Sometimes, it's possible to forget that my living situation right now is unusual. To be honest, in going through the day-to-day routine, the "abnormal" parts begin to fade away. Part of that is because I am surrounded by opportunities to do "normal" activities.
In some ways, being on the embassy compound and the extension of the diplomatic enclave feels like being on a college campus. There are all kinds of clubs to join: photography, bird watching, painting; at the request of a Pakistani employee, I even helped start a public-speaking club at the embassy.
If you're into team sports, there are weekly pick-up games of soccer (called football here, of course), rugby, and ultimate Frisbee. There are regular tournaments for such sports as tennis, petanque, and darts. I now own many shirts or medals from participating in organized sports events, including a 5K, a swimathon, a triathlon, and even a local version of the Marine Corps Historic Half (half-marathon).
If you prefer more individualized types of exercise, you can find spinning, pilates, and yoga classes on and off compound. To escape my gym-rat rut, I recently started going to a HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) class, offered twice a week -- for free -- at the embassy.
If your style is more lifting pints than weights, there is always a good excuse for a party. The international community means you get to celebrate all kinds of holidays: St. Patrick's Day, Chinese New Year, and Carnivale. The American holidays -- including Halloween, Memorial Day, and Valentine's Day (unfortunately) -- are not forgotten either. And hey, if it's not a holiday, just go to happy hour and sing some karaoke. We missed the biggest party of the year, the embassy's Marine Ball, because we were on R&R (not so unfortunately), but we competed in bar trivia a few times and ate haggis at the British High Commission's Burns Night.
More high-minded forms of entertainment are on hand. You can hear lectures on such things as climbing K2, the largest peak in Pakistan and the second-largest in the world; attend a poetry reading; or sing in the community choir. TJ and I chose to listen to a qawwali concert, and I joined a theater group, which is presenting Suites, a collection of plays by Neil Simon, right before I depart post. Hopefully, it will be a good finale for me, literally and figuratively.
TJ and I have seen only one other play, the same theater group's previous production, All You Need Is Luv. And it's hard to watch movies because most cinemas are off-limits. Still, we managed to watch one important movie, Zinda Bhaag, the first Pakistani film nominated to the Oscars in 50 years. Despite the movie's hopeful title -- which means "run to live" or "live destiny" in Urdu, depending on how you interpret it -- unfortunately it didn't make the short list voted on by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
As soon as the winter weather arrived, we fled our air-conditioned confines and headed straight for the Margalla Hills to do more hiking (left). The scenery is always lovely, but Trail 5 was even more refreshing after the wet season, when the streams were even fuller (right).
Unfortunately, the precipitation had washed garbage throughout the hills, making Trail 3 a bit trashier, despite the reminders to "Keep the Environment Clean" (top left). In the parking lot, the monkeys ignored the signs and made a mess (top right). Luckiily, the primates stuck to the pavement, and we only saw bovines on the trail (bottom left). They kindly let our band of homo sapiens pass by, unperturbed and undisturbed (bottom right).
It's nice to get outside, but sometimes, you don't want to walk so far, so instead you pack up the barbeque for a picnic in the park (top left). We filled two grills with food at Fatima Jinnah Park, which takes up the entire F-9 sector of Islamabad and (dubiously) claims to be the largest city park in Asia (top right). This time, no monkeys or cows intruded upon us, but a stick insect tried to get in on the fun (bottom left). We happily let him hang out as we enjoyed some post-lunch games of soccer and bocce (bottom right).
In some ways, being on the embassy compound and the extension of the diplomatic enclave feels like being on a college campus. There are all kinds of clubs to join: photography, bird watching, painting; at the request of a Pakistani employee, I even helped start a public-speaking club at the embassy.
If you're into team sports, there are weekly pick-up games of soccer (called football here, of course), rugby, and ultimate Frisbee. There are regular tournaments for such sports as tennis, petanque, and darts. I now own many shirts or medals from participating in organized sports events, including a 5K, a swimathon, a triathlon, and even a local version of the Marine Corps Historic Half (half-marathon).
If you prefer more individualized types of exercise, you can find spinning, pilates, and yoga classes on and off compound. To escape my gym-rat rut, I recently started going to a HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) class, offered twice a week -- for free -- at the embassy.
If your style is more lifting pints than weights, there is always a good excuse for a party. The international community means you get to celebrate all kinds of holidays: St. Patrick's Day, Chinese New Year, and Carnivale. The American holidays -- including Halloween, Memorial Day, and Valentine's Day (unfortunately) -- are not forgotten either. And hey, if it's not a holiday, just go to happy hour and sing some karaoke. We missed the biggest party of the year, the embassy's Marine Ball, because we were on R&R (not so unfortunately), but we competed in bar trivia a few times and ate haggis at the British High Commission's Burns Night.
More high-minded forms of entertainment are on hand. You can hear lectures on such things as climbing K2, the largest peak in Pakistan and the second-largest in the world; attend a poetry reading; or sing in the community choir. TJ and I chose to listen to a qawwali concert, and I joined a theater group, which is presenting Suites, a collection of plays by Neil Simon, right before I depart post. Hopefully, it will be a good finale for me, literally and figuratively.
Our picnic activities drew some stares, but for most of the time, we forgot that we didn't really "fit in." But in my opinion, "fitting in" is over-rated anyway. Overall, my time in Pakistan has been quite normal enough for me.
I never visited trail 3 and 5 whilst living in Isloo. I really enjoyed your tour and I am planning to visit on coming weekends.
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JJ
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