I realized that I have no real pictures in my blog, at least thus far. How can an unsuspecting reader expect to connect with all the wonderful people I know if I don't provide visual aids? I've been worrying about this.

Here are some of my friends from high school (from left to right): Katy (not to be confused with Katy from Columbia), Ashley, and Sarah (of iPod fame).


Here is my favourite picture of Caroline. Doesn't she look endearing? I took this at a gorgeous little Middle-Eastern restaurant in Marseilles, Provence. I blithely lied to the waiter and told him I was from the Maghreb -- minus the arabic, we shared a lot in common and I felt entitled to occupy his identity for a short while. :) I don't think he minded. In fact, I think he laughed a lot when he realized I lacked all the mystique and North-African style necessary to be one of his people. Caroline, being the ever-practical creature that she is, thought I was mad. I don't know what possessed me.

Actually, I do. It's the same quality that prompted me to tell this weird guy at a bar that I was from Morocco and to invent some wild background for myself. It also encouraged me to speak in a French accent to some guy on the subway when I first visited Columbia. Maybe I've always found my life a little dull, my background (you know, the usual, lived in 5 countries, transnational) a little prosy. I don't think of it as lying; it's more like exercising my creative license...rewriting my autobiography just to keep alive the possibility of being someone else, of having a different ancestry and world-perspective. 

Lastly, here's a picture of Abby and Steph (college buddies). Don't they look great? I'll try and put more up, I've missed so many amazing people!