Tattered and Frazzled, as if by Barnacles

I read somewhere that the human brain has evolved, to our great benefit, to not remember pain accurately. For instance, I can remember that it hurt really, really bad when I was young and fell off a boat dock, ripping my abdomen open on barnacles. But do I specifically remember the qualities of that pain, like I can remember specific melodies and pieces of artwork? No way. The reason we have evolved this way is so that we can continue to do things that might hurt us, even horribly. Otherwise, I might never again venture onto a boat dock, and women would all quit after one child.

Likewise, I did not remember how much more trying it is to recruit in India as compared to other countries. Oh. My. God. I am beat. BEAT. It really hit me today. As hard as the Middle East tour was sometimes, India is ten or more times that. Part of the reason is that I am right-brained. Indians, even the artistic ones, all want left-brained answers to everything. They want quantitative descriptions of my university, not qualitative ones. I end up spitting out stats and application requirements for hours on end, with no opportunity to wax poetic on the beauties of Southville or to describe the wonderful events my university sponsors. I have not had time to exercise consistently or eat regular meals, let alone relax or catch up on e-mail (ok, I did finally see the Taj Mahal, but it required 12 hours in a bus, so there). That was the worst part of today - opening my work e-mail, and watching that number in the bottom-left corner climb into the triple digits. Under the Wheel. That is how it made me feel.

But now I am going to bed. I am forgetting the e-mail, and the college fairs still to come. I will wake tomorrow, have breakfast, and then have an e-mail party. If I finish before we check out of the hotel in the afternoon, I might even have a chance to update everyone on the last week.

(If I have bummed you out, go check Molly's blog. She's about to get married, and is sickeningly happy. I got her a cool wedding present in Agra - hope it gets there in time.)