November Blitz

     Another month is ending and it's almost the end of the year...
     I have some 5 free days until the Romanian Rapid, Blitz and Solving Chess Championship which I will surely enjoy, as I've managed to pass my partial exams at University :) Then, London comes :D

     I think that it will be a vey nice tournament- I play in an WGM round-robin. I will be the 1st Elo ranked player, though it will be surely not that easy. I can't wait to wander on the London's streets making lots of photos!
     I've been in London earlier this year, but just for some 11 hours (I had a very bad flight connection while flying to Bangkok) in which I managed to see only the London Eye and the Big Ben...
     What else? My life isn't very full of activities while in Chisinau- it's more about solving not chess related problems and gaining forces for the next tournaments.
     I am going to watch "The Hunger Games-2" today- hope it will be at least not worse than the 1st one :))))

Have a nice week!

xoxo from Chisinau! ;)
   

The chilli experience

     There've been some very interesting 36 hours!
     I am writting from Pattaya- a nice resort in Thailand, but the story begins in Bucharest.
     I am in Thailand for a chess tournament-the 13th BCC Open- you can see the official site of the event here: http://bangkokchess.com/events-calendar/13th-bcc-open-2013  I decided to visit London on my way there- a quite weird decision if to think that it was on the opposite direction with my destination :))), but I definitely don't regret it. I had an amazing day in London- went for a ride on the London Eye, walked around through the rain- yeah, raining in London-what a surprise!

Enjoying a ride on the London Eye

      All in all, I had a really nice time in London! I went back to the airport afterwards and slept during my whole 11 hours flight to Bangkok :))) I didn't even feel how all that time passed!

      Arriving in Bangkok, I was very worried about the "visa procedure", but it turned out to be just a formality- so I easily passed the passport control (btw, the woman who put a stamp in my passport was wearing a Hawaian shirt :)))) and went for my bus to Pattaya. It took me about 2 hours to get to the hotel, where I was welcomed by the organizer- Mr. Kai Tuorila. I was shocked when I saw the hotel- there's a garden in the lobby- a huuuge one and the room is really nice. There were all kind of unusual fruits waiting for me there; yes "were" is the right word, because I've already eaten all of them :)))

      I went with some local friends of my roommate-Irene Sukandar- for diner in the city and I had "the chilli experience". I was eating some rice with all kinds of sea food- being really proud of myself (everyone was wondering how I-an European- can eat such a spicy food) until I tried a soup- it tasted really nice- the problem came when I tasted a green thing that turned out to be chilli- I literally started to cry, my tears seemed unstoppable and I thought that my brain will be blown away :)))) I somehow survived and I hope that "the chilli experience" will be the only thing to cry about during my stay in Thailand!

     Some photos from Pattaya will follow the next days, until then- here you can see the starting list of players: http://chess-results.com/tnr94564.aspx?lan=1

   

     Gone for some more fruits :)))

xoxo from Thailand ;)