All Posts | whatdiplomatsdo

Sep 6

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...