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Published: August 7th 2006
Gazelle
The little yellow buses as part of the public transit.Again, sorry for the long delay of posting, but I have been keeping up with my journal almost daily. After next week, I should be able to post regularly since I should be connected to the internet at the apartment.
So what did you think of the building? They are very different than most of the apartments in the US, but very common and the norm here in Russia. Moscow has similar looking, but a little taller. From what I am told, there is little difference between apartments, only the age of the building; but what was interesting, Michael is living in a much newer building, but his apartment is in worse shape. I get that is why I was excited about it compared to what I thought I was going to get. The other amazing this is there is NO lease. We just simply agree on the price for the unit and all of the utilities (except internet and long distance). I also forgot to post, I am on the fourth floor, right above the open windows, to the right of the stairwell. I know it does not look all that great, but honestly, I was very pleased with
Traffic Circles
I have no idea who has the right away, but they all seem to understand. All I know is you do not want to be standing in the middle off the street, even in a cross walk! it and depending on the neighbors see no reason I can not make that home for at least a year. That is also very dependent on it having heat…lol!
I am moving out of the hotel on Saturday so I should be around the apartment if anyone wants to call. I am not sure about Sunday yet, but with it being so nice right now, I want to get out and enjoy it while I can and before I freeze my skinny little butt off this fall and winter.
Not a lot to report on from work. It was frustrating yesterday, not having a car/driver and/or translator to get things done, but my list of “things to do” continues to grow even though I am marking things off daily. Today I felt a more productive in that I was able to meet with my Team and get a better feel of their needs and situation. During this process, I discover I actually have three veterinarians reporting directly to me. As best as I can tell, they are equivalent to a supervisor. You will notice some very “lofty” titles, but as someone said, you can call me anything you
The Mall
For all of you shoppers, do not get too excited, but here is the mall. want, as long as you pay me for the job.
I know I keep jumping around, but as I think of things, I type out the concept then add more to it. The Russia people seem to be very much into families. I say this because the first questions I was asked, had nothing to with problems/opportunities, but how were my parents, how old I was, did I have any brothers and/or sisters, what do they do, what does my father do for a living, etc.? Then we may talk about Elinar-Broiler and/or our technical backgrounds. It was the same with the Russian owner of Elinar Holding.
I also met with the Production Team Management. I wanting to talk to the Plant Manager (one-on-one), but my boss wanted to be present and introduce me to all of the Plant Supervisor. Now that I have met them, I feel comfortable enough to wonder the plant by myself. It will be a challenge for all of us as I try to work and improve things until I get the translator in place.
I want to report on some interesting observations for the past couple of days. I just realized Russians do NOT exercise nor do many diet. You do not see anyone jogging. I think they would start laughing at me if I were to jog each morning and once it gets cold; I will not want to jog anyway. But not only jog, but they do not have any gyms or anything. There is an outdoor swimming pool, but it too will be closing in less than a month. Of course, like most of Europe, most Russian’s smoke. I do not mind except in some of these small restaurants while I am trying to eat. So surprisingly, they are not large people. Yes, some are, but in general, they appear to be in much better shape than we are in America.
I think I figured out where to go for my ATM’s but I hate to think what that cash advance looks like on my visa since initially could not get my ATM to work. If you come, make sure to let your bank know you will be coming and secondly, ask for a limit raise if you can because it truly a cash society. Just remember, bring your cash if you come to visit!
Another change I am faced with is “personal space.” It is nothing to Russians to stand right next to you to the point of bumping you. I keep thinking someone is bumping into to me to pick-pocket me, but it is just the way the Russian society is here. It is not just me, but I was speaking to one of the consultants that was here the past two weeks and he said the exact same thing. They do not necessarily get in your face to talk, but just stand very close while in lines. They are not rude pushy, but I would have to say they are a little pushing. If you come to visit, be prepared to be bumped into frequently.
Some more interesting facts; I was told I would want to bring my own medications over with me, well, I found today, you can pretty much get ANYTHING you want as long as you can tell/show them the scientific name to the product. That is not for legal reason, but just so they can get it for you from behind the counter, but there are little glassed in areas staffed full time and they call these drug stores. You do not need a prescription, just the ability to tell the person working behind the counter what you want/need.
Saturday, 05 August 2006, well, I made it through my first week. I can not say I did a lot, but I did get a good start. To no surprise, I came in today, but it was so I could do pre-op, but later in the day. I know, that surprises all of you that know me…lol. Just when I thought I was getting my sleeping pattern down, I woke up early today. I was able to go back to sleep, but believe it or not, I am still wanting/needing to get up early.
Well, I just had my first phone call at the apartment. Not that I had a clue to what they were saying, but I said ‘yes.’ I made the assumption it was the delivery drivers with the last of my stuff so I just said ‘yes’ hoping they were asking me if I were home or not. They hung up after a few more sentences and them realizing I could not understand them. Then about 15 minutes later, the delivery guys arrived. Who knows, I may have just gave the okay for new vinyl siding for the apartment complex…lol. I am going to start putting things away and getting my place setup, but I will write more tomorrow.
Sunday, 06 August 2006, the apartment is almost in order. I am going to need a new bed. The one I have it not very comfortable, but will do for a couple of weeks until a new one can arrive. The furniture stores here are very different. You are suppose to look at the inside of a sample piece of mattress and decide which one you want. I told my translator, I want/need to sit and lay on them before I will decide. I was surprised, at one of the higher end stores we went to and decided to keep looking, the lady recommended some places that sold cheaper beds and mattresses. We went to one of them and still no mattresses, but they did have cheaper beds. There were a couple we did not get time to look at so I am going to keep looking or may even go into Moscow to IKEA and get one there, but then I have to worry and pay for the delivery out to Obninsk, the town where I am living. While I am thinking of it if I have not already given it to you, but Obninsk has a website, even in English, if you are interested in it. It is www.obninsk.ru.
On Friday, the consultant and I met Michael at one of the outdoor cafes for dinner. Michael was so impressed with me because instead of taking a taxi, we took the mass transit, called the Gazelle. I told Michael, I am a ‘lazy’ American in that I do not walk, but I am also a cheap one in that the Gazelle only costs 8 rubles where as a taxi is 40 rubles. Yes, the taxi picks me up and drops me off at my door, but this way I get to experience the city more and can just guess at where I need to go instead of trying to tell the driver in Russgla (Russia mixed with English as I call it). After we got done with dinner, we went to the grocery store to get the consultant some razor blades and as we were shopping some guy comes up to us in very poor English, “Michael, how are you?” He then calls his wife over to introduce us to his wife. It is obvious Michael does not know/remember this person and finally tells the gentlemen that he does not remember. What is funny, after he tells Michael where they met, it was when I was in town the last time and what Michael calls the “drunk café.” I remember Michael talking to him.
I tell this story for the two reasons, one, it is amazing how the few people that know English want to talk to you. We probably stood there for 15 minutes talking to this gentleman and his wife. Michael says it happens all of the time. They may only know one sentence, but they will practice it on you. The second reason I tell this story is for the humor. During the conversation, they tell us they are both doctors. His wife is a “small childs doctor” (pediatrician) and he is a general doctor, but he prescribes Michael a prescription on a small piece of paper I had “to help with his memory loss.” It was incredible. As I shared, you do not need a prescription for drugs, you can get anything, but this way, Michael knew what he was suppose to get, how much he was suppose to take and always with a meal. I am not sure if Dad or William is keeping up with the journal, but it was Nootzopyli 0.4, 1 3x per day with a meal. He gave Michael his phone number and said to call if he has any health problems.
Wow, where to start for the day’s activities! I guess the funniest one was shopping this morning. I had not picked up any groceries since I have been here so I thought if I went fairly early this morning, there would not be many people there and I could just take my time. That part worked. I had my long list of things I was going to need, but then realized I had to CARRY everything I bought back to the apartment. It is not that far, but farther than I wanted to carry things…lol So I then paired down my list to the things I needed right away such as milk, cereal, etc. for breakfast and at least one dinner and some snacks. Well, I was looking at the milk and all I could find was 3.5% and I have gotten to the point of just liking skim milk on my cereal so that is not what I wanted. I then found some marked 1.0%, but it was not called milk (in Russian that is) but I could not find the word in my pocket dictionary, but it did have a cow on it standing in a pasture and was next to the other milks so I thought I would give it a try. Guess what, I have no idea what it was, but it tasted like liquid sour cream!!! It was not any good on cereal. To be honest, I am not sure what it would be good on, maybe mixed in with some mashed potatoes…lol
After I got back, I then went to a smaller market a little closer to the apartment and got laundry detergent for the washing machine I just installed yesterday. That was interesting as well. I did not have any trouble installing it, but when I decided to test it empty, it started and then water started spraying everywhere, not from the washing machine, but from the line that was already installed in the apartment. I of course turned the water line off, but could not figure out how to stop and restart the washer since it was all in Russian. After many attempts, I finally figure it out and put the rubber gasket that was included with the washer hose that I did not need and everything seem to work fine. I have never owned a front loading machine so it is a little different and I have no idea how much 3.5 kilo worth of laundry is, but that is how big my machine is. It is also amazing on the size. It is only 60cm by 40cm and I could have gotten a slightly smaller one that would have held the same amount of laundry. The 5.0 kilo ones are slightly bigger at 60 x 50 or so. Back to the laundry soap, I asked for Tide, which they carried and she handed me one and was obviously asking me what kind of machine I had, but I had no clue so I just said ‘yes’ and bought it. After getting it home, I see it is NOT for use in front loading machines…lol. I am giving it a try anyways so we will see how it works. I am running low on the underwear and tee-shirts and yes, I will be one of those red necks with his laundry hanging from his deck…lol.
It is also difficult getting use to two separate rooms for the bathroom. One for the toilet and one from the bathtub and sink; no wonder it is sometimes referred to as the watering closet. Being the only one here, I thought about just taking the doors off because it is a pain the way the doors swing (and one does not open all the way due to some sort of duct or something along the ceiling), it just does not flow well, but of course if I have guest over, they might want to be able to close the door. Oh, and was it nice this morning to be able to drink water. I am still getting mixed stories about the safety of the water so I decided I will not take the chance and drink the water directly so I have not had much to drink here lately. With the apartment, I can now boil my water as well as have several empty containers to sanitize it with so I have been drinking water all day, yesterday and today.
Another interesting challenge is the bed sheets. I know, it should not be any big deal, but I am use to a fitted bottom sheet and a flat top sheet, but not hear, there is a flat bottom sheet and the comforter cover, which I like, but no one taught me how to get the comforter in and out of the “comforter sheet”. I finally figured it out and it was not a big deal, but just something new and different. So last night was sort of different. The bed was not super comfortable and everything new, I did not sleep real well. I also do not want to scare anyone, but during the night I heard several gun shots. I am not sure who, what, where, but they were not too far off. Yes, I will be careful. Oh, the worse part of last night was the mosquitoes! Next weekend may be time to invest in some wood and screening material. They were terrible last night and kept buzzing in and around my ear. I can not say I remember getting bite last night, but I would wake up to them buzzing so I finally got up and shut all of the windows and turned on the fan. Tonight, I may do that earlier to keep them out to begin with. It is overcast here today, so I do think it is going to get near as warm as it did yesterday.
As soon as my laundry gets done; I do not feel comfortable leaving the apartment with it running yet so I am going to stay around, but I am heading to the appliance store for extension cords. I think there is only one in each room; some may have two if you are lucky. In the living room, I have the television, stereo, answering machine, computer, and if I want to run the fan/heater with just two outlets. My bedroom actually has three, but there is nothing there. If I can every find one, there will be an alarm clock. It is amazing; you can not find alarm clocks here. I am not sure how people know when to wake up. My translator told me she uses her cell phone, but I would like to find something I could see with pressing a button, such as I have to on my watch or a cell phone, when I get one. When I looked at the apartment, they told me only to use a certain outlet with the microwave so I am guessing I will blow circuits if I try it on a different one. Again, I do not mean to scare anyone, but the electrical safety in the buildings almost appears to be non-existent. I keep that in mind when I lock my door which is also interesting. I have a heavy duty outside door what has two keyed deadbolt locks on it. I am afraid of locking those at night in the event of an emergency so I just dead bolt the inside storm style door. I am not sure what is customary here. I should look into getting an emergency latter/rope so I can get off the back porch if necessary because if the fire was in the hallway, there would not be any other way out/down and four stories is a little high to just jump/fall.
Well, I am off to store to finish more of my personal shopping and yes, I still need a lot more grocery type items if you want to come help…lol. The apartment is coming along. I would like to find some cheap picture frames for a few of the pictures I brought with me. One last thing before I forget, the trash. It is nice having the “dump” on each floor to drop your trash, but as I found out yesterday, it is not very large and it will only hold one plastic grocery size bag. Anything much bigger, gets stuck and I have no idea what you do if you “plug” the trash bin/dump because the way it is designed, you can not just push a broom/stick down it to push it on down.
The address and numbers are coming. I am now being told Wednesday for the cell phone so when I get it, I will post all of my numbers.
I got out today and took some pictures of the town, or at least my little area where I normally walk. I will hopefully have these posted along with this long journal entry. While walking around, I took my backpack, which was smart because I can get a lot of groceries and stuff in it and not have to actually carry it by hand. The one thing to remember if you do so, you will have to “bag check it”. Most women even have to bag check their purses, but there are plenty of free lockers with a lock and key to them at the entrance to most stores. I also found “the mall.” Believe it or not, we do have one, but no one get too excited and head this way just to see the mall. It is three stores, but I think there may be 10 stores on each level and just about all of them sold shoes and clothes of different styles, many of the same styles; however, I did find my alarm clock I have been looking at that no one carries.
The other thing I noticed as I walked around today, and it may just be me, but it was if most of the women would look at you and most of the men would look towards the ground. Again, it may just be me, but it seemed a little strange. Most people were not talkative. I would say hello and sometimes get a hello back. Then again, my hello in Russia, may sound more like Chinese then Russian.
I got home this evening after shopping and put a few ‘thank you’ gifts together and watched two of the Star Wars movies in Russian. It is a good thing I have seen it a few times to know what was going on. I am going to have to ask around to see if the Russia dvd’s have subtitles or not. If no, Jetta, if you are reading this, please send all the English speaking dvd’s you can get. For those of you in the States do not send because they will not work here.
I just checked the clothes and they are still drying. I am guessing it will be a couple of days and I hate to think about this in the winter time. For those of you that grew up with a dryer, how did you get your clothes dry? And for a country that is use to hanging their clothes to dry, you would think they would have clothes pens around, but they are hard to find and the ones I did find, were terrible. I never could get them to even hold the pair of jeans. So send clothes pens as well as a fly swatter. I am going to get those screens made this week. Between the flies during the day with the windows left open and the mosquitoes at night. I did close the windows before it got too dark, but I am already seeing them!
I will close on a few funny stories. Today for lunch, I stopped at the “drunk café” and thought I was ordering a gyro type sandwich. I am sitting there drinking my coke because they did not have diet and looking at the digital pictures I took today wondering why it was taking so long since the people after me already had their sandwiches. I was in no hurry as well as I could not complain, or if I could, it would not do any good since they do not understand me. Shortly, my order came out, but it was not a sandwich. It was not what I thought I ordered, but I really liked it. It was sort of like a smoked pork chop with lots of onions and dill on it. I am not sure why, but it also came with ketchup. Again, I have no idea what I ordered, but I enjoyed it. Then for dinner, I decided to make spaghetti. The noodles were fine, but the sauce, which said pasta sauce, tasted more like pizza sauce so I sort of had pizza spaghetti for dinner. Things are not what I am expecting, so I try not to compare it to home foods, but I am not starving.
Thanks for all of the postings/replies to my journal entries. I am reading all of them and they do help. Thank you!
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Lorraine
non-member comment
Terrific posting. And I've experienced the "up-close-and-personal" way Europeans are. Well, actually, everywhere I've been outside the states is like that. Especially China. Anyway, I will gladly send you a flyswatter and clothespins. If you put a fan or a heater blowing on your clothes while they are hanging, they will dry faster. Possibly put an extra spin cycle in the washer if you haven't already done so. Mom always hung everything outside and the breezes and sun dried the clothes. Kind of hard to do in an apartment, but do you have access to the roof? And way to go on using the public transportation! The best way to get around and explore is to dive right in. You go Vince! Looking forward to the next post. :0)