4-22: Dave Exorcises Sam

There are days when the gods of narrative smile upon me and I can put out something cohesive, something phrase-turning, and eloquent, and entertaining enough to merit interested reading. Then there are days when lists happen. Today is the latter. Take it or leave it.

1. So I'll be home in under a month. This is terrifying. And exciting. And saddening. And relieving. All of the above. I'm not looking forward to expensive (read-reasonably priced) sandwiches, and crappy public transportation. I am, however, looking forward to driving, and lifting, and seeing a whole bunch of people that I haven't seen in entirely too long.
2. I'm halfway through the Bosnian Ministry of Security's 2010 report on human trafficking and I'm fairly certain it was run through Google Translate to get to where it is right now. There are articles where there shouldn't be and structure of the sentence that makes use of the word "of" like using it in a fashion reminiscent of this is a part of regular parlance of this language. <---that, for 75 pages.
3. Made carbonara last night, and you know what? No casualties! I definitely goofed on the consistency, but considering we're making cream out of milk and butter and no measuring cups, it's a bit of a challenge. Pink sauce is next!
4. Don't ask me how we got here, but AskMen has an article on how to perform exorcisms and I'm pretty sure I busted a gut laughing. Played totally straight.
5. After persistent email pestering, I secured an interview with OSCE (Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe) on Wednesday, and I think I have one with Human Rights Council Helsinki (BiH branch, of course--Finland is a bit out of my way) in the works. This whole project is starting to grind along.
6. This may be the first paper I've ever written that feels like it has a purpose to it. Will it probably just get shuffled away into the SIT archives? Sure. But maybe being here conducting my own cold interviews and living in the place where it's all happening has that kind of effect.
7. The day I got here, a protein powder store opened up a block away. Coincidence? I think not.

Off to do battle with the forces of evil, pictured below: