Oops. I see it’s been a while since I’ve blogged. Things have been unusually hectic for the past few weeks. First of all, I changed jobs. It’s a good change, but it’s always a little exhausting to learn how a new office works and what all of my new responsibilities are. Secondly, we’ve been on a couple short trips during that time.
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Shawn’s been in Washington since last Sunday for training. I was supposed to pick him up at the airport yesterday, but then this happened. So he can’t get a flight back to Nassau until Monday morning. It’s been a long week without him. I’ve tried to keep busy, but seeing as I’m kind of a homebody anyway, it takes a lot of effort to go out.
Last weekend was possibly the busiest since we arrived in Nassau, but it was definitely the most fun. On Saturday I went with a group of friends to Jollification, an annual craft and Christmas fair. I wasn’t sure what to expect going in, but there was some really nice stuff. I’m not sure where these artists and craftspeople are hiding out most of this time. And it seemed like a good potential venue for Witty Designs if I can get my act together and get some designing and sewing done before next year.
Over the weekend, we took a trip to Deep Creek Lake State Park in Maryland. We stayed at a wonderful B&B on one of the more secluded sides of the lake, saw some wildlife (deer, rabbits, and a snake that I nearly stepped on), did some fishing (Shawn caught two!), got too much sun, drank some wine, and just did some general relaxing.
Since we’ve been back in DC, we’ve been so busy with taking care of life’s details that we haven’t had time for much else. But now the next packout has been planned, flights have been booked, some supplies have been purchased (although most of those have to wait until right before packout due to lack of storage space in our current apartment), and we’re on track to depart in 9 weeks. Whew! So we decided to take this past Saturday to actually do some things just for fun.
Spring finally arrived in Kyiv late last week. All the signs are there: mid-day public drunkenness, gratuitous makeout sessions on public park benches, and, of course, the return on the summer-length skirts.
So one of the things I’ve wanted to do, really since I first found out we’d be living in Kyiv, is visit Chornobyl. (I guess maybe I’m a little morbid.) The Ukrainian government keeps the area tightly regulated, which means that you can only visit by using an official travel agency. And there’s about seven different Ministries involved (the Ministry of Emergencies is my personal favorite), so that’s a lot of people who want a cut of the profit. Which means that tours usually seem to run between $150 and $300 per person. A little steep for us. Just as I was beginning to give up all hope that we would get to visit while we were here, our friend Phil stepped up and put together a group trip. And somehow managed to keep the cost around $80 per person. So Sunday was the day our trip to Chornobyl finally happened.
Sometimes I’m just too nice for my own good. Yesterday was one of those times. A newcomer to the Embassy, who just arrived three weeks ago, desperately needed someone to watch her dog yesterday. Knowing that it was probably going to be a disaster, I went ahead and said yes. I’ve got to have some serious good karma built up by this point - I’m just waiting for it to catch up with me.
Last night I went and saw George Michael in concert with 3 friends. Somehow Summer ‘07 has become my summer of gay British pop stars.
So this past Saturday night we had a unique experience. In fact, it was one of those experiences that caused us to pause ahead of time to decide if it was really worth it. I mean, standing in a sweaty crowd in the middle of one of the most famous squares in Kyiv just to try to catch a glimpse of someone famous? But when it comes right down to it, we are probably never going to have this kind of opportunity again, so why not take part in the big event: a free Elton John concert.
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