Catch my nose - if you can

Monday, August 29, 2005

Moscow

I get to go on a business trip to Moscow for two days! How cool is that???!!!
My boss sends me as their "specialist" (she actually wrote that in an email to the place I'm going) to a seminar on Internet advertisement! I'm leaving tonight with the night train to Moscow, seminars from 10-19 o'clock tomorrow and on Wednesday and the overnight train back to St. Petersburg. Surely, I will be half dead by Thursday morning, but the seminar plan sounds really interesting!!! I'm really excited about going and attending that thingy!
Do I have to mention that the whole thing is in Russian and we don't know if ANYONE speaks English there??? Right... it will be the challenge of the year! After that my company expects me to use my knowledge... I'm looking forward to it!

It seems that my working career is doing extremely well! I have met great people and found wonderful friends! I should be happy, right?

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Duration of my traineeship

This morning I finally had the guts to ask Katya, my boss, about the length my traineeship... As a matter of fact, I forgot to ask her about it when we had the interview and then the issue never came up again. Viktor, the AIESECer who "matched" me with the company said it was meant for 6 months, but since I got a visa for a year I'm really keen on staying longer here!!! I don't know what it is, there are so many little things I love in Russia, just as much as I hate certain things. But I can't help to notice that I'm happy here!!!

So... I asked Katya how long I can stay and she smiled at me and said, "as long as you can"! Yay!!!! My visa expires in April 2006 and I have no whatsoever intention to leave Russia before that! They will even raise my salary a little bit :-)

Still not sure if I should change my ticket and stay in Piter over Christmas or go to Germany on December 18th as planned for vacation...
However, VISIT ME if you can!!! There is plenty of time!

Monday, August 22, 2005

Camping with Telphin

I went camping with my company and we had a blast! The weather was perfect and the campside a paradise! I even got to go swimming again... probably for the last time this summer :-( We had lots of shashliky, sausages, potatoes and other delicious food! I slept wonderful 9 hours and was just starting to relax when I had to return to the city (my fault... I wanted to party with the foreigners...).

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My dear friends have noticed an obession about sleep... I keep whining about it, but as a matter of fact I NEVER GET ENOUGH SLEEP! I'm still proud that I managed to go home Saturday evening around midnight and didn't go clubbing with the others till 6 in the morning again!
On Sunday I went to "banya" and I haven't felt this relaxed for a long time!!!

Friday, August 19, 2005

Got to go to a Lithuanian dinner party

Men are definitely better cooks than women :-) At least when you take "women" as "me" ... Chinese Yuan has shown his excellent cooking skills several times already, and yesterday John (American/Lithuanian) prepared some delicious Lithuanian dish for the funny crowd of foreigners. We all stated that we have similar dishes in our home countries, only Yuan was excited about eating "something completely new". It was really great though... and the various bottles of vine helped to keep the "giggly" atmosphere going! Sonya (Russian/American) and I were quite tipsy by the time we left the appartment (the appartment where I had lived in the beginning) and moved on to Tyoma's flat.

At Tyoma's we had lots of tea, were looking at pictures and I was chasing Mishka the cat (remember him?). (He finally got to share the bed with me...)



Sonya and I decided to stay overnight and kept talking till 3.30 in the morning. It is soooo nice to have female company and talk about "girls' things"! Sonya, just like me, spent a year in Spain and we discovered lots of common characteristics. The first hour we talked in English and then switched to Spanish at some point! How cool is that!!! I get to practise my Spanish! Yay!
My Russian is getting much better and I hope that we can talk some day in Russian just as easily!

I'm beyond being tired now, but it is Friday and I'm going camping with my colleagues over the weekend... vodka, beer and no sleep :-(

Have a great weekend!!!

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Alumni Party II

Всем привет! :-)

I had another nice and stressful week in Piter, followed by an even more stressful weekend. There are too many parties and other events going on! I have to slow down!!!

On Wednesday Yulya Omelchuk from Novosibirsk arrived in Piter and we had a great time! It was sooooo cool to see her and chat about people here and there, traveling and go out for beers. I really miss Siberia and I hope to be able to travel there very soon!

By now I have also figured out why Russians are so fond of their "banyas" (sauna)! We foreigners made it a weekly MUST to go to banya and relax... only to spoil the cleaning event by partying all night long after it :-(

However, summer is over and autumn is coming! Hope you are all doing well!

Monday, August 08, 2005

Parties, parties and work

I have not become extremely lazy updating my blog, I'm simply extremely busy these days! I'm still having a blast in this country although I'm working a lot!
I really like my job and I hope that my Russian will improve faster, because I have been assigned to deal with ALL the internet advertisement, which includes writing emails to advertisement agencies, our Russian keywords and page titles on the website. This morning I actually had my first Russian conversation on the phone, not only saying "sekundutshku" and getting someone Russian to deal with it... Yay! I'm only a little nervous about asking when I will lose my job :-(

Lots of things have happened since my birthday; I'm still the only girl in the group and still the oldest person around. China (Yuan), America (John) and Poland (Pawel) call me "granny" or Germany. (We started refering to each other by country names, it is so much fun laughing about our countries!) Last weekend we finally went to Peterhof and it was really nice although we didn't manage to get in as Russians... The comination of really Chinese looking Yuan and tourist Pawel screwed it up ;-) and I guess I was being too German that particular day :-(

This Friday we celebrated Pawel's farewell party, because he is leaving tomorrow; and hotel Anna opened again. We had a great time cooking... John prepared some delicious American dish, Yuan something yummy Chinese and Tyoma made wonderful "Shaverma" (that is the closest to "Doener Kebab" you can get here). We learned more drinking games from John. My new favorite one is "presidents and assholes". And guess who turned out to be the asshole??? I will be happy to explain the game if you want to know!
However, the Russians left the party before midnight... due to public transport and we foreigners went on partying. I slept like a rock, since mosquitos tend to leave me in peace when there are other people around :-) All boys told me in the morning that they would never sleep over again... :-) Thanks for keeping away the mosquitos for one night!!! :-)


John, Yuan, Lesha, Tyoma, Sergey, Anna and Pawel
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Tyoma preparing "Shaverma"


Yuan partying :-)


Enjoying the evening sun on the balcony


The AIESEC trainee and the CEEDer


Anna and the current LCP Lesha


Pawel


John


Chilling out on the couch


Killing mosquitos


Half dead on Saturday morning (on Sunday very similar pics were taken...)

Saturday after recovering from mosquitos bites and a nice breakfast we moved on to "banya", sauna. This wasn't a really public place, we just rented the whole thing for 1,5 hours and had a great time! I should have gone straight to bed after that, but I didn't want to waste my weekend and so I only took a 20 minute nap and ran off to the next party.
The AIESECers had invited their 'alumnis', the old AIESECers to get together. Hm, there were five foreigners, four members of the current EB and two alumnis and some other people... Great success ;-) However, I stumbled home at 6.30 in the morning after dancing Rock'n roll all night long. Needless to say that I was the last woman standing and only one Russian kept me company. John and Yuan fled the club around 4am to famous "Datcha", complaining that two worst kinds of music in one club is not bearable... :-) They were still fussing about the music when I met them later in "Datcha". I won't complain! :-)


Alumni party: Anna and the new trainee Sonya. Yay!!! Female support!
Sonya was born in Russia, but raised in California and speaks both languages perfectly! She also spent a year in Spain and is a really nice girl! Although my male friends do not understand why I complain being the "pearl" in the group, but I need some female friends! Pawel admitted though that he is a little bit tired of functioning as my female friend, listening to all the "girls" stuff... ;-)