Job Discussion Forums

[richard ame]

hi again
Yes I forgot the cheap beer as well about 50 pence sterling Efes not bad compares well with most lagers back in the U.K but I miss a drop of Guinness, don't forget the warm sea I'll be swimming in May and the fish is about a pound a kilo by the way Dire Straits had nothing to do with "meet the newboss,sameas the old boss" that was The Who and won't get fooled again ,reminds me cassettes and C.D's are a third of the price here .

[dmb]

I agree with you about the price of beer in the gulf. But after babysitting about twenty teenagers in 45 degrees. There is nothing better than a pint of ice cold Guiness at the end of the day. Even if it does cost 2 pounds 50 -in happy hour!!

[Kent F. Kruhoeffer]

Hi Scott:

It's me again. I got so excited about cheap beer I almost forgot the "one" really special thing about being in Russia.

Over twenty years ago, as a naive and optimistic university student studying political science, I had always had a fascination with the 'mythos' of the Soviet Union; Marx & Engles, the Politburo, and of course, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin himself. I had heard or read somewhere that his dead body had been kept "alive" so to speak, in a refrigerated mausoleum on Red Square.

Well, on New Year's Eve 2003, I took the 16 hour train ride from Samara to Moscow, arriving on New Year's Day at Red Square just before dawn in a heavy snowfall.

After circling the Kremlin for an hour or more on foot and chatting with a Kremlin guard in Russian, I finally arrived at Lenin's Mausoleum to the sight of maintenance workers shoveling off the front steps. "Could it be that they were actually open on New Year's Day?", I asked in broken Russian. Not even looking up from the shoveling task at hand, the guy replied, "Da. 11 o'clock open." "How much ticket?", I asked. "It's free", he said. WHAT?? Nothing's free in Russia these days! I was so shocked I asked him again.

Long story short; I went back at 11 o'clock, stood in line for 30 minutes, and then walked down a few stairs into a purplish-coloured neon-lit vault, and there he was; dressed in a suit, lying on his back in what looked like a big fish aquarium. It was, I must say, one of the most memorable moments of my entire life. Just to be there, you know, standing next to 'Comrade' Lenin in the middle of Red Square on a snowy New Year's Day.

Anyway, you couldn't do that back home, now could you? EFL. It's not just a job; it really is an adventure.

AllTheBest,
keNt

[expatgirl]

To add to the list (do we have all the ethnic varieties yet?) the best thing here for a cook are the supermarkets that carry every product imaginable -well I guess Arabia is at the x-roads of Africa, Europe, Asia (and the Americas) So wherever you are from, you can find your "brand" or food item you can't live w/out.
The latest are the S Africans - resourceful as ever - who have taken over the biggest ex-pat food chain, and carry all my faves from childhood!
Talk about as happy as a bug in a rug! - Foodwise

[Roger]

To Kent,
I liked your post on how you "met" Comrade Lenin in Moscow Himself very much! Russia IS a special place!
I spent a month back in 1989, when the old system began falling apart. I was living in Moscow with someone who had invited me (thus my special privilege of living in a private home, not conceivable otherwise at that time!), and we made an illegal trip to St. Petersburg, or Leningrad as it was called then!
I was scared stiff on the train because my visa allowed me to travel just 30 kms around Moscow, but my Russian hostess even managed to start a vociferous quarrel with me in the crowded carriage.
In Moscow she found a Russian painter, and the two of them communed heavily, talking about the "End of the world" just like two missionaries among heathen would. Then another guy joined them (I was but a bystander, not understanding RUssian, and them not caring one iota about me) who was an astrologer.
My hostess eventually translated to me that he prophesied "very grim times indeed".
Next thing I saw an English caption on a poster nailed to a boarded-up; window: "No problem!" It was like a joke on our feelings!
The country was in such a state then that you could take a train to anywhere with nobody asking to see your pass (I was told I needed a special pass as I was not a Soviet citizen).
We literally fled to Estonia and arrived in pre-independent Tallinn.
We boarded at a private home. The family were truly cosmopolitan - the woman speaking German, and everybody knowing Russian. The woman was in a position to tell me that she was looking forward to the coming independence (which she could not communicate to my Russian hostess for diplomatic reasons!).
The rest is history - the Baltics are now separate from Russia, and there is a new, albiet unprofitable EFL market there.
How I long to visit Moscow, St. Petersburg and Tallinn!

[bnix]

I am in a small town in Korea,on the western coast.Two very good things here:

The people I work with let me teach English and do not meddle with my teaching methods.After some places I have taught( with some English "experts" who cannot even SPEAK English,but try to tell people how to TEACH English)...this is very refreshing indeed!

The people in this town are very friendly and many know me by my first name.This is a refreshing change from working in the anonymity of a big city.

Downsides?It is rather isolated...and a bit difficult...especially in cold weather.Not too much to do.I really like Korean food...but sometimes I do yearn for a Big Mac...so on the bus to the nearest town with a McDonalds.

[itslatedoors]

Water sports and dune bashing are incredible.Oh yeah and KENT Europeans drink lager cold.Ales and Guiness are served at room temperature.Then again,being North American you probably don't know much about GOOD beer with all the 'pish' you drink over there. .

[bnix]

It sounds like it to me.We also have some good beers in the US,in addition to pish(whatever the hell that is).For my money, the BEST beer is Plzensky Prazdroj, from Pilsen,The Czech Republic.It is also known as Pilsner Urquell.Of course,I do not pretend to have tried all,or even many beers...but in my experience that is the best one.

[itslatedoors]

Try Radegast from Ostrava or Gambrinus,they're much smoother than prazdroj.

[Seth]

I've bartended in London before, the beer there was crap and most lagers served luke warmish. Carling being the worst of it. The Australians I worked with complained endlessly about having to drink warm beer all the time. Half the pubs are owned by Bass so most pubs serve the same thing along with way too many advertisements for alco-pop. They also came out with 'Guinness extra cold' while I was there, apparently not served at room temperature. Most of the 'import' beer was brewed in Belgium and tasted generally the same. I used to frequent a Canadian pub called 'The Maple Leaf' just to get real bottles of ice-cold Molson and watch a little hockey. I liked the beer in Scotland better.

There's not much of an ESL market in Scotland, though. How I miss Scotland.

About (aboot?) China, I like the scenery the best, always fascinating and occasionally unpolluted. Outside my window I can see mountains and a pagoda if the air is clear enough.

[itslatedoors]

I have no axe to grind with North Americans.I have and have had many great North American friends and even girlfriends.Certain things are however, generally true about North America/Americans.The beer is truly awful.A lot of the women are very large.When you are in a restaurant in Europe and there are Americans there,they are the loudest motherf*****s in the place.They generally don't know much about the world outside America.I've only met one American who I've truly detested, a hippy *beep* called Kurt Brandhorst who worked in Poland. Then again he had a degree in philosophy,no teahing quals and considered himself to be an elt guru .I once saw him turn away a girl who had come to register for an exam 5 minutes late despite the fact that she had come from Gdansk,(to Poznan), a 5 hour train journey.He told her to come back the next day. In fact,just thinking about it, if I ever see him again ,I'll kick his ass,just for fun.

[johnslat]

There are a lot of good beers in the States these days, thanks in large measure to the rise of the " mini-brewrey ". Back bfore I bagan to total tea ( actually, tea's not my cup of tea, but nobody's coined the word coffeetotaler yet ), I sampled a fair number of them. Here's a web site that'll give those of you still off the wagon some good tips:

http://www.beerhunter.com/documents/19133-001742.html

Regards,
John

[scot47]

I started this asking about ONE GOOD THING in your country of residence. And all I get is ant-Americanism from looney English - and beer commercials !

I give up. I am going back to being a grouch !

[Celeste]

I am in F ukuoka city, Japan. The weather is pretty good. The transportation is excellent. Most of the city is really flat, so walking and cycling are easy to do. We have a nice beach. There is a Costco, so I can cook to my heart's content. The money is good. The job is easy compared to past teaching jobs I've had. The beer? So far, so good.

[Kent F. Kruhoeffer]

Dear Scot47:

As long as you're the "Grouch" from Sesame Street, I will accept you just the way you are. I've always wanted to be Cookie Monster. Me love cookie!


Regards,
kEnt