kabul

Trying to get out of the FOCUS office and my computer isn't set up to be online at the guest house yet, so this will be brief:

1. Flight boring but I slept more than usual, sans benadryl. Success.
2. Layover boring.
3. Flight meh but at least it was short; the jacked marine sitting next to me was nice and told a very funny story about a middle-aged Afghan professor who sat next to him on a recent flight and asked some very uncomfortable questions.
4. Arrived at 6:45 AM, went through immigration and customs in about a half hour. GOT IN THE RIGHT CAR, NO HITCH HIKING, EVERYTHING WAS SMOOTH! Plus it was my favorite driver, Karimbaksh. He has the nicest ride by a long shot. Big new Land Cruiser (well, probably a 2009, but close enough).
5. Guest house moved and is now a straight-up poppy palace. Ugly as sin, double-decker entry way, bizarre chandeliers. Hilarious.
6. Showered. Need to buy some shampoo cause I didn't remember to bring any.
7. AKDN was on lock-down until 10:30 so I decided to take a nap. Slept for six hours, missing the call that I thought would wake me up at 10:30. Whoops! Maybe tonight will be the night for benadryl.
8. Came into the office around 4, have been talking with the project manager, Tameeza, doing email stuff and reading since then. She seems excellent so far.
9. Now I'm hungry.
10. Will probably follow Tameeza wherever she goes for dinner, because that will be more sociable and less awkward than the guest house.
11. The real fun starts tomorrow with meetings and suchlike.
12. I might be spending more time in Baghlan than I thought, which is good. But it will mean shittier internet.
13. I think that's it. End on a lucky number.