A series of questions?

(Apologies for the reposting....I apparently deleted my two posts. I stink at blogging.)

As the excitement mounts, the stress increases. I am still in a state of disbelief that two weeks today I will be heading on this fantastic trip. I began planning (i.e. choosing dates, booking tickets, tours, and transportation) in January and back then, I felt as though I had all the time in the world. I did a decent job of overcoming my procrastinating habits and forcing myself to remain on top of things, but now my head is spinning out of control. Every day I think of another loose end that needs to be dealt with or a detail that months ago seemed minor and now is a little more pressing. As a result, I am finding myself lying in bed at night pondering the many variables and unanswered questions....

Will I remember all of my power cords and chargers? For my phone? For my GPSr? For my camera? For my batteries?
Can we manage to get back to Moscow from Saint Petersburg on the train? How am I going to book this ticket when I speak no Russian and have no idea about the Cyrillic alphabet?
Will I really get arrested just like Kim seems to think I will? :-)
How scary are the Russian police? Will I end up on "Locked Up Abroad"? (Thanks Alia for planting that seed in my head....)
How will I ever manage to pull off my conference presentation (i.e. the main point of this trip) at 3pm when I arrive in Belfast at 5am after travelling all night?
How much cash do I need? How will I manage the currency-cluster this trip is turning into (Euros, Pounds, Rubles, Lira)?
Will this trip convert me to vodka?
Will I be able to eat everything Baris has planned for us to eat in Instanbul?

And, rather than staying at home, putting my nose to the grindstone, and figuring out these answers, I find myself sitting in Altoona, PA, in my sister's backyard...blogging. Clearly this visit was well-timed. :-) (In fact, maybe it was, considering I've managed to get more thesising done here in the past two days than during the past two weeks in Ottawa. Oh, and the air conditioning is so nice (not to mention my lovely hosts).....this was a good idea after all.)

Yesterday's feat was reserving a taxi from the airport in Moscow to my hostel...one more thing of the list (and another $60 well spent). I think it's time to make a list and prioritize. Let's just hope my head doesn't explode in the process. :-)

TTFN

I'm leavin', on a jet plane...

Obviously all my bags are packed. If they weren't by now I'd be in serious trouble. I had a fairly relaxing day, I only had to do a couple minor errands, wash some clothes and then put everything in my suitcase. I was ready about 3 hours early and managed to squeeze in a quick nap! Luckily Ed was able to drive me to the airport.

So far my adventure is adventureless, but that's not a bad thing considering making it past airport security is about the only thing I've done. Except for my dumbass move of the day...forgetting my passport in the photocopier at the library...for a whole 30 seconds. Good thing the biblio's deserted in the summer. Whew!

I got a kick out of the kid in line behind me at the airport yelling "Boat! Boat! Boat!" I think his parents should've opted for the boat, would've been less expensive!


An now for some random closing thoughts:

Sign at Tim Hortons in English: Yours. Truly. Translation? Merci! À bientôt!

Did you know you can buy a flipping iPad from a vending machine? Holy moly!

Ottawa was named the #1 airport in North America last year.

I'm eating chili and it's nearly 40 degrees out.

The first song on my iPod on shuffle was "Two Tickets to Paradise" by Eddie Money. Ha. I don't have two tickets, just one. And it's not to paradise, but it's gonna be awesome. :-)

The countdown is on....

Well, my history of blogging might lead you to believe that I will not be updating this regularly. But you're wrong. I'm 100% dedicated to staying on top of this. Here you will find tidbits from my summer adventures on what has been dubbed the "East Meets West" tour.

Itinerary as follows:
July 6: depart Ottawa for Moscow
July 7-23: Moscow and Saint Petersburg
July 24-28: Belfast
July 28-30: Dublin
July 31-August 7: Istanbul

This means my departure date is just 18 days away. Holy $*@&! I've just about got everything under control - at least the major stuff. I still have some last minute shopping to get done and some minor transportation to book, but otherwise I'm pretty much set.

I'm heading to the Russian Consulate in a few minutes to (hopefully) pick up my passport and visa. After my very interesting non-verbal exchanges with the employee last time, I'm a little worried! His smile was quite encouraging, so I'll take that as a good sign. Wish me luck!