moving, part 1

After spending at least part of five of the last six days in the air, with a fairly packed meeting schedule on the ground, I arrived in Islamabad around 3:45 this morning. Took 45 minutes or so to get through immigration and get my bags, which is not bad. Arriving here has never actually been that much of a pain, it's leaving that's a mess. Will be interesting to see how well the new airport works whenever it finally opens.

Check-in was uneventful, except that the Serena is practically full at the moment so there were a lot of people at the desk. That makes me glad. Wrote a quick email to the fam to let them know that I'd arrived and passed out around 5. Woke to my alarm at 10 -- the harder I fight jet lag, the quicker I get over it, so didn't want to sleep until 2 or something -- and after lounging around for a bit dragged myself to the gym, showered, and then ate lunch. Now it's just after 3 and I'm at loose ends for the rest of the day. Will spend some time writing thank-you emails to the seemingly dozens (possibly literally dozens, I'll have to check) of people I met with between Monday and Thursday, writing up notes from the week, and starting to develop objectives for myself in preparation for talking about them with Akhtar soon. A couple of AKF Canada folks arrive tomorrow for a proposal workshop this week, part of which I'll help lead. But really I have no idea how much time I'll have for it: there is already an unholy amount of stuff to do. Here's hoping Akhtar's right about the people he's hired this year, because I'm about to get a crash course in delegate-or-die.

A few quick thoughts on Ottawa and London:

• Poutine is overrated.
• Ottawa is bilingual to an extent that surprised me.
• The Delegation building (where our office is in Ottawa) is beautiful.
• Canadians are friendly and our colleagues there really do have it easier than the other two donor offices, for all the reasons I suspected. That said, pressure is high to keep up and even expand what has been a spectacularly good relationship with the Canadian government.
• British people drive on the wrong side of the road but walk and use escalators properly, and their revolving doors go clockwise. I feel they should be more consistently wrong.
• It was lovely to see Jen in London after more than two years. We walked along some old canal from St Pancras to Camden -- which is gentrification-hip -- got a couple of beers/ciders and had fish and chips. She seems pretty happy, which was not the case as her time wound down in DC. 
• London, like New York, seems like a place I will be happy to continue to visit but not live. Just looked at real estate in Camden out of curiosity and it's actually cheaper than I'd have expected. But not cheap.
• Got some QT with three consecutive people who reported to Akhtar in Kabul, all of whom I was friends/friendly with from that time. It was really great to see them, and also to pick up a few tips. 
• I'm even more eager to get started on this job now than I was at the beginning of the week. The pace is going to be berserk but there is so much potential and so much excitement. 
• The US dollar is very strong right now.

Now, off to set up my Kindle (I finally caved on that front) and write some emails.

EDIT: Also, got a little pang just a minute ago when I remembered that today is C's birthday. We haven't spoken since April or May; I stopped reaching out after the last time for a couple of reasons that I won't get into here. But I might send her a message today. Feels weird.