NATO and stuff

I'm at the NATO conference. It's at a water park (see pic above for all the slides and fun) but the weather has been terrible (see ominous clouds in pic above). But tomorrow it should be nice and there will be swimming.

THe conference is on security and the intergration of this region into NATO and other organizations. IT's been pretty interesting- not all the sessions are incredibly productive (a lot are led by professors from the US National Defense University, and sometimes they seem to be saying just whatever comes to mind). Other sessions have been great, led by diplomats from NATO, and the Azeri, Ukrainian, and Georgian foreign ministries. Just having access to these people is great, and the questions and discussions with the other participants have been really good.

THere are people here from everywhere from Latvia to Pakistan, with about half from azerbaijan and a bunch from Central Asia. After the day, we walk, play games, and dance at the disco. Today is the first day we have wireless, so I really should be working on setting up interviews for next week!! But i"m not!! Monday, when we arrived, was hurricane stregth windy. The electricity was off and on all day. It's still off and on, but ususlly on! This hotel is kind of a shambles.

Anyway, I'll recap more later when it's all done.