it more personal. Indeed, when I got a banana at the finish line (and fresh local strawberries), the volunteer there said she was Christopher’s speech therapist, and the person next to me getting food was also related to Christopher (though it sounded like the said he was Christopher’s nephew’s uncle, or that his girlfriend was, so I’m not sure of the connection). I loved doing this run – community integration! On the way back to the bike (yes, it was a bike-walk-run-walk-bike – a quintathlon! I locked my sister’s bike some distance away, since I had gotten busted by a cop this week for riding on one of the two streets in the village that don’t allow bikes – not a ticket, just an admonition to walk the bike, but that was my sign that high season has arrived) I passed Alex’s Lemonade Stand – the volunteers there said that since I ran for a cause this morning I could have some free lemonade, but instead I put the five-dollar bill I had with me in the donations jar.


I should also mention that this week I have been enjoying the Stanley Cup finals and was thrilled that the series went seven games (and that they were for the most part so compelling). I watched a lot of the playoffs (once I found Versus on the home system here). I hadn’t watched a lot of hockey since the lockout but, spurred on by the Blackhawks game I saw in February, I remembered how much I liked hockey. I went 27 months without that too! And just like that, now it’s the hockey off-season.

The City of Brotherly Love

My heart isn’t set on a career (or even a next job) with the State Department, though it has a lot of appeal – as do other government jobs. I think that the Obama administration is doing a lot to make government service an attractive option (not to mention that they are hiring, and in this job market, not many others are!). And that’s how I view the Foreign Service – it’s an attractive option. So much so that when I didn’t make it to the next step after my oral assessment (and I think I’ll talk about that next, since I’m not going in order anyway) I decided I would try again; many people who don’t make it the first time do make it on their second or third try.

I had to start all over with a new application, and when I was invited to take the written test, I didn’t jump on it right away (was I in Chicago? Not sure of the reason); by the time I did, all of the slots in New York were full. What to do? Wait for more slots to possibly open up (they did say they would add some) or travel to a site with slots. I found one in Philadelphia – and I wanted to spend more time with friends there anyway; the Phillies weren’t in town but you can’t have everything. I called the Peace Corps to make sure my departure date would be after the test date (that’s when they told me my confirmed date was June 21) and scheduled the test.

Going from Southampton to Philadelphia, I reasoned, was like going from Azrou to Errachidia – about two hours to Manhattan, with the walk from the Hampton Jitney to Penn Station the moral (though in no other way) equivalent of waiting for the taxi to fill in Midelt. Now that I have traveled great distances in Morocco for short amounts of time, going to Philadelphia one day and coming back the next didn’t seem a big deal. I arrived in plenty of time to walk from 30th Street to the test site, Community College of Philadelphia. The test was scheduled for 3:30 but since I was early, the test administrator let me start early.

The general knowledge portion was fine. There was a question that stumped me that related to a country I might have been reading a lot about lately, but I am not at liberty to talk about the test (I looked it up and still don’t really know if I answered it correctly). Then there was a personality part – to show leadership, working style, etc. (you can find out about the format of the test by going to the careers.state.gov web site and by ordering a sample test, so I do feel I am at liberty to at least say this much). The next part is reading a writing sample and correcting the English – which is for me, well, not to boast, and this sentence notwithstanding, a piece of cake. There might even have been writings about places where I have lived or visited, which made this portion more entertaining. I breezed through those three parts and then took the full allotted time on the essay. This is the part where they give you a topic and you write a point of view. They don’t grade your opinion but rather your ability to have a point of view and support it. If I don’t make it further, it’s because my arguments were somewhat weak – last time I had a topic that I’d been reading about so I had support points at the ready; this time the topic was interesting enough but I’m not sure I said much at all.

I finished early and had a chance to walk around, seeing some of Philadelphia’s beautiful downtown:

City Hall

Love Plaza

And then I went up the Main Line to stay with friends. We had breakfast the next day, and then I had a little more time to walk around, seeing:

The Benjamin Franklin National Memorial (one of 44 National Memorials) – inside the Franklin Institute


And walked to West Philadelphia, where on the Penn campus I saw:

More Love

More Franklin

The last time I walked down Locust Walk was September 11, 2001, when we heard that the bus that was going to take us to JFK for our departure to Morocco was delayed. I remember thinking how leafy the Penn campus was – almost every time I’d been there in the last 20 years it was wintertime.


I met an old friend for a cheesesteak, and since we were walking right by the eye doctor’s office I stopped in to say hello. Then I took the subway (when was the last time I took the subway in Philadelphia – 1984?) downtown to the Thomas Jefferson Hospital travel clinic for my last shots. By the time I left (as in Chicago, I had to stay after I had the shots to make sure I wouldn’t keel over) I didn’t have time to do anything else – I’d thought I might see the new Art Museum Perelman building or go to Reading Terminal Market or somewhere else that had recently been written up in the Times. Of course, I didn’t have to get back before dark – I just had it in mind that I would, so I didn’t write down the times of any trains later than the 3:25. That’s okay – it was nice to get home at a reasonable hour, especially when I was thinking I was leaving on June 21 and wanted to get off to a rip-roaring start today – but it just whetted my appetite for another Philadelphia trip! It’s a great city with a lot to offer (not to mention other friends who I didn’t have a chance to see on this brief trip)!

Still Adjusting

So, the environment and health people who started six months after I did COS’ed last week, and the new SBD/YD stage is at IST right now (see 27monthswithoutbaseball.blogspot.com for acronyms! Or I can just tell you – Close-of-Service (or Completion – I’ve seen both) and In-Service Training). So it’s a good time to take stock of where I am. I went to the dry cleaners last week and spent $68 for maybe half a dozen items – sticker shock! Back in Azrou it would have cost me about eight dirhams (a dollar) an item! Of course, I didn’t dry clean a lot – almost everything I brought with me was washable (that is, I bought machine-washable items but did hand-washing!). I still marvel at the machine that magically washes your clothes – and I wonder if I can minimize dry cleaning in my wardrobe of the future....

Maybe one of the biggest effects I am still feeling is my reluctance to talk on the phone. It just feels strange! I still find it easier to text (at least more people here do it now – when I came back from South Africa, after texting a lot, almost none of my friends did). I’ve been using skype more since returning than I did in Morocco, to keep in touch with friends who are still there, but I felt uncomfortable talking to my computer when I was there and I still feel uncomfortable (so that’s not a change but a continuation). My cousin came to visit earlier this week – he’s moving back to the Netherlands and as long as he was working nearby he came by – and then my family came out to use their (!) house this weekend, and after seeing them I felt a bit lonely. Most of the time I haven’t felt that way out here in Southampton (I have even been thinking I could live here, though I don’t know if I could meet too many people like me here), but being with other people was a reminder that I like being with other people! I rarely felt lonely or isolated in Morocco (though I did miss my friends) – but maybe I was alone there more than I thought and I got used to it; I’m still unaccustomed to spending a lot of time with people!

There’s also my relationship with New York. On my first few trips there I felt strangely emotionless – just visiting, just observing; it didn’t feel like home. On more recent visits I have grown to appreciate it more, though I realize that I still feel like a visitor. I mean, I know I haven’t lived there in a while, but it always felt more familiar than it does now. I also have been getting around more – seeing parts of Manhattan I haven’t seen in a while – (that is, other than my standard walks in Central Park!) so I feel a new sense of discovery. For example:

Lever House

Paley Park

Madison Square

The restored 50th-anniversary Guggenheim


When I left LaGuardia for Chicago last month (and passed right over a night game at Citi Field!) I thought about all the times I returned to Chicago from New York, sad about leaving. I wasn’t sad this time – but maybe that’s because I wasn’t returning to Chicago per se, but just visiting. I may not be articulating this well – I guess I am still trying to figure out how I feel.

So could I live in New York? Maybe; I’m not sure, really. But would I like to spend more time there – and all over the east? To that I can say yes without hesitation. It’s been a while and there are lots of things to see and do (not to mention a bunch of friends!). I’m on my way to Philadelphia today and looking forward to walking around Center City, having a cheesesteak, maybe going to a museum – and to going back to Philadelphia again when I get back. Of course, there’s lots to see and do in the west too, and a bunch of friends, and I’ve always wanted to live there at least for a while. So where does that leave me? Well, as I said many times during my travels, epiphanies don’t happen on demand….

Last week I spent a good portion of the week working on papers for my non-profit certificate courses, and now I’m finished with those (inshallah). So I have something to show for this time period! Now I want to write up more of my travels before I leave for the Philippines. But I was taken aback when an energy-work therapist last week told me I needed to have more fun – she may be right. If I’m not having enough fun now, what will life be like when I’m working again? My sister also suggested I relax before leaving. Relax? Well, the weather is nicer; maybe there’ll be more beach walks. The cover was off the pool table this weekend and I played a game before the cover went back on (not that I can’t take it off for myself – I just hadn’t to date). And my sister pulled out a jigsaw puzzle – maybe I’ll work on that! Relaxing sounds like a good idea….

Going Back to New Jersee

When I went to Morocco I decided that of my many traditions, two were non-negotiable – the March “See the World” trip with my family and Princeton Reunions. My 19-year streak of holiday weekends in the tri-state area had ended in 2005, so Morocco didn’t end it, and the Annual Card Game, usually held at that time, could be moved now that three of the four players were in New York (although circumstances led to no game last year, we can make up for it by having more than one in a year, inshallah!). I went on the two March trips while I was away but this past March that tradition was lost as well. And then there’s Reunions.

While in the Peace Corps, I flew to JFK on Thursday and flew back to Casablanca the following Monday (had I not already had the flights arranged, I might not have missed the 80th birthday celebration for Professor David Billington or the memorial service for The Daily Princetonian’s Larry DuPraz, both of whom were influences and inspirations to me and many others). Both weekends were wonderful – a great chance to see friends and to feel connected. And since Princeton Reunions is its own little world, I didn’t experience too much culture shock; I didn’t really have time, anyway.

This year was a little different – I’ve been back for a while and I’ve already seen a lot of the people I usually see, so it was even more comfortable and familiar. There was some sense of saying goodbye to people since I’m going away again, but I don’t know how much I would have seen of many of these friends even if I were here, and I feel I’m in touch with most of them through the internet, mail and sometimes phone anyway.

Unfortunately, this year was also different in that I didn’t feel well and didn’t have my usual energy. It seemed to take a lot of effort to walk up and down the campus (when you don’t feel well, a slope becomes a hill), so I didn’t run around as much as I usually do. This meant more time with people I happened to be near, but missing people I didn’t venture out to see. I also felt somehow incomplete wardrobe-wise - I had given my class costume to my friend Howie for safekeeping, but between not wanting him to have to dry clean (or, perhaps worse, not dry clean!) for me and the abundance of attractive Moroccan orange and black clothing I was able to acquire, it’s been sitting at his house unused. But this year the orange and black clothing was also in a box; I mailed it home from Morocco and hadn’t dreamed that I wouldn’t have settled somewhere and retrieved it by now. I did have one orange Moroccan shirt – I’d saved it just in case I needed it for the Princeton Club talk – and I lifted one orange t-shirt from my storage space when I went through it – but it didn’t seem enough.


La gave me a class shirt from our 25th, but it’s too big (I think I might bring it to Asia and see what a tailor can do with it). Arlene gave me a class polo, so at least I had something to wear, but I felt conspicuous. I know it shouldn’t make a difference – so maybe it was a reflection of just not feeling 100 percent.


That said, I had a wonderful time. It was great to see friends and to know that even without my running around to find them, many of the people I wanted to see found me or were right there where I was anyway (e.g. the 30th Reunion courtyard, the Band reunion, the P-rade, my eating club). I’ll miss the fall football game again – that was something I hadn’t missed until 2006 – but I’m already looking forward to next year’s Reunions and to writing the class notes columns this year!