- Sep 6
- 6 min
Bucharest highlights & lowlights
Need a random city trip recommendation? How about Bucharest! Having confused Bucharest with Budapest and Belgrade all my life, Romania’s...
- Jul 6
- 3 min
Promoted and leaning in
So, I’m a manager now! I’m still posted in Mumbai for another year, but my job here has changed dramatically. Bottom line: no more visa...
- Jun 2
- 4 min
Maldives Getaway
BLUF: this was the best five-day vacation ever! Though the Maldives were never on my list of must-see destinations. There was something...
- Apr 30
- 3 min
50 Work Outfits Challenge
Dressing for work has become somewhat of a hobby. My bright blazers rarely go unnoticed by my colleagues and I’ve been asked more than...
- Apr 24
- 8 min
6-Week Marathon Journey (Part 3)
Final installment! Here are Part 1 and Part 2. Race Day The NN Rotterdam marathon 2024 started at 10:00 AM for elite runners, and at...
- Apr 20
- 5 min
6-Week Marathon Journey (Part 2)
While consistent and thorough training obviously matters, a big part of running long distance is getting into the right mental state of...
- Apr 17
- 10 min
6-Week Marathon Journey (Part 1)
Oops, I did it again! My second full marathon is officially on the books. It felt like a mission impossible, but I managed. This is a...
- Apr 13
- 4 min
Sri Lanka Trip
We just spent our spring family vacation in Sri Lanka: nine days of beach, hills, and cities. Our first stop after landing in Colombo was...
- Mar 28
- 5 min
Getting my scuba diving certification
Last week I took a week long trip with my family to Sri Lanka. We stayed in several places (Colombo, Unawatuna beach, Ella, Kandy) but my...
- Feb 24
- 5 min
11 Running Principles I Swear By
To celebrate 15 years of running, completing 3 half marathons in 2024 so far, and not having knee pain anymore, I’m making a list of my...
- Feb 17
- 4 min
Fear of change
I recently started intermittent fasting. It’s partially an experiment (my husband is really into health and nutrition) and partially due...
- Feb 10
- 4 min
Working in a visa mill
Mumbai has one of the biggest U.S. consular sections in the world and is referred to as a “visa mill” among officers. So far, I’ve...
- Feb 3
- 5 min
TDY in Kolkata
Kolkata is India’s third largest city, located in the northeast of India near the border with Bangladesh. I should have checked a map or...
- Feb 1
- 9 min
Why I love running and 21k (half marathon) is the perfect distance
This weekend I completed a half marathon in exactly two hours. Is that a good time? Depends, I guess. Objectively speaking it’s a good,...
- Jan 25
- 2 min
I’m in a book
I would lie if I said I hadn’t thought about turning this blog into a book somehow. But as much as I’d like the idea of being an “author”...
- Jan 22
- 3 min
Daily annoyances, Indian edition.
It took me a year and half to come up with enough annoyances to write about, which makes Indians—in my estimation—less annoying than some...
- Jan 8
- 3 min
The few countries I still want to see
There are about 200 countries in the world, but it recently occurred to me that visiting about 40 of them might be more than enough—I’m...
- Jan 2
- 3 min
100 things that made my year in 2023
2023 was a fine year overall. It felt like a year of progress professionally, and generally life was good in India. I celebrated ten...
- Dec 30, 2023
- 4 min
What it takes to look good as a woman
I love fashion. And to create a good “look” I feel like I also have to do something about my hair and face, because that’s part it. But I...
- Dec 19, 2023
- 5 min
Where is home?
Home is where the heart is, of course. Home is where my own little family is. This is something I rarely question. Not that I don’t think...
- Dec 12, 2023
- 3 min
The ultimate travel wardrobe + packing list
Packing all the right things can be hard. When I travel I want to be comfortable, prepared for any type of weather, look good… and pack...
- Dec 5, 2023
- 3 min
Chennai cyclone: a Foreign Service moment
So I just flew from Mumbai to Chennai for a one-week work exchange. It’s the kind of thing the State Department offers (when finances...
- Dec 3, 2023
- 3 min
Nobody cares about you
Retired diplomats and diplomats on their way out of the Foreign Service have mentioned to me that the State Department doesn’t really...
- Nov 10, 2023
- 5 min
100 things you didn’t know about me
At my current Post, new colleagues have to share “one interesting fact” about themselves when they introduce themselves. I noticed most...
- Oct 10, 2023
- 5 min
Thoughts on India & the Environment
Who doesn’t worry about the environment these days? It’s been an emerging issue for so long and I very much grew up with it. My mother...
- Oct 3, 2023
- 5 min
Mumbai: one year in
It’s our one year anniversary living in Mumbai. The city really grew on me. There’s so much to do here, time flies! We decided early on...
- Aug 20, 2023
- 3 min
Comprehensive Health Checkup
India is one of those places where healthcare costs are a tiny fraction of US prices—even if you go to the really good (Harvard educated,...
- Jul 7, 2023
- 4 min
Three birthdays and a wedding anniversary
Spring is always busy at my place. My husband, daughter and I have birthdays within one month of each other, and our wedding anniversary...
- Jun 23, 2023
- 4 min
Kid life in Mumbai
When I ask my kids if they like living in Mumbai they find it hard to answer. They still miss their neighborhood friends in Germany and...
- Jun 17, 2023
- 3 min
Two types of diplomats
What diplomats do? Well, there are two types of diplomats... Never DC'ers Those who try to avoid serving a tour in Washington at all...
- Jun 10, 2023
- 8 min
What makes a good diplomat?
I ponder that question sometimes, for different reasons. Sometimes because I wonder what else I would be doing if I weren’t a diplomat....
- May 13, 2023
- 2 min
Keri Russel is wrong
There’s a new Netflix show that will almost certainly be watched by all diplomats; the one where Keri Russell is Ambassador to London and...
- May 3, 2023
- 2 min
Dharavi
Dharavi is one of the biggest ‘slums’ (now a politically incorrect word) in Asia, population one million. Orangi Town in Karachi has more...
- Apr 30, 2023
- 4 min
Munnar tea plantations
Increasingly, I’m doubling down on a travel strategy that involves staying in a single place for at least five days, or a week if...
- Mar 21, 2023
- 4 min
Andaman/Havelock island
I just returned from a week in tropical island paradise: Havelock, which is part of the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, which is part of...
- Feb 14, 2023
- 3 min
The Surge
For the past month, I’ve been part of coordinating a massive visa surge in Mumbai. The demand for visas here is enormous, and because of...
- Feb 6, 2023
- 3 min
Goa and chill
I’m feeling very spoilt as I’m looking at my winter calendar. No more long cold months like I had in Berlin, Washington, Armenia and the...
- Feb 1, 2023
- 3 min
Lollapalooza Mumbai
Last weekend I went to a major music festival for this first time in... forever? It was the first edition of Lollapalooza in Mumbai and...
- Jan 25, 2023
- 4 min
Book club India
I joined another book club! I think at every diplomatic post so far I've had the chance to join one and this is the third time I did. I...
- Jan 15, 2023
- 3 min
Tata marathon in Mumbai
The past week has been all about the Tata race, where in ran a half marathon today along with 55,000 other runners. It’s the largest run...
- Jan 9, 2023
- 3 min
Is Mumbai really “the New York of India”?
I’ve been living in Mumbai for about six months now and I feel ready to make a bit of a pro-cons list. It’s only a subjective snapshot in...
- Jan 2, 2023
- 2 min
Tenure!
I became a tenured Foreign Service Officer this month! It was unexpected, which made it all the more sweet. It was the first year I was...
- Dec 6, 2022
- 4 min
Playing cricket and running races in Mumbai
I’m not really a sporty person. I don’t enjoy repetitive activities or making myself physically uncomfortable and besides I’m too short,...
- Nov 5, 2022
- 2 min
Venturing out further: Udaipur
After sightseeing in Mumbai, a weekend getaway in Lonavola and a work trip to Delhi, we wanted something even more adventurous for our...
- Oct 25, 2022
- 5 min
Diwali & representational events
The week before Diwali was an exceptionally busy week at work. I was on regular duty at the consulate but all the work had to be crammed...
- Sep 30, 2022
- 4 min
FastCon in New Delhi
Last weekend I finally felt like India embraced me, and I was hugging it right back. I spent a weekend in India’s capital for work and...
- Sep 20, 2022
- 3 min
Weekend trip to Lonavala
Since arriving in Mumbai a month ago I've had a lot of days off: Labor Day of course, but also Indian holidays like the Ganesh Chaturthi,...
- Sep 3, 2022
- 2 min
Cultural Mumbai
One of the most repeated cliches about Mumbai is that it’s “an assault on the senses.” It’s true that none of the serene, polished images...
- Aug 27, 2022
- 2 min
Musical chairs
It was around 2:30 PM and I was in a work meeting when I noticed that I was, in fact, wearing two different shoes. I quickly drew my feet...
- Aug 22, 2022
- 2 min
Arrival in Mumbai
My second tour has officially begun! I arrived in Mumbai on Tuesday morning via Paris. Entering India on my diplomatic passport was about...
