In a physiology class I took years ago, we once had to analyze our own urine. One of my classmates was alarmed by something in her sample. She stated that it looked like an aggressive cell attacking everything near it and was concerned that it might be some sort of disease.
Well, upon further inspection by a few students and the professor, it turned out to be sperm! It took all of 3 seconds for her to go from pale to a shade of deep red. While the whole class was amused by this, she then went on to explain herself. "My boyfriend works really early and he likes to, um, you know, before he leaves for work." Hilarity ensues.
Note to self, sperm in your pee is normal, nay, healthy. I, unfortunately, did NOT have any sperm in my pee.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Mocked by a Gypsy Woman: Moscow, Russia
Around the World in 60 Days: Moscow and St. Petersburg
Some Observations:
1) Nuclear reactors are located right next to living areas! It's a normal part of the landscape.
2) On the highway, I see cars pulled over selling stuff. People will stop on the highway or fight traffic crossing it to reach the cars to buy stuff. Reminds me of China.
3) And like China, the idea of waiting in lines is foreign to them. You essentially need to squeeze your way to the counter. If you wait in line and leave just the slightest gap, someone will cut in front of you.
4) Okay, without getting myself a lot of hate mail, the women, they, um, dress sexy. Usually braless and sometime braless with a see-through blouse. I was, of course, thoroughly offended.
Pickpockets: The Red Square is to die for. Beware of pickpockets though. A gypsy woman holding a baby got her hands into my hidden pocket. It's a zippered pocket within my front pants pocket. She actually got a hold of my passport. I felt it and knocked her hand away. I instinctively shouted, "Hey!" She didn't let me off so easy though, because she then proceeded to follow me around Red Square shouting "Hey!" mocking me. Man, I never wanted to smack a woman so badly in my life. The fact that she was carrying a baby didn't help either.
On Tour: We took a tour to see some sights just to avoid some of the logistics of planning the routes. This is the first tour I've ever been on where we actually left 2 guys behind. We left them at the war memorial monument. To the tour guide's credit, we did wait for at least 10 minutes.
The Bureaucracy: Doing anything takes a long time. Checking into the hotel took over an hour because we had to register each person individually (20 minutes a pop). They are typing pretty extensively on their computer, I just don't know what they're typing. We also had to register with the local governmental agency in every city we were in (OVIR registration). Usually the hotel will do it for you. The only problem was that the hotel was misplacing passports! We saw more than a few irrate tourists. Even buying a SIM card for my cellphone required them to make copies of my passport and Visa...
The Food: According to CNN, this year Moscow was voted the most expensive city to live in. It is, but not the food. The food prices were pretty decent (at least compared to the likes of Tokyo and New York) and yummy. The borsch was good, the pork leg we had in Drova was fantastic, the bliny was tasty, and we had real stroganoff in Propaganda.
The Metro: It handles a million people a day. It is beautiful as well as efficient. But, there is a learning curve. I learned how to read Cyrillic just to be able to decipher the station stops.
Some Observations:
1) Nuclear reactors are located right next to living areas! It's a normal part of the landscape.
2) On the highway, I see cars pulled over selling stuff. People will stop on the highway or fight traffic crossing it to reach the cars to buy stuff. Reminds me of China.
3) And like China, the idea of waiting in lines is foreign to them. You essentially need to squeeze your way to the counter. If you wait in line and leave just the slightest gap, someone will cut in front of you.
4) Okay, without getting myself a lot of hate mail, the women, they, um, dress sexy. Usually braless and sometime braless with a see-through blouse. I was, of course, thoroughly offended.
Pickpockets: The Red Square is to die for. Beware of pickpockets though. A gypsy woman holding a baby got her hands into my hidden pocket. It's a zippered pocket within my front pants pocket. She actually got a hold of my passport. I felt it and knocked her hand away. I instinctively shouted, "Hey!" She didn't let me off so easy though, because she then proceeded to follow me around Red Square shouting "Hey!" mocking me. Man, I never wanted to smack a woman so badly in my life. The fact that she was carrying a baby didn't help either.
On Tour: We took a tour to see some sights just to avoid some of the logistics of planning the routes. This is the first tour I've ever been on where we actually left 2 guys behind. We left them at the war memorial monument. To the tour guide's credit, we did wait for at least 10 minutes.
The Bureaucracy: Doing anything takes a long time. Checking into the hotel took over an hour because we had to register each person individually (20 minutes a pop). They are typing pretty extensively on their computer, I just don't know what they're typing. We also had to register with the local governmental agency in every city we were in (OVIR registration). Usually the hotel will do it for you. The only problem was that the hotel was misplacing passports! We saw more than a few irrate tourists. Even buying a SIM card for my cellphone required them to make copies of my passport and Visa...
The Food: According to CNN, this year Moscow was voted the most expensive city to live in. It is, but not the food. The food prices were pretty decent (at least compared to the likes of Tokyo and New York) and yummy. The borsch was good, the pork leg we had in Drova was fantastic, the bliny was tasty, and we had real stroganoff in Propaganda.
The Metro: It handles a million people a day. It is beautiful as well as efficient. But, there is a learning curve. I learned how to read Cyrillic just to be able to decipher the station stops.
Around the World in 60 Days: Intro
How it started: Initially, this trip started out with just climbing Mt. Elbrus with Chiang and Gabe. What the frick is Mt. Elbrus? It's one of the "seven summits." I'm trying to climb the tallest mountain on each continent. In this case, it's the tallest mountain on the European continent located in the Caucasus range and close to Georgia and Chechnya. Trip length: 2-3 weeks
My friend Navid was going to be in Europe. Why not meet up with him? Trip length: 5 weeks (it's a long story, but I was originally going to do Mongolia).
Later on, I find out that my dad wants to do some business in China, so then I decide to meet him there to help with the market research and business plan. Trip length: 7 weeks
When I was booking my tickets, I found out that I have a 4 hour layover in Tokyo. Because it was a student ticket, I could extend the layover at no extra charge. I'll also meet Lloyd here. Trip length: 8 weeks
By the time all the changes and itineraries were hammered out, I went way over my budget. I'm not working, so I had to borrow money from some generous friends. Foolish? Indeed. But, um, life is too short.
Itinerary: I made a bunch of changes along the way, but here is the final outcome.
Mt Elbrus, Russia
Moscow, Russia
St. Petersburg, Russia
Tallinn, Estonia
Madrid, Spain
Barcelona, Spain
Prague, Czech Republic
Gothenburg, Sweden
Stockholm, Sweden
Warsaw, Poland
Budapest, Hungary
Beijing, China
Shanghai, China
Xiao Xin, China
Guangzhou, China
Tokyo, Japan
Summary: The trip overall was very good. I ran into some minor problems (more on this later), but I met a lot of cool people, saw a bunch of interesting stuff and took lots of pictures. But I found that I burn out pretty quickly with urban city travel. Traveling is some tiring stuff. I need doses of nature. I got tired of museums and churches; taking photos; getting that sunrise shot; figuring out the language, customs, metro and airports of every new city you go to; etc.
My friend Navid was going to be in Europe. Why not meet up with him? Trip length: 5 weeks (it's a long story, but I was originally going to do Mongolia).
Later on, I find out that my dad wants to do some business in China, so then I decide to meet him there to help with the market research and business plan. Trip length: 7 weeks
When I was booking my tickets, I found out that I have a 4 hour layover in Tokyo. Because it was a student ticket, I could extend the layover at no extra charge. I'll also meet Lloyd here. Trip length: 8 weeks
By the time all the changes and itineraries were hammered out, I went way over my budget. I'm not working, so I had to borrow money from some generous friends. Foolish? Indeed. But, um, life is too short.
Itinerary: I made a bunch of changes along the way, but here is the final outcome.
Mt Elbrus, Russia
Moscow, Russia
St. Petersburg, Russia
Tallinn, Estonia
Madrid, Spain
Barcelona, Spain
Prague, Czech Republic
Gothenburg, Sweden
Stockholm, Sweden
Warsaw, Poland
Budapest, Hungary
Beijing, China
Shanghai, China
Xiao Xin, China
Guangzhou, China
Tokyo, Japan
Summary: The trip overall was very good. I ran into some minor problems (more on this later), but I met a lot of cool people, saw a bunch of interesting stuff and took lots of pictures. But I found that I burn out pretty quickly with urban city travel. Traveling is some tiring stuff. I need doses of nature. I got tired of museums and churches; taking photos; getting that sunrise shot; figuring out the language, customs, metro and airports of every new city you go to; etc.
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