Idle time between my travels

Well, I have to say that June has been extremely uneventful. I planned to spend 4 weeks at home as last time I was here it was under 3 weeks and it felt they were rushed and I didn't have enough time. I suppose every time is different because now it felt like it's been  2 weeks too many.

I met almost everybody I planned to meet, but yet overall I had little to do. Somehow I found myself in between projects as well, so not only did I not truly entertain myself as most friends work desk jobs and don't have time during the day, but also I couldn't really do anything productive as half the time I had no work to do. That was the time when I was fully invested in my Internet addiction. Of course ironically I will have two simultaneous projects to work on once I arrive in Berlin, so I guess it will not be only fun at first. But I'm not complaining, work = $$$.

Nothing changed in Krasnodar, it's still a lot of umm..showing off and "glamour" Russian-style here. So I will not be sad when I leave. I was really lucky to re-connect with my friends though. I say re-connect because funnily enough my friends don't use Skype and we don't really exchange lots of emails when I'm away, some explain this as them being not prone to writing. (Sounds weird to me, too.) Also none of them really read this blog, which is frustrating, one valid reason is that some don't speak English and a less valid reason is that some don't have the time. Which makes it hard for me because people then want me to tell them stories of my travels in person and there's only so many times that I can repeat something.

I am delighted to be going back to Berlin. I'm happy to say that I have two friends that I can't wait to meet and who seem eager as well and there are some acquaintances that I will get in touch with as well as new exciting CS buddies. Yee ha! Maybe a good friend from Russia will visit as well, that will be exciting!

I can't wait to get a bike and explore Berlin on it. Here I biked to my dacha once (45km in total) only to find out we roughly had 25 cherries from 5 cherry trees. Me = devastated!

I haven't packed anything yet, but I packed and unpacked so much in the last 7 months that it takes little time and effort now. Mentally I'm definitely in Berlin already.

In the meantime, below are pictures from the one weekend trip I took in June. Namely, to the Russian side of the Black Sea. I could actually live there for a while. If they had Internet connection there.

This would be a lovely workplace 

Russia Loves Innovation - Part 2

This is a continuation from the Monday post on the same subject. Just some pictures from my homeland.

23. Just some pretty balconies.

24. Pretty roads and manholes.

Russia Loves Innovation - Part 1

Russia (or rather the government in Russia and all state organs as well as all state-owned mass media) claims it is rapidly developing, we put innovations to the forefront, take care of our people, build a better country. And so on.

The pictures below were taken at the end of March '11. The city in question is Krasnodar. For an unknown to me reason, some people refer to it as our little Paris. See for yourself exactly how much resemblance to Paris it bears.

1. Russian people love innovation of all sorts. Especially what concerns renovation and electricity works. FYI, pictured is the capital of the region that is going to host the 2014 Winter Olympics.

2. This ain't the 70's or the 80's, more like 2011.

3. Fancy living in downtown in Krasnodar?