Sunday, August 06, 2006
Biking on Saratov hills
Sunday, 6th of August
Yesterday I went biking with Igor and Nabil. Oh, it was so much fun! You can rent mountain bikes at the edge of the city. Behind the buildings is a big hill, one of the hills that surround Saratov. For the start you have to survive a very steep ascent. But once you’re on the top, you find a flat forest area with biking trails. On the edge of the hill you enjoy a spectacular view over the city to the Volga.
Biking in the wood with dozens kinds of greens, sunlight falling through leafs, bird chirping and only us three, I felt very happy. We dived in a peaceful world so different to the city environment, where it is noisy, dirty and grey around the clock. Even in the night you have constantly car noise like hooting and breaking or squealing tires of starting cars.
After the biking we visited Igor at home and he showed us pictures of his visit to St. Petersburg in May. This city is so beautiful! It would be a pity not to go there once, hopefully I will have some time this September. It may be that the bank lets me leave one week earlier… Honestly, I am no use to the bank; I don’t think it should bother them. On Monday I will have to change my work place again, I don’t know where I will sit then. It doesn’t really matter, I don’t get any work, and they don’t allow me access to internet or the internal network or software. This means I don’t even have a computer…
I got a telephone number of a Russian teacher, and I hope that I can take some lessons.
As I’m not the only trainee in Sberbank, I asked the other two trainees what they work and if they have the same problems like me.
Philippe is computer engineer and works in the department for internal network. He was told to reproduce the html code for the internal network. So actually he doesn’t do anything useful to the bank but repeats work that is already done. Anyways he is quite happy because he learns a lot. Philippe, Melissa and Marie-Eve will leave on Wednesday.
Nabil had about 5 meetings with his boss (he is here for 4 weeks now), where they discussed what Nabil could work. They try to find something, however until now he doesn’t have anything to do. He takes his laptop to the office and writes a paper for his university in France.
The local AIESEC committee did not really care when I told them about the situation. They are happy to have foreign trainees here and blame Sberbank for the bad quality of the traineeship, because Sberbank accepted non Russian-speaking trainees. Hm hm, what should I say… I have enough AIESEC experience to kick their ass if I want. On the other hand, I’m having actually a good time here and I use the time at work to learn Russian and to connect to non-AIESEC people.
¶ 7:21 PM 
Yesterday I went biking with Igor and Nabil. Oh, it was so much fun! You can rent mountain bikes at the edge of the city. Behind the buildings is a big hill, one of the hills that surround Saratov. For the start you have to survive a very steep ascent. But once you’re on the top, you find a flat forest area with biking trails. On the edge of the hill you enjoy a spectacular view over the city to the Volga.
Biking in the wood with dozens kinds of greens, sunlight falling through leafs, bird chirping and only us three, I felt very happy. We dived in a peaceful world so different to the city environment, where it is noisy, dirty and grey around the clock. Even in the night you have constantly car noise like hooting and breaking or squealing tires of starting cars.
After the biking we visited Igor at home and he showed us pictures of his visit to St. Petersburg in May. This city is so beautiful! It would be a pity not to go there once, hopefully I will have some time this September. It may be that the bank lets me leave one week earlier… Honestly, I am no use to the bank; I don’t think it should bother them. On Monday I will have to change my work place again, I don’t know where I will sit then. It doesn’t really matter, I don’t get any work, and they don’t allow me access to internet or the internal network or software. This means I don’t even have a computer…I got a telephone number of a Russian teacher, and I hope that I can take some lessons.
As I’m not the only trainee in Sberbank, I asked the other two trainees what they work and if they have the same problems like me.
Philippe is computer engineer and works in the department for internal network. He was told to reproduce the html code for the internal network. So actually he doesn’t do anything useful to the bank but repeats work that is already done. Anyways he is quite happy because he learns a lot. Philippe, Melissa and Marie-Eve will leave on Wednesday.
Nabil had about 5 meetings with his boss (he is here for 4 weeks now), where they discussed what Nabil could work. They try to find something, however until now he doesn’t have anything to do. He takes his laptop to the office and writes a paper for his university in France.
The local AIESEC committee did not really care when I told them about the situation. They are happy to have foreign trainees here and blame Sberbank for the bad quality of the traineeship, because Sberbank accepted non Russian-speaking trainees. Hm hm, what should I say… I have enough AIESEC experience to kick their ass if I want. On the other hand, I’m having actually a good time here and I use the time at work to learn Russian and to connect to non-AIESEC people.
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Hi,
Interesting blog. I have been going to Saratov since 1996. I am trying to open a business account at Sberbank. See you.
The Technical University organises Russian language courses, at least in the Summer. I didn't know about the mountain bikes. I will try that. I went cross country skiing earlier this year on top of the hill. Great Fun.
PCO
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Interesting blog. I have been going to Saratov since 1996. I am trying to open a business account at Sberbank. See you.
The Technical University organises Russian language courses, at least in the Summer. I didn't know about the mountain bikes. I will try that. I went cross country skiing earlier this year on top of the hill. Great Fun.
PCO
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