What Is An Expat?

You may have noticed an increase in posting. I was motivated by imminent departure on Tuesday to finish them all out. I’m heading to Bangkok for 4 days, then down to Phuket for 12ish, before heading back to Bangkok for 2 days and then leaving. I am going to lay on the beach, burn my whiteboy body, do a lot of diving, and generally hang out in the water. I’m going to party some, and laze around like a shiftless loser even more. I’m very, very tired.

Soon after I come back, or possibly even before, I will be working on transferring out of here. I’ve had about enough. It’s more an issue of the endless silly bullshit without breaks. I can’t really complain about the work, it’s very easy. Management treats us like a bunch of children. We’ve lost so many “release valves” over the course of time I wonder if he wants to encourage turnover. They certainly don’t do anything to encourage people to stay. I think I am going to check with a friend in Mosul about moving there. That’s up in Kurd country and is reasonably safe. Will be able to get more time off, and some more cash too. Even if it’s just enough to cover the cost of traveling and such on that extra time off, it’s worth it for me. It’s not as it I am a truck driver out on the road everyday. Anyways, I am pursuing other opportunities too, since prison camp life is only so interesting, but I will not say too much about them yet.

Hasta!

Headed out on R&R again, stateside this time. Ran out of time to finish the last writeups. Oh well. It will still happen.

Quick Itinerary:
17-20 Dec Tashkent
20 Dec late afternoon Denver
2 Jan-7 Jan Tashkent again, plus a whoooole lot of travel

Blah. See yall soon!

I’m so lazy. I didn’t get anything done, and tomorrow I leave for Tashkent for a few days. Been really busy with wiring and connecting the new Bullpen in our construction project for the trades guys to work out of. So much to do, and so little planned properly. At least my wireless stuff came in so I can get started on that.

Some of the locals complained about getting shot at while working, so we put up a sign.

I was talking to some of the kids from the warehouse the other day. I’ve been messing with them for a long time. It’s my plan to make them think I am totally crazy. I am not sure I have them totally fooled. Then every so often I give them a peek at the real me. Of course, my backup plan is for them to think it’s all an act so then when I do act bizarrely, they don’t think it’s real. I win either way! Whoohoo! Go me!

Oh yeah, anyways. I was talking to Lena and she kept laughing because I speak slowly. Hello, not my native language! I take the extra time to think about my words because I have to think about each thing I need to say, and want to do it correctly. 5 minutes earlier when she was trying to get me to say I hate Commo Jack she’d misunderstood me. She didn’t hear me say “Ya Ne Nenavizhyu Evo” which is “I don’t hate him” and dropped the first “ne”, which is of course the “don’t” part. But even when I lose I win, so I pouted and made her feel bad today like she hurt my feelings. She didn’t, though I did find it strange, to be sure. It didn’t strike me that funny. It was complicated enough saying we worked together and weren’t best buddies but I had nothing against him, and trying to be clear on the meaning. BAH! Foreigners! (Gotta love ’em, that is!) They made me talk too much yesterday — it’s weird when you are trying to explain something to them, but maybe don’t know a word, so you explain the concept and try to use analogies…and 10 minutes later they come back with the word you’ve been asking about all along. “Is the word for soandso thisorthat?” 10 minutes of conversation later, “Oh, you mean thisorthat!” Had I not been actually saying the correct word repeatedly (and correctly) I would understand. I was asking for the noun form of “to act” or “pritvoryayetcya” which I thought would be “an act” or “pritvoryeniye”. The patterns are there to deduce these, but you never know when they will turn out to be exceptions. It’s only a simple 10 minute question. “I know the goddam verb, what’s the corresponding noun!!!! Is it thishereword?” Life’s funny.

…and boy, do I need to get out of here. It’s affecting my mind — of course one never can be sure with someone like me. (sigh )

So I’m not sure if I am flying on the planelet to Tashkent or if the new bus service will be active by then. To be honest, the thought of a 7ish hour bus ride does not appeal to me. It also could potentially mess with my fuckoff time in Tashkent, both going up and coming back. I’ll definitely be motivated to get out of here, but if I get bumped on the way back maybe I don’t mind so much. Overpriced Sheraton aside, of course.

Here in a nutshell is my basic plan. I’m flying out of Tashkent the 10th to Dublin via Frankfurt. 3 nights in Dublin, wandering around, and then head down to the Dingle Peninsula. I don’t expect them to have berries, as it is reputed to be beautiful down there. Among other things, they have a friendly dolphin you can swim with. Yaay! Dolphins are cool. Hey! This is a great time for me to go back to something else, not really changing the subject per se, but switching gears a lil’ bit, as I like to do. (more…)