east of omaha

Everybody here speaks English, and not for my benefit—it's the lingua franca of the floor, since everyone from Thailand, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, and wherever else can speak at least a bit of it, more or less, and since I'm the only American here right now I feel like I'm doing a hell of a lot more talking than anybody else. A lot of these girls speak very good English but it's just easier for me to put thoughts into sentences, even after I edit them for clarity. Which I forget to do sometimes, though I'm trying to speak slowly, cut out the swear words, and kill the double negatives. If anyone notices the stuttering way this leaves me speaking sometimes—"Ya—you sure we're meetin'—meeting here? I don't fu—I don't see no o—anyone."—well, they haven't said anything.

Listening to thor's Arizona drawl over Skype was pretty much amazing, though. How am I gonna go one year without English. It's only been a week!

Accomplished a lot today, by way of signing many Serious Business legal documents. Those always make me nervous, in a possibly "triggering my OCD" sort of way. I'm not sure, but it's probably not reasonable to worry that I'm somehow lying about say, being a drug smuggler. I'd keep an eye on that, except I'm not sure that keeping an eye on my unreasonable double-checking compulsions would actually be progress.

D. estimates that I'm going to lose five kilos in weight while I'm here. Also, if I don't eat a piece of fruit I'm going to die I think, though I've learned that if you go a while without fruit they become something like candy. Really delicious candy, I still have fond memories of that banana S. gave me like five days ago. But instead of fruit I found an imported Häagen-Dazs ice cream at the convenience store and I spent more money on it than I have spent on any food item since I got here. And it was better than anything I've eaten here. Maybe better than anything ever.