Long long overdue update

The last time most of you heard from me, I was happily living in The Hague, working at the ICC, and trying to avoid crashing my snazzy bike, that's Ms. Gulch to you, into a canal. Since then, I have been a little busy. While I am sure that at least 3 or 4 of you are interested in the details of the past several months, I don't want to alienate my entire audience, so here is as brief an overview as humanly possible:

So, 3 months in The Hague went by in a flash, as most of my life seems to these days. In that time, my main accomplishments were 1) limiting injury to only one cycling accident; 2) resisting learning more than 3 words of the lovely Dutch language, which I affectionately describe as sounding like a cat with a cold coughing up a hair ball; 3) traveling to 7 European countries, which includes a jaunt to Croatia to participate as an assistant trainer in a 2-week USAID-sponsored mediation workshop for High Court judges; 4) hostessing the ONE friend who has ever come to visit me abroad: Mr Justin David Moore; and 5) withstanding the temptation to don blackface and dance around to celebrate Sinterklaas' arrival in Holland for Saint Nicolas day (see "Six to Eight Black Men" post below for explanation).

I wrapped up my life in The Hague with a weekend-long leaving party (always true to form) and a frenzied final 24h of packing--only to be greeted by a suicide bombing in my next destination: Beirut, Lebanon. While it certainly unsettled me, the bombing wasn't really scary. The sense I got from most Lebanese people I met was that they were saddened by the assassination, but ultimately blasé as they have been happening with regularity for nearly 2 years. As several people told me, the bombs are well targeted, killing the intended victim and the people in his immediate entourage, without excessive collateral civilian casualties.

The rest of my time in Lebanon was far less eventful (besides that little incident at the Syrian border…). I spent most of my time overindulging in delicious Lebanese cuisine, abusing my hostess' generous hospitality, putting together a workshop at the American University in Beirut and enjoying the city's nightlife—the vibrancy of which is legendary as it is directly proportional to the political drama and tension.

After 2 weeks in a country that is deadlocked in its inability to select a new president, I moved on to a country that has been happy(-ish) with the same president for nearly 27 years: Egypt. My family flew over from New York and we spent the holidays together exploring Egypt's ancient wonders, fighting Cairo's traffic, relaxing by the Red Sea, and trying to stop my father from trading me and my sisters as brides for a handsome dowry of camels and gold.

3/5 of the DLMK clan retired after an exhausting 2 weeks in Egypt, but my sister Claire and I ventured on to Ethiopia. Our weeklong whirlwind tour included visiting ancient sites that rivaled those in Egypt, getting roped into teaching a two-hour English class at a hospitality school, increasing our tolerance of injera, the famous Ethiopian spongy fermented bread, and spending a day at an orphanage in Addis Ababa—yes, the same one that BrAngelina adopted from.

Claire ditched me and headed back to the US to resume classes while I continued on my trek into the mysterious dark heart of Africa and battled the savage blood-sucking tribe of Northern Tanzania, also known as "UN ICTR lawyers." ;-) While it felt quite surreal to be back in Arusha, where I lived for several months last year, it was great to visit friends and reconnect with former UN colleagues--plus I managed to escape to the beautiful beach in Zanzibar for a few days to relax and have some much-needed reflective alone time.

The week in Tanzania was exactly what I needed to recharge and prepare for my next Fellowship placement in Thailand, from where I write to you now. Yes, you heard me correctly, I am now living in Thailand. I've been here for 48h and just started work at the Centre for Human Rights today...
And if you have read this update correctly, you will know that in the past few months, I have been to 12 different countries (nearly 14 if you count my almost entry to Syria and my stopover in Sudan!) on 3 continents. Whew, I am exhausted, but that could just be the Bangkok weather talking—anyone care for 1000ºF with 200% humidity?

More soon from the original City of Angels!