Very nice blog you got over there. Your post on referrals was particularly interesting. I come from Syria and over there (possibly due to poor internet infrastructure) personal referrals are a must-have for everything. After I traveled to Russia I was kind of overwhelmed by how none-personal everything turned out to be (stores, jobs, etc). I had the feeling that I had to let go of my previous "human interaction above all" paradigm in life, but I see that you definitely didn't and it served you great.