Comments for The Diplodocus

Comment on And Now I’m: Planning Our Next Vacation by ms

ms — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:21:38 +0000

hey KG, Nice posts. We haven’t met but am an Indian expat living in DC. I was wondering if you used a travel agency to plan this trip to Rajasthan?

Comment on So Where Have I Been? by Digger

Digger — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:09:14 +0000

I have never met anyone who said bidding was fun. I am doing it for the fourth time in four years (ah, one year tours…) and I HATE it.

Comment on Mobile Conoff by Driftingfocus

Driftingfocus — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:56:17 +0000

Yeah, due to learning the words most relevant to me, my Korean vocabulary is quite hilariously varied. While of course the first words I learned were things like “hello” and “thank you” (though not “excuse me”, strangely, as saying it embarrasses Koreans and is not suggested), I very quickly afterward learned the words for “photojournalist” (me), “policeman” (my partner), “diplomat” (his family), and “artist” (my family). If I had stayed longer, I was going to figure out a clever way to say “just use XYZ pronoun for me”, since Korean has about 8 levels of politeness in pronouns and yet no neutral one (it is impossible to be equal with someone – you are always higher or lower), and thus they ask you a million questions when they first meet you in order to try and determine how to refer to you; “what is your job?”, “are you married?”, “what country are you from?”, “how old are you?”, etc. Wow, that was an incredibly long sentence.

How often do you have to deal with the variation in dialects?

Comment on Don’t You Hate Pants? by Sammy Sullivan

Sammy Sullivan — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:58:54 +0000

Kewl site man…

keep up the good work man…….

Comment on Signposts on the Road by Liam

Liam — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:13:20 +0000

I’ve quoted you and linked to you here: http://www.ilw.com/articles/2009,0630-schwartz.shtm

Comment on Full Circle? by Sharmishtha

Sharmishtha — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:59:51 +0000

I came across your blog from The Partition blog (which I came across bloghopping). I know this blog is for friends and family but I must admit I come back to read because I find the sociology fascinating – first generation Indian Americans serving the interests of the United States in the country of their ancestors, India. Do you feel a bit like the Ottoman Janissaries, some of whom went back to their ancestral provinces as agents of Istanbul, after having been thoroughly “Ottomanized”. Of course, there are differences, but the feeling must be the same, no? Sorry for the intrusion but would love to hear more about how you view your situation from the point of view of identity. Thanks.

Comment on Signposts on the Road by Laura

Laura — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 00:22:02 +0000

Having recently passed 30, I share in your milestone noting. (But I hang my head in shame at having only done 11,000 visas in my time and probably no more in my future.)

Comment on The Basics by J

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 07:51:54 +0000

I love the blog name.

Comment on Summer Vacation’s Gonna Be Awesome! by MinaMash

MinaMash — Sat, 23 May 2009 15:51:49 +0000

Lovely photos, K! I just finished up the school year and am catching up on blogs. Noticed you have a Canon DSLR and wondered how you came about to that decision. I’m debating between getting a DSLR or sticking to a regular digital (like the Canon Powershot G10). What were the factors in your decision to jump to DSLR and is it difficult to get a handle on all of the manual features? I’m rusty on my manual camera skills these days.

Comment on Bread Cred by Driftingfocus

Driftingfocus — Tue, 12 May 2009 11:29:49 +0000

Korea is the same way with bread. Their rice-based pastries are excellent, but if you want some nice whole wheat bread…you’re outta luck. Periodically you can get an overly-soft rye bread in the large cities like Seoul and Busan, but down here in the sticks where I live, I get stuck with “milk bread”, which is basically a squishy, chewy, overly-sweet white bread. It’s pretty terrible. Good bread is certainly one of the things I have missed.