One reason I'm glad I switched positions

I left my old position and have been an instructor for the past 4 months.  I really enjoy traveling and seeing new parts of the world and I got the chance to see a few different places in Russia.  It had been a great experience but had I continued in that same position I wouldn't have seen new places, it would have been the same towns/locations over and over again.  So, with this change I was happy to give up the travel and settle into something resembling a 'life'.

My least favorite place was a town called Pyt-Yakh and it happened to be the place I traveled to most often.  The town itself is fine, it's a work town, but the geographical area of it made it the unfortunate recipient of some of the worst quality water I've had to deal with. 

normal water

I'm glad I didn't spend enough time there to find this out but I've been told that after living there for a while you might notice your fingernails turning yellowish and, if you happen to brush your teeth with it, it'll show there as well.   There's also an associated smell that goes with the color so those who think they can manage it with their eyes closed might still find it hard.

The Students

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was impressed how most of my students are learning the material in this very technical course in English when most of them have a different mother tongue.  Of course I will never tell them I'm impressed...from my perspective all they do is whine and complain about how hard everything is, how few days off they get, etc.  Well, back in MY day it was more difficult and we had fewer days off, but I digress.

There's about 7 years difference between me and the students which is quite a bit less than when I went through this school.  It's a fine line between being friendly with them but keeping the professional attitude required to be an effective instructor.  Naturally, being an overly-polite and helpful guy I have to error on the side of being more strict and tough with them to keep my proper level of superiority over these subordinates.

Every once in while though these kids get you to crack a smile.  This week we, as main instructors, have had some time out of the classroom while a guest instructor covers a specific topic.  I saw one of the students in the hallway and as he was passing he said 'Dave, we miss you in the class this week.'

These little bastards aren't so bad sometimes....

йога

I was recently convinced to go and try a yoga class in Tyumen.  Two friends of mine basically gave me no choice but promised me a good lunch following this obviously humiliating situation.  I'm not against yoga and have actually been eager to try it out someday and get into that whole lifestyle but I've HESITATED going with people from the oilfield since the time I walked in on two rig hands practicing what was apparently yoga in the gym of a floating rig.  They were properly dressed in coveralls and large work boots so I'm sure they were following the right procedure.  They asked if I wanted to join but I politely declined telling them I had to do a run for 'training', then I walked around the gym once and left as fast as I could.  It was just too much to take in all at once.

This time, however, it was going to be a different situation.  There would be a real yoga instructor, full yoga experience and maybe some fit girls there yoga-ing beside me to help the time go by.  When it comes to these situations where I have no idea what I'm doing, I don't speak the language well enough and i'm bound to look like a fool I strategically position myself in the back of the room so that I can falter without being seen by the rest of the people in the class.  My friends, who took the same approach, had already done a few classes so I was expecting to be the worst out of them but, as part of my strategy, I looked around the room for one person that might be worse.  I was pleasantly surprised to see a grizzly of a Russian sitting in the back row as well so I sat close to him figuring I was more flexible than 275lb man.

The instructor noticed my 'new face' and she knew a little bit of English so she asked me my name to welcome me to the class.  After answering, her face lights up....
'oohhh, David Swenson!'. 
The rest of the class had a nice little yoga-chuckle at her comment so I figured it was some sort of inside joke.  Turns out this David Swenson is some sore of master yoga instructor, about 60 years old and doesn't have much hair.  I hope it wasn't a comparison based on looks.

The 2 hour yoga session (I was told it would only be 1) was started off with a chant.  The translation of this chant having something to do with the Lotus Feet, Thousand headed men and conch shells.  I suppose one is supposed to feel very spiritual during this chant but I was focusing on biting my lip to keep from laughing.  It started off with an 'Ommmmmmm' and I barely made it through that first verse but decided I better go with the process I used when I was in high school choir (for the easy grades) of just opening my mouth but not making a sound.  I let the rest of the group get me through it while I pinched my skin and pulled on my leg hair so I could keep a straight face.  

With the chanting completed the instructor gave a 10 minute introduction/explanation of what Yoga is all about so it was great that I had no idea what she saying.  The next part was to change the way we breathe.  I'm generally quite happy with how I breathe but apparently, in Yoga, you need to breathe like you're a Rhino in heat.  The sounds that were filling the room completely destroyed any concentration I had.  I couldn't get this technique down.  When I tried to breathe louder I made sounds that more resembled a donkey.  I stuck with my quiet breathing in the end.  

So we're 1.5 hours into this 'Plank, Downward facing Dog' routine and I'm feeling like I'm at least doing better than the rollie-pollie fellow sitting next to me.  The instructor then says a couple words, claps her hands twice quickly and then all I see are legs flying in the air....and staying there.  I'd seen this move in a movie once but thought it was an exaggeration of the yoga technique but here I am still trying to get out of child's pose and people are balancing on top of their heads like it's the easiest thing in the world.  I have more trouble standing on my feet then they do upside down.  As I look to my supposed safety net, the gigantor beside me, I'm crushed as he's completely vertical, upside down, holding the straightest pose of the whole group.  All this time he was just pretending to be terrible and the hustles me right at the end.  I really felt like pushing him over.


Anyways, I survived the class and I was now looking forward to the post-yoga lunch that I was promised.  That part did not disappoint.  We went to a cafe serving Uzbek food and as you can see from the pictures below it was the perfect yoga recovery meal.  Namaste.

Where's Dave been?

To the faithful followers I apologize for the long stretch in between blogs.  In June I abruptly changed positions, went on an overdue holiday back home, started in my new position in August, somehow ran a marathon in September in Berlin and since then have been back in Russia working at one of our training centers. 


The move from a quality supervisor to an instructor has been a challenge.  I've never really been comfortable speaking to a group of people so it seems that for me to teach a class 6 days a week for 3 months wouldn't be the wisest choice.  Having said that, it was a good move for me.  I was getting tired in my position and lacking some direction.  The constant traveling was wearing me down a bit so I was happy to get into a position that would keep me in one place.  I'm still working my long hours, possibly even longer than before but now I stick to a schedule. The only problem came in terms of blogs in that I've found I have fewer stories now that my life is more 'normal'.   I guess I'll just have to search out those entertaining situations. 


The challenge comes with teaching technical topics to new grads from all different parts of the world.  I have one American in my class and the rest are all non-native English speakers.  They are combined from four Russians, four from Thailand, two from Mexico, two from Iraq, one from Ecuador, one from Brazil, one from Malaysia, one from Poland, and one from Libya.  In the end this means that at best I have one person in the class who will understand every word that I say.   I'm very impressed with the kids that are learning in English as their second, or third, language.  This course is tough for native english speakers so they have their work cut out for them.  I still have improvements to make in how I speak to them but I've adapted the way I speak so that they can at least understand the bulk of what I'm saying.   The best part of having all of these people coming to Russia from warmer climates is watching them freeze and complain in only -5C weather.  On the other hand, their excitement to see snow irks me...let's see how much they enjoy it after a few months. 



This post didn't have much for entertainment but mostly used as an update of what I'm doing these days.  I have a few more posts in brewing and I'll try to get back to updating regularly.