So yesterday. It was bloody cold. -11 degrees or something. And due to my tardiness in getting up, I was late to work. This can be partially be my fault, plus the stupid 63 bus being as full as a japanese train! Seriously people were hanging of it lol. so I decided to get a taxi. Im like abaya leniya shi ti rhi star! (place and price).He agreed. IT WAS A FRICKIN LADA. Omg it reminded me of a volvo 124 (forgive me Hayden if I got the model wrong) with a long throw gearbox lol. The guy dropped the two girls of in the back, and then immediately starting talking to me. I tried to say harosho (good) and da and niet every now and then. I kinda got the feeling he knew I was a foreigner and said english or something, and I said Austrailan, and a big smile was on his face, so I was a little afraid lol. We then talked about Almaty, and it being my first destination outside of Australia. The funniest bit however was when he referred to the girls of kazakhstan. I have been asked this question by many different people,"How do you find the girls in kazakhstan?" to which I usually reply "They are very beautiful". Since he didn't know female or girl in english, he made a suggestive, obscene reference to the chest of a girl, all while driving at 60 km/hr in peak hour traffic. It was hilarious!
Got to work and got straight into it. At the moment Im trying to get as much information as possible on the marketplace that I am researching. Of course its a little harder cos most of it is in russian but nonetheless I am coping. My executive director helped me as much as he could, but language barriers again didn't help. Tried to absorb a lot of macroeconomic reports of almaty and kazakhstan in general to see where the economy is going. Turns out it is relatively booming, which is good for us! Im filling out most of the elaborate marketing plan template on www.wikipedia.org. Wikipedia is quite the awesome. Oh and I met another guy from Phillips from Turkey would you believe. He was cool, he was much an engineer, (AIESEC adelaide, picture Steven Burnside but from Turkey).
I went to the Local committee meeting for AIESEC. I have taken over Olessya's role now, and she is going to come to Australia to do VPTM Adelaide University :P. Apparently I have taken over Galimovas role as well. So busy time for me :P Seriously though, I met some new people, for whom I cant remember their names (sorry guys, but I remember faces though so dw). I think there should be a Talent Management Corner.... Di Man, what do you think? two heads are better than one....
To those people who are unsure why I generally dont kiss girls on the cheek when I greet them, its because Im not use to it. But Ill get into it dw.
IT WAS LUCAS BIRTHDAY TODAY, HAPPY BDAY TO HIM!!!!!! Today, i managed to get up and get the right bus which was surprisingly empty. Then it stopped though, and the driver shouted at me to get out, so I walked up furmanova to get to my work, it was ok but frickin cold. I still need to go to baraholka and get those woolie undergarments. Got to work, talked to the executive director. We were talking about markets, and how we are present in most CIS countries. Something they didn't tell me before was that a customs union is getting passed between Russia Kazakhstan and Belarus. Which means Russian products and companies will able to invade on my territory. Which is more competition dammit. so I have to deal with Russian companies like the company I work for, Russian cheap companies and Cheap Chinese companies. So the rest of the day I was playing strategy over strategy in my head, like when I did so in chess. I came up with a strategy, but I cant mention it on here of course, but I think it should work. I do need a devils advocate to test it though. For Lucas birthday we went to Ultras, which was awesome. We all got Japanese food (yes in kazakhstan go figure) omg it was so good. Tempura prawns, salmon salmon salmon, soup and sweet rice. I MUST PERSONALLY THANK JACQUELINE FENG AND REST OF PEOPLE FOR TEACHING ME HOW TO EAT RICE WITH CHOPSTICKS. YOUR ADVICE REALLY PAID OF TODAY. It was so good. AND PEOPLE SPOKE ENGLISH THERE. Its so good to hear english in a public establishment. And then I heard it again at a computer store!!
The guys from work have decided its easier to teach me Kazakh and Russian then teach them english lol.
Fishing confirmed for Saturday, and Snowboarding for Sunday.
No philosphy today, need inspiration, I figure fishing is so boring it will give me inspiration lol.
OH and some of the work mates want to take me drifting. I wont be driving dont worry, but I do wanna see it. Petrol heads, if you think bag tires on a car slip alot, try normal tires on ice lol. they slip up real good!
Oh and we had more cake today. What is this country about with Cake. I mean seriously. I love cake, and this cake is awesome let me tell you. I saw a xmas display today as well. Was pretty cool.
Random thing from the other week was something that amazed me and I wanted to say Crikey! You know those cable cars? Like the train or trams that have electrical wires protuding from them onto a electricity rail up the top? Well they have a few of them in almaty. I was walking past one, one day and to my disbelief is the driver getting up on top of the train, moving the electrical wires back onto the rails because they had fallen off. I mean these things are serious voltage and serious current, I mean I saw the spark from them lol. I swear these kazakhs have balls man. Australia might have spiders, but kazakhs have different dangers altogether.
Saw an accident today actually. Quite a different post outcome experience though. In Australia, the two cars go to the side of the road, exchange details, and call insurance companies. Here, there is an accident, a few police come, they paint the tires of the offending vehicle, and let them drive on lol! And the glass that was on the road they dont clear up at all!
Ahh the police here are so corrupt. My friend was telling me if you go through a red light you can get a $150 fine. Pretty stock standard fine. But if you negotiate with the police officer, he will accept a bribe of $20.
Anyway guys.
Open as many doors as possible, so when you lose the key, you can still get in.
Regards
Bry bry.
Be Carefull what you write here Bry Bry.
ReplyDeleteUncle Garren
Good to see you are living it large though LOL