I’m writing this from the Bahrain airport, sipping a ridiculously good draft beer in a smoky airport bar. It’s not that Stella is even a particularly good beer. It’s just that after not being in a bar for a long time, and not having a draft beer for a long time, this is a feeling […]
Tag: Posts from Yemen
Chunk or Hunk?
There’s a saying in the State Department that people who come to difficult posts such as Yemen will end up one of five ways – as a skunk, monk, drunk, chunk, or hunk. Those first two refer to losing the will to clean oneself (and probably wallowing in depression as well) and to not getting […]
A Rude Awakening
Mr.YemenEm woke me up out of a deep sleep Tuesday morning by telling me “There was a terrorist attack at the finish line of Boston Marathon.” First, I just heard “there was a terrorist attack” and assumed it was in Yemen, possibly near the U.S. Embassy, our place of work. Then I processed the second […]
What I Think of Yemen
“So, what do you think of Yemen?” is a question I’m commonly asked by Yemenis. My usual response is that I haven’t seen enough of the country to form a strong opinion. I live in a hotel, and I work at the embassy, and I see very little in between (not to mention, I pretty […]
Getting Schooled
One day in high school, it dawned on me that was time to apply for college. I walked down the guidance counselor’s office and waited in line for my assigned counselor, who was tasked with seeing students with last names L-Z, which equaled about 2,500 students at my particularly large suburban high school. I had […]
What’s That? A Diplomat?
Before I met Mr.YemenEm, I don’t think I knew what a diplomat was. I probably grouped diplomat with words like plutocrat, Argonaut, and Gangnam Style that I’d read and meant to look up, but never got around to. After I learned that a diplomat is a person who represents their country abroad, I still didn’t […]
Potty Talk
Last weekend, Mr.YemenEm organized a volleyball tournament at the hotel for Yemeni high school students who recently returned from doing exchange programs in the U.S Every student desperately hoped they’d be placed in a a high rise apartment in New York City, but instead, they were placed in some really random places. (Albeit places that […]
What a View
This week I actually got to leave the confines of Sana’a to venture to a neighboring governorate (that’s what the different regions, kind of like states, are called here). Granted, I was in a car and wasn’t exactly rollerskating down the open road feeling the wind flow through my hair. But it was a certain […]
My ‘Great’ Great Aunt
My great aunt Jean was truly my “great” Aunt Jean, was the joke we used to say. Not only was she literally my great aunt, being my grandpa’s sister and all, but she was a great lady. She died last year, but a dream I had recently has caused me to think of her a […]
What to Pack
Packing to live in a country to which you’ve never even traveled is a stressful thing. Especially if you’re a bad packer, like myself. I once packed for a work trip to Vegas in the dead of a DC winter. When I arrived in 90-degree Sin City, I realized I had packed all wool and […]
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