I spent christmas working in the shop and new year’s out at a Russian wellsite. Not a holiday to remember so i’ll talk about other things. Soon I will hopefully be back in Tyumen to celebrate what is left of the holiday. So instead of talking about what i’ve done this holiday, here’s the post i promised about the night life in Russia….
The night scene is a lot like back home, pubs, bars, clubs..but the ones here are filled with Russian girls, therefore it’s good.
ENTRY SYSTEM:
In Tyumen, the entry system into the night clubs is called ‘face control’. There is no real dress code but face control allows the bouncer to look at you and decide whether he wants to let you in the club. For the most part we have no problems but this one club ‘Grunge’, supposedly the best club in the city has denied us access every time. Now we just go there as a bit of a laugh to get rejected again and head to the next place. It’s a very quick process getting shut out..the bouncer opens the door, says hi, looks you up and down and just says ‘no’. then before you can even try to throw out some russian or english words in an attempt convince him to let you in, he shuts the door. Me and a buddy got the door closed on us but right behind us has a shaved head and came up wearing something like a westling type of tank top, black army boots. Mda me think of skinhead ballerina or something. Either way, no matter how ridiculous he looked he was let right in and we got sent packing.
RUSSIAN DANCING:
In an old blog I mentioned that we went out one night with some girls that were taking an english course. We had a good time, went for a few drinks, practiced some english and some russian. Each of these girls carried a russian english dictionary to help with their translation. After a while, one girl pulled out the dictionary and told me ‘you dance very…sincerely’. Since i already know how bad my dancing skills are there was no way I could take that as a compliment. She had a dancing style of something like interpretive trance so I hit her right back with ‘you dance very…expressively’. She smiled, said thank you. she won.
ORDERING DRINKS:
I’ve mentioned a few times how the russian language can be a bit overwhelming and I find I really have to concentrate when ordering food, or getting groceries so that I say it right and get what I need. In certain situations though I get a bit mixed up when i’m in over my head or if i think about what i’m going to say too much. Ordering drinks at the bar is tough because it’s loud, you have to be agressive with your order, you have to speak up so they can hear you (and mostly so they don’t have to ask you any more questions if you’re vague). To order one drink is not so bad, you get that drink down in your head and you look like a pro at the bar. A couple of times, however, you decide to buy a round for some buddies. Of course they’re not going to just order the same drink as you so you have to keep all these drinks straight in your head in english, then convert to russian and what happens to me is I end up mixing differnt languages together. Surprsingly it’s not a mix of english and russian, it has turend out to be russian and spanish. The couple times it’s happened it’s been the same drink order. A beer, two rum and cokes and red label and water. I get through most of it but when it comes to saying water i’ve, twice now, ordered Agua which is 1 of 8 spanish words i know. Then throw in a couple good ol’ english curses and try again as the waitress either tries to keep a straight face or can’t understand my multi-language order.
THE GIRLS:
The clubs usually have a couple local working girls trying to attract some business, so you gotta be careful but the other week I had one of the women of the night come up to me and in very good english say ‘I genuinely like you’. I was flattered. For her not to know me at all and have such strong feelings. Maybe i am the Canadian Hugh Grant after all (inside joke).
The night scene is a lot like back home, pubs, bars, clubs..but the ones here are filled with Russian girls, therefore it’s good.
ENTRY SYSTEM:
In Tyumen, the entry system into the night clubs is called ‘face control’. There is no real dress code but face control allows the bouncer to look at you and decide whether he wants to let you in the club. For the most part we have no problems but this one club ‘Grunge’, supposedly the best club in the city has denied us access every time. Now we just go there as a bit of a laugh to get rejected again and head to the next place. It’s a very quick process getting shut out..the bouncer opens the door, says hi, looks you up and down and just says ‘no’. then before you can even try to throw out some russian or english words in an attempt convince him to let you in, he shuts the door. Me and a buddy got the door closed on us but right behind us has a shaved head and came up wearing something like a westling type of tank top, black army boots. Mda me think of skinhead ballerina or something. Either way, no matter how ridiculous he looked he was let right in and we got sent packing.
RUSSIAN DANCING:
In an old blog I mentioned that we went out one night with some girls that were taking an english course. We had a good time, went for a few drinks, practiced some english and some russian. Each of these girls carried a russian english dictionary to help with their translation. After a while, one girl pulled out the dictionary and told me ‘you dance very…sincerely’. Since i already know how bad my dancing skills are there was no way I could take that as a compliment. She had a dancing style of something like interpretive trance so I hit her right back with ‘you dance very…expressively’. She smiled, said thank you. she won.
ORDERING DRINKS:
I’ve mentioned a few times how the russian language can be a bit overwhelming and I find I really have to concentrate when ordering food, or getting groceries so that I say it right and get what I need. In certain situations though I get a bit mixed up when i’m in over my head or if i think about what i’m going to say too much. Ordering drinks at the bar is tough because it’s loud, you have to be agressive with your order, you have to speak up so they can hear you (and mostly so they don’t have to ask you any more questions if you’re vague). To order one drink is not so bad, you get that drink down in your head and you look like a pro at the bar. A couple of times, however, you decide to buy a round for some buddies. Of course they’re not going to just order the same drink as you so you have to keep all these drinks straight in your head in english, then convert to russian and what happens to me is I end up mixing differnt languages together. Surprsingly it’s not a mix of english and russian, it has turend out to be russian and spanish. The couple times it’s happened it’s been the same drink order. A beer, two rum and cokes and red label and water. I get through most of it but when it comes to saying water i’ve, twice now, ordered Agua which is 1 of 8 spanish words i know. Then throw in a couple good ol’ english curses and try again as the waitress either tries to keep a straight face or can’t understand my multi-language order.
THE GIRLS:
The clubs usually have a couple local working girls trying to attract some business, so you gotta be careful but the other week I had one of the women of the night come up to me and in very good english say ‘I genuinely like you’. I was flattered. For her not to know me at all and have such strong feelings. Maybe i am the Canadian Hugh Grant after all (inside joke).
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