Finally... another email

Hi,
Excuse me in advance for the length of this novella, but theres a lot I want to mention, a lot I have experienced, and presently, a lot of time on my hands. Each of these alone would contribute to a moderate sized email, but as its been almost 3 months since my last email, and I have told more than half of you that I would send out an email soon (almost 3 months ago I started saying that), its about time for it all to come out. So, where do I start? How about with my trip to jail.

Yes, you heard me correctly, but I will give you a little background on the situation before going straight to the fun part. My friends and I decided one night to go walking around on the streets of Nizhnevartovsk, the city I currently reside in when I am in Siberia. Almost everyone during the summer time follows this course, as they need to get as much of the outdoors as possible before the cold comes in and makes it impossible to stay out for more than a few minutes. Once the snow clears from the ground, tents pop up around the city offering food, drink, and music, allowing the locals a little reprieve from the monotonous life that is consequence of living in an isolated community. (The nearest city to the place I am living is 1 hour by car) One night, while our group was reveling in the freedom from work we finally attain after 9 PM, we received a call that a fellow coworker was being detained at the police station, though we didn't know the exact reason why. Upon hearing this, we jumped into the car and arrived at the police station to see if we could offer any assistance and perhaps ascertain what the trouble was. Apparently after leaving us at around 11, my friend desperately needed to use the facilities while walking back to his apartment. Having a journey of more than 20 minutes until arrival, and there being few public facilities open even during daylight hours, he found woods close by and decided to make the best of what nature had to offer. A police officer happened to see this, resulting in the call I have mentioned previously. Apparently, from what I have heard, this is not quite an uncommon occurrence, as even a slight transgression as this can grant the officer a decent monetary tip at the end of the day. So there we were, waiting outside the police station, a friend going inside to see what could be done to help, when a quite irritated police officer came out telling us to leave the premises immediately. It was decided to wait for departure until our second friend returned as we were not about to leave a second person in the station without knowing exactly what was going on. In the 10 minutes it took until he came back outside, the officer had noticed I was a foreigner and wanting to cause a little bit more trouble for us, asked to see my passport. Now as I have learned, it is not the best idea to leave your passport on your person especially when living a day to day life in Siberia, and as such I did not have anything to offer the officer. My excuses of it being in my apartment weren't well heeded and he proceeded to conduct me into the station as well. The two remaining friends outside tried to help for the time being, however the officer was stern in his response. I at this point was not afraid in the slightest, as I knew I had done nothing wrong, however when looked upon in retrospect, I realize I probably should have been more wary though at that point there was nothing more I could do to help myself. I simply told these two remaining friends the whereabouts of my passport in the apartment and wished them luck, though obviously I didn't have much to give. I was placed in a cell, which was fortunately empty while I waited for what was to come. Apparently about 30 minutes after my entrance, the two of my friends in that station came out, the first of which having received a slap on the wrist as well as paying a fine of 30 dollars which went straight into the officer's pocket. While one friend returned to the apartment to get my passport, the remaining friends requested to know what they had done with me and why I was being treated like this. After a heated 10 minute discussion between them and the officer who had put me in, he realized this whole thing was more trouble than it was worth and let me loose, though not without throwing some off color remarks at us as I was walking out. Overall, not an extremely action packed experience, though it grants me the opportunity to state that I have been to Siberian prison, or at least a holding cell, a feat, though interesting, will doubtless be left out of my next resume.

Following my run in with the police, I began to prepare for my next vacation. A couple problems had arisen which somewhat limited my possible destinations. First of all, my Visa was about to expire in Russia and as one fortunate consequence, the Russian government required me to leave the country in order to accomplish this. Early vacation! So now that I knew I could leave, I was forced to choose a destination outside of the US. I learned prior to my plans that federal taxes must be paid by all citizens of the US, UNLESS that individual can stay away from the country for 30 out of the 365 days that make up a year… I was at 29. Making a long story short, I arrived in Sydney, Australia the beginning of July after having bought two separate plane tickets, and traveling 22 hours to a city halfway across the world. My final decision to go there was mostly because I was trying to visit an English speaking location where I could relax while still experiencing a new local. One thing about Australia: its huge. It turns out that when you compare the size of Australia to the US, it covers almost the 2/3rds the entire continental US. Granted, its not three times the size of it as Russia is, but still its pretty daunting when I originally thought it would be like visiting another country in Europe. Needless to say, the 2 weeks I was there wasn't near enough time to experience basically anything but the occasional beach and perhaps a bar or two... or three (hey, I said I was relaxing!)

As all good things come to an end, I ultimately made the trip back to Siberia a day after my birthday to begin work again. To my surprise, I obtained a package while I was in Moscow that was sent from the States. Enclosed was a group of envelopes containing birthday cards. I want to thank all of you that sent cards to my Mom allowing her to send them to me, and also to all the people that sent to my Dad, where they remain until my return. I know in the past I have never given an address of the location I am staying, mostly as I never know exactly which of the 4 locations in Siberia that I will be staying, however I guess now its about time I give you all at least some contact information if you ever wish to get a hold of me.

First is the address of the office in Moscow. If it is sent (even with writing in English) in care to myself, I should have no problem to receive it during my subsequent visit to Moscow. The address is:
Richard Alesi
Schlumberger Logelco Inc.,
Taganskaya 9
Moscow 109004
Russia

Phone numbers are a different matter, though I will be trying to get a full time cell phone in Siberia in the near future. I presently have a cell phone in Moscow, but I'm never actually there long enough to effectively make use of it.

One thing I have grown accustomed to since joining Schlumberger is how I am always transferred from one extreme to another. As it was beginning to get cold last year in Siberia, I hopped on a plane for training in Alexandria, Egypt. It had just begun snowing in Russia while at that time, Egypt was going through a drought. I then finished with Egypt just around Christmas time to arrive in Tennessee to be greeted by +65 degree weather. However, none of this prepared me for getting off a plane 2 weeks later in Siberia and greeted by a windy 30 degrees below freezing. This occurred twice more, leaving the snow in Russia to see the onset of spring in the States, as well as arriving in Sydney in the middle of their winter with hopes of surfing all along the coast. And yet, it continues… Just a few weeks ago, I was stranded on an oilfield in the middle of the forest, no sign of civilization for about 100 miles, and now I am sitting in a classroom in Edinburgh, Scotland's capital to complete the training I began in Egypt. One thing I can happily say is that life hasn't lacked in excitement since I began in Paris last year, though occasionally I am subject to the occasional day of sitting at the wellsite in the rain, soaked to the core, getting my entire coverall caked with mud while trying to successfully complete a job.

A few more things before I go… I understand this has been a long email and thanks for keeping up with it. I plan on being home sometime this Christmas, it seems I am one of the few people that have their schedules worked out to the point that they can get Christmas off, not even considering getting it off 2 years in a row. I hope to see all of you then. I started up a site a few months ago, which I haven't done a very good job updating (its surprisingly difficult to update something online when you don't even have a phone line i.e. the wellsite) Anyway, I hope to update it in the future, and besides it has all my past emails to all of you on it. So if by some mistake, or act of God, you failed to receive a past post, check it if you want.

For now, I want to say farewell, good luck to Matt on his future wedding plans, a thank you to all who sent me something for my birthday, even if I haven't physically seen most of it, and an additional thank you to the three of you that filled out a card the last minute to send with my mother on her trip to meet me in England.

Hope to hear from you soon,

Rich

Oh… and the website I referred to earlier is http://scio.blogspot.com