06/20/2006

I woke up at 4:30. Moscow is quite north, so there is a lot of daylight. It

reminds me of Anchorage as well as that movie ‘Insomnia.’ Dave and I spent some

time emailing from our blackberries and talking smack about our Seattle-based

co-workers. I ate cereal, yogurt, and a banana for breakfast. We walked to the

store to buy some more breakfast food. This was quite painful as my shoes and

my feet really are getting along. Dave was brave enough to buy some bananas

from a street vendor. We goofed off as we waited for Alex and Natalyia to

arrive.

Nataylia (who is a doctor) arrived and begin to tend to my feet. She rigged up

a system using some spare socks so that I could walk more easily and we headed

out to the metro. Walking was quite slow for me and Nataylia was a very

observant and concerned doctor. At the electroskaya stop, Natalyia decide to

stop off at a pharmacy and buy some band-aids, ointments, etc. Arriving at

Mirantis at noon, the first order of business was to take care of my feet; a

request was made to Mirantis to get me a pair of sandals instead.

We started off with an interview. Andrey and Dmitry wanted me to lead, so I

asked him my typical closed polygon question. He had quite a bit of trouble. He

English was passable but difficult to understand. In addition, he wasn’t a

strong candidate and couldn’t see the solution clearly. It was very interesting

to watch the interaction from Andrey, Dmitry, and Vladimir – I felt much more

confident about the idea of them interviewing on their own.

Dave and I were starving and decided to get some lunch. Dmitry felt obligated

to join us and decided to drive his car. Off we went to an Italian restaraunt.

The service was poor, the food was average, but the conversation was excellent.

On the way back to the office there was some congestion and Dmitry was unable

to stop in time. We rear-ended another vehicle on the left-side at about 5 MPH.

We didn’t have our passports, so Dave and I quickly departed the vehicle and

hung out in a nearby park. We waited for Alex to pick us up and tried to

act inconspicuous to avoid Moscow police. Luckily, the police took 2 hours to

show up and Alex only took 1. He didn’t know how to get back to the office so

we ended up picking up some stranger who happened to be going to the same area.

It was a very interesting experience.

Once Dmitry returned, I proposed a schedule for reaching TSM planning review

and got by off from Andrey, Alex, and Dmitry. We left work at 8:30 PM for our

first solo metro ride. We met Alex and Natasha at Cafe Mania for delicious

dinner and conversation. Afterwards, we said our goodbyes and crossed the

street to the apartment. Dave fell asleep with the light and TV on (about 11:30)

and I hit the sack at 12:30.