Useless Conversation

[Teleku]

Heh, I figured Nepal would win, but was curious to see.  Nepal should be ok, but  I'm kind of leaning Yegolev's direction and thinking if Im going to a developing post, may as well take the one with the more 'interesting' experience.  I hear Freetown has some good night life also!

Realistically though, Nepal is probably a long shot.  Amongst the people bidding, I haven't heard much interest in it, which is why if I go all out and put it at the top of my list, I might have a shot.  But most probably somebody else will snag it, since I have almost the lowest bid strength out of 18 people (and it obviously stands out as being better than many other posts on the list).  So what is actually most likely in my future is:

Accra, Ghana
Freetown, Sierra Leone
Lagos, Nigeria
Cotonou, Benin
Djibouti, Djibouti
Port Louis, Mauritius
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Accra and Port Louise have already shown interest by a number of people since they are the 'best' Africa post, so chances are slim on those.

Benin and Djibouti are going straight to the bottom of my entire list because on top of everything, screw having to deal with not even being able to understand the locals at all.  Riyadh will join them at the bottom because alcohol and women are illegal in the country, and screw living 2 years with that.

Thus why Lagos and Freetown are my most likely destinations to choose from.  

Depending on how people bid, I could end up at some other posts on our list, but its going to take some major luck.

Edit:  Fuck it, guess I'll just post up the the full bid list for everybody to laugh at.  I have to rank all of these, 1 through 18.  I'll be going to one of these places:

ACCRA, GHANA
BAKU, AZERBAIJAN
BEIJING, CHINA
BERLIN, GERMANY
CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA
CHISINAU, MOLDOVA
COTONOU, BENIN
DJIBOUTI, DJIBOUTI
FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE
GUAYAQUIL, ECUADOR
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL
KATHMANDU, NEPAL
KYIV, UKRAINE
LAGOS, NIGERIA
NEW DELHI, INDIA
PARIS, FRANCE
PORT LOUIS, MAURITIUS
RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA

Some more likely than others.    Got three more weeks to decide.

[satael]

Nepal would be my pick if you can handle the (prolonged stay at the) higher altitude.

[IainC]

Here is why you don't want to go to Liberia.

http://www.vice.com/the-vice-guide-to-travel/the-vice-guide-to-liberia-full-length

[Merusk]

If you have the lowest bid strength out of your group, may as well shoot high.  You're going to get bumped to a shit posting anyway, so take a chance on the first two on the off chance other folks have the "well I'm stuck here" mindset and bid lower posts hoping to bump people down.

Of that list I'd take Riyadh over your other 'options' because chance of stability is worth sacrificing drinking for a few years. Plus, new culture!

Try for Moldovia!

[Yegolev]

I figure this list is why someone would take this job.  I still say go for the bad one.  You'll have some great stories to tell when you eventually get Paris or Berlin.

[Teleku]

Here is why you don't want to go to Liberia.

http://www.vice.com/the-vice-guide-to-travel/the-vice-guide-to-liberia-full-length

Freetown is Sierra Leone.  Liberia is Monrovia.

Though I made the same mistake when I saw Freetown on the list for some reason.

[Paelos]

Is quitting an option?

[Ironwood]

Heh.

[Cyrrex]

Christ, what kind of job is this anyway that sends you to these shit holes?  Sounds like the map rotation for the next COD game.  Hope they arm you, at least.

[Chimpy]

He works for the State Department.

[HaemishM]

So, if any of you had to live in one of these three cities for 2 years, what would you choose?

Freetown, Sierra Leone
Lagos, Nigeria
Kathmandu, Nepal

I'm rather torn.

Those aren't choices, those are punishments. Which bosses wife did you sleep with? I seriously think somebody wants you dead.

Maybe he didn't sleep with the right boss. You ever think of that?

And I have to concur on the Nepal thing. It's fucking KATHMANDU, FFS. Africa may win you tough guy points but you can't beat Kat-man-fucking-du for cool conversation points.

[Sky]

I would go for Djibouti. The puns.

[Paelos]

Ukraine is looking really safe right now. Super safe.

[Teleku]

I would go for Djibouti. The puns.

Don't think that fact hasn't crossed my mind.   

[rattran]

My father lived in Riyad for quite a few years, there's a huge expat community, make some friends and you'll get invited to places with booze and women. I don't think he would have survived without at least occasional access to alcohol.

[Teleku]

Yeah, ok, guess I should clarify.  As a member of the diplomatic community, I'm one of the only persons in the country with direct access to alcohol.  I can buy all I want out of the commissary.  Talking to people who did tours in Saudi, this makes you just about the most popular person in the country, since everybody (especially girls) want to be your friend to get access themselves.  I'm told its a good place to date Filipino girls, because there are many of them, like to drink, and are your only option.  So yes, you can get booze and women.  

The booze has to be drunk in your apartment, on compound.  So your social life turns into drinking at home and trying to bang random Filipino maids there (or random desperate ex-pat girls).  Going out, you have a big co-worker split because women cant drive, and more specifically, its illegal for men and women to sit at the same god damned table at a restaurant (friend says McDonald's has a different entrance for men and women).  They publicly behead/behand/befoot people in the streets for crimes, drive absolutely horribly, and its a festering hot hell hole in the desert.

My options for entertainment and infrastructure are going to be way better there (they have new high end shopping malls and theaters and stuff like that, unlike most of west Africa).  But just..... the social situation, the norms, and BS you have to deal with on a daily basis make west Africa look better to me.  I'll have a great time no matter where in the world they send me, so don't think I'm afraid of going (I'll make sure I enjoy it).  But....... I'd rather get a different experience if I can help it.  

Also, if there was a country that was primed for an Islamic style angry.bob day of the rope against the ruling elite, its that one.  I'd rather not be there when that eventually happens, heh.

[proudft]

Choosing between Africa, Middle East and Kathmandu, I would go for Nepal in a heartbeat, simply because of the weather.   Hot weather sucks.    I seem to recall you lived in the Bay Area.... why is this even a question for you?   

[Nevermore]

I'd say Nepal of the original three you asked about just for the history and architecture. 

[Strazos]

As the guy who just spent 2 years in West Africa (though francophone, not anglophone), I already told him to shoot for Nepal.

He already has his nice post - time to suffer a bit. 

Though honestly in most of those places you can eke out an OK time if you're around the right people - most of them actually have some sort of expat community to make that a possibility.

[Numtini]

I would have thought Riyad was pretty high on the list. Everyone I've heard of who went to the middle east just lived in the compound and banked days off and flew to Europe for long weekends. Maybe state doesn't have the same options.

Maybe I'm weird or too interested in eastern religion, but I don't see anything bad about Kathmandu whatsoever. I've known people who went to Nepal as tourists. If you're not going to a major developed capital or a sun drenched island, seems like it combines interesting culture with a low chance of feeding paper into a shredder while the helicopter idles on the roof.

[Ingmar]

I would have thought Riyad was pretty high on the list. Everyone I've heard of who went to the middle east just lived in the compound and banked days off and flew to Europe for long weekends. Maybe state doesn't have the same options.

Maybe I'm weird or too interested in eastern religion, but I don't see anything bad about Kathmandu whatsoever. I've known people who went to Nepal as tourists. If you're not going to a major developed capital or a sun drenched island, seems like it combines interesting culture with a low chance of feeding paper into a shredder while the helicopter idles on the roof.

From what I've read, Nepal is desperately poor. The air on many days is China-level unbreathable, they go hours daily without electricity, clean water is a problem, etc.

http://zukunft-fuer-kinder.blogspot.com/2011/02/harsh-living-conditions-overview.html

[Teleku]

Yeah, very much that.  I actually had Kathmandu on my first list, and I put it higher than Warsaw.  But knowing what I know now, I wouldn't have done that (but on this list, suddenly its great, haha).  It is way more polluted than people realize.  Poverty is terrible, and the power issues are famous.  My co-worker friend who went there said its ok, but he really doesn't seem impressed with living there.  And he did 2 years in The Gambia in the peace corp, and even though he has high bid strength, is probably going to bid on Benin or Djibouti.

[Signe]

Another reason why haggis is wrong.

[Numtini]

I didn't know about the pollution. And that's right, forgot you don't live in a compound or anything and you're reliant on local power.

[Sky]

Get a woodstove and a sitar, what's the problem?

[Yegolev]

I think my 3DS can hold a charge for five hours.  Although I believe I would settle in if that was just how things were.  Disclaimer: the septic system at the house I grew up in would fail during heavy rain.

I'm really wondering what sort of work is being done without electricity and whatnot.  Are papers and rubber stamps involved?  Is it all Peter O'Toole in there?

[Strazos]

I didn't know about the pollution. And that's right, forgot you don't live in a compound or anything and you're reliant on local power.

Eh, usually we have our own compounds (I think Riyadh does, for instance) or single housing compounds. And they normally have generators if there are power issues - my house in Benin had one, for instance, and it saw a lot of use.

On Nepal - yeah, the pollution is a huge issue, as several of my friends have told me. They burn practically anything for fuel/warmth, so people start hacking up black mucus eventually.

[Numtini]

I've had friends that are currently in Moscow where they're in a normal apartment as they were in Turkey and before that. Was it Khazakstan? One of those hellacious post-Soviet disasters. They bitch about the (retro-commnunist era--their son is 5?) cartoons in Russia, but elsewhere it's been power cuts. In the post-Soviet disaster though, it was the people more than anything. It's weird to have people you know are openminded and multicultural make comments that sound like the worst sort of racist, but you trust them to be telling the truth about the culture.

[Miasma]

As one of the last twelve people on Earth who still use My Yahoo! as their homepage I would like to say that their recent "upgrade" is finally going to provoke me to move on from my very deep, dark rut.

[Chimpy]

Learned something fun today: in Colorado you can buy weed but if you want to buy beer in a grocery store you are stuck with 3-2.

Of course there are liquor stores that sell real beer but I was not allowed to take hmm shopping cart full of groceries into said liquor store and I was by myself. First world problems I know.

[Sky]

I would find a way to live with that compromise quite easily.

Lately I've really been wish they'd legalize it in NY. I'm getting tired of getting screwed out of the occasional toke because I'm now a law-abiding citizen.

[Viin]

Learned something fun today: in Colorado you can buy weed but if you want to buy beer in a grocery store you are stuck with 3-2.

I learned today that yes you can buy weed in Colorado, but apparently, as a vendor, you can't put that money in the bank. So they've had to stash it and pay their bills in cash. (Courtesy of Market Place on NPR)

[Selby]

As one of the last twelve people on Earth who still use My Yahoo! as their homepage I would like to say that their recent "upgrade" is finally going to provoke me to move on from my very deep, dark rut.

Me too.  It's quite ass-tastic.  I don't know why my dumb self has put up with it after the last few rounds of changes... maybe because I truly can't find someplace else to get my comics in the morning easily?

[ghost]

Introduced the oldest boy (barely 5) to the original Super Mario Brothers today.  It's been a big hit.   

[Yegolev]

It's weird how that works.