This is a test. This is only a test.

Let's see if I like this format or not. I've never used Blogger before and am notoriously resistant to technological change, so we'll see how this works.

I am currently sitting around my house, waiting to hear back from summer internships (I have one good, one not-so-good lead right now) and generally being insanely bored. However, I'm enjoying reading my friends' travel blogs (especially Mel's "misadventures" in Georgia and Alex's insights about Ghana), so I figured I could kill 30 minutes setting up my own for the fall.

Also, I did not want anyone else to steal my obscure blog name. It's from a poem (the origins of which I believe are actually Persian) I found in one of my biographies of Gertrude Bell, which was also the name of one of her highly acclaimed books about traveling in the pre-World War I Middle East. (If you've never heard of Gertrude Bell, I highly recommend you check her out - the Chicago Tribune recently ran this article/book review, though Janet Wallach's biography is my personal favorite.) My blog "description" is part of the poem - the English translation itself is quite beautiful, and I imagine that the original must be even better.

Happy summer, everyone. Wise out.