13 October 2007

A long drum roll

There's no guarantee I'll end up in these places, but it's likely. For those of you who like a long buildup to getting news, here's a list (alphabetical) that's a little shorter. And, if you _really_ want to know right away where I'm going when I find out myself, send me an email and I'll keep you in the loop.

ATHENS/GREECE
BAKU/AZERBAIJAN
BANGKOK/THAILAND
BEIJING/CHINA
BRUSSELS/BELGIUM
GUANGZHOU/CHINA
HANOI/VIETNAM
HO CHI MINH/VIETNAM
KYIV/UKRAINE
LUXEMBOURG/LUXEMBOURG
MAPUTO/MOZAMBIQUE
RIGA/LATVIA
ST PETERSBURG/RUSSIA
SAN JOSE/COSTA RICA
SAO PAULO/BRAZIL

07 October 2007

Russian Roulette


During this current process of choosing positions and locations for my next tour, someone asked, "So, where's your next two-year vacation destination?" Although not every one of the posts below would necessarily be considered a two-year vacation, it is one of the more fun bureaucratic exercises we go through. I mean, it's like hitting the reset button every couple years and stepping into a transport chamber, and whoosh! Oh, now I'm a political officer in Africa, or Zip! I'm sussing out economic issues in East Asia. Not a bad deal, all things considered.

While bidding is not as much like an auction as one would like to believe, there certainly are gems that everyone is vying for, and others that some would rather leave on the auction block indefinitely. There are a myriad of requirements and rules and guidelines to follow (hey, this is still a bureaucracy, after all). So, after filtering, sorting, crossing-off and re-adding several times, here are my most likely possibilities, in alphabetical order. Not all of these will end up on my list, but most of them will, so I welcome any and all opinions, advice, sniper shots, or heckling.

City Country
Abidjan Ivory Coast
Accra Ghana
Athens Greece
Baku Azerbaijan
Bamako Mali
Bangkok Thailand
Beijing China
Bogota Colombia
Brussels Belgium
Bujumbura Burundi
Chengdu China
Dushanbe Tajikistan
Guangzhou China
Hanoi Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh Vietnam
Kyiv Ukraine
Luxembourg Luxembourg
Maputo Mozambique
Rangoon Burma
Riga Latvia
Sao Paulo Brazil
Shenyang China
St. Petersburg Russia
Tashkent Uzbekistan
Tbilisi Georgia
Toronto Canada