Today is a public holiday in Kazakhstan, celebrating the signing of their constitution in 1991. Actually the holiday is August 30, but since that fell on a weekend, today is a day off. There was a small fireworks display out over the Caspian on the 30th, maybe there will be more tonight.
I feel sort of bad for my new interpreter. The old one had to leave on Saturday for another assignment, so they brought out a new one Sunday afternoon. Now she has to sit here for a day with nothing to do, and on what should be a day off.
The future high-tech me, communicating from the super high-tech future, has sent the following video clip of the upcoming vice-presidential debate. (Note that due to the nature of this mental transmission, certain elements are distorted as if in a dream. Governor Palin appears as an Alaskan king crab, whereas Senator Biden appears as a high-speed underwater pipe saw.)
Oops...
I imagine that the king crab association was brought on by this creepy photo:
It's like the Wild Dead Kingdom up in there. Sort of reminiscent of the carnage that I think is in store for this woman when she goes up against a veteran statesman in a public debate. I'm popping some popcorn for that one (assuming I can get back to the states by then).
Not sure I much care for the rapping part. In this way, it is much like the DVD menu music from Y tu Mama Tambien (Titan y la Mala Rodriguez (Afila el colmillo))—the clip used on the DVD is great, but the full song is somehow less awesome.
I found the song performed in the video above through an ad on the Discovery World channel. A little internet sluthery revealed the title of the song and name of the artist, then it was a quick trip to YouTube to find the video. The clip used in the Discovery ad comes from the first bit, when the ladies are singing and the body percussion is going full-bore. Great clip. Better than the song as a whole.
As a side note, watching Discovery World in Kazakhstan is funny because they get the unregionalized version. The ads are in Russian, the narrators on the shows are in English, and any interviews with non-English-speaking people are not translated. I watched a show about South Africa, and the story was half told by the narrator, and half told by interviews with people speaking a language I didn't recognize. Trying to piece together the missing bits based on visual cues made it a challenge.
and I still don't have a firm date for when I'm leaving. I figured since I haven't been really talky here, maybe I'd just let everyone know I wasn't on any recent flight out of Bishkek. :)
I've been watching a lot of the Olympics on account of my being a lot closer to Beijing time than most of you, and that I'm cooped up in a hotel for a lot of my time. Phelps' swinning contests have all come at a very convenient time for me, just before I leave before work. So every day I leave the hotel feeling awesome for some reason, having witnessed a total mutant blowing away the competition (yesterday and the 11th excluded, which were really even better because they were so close). So here we are... they're lined up for Phelps' final race, and it's another medley, meaning he has to count on his teammates again.
Normally, I'd say this is a iffy situation, since none of the other American swimmers seem to be orders of magnitude better than everyone else the way Phelps is... but on the other hand Lezak did save Phelps' bacon back on the 11th...
Anyway, I'm excited. And here we go...
25m: pretty even across... not significantly ahead, or behind.
50m: we're in first but not by much.
100m: neck and neck with someone else.
150m: first, but it's basically a 4-way tie with Japan, Australia, and someone else.
200m: Phelps is in the water. already half a body length ahead. what a stud.
250m: Third!! He lost his half-body lead!
300m: Don't taunt happy-fun Phelps. Back in first. Bad jump in for (Lezak?) but kicked total ass after that.
350m: First by .7s woot. Swim your ass off please. Rest of team is spazzing hard.
400m: New world record. Gold medals all around. Surprisingly little celebration by the American guys. Subdued.
The rest of the swimmers seem unsurprised. Everyone congratulates Phelps and he takes it well. I'm glad it worked out for him; I like seeing people achieve the incredible.
PS: Torres is also a stud. I love that she was in her first Olympics the year before Phelps was born.
Once again, the plans have changed. And now I'm here for the indeterminate future. It hasn't exactly been specified when I'm coming home, but it'll be sometime after next Thursday at the earliest. More than likely I'll be here beyond the following Monday as well.
Not sure how I feel about possibly being here for a month. Hopefully Mike'll come and relieve me at some point. Though he's also on this side of the planet right now and won't be home until next week... so he probably won't be interested in that plan.
Looks like I'll be leaving here Thursday and heading home, only to come back in a little over a week. I should have an itinerary by now, but the one they sent me has me changing terminals in Moscow again, requiring a visa I don't have. Presumably this will be solved in the next two days.
Had dinner last night at a place that serves Chinese and Italian food. I ordered a fettuccine carbonara and it came with chopsticks.
Things here are ridiculous. And I mean this on two levels. First, work is crazy. Everything is hectic, hours are long, sleep is in short supply, as are 4-40 hex head bolts, as it turns out. Also, the menu items at the restaurants just keep getting funnier. Enjoyed a "Cheese Thick" last night, which was some sort of fried salt patty with cheese flavoring. Best of show so far for this trip has to be the "Beefsteak Fantasy." Oh yeah. Turns out a beefsteak fantasy involves two bunless hamburgers with a side of rice and a whole tree of dill weed. I had a tea bag with that, too.
In other news, due to Politics™, the bulk of work I've come here to do has been set back by several weeks. Most likely I'll be coming home at the end of next week and coming back to Kazakhstan around the beginning of September. Four trips to Kazakhstan in a year FTW!
So as predicted, the bag that showed up last night was my equipment which is of no use to me until Monday. My clothes are now scheduled to arrive on Sunday. I've got a good pattern of washing one of my two outfits in the sink and letting it dry while I wear the other one. Ugh. And I've basically got a full beard now.
Have arrived in Aktau safely, in hotel room. It's 10:30am Tuesday here. I've been more or less awake since Sunday morning so I'm probably going to take a nap.
Which is fine, because I don't need to spend any time unpacking the luggage that never made it past London.
They assure me that they have already located one of my two pieces and that it will be on the next flight (which sadly is in two days). As for the other piece, I'm still waiting to hear back from them. And it is unclear whether they've positively identified the suitcase with all my clothes and toiletries or the equipment case with all my gear. So come Thursday, I'll either be able to shave and put on some fresh clothes for the first time in 5 days, or I'll be able to start work. Possibly both, but I'm not holding my breath for that one. Thanks BMI!
6 Hours is just enough layover to be a huge pain, but to make paying $30 for a Crown Room day pass not seem worth it. Also, they keep this airport at about 20°C and I'm freezing. Time to walk from E to T and back, again.
For the last week, I've been in an exotic and seldom-seen locale: my house. Previously, I was on travel for three weeks. I should be leaving tomorrow for another three weeks of fun-filled foreign travel. What makes this coming trip so exciting is that I didn't really know about it until I got back from the last trip, giving me a week to prepare.
Preparing for a trip to a former soviet republic on official lab business requires me to get all sorts of approvals and signatures and what-not; the last week has been rather hectic. The trickiest parts were getting permission to bring my laptop, pick up a travel cell phone, and get some sleep aids for the horrendous flight itinerary. In all of these cases, I had to fight against a bureaucracy that seemed intent on not letting me get my work done. The cell phone and laptop people both needed over a week of lead time to get the relevant form signed (why?) so they were naturally pissed at me for bringing this to them with only 4 days to go.
OccMed is still not giving out Ambien to travelers without a signed exception letter from the head doctor. He was out all week. So I went to my regular doctor to get a script from him. He's out this week too. I couldn't get a script from a random doctor who doesn't know me without first getting a physical. Apparently I passed with flying colors, since she gave me a script for 90 pills (I usually go through about 5 per trip, and OccMed gives prescriptions for 10 pills).
Yesterday, my last official work day before I leave, the state department decided to let me know that I would need a transit visa to change airports in Moscow, and that I didn't have one and couldn't get one in time. So we changed my whole flight schedule last night. Getting home now involves a 40 hour travel nightmare that takes me from Aktau to Almaty to Istanbul to New York to Atlanta to Albuquerque. And because it takes so long, I have to do a layover in New York. Note to Camille: I tried to get them to let me do the layover in Istanbul, but to add another country to my trip would require a re-approval process which cannot be completed before I leave; Sorry!
This morning, my day off, I found myself back at work doing last-minute packing and preparation of equipment. Mike comes in to inform me that the facility people at my destination are still dicking around with access authority and as of today it isn't clear that I'll be allowed on site when I arrive. There is some discussion of postponing the trip until we can get confirmation that I won't be sitting in a hotel for three weeks. So I don't know what's going on.
update: I am, in fact, going to Kazakhstan today. Right now, in fact.
As a cute aside: when I was at OccMed getting some inoculations and a travel med kit (and arguing with them about their lame Ambien policy), I ended up in a waiting room watching The Today Show, on which the anchors were playing Rock Band. A nurse who I would estimate is pushing 60 was there and commented that she should stay away from Rock Band because she didn't have time for any more video games. I asked her what she was spending her time playing and she said Warcraft. We chatted a bit about the game and I got a kick out of the fact that she was totally into it. Apparently she had been up till 2am the previous night running Kara with her guild. When I was leaving, she walks up to me and gives me this devious smile and whispers, "For the horde!" It was the cutest thing ever. Old gamer lady, you're awesome.
