2004 July 21

Weather Report – afternoon rains… everyday this week… feels like it’s the rainy season in Costa Rica all over again!



Interesting / Funny Observations – on the way home from work today… we had to swerve to miss a goat in the road…



Frustrating Adjustment Issues – you ever get a document notarized? Read below about the wonders of the process in Russia…





Hey there – lots of fun stuff today… read below…



Wednesday July 21, 2004 – had a pretty good day today… work is busy, but productive. I went to dinner (at Kleopatra’s, 2nd time this week… are you seeing a trend?) with my fellow plant IT employees (most work for Hewlett Packard, but we tend to do things together. This was my first time out with an entirely Russian group… it was fun… but a little frustrating at times when you don’t understand the conversations. They did what they could to have some conversation in English… but one of the Hewlett Packard folks speaks no English at all… so it was a hard situation all around. Regardless – we had a great dinner together… said good-bye to the person I’m replacing… and toasted pretty much everything we could think of (which is a Russian tradition). With every new round of drinks comes a toast… sometimes 3 or 4 toasts. And when the night was winding down… and the alcohol was gone… we toasted with glasses of water and juice. While the Russian’s, as a whole, don’t smile a lot… they are very thankful and appreciate, and like to celebrate when appropriate.



Spent most of my day yesterday, and a little bit today… dealing with a Russian Notary Public. I needed to issue power of attorney to our relocation company so they can serve as our agents and get our personal possessions into Russia. A necessary process, but I could have done a case study of inefficiency at work on this one. Let me draw a comparison for you…

US Notary Process


Russia Notary Process

1. Get a document
2. Take your identification / drivers license and maybe a $1 per document (not always needed) to any bank… or find a co-worker that is a notary.
3. Sign document
4. Notary signs and stamps document
5. Process complete



1. Get a document
2. Find a notary… I think there’s 2 in all of Novomoskovsk… they did come right to my office though
3. Find a translator…
4. Prepare to sign documents (1st attempt)… no wait – you can’t sign, because the person who *called* the Notary has to sign the Notary’s log book.
5. Notary leaves office… goes to the home of the person who called the Notary in the first place (who was out of the office sick). Log book is signed… return to the office
6. Prepare to sign documents (2nd attempt)… no wait – now we realize there are lots of errors on the documents. Passport numbers wrong, Visa numbers wrong, etc. Notary needs to return to her office to re-create documents (why couldn’t we just use the ones I had prepared? Well we can’t, no idea why).
7. Several hours elapses… notary returns to the office again… changed the name of the Notary requestor to someone who was in the office. Then realized that there were still a ton of errors on the documents… it’s now the end of the day. Notary scheduled to return tomorrow.
8. Notary returns to the office the following morning… documents now appear to be in order…
9. Argue for 20 minutes about absolutely nothing after I asked for additional copies.
10. Sign document
11. Notary signs and stamps the documents… records the entire transaction in her log book
12. process complete.



Regardless, the papers are signed and in Moscow… I felt like I accomplished something when it was done… our air shipment from the US has been released for transport… expected to arrive in our cottage in Novomoskovsk on Thursday, July 29. Crossing our fingers… J… I just can’t believe it basically took 2 people and a total of about 10 effort hours for one and 2 effort hours for another… to complete what essentially comes down to a $1 service. There are many things that I see in Russia and really appreciate… but the Notary service is not one of them.



Had a funny “language barrier” incident today… one of my colleagues from Hewlett Packard (who has also been serving as a translator at some points for me) came into the office Wednesday morning. Told me “Human Resources needs your passport, your immigration card, your visa, and all of Sara’s documents as well. Plus 2000 rubles (about $68).” I asked why… and she said “you have performed a very illegal action, and you are being fined by the authorities.” I was waiting for her to say something additional like “your things have been packed for you… Sara is in a van waiting outside for you… you need to leave now”… I never heard that (!) but they did clarify that apparently, when you arrive in Russia, you need to get your visa registered with a local immigration office… and you need to do this every time you arrive in Russia (i.e. every time when return from a trip). In essence, it really isn’t that illegal… probably equivalanet to a jay-walking fine. But I laughed (privately) about the “very illegal action”.



Thanks for reading!

Michael