Thursday, May 29, 2008

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Welcoming the Rains

Bangladesh is seeing the start of its rainy season--after a very hot and humid couple of months, the change in weather is welcome. The days are still quite warm, but it usually rains at least once in the afternoon, evening, or night, and it makes the air pleasantly warm and breezy (if not cool).

In other news, we began a new course in Health Economics today. Sounds a bit dry, but the instructor is a very enthusiastic British gentleman and I must admit, he's making the subject fabulously interesting. I'm afraid that's about all the commentary I can offer on the class thus far, but I'm sure you'll also be able to find my concluding remarks here.

I've also recently had a new creature move into my room--I seem to be sharing my space now with a small, gray mouse. Not too threatening in appearance, but when he found he could get into my food drawer he had a field day. He also tried to make a home in--and successfully destroyed--some of my clothes. Over the weekend I purchased several air/water/mouse-proof containers, and my things are all safe now. I've not seen any sign of him for a couple days, so I'm hoping he has vacated. We shall see.

I'm sitting here trying desperately to think of other things to report so that I can put off my reading a bit longer, but sadly I'm not coming up with much. Life is progressing steadily and smoothly (despite slight interruptions by rodents and the like), but not too eventfully these days. So I'm afraid I'll cut this short for the time being, and hopefully I'll have more to discuss soon.

Also, in response to a request for donut pictures: I bought another on the weekend with every intention of photographing it. However, I was too excited about it later that evening to remember my plans--not until I had eaten about 5/6, anyway, and that would have made for a fairly uninspiring image. Maybe next time...

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Donuts in Dhaka!

I am exceedingly happy to report that donuts DO exist in Dhaka. And good ones, at that! I went to a bakery called Cooper's a few weeks ago and tried their version (it was more like a bagel with frosting), but today, I found the real deal.

I was in Banani to collect my mail at the American Center (after it had been sitting there for about three months... and thanks once more to everyone who sent things!!), and so I stopped by a nearby bakery, King's Confectionery, for a quick lunch before returning to Savar. They had all kinds of lunch-like pastries, and they were quite good, and I also used the opportunity to get a couple donuts for the road. Now back in my room, I thought I would give them a try, and they are fabulous. I think I will forsake all other food now, and eat exclusively donuts until the end of December.

In other news, Health Systems Management has proved to be a highly interesting course, and our professor is wonderful. I think he may actually know everything. We have our final exam on Thursday morning, so he very generously gave us the day off to study. Now that I've had my donuts (and eaten them too), I think I'd better use what's left of the day more wisely... But this was too exciting of a happening not to be properly documented.