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...

I recently started intermittent fasting. It’s partially an experiment (my husband is really into health and nutrition) and partially due...

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...

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...

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,...

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”...

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...

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...

2023 was a fine year overall. It felt like a year of progress professionally, and generally life was good in India. I celebrated ten...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Retired diplomats and diplomats on their way out of the Foreign Service have mentioned to me that the State Department doesn’t really...

At my current Post, new colleagues have to share “one interesting fact” about themselves when they introduce themselves. I noticed most...

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...

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...

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,...

Spring is always busy at my place. My husband, daughter and I have birthdays within one month of each other, and our wedding anniversary...

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...