geneva, istanbul, and wireless sucks.

my internet connection here sucks. i wrote a ranting post (i know you guys love those) about the idiotic riots by complete morons in beirut and damascus (and now tehran, i guess?), but i couldn't save or send because my connection went out, and i lost my post. and now i don't have the energy to write it again, so i'll just connect you to background and commentary that are comprehensive and, for that reason, infuriating. i was raging yesterday, you should have seen it.

my last day in geneva was lovely. it was sunny and warmer and i walked along the river and saw swans napping (napping!) in the river. and they had the fountain on, which was very pretty, and all the boats were sitting in the harbor, and you could see the mountains that surround geneva for the first time, and it was like a postcard, glorious.

so i'm in istanbul, and it's snowing. it's the first time in my life that i think i've seen snow on mosques. kind of a contradiction in some ways--i think of mosques as desert places, always surrounded by red and heat. it's new to me to be here in the winter, since the last two times were in may and september, both very hot months. the snow has made me lazy, and on my first day i only went out to go to the gym. i'll hopefully have some time to check out the bazaar, shop, and hit up a turkish bath on friday, when the program folks will be in one-on-one meetings that don't concern me and don't require minute-taking. i've got some souvenirs to find, and as always i'm in the market for a new pair of earrings (or seven).

on my first day here, i had the TV on while getting dressed for dinner, and i watched the last 10 minutes of that new-ish MTV dating show about dating daughters. the premise is that a dude goes on "dates" with three moms, and the mothers basically try to sell him their daughters by bragging about their modeling careers, violin skills, or vibrator collection. based on this interaction, the dude picks which daughter to date. the episode i saw was RIDICULOUS. the mtv dating drama machine, perfected on "dismissed," is totally in overdrive on this show. the girl who won walks up to the dude, gives him a hug, and her (short) dress flies up, and the camera has to blur out her butt because she's not wearing any underwear. mind you, this is in front of her mother!! and then they start making out! IN FRONT OF HER MOTHER!!1@!! clearly i can't expect those mothers to really care about shit like that, but still. i guess i expected slightly better from MTV. obviously i was a naive little fool.

tonight i went out to dinner with heather and mary (osi staff) and martin (board member and very, very accomplished public health doctor and advocate) instead of going to the "group dinner" with the rest of the fray. that turned out to be a perfect decision--good food, good company, very good conversation (from osi gossip to the war in iraq to martin's upcoming trip to israel), and a nice break from the tedium of the meeting. i feel like this is why i travel, to make these connections and really enjoy spending time with people i like. makes having to type 120 wpm for 8 hours all worthwhile.

1015pm and i'm exhausted. time to curl up in my comfortable, but slightly hard, bed. i've got some stuff to look forward to: back on saturday to birthday dinner and engagement party; sunday completely off (maybe with some winter league, depending on the weather); a relatively easy week with bosses traveling; a weekend away in maine. really, life is good, and i can't complain a damn bit.