衝動買い

There is always the first time for everything. This time it was to buy a art work. I walked by a small gallery near where I live now. It was a tiny exhibition of one Japanese artist who resides in this country and another local artist. There were about 15 pieces of paintings mostly.

Living this lifestyle of moving so often to different parts of the world makes you think twice before buying things especially, heavy or big items that do not fit in your suitcase. Me and my girl friend often talk about how we see nice pieces of furniture etc but give up purchasing them, because we don't have a permanent place to live.

This time, I decided. I wanted it. I can't stop living my life- well a bit exaggerated since buying things is not only life- but i don't want to give up things only because I don't know where I will end up in six months.

I have bought a painting not so expensive of chillies - one of my favorite motifs along with leaf and lotus flower, "featured" often in my photos. I look forward to having it (still at the gallery until then end) and hanging it in my kitchen wherever I go next.

I met the artist, really nice woman. I sympathize with her for finding beauty in plants and in everyday things and listening to their "voices".

I will upload the photo!

Beauty in everyday life

日常の中で出会うハッとするぐらい綺麗な景色や物達。

週末旅行でタクシーを待っていた道端のお店にて。

マンゴージュースを飲みつつ、お店のおばさんと歓談。

Good-bye to my grandmother

I was in Japan for five days, as my paternal grandmother passed away. Unfortunately I did not make it to the funeral but managed to go to her house and said good-bye.

She was an amazing woman and I have many many nice memories of her. I wish I had more time to talk with her when she was well.

May she rest in peace, I am sure that she has now re-joined my grandfather on the other side and is watching over us.

Lotus flower from the Lake Biwa taken during my trip

Back in the game -on a field mission

出張で東部の平野のジャナクプールという街に来ています。現地人の上司とパートナーの国連機関の同僚と３人で。ここにくるのは２度目です。

今日は夕方に到着し、のんびりとこちらの有名なヒンズー教のお寺にお参りし、その後腕輪（バングル）ショッピングの女子３人。どこの国でも、女性はキラキラしたきれいなものが好きなのです。私もピンクのと白地に赤い模様入りのとか数種類購入。

夕食を食べて、さっきリクシャーで帰ってきた。上司の提案で３人ともマサラコーラ（マサラはスパイスという意味）を頼んでみたら、一口でダメなお味でした。皆、２度と頼まないと言ってた。ビリヤニライスとカレーは美味しかったけどね。

出張の目的は、担当している性暴力のプロジェクトのモニタリング。去年の１１月に、パイロットキャンプを見て以来です。８月の１週目に、中間報告を兼ねた戦略会議を２日間予定しているので、プロジェクトマネージャーとしては、それまでに一度は見ておかなければと思い、急きょ予定したのです。

明日は早起きで、村で一日移動キャンプを見学。翌日は夕方のフライトまで、私が前まで担当していたプロジェクトのモニタリングを予定しています。

平野部はムシムシしていて暑い！ばてないようにしなければ。

今日の一番の驚き―　２年以上いて何度も国内出張しているけど、初めて時間通りにフライトが飛んだこと！有り得ないよ。いつも通りにギリギリにいったら乗り遅れるところだった。あぶないあぶない

Cooking Lesson

This weekend, I had an opportunity to take a cooking lesson of local (NPL) dishes. A friend of mine has a language teacher who also offered to teach the local cuisine. With another friend, in total three japanese girls endeavored to learn how to make different curry dishes.

When you think about "curry", you will probably imagine very creamy kind like butter chicken etc. However, the local dishes here are a bit more simple.

Our "teacher" so easily made in total 6 dishes!

• Dal soup


• Sesame flavored potato achar - achar is like a pickle but not quite it is usually not cooked but mixed with spices


• Edamame beans achar (I don't know Edamame in English...)


• Cucumber achar


• Bitter melon and potato curry


• Okra curry

And she also offer chicken curry and fried something (mini cucumber type vegetable, crispy skin but inside is like zucchini. I don't think there is English word for this!) that she made previously.

This lady is amazingly fluent in Japanese having studied (PhD in education) in Japan for a few years. We had so much fun chatting in Japanese and eating the delicious food. Something like this is really one of the precious moments of living in this country!

I already tried one recipe of cucumber achar and modified it with black sesame powder....

Result?

Was good but not as good as hers

Yes, I can't measure up to the local chef.

Back to my KTM Life

ご無沙汰しています。赴任地に戻って、バタバタしていて、更新する暇がなかったのです。

久しぶり（６ヶ月）に戻ったオフィスは、何だか前より、雰囲気がわるーくなっている。また、仲の良い同僚が一人辞めることになっちゃったりして。

正直、先行き不安な事務所です。私は、なるべく余計なことに気を使わず、仕事に専念するのみ。幸い、今のところ、新入り（？）ということもあって、そんなに忙しくないので、毎日定時に帰っている。新しくできたヨガセンターにも通い始めて、そこでパワーヨガなるものをやっている。NYの不健康な生活を正す為にも、なるべく自炊でリラックスを心がけることにしている。取り敢えず住むところも決まったしね。

コンサルタント契約なので、日給（日払いじゃないよ！）で、有給休暇がないのが辛いところだけど、週末で楽しめるものは楽しもう！と思っている。

どこか旅行に行きたいけどな〜。

Back in the country

I have been back since Thursday and it is my third day back at the office. I am slowly getting rid of my jet lag and getting back into my new old job! So happy to see my friends. It is in the middle of monsoon right now, and it has been consistently raining. Humid and sticky but nice to sleep to the sound of rain at night. Just letting you know that I am fine in haste.

Leaving NYC Tomorrow

My three months and a bit in NYC is coming to an end. It was so quick. I am working a full day tomorrow and leaving on a very late flight.

I am 80% packed and most of items on the to do list have been crossed out, such as hair-cut, pedicure, Japanese food grocery shopping, under-wear, espresso maker, toiletry, cosmetics etc etc.

There's a lot that I want to write but I am tired. I am going to bed early as I have to get up early to do one final laundry (unfortunately not at a laundromat anymore, since I moved to a nice building with all the facilities. )

Let's see what adventure will await for me back in the country. In the meantime, I hope I have a nice last day at work.

Photo: Brooklyn bridge

ラストスパート

先週末に、留守中のお友達のアパートに引っ越し。仕事も大詰めで、持って帰る荷物のことや、はたまた違う仕事の面接（プラス３時間の筆記試験お〜の〜）が入ったりして、今週は疲労している。

まだまだ帰る前に、あと一つコンサートに行き、髪も切りたいし、人と会う約束もあるし、借りている村上春樹の長編も読み切らないといけないし、お買い物もしなきゃで目が回っている。

早く飛行機に乗って寝たい！と正直思ってしまう。

今晩は、大好物の飲茶（夕ご飯になんて邪道だけど、NYはさすがに一日中やっている店があるのさ）と更に大好きな海鮮固焼きそばを食べ、違うお店で豆腐デザートまで食した。明日はお寿司。食べ過ぎか？　

Racing with time

I have been working crazy crazy day& night and weekends to finish up my main "deliverable" (such a development term isn't it?). Believe it or not, I do enjoy writing this document with my very poor English writing skills. This particular component of work is quite interesting. This is what I did not get to do at all with my past job with the other UN agency in the field. I enjoy reading about different issues, researching and writing. I could hear my dying brain cells moving and wrinkles expand and shrink (this may be a Japanese expression). I feel like I am back in school writing a thesis, but it is nice to think about theoretical stuff , such as what women's empowerment means and how to measure it!

To be honest, I am a bit scared of getting feedback from another section of the agency whether this is to their satisfaction and if I will make the deadline, which is my flight. However, when this is done, it is going to be printed and distributed to many countries in the world, and this is such a honor to work on things like this. I need all your fingers crossed for this, so that I don't get a bad reputation leaving an incomplete product.

備忘録

More movies that I watched recently:

Midnight in Paris

Blue Valentine

Somewhere

Rabbit Hole

Tony Taketani

Inside Job

Cote d'Azur

The Other Woman

Science of sleep

Tree of Life

Play

Normal Heart

２ドルのヨロコビ

シュークリーム大好き。職場の行き帰りに毎日通るシュークリーム屋さん。日本人のパテシエの人が作っていてカスタードがすごく美味☆

Here I go again

Belatedly, my next six months plan became more or less clear, and I think everybody knows what this means by now. Yes, I got the job and going back in three weeks. Frankly I am exhausted from all waiting, thinking, choosing, and negotiating. It is great to have options in life and I think it is all "trial and error" process. It is exciting but tiring. Comparing pros and cons, finally I needed to follow my heart and take chances and risks that the life presents.

I told my current supervisor today that I will not be continuing with them. I felt extremely bad as if I am abandoning them. I know I can't make everyone happy and I need to put myself as a priority, but it is still hard. Already another round of farewells is planned (didn't I have farewells just a few months ago!?) I have a big task to complete before I leave. I feel a bit relieved that now may date is fixed, but no time to relax!

Coming here was my new year's resolution, and I now know how it is to work at the HQ. I will write more reflections on this experience when I am done with the assignment. One thing for sure is that I am really grateful for the experience.

I am excited to go back. My friends are all waiting, and as much as I complained about my previous work, well everyone complains right? ;) I enjoy working there in the field. It is crazy for me to leave the nice life in NYC and go back to traffic, eternal dog barking and power outages, but after all I do feel at home there.

Anyway, my extended shopping trip (this is how my friends called my 3 month consultancy before leaving for NY) is coming to an end.

Joy of laundry

When I tried to convey how expensive everything is in NY, I always quote the price of single washing in a laundromat. It is 4$ for a use of a laundry machine and 25 cents every six minutes of a dryer (last a few minutes of drying cycle is cool-down, so I feel like I get ripped off for this!). Despite the complaint, I actually like going there. Yes, what a difference between having someone wash my stuff, iron and even put into my closet (few months ago, I had a such bourgeois life shamefully) and dragging a huge bag of clothes with a bottle of detergent like a student.

There is some kind of comforting feeling about it. I usually bring a book and my i-pod, but sometimes I just stand there and admire all laundry machines and dryers turning and turning, looking at bubbles and my clothes flying around in a huge dryer. I watch the laundry and feel a sense of “awe” because of many machines working at a same time like a factory, but also I feel like I can see people’s life in clothes that people are washing. I watch others and what they are washing, guessing and wondering what they do for a living etc. There is something more than that, which makes me feel happy, and I can’t explain what it is. Maybe, it is also joy of simple work.

The other day, I was helping my colleague to prepare for a meeting by photocopying and stapling documents. I told her I enjoy the mechanical work using my hands taking a break from our "intellectual work". We just think, analyze, strategize, write, negotiate, coordinate and organize things all day for 8 hours! And at the end of a day, we don’t really see a “result” as such (we would like to believe that we do!).

Just in case you are wondering...

I still have no news whatsoever about my plan for the next little while, still no news about that job, still no 100% assurance about the extension of my current contract, had another job interview since then, and another possibility on a horizon.... I say every day to everyone who asks me "yes, I should be finding out in the next few days" for the past few weeks. How do I stay sane in this uncertainty?

My current job is finishing in two weeks!

盛りだくさんの週末

Pedicure- Shopping in Soho- Museum of Modern Art- Broadway play- walk in Central Park- Venezuelan dinner- coffee and pain au chocolat in a French cafe- Sushi- Spanish wine bar- pizza- grocery shopping in an organic food supermarket- chatting until late at night

All in two and a half days! Isn't it amazing??

I bought a beautiful skirt (very dramatic one- quarter of an original price) and a cute mug cup.

We went to a same brunch restaurant as two years ago, and food was as great!

あー楽しかった！

ゆうじんきたる

今晩、トロントからヘレンがやってくる。１年前に赴任国で会って以来。ガーリーウィーケンドに期待！

My friend Helen is arriving from Toronto tonight. I haven't seen her since when she came to visit me a year ago. Can't wait to see her!!

How do I get to Carnegie Hall? Practice. Practice. Practice.

の話でおなじみ（？）のカーネギーホールでベートーベンの交響曲第五番を聞いてきた。モントリオール交響楽団の指揮者のKento Naganoさんはどこまでも渋くて、生の運命は最高で感動だった。やっぱり、オーケストラはいいなあ。本当にベートーベンて天才だな。アンコールで演奏のハープのシシリアーニもとても美して、涙が出てきそうだった。

大学生の頃はよくクラシックのコンサートに行っていたけど、カナダでは滅多に行かなかったし（お金がなかったから、多分）。NYでは簡単に行けるのがすごく嬉しい。

とてもプロダクティブな週末。小説２冊読みと映画も２本DVDで見た。（お洗濯とついでにサンダルも購入！）

途上国にいた２年間を取り戻すために頑張って映画を見ている。最近見たのは

Precious

I love you, Philip Morris

Makioka sisters （細雪）

Boudras

Cave of forgotten dreams

Ricky

Let it Rain

148 hours

Last train home

Fish Tank

Parking Lot

Conviction

City Island

Milk of Sorrow

Tokyo Sonata 東京ソナタ

Grizzly man

追伸 Dream Therapy

Post script to the memory lane entry

Last night I had a dream where my ex-boyfriend called me to say happy birthday (in french...?). I was very calm and told him that there was no need to call me and he can now forget the whole thing and go. I was rather nice to him but still did not say "I forgive you now".

Quite an improvement compared to routine nightmares, though interesting that I still did not bring myself to say the "f" word.

Anyway, my birthday is not until September.

More photos from the botanical garden

I actually like these ones better than just regular pretty flower shots.