How long ago did you have a breathtaking journey last time? If you’re looking for one, you should definitely try taking a train from any to any location in Russia. Yes, EXACTLY, a train, and not a first-class, but a regular one, and at an economy class fare. This means that you would travel in a “platz kart” car – people can sleep there, but compartments have no doors. This is the most modest price for traveling by train, so that most people can afford it. And since this is the type of fare that the common lot can pay, the most that you will see on such a journey will be the most – and “the best” – of the Russian common lot.

That was exactly what I saw yesterday and today on my trip to Tambov, my hometown. The travel takes 9+ hours, most of which you basically sleep, but even the 2 hours I was awake caused me so much embarrassment for my own folk that I still can’t come to after what I’ve experienced. This is the n’th time I’ve encountered such things, but I can never get used to them all the same.

After I boarded the train and approached my seat, I discovered that my fellow-passengers were an elderly couple and a young man. Here came my first never-ending shock – the couple were eating a roasted chicken. You know, somehow it’s considered to be “cool” in Russia – to eat on a train, no matter if it is day or night, if you had a chance to eat at home or somewhere else prior to departure, or even if the lights will go off 30 minutes after the train sets off. There is always time for eating on a train – it appears an axiom for many people here. And if two people make their minds to eat on a train, the choice of dishes is usually the one with the strongest smell (so that it could travel around the whole car making some people hungry and others sick) – that would be roasted chicken, sausages, “beach soups” (Doshirak or Ramen or whatever), salted or smoked salmon and beer (oh my favorite! This smell gets the furthest), or something of that nature. So the first thing I saw were the elderly couple smearing their fingers in grease, scraping chicken bones with their teeth, wiping their hands and mouths on a kitchen towel and NOT WASHING them at any time between the departure and the time the lights went off. I could smell their chicken right at the entrance door of the car.

As the sleeping time approaches when you are on a train, you can notice another astonishing transformation. Suddenly, many women start undressing (it doesn’t matter that at least 6 people around can see them) and changing into dressing gowns! And – oh my goodness – I wouldn’t mind that if it looked sexy, but it hell DOESN’T! Imagine a 65-year-old lady taking off her three sweaters and pants right in front of you. Fortunately, I’ve never seen anybody take their artificial jaws out yet. Anyways, I always wonder why they don’t go to the restroom or at least hide under their blanket and change there. Men also often undress and you can spot them wearing only boxers and t-shirts as if it were the most natural thing to do on a train. Yet I’m delighted to make a note here that this doesn’t refer to the majority of young people; youth just tend to go to bed fully dressed. However, this whole situation depends on where people come from – the smaller the town they live in, the more unaware they tend to be about their behavior and the hurt feelings of their fellow-passengers.

Next paragraph should be about 56 pairs of smelly feet in one car at +30 Celsius, but I’d better not go for it.

Here should be a paragraph about conversing in full voices, snoring, sneezing, coughing, blowing noses et cetera et cetera what people can deliberately or involuntarily do at night to achieve the best effect as the one of keeping others awake (even if you have less than 7 hours to sleep in total).

The last thing would be that the car conductor wakes you up a whole hour before arrival! All 56 people urge to queue outside the two restrooms to administrate their usual morning procedures. And certainly they do that as quickly and gracefully as if they were in their own cozy bathroom at home. I prefer sleeping till 20 minutes before the train reaches the platform, but somehow others don’t like that and apply biggest efforts to bring me into the state closest to the dizzy and unnerving one of their own by hitting my feet, dropping things on me, talking loudly on the phone or turning up the radio right above my ear whenever possible. Thank you very much to those most considerate passengers.

If after such journey you step off the train in bright spirits and all set for the long new day – then you’re in the right country to travel! Welcome to Russia and its most reliable means of transportation.

:)

I wonder how high the ratings were of those tv channels yesterday which broadcast men's skating finals. I can't remember the 4,5 minutes when Plushenko did his turn - solemn, focused, with an unusually straight face - I only remember how everybody around was silent, and even the commentators held their breaths not to blow away Zhenya's concentration, and my hurt was thumping in my ears. I couldn't hold tears when he span his last turn and came to a halt uttering, "Vsyo!" ("That's it!") and the smile finally brightened his eyes. 'Cuz everybody knew how hard it was for him to bear the status of a favorite, especially in the light of Salt Lake City Games, now that he had to win not for the country, rather for himself. I believe these 4,5 minutes were the most important and the hardest in his life. I can't say that there were a lot of people who I admired in my life, but Plushenko is definitely one of the few.

And I thought nothing would spoil the rest of the day (better say night) before I went to bed yesterday, until Johnny Weir was thrown THAT far from the podium. I sincerely cheered for him and hoped he would get at least bronze after the Belgian guy's excellent skating. Why did the judges give him such low marks? He was definitely better than Buttle. Just because he's 18 and is kinda just starting? Give me a break, Weir deserved the medal more than anyone after Plushenko. I reckon in the next Olympics he'll be the one competing for the gold.

But yesterday, damn, I was really disappointed.

I keep returning to this thought all the time. Especially now that I've been offered a new job position - the one completely different from what I'm doing now. I again find myself between two fires: what is better for a job, doing something noble or earning a decent leaving?

Of course, I would prefer doing both at the same time, but at present no successful combinations of the two seem available... So I have to decide. On the one hand, I would prefer working in an NGO, preferably on youth projects, promoting youth participation, education, and use of ICTs for positive change. On the other hand, I'm sick and tired of trying to make ends meet in a beast of a city as Moscow. Here, again, comes what I would call pressure of public opinion, especially for young people, which pushes smart youth to pursue highly-paid positions with multinational companies, or at least well-known Russian ones. I can't say that I'm fully independent from it. Yes, I want to be successful. At the same time, I wish to get accomplished as a resourceful person who can really make change in other people's lives by managing big development or education projects. But that doesn't pay really well. Especially now. Especially in Russia, where the state is persistenly gaining control over all kinds of NGOs.

I don't want to work for a manufacturing, or mining, or food multinational. Nor nationals. I would only go for a company that offers intellectual services as a product. IT or software solutions maybe. Or human resources. Or something where I won't be striving to increase sales or pursuade customers to use unnecessary things or services. Now I've been offered to work as a translator for a tv company working with foreign producers. No project management, no partnership development - only translations and occasional simultaneous interpretation at meetings. But it pays really well for my age and experience. I'm starting to question my experience more and more often. Is it really so good as I picture it in my CV?

So, no management power at all on this position. But a nice atmosphere, fun working with foreigners, young people in staff, exciting environment, good pay (can't stop mentioning this). Maybe I'm just not sincere enough to sacrifice good living for a noble job. Or maybe I'm just fed up with living at a subsistence level during my adolescence and college years. Maybe I do want to start saving money for my own appartment or for the time when I retire and decide to travel the world finally :) I keep thinking that maybe I'm too young to think about that yet, but the life seems to be so fast and opportunities so rare...

Who's suffering the severest sheesha effect?