Kansas and Paris

In the spirit of not having enough going on, Tom and I spent two of our our five days together in the seven weeks leading up to our nuptials in Kansas at my friend Joanna's wedding. Jo was the first person I ever met in Kabul, and during her tenure there, she was put in touch with Jarran by her family. He lived in their same small town in Kansas and they loved him. Eventually she loved him too, and he her, and they got married in Fredonia on her sister's farm 11 days ago.

It was made doubly fun because lots of friends from the old days came, including two Dutch ladies living in Kabul, a couple from the UK, a family from Canada, and a bunch of other Americans-formerly-of-Afghanistan.


Following closely on its heels (15 hours later), I flew off to Paris for an administrative training corresponding to New York a few weeks ago. I've been here 10 days, with three more to go, filling my head with accounting and HR software, policies, simulations, visions of cross-cultural management, and new good people. Tom and I don't yet know how this will fit into our new life together, but we each keep walking through open doors until decision time.

I'd never been to Paris before. With 9.5-hour workdays this has not been the fulfillment of museum-going and boutique shopping one might imagine, but I have managed to eat quite a lot of croissant.