Another Day in R U S S I A


I am kind of miserable - but it's certainly not Kemerovo or even WV.

I caught site of my back in the mirror this morning and there must be 10 huge welts on it, and needless to say they itch!

I'm getting pretty used to bologna and sausage with cheese for breakfast - the good old European standard!

Since you asked, the Russian's don't speak much French, but I have heard a lot of French tourists. One couple sat by me this morning - tres bien was the only thing I understood.

Yesterday was fairly typical at work. We spent all morning talking about a potential surface plan, but the poor female engineer that V. brought in to talk to us never said a word and he hung around all day and explained things.

Then it took 2.5 hours and two tries before we were done with lunch! After waiting a half hour to order at this nice outside cafe near the office a waiter finally said that the stove was not yet hot and it would be at least 45 minutes - and it was already after 1 PM. So we took N. to the place near the Swedish consulate we had a drink at the other night and I had a ceasar salad. When we got back to the office we worked a while and then came back to the hotel to use the internet. I had to get banking information for the contract - they can't sign it without it for some reason. And I don't think they ever looked at the fax I sent them of the contract!

But the big surprises came in the evening. First - the boat is not on the calm water of the canals but on the BIG river that had so many waves I was afraid I'd get sick just looking at it rocking at the dock. Second - the jazz boat was sold out so it's a blues cruise (actually pretty good - lot's of Clapton, from Layla to his Blues stuff). BUT, the biggest surprise - V and N did not go with us, instead V "hand picked" two young ladies who work at "G" to accompany us! As it turns out they were 24 and 27 year old environmental engineers. Before we got on the boat, I tried to convince them to just leave and we wouldn't tell V., but they said they were looking forward to going. Well, K kind of said that - she spoke fair English actually, but N2. didn't say 10 words in English all night. I told S. I felt like an uncle at a wedding or something. They were actually quite nice - I told them that if V. MADE them go with us that we'd just skip the boat and buy them dinner, especially when they said that they were glad it wasn't jazz, since that's the music their parents like. Of course it is, I said, that's because WE ARE YOUR PARENTS AGE - in fact I have a daughter older than them! As it turns out, K. is married and her father taught her English at home - she has a perfect American accent. I don't know what N2.'s accent was like.

The boat held about 150 people and it finally got rocking after the band came back from their break and played "Back in the USSR." There were six other people sharing our table, three ladies about our age, one man and a daughter. One of the ladies drug me up on the dance floor - well actually just between the tables in the aisle in front of the band. Then N2 was dancing in her chair, so I had to ask her to dance. Man, the price I pay for business!

Afterwards we had sushi - well, THEY all had sushi, I had some chicken terriyaki. But we didn't get done eating until nearly 1 AM and the Japanese food just sat in my stomach all night and kept me awake!

So I'm sure there's lot's more to tell you about the boat and these two nice girls but I'll save that for later!