In which Roz and Layla schmooze, accelerate, and learn fast

By Layla

It’s really starting to feel like we live here now. Today we went ice skating at the outdoor rink at the Sculpture Garden. It was reminiscent of a couple of years ago when, on our honeymoon in NYC, we held hands, glided across the ice, and together imagined a life when we lived in America. A very funny feeling to realize we made it come true. We’ve bought some furniture (not arrived yet), we’re getting to know the local restaurants, and we’re settling into a routine. For me, this involves going to interesting health events, meeting people, and generally schmoozing. Someone from the World Bank this week told me that I shouldn’t rest til I’d had coffee with at least 50 people. I’m probably at about 15: oh dear. But what is becoming increasingly clear is that Washington is a town of connections – it’s very, very important who you know, and everyone’s raison d’etre seems to be building networks.

Presumably related to this, another DC quirk is the practice of having two events per evening. So if someone invites you to dinner at 7, it is reasonable to assume that you’ll be leaving at 9, so that you and your hosts can head off to your respective ‘second sittings’. We hadn’t realized our faux pas in scheduling one social event per evening. Fortunately we’re getting with the scene and tonight we have two – a dinner party with the local lesbians I previously mentioned, and then the gay foreign affairs people’s festive party. Indeed, it is a gay social weekend for us, with a brunch with a lesbian couple tomorrow, and dinner with Roz’s book blog boys tomorrow night. Bizarre.

All of this fast paced life makes us worry – when do we have the time to become clever? By the time a DC-ite turns up at work, he’s done some exercise, and read the Washington Post and Financial Times, is up to date with his blackberry emails (of which when Roz wakens she typically finds about 70 since she closed her eyes), and is raring to go. At what time do people wake up? I can’t imagine. But not knowing what’s in these papers is a social embarrassment. The chat is typically about the day’s politics and if you can’t hold your own, I get the impression that you don’t belong in DC. It’s a different pace, there are different rules, and different expectations. Hopefully we’ll catch up soon.

Of course it’s not quite so frantic for me. Which is why my Kindle reassures me that I’m already 17% into Poor Economics, the clever tome du jour. As Roz dashes off to work, I potter around, doing the washing up etc, and then head out for my day’s entertainment. Which usually means jumping on some shop’s wifi to check my emails, having coffee with someone interesting who pertains to health and development, and attending various health/development events run by think tanks and universities. This week I enjoyed a lecture by a Harvard professor at Georgetown University on the history of smallpox eradication on Monday, a half-day conference on global health cooperation in the BRICS countries on Tuesday, an award event for ‘Commitment to Development’ on Wednesday, a World Bank meeting on Thursday, and a conference on the strategic power of vaccines on Friday. And of course some glamorous events at Roz’s work (where I am disconcerted to hear that my conduct and actions are being scrutinized and reported to Roz’s boss…). And we have had our first visit from someone from the UK, one of Roz’s previous colleagues. We went out for tapas. Georgetown really is excellent for restaurants. We also tried another 20 of them this week. I particularly liked the Ethiopian restaurant we went to last night, though amusingly the food is better at Camberwell’s version.

As I muse upon whether to apply for university, think tank, NGO, or multilateral organisation jobs, I am keeping myself occupied by becoming a ‘Visiting Scholar’ at Johns Hopkins University, a title dignified and distinguished enough to make me feel I ought to buy a cape and a monocle. This will involve a long commute to Baltimore a few times a week, but have the benefit of enabling me to churn out some publications on subjects pertaining to patient safety and having a glamorous affiliation til I figure out what I’m doing properly. It should be good fun. And all that commuting will be helpful as I try to finish off Poor Economics…