over the r&r hump

Life was pretty rough up until R&R. I got to the point of really hating my job which left me too exhausted to enjoy everything else. To be clear, I hated the job I was doing but still loved my career. Non-immigrant visa interviewing is a horrendous grind and adjudicating over 15,500 visas in 12 months had drained me. Additionally, since the numbers were high and the number of adjudicators low, the overall atmosphere was highly pressurized. A constant feeling of time pressures caused me to treat applicants with a tone and an impatience that I wouldn't have thought myself capable of stooping to. So I hated what I was doing and I hated how I was doing it. Which meant that my R&R was desperately needed. And I was AMAZING at resting and recuperating - visiting so many people, hugging my niece and nephew, aerial fabric lessons, seeing cousins' new houses and babies, camping, kayaking, touring the national mall on a segway, trying to eat my weight in sushi and steak. It ruled.

Returning to India was difficult. It was the first time in my life where I wasn't ready to return to where I was living at the end of a trip home to Philly. While home, I exaggerated in my mind the dirt, noise, confusion, frustration of life here. I've been much happier since returning. Although I do think a lot of that is due to switching jobs. I am now doing American Citizen Services which is what I have always wanted to do of consular work. The pace is a lot more manageable and in general I am able to provide the service people come in for. The non-appointment work is incredibly rewarding as we are helping people out when they are facing some of their strongest difficulties.

Since I've been back I've laid pretty low. However, I did go out one night to a coffee shop many floors above a car dealership that had pool tables and salsa. It was pretty cool and I bought tickets for their big dance-a-rama coming up where they'll have two weekends full of dance classes and I'll finally get to flamenco!!!! And there is a Pirate party. Oh yeah!

I was in Bangalore and Hubli for over a week for work and during the weekend Holly met up with me and we went to Kabini River Lodge. A rustic cabin, set meals and safari rides! There was a giant net hung between multiple trees that I got to climb and chill in as if it was the biggest hammock EVER. During the evening safari we saw elephants in the wild including baby elephants!!! So cute. Lots of beautiful birds and deer and water buffalo. The morning safari brought an exotic lizard and a fox and a saucer boat ride! Yes, saucer boat. Holly and I were the only ones saucer boating, everyone else chose the big motor boat. Wimps. After we got out in the water, the paddler guy tells us that under the water is fish, snakes and crocodiles. Given that Holly had the ACS case where an Amcit was killed by a sea crocodile, she was none too happy to hear that! But the sun had just risen and the morning light was incredible. The river we were on was dry during the summer season and the trunks of trees sticking out of the water looked like beautifully eerie dancers striking soulful poses. Inspiring. Overall we survived and at the end of the drive back to Bangalore there was way too many desserts at Hard Rock Cafe. Pretty darn sweet!