stupid travellers

so part of my job is to research what travel sites have to say about lviv. well, one day, in doing such research, i stumbled upon this gem of a blog:

http://tripadvisor.typepad.com

some of the entries are not that funny, but others...definitely worth reading.

of vikings and sea-faring...

so i know this makes it look like i am overly obsessed with posting on this blog, since i do make like... 80 percent of the entries. but this is another great article, this time covered by the bbc.

Viking ship attempts sea crossing

The Sea Stallion set out at midnight on Sunday BBC History: Viking Voyage

A Viking Ship is on its way to the British Isles from Norway.

The Sea Stallion, the biggest replica Viking vessel ever constructed, is bound for Kirkwall in Orkney.

It is part of a 1,000-mile journey from Denmark to Ireland over seven weeks; and aims to understand better the seamanship of early Norsemen.

A BBC team is following the "living archaeology" project in a support boat to make a film for the Timewatch series later in the year.

The volunteer crew has already faced severe weather conditions on the journey from Denmark to Norway, with several individuals being taken off the Sea Stallion temporarily because they were showing the early signs of hypothermia.

"This journey has been tough so far but the crew are in high spirits and looking forward to reaching Scotland and sailing in the Atlantic," said crew member Louise Henriksen.

See the Viking warship in detail

The weather could yet thwart the attempt to cross the North Sea by sail - the harsh weather conditions that have swept across the UK are predicted to bring a gale which could blow the Sea Stallion back towards Norway.

Wind worry

If that happens, the project's organisers may call for the ship to be towed by its support vessel. Skipper Carsten Hvidsaid said: "The aim of the project is to test this ship out in the waters the original Viking ship sailed in.

"It's better that we get to Scotland and start sailing there, than spend the whole summer waiting in Norway for the right winds."

The original Sea Stallion was made in 1042, and is believed to have taken part in clashes between the Anglo-Saxons and Normans in 1050-1060, when many Danish Vikings lived in Ireland.

The boat sank in the Roskilde fjord at the end of the 11th Century, while defending the country's coast from Norwegian Vikings.

The replica was constructed from about 300 oak trees and using 7,000 iron nails and rivets.

At 30m (100ft) in length, the Sea Stallion is said to be the world's largest reconstructed Viking vessel.

The ship hopes to reach Dublin in mid-August.

The ship's crew are writing a weekly diary for the BBC News website. More regular updates and a satellite map of the ship's latest position can be found at BBC History's Viking Voyage website.

THE SEA STALLION FROM GLENDALOUGH 1. The crew of 65 men and women will sleep on the open deck, as the Vikings did, and take turn keeping watch 2. Satellite navigation equipment will make sure the ship stays on course. Vikings had to rely on the position of the sun and stars, the colour and movement of the sea and wind direction 3. Oak planks were cut radially for maximum strength, overlapped and nailed together. Axes and other tools used to make the planks were replicas of those used by the Vikings 4. The sail, mast, rigging and rudder on the original were missing so these have been copied from other finds 5. Shields, vital in battle, were tied over the oarports when the ship was in port Sources: Viking Ship Museum, Denmark; National Maritime Museum, UK. Photos: Werner Karrasch and Erwan Crouan in case you didn't catch it, they have a website, too. check it out!

whoa there...

um... people.com is amazing, and it is almost completely filling the deep hole in my heart that was caused by the end of f-20's subscription to people magazine. if only the crossword puzzle were up online, the hole could be filled...

anyway, reporting on the stories that really matter, we have:

World's Tallest Man Weds Woman Who Reaches His Elbow

the picture is fantastic. i don't know what is going on in this picture, but it's just amazing.


awesome. remind me to say no of a 7'9" man proposes to me. i'm not even 5'6" (though, less than an inch shy)

also: he's 56 and she's 28. there's something disturbing about that...

and for the animal lovers out there, he's made headlines as the save the earth types:

Bao made headlines in December when he used his long arms to pull dangerous scraps of plastic out of the stomachs of two dolphins, saving their lives. The dolphins had gotten sick after munching on the plastic on the edge of their pool at an aquarium in northeast China, and veterinarians were unable to remove the scraps with surgical instruments.

ps. she's sort of a mail order bride. check out the text of the article. sweet.

sometimes i don't understand this place...

i already told kate about htis, but it is too good to be missed...

so there is a law here that is you can't drink in public places. so when you walk down the street, everybody is drinking beer, which started some confusion in my mind. why were people drinking everywhere if it is illegal? and even if a cop is visible!

so i was talking to a friend about drinking here in russia. as it so turns out... it IS illegal to drink in public places, but somehow, streets do not count as public. just parks, public transportation, etc.

does that make sense to anybody?? seriously, there's something funny with the russkies.

also!

can someone please explain to me why the tour de france is starting in england? and continuing on into belgium? i mean, i understand "france" is not a strict concept in terms of the tour--but it seems wrong to me that the first major day would be not in france--and that it would be somewhere not even reachable on bike from france...

don't the europeans know anything??

cnn does it again!

this is a classic, guys...
Girl, 11, charged with DUI after high-speed chase

ORANGE BEACH, Alabama (AP) -- Police who chased a car for miles along a highway at speeds up to 100 mph said the driver was drunk, hardly a rarity in this resort town. But there was more: When they looked inside the flipped vehicle with guns drawn, they found an 11-year-old girl at the wheel.
"You go up there thinking it's a felon you're dealing with," assistant police Chief Greg Duck said.
The girl, who was slightly injured in the crash, is now charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, speeding, reckless endangerment and leaving the scene of an accident. Duck said she sideswiped another vehicle during the roughly 8-mile chase.
The chase began around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday when a patrol officer near the Florida line saw the car speeding west along a beach highway, Duck said. When the officer flicked on his lights, the driver sped up. The girl rolled the car just inside the Gulf Shores city limit.
Duck said the girl, whose name was not released because of her age, told police she was on her way to pick up her sister at a concert.
Investigators found no alcohol in the car but believe the girl drank before getting behind the wheel of the car, which belongs to relatives.
Duck declined to release the girl's blood alcohol level but said a blood test at the hospital showed it was higher than .02, the legal limit for minors.

the attack of the sturgeon

So, I had some free time at work the other day (the general uselessness of this job is rather breathtaking, particularly considering my hourly income is approximately 22 US DOLLARS FOR CRYING OUT LOUD), and I was perusing the NYT most emailed articles and came across this one:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/04/us/04sturgeon.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

It was awfully awkward, seeing as I was writhing and grimacing throughout with all my coworkers in the room...

back in the USSR

[you don't know how lucky you are...]

well, i would first like to note the changes i made to the blog. since we are, in fact, no longer residents of leverett f-20, nor, save a housing catastrophe, will we ever be in the future, i thought it would be acceptable to make some changes.

anyway, i have now been here in the motherland a full week and some change, and i thought i might provide a few comments on the general efficiency of the country, for the enjoyment of the blog.

• my adventures with uselessness here began almost immediately upon arrival. since i had the rather splendid treat of having my luggage get temporarily misplaced, i had a whole batch of adventures with general incompetence. where to begin??
  - First: they began with some forms. i had to fill out a lot of paperwork. lots of forms. but here's the thing. it was, in the end, only one form. but i had to fill it out a good 3 times, becasue they evidently believe in copy machines or even carbon copy.
  -also to note, though i dutifully informed the lovely lady that i had searched throughout the room to no avail, she need to walk around with me. though i told her my suitcase was RED, she still felt the need to ask if each unclaimed BLACK suitcase was, in fact, my own, and i had simply failed to notice it.
  -then, the waiting room! after filling out paperwork, i had to discuss the issue with another employee. now, this would be totally standard at any airport. but still, it was done with a level of russianness that every comrade would admire. so i waited in line. i was fortunate, i was the third there in our rather large group of flights that came in about the same time. but they, of course, had a single person working. and she accepted one at a time. so i still had to wait a good 45 minute or so before i could actually talk to the person, simply to tell her that i had a red bag, with wheels, etc. they were then kind enough to give me a phone number so i could call them starting the next day to get updates.
  -next adventure involved calling them. seriously, should not be a big deal. i called around 10 am. busy. and again. and again. and agan. calling them on and off for a good 45 minutes. finally i got through. luckly the person spoke english. i gave her my claim number (but evidently she couldn't hear me say one of the numbers, which caused great misunderstanding... it took quite some time to get that straightend out). finally, she tells me to call again at 8 pm. so i do. busy. and at 8:30. busy. 9... 11... busy busy busy. the next morning? also busy. so what good does the freaking number do? though, to their credit, my suitcase did FINALLY arrive on monday night, just before midnight. oy vey.
• then there was the fun nature of getting registered. not a major hassle, but it did involve copious amounts of running around.
• and then, finally, this office! it is fantastic. actually, i quite admire the work they do here. someone is here at the office around the clock, which in itself is quite admirable. the people here clearly believe in the work they are doing, which is great. but what work they do? somewhat limited by their copious amounts of tea drinking and internet surfing. and the best part? over the course of 6 days--all of which i was in the office between 6 and 8 hours-- they have found actually NOTHING for me to do, except to sit in their library and educate myself on human rights issues (a very worthy task, don't get me wrong--but i am not here to read books for myself--harvard is paying me good money to work as in "intern." but i don't jsut read. sometimes i even check my email. today, someone was supposed to be here who would actually be able to find me some work today. well, she was here. a lovely lady, really. but she told me that tomorrow at 11 am she would have time to get me started on something. so, here is day 6 of my internship, with nothing yet accomplished. but i do ever so much like it here.

oh motherland, how i do love thee!