---------
Yes, I have. And thanks for the offer. I had a chance once about ten years ago to go to Novosibirsk, but declined. I was running out of money and looking for a job, and it worried me to leave the country in the middle of that desparate search...
Anyway, I'll seriously think about it. I am a very low paid tech with a one week vacation, so we are talking really cheap plans here.
Hey, here's funny scene---all due to the Bush regime war on terror. The main US passport center in SF is just off Folsom and Third (Hawthorne). Since there are now a whole batch of new regs including requiring re-entering US citizens from Mexico and Canada to present a passport, the line for passports stretchs around Hawthorne and down Folsome most of the block. People sit on the side walk and wait for the line to move. The back log is so bad that many people who scheduled their travel months in advance are now in danger of losing their vacation because their damned passports haven't been issued. And just to make matters worst, you can't apply for a passport more than 14 days in advance of a travel plan (maybe I am mis-understanding this). Are these people out of their minds?
Just in, NYT July 3:
``To meet the record level of demand for passports that new travel restrictions have created, a State Department official said, the agency has asked its employees to work overtime processing applications and answering phones. The department has also asked retirees to help with the backlog...''
Great. The backlog is something like 3 million! I look forward to my over the counter face time by a stroked out State Department retiree drooling on his dossiers.
They sure are not slowing down the flow of toxic food from China. What a stupid fucking country.
CG