Vienna

The travel has begun and I'm excited to get it over with and be home, but I'm also savoring it for all its worth... because this is the last time I'll have business class for probably a VERY long time! The food, as expected, did not disappoint. My main course was a fillet of beef and while it was cooked more than I would have preferred, it was a quite tasty piece of meat for airplane food... plus the grilled veggies that came with it where awesome! :) I didn't enjoy the red wine pairing with it as much though... should have gone for the champagne, as was my first instinct!

I'm sitting in a hotel room in Vienna right now, it's 9 pm here and I'm going to go roam around in a minute, but I'm an Internet addict and had to log on and check my mail and the stock market and call folks to let them know I'm ok and all that jazz. I know, big waste of time when I'm in one of the coolest cities in the world right?? As soon as I finish this, I'm out the door, don't worry!

I'm always struck when I come to Europe about compactness, efficiency, and overall order of things and Austria is no different. Everything is so clean that when you see a small bit of graffiti it hits you like a slap in the face! I also love that you can be going along in a taxi (yes I'll be walking in a few minutes, ok, I just haven't yet!) and passing high rise buildings and gas stations and WHAM you pass a centuries old Church. The tension of modernization and old world seem to fit seamlessly somehow because its Europe!

Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go *waltz* around the city. (was the emphasis really necessary??) :)

Home for now!

I made it to Erbil! It was a relatively painless ordeal (thanks Business class!), but total I was only traveling for about 17 hours total. Sometimes it used to take that long to get from my site in Peace Corps down to the capital!

I haven't done much since I got here, thankfully I was given "VIP" treatment and was immediately picked up off the plane and whisked into a nice lounge and sipped tea and got on the internet while they processed my passport and got my luggage for me! I'm telling you, they are spoiling me here! I felt very well taken care of and when they finished with everything they loaded my bags in a car and drove me to my hotel. That's where I am now and since getting here around 4 pm local time I've just unpacked, showered, eaten dinner and relaxed. There is a movie channel and I've been 1/2 asleep watching it for awhile! There is wireless internet at the hotel, but it won't work on my mac, thankfully I brought two computers!

All that I've seen of Erbil is from the airport to my hotel, and its very brown! There is a definite attempt at greening with palm trees and plants, but it can only do so much, there are also fountains along the main roads which are nice. I'll hopefully take some pictures soon.

I have no idea what's expected of me tomorrow, but I guess I'll find out soon enough!

Countdown

Word of advice: don't ever buy a house the week you are getting ready to leave the country for an extended amount of time. Not a good idea, no matter what anyone tells you!!

If I can make it through this next day, then I'm pretty sure there's not much the Kurds could throw on me that I couldn't handle.

So I bought one of my Dad's houses that wasn't selling, of course I got a great deal... but loans and insurance and moving and family drama on top of preparing to move to Iraq has proven to be quite stressful. I'm still not a coffee drinker, but my chai tea consumption has risen considerably.

I will be leaving TN Friday, meetings in DC on Saturday and flying out of Dulles Sunday night. I have two nights in Vienna, rough I know. Then on the 10th I fly into Erbil to see my new home for the first time!

I want to use this blog as a place where ya'll can keep up with me in case I get too busy to send out emails! I'll also be posting pictures here, so I hope you enjoy.

See ya'll later!