Life improvements!

Okay, in our last episode, I was seriously struggling with my housing situation, even while everything else was going pretty well. I am SO FREAKING INCREDIBLY HAPPY to report that I have since moved to a new and awesome living situation!

Rather than living with a 57-year-old unemployed woman with a volatile personality (and who, by the way, openly talks about hating Arabs and black people), I am now living with a mid-30s guy who generally shares my world views and interests and enjoys both conversation and companionable silence. And as if that wasn't enough, my rent is $350/month less than it was, my room is more comfortable, he actually cleared out space for me in the kitchen and bathroom, and he cooked me a "welcome to your new apartment" dinner on my first night here. So, YAY, no more home life misery.

In work news, we had a consultant arrive today to begin work on the "evaluation and SDGs" project that is my main focus while I'm here. He'll be conducting interviews to see where people from different ILO departments see their work as contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals so we have a better idea of what an evaluation strategy for the SDGs should look like. He'll be here all this week, then we have another consultant for another project I'm working on coming all next week, then the following week is the UN Evaluation Group Annual Meeting (with workshops and meetings and events and receptions)...and then it will be May, and I will have completed two months here.

Today I finished another book. This was The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and despite the very odd name, I really loved it. I highly recommend it. Before this one, I read Out of Sorts (it was free on Kindle Unlimited, but absolutely abysmal. Don't waste your time), The Book Thief (loved it), and before that was The Girl on the Train (which I didn't like as much as I expected to), and before that was Eat, Pray, Love (pretty good). Plus Jeff and I read The New I Do together. So, that makes 6 books since I arrived 7 weeks ago. Not too bad.

In "recreational activities other than reading news" (haha), I am continuing to do AcroYoga whenever I can, but I skipped last night because I was exhausted from hiking 8.5 miles through gorgeous terraced vineyards overlooking Lake Léman and the Swiss Alps. It's a tough life.

Here are a few pics in case you somehow missed them on Facebook:

Things that are making me happy:

• OMG new housing
• Everything is blooming! It's spring!
• Sometimes the sun shines!
• Living in my favorite neighborhood in the city, even though I haven't had time to really enjoy it yet