Welcome to my blog, Jolly Good Fellow. If you're here, it's probably because you have shared some level of intimacy with me that goes beyond mere acquaintance. This is a space I will use to record experiences, observations and thoughts during my 10-month fellowship at the University of Maryland in the United States. I have little idea how this blog will take shape over the next little while, or even if it will survive until the end of my sojourn in the US. I do hope, however, that it will help in keeping me in touch with my dear ones on the other side of the Atlantic.
At the time of writing, I am already three weeks into my US visit. Settling in has been slow: after a week of hotel living, I have had to make a small corner of a lounge floor my home (see the image above). I have a lease on an apartment in the bustling Silver Spring area, but it only becomes available in September. Thankfully some fellows - Luisa, of Guatemala, and Tomi, of Indonesia - have temporarily taken me in.
The autumn - er, excuse me - fall semester starts in a week's time, but already the other fellows and I have been enrolled in an intensive course on dual track diplomacy. At first I had little idea what this was about, but after the first couple of sessions I can attest to the value of this thing called dual track diplomacy. In a programme where the are fourteen fellows - each from a different country (Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chad, Guatemala, Indonesia, Kenya, South African, Tanzania, Turkey, Uruguay and Zimbabwe) it might require some rather crafty diplomacy to keep this bunch happy.
It's now around 12:11am as I conclude this entry. Some in South Africa may in fact be rising at this hour. Be cool.
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