Introduction:
In 2009/2010 I was teaching English as a second language to international students in my home town in Australia. Tired of hearing about all of their adventures from other parts of the world, I decided that I needed a few of my own. I applied for positions teaching English in Chile, Turkey, Russia and a few other places, but the Russian company got back to me the fastest and with the best deal. So, in February 2011, I packed a suitcase and left Australia for a city called Krasnoyarsk in Siberia. I worked at a school called Business School – Link and taught English to everyone from kindergarteners to executives at one of the biggest gold-mining companies in Russia. While I was there I wrote emails home to my family telling about my life there. They are here for anyone who may be interested in reading them.
Part 1 – 24 February 2011.
Dear all,
I have arrived in Krasnoyarsk and am doing well, all things considering. Nastya, my manager, gave me a lovely welcome and has been looking after me so well. She even lent me some mittens and a beanie to help me and holds onto me when I walk across the ice, because the first thing I did when leaving the airport was slip on the ice and thwack my head on the ground. It’s ok, my head bounced. I have a headache now, but that’s mainly from lack of sleep I think. I got an hour or so in Beijing and maybe 4 hours on the flight. Then I was shown my apartment and got some more, after I had a shower and discovered that I couldn’t drink anything in my house. I wanted to go for a walk and have a look to find a little shop near where I live (quite close to the school by the way; when it warms up I can walk there). I didn’t go in the end because my hair was wet and I didn’t want to risk it. I should buy a hairdryer, but today I used the central heating pipes to dry my hair. Staff from the school also came round to my apartment and saw what things need to be fixed, or things that I need to buy (I don’t have a toilet seat yet) but I had a shower, the water works, the electric stove works – painfully slowly – I think it takes about an hour to boil a pot of water, but never mind. I’ll also use bottled water. The tap water Nastya said is fine for teeth brushing, but I got the impression the pipes are a bit old, and the locals seem to drink bottled water anyway so I’ll do what they do. I bought some fruit from the shops: they had red delicious apples and pears, for sale cheaper than in Australia. The school has also given me sheets, towels, cleaning products (because the tenant before me didn’t clean it very well…. actually his things are still there, apparently he’s coming tomorrow at about midday to finish moving out) and pots and pans and kitchen gear.
So many things have happened and are floating around my head, but so far I can only say good things about the company. They just gave me a 1000 ruble advance in my pay, and they’ve only just met me! They took me to my apartment, they took me to school, they fed me and gave me tea and coffee, they let me sleep, they’re going to let me aclimatise a little bit so that I start work properly on Monday. I can’t believe it! It’s not only civilised, I feel so special! It is unbelievably cold outside – now it’s not too bad, -15 celcius. Nastya said this is probably the last week of really cold weather, but when we landed this morning it was -32 C. Next week she expects it to warm up a bit to -10 or even 0. She said spring is coming soon, but it will be cold until about April. Actually, I said I came from +34 C weather and she got confused and said +24. I suppose it doesn’t really make a big difference to her, just as -20 and -30 are easily confused, but the reality is different! At the airport, in the field, there was about 4 ft of snow and a path cut through it, like u cut a path through a sugarcane field. The man sitting across from me in the plane just had a t-shirt on for the flight, and that made sense, but he didn’t have a jacket with him. I suppose he assumed that there would be a heated walkway to the terminal. There wasn’t. As we were standing up, preparing to leave the flight, I looked out the window and saw them wheeling uncovered stairs up to the aeroplane. The cabin crew were fine. As part of their uniform they have enormous down jackets with hoods that come down to their knees, then they have boots up to their knees, so they’re prepared for anything. The locals were also prepared and most other people, despite being cold had a winter jacket of some sort with them to wear into the airport, except this guy. He was noticeably nervous when he saw the stairs approaching. We got on a bus and he started shivering, but tried to make it look like he wasn’t. I suspect he’d led a comfortable life in China and didn’t realise things would be different in Russia – he learnt fast!
Then we drove home. There’s a serious problem with the driving here. Although the roads are clear, steam comes off the cars as they drive: it comes off the wheels and the exhaust pipes, especially so for trucks. In fact, if you drive behind a truck, there is so much of it, you can’t see anything at all, so if you change lanes you are driving completely blindly. We stopped off at the supermarket on the way home. Because I didn’t have any rubles, Nastya offered to lend me some. In the end, she didn’t need to – my Mastercard worked, no problem. The guy who came with Nastya to meet me was was called Dima and he texted while driving a Lada with suspicious brakes, blind from the steam of the 18-wheeler in front, while not wearing a seatbelt. He put the seatbelt across his body to drive past police. Petrol is quite cheap here too – about 30-40 rubles – about a dollar a litre anyway, and you buy it according to the octane number you want.
We arrived at my apartment, I figured out the shower and washed my hair. I couldn’t go out to buy water (which I forgot to get at the supermarket) until my hair dried anyway, so I had a sleep. I felt a bit dazed and confused afterwards, but I came to school and ate something and have been drinking a lot of coffee and am feeling much better! Dinner I think will be bread, sausages and fruit, which is not fancy, but will keep me going. I love the cheese here. I bought some Jarlsburg – I love it! I also have tea, coffee and fresh milk at home. I bought the milk in a funny sachet thing, because it costs extra to buy it in a bottle and it’s exactly the same product. I drank a little bit of that when I was at home because I was desperate for a drink and didn’t want to risk the water unboiled. It is pasturised, still tastes like milk, but has a really funny farm-like aftertaste. It’s like milk from a different animal. It’s not great, but drinkable, and I think in coffee it’s not a problem.
I met the other two teachers who work here. Matt, is from the US and asked if I lived in Perth. I said no, Brisbane, and he asked how I went with the floods. I was amazed: a worldly US citizen – maybe he’s a spy? I also met Daniel, who is from Camaroon, and I think it will be excellent working with him. He just came into the little teachers’ room where I was writing this and spoke to me in French. He told me he’s only going to speak to me in French, unless there is someone else who only speaks English/Russian, then he switches. They all seem very impressed that I can read and speak a little Russian, but to be honest, at the airport there is no English and on the plane the cabin crew all spoke to me in Russian too – so it’s a good thing! I also didn’t need any help filling in my visa form, because it was only in English and Russian, and most of the other passengers, who spoke Chinese, did. They have all been asking me about the floods in Brisbane. They think they’re so lucky to have someone from Australia where everything is upsidedown. I told them about the crocodile going for a walk in the street in Gympie and the shark swimming down the road in Ipswich and they thought it was a great story. The other foreign teachers have been here for 2 and 3 years respectively, which is quite a low turnover. This is a good sign and I feel very lucky to have a job here. The town itself is beautiful, the people seem to be much happier and more relaxed than in Almaty, and you can tell by the way they drive – much less honking going on, and a little more order to the driving. Everyone here by the way wears fur, well to work anyway. They all have mink coats and hats. When they’re in their casual clothes, they wear down jackets and jeans, but at work they wear high heeled boots (that have serious grip on the soles) and mink coats and leather gloves lined with fur because it’s more professional. The school itself is cute but nice I think. It’s not fancy, but it has everything you need and seems to be in better condition than Almaty.
That’s about all for now, and I need more coffee. Lots of love to you all – please keep me updated with what’s happening where you are! Take care and talk soon,
Jane
3 Years in Siberia 