Happy new year

Great, it's Friday afternoon, the day before New Year's eve and I'm drunk already! :-( I love my company, but it seems a little unfair to knock me off before the partying has even started!!!
However, I wish you all a happy new year! Have a great party tomorrow! Lots of love, success and health!

I will celebrate with the AIESEC trainees in town; stick around Nevski Prospekt and hopefully drink a fair amount of vodka :-) We are off work until January 9th - one of the good ideas Mr. Putin has... won't say anything about the efficiency of that, never mind, I'm happy! :-)
I tried to - yeah, FINALLY - send my Christmas/New Year's cards by ordinary mail yesterday and, as a result, started cursing Russia once more. I managed to get rid of 2 out of 8 cards... Sorry, the recipients will have to wait a little longer, because the lady in the post office just wasn't in the mood to sell me stamps :-( ARGH!
BEST WISHES!!! Miss you loads!

Prague

Guess what... As a reward for good work (will tell you in a sec why) my colleague Maria and I get to go on a 3-day trip to Prague!!! I'm so excited! I have never been to Prague before, but always wanted to go! Simona, a cool Czech girl from Prague - you might remember her - and I became friends in Piter earlier on this year and I said I would stop by soon.
Masha and I are planning to go at the end of January maybe. Well, I won't believe the whole thing until I'm actually on the plane to Prague!

The good work we did... we tend to answer our emails immediately and provide the necessary information :-)
Left to say is: It's Russia! I'm lovin' it! ;-)

Christmas in Russia

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!!!

Christmas Eve in St. Petersburg was definitely spectecular for it was a great composition of very different events! It started with a great 11 hour sleep, followed by another awesome tour through the Hermitage - I love that place, should have gone there more often!

Read more!





Can you find me?


At 6pm I went to St. Petrikirche, a German Protestant church on Nevski Prospekt to attened the Christmas Eve service. We sang all the German Christmas songs I love, well, I sang... the people around me - apparently Russians - didn't know them! These 1,5 hours made my Christmas!!! Although no one can beat the Christmas services my dad always came up with!

"Silent Night" was still in my head when I walked down Nevski Prospekt to join my co-workers at the Red Lion for our corporate New Year's party. And of course, I did not go home at 10pm as planned... I stumbled out after midnight and had to take a car home!

Masha, Peter and Katya

Thanks to Rosa's and Laura's great cooking abilities, we had the best Christmas feast ever!!! I went home stuffed and happy and passed out for 9 hours!


Nevski Prospekt on Christmas

If you have time, please read this short story! It is a real Christmas story... Years ago my dad told this story as his homily on Christmas Eve in Neudorf, only the candles lit the church...

The Gift Of The Magi by O. Henry

One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty- seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas.

There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.
<...>
Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag. She stood by the window and looked out dully at a gray cat walking a gray fence in a gray backyard. Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result. Twenty dollars a week doesn't go far. Expenses had been greater than she had calculated. They always are. Only $1.87 to buy a present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for him. Something fine and rare and sterling--something just a little bit near to being worthy of the honor of being owned by Jim.
<...>
Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim's gold watch that had been his father's and his grandfather's. The other was Della's hair. Had the queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her Majesty's jewels and gifts. Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all his treasures piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his watch every time he passed, just to see him pluck at his beard from envy.

So now Della's beautiful hair fell about her rippling and shining like a cascade of brown waters. It reached below her knee and made itself almost a garment for her. And then she did it up again nervously and quickly. Once she faltered for a minute and stood still while a tear or two splashed on the worn red carpet.

On went her old brown jacket; on went her old brown hat. With a whirl of skirts and with the brilliant sparkle still in her eyes, she fluttered out the door and down the stairs to the street.

Where she stopped the sign read: "Mne. Sofronie. Hair Goods of All Kinds." One flight up Della ran, and collected herself, panting. Madame, large, too white, chilly, hardly looked the "Sofronie."

"Will you buy my hair?" asked Della.

"I buy hair," said Madame. "Take yer hat off and let's have a sight at the looks of it."

Down rippled the brown cascade.

"Twenty dollars," said Madame, lifting the mass with a practised hand.

"Give it to me quick," said Della.

Oh, and the next two hours tripped by on rosy wings. Forget the hashed metaphor. She was ransacking the stores for Jim's present.

She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. There was no other like it in any of the stores, and she had turned all of them inside out. It was a platinum fob chain simple and chaste in design, properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by meretricious ornamentation--as all good things should do. It was even worthy of The Watch. As soon as she saw it she knew that it must be Jim's. It was like him. Quietness and value--the description applied to both. Twenty-one dollars they took from her for it, and she hurried home with the 87 cents. With that chain on his watch Jim might be properly anxious about the time in any company. Grand as the watch was, he sometimes looked at it on the sly on account of the old leather strap that he used in place of a chain.
<...>
Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny, close-lying curls that made her look wonderfully like a truant schoolboy. She looked at her reflection in the mirror long, carefully, and critically.

"If Jim doesn't kill me," she said to herself, "before he takes a second look at me, he'll say I look like a Coney Island chorus girl. But what could I do--oh! what could I do with a dollar and eighty- seven cents?"

At 7 o'clock the coffee was made and the frying-pan was on the back of the stove hot and ready to cook the chops.

Jim was never late. Della doubled the fob chain in her hand and sat on the corner of the table near the door that he always entered. Then she heard his step on the stair away down on the first flight, and she turned white for just a moment. She had a habit for saying little silent prayer about the simplest everyday things, and now she whispered: "Please God, make him think I am still pretty."

The door opened and Jim stepped in and closed it. He looked thin and very serious. Poor fellow, he was only twenty-two--and to be burdened with a family! He needed a new overcoat and he was without gloves.

Jim stopped inside the door, as immovable as a setter at the scent of quail. His eyes were fixed upon Della, and there was an expression in them that she could not read, and it terrified her. It was not anger, nor surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of the sentiments that she had been prepared for. He simply stared at her fixedly with that peculiar expression on his face.

Della wriggled off the table and went for him.

"Jim, darling," she cried, "don't look at me that way. I had my hair cut off and sold because I couldn't have lived through Christmas without giving you a present. It'll grow out again--you won't mind, will you? I just had to do it. My hair grows awfully fast. Say `Merry Christmas!' Jim, and let's be happy. You don't know what a nice-- what a beautiful, nice gift I've got for you."

"You've cut off your hair?" asked Jim, laboriously, as if he had not arrived at that patent fact yet even after the hardest mental labor.

"Cut it off and sold it," said Della. "Don't you like me just as well, anyhow? I'm me without my hair, ain't I?"

Jim looked about the room curiously.

"You say your hair is gone?" he said, with an air almost of idiocy.

"You needn't look for it," said Della. "It's sold, I tell you--sold and gone, too. It's Christmas Eve, boy. Be good to me, for it went for you. Maybe the hairs of my head were numbered," she went on with sudden serious sweetness, "but nobody could ever count my love for you. Shall I put the chops on, Jim?"

Out of his trance Jim seemed quickly to wake. He enfolded his Della. For ten seconds let us regard with discreet scrutiny some inconsequential object in the other direction. Eight dollars a week or a million a year--what is the difference? A mathematician or a wit would give you the wrong answer. The magi brought valuable gifts, but that was not among them. This dark assertion will be illuminated later on.

Jim drew a package from his overcoat pocket and threw it upon the table.

"Don't make any mistake, Dell," he said, "about me. I don't think there's anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could make me like my girl any less. But if you'll unwrap that package you may see why you had me going a while at first."

White fingers and nimble tore at the string and paper. And then an ecstatic scream of joy; and then, alas! a quick feminine change to hysterical tears and wails, necessitating the immediate employment of all the comforting powers of the lord of the flat.

For there lay The Combs--the set of combs, side and back, that Della had worshipped long in a Broadway window. Beautiful combs, pure tortoise shell, with jewelled rims--just the shade to wear in the beautiful vanished hair. They were expensive combs, she knew, and her heart had simply craved and yearned over them without the least hope of possession. And now, they were hers, but the tresses that should have adorned the coveted adornments were gone.

But she hugged them to her bosom, and at length she was able to look up with dim eyes and a smile and say: "My hair grows so fast, Jim!"

And them Della leaped up like a little singed cat and cried, "Oh, oh!"

Jim had not yet seen his beautiful present. She held it out to him eagerly upon her open palm. The dull precious metal seemed to flash with a reflection of her bright and ardent spirit.

"Isn't it a dandy, Jim? I hunted all over town to find it. You'll have to look at the time a hundred times a day now. Give me your watch. I want to see how it looks on it."

Instead of obeying, Jim tumbled down on the couch and put his hands under the back of his head and smiled.

"Dell," said he, "let's put our Christmas presents away and keep 'em a while. They're too nice to use just at present. I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs. And now suppose you put the chops on."

The magi, as you know, were wise men--wonderfully wise men--who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. O all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.
The complete story here

Merry Christmas

May all the day's of all the years
that God has still in store...
be filled with every joy and grace
to bless you more and more.

May hope of heart and peace of mind
beside you ever stay.
That's the golden wish I have...
for you, this Christmas Day!!

Irischer Weihnachtssegen

Nicht, dass jedes Leid Dich verschonen möge,
noch dass Dein zukünftiger Weg stets Rosen trage,
keine bittere Träne über deine Wange komme,
und dass kein Schmerz Dich quäle,
nein, dies alles wünsche ich Dir nicht.

Sondern:
Dass dankbar Du allezeit bewahrst
die Erinnerung an gute Tage,
dass mutig Du gehst durch alle Prüfungen,
auch wenn das Kreuz auf Deinen Schultern lastet,
auch wenn das Licht der Hoffnung schwindet.

Was ich dir wünsche:
dass jede Gabe Gottes in dir wachse,
dass einen Freund du hast,
der deiner Freundschaft wert.

Und dass in Freud und Leid
das Lächeln des Mensch gewordenen Gotteskindes
Dich begleiten möge.

3. Advent

Another week has passed and Christmas is close! For the first time I will celebrate Christmas in a country where December 24th/25th are ordinary days. We are lucky it is a weekend... I'd be utterly depressed having to work on Christmas when there is no Christmas feeling in the air in general!
My dear company has decided to have our corporated New Year's party on Saturday, which I'm very sad to miss! But there is no way I'm celebrating New Year's on Christmas!!!
Read more!
However, I had fine weekend :-) Sonya, her Spanish friends (others than last week, but friends of the Spanish friend from last week...) and I went to banya on Friday! By now my body has adapted really well to the heat and I like it super hot until my ears burn and I'm more a bathtub than sweating... Bad stuff out!!! I slept 11 hours after that!

On Saturday I went to the Hermitage... One of those places where you say, "Great place, entrance is free for students. Will go there very often, aehm, not this weekend... next weekend..." and now it is the end of December and my student ID expires! It was awesome and I will go again next weekend! Spending Christmas in the Hermitage is okay, don't you think?!
Interestingly, I took more pics of the surroundings of the Hermitage than inside... and was being yelled at for sticking my camera out of the window! A (rather friendly, indeed) lady told me that the "milizia" could take my camera and hands as a terroristic act... or whatever!






After the Hermitage we went to see the "Nutcracker". I didn't like it as much as the other ballets I have seen before. Still world class dancers in a stunning theater! Spoiled tourist I am :-)


It is Christmas... which also means that half of the trainees are leaving, some for vacation, others forever! We had the final party in "the castle" and I stumbled home at 8 in the morning. I'm getting too old for this stuff! I couldn't move properly on Sunday. Well, wait, I went Christmas cards shopping and ended up checking out all the shoe shops :-) Haven't bought anything yet, but I'm close to ;-)


I hope you are all enjoying this Christmas time! Have a great time with family and friends!
@Mom: I miss you very much!!!

Cyborg

This is what one of my co-workers (Pasha) did to another one of my co-workers (Ikar)!

First week back in Russia

Hey everyone! Hope you are all doing great!
I survived my first week being back in Russia... It started off on Monday with a major event in Igor's apartment. Several people - including me - gathered to spend a quiet evening. It was really nice, but I was still tired from the weekend and announced around 11 o'clock (maybe even earlier) that I would like to go home soon. Of course, people laughed about me... We had just started to relax after the first beers and were having a good time! So, while I was serious about it (though I was laughing in the beginning), I really wanted to go home. By 11.20 pm I was fighting my way towards the door, but had no chance against the stronger men in the room. I made it, however, to the hallway, and to prevent my escape, Igor locked the door from the inside and took the keys... At that point I went nuts: I felt frustrated, because I wasn't taken serious and slightly panicked because of the closed door and my physical helplessness... So... I was so mad that the witch came out of me ;-) I poured water all over Igor's bedroom floor (he didn't notice it until I had long left the flat) and got a cup full of water from the bathroom. I held the cup over Igor, who was sitting on Shekar's bed and asked Shekar and Igor (who share the flat and both have keys) to open the door. I was boiling by then... They laughed at me and shook their heads... So I poured the water over Igor who was so suprised and shocked that he made a strong movement... and the bed broke, forever, unreparable. You can witness that moment on the picture...

Read more!I felt much better by then, but started yelling, "I want to go home RIGHT NOW" and some other funny things! That was fun, but as soon as we left (I was escorted to the metro immediately) I felt so sorry! Igor and I had several discussions about it and tried to explain to each other why this happened! Well, I think I can say that such a thing will never happen again, we both learned from it! (My apolgies again, Igor!)

The rest of the week was pretty decent compared to Monday evening's events ;-) Went over to Rosa's for dinner on Wednesday and to banya with Sonya and a Spanish friend of hers on Thursday. It was great to speak Spanish!!! Although I still mix it with Russian... And I sadly observed that now I speak Russian with some Spanish inbetween... I kept telling one Russian girl the other day that the corkscrew "esta roto" (is broken) which she didn't understand, of course! :-( Silly me!
And then Friday came and we celebrated three birthdays in one big party... aehm:

It started with a decent feast on my table


Dania and I represent TelphinUSA at the moment and after some drinks we had the great idea of taking a nice picture for the website... of me, the marketing department, and him, the sales manager and head!


Our sales managers!


And my dear co-workers decided that I'm a toy which is fun to toss around :-(
(This time I managed not to play with water...)



Saturday evening we celebrated Luise's birthday party with an enormous feast...


Well, on Sunday I finally decided to try the washing maching... Since I haven't had such a device for about a year, I was sort of frightened of it :-)
I also decided to check out the area around my new place of living, which is pretty cool! I stumbled onto an old graveyard and into two orthodox churches and enjoyed the silence there!
Next to my blocks are rather big lakes, frozen by this time of the year. I overcame my fear and stepped onto the lake... BEAUTIFUL!!!


Although it seems that I'm having a great time in Russia, I'm still rather tired of life here and can't wait to go back home! I'm doing my very best to enjoy it and the results you can see above, but the rest isn't soooo much fun anymore!

Goodbye Germany / Back in Russia

Yeah, I made it back allright to cold and dark Russia! :-( I didn't want to leave and my poor mother had to stand my moans for 1,5 days ;-)
Christmas Market in Braunschweig
Read more!
The flight back via Prague was fun... at least the flight from Prague to Piter... I sit at the gate waiting for my flight to Petersburg and see three guys approaching the gate. "Spainards" crosses my mind as they draw nearer, but then I think, "don't be silly, this is PRAGUE and a flight to RUSSIA... What would Spainards do here???" However, in the airplane I get to sit next to one of them, one is in front of me and the third one in the row behind me... Turns out that they in fact ARE Spanish :-))) I keep my mouth shut and enjoy their nastly little jokes about the big group of elder Irish ladies around us. Of course, I can't help smiling, and eventually they ask me if I speak Spanish ;-) So I end up chatting with the one guy next to me, a friendly 41 year old business man, who (for whatever strange reason) decided to go to Petersburg with his friends/co-workers on vacation. Besides the fact that I have troubles keeping Russian out of my Spanish, I have a great time. The guy asked me a lot about my job and what I do and what I like... and actually offered me a job in Germany or Great Britain!!! Isn't that cool?! I will at least check out the website and see whether teaching engineers is something for me ;-)


Harz and the highest mountain: Der Brocken


Goodbye at the train station: Chen, Sveenie and Paul "Erwin"


Katharinen-Kirche in Braunschweig


My dear mother

I finally moved into my new apartment on Friday and made myself comfy yesterday! FINALLY a place that I can call HOME!
On Saturday I jumped right back into my busy Russian life... trying not to be homesick! I got a haircut (Yippie), went ice-scating with a huge group of crazy foreigners and partying till 8 in the morning. I haven't felt this "trashed" for a long time... Yesterday/Sunday was dedicated to moving around slowly ;-)

I'm back at work now, trying to get back to daily working routine. Two 2 weeks in Germany made me be very German again and this is NOT helpful in a Russian company... ;-) but in two days things will be back to normal!
Well, I'm glad to be with my co-workers again, although I didn't really miss the "Finger-in-den-Po-thingy"!!! Yuck!!!

Back in Piter


Partying in Piter


Igor and the FINEC trainees


Sonya and Anna

Thanks again to everyone for making this vacation such a perfect time!!!
@Simone in Gö: It is a pitty we didn't meet!
@Sergio: I'm sorry for not calling, but I had to get up at 5:45 the next morning and only wanted to sleep! Will write soon!
@Thomas and Krischan: I never said properly bye I think! Or at least I don't remember! Take care and have a good time!
@Anja in New Zealand: I'm sorry for not providing you with any details!!! I hope to write a long email soon!!! Hope you are doing excellent in New Zealand!
@Ania in Lublin: Miss you!!! My plans to travel through Poland are still on!
@Pawel in Wroclaw: The package is on its way and I hope to visit soon as well!
@Chenita: I miss you!!! Next weekend is "Sauna-Zeit" :-)))
@Greetings to everyone else I didn't mention, but I think of you!!!