Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Comings and Goings

It's been a strange couple of days. Jetlag is finally catching up to me, so last night I was up until ungodly hours. In fact, the sun was already starting to come up again when I fell back asleep. Fortunately, today was another fairly easy day, so I didn't get too worn out. We did, however, stay late discussing logistics for the upcoming Economic Forum this weekend. Basically, Russia wants its own version of Davos, and this is their attempt to get it. Some bigwigs are coming to town, like the Ambassador to Russia, Dep. PM Shuvalov, and President Medvedev himself. I will be missing the festivities, but rest well with the knowledge that I assembled the welcome packets! Wooooo!

Seriously, work is fine. Still having some issues with security, but my computer should (really should this time) be up and running tomorrow, which will make it easier for the bosses to assign me tasks.

This morning was my first classic Russian moment of the summer. I have been given the less-than-enviable assignment of trying to pry loose some price estimates from Russian shops on drapes to go into newly-acquired State Department housing. Silly me, I figured most such places would be open by 10, but only one was. I had no trouble engaging the guy in conversation, but there was the classic culture gap of me, the American, wanting to sort out the details then pay, versus the Russian, who wants to sell me the items then work out the details. Unfortunately, since government policy requires you to take at least three bids on any item, there's no room for negotiation on my side. So the conversation went a little something like this:

Me: Hi, I'm from the American Consulate. We want to buy drapes for a new apartment. Style should be simple, color--brownish. Average fabric, nothing too fancy.
Russian Storekeeper: Ok, so what kind of fabric do you want?
Me: Whatever is most common.
Russian: Well, that depends. How much do you want to spend?
Me: Well, we are taking bids. If you were to give us average drapes with a standard fabric type, what would it cost to fit these dimensions?
Russian: How should I know? I need to know what you want to buy! And what you want to spend!
Me: I'm not buying anything right now. I just want a price: average curtains, brownish, these sizes.
Russian: Well, I can't help you if you don't know what you want.
Me: And I can't buy anything from you unless I know the price. And even then, it won't be until later, so why don't you give me your lowest offer?
Russian: If you aren't buying anything, why are you here?!

At this point, I decided we were getting nowhere and left. I get the feeling this project (which, I might add, has been floating around the office for months and somehow found its way to me) will haunt me for much of the next month or so.

Other than that, not a whole lot. I do, however, have the pictures of my place that I promised. Here they are:





5 comments:

  1. And yet somehow, 4 months from now, this story will be the time you were almost stabbed to death when you wandered into a Russian opium den which you mistook for a drapery shop. There might also be some paratroopers.

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  2. wow, gchat video didn't do your place justice!!

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  3. You'll have to excuse Barnes; he's jealous because the most exciting things that happen in the course of his day tend to fall into two categories: "simulated video game football" and "silly things I saw on ESPN".

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  4. As I look back on the number of arguments I had today which centered around how to use a mouse, I suppose all I can say is "Touché, Charlie." For the record, I also overheard this excellent phone conversation as I was walking home from work:
    "If they get to use a weapon and they get to throw it at 100 miles per hour at my head, I should also get to use a weapon. It's called a fucking baseball bat, and if some guy pitches a 100 mph fastball at my head, I am going to fucking beat him with my bat. I don't understand why people don't see this as fair."

    I couldn't actually see the speaker under his umbrella, so I think I'm just going to tell everyone that it was ARod.

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  5. "I couldn't actually see the speaker under his umbrella, so I think I'm just going to tell everyone that it was ARod."

    Isn't that what everyone in New York does, anyway?

    Also, as a bonus for those of you who read the comments, here's a sentence I edited out of a state department document about Russian-American relations today:

    "She is a Verdi or Puccini type with a big juicy vibration to her style that made her a hit with the audience."

    The article was about an American opera singer giving her first performance in St. Petersburg. I won't swear that was the exact wording after 'style', but the rest is as I found it. Thank you, Foreign Service Nationals, for making my day that much more amusing.

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