Happy belated birthday, hope you had a good one!

I have seen them together, many times. (I would not travel now, if I could. Stay safe. )

its very good, i've been using it for two years now. Thanks for the recommend!

oh oh, sorry to hear. Hope you recover soon.

That's such a sweet little post :) Glad to see you happy.

I follow 2-3 podcasts on youtube to stay informed, engage very limitedly here, usually less than 5 mins a week. FB - no scrolling, just for dms,mostly.

Congrats!

I love your courage, doing this. I don't do well with solo travel, at all. I get very sensitized to being alone and am miserable.

I strongly restrict myself to tea and dessert with socials , locally. Even with that I have to see what kind of teas and desserts are available. That has mostly helped. Ppl think its weird a bit but they get used to it.

Ditto. And my being picky has to do with many food sensitivities am burdened with, not being fussy. Its hard.

That's not bad at all... i need to look into it further. Thanks for the info!!

My balcony garden is huge and its going to take me some investment in lights and various benches to get it all indoors before the winter.

Delta lost it lol, yeah, it arrived 3 days later when I was getting ready to leave. But yeah, clothing. Overpriced stuff in gift shops. All the dough set aside for various fun things gone in buying clothing. Oh sigh.

I lost my suitcase once when we were in Barcelona. I know exactly what you mean there.

Each person's reasons are different.Many also just want to keep up w/joneses by 'going abroad'.H1b was never really anything ideal.It was intended for short term, u can't move jobs easily on it, and most cos pay less bcoz they have to do the paperwork.Its worse now w/ fee, that's all.

Oh its an old culture, invaded thrice by various colonial powers. Of course the need for making more money are real. But there is also a thriving startup culture there. B&Bs, various restaurants, all sorts of funky stuff. BTW 'greater chances' are fairly limited on h1b.A bit more money, for sure.

Its a big country, anything is possible. It is a good time for them to see their own potential , and they have more going for them govt wise than here btw.

For what its worth, i am indian origin (not h1b) and consider myself an ally. am sorry for your experience there but we are not all like that.