B++

There was some stuff that went on at work that I'll get to in a minute, but the big story tonight is that my computer FINALLY dual boots into XP. It only took 3.5 weeks, an XP cd, 1 3 hour download, and 1 lost product key (many thanks to B. for his help in acquiring the necessary XP cd and getting the key again after the first went missing).

For those who care about these things, this is through boot camp. I wiped my XOM partition so I could do it "the right way." My version of boot camp has a very interesting quirk: if you partition your drive using disk utility, boot camp will recognize that there is a partition, but it will not let you install on it. So I had to unpartition the disk (read: back up everything onto my iPod), reinstall everything, reinstall boot camp, partition with boot camp, update my OS X installation, and then install windows. Sigh. But it works. It FINALLY works, and Star Craft and Heroes of Might and Magic III run beautifully. Life is goooood.

Back to work... Yesterday, we held a staff meeting to introduce the new monthly report format. I've never experienced a bilingual staff meeting before. It was a trip. I get the sense that not quite everything was translated for me, and the whole thing took 2 hours, but the bottom line is that the staff seemed happy, as did the administration. So I feel pretty good.

When I came home yesterday, Thushari and Malmi were curled up on one of the sofas looking absolutely miserable. It has been cool here (maybe 75 or 80), and it has rained the past few days. Apparently the change in temperature and pressure was enough to make Malmi's ears hurt to the point of tears, and both of them had headaches that laid them up all evening. They seemed much better today though.

Maaike has arranged to cook lunch for the staff members on Tuesday, and I'm helping. So I think buschetta, spaghetti (with red sauce!), and either Russian Creme or apple crisp. And lots of garlic. Everywhere. It's going to be great. Also, Trish invited Meg and me to her house tomorrow for dinner, so Trish and I will cook then. I don't know what we're doing. The plan is to go to the grocery store in the afternoon and figure it out there. This will also give me the opportunity to get bleach for my shirts. I'm so excited to cook again after so long. I hope I remember how.

Next week is my last week at the center, and I'm really sad to leave. I feel like I was just getting to know the staff and make friends, and now I have to start all over again. They're great people, and they seemed to tolerate me well enough. I'll miss them a lot. In the beginning, I was really excited to be working at 2 places. I felt it would keep me interested in work and prevent me from getting into too much of a routine. I still think this, but I'm less excited to leave Hambantota than I was. I'm just now starting to figure out how to live here, and I think people have finally gotten used to seeing me around town.