Life with Churry.

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Monday, March 26, 2007

Fun Fun Fun

Yes, geeky fun.

Kelly Clarkson's Beautiful Disaster was stuck in my head all day, so of course I kept playing it on iTunes. I didn't put it on repeat cuz I didn't want to overdose. So I was pleasantly surprised by Jordis Unga's rendition of Man Who Sold the World, and it made me wonder what happened to her.

Her web site isn't great, but it did point me to a cool site - Frappr!. What fun!! Here's "my" map, though I haven't even signed up yet. We'll see how well this works.

Update: Ok, I signed up. Here's the new map.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

In the Words of Others

When I return from an extended overseas trip, I often feel behind on everything regardless of how hard I try to keep up with the news. Part of it is being cut off from the local (US) media and part of it is being away from people. People are generally great, efficient sources of information, hence the simile "spread like wild fire." Accuracy is always questionable, but at least I get a sense of what's going on. I vividly remember missing Britney's debut summer and feeling all confused by this new superstar upon my return.

While we had to deal with slow internet connections and censored content in the Dubai hotels, having access to e-mail and the world wide web while away has been wonderful. I do not feel so disoriented after this last trip. Still, it is a shock to return home and find Sundance Head booted off of American Idol while Sanjaya Malakar is still prancing around on stage. He's not even that cute. And the hair is heinous. It is therefore with great pleasure that I share with you today's Achenblog.

And while we're on this entertainment kick, I must also share with you this rant about Justin Timberlake.

Monday, March 05, 2007

Airport Security

We planned a nice dinner out before our flights to Dubai, but the food did not agree with blogger14. By the time we got to the modern but grim Frankfurt airport, nothing seemed more appealing than some fresh air. The lady at the information desk told us that the only way to get "fresh air" was to go through passport control. I swear, she used air quotes. It's like she was too polite to flat out warn us against the dangers of breathing Germany's polluted air, but still wanted to teach us the advantages of mechanically filtered and ventilated air.

Passport control was a breeze, but then we got stuck in this purgatory-esque room. For some reason, no one was allowed to go out into the pre-security terminal area, yet we had to go through an extremely long x-ray line to return to the gates. People moved back and forth between the two options, getting nowhere, while the room filled up with more unknowing travelers coming through passport control. Some uniformed personnel came through and were accosted by people who wanted to know if we would ever in our life see the outside of the room again. It looks big here, but trust me, it was not a fun place to be with a thousand other people in it.



Plus, doesn't it look more like a danky subway station than Europe's busiest airport?

After we were finally let out of the room, we wandered about looking for a bench outside. We were dressed for balmy Dubai, so I couldn't last too long out in the cold. We ended up going in and out of the terminal every few minutes to both get fresh air and stay warm. Not the most dignified way to spend our 4 hours of transit time, but look what we found!



That's right. An adult novelty store by the baggage claim. You know a country is progressive when the airport has facilities to meet all your needs.