I figured out a few things.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
First, I am the only exhibitor.\u00c2\u00a0 That could be either really good or really bad.\u00c2\u00a0 The trouble is that only in the former case do I deserve to enjoy lazing about the Horizon resort, but only in the latter case do I have any time for it.\u00c2\u00a0 The resort sprawls across a large area and includes several swimming pools, tennis courts, spas, and beachfront, not to mention the restaurants and souvenir shops.\u00c2\u00a0 A number of service personnel speaks some English,\u00c2\u00a0and some speak enough for more complex discussions than “Where are you from, sir?”\u00c2\u00a0 Not all staff members are local – Byron, for instance, is from Shenyang and probably more than happy to be here instead.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Second, all the Russians.\u00c2\u00a0 Of course the Russians are out in force.\u00c2\u00a0 It all makes sense, ever since discovering the sign above the large array of plastic tables and lawn chairs that said “\u00d0\u00a0\u00d0\u00be\u00d0\u00b6\u00d0\u00b4\u00d0\u00b5\u00d1\u0081\u00d1\u201a\u00d0\u00b2\u00d0\u00b5\u00d0\u00bd\u00d1\u0081\u00d0\u00ba\u00d0\u00b8\u00d0\u00b9 \u00d0\u00a3\u00d0\u00b6\u00d0\u00b8\u00d0\u00bd” (I hope that displays correctly – let me know otherwise).\u00c2\u00a0 Now I don’t know enough Russian to figure out on my own what it means, but I remember enough to be able to remember two words and chuck them through Babelfish.\u00c2\u00a0 “Christmas supper” is what I got, and it all fit into place – the orthodox activities, the head count, everything.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Third, the internet.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s no wireless in the room.\u00c2\u00a0 I need to unplug the LAN cable of the room’s desktop PC and stick it into my laptop to access the internet with\u00c2\u00a0a computer with a reasonable kezboard.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s still pretty slow, so I don’t know how well stuff like skype will work.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fourth, the food.\u00c2\u00a0 It’ll be a regular challenge to get small portions of something somewhere around here.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fifth, the logo.\u00c2\u00a0 The Horizon resort has its logo everywhere.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s even stamped in relief in the ashtray sand.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sixth, the time difference.\u00c2\u00a0 I thought it would be 6 hours to Switzerland, but it’s 7.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Well, I ought to get offline.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I figured out a few things.\u00c2\u00a0 First, I am the only exhibitor.\u00c2\u00a0 That could be either really good or really bad.\u00c2\u00a0 The trouble is that only in the former case do I deserve to enjoy lazing about the Horizon resort, but only in the latter case do I have any time for it.\u00c2\u00a0 The resort sprawls across a large area and includes several swimming pools, tennis courts, spas, and beachfront, not to mention the restaurants and souvenir shops.\u00c2\u00a0 A number of service personnel speaks some English,\u00c2\u00a0and some speak enough for more complex discussions than “Where are you from, sir?”\u00c2\u00a0 Not all staff members are local – Byron, for instance, is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}