Sunday, April 29, 2012

Latvija

Some things about Latvia (which is spelled "Latvija" here):

- Streetlights go from green to yellow to red to red+yellow to green. Smart! Prepares people to get ready to start driving again.

- Seriously, daylight hours- how is it possible for the sun to stay up for 15+ hours?? Does the sun not go down in the summer? Is it like Alaska? How did I not know that this phenomenon happened in some European countries?

- Latvians, for the most part, speak admirable English. They really are amazing- most of them seem to speak Latvian, Russian, and English. I can barely manage English and Korean.

- Taxi drivers are the same the world over. Going from our hotel to Old Town always costs about the same amount of money (less than three lats), but the amount we pay to go from Old Town back to our hotel varies enormously (from five lats to seventeen (!) lats).

- The weather here is unpredictable and temperamental. I think one day can change up to nearly 20 degrees Celsius, with the sun going from bright and shiny and hot to nonexistent in about twenty seconds flat. It can be sunny, with nary a cloud in the sky, and then raining, and then foggy and damp, and then sunny again all within an hour. It's causing a lot of the staff to become rather ill, though I'm trying to keep myself healthy by drinking massive amounts of water and staying away from the sickest crew members.

It's been a trying experience, being on set. I love traveling, but being in transit so frequently and for such extended periods of time is exhausting.

More later. I have to go be emotionally unstable with my co-workers, the little lambs that are frustrated because they can't communicate with the rest of the crew.

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Friday, April 27, 2012

Riga

Old Town Riga is beautiful. My phone photos don't do it any amount of justice.















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Thursday, April 26, 2012

Logic

It's not a good idea to piss off the person that has all the passports and all the local currency and speaks one of the languages used in the region when you don't have possession of your passport, money, or ability to speak a common language with the locals.

Being angry is so exhausting, but I'm furious.

The only silver lining is that I'm going to be much less angry tomorrow.

Latvia is cold but sunny and beautiful in its own way.


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Monday, April 23, 2012

Quickie

Oy vey. My blog is falling wayside due to my hectic schedule! Some quick photos:

A cute tree frog that we met in Tully, just near Mission Beach in Queensland, Australia. The weather didn't do us any favors, but we muddled through.

And this froggie made me feel a little better-- such a pretty color, this guy! I didn't hold him (are you crazy?!) but I probably would have if I had seen him for longer than five minutes.
My anti-volcano dust outfit on Yasur, a volcano in the South Pacific. I can't even begin to describe how much volcanic dust and dirt that I swallowed in two days!

More blogging to come, I promise. I'm just so tired-- after 30+ hours of traveling yesterday (Saturday) going into Sunday, I went home for one night before getting up at the crack of dawn (again) to get to the airport early in the morning for a very long flight.

I'm done with layovers and airports for a while. Whew.

There's six hours of difference between Korea and Latvia, so I'm ready to drop right now (it's only 11:30!) but I can't, because we're meeting and planning for tomorrow. Sighs all around, way to make a Monday even less enjoyable.

Once things settle (definitely by mid-May), I'm sure to be a better blogger.

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Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Traveling

It's been a hectic couple of weeks!


Beijing from Monday to Thursday, where I truly did not get enough sleep. I went back to spend one paltry night in my own bed on Thursday evening.


Hong Kong on Friday for a long layover before getting on the plane for an even longer flight.


Brisbane for another layover, after ten hours in a rather uncomfortable plane (Cathay Pacific, that was uncalled for).


Finally landing in Cairns after more than 24 hours of traveling.


After getting only a couple of hours of sleep in the various planes, hopped into a rental car to drive on the wrong side of the road for the first time in my life. There's nothing like sitting in the right side of the car and driving on the left side of the road to make me feel like I'm in a surreal dream.

After a few days, I've adjusted quite well to the driving (really, I have!) since I drive at least three hours a day, dashing here and there, carting along my boys. They don't speak English much, which is an endless source of amusement when we go somewhere new.

Gotta go run around some more!

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Thursday, April 05, 2012

Gender Roles

In a meeting at work (got back from Beijing late last night) and there are 29 people. Only three women.

Is this still the state of the visual effects industry? The film industry? Korea?

Depressing thoughts.



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