You never know..

I woke up this morning feeling off. A bit crummy actually. From getting my period early to feeling jetlagged sleep deprived, the physical was starting to take its toll.

I came into the office to check on comments for the presentation. Bam. More info needed.

Another hurried frenzy to try to figure out what it is our boss wants, how to allocate the tasks, and how to get the info.

We went to Bukhara for lunch, a local place for local fare. It was my first day not going to the treasury for lunch, and a nice change of environment.

The tablecloths were made of the national dress apparently - a tie dyed splotchy type piece. Our lunch began with a tomato and onion salad, huge round pieces of naan, a sour cream sauce, and finally shyshlek.

Shyshlek is one of their main meat cuisines, basically meat on a skewer, but it was delicious. The place was such a local place that my co-workers had to speak to the waitresses in Uzbek.

A funny thing is in NY I'm always the slowest eater amongst my friends. They sometimes say it's cuz I talk a lot. But the thing is, I really don't talk a lot.

But here again, I was the last one eating. Some things never change regardless of where you go to I realized.

I noticed they were pretty quiet at lunch. Don't you guys talk when you eat I asked? Sherzod was telling me that in Uzbekistan people don't really talk about their feelings. I wondered if this was due to the Muslim culture, but Farkhad said that it is more likely from the soviet times. I asked how do you get to know each other then, don't the women talk?

He said oh yeah, Uzbek women talk too much and eat too much. I couldn't stop laughing. I knew I must've come to the right place when he said the women here eat too much.

A funny thing about crossing the roads. I've taken our NY crosswalks that no one really pays much attention to for granted. Here, although there are crosswalks, you don't really wait for them. You just go. Cars are coming and going, you may end up stuck in the middle of the street. But it's like playing chicken. I got stuck in the middle of the road watching cars going by me in opposite directions.

After lunch we came back to work on the presentation some more. The funny thing is in the US when I surf the net at work, it's usually stuff about the news, or whether Angelina Jolie is really pregnant and having twins or not.

Here though, I am constantly learning something new. For our project our boss asked we include some slides on private equity in the region, and capital flows from sovereign wealth funds.

I didn't know certain funds existed. I came across the EDRC - a European bank which invests globally in infrastructure. I learned that Morgan Stanley has also recently created an infrastructure fund. And there are numerous other specialized funds which focus in the region and with local partners.

I asked Mokhir about any confectioner type companies. He introduced me to Lakhat online, a local Kazak company, but we couldn't figure out whether it was publicly or privately owned.

And as I kept drifting on the net I started mentally wondering whether maybe I should look into doing private equity in frontier markets, whether pursuing the world bank, IMF, or IFC is a better option, whether I should try to look into a private equity internship instead or a banking one to give a better base and background.

It amazes me how being in a foreign country I am forced to learn so much more in a day than I normally would in my own comfort zone back home. Everything is a discovery. The clean sewage and water projects, the socially responsible investments in manufacturing whether for garments or wires. And how certain countries have been so fast to already move into this region. Did you know Japan has a small business enterprise with Uzbekistan already? And the EDRC. Is it not coincidental that the British have pretty much conquered every region at some point in time and that still reflects today? It's amazing how well the EDRC seems to be set up and how many projects they've been doing for the last 10 years in this region. I sent the internship info to myself in case I can set something up there for even a brief stint.

But it made me realize I have to probably keep improving my Russian if I want to do business here later. So much I'd like to do, but there's such a sense of frustration as I realize how much time it takes to hit the level I'd want to at something, and how things are a process now, no overnight quick fixes.

So here I am at work again, it's almost 8pm, with Bekzod in the office. We call each other torturer. But this same torturer also makes sure I get home safely, was kind enough to show me around Tashkent my first day here, and shows a courteousness, sincerity, and maturity as a man despite his young age.

I've never had so much fun at work though. Back in the day when Bradley and I first started, it was so new and fresh. He didn't have kids yet and our fund was on paper. I remember how we'd stay late at night working so hard to get things set up. I would take the 559am train and get home around 11, sometimes midnight. I had never worked so hard in my life, but I remember feeling such a sense of accomplishment, learning, and achievement. I felt so fulfilled.

Working here has brought back that re-invigoration and inspiration again. I'm sure at some point the excitement and newness will wear off. It always does... with a lot of things :) But for now, I'm enjoying the ride and holding onto this feeling. It's not every day that I have such a special feeling.