Moldova, here I come!

I’ll be spending my Thanksgiving holiday on the OSCE Election
Observation Mission in Moldova. I’m excited to have been selected
again for an OSCE EOM (the first time was Georgia in 2008). I’m also
looking forward to visiting my host family for a few days after the
election mission wraps up.

I expect to be without internet access most of the next week. If
there’s anybody still reading this blog, you are certainly used to me
being AWOL for a week or more. I’ll post as soon as I get a chance.

My colleague pointed out yesterday that I’ve set a personal travel
record this month: five trips to four countries (six if you count
layovers). No wonder I’m so stinking tired! 🙂

Please send the Moldovan people your positive election energy- it’s
their fourth time to the polls in 1.5 years, because the parties can’t
reach even the most basic of consensus. Moldovans are tired of their
politicians but are understandably increasingly apathetic about elections
(and democracy in general). I hope something positive can finally
happen for this depressed and sad little country that has such a big
hold on my heart.

Monaco

I went to a conference in Monaco last week, which was interesting – both the conference and the place. I flew into Nice and took a bus to Monaco, about 20 km from Nice. The drive was stunning – sea views on one side, mountain cliffs on the other.

Monaco itself is a tall city/country – built right up the the sharp mountainside to provide as many windows with a view of the sea as possible. It’s a dense little country – 2 square kilometers total. And insanely expensive. That’s not a secret, I suppose, they do promote themselves as an “upscale” destination. But geez, just because you can pay 6 euros for a little bottle of Evian doesn’t mean you should. I actually got offended at some point, thinking how insanely expensive everything was there, and that people were spending so much money on really basic and normally inexpensive things – a coffee, a bottle of water, a 5-minute taxi ride up the hill. I don’t begrudge anyone having a fabulous vacation, living it up and enjoying some luxury. But this was just ridiculous.

I got home Friday night, and Igor left for his next trip Saturday evening. *Sigh*

Terminal “F”

as in Flop. Absolutely nothing special about Kyiv’s brand-new
“European-standard” terminal at Boryspil airport. Same warehouse
architecture, same unattractive and uncomfortable departure lounge.
Only one cafe, with one poor guy running his fanny off trying to serve
a LOT of people desperately in need of caffeine before the
early-morning flights . TGI Friday’s supposed to open sometime in the
future, which may or may not be be a plus.

Only “innovative” Western thing they did is make you walk right
through the duty free shops to get to the gates.

Still totally unclear where to buy internet cards, if they even exist at all.

Blog updates

This new blog theme felt very right this morning – I feel like I’m living in airports and airplanes lately.

Another nice Posterous improvement – my actual time zone! Now, hopefully, it won’t look like I’m posting at totally bizarre hours of the day and night!

And an iPhone app, which looks like it will work on my iPod Touch.

Planes, trains and automobiles

November is chock-full of travel. After Istanbul I went to Moscow for about 9 hours (which was 8.5 hours too many in that awful city, if you ask me), and just barely managed to get to my flight home on time. But I made it, which is all that counts. A few days in Kyiv and then it was back to Moscow to help with our EducationUSA Pavilion at the Moscow Education & Career Fair. It was pretty awesome! And although I still find no redeeming qualities about Moscow, I didn’t have as awful of a time there as I usually do.

I’m home for the weekend, and then off to a conference on Tuesday. Igor and I will get about 20 hours in town together, as he returns from Odesa Monday morning. 😦  Sounds like he’s enjoying the city, though. He hasn’t been to Odesa in years and years, and has had a very negative idea about it for some reason, never wanting to visit there with me. Maybe it’s the unseasonably warm weather, or the sea air – but he’s done a 180 on Odesa and is raving about how much he likes it!

The apartment renovations continue to move along. I’ll pop over later today to take a look (and some pictures!).

It’s a beautiful weekend in Kyiv – sunny and warm. Can’t wait to get out and enjoy it a bit!

Blurry Istanbul

36 hours in Istanbul for a regional meeting. One colleague insisted on
a “tour” of all the Starbucks. Finally told her I want something
Turkish! So we took the ferry across the Bosphorus (my first time
officially on the Asian continent!) and had dinner at some famous
restaurant that of course I’ve never heard of. Food was great. As we
were finishing, a bunch of police cars pulled up and an entourage
entered. Turned out to be some prince from one of the Emirates.

Had to get up at the crack of dawn to catch an early flight to Moscow,
but stress-induced insomia had me up hours earlier. As luck would have
it, early enough to be fully awake for a very slight earthquake.

Have to get back here with Igor one oif these days. There’s sooo much
we didn’t get to see and do during our short vacation last year.
Awesome city!

Update: Several people much smarter than me have kindly reminded me that I’ve actually been in Asia several times already, as Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan are all located on the Asian continent. In researching the question, I also realized that Jordan is also in Asia, as is the Sinai Penisula. So, I’ve actually been on the Asian continent nearly a dozen times. My bad!