Reminders of where I live
This week I have had reminders of where I live. The past few months I had been feeling quite comfortable, almost thinking perhaps things had settled down, and I that the boys and I have pretty much adjusted to life here.
On Monday I came home to find that my phone was not working, and thus also my internet connection was down. Of course I had to wait until the next day to find out why. It turns out the whole phone line was being replaced over the course of several days. They estimated it would be done by Saturday. Of course there was no warning that this would happen, nor any apology for the inconvenience. It is simply how it is.
Once my line was back up and running I realized that I had not been able to register to pay for my monthly usage with the cards that I have to buy monthly. I tried to go to an internet cafe to do so. The computers there would only type in Russian, no one who was there knew how to change the font, and the person who was helping was drunk as he was doing so. Then he charged me for the fact that I could not even login to the internet...
I went to my school instead to try to register. For some reason I could not login. My landlord went today to take care of it. It turns out that you can only login from your own homeline, so as to lessen the possibility of fraud - although even two months ago it was possible to login from anywhere! But if you miss the deadline date for registering your payment, you are screwed because of course you can't get onto the internet...
It seems that circular logic is not really understood here.
Tonight I went to a TGIF with many colleagues to celebrate their new job offers around the world. Cool and nice to know that possibilities will be there when I am ready to go and look myself. The funny part of the evening was that I ended up ordering the meals for everyone. I don't speak fantastic Russian, but I understand faster, and am able to come up with answers and different ways of explaining needs. Of course there were still misunderstandings, but the waiters were really fantastically helpful, kind and smiling throughout the whole process. But I was the one they both came to with questions about the order and requests about all the people's kids who were there. A bit stressful, but an OK feeling that they felt that they could understand me, and that I would understand them.
It also felt good, because in Russian class I just can't get out anything correctly, but when I am in a real situation I can. Strange - because usually it is the other way around for me. I realize that in my Russian usage context is everything. I need to get more context going in the class to increase my vocabulary and grammar knowledge.... :-)
On Monday I came home to find that my phone was not working, and thus also my internet connection was down. Of course I had to wait until the next day to find out why. It turns out the whole phone line was being replaced over the course of several days. They estimated it would be done by Saturday. Of course there was no warning that this would happen, nor any apology for the inconvenience. It is simply how it is.
Once my line was back up and running I realized that I had not been able to register to pay for my monthly usage with the cards that I have to buy monthly. I tried to go to an internet cafe to do so. The computers there would only type in Russian, no one who was there knew how to change the font, and the person who was helping was drunk as he was doing so. Then he charged me for the fact that I could not even login to the internet...
I went to my school instead to try to register. For some reason I could not login. My landlord went today to take care of it. It turns out that you can only login from your own homeline, so as to lessen the possibility of fraud - although even two months ago it was possible to login from anywhere! But if you miss the deadline date for registering your payment, you are screwed because of course you can't get onto the internet...
It seems that circular logic is not really understood here.
Tonight I went to a TGIF with many colleagues to celebrate their new job offers around the world. Cool and nice to know that possibilities will be there when I am ready to go and look myself. The funny part of the evening was that I ended up ordering the meals for everyone. I don't speak fantastic Russian, but I understand faster, and am able to come up with answers and different ways of explaining needs. Of course there were still misunderstandings, but the waiters were really fantastically helpful, kind and smiling throughout the whole process. But I was the one they both came to with questions about the order and requests about all the people's kids who were there. A bit stressful, but an OK feeling that they felt that they could understand me, and that I would understand them.
It also felt good, because in Russian class I just can't get out anything correctly, but when I am in a real situation I can. Strange - because usually it is the other way around for me. I realize that in my Russian usage context is everything. I need to get more context going in the class to increase my vocabulary and grammar knowledge.... :-)
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