Well, this is installment two of my mass email, reason one being that I have been trying to figure out this Schlumberger email thing (which I finally decided I'm not going to use for personal emails anyway) and also because I guess I've been a little busy at work, and don't have much free time on the computer in the office. I've been in Noyabrsk for a little longer than a week now, and still cant follow a Russian conversation. my work schedule is quite hectic, with me getting up at 7, going to the office until 9, then the base where I'm learning what the operators do on-site till 12, go to lunch for about an hour, get back to the base, or maybe the office where I stay till 6, eat dinner and then back to the office till about 930. after that I have to come back to the hotel where I do about 3 hours of studying preparing for my training school which I will have in Kellyville, ok starting Oct 6th. One of the requirements is to learn what the operators do as I will be in charge of them once I break-out and become an actual engineer. that'll be about 5 months from now, when I get done with training. but enough about my job schedule, its boring. Noyabrsk is like a 3rd world city, the apartments are run down, the water is yellow, or sometimes black and never warm, yet I really don't mind too much, particularly for three reasons. The people here are pretty nice, they've learned to live in a remote location like this by themselves (all 90,000 of them) and they do fine, though I personally feel sorry for all the kids I see playing in the street, I was just a tad bit more privileged than them and I didn't do anything really to deserve it. besides the people, the scenery isn't bad (if you don't mind that middle of the forest look). when the airplane began its decent into Noyabrsk, looking out the window, all you see are lakes as far as the eye can see, separated by just little fingers of land with makeshift roads on them. the area farther east, where Noyabrsk is located is all forest though, lot of conifers and other trees, but really swampy. in certain places, you'll walk a couple feet off the road and sink up to your knees in mud you didn't know was there. the scenery's just gorgeous sometimes, with all the trees and lakes and wild flowers. just recently, I went on my first job at an oil rig, it was a special job, and required us to be onsite for quite a while... we left at 8 in the morning on Friday and I finally got back to the hotel around 3 on Tuesday morning. the job was a lot like camping, wilderness all around, just a couple of guys that your with all the time and sleeping in uncomfortable places (like the back of a Volvo semi). I didn't mind it nearly as much as everyone there was expecting me to, I think ill like this job, though its a lot of pressure to get your general field engineer (four promotions away) in the required 30 months. the only other reason this place is bearable is the food. its sad to say, but I think I'm eating better here, in Siberia, than I did the last four years in college. I finally, (for the first time since grade school) get 3 meals in a day. And the food is prepared homemade by these Russian ladies that don't have anything better to do with their time than feed a lot of hungry, dejected (because we're in Siberia in the first place), engineers. I still haven't had borsch, or the small Russian dumplings, pilmenis, but you get a lot of fruits and vegetables, lot of potatoes, and a variety of meats, from pork and chicken, to some meats I'm not quite sure of. I've had a bit of caviar, which I still don't like, it tastes just like fish, but saltier, and oh yea... it pops in your mouth, I guess they're sort of like fish flavored Gushers. well, that's basically it for now, I'm sure ill email you guys later when I know more about what's going on, or when I know when ill be able to come home for a little. feel free to email me to ask me questions (like about the Russian girls or if the sun ever does set this far north) at this point, I only get about 5 emails a week from people back home, and most of them are from my mom, so any response would be welcome, I just cant promise I'll respond within the next 76 hours. :) Ands if you want my contact information, just ask, I dont know it right off hand but I can look it up, I just figured noone wanted to send a package 11 times zones away.

this bellsouth account will be my new email from now on.

hope to hear from you soon, and be prepared for the topic of my next letter: (which I'm not going to try talking about until they finally die off)
Bugs in Siberia: the reason Siberians better in the middle of the winter (when its -50º outside)

later