Friends. Thank you for your good wishes. Let me write some short replies to people who asked questions or made specific comments: Oys, Rbaral and Shiv: I too look forward to actively participating here again. Isolated Freak: It is hard to know where life will take me. To qualify for a professorship I would need to work hard in one field for many more years... Sarbasadharan: That is my intention... and the reason I chose to jump through all kinds of hoops to be able to do research in Nepal on a topic that I hoped would be relevant and useful. Kalekrishna, Karmarana,Vantagepoint and Shiv: It is the policy of my program to make PDF versions of dissertations available online. So... yes, soon you will be able to read it online. Perhaps even before that I plan to write some newspaper articles summarizing key findings. First though, I have to make some minor revisions and double-check some modeling results before turning in the "library" version of the dissertation next week. lootekukur: that is indeed good news! I have never taken an HIV test... lonely1: I shall stay at MIT for a year doing a post-doc (OPT) while I wait for my wife to finish her studies. Hopefully that year will provide an opportunity not just for writing journal papers, but also for catching up on my interests and skills beyond the narrow field of my graduate study (including a better understanding of Nepali history and politics) and for building the networks needed for work i hope to do in Nepal in the future. Ashu, thanks for your kind words; you do know that I don't share your assessment of me... Kalankisthan (will you call yourself loktantrasthan now?): yes let's meet for a beer or a cup of tea next time we're in the same town! paradoxnemesis: I agree that the nation has bigger problems; I don't pretend to be better than others... I just wanted to share some good news with my friends here. Karmarana: I did not mean to be bragging, but I appreciate your concern, and I will be more careful of my wording in the future. I mentioned that I learned interesting things... I will wait for papers to pass the peer review process before declaring any findings to be fact. I especially appreciate feedback from people who do understand the meteorology, geography, and traffic patterns in Nepal. Nepe: the events in Nepal of the past week have given me hope again that things are possible. Brilliant Brunette... I will be sorting through my photo files soon and hope to upload some interesting pictures soon, although none of them of are pro caliber... Thank you everyone. -Arnico.