So my absence the past several days has been largely due to my having spent most of my days hunting for jobs in Moscow and none of it was terribly noteworthy. I kind of warp Thumper's advice about not saying anything unless you have something nice to say and I tend to prefer the concept of, "Would I want to read about my day today? No... I would pass out from boredom. Okay, so I won't write today."
So the past few days have mostly consisted of job hunting in the mornings and visiting with maybe one student each afternoon. That being said, I actually noticed something interesting about cars... on cars driven by beginning drivers, they are required to have a giant yellow sign with a huge "!" on it so people know they're bad and can avoid them. Nothing particularly exciting about this discovery, but I do think it's an awesome idea that America (and the rest of the world for that matter) should totally adopt.
Today was pretty interesting and I had an errand to run on a side of town I'm unfamiliar with. Sasha went with me, so it ended up being ... well, not as horrible as it could have been if I hadn't had him with me. I was sent to meet with a famous director to discuss the possibility of him directing a movie for a company in the US. He's a big name in the movie industry and I expected it would be terribly difficult to get to see him, but it ended up being mostly painless. The hardest part was actually getting to his office.
His office is situated on a side of town where the metro is ... well, isn't. So you have to either walk about 5km or take the trolley. We managed to find a McDonald's with free wi-fi and found the trolley schedule. Lucky us, we needed to wait for the #7 trolley... which only comes around every 25 minutes... and so for 25 minutes, we saw the #17, the #34, and the #198 come by 50 times (more than just a little bit annoying). We finally made it to our destination without too much trouble and when we managed to locate the office I lucked out and they spoke English.
After leaving, we made our way back to the trolley and got there as it was leaving ... so we waited another 25 minutes. When it finally arrived, we discovered that we actually didn't need to use the metro because the trolley we were on actually went by the institute where we started out... at least we know now for future reference I guess. The traffic was terrible though, and about 15 minutes later we finally got to the end of the street where the trolley just stopped. The driver got out, came back, and announced that the electricity had gone out ... so we filed off the trolley on a side of town we were completely unfamiliar with.
After wandering aimlessly for a few minutes trying to get our bearings, Sasha noticed the top of a building in the distance that was a chemistry institute that he recognized, so we started making our way in that direction. We eventually made it to a trolley stop and figured out where we were and what trolley we needed to catch to get where we were going. We got to a station 2 away from the institute and took the metro the rest of the way. Grabbed lunch on the way in and got some emails taken care of while I waited for them to get their work done.
We headed out about 18.30 and headed to the mall. Tomorrow is the day of chemists and many chemists in Russia celebrate by ... well, you can guess. So we picked up a frisbee for our outing to the park tomorrow. We stopped by some other shops to pick up some various and sundry necessities and despite the terribly windy conditions we practiced with the frisbee for a while.
The frisbee was much thinner than I've ever seen before, and it took some getting used to, but we were mostly familiar with it by the time Anya showed up. We headed back to the mall and grabbed dinner before heading home. Today also marks the end of the school year for some University students, and the final exams for lots of others, so we probably won't be alone in the park tomorrow, but I'm sure we should have a great time at our picnic none the less.
I have plans to meet with a new student in the morning before the picnic, so tomorrow promises to be a very long, but hopefully fun-packed day! My job prospects are going ... interestingly, and I don't really know what to say to update you on my progress. In Russia (and most of Europe apparently), most businesses don't ask for a resumé, but for a CV, which mean Curriculum Vitae ... it's basically a resumé on crack ... and speed. It's much more comprehensive, and actually requires you to talk about yourself as a person, strengths, weaknesses, ambitions, some personal information ... so they know who you are not just as an applicant, but as a person.
Basically my first step before anything else happens is to type that up. I can't imagine there's going to be much calling contacts in America for references, but we'll see what happens there when the time comes. That being said, I have to be up early, so I'd like to apologize for my lack of posting recently (though I did it for your own good =P), and hope you're all doing fantastically. The posting should resume and should be back to its normal frequency though! Take care, and have a great day tomorrow!
So the past few days have mostly consisted of job hunting in the mornings and visiting with maybe one student each afternoon. That being said, I actually noticed something interesting about cars... on cars driven by beginning drivers, they are required to have a giant yellow sign with a huge "!" on it so people know they're bad and can avoid them. Nothing particularly exciting about this discovery, but I do think it's an awesome idea that America (and the rest of the world for that matter) should totally adopt.
Today was pretty interesting and I had an errand to run on a side of town I'm unfamiliar with. Sasha went with me, so it ended up being ... well, not as horrible as it could have been if I hadn't had him with me. I was sent to meet with a famous director to discuss the possibility of him directing a movie for a company in the US. He's a big name in the movie industry and I expected it would be terribly difficult to get to see him, but it ended up being mostly painless. The hardest part was actually getting to his office.
His office is situated on a side of town where the metro is ... well, isn't. So you have to either walk about 5km or take the trolley. We managed to find a McDonald's with free wi-fi and found the trolley schedule. Lucky us, we needed to wait for the #7 trolley... which only comes around every 25 minutes... and so for 25 minutes, we saw the #17, the #34, and the #198 come by 50 times (more than just a little bit annoying). We finally made it to our destination without too much trouble and when we managed to locate the office I lucked out and they spoke English.
After leaving, we made our way back to the trolley and got there as it was leaving ... so we waited another 25 minutes. When it finally arrived, we discovered that we actually didn't need to use the metro because the trolley we were on actually went by the institute where we started out... at least we know now for future reference I guess. The traffic was terrible though, and about 15 minutes later we finally got to the end of the street where the trolley just stopped. The driver got out, came back, and announced that the electricity had gone out ... so we filed off the trolley on a side of town we were completely unfamiliar with.
After wandering aimlessly for a few minutes trying to get our bearings, Sasha noticed the top of a building in the distance that was a chemistry institute that he recognized, so we started making our way in that direction. We eventually made it to a trolley stop and figured out where we were and what trolley we needed to catch to get where we were going. We got to a station 2 away from the institute and took the metro the rest of the way. Grabbed lunch on the way in and got some emails taken care of while I waited for them to get their work done.
We headed out about 18.30 and headed to the mall. Tomorrow is the day of chemists and many chemists in Russia celebrate by ... well, you can guess. So we picked up a frisbee for our outing to the park tomorrow. We stopped by some other shops to pick up some various and sundry necessities and despite the terribly windy conditions we practiced with the frisbee for a while.
The frisbee was much thinner than I've ever seen before, and it took some getting used to, but we were mostly familiar with it by the time Anya showed up. We headed back to the mall and grabbed dinner before heading home. Today also marks the end of the school year for some University students, and the final exams for lots of others, so we probably won't be alone in the park tomorrow, but I'm sure we should have a great time at our picnic none the less.
I have plans to meet with a new student in the morning before the picnic, so tomorrow promises to be a very long, but hopefully fun-packed day! My job prospects are going ... interestingly, and I don't really know what to say to update you on my progress. In Russia (and most of Europe apparently), most businesses don't ask for a resumé, but for a CV, which mean Curriculum Vitae ... it's basically a resumé on crack ... and speed. It's much more comprehensive, and actually requires you to talk about yourself as a person, strengths, weaknesses, ambitions, some personal information ... so they know who you are not just as an applicant, but as a person.
Basically my first step before anything else happens is to type that up. I can't imagine there's going to be much calling contacts in America for references, but we'll see what happens there when the time comes. That being said, I have to be up early, so I'd like to apologize for my lack of posting recently (though I did it for your own good =P), and hope you're all doing fantastically. The posting should resume and should be back to its normal frequency though! Take care, and have a great day tomorrow!
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