A Day in the Life of...

There is no such thing. Each day is different, although I've almost enjoyed returning to some semblance of routine in NY. Monday was my first full day at a desk since mid-June. It felt weird. I was working at warp speed trying to get everything done before I had to run off to my next flight or some important meeting, and every 30 minutes would remind myself that I have no plans to travel for at least another month and could actually focus on projects that are not urgent and yet important.

Since returning, there are so many projects I knew I couldn't do while travelling and had pushed so far to the back of my mind I'd forgotten of their existence. Suddenly they've all come tumbling forth again and I'm struggling to prioritise amongst all the mountains of work I'm suddenly confronted with.

I also thought, since no one knows I'm back, that my first week would be relatively calm. Instead I've been singly to triply-booked each night this week. All events I couldn't skip out on; the opening of the UN General Assembly,  a friend's birthday party, etc.

I've been enjoying waking up before 8am and before my alarm clock goes off. I can't chalk it up to jetlag as I really didn't struggle with it after my first couple days in Thailand. It seems my body hits a certain level of exhaustion or day-time uncertainty and then quite obediently sleeps when I tell it to and wakes up when forced to, regardless of day/night time.

I miss travelling, having each day be a surprise and opportunity to meet new people, eat new foods and learn something new about another culture just doesn't seem to get old. Returning to a culture I'm comfortable with allows me to look at it through the eyes of other cultures and also to realise that as open as I may be I have certain paradigms that continue to effect my thought processes and solutions to world problems. There are absolutely values to some paradigms I possess, and other experiences and solutions I simply won't generate because of my background.

Today, I missed a meeting by calculating a time-zone difference wrong. I've received emails from almost every continent. I've learned about some famous people from another country who I never would have discovered on my own and I've brought people together in a search for information. 

This evening, I will attend a UN reception along with some of our interns currently in NY from different parts of the world.  I will then go grocery shopping since I am down to a few cans of food and ramen noodles - that's what happens when I haven't shopped since April.