So here's the big plan...
Vacation: I haven't had a vacation in about six and a half years. I've done work and school at least fulltime since 1997. SO... now that I'm done with academia for the forseeable future and now that I have a salaried job, I'm taking a vacation later this year. I think I'm going to Russia. Eastern Europe in general, but definitely spend some time in Moscow and St Petersburg. I'd also like to make a train run from Bulgaria down to Belarus and then fly out of Turkey but that's optional. What I really want to do is just straight-up play chess with different folks I'd never be able to sit across from otherwise. Hang out with strangers in strange places playing a game that's thousands of years old and try and communicate on some fundamentally human level. Spend ten days wandering around the world with a notebook, backpack and chess set, playing any and all strangers who care to play. I want to write down all the games, take the pictures of the folks who are kind enough to play, and just write down everything I can think of about the whole experience. Fuck museums, fuck fine dining, I just want to play common folks from different regions with lifestyles and languages utterly foreign to my own and see if we can't have a great fucking time for thirty or forty minutes at a pop and learn to say "thanks" and Nicely played" in as many different languages as possible.
THAT would be an awesome vacation to me.
Vacation: I haven't had a vacation in about six and a half years. I've done work and school at least fulltime since 1997. SO... now that I'm done with academia for the forseeable future and now that I have a salaried job, I'm taking a vacation later this year. I think I'm going to Russia. Eastern Europe in general, but definitely spend some time in Moscow and St Petersburg. I'd also like to make a train run from Bulgaria down to Belarus and then fly out of Turkey but that's optional. What I really want to do is just straight-up play chess with different folks I'd never be able to sit across from otherwise. Hang out with strangers in strange places playing a game that's thousands of years old and try and communicate on some fundamentally human level. Spend ten days wandering around the world with a notebook, backpack and chess set, playing any and all strangers who care to play. I want to write down all the games, take the pictures of the folks who are kind enough to play, and just write down everything I can think of about the whole experience. Fuck museums, fuck fine dining, I just want to play common folks from different regions with lifestyles and languages utterly foreign to my own and see if we can't have a great fucking time for thirty or forty minutes at a pop and learn to say "thanks" and Nicely played" in as many different languages as possible.
THAT would be an awesome vacation to me.
Thanks for the kind words and advice. It's definetly ganna be tought, but not anything i cant handle. I'm so ready for it to be over with b/c i feel like its been overwith for several years. The time is what is killing me. I'm so sick of him being here, but I think he'll be out on friday..yay!
So where do you hang out? You ever go to Imperial (aka rock and roll pizza)? Nashville Pussy is playing tonight--if it doesnt get moved to Freebirds...anyway have a good night!
~MG
[Edited on Apr 26, 2004 3:52PM]