![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
A new favorite place...
Jul. 19th, 2006 05:51 pmIt takes about two hours to get to the "zone of relaxation," and when I saw the bus turn off the highway toward the railroad line, I was pretty sure we were going to the same place as a couple of years ago. However, upon crossing the rails, instead of turning left, toward the "Podlipki" zone, we turned right, toward the "Zhiguli" zone.
When we finally got to our destination, it was a huge disappointment. Although there were trees and green reeds along a lake (which, viewed from above through the eyes of Google Earth, seems to be part of an old ox-bow lake) there was almost nothing else to amuse sophisticated Westerners. And since no food had been planned for the outing, there wasn't even a possibility of sitting down anywhere to share a meal and have something to drink.
It was suggested that the group return along the highway to Baikonur, where they could have a day at the beach along the river. This did not go over very well with most folks, but it was better than what was available, so about 10 minutes after disembarking from the bus, we were again aboard and navigating the bumpy road back to the highway for the 25-or-so kilometer trek back to the "exit" that would lead us to town.
Once in town, we parked next to the "Titanic," a small river boat that had been grounded and turned into a restaurant. A request had been made to visit the town pool, but as our visit had not been prearranged, actually getting in could be problematical. In the end, it wasn't.
The pool facility was pretty impressive, 8 lanes and 50 meters (I guess) long. Olympic sized, I conjure. I don't think I've ever been in a pool this large, but the water was pleasant and I swam a total of 4 to 5 laps. The individual cost for our good time was 50 rubles per hour, and the group (those who had brought along swimming trunks) pitched in for a two-hour séance. I had brought along a pair of white shorts, but they weren't really swimming trunks, and I had to take care upon entering the water that I not cause an international incident of some kind by losing them!
We got a lot of curious looks from the locals using the pool - mostly kids - with the greatest curiosity directed at the lone black member of the French team, who cuts an impressive figure of a tall young man going places.
After the pool, the group went to the "Arbat" area of town, where everyone agreed to rendezvous back at the bus at 8 pm in order to be at the rescheduled Soyuz launch in good time (overhead Google Earth view here). I visited the local bookstore, where I bought an alphabet poster for Huntür, and the Palermo Pizzeria, where I had a combination pizza with a stein of beer. I returned to the bus a little earlier than everyone else, and we finally were ready to leave a few minutes short of 8:30 pm, whereupon we were informed that the launch was not going to occur, so we drove straight home.
Today has been a relatively short day at the office, made to feel longer by the old "stand around and wait" effect that is common in such efforts, where you need people representing various parties to be present before proceeding with work. Still, there's little to complain about. Tomorrow will be another propellant loading day, which means that virtually everyone will remain at the hotel, and I am on the schedule as a "standby" interpreter.
Another client asked if I could take part of a 38-MB PDF file, due about the time this campaign is scheduled to end. I am tempted, despite the obstacles set up by the end client. The first obstacle is, of course, the size of the file, which took some time to download over our low-bandwidth connection (thank goodness I didn't have to do that via 56 kbps dialup!). The second obstacle is that whoever put together the file basically set up a restricted set of access permissions allowing the document to be displayed within Acrobat and to be printed, thus scotching any attempt to extract data using, say, FineReader.
Yes, I know, I can feed whatever I need back in through a scanner, but it'd have be easier to figure out what part of this nearly 700-page document I'd like to do if I could count source text more efficiently. I suppose I should count my blessings: the client could have set the file up for display only, without printing, but now I'm being snippy.
I should probably go try to print out some pages before the afternoon rush back home.
Cheers...
When we finally got to our destination, it was a huge disappointment. Although there were trees and green reeds along a lake (which, viewed from above through the eyes of Google Earth, seems to be part of an old ox-bow lake) there was almost nothing else to amuse sophisticated Westerners. And since no food had been planned for the outing, there wasn't even a possibility of sitting down anywhere to share a meal and have something to drink.
It was suggested that the group return along the highway to Baikonur, where they could have a day at the beach along the river. This did not go over very well with most folks, but it was better than what was available, so about 10 minutes after disembarking from the bus, we were again aboard and navigating the bumpy road back to the highway for the 25-or-so kilometer trek back to the "exit" that would lead us to town.
Once in town, we parked next to the "Titanic," a small river boat that had been grounded and turned into a restaurant. A request had been made to visit the town pool, but as our visit had not been prearranged, actually getting in could be problematical. In the end, it wasn't.
The pool facility was pretty impressive, 8 lanes and 50 meters (I guess) long. Olympic sized, I conjure. I don't think I've ever been in a pool this large, but the water was pleasant and I swam a total of 4 to 5 laps. The individual cost for our good time was 50 rubles per hour, and the group (those who had brought along swimming trunks) pitched in for a two-hour séance. I had brought along a pair of white shorts, but they weren't really swimming trunks, and I had to take care upon entering the water that I not cause an international incident of some kind by losing them!
We got a lot of curious looks from the locals using the pool - mostly kids - with the greatest curiosity directed at the lone black member of the French team, who cuts an impressive figure of a tall young man going places.
After the pool, the group went to the "Arbat" area of town, where everyone agreed to rendezvous back at the bus at 8 pm in order to be at the rescheduled Soyuz launch in good time (overhead Google Earth view here). I visited the local bookstore, where I bought an alphabet poster for Huntür, and the Palermo Pizzeria, where I had a combination pizza with a stein of beer. I returned to the bus a little earlier than everyone else, and we finally were ready to leave a few minutes short of 8:30 pm, whereupon we were informed that the launch was not going to occur, so we drove straight home.
Today has been a relatively short day at the office, made to feel longer by the old "stand around and wait" effect that is common in such efforts, where you need people representing various parties to be present before proceeding with work. Still, there's little to complain about. Tomorrow will be another propellant loading day, which means that virtually everyone will remain at the hotel, and I am on the schedule as a "standby" interpreter.
Another client asked if I could take part of a 38-MB PDF file, due about the time this campaign is scheduled to end. I am tempted, despite the obstacles set up by the end client. The first obstacle is, of course, the size of the file, which took some time to download over our low-bandwidth connection (thank goodness I didn't have to do that via 56 kbps dialup!). The second obstacle is that whoever put together the file basically set up a restricted set of access permissions allowing the document to be displayed within Acrobat and to be printed, thus scotching any attempt to extract data using, say, FineReader.
Yes, I know, I can feed whatever I need back in through a scanner, but it'd have be easier to figure out what part of this nearly 700-page document I'd like to do if I could count source text more efficiently. I suppose I should count my blessings: the client could have set the file up for display only, without printing, but now I'm being snippy.
I should probably go try to print out some pages before the afternoon rush back home.
Cheers...
