Sound Off!

I've been researching our next post possibilities this weekend and shouting to hubby the interesting things I'm finding out. At this point, we don't have the EXACT list but we have some idea of what is available. We hope to have a truly accurate list sometime this week. Wouldn't that be nice? In the meantime, I'm trying to get a handle on what our options are.

We don't see any hope of being sent to:

San Jose, Costa Rica
Port of Spain, Trinidad
Valleta, Malta
Budapest, Hungary
Munich, Germany

So we're left with these:

Moscow, Russia
Minsk, Belarus
Beijing, China
Jakarta, Indonesia

I like Jakarta for the climate change, but we are wary of moving to "the largest Muslim country in the world" and for health reasons. Working conditions could be difficult for hubby and there are definitely some security issues!

China is intriguing. Our boys are most interested in going there. Mainly for the rice! I would not mind it except for the crowds and the heavy pollution.

Minsk is cold. The city was virtually destroyed during World War II, and some 30% of the population perished. Stalin also killed hundreds of thousands of Belarusians. In 1986, radioactive fallout from Chernobyl contaminated one-fifth of Belarus. It has now been 16 years since that terrible accident and radiation levels in Minsk have long since returned to normal.

Moscow is cold. Really cold. In winter, the temperature may fall to -40F. (ouch) But on average its a warm 14F. Hmmm. I don't know what to think about Moscow yet.

There's going to be pros and cons for each place. What I'm curious about, is what do y'all think? How would you rank these 4 places? Where would you most want to go, and where would you not even consider going??

If we get any updates this week, you can be sure I'll be writing about it. I'm looking forward to reading your thoughts!

Decisions, decisions, decisions!

"I do not know why we delude ourselves that life is predictable and safe, when its really just a carton of eggs - always just one stumble away from being scrambled."
(ha ha ha) ~from The Carousel, by Richard Paul Evans