What Is An Expat?

I’m so lazy. I didn’t get anything done, and tomorrow I leave for Tashkent for a few days. Been really busy with wiring and connecting the new Bullpen in our construction project for the trades guys to work out of. So much to do, and so little planned properly. At least my wireless stuff came in so I can get started on that.

Some of the locals complained about getting shot at while working, so we put up a sign.

I was talking to some of the kids from the warehouse the other day. I’ve been messing with them for a long time. It’s my plan to make them think I am totally crazy. I am not sure I have them totally fooled. Then every so often I give them a peek at the real me. Of course, my backup plan is for them to think it’s all an act so then when I do act bizarrely, they don’t think it’s real. I win either way! Whoohoo! Go me!

Oh yeah, anyways. I was talking to Lena and she kept laughing because I speak slowly. Hello, not my native language! I take the extra time to think about my words because I have to think about each thing I need to say, and want to do it correctly. 5 minutes earlier when she was trying to get me to say I hate Commo Jack she’d misunderstood me. She didn’t hear me say “Ya Ne Nenavizhyu Evo” which is “I don’t hate him” and dropped the first “ne”, which is of course the “don’t” part. But even when I lose I win, so I pouted and made her feel bad today like she hurt my feelings. She didn’t, though I did find it strange, to be sure. It didn’t strike me that funny. It was complicated enough saying we worked together and weren’t best buddies but I had nothing against him, and trying to be clear on the meaning. BAH! Foreigners! (Gotta love ’em, that is!) They made me talk too much yesterday — it’s weird when you are trying to explain something to them, but maybe don’t know a word, so you explain the concept and try to use analogies…and 10 minutes later they come back with the word you’ve been asking about all along. “Is the word for soandso thisorthat?” 10 minutes of conversation later, “Oh, you mean thisorthat!” Had I not been actually saying the correct word repeatedly (and correctly) I would understand. I was asking for the noun form of “to act” or “pritvoryayetcya” which I thought would be “an act” or “pritvoryeniye”. The patterns are there to deduce these, but you never know when they will turn out to be exceptions. It’s only a simple 10 minute question. “I know the goddam verb, what’s the corresponding noun!!!! Is it thishereword?” Life’s funny.

Is it ever going nuts around here! The call has gone out for people for work in Iraq. It’s not part of the current contract I am on but with other sides of the house / other companies. Given the pay difference and some of the silly bullshit going on here, several people have already left, and it really only started around the beginning of this week.

It’s kind of a dilemma for me: there’s more to this place than “just some other country” to me. I’d let my Russian go to crap, and am just now getting it back. It’s a slow process overall but I feel like it’s accelerating a bit. I’d feel bad about dropping it again. On the other hand, the pay sounds truly obscene. I have to keep in mind the main goal ($$) but at the same time there are secondary goals as well. How much importance should be placed on them? At what point does the main goal advance fast enough to throw the secondary goal away? Thinking about this, could I go with the main goal, and have some way to somehow get back here after? I wonder what it will be like as people leave in great big jolly batches — will not directly affect me workwise, since I am my own department but newly found friends are all thinking of their futures.

Too much to think about. It would have been easier never knowing. Who knows, maybe there are no positions. We’ll see. Then the decision comes…

…and boy, do I need to get out of here. It’s affecting my mind — of course one never can be sure with someone like me. (sigh )

So I’m not sure if I am flying on the planelet to Tashkent or if the new bus service will be active by then. To be honest, the thought of a 7ish hour bus ride does not appeal to me. It also could potentially mess with my fuckoff time in Tashkent, both going up and coming back. I’ll definitely be motivated to get out of here, but if I get bumped on the way back maybe I don’t mind so much. Overpriced Sheraton aside, of course.

Here in a nutshell is my basic plan. I’m flying out of Tashkent the 10th to Dublin via Frankfurt. 3 nights in Dublin, wandering around, and then head down to the Dingle Peninsula. I don’t expect them to have berries, as it is reputed to be beautiful down there. Among other things, they have a friendly dolphin you can swim with. Yaay! Dolphins are cool. Hey! This is a great time for me to go back to something else, not really changing the subject per se, but switching gears a lil’ bit, as I like to do. (more…)