September 30, 2007
Russian Adventures
I'm
done with the first leg of the work trip. 2 more weeks to go! Woohoo! And come 11am on Oct 5th I'll be a much happier person.
Anyhow, I'm currently sitting in some lounge at Domodedovo Airport in Moscow, waiting to fly back to London. Russia has really been an experience - I never expected things here to be so freaking expensive (a Macdonald's meal costs about 10 USD here, just as an example), and this morning's flight from St Petersburg made me want to kiss the ground when I got off the plane. Rickety airplanes and lots of air pockets do not make for much peace of mind when you're 35,000 km up in the sky. Even the simple act of checking in at the St Petersburg airport was an experience in itself since all the signs were in Russian and only a handful of the few staff on duty (since it was 5am in the morning) could speak English. But thankfully I made it back to civilisation :)
St Pete's is a really lovely city. Typical European city but much more spacious and much cleaner as well. Lots of historical significance and every other building is an ex-palace (mostly gifts from Catherine the Great to her favourites, most of whom died before the buildings were completed). And clubbing in a Russian nightclub was fairly fun, where we witnessed a dance-off that bordered on the explicit at the end. Another thing that struck me was the enormous wealth that was concentrated (and remains concentrated) in the hands of a very select few.
But the best thing about the trip was the chance to meet up with my colleagues, some of whom I only get to see once a year. It was great fun to be able to spend time with them both socially and professionally. Swapping stories, catching up with each other's lives, taking silly photos - it's almost like it's not even a work trip! :)
Funniest story of the trip: One colleague decided to change her ringtone to a "coo-coo-roo-coo" sound which I guess is the Eastern European version of "cock-a-doodle-doo". During a meeting her phone rang with the new ringtone and she got quite flustered so she tried explaining to the corporate about why she had picked it.
Her words: "I used to live on a farm and the ringtone just reminds me of home because I like waking up to a cock."
Needless to say, it didn't come out the way she had intended :)
Ok, time to rack up more frequent flyer miles! Laters.
Posted by scrabbyfoo at September 30, 2007 08:14 PM