Too Soon?

A few random notes:

MJ died today. To me he died years ago. Between the lack of a career and looking like a zombie I can't really act that impacted. I'm wondering though if he even needs to be embalmed given the extensive plastic surgery he has had. Also, I've read that Madonna has been pretty upset about the whole ordeal. I wonder if she'll try to adopt any of MJ's 3 kids.

The other day I saw two different girls with tattoos of someones name on their neck. It's like a hickey that never goes away.

I discovered a box of rice in our pantry that proudly states the rice comes from the USA. I never actually knew we made rice here.

The mail I got reminding me to renew my KY drivers license was postmarked as coming from somewhere in Tennessee. Strange.

I've noticed this week coffee shops in the US are pretty different than in Ukraine. Besides not selling beer here, there are fewer people in each coffee shop but everyone stays longer. In Ukraine there are a lot of people and they come and go fairly quickly.

I've also noticed that I find myself staring at less women here in the US. Not in a perverted way, but I don't see as many head turning women here. Granted I'm stuck at home with my mom most of the days, when I do get out it's mainly stay at home soccer-moms who aren't working and anyone my age is busy at their job. In Ukraine the youth work much less and jobs are mainly things for 'adults' and people after they've received their university degrees.

I can't believe I'm typing this

I may get stuck in Cancun for 2 extra days. I don't know if anyone has ever been forced to stay here to continue their vacation in a timeshare they have til the end of the week, but I may have it happen to me. The direct flight on Thursday now looks to have more standby passengers than seats. The flights to Atlanta are open, but by the time they land the only flights left to Cincy are all oversold. I would certainly rather sleep in Cancun than the ATL airport.

I'm still working on things, but for now they don't look great.

Cancun

So it's been 10 days since I've written anything here. It's not that nothing ridiculous has happened in Cancun, but quite frankly none of it is repeatable since my family would kill me for doing so.

Also, I have sunburn. Twice. I'm ready to get out of Cancun but don't want to start working again. I just don't sit still very well, and at this point it's a whole lot of sitting around down here.

28 hours, 10 minutes

It took me 28 Hours and 10 minutes to touch down in Cincinnati after I left Tashkent, Uzbekistan. I got home EARLIER than I expected because a flight to Cincy from JFK was 2 hours later, and I was able to get back here around 8:30 instead of nearly 11:30. I absolutely passed out on the flight from NY to Cincy, and that helped me stay awake until around almost 11 last night. Strangely I feel (yet) no effects of jetlag. All it took was basically staying up for two days straight - between not sleeping the day before I left, and not being able to sleep for most of the time I was flying between Uzbekistan and NY.

Also, I'm making eggs for breakfast and put some PAM in the pan. There is a freshness label on the can on PAM. What the hell part of conola oil - the main ingredient - goes bad? Or maybe it's the water, which is the other ingredient. Just seems like a marketing gimmick to me. If anyone is dumb enough to throw out their half used can of the stuff because "it's not fresh anymore", then they don't deserve to keep their money.

Thoughts on flying in Asia

They are clearly still scared of swine flu and bird flu here. Half the people on the plane were wearing surgical masks, and a large group of the staff at the Istanbul airport are wearing them too. If I had to sneeze I'd probably do it in the direction of one of those people since they are clearly protected from anything I may give them, as opposed to someone without a mask.

Also, in Europe it's fairly normal for people on the plane to clap when the plane lands. I wonder if they would boo if the plane crashed.

Everything you read on the interwebs is true!

Words can't describe the feeling when you experience something you read on the internet about a specific culture. Case in point - Toasting in Uzbekistan. It's worth noting that this toasting procedure is applicable to almost all of the former soviet union.

Anyways, while doing some research before this trip I came across toasting/business lunch customs for Uzbekistan. Without fail, the first three toasts over lunch will be for 1) To Health, 2) To the women/any women who are present, 3) To the families of the people present. So, while at lunch yesterday (as in June 4th) we went out to lunch with the Deputy Director of the institute we were visiting and someone else. Quite frankly I don't actually know the title of the other person, but you could tell he was a subordinate of the Deputy Director. Anyways, we ordered a bottle of vodka. Within 5 minutes he was proposing the first toast - for the health of everyone present. A few minutes later the waiter came around and refilled the shot glasses. (An interesting side note is that he warned me he was drinking 'bottoms-up' and said I could follow along if I was comfortable.) After our glasses were filled back up be quickly moved to make another toast. This time to the women - specifically Miss Parker. Once again, bottoms up. (I'm drinking bottoms up - Miss Parker is sipping her vodka - I think she only claims to be from Bella-Russia.)

Also worth noting, is the reason why the deputy director claims vodka is important with meals in Uzbekistan. Traditionally the food is cooked with a lot of fat. The food we ate had a lot of fat on it, so I can attest to the truthfulness of his comment. He claims that drinking amounts of vodka is a way of naturally encouraging the stomach to start working so that it's ready to break down the fat with the meals. While I'll give some credence to this theory, the man had a bit of a pot-belly, so I assume he wasn't drinking enough.

Anyways, back to the drinking. Knowing that it's customary for the guests to make at least one toast, and seeing that the bottle was getting towards the bottom - I moved to make the next toast before he did. As is with custom, it was to the families of everyone involved. Little did I know that he was going to order ANOTHER bottle of vodka after we finished that one.

End of the story - I had 5 shots of vodka at lunch while I was working yesterday. Fortunately I was able to keep drinking water and eating bread and meat in between them. I think it served as a great warm-up for my trip to Cancun in the coming days. Although that's typically tequila, and that stuff is the devils water.

Time Travel

Admit it, there have been times when you wished there were more than 24 hours in the day. Unfortunately there is nothing you can do about making the day longer. Right?

Wrong. I've found a solution to this problem. I'll be chasing the sun tomorrow. I leave my hotel in 3 hours to go to the airport. I'll be flying from Uzbekistan to Istanbul, have a 3.5 hour layover, take an 11.5 hour flight to New York (JFK), have another 3.5 hour layover, then fly to Cincinnati and land on the same day - 27 hours later. That's right. 27 hours in the day. Time travel in its finest.

I should be up in the air for 19.5 hours tomorrow. Considering I'll be flying against the rotation of the Earth, I wonder if there is a way to quantify the amount of distance I'll travel due to the rotation of the planet instead of the jet propulsion related to the 3 airplanes I'll be on. In all I will be flying about 8950 miles to get to Cancun. 10 time zones. Should be a good time.