Taxi troubles

Today we flew to the capital to visit the Embassy and see if we can get a visa to make the move to the country our management as asked us to take a posting in.  As we don't have a car and the flight left at 8 and it is a 45 minute drive to the airport we called a cab.  This was a first for me.  I had never actually made the call to request a cab come pick us up before.  (Language milestone, calling a cab and actually getting one when you want it.)  But then maybe I should not have done it.

Our cab was waiting for us at 4:50 for a 5:00 pickup.  We thought that was probably a good sign and headed out the door.  Our first clue that something might be out of kilter was when we turned the wrong way to go to the airport.  I questioned this and received a suspicious answer but as the fare is by the trip not the time it was not too disconcerting that we took the scenic route.  I pretty quickly realized we were taking strategic allys and such to avoid police checkpoints.  Now that seems unusual but as the Russian traffic Police at times in the past have had a somewhat questionable reputation I decided that discretion may be the better part of Valor and the driver just wanted as few hassles as possible.

His plan worked well too as we avoided all police checkpoints until the last one.  He was invited inside the guard house and our next suggestion of trouble was the officer taping on my window telling me that we would not be going on with this taxi and that we would have to find another.   As my friend Rosane says, "OOOOkkaaaaaaaa".  We were about 10 miles from town, it was snowing pretty well, and we had just under 2 hours to catch our flight.

Well, the police did not live up to the feared reputation we had heard about.  They just asked each car that they stopped to take us to the airport.  We jumped into a nice SUV with a couple Russians who refused to take anything for hauling us the rest of the way.  7 hours later we were in Moscow trying to figure out where the bus to town was, but that could be another post. 

So what cool thing happened to you today, that makes you wonder, who should you thank for it?

We must be off.

Hummm I was just reading a post from a friend whom was talking about the word verification screen on some blog comment pages.  Seems she gets distracted trying to make words or sentences from them and forgets she is posting a comment and keeps hitting enter to see the next page in the game.  I can see her now hovering over the screen waiting and then contemplating the puzzle searching for the encoded tidbit of wisdom hidden in it.   I wonder if there is a PC game out yet to captivate and reduce productivity of others with the same mental bent.

As for me, I tend to always understand things in the wrong context.  Recently in a meeting I was asked if we had a resolution on what had just been discusses.  Silly me, I replied 1o80 I.  I guess I enjoy puns.  Have you ever tired to use a pun in language cross lingually.  Like translate a joke based on a pun into another language.  Usually you will get a really blank look followed by the (there is a reason they call them STRANGErs) look.  My screen resolution answer yielded one from the meeting participants.

But math related jokes translate.  Like this 

Q: What is a chick after it is 6 months old?  

A: Seven months old.

Ok yes I know a 50 year old telling 3rd grade riddles is a bit STRANGE but they are still fun.  I guess I enjoy the blank stare from those around me.  Sanity is relative, isn't it?  

Oh yes back to being off.  Plans have changed and we will be moving soon again.  We will miss our Russian friends and coworkers.  We will miss our adopted city and all the trees, Snow, dogs, and the nip in the air that makes your cheeks firm and ears feel like they are on fire.

So I must be off, I will post again as we have interesting things to report.  Hopefully all will be positive in some aspect.