My first journey into Siberia is almost complete as I will soon be back on the train to ‘civilization’ in Tyumen (Big City Siberia). I found out right before I came here from my non-Russian coworkers that taking the train would be a terrible idea. I had a hard time getting them to stop laughing at me for agreeing to take the train as they said ‘You’ll definitely get to Siberia but not where you planned.’ One of the guys who has worked here for a couple years said he would never take the train because they don’t understand english and will not tell you when/where to get off the train. I was able to get a Russian speaking coworker to drop me off at the train station and tell the stewardess ‘This guy doesn’t speak Russian, he needs water, kick him off the train at town of Pyt-Yakh’. Everything worked out fine and I made it here.
It was a busy week of work, training some of the employees that are going for promotion, learning the ‘Russian way’ of our line of work, touring the base and looking for ways to improve our operations. A select few of the employees know english so it becomes very challenging holding meetings in a room where almost no one can understand what you’re saying. The base here wanted to take advantage of me being here to help teach some newer employees and I found out their trick to keeping me here for long hours…The only way to get back to the apartment is to take a taxi and the drivers don’t speak english so I had to wait until a Russian coworker left to share a ride with him/her. very effective.
Another interesting thing about Russia is that they like to track all the foreign people in their country. Aside from the Visa, work permit and migration card I needed to receive before I could work here I have to register everytime I leave a leave/enter a city in Russia. ALso, moving from hotel to apartment requires registration. Not being used to that I’m worried I’ll forget and be hit with a $25k reminder fee. All documents have to be on your person all the time or you’ll end up peeling potatoes in Gulag. A friend of mine got arrested for standing near a guy that the police were after and I imagine it’s very hard to talk your way out of a situation without knowing any Russian. I’m working very hard to comply and be stealth while i’m here because I don’t want to add Russia to the list of countries i’ve been arrested in.
Next step is to head back to the city and board a plane for Seattle on Thursday. See y’all Stateside.
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