Online - sort of: random impressions

Thanks to Jules I have finally figured out how to post without being able to access blogger. Some things in Kazakhstan are clearly what I had feared them to be  - although involuntary internet rehab might not be so bad ;-)

I have a long post written up on my laptop, at the hotel where I also don't have access, so it'll have to wait until tomorrow.

For now, a few first impressions:

- it's summer! Warm/hot days, a slight breeze (okay, sometimes a strong wind), couldn't be better.
- about Kazachstan? There is nothing - NOTHING - here. Except for small little marmot-like things who run across the road at the moment our bus races by; loads of antennas and tracking stations; eagles and oh, camels! Spent the first afternoon mountainbiking around the town and a bit through the desert down to the riverbank from where we saw camels and some debri of a failed rocket (okay, that doesn't sound good but in a way still impressive)
- am discovering advantages of being in an almost all-male project team. I only have to blink and I've got coffee in front of me...
- clubbing (well, going to the local disco) feels like being in Japan.
- and I'm turning into a satellite expert. Who'd have imagined that!

Okay, off to lunch, more later.