ChrisFriesen's Xanga

The sky is amazing...at night.

Sun, 27 Aug 2006 03:05:36 GMT

The weather here has been really confortable lately, just like fall back home. But I can sorta sense that the weather may change anytime. We're trying to pour as much concrete as we can before it starts freezing. It won't be long...
Here's some pics from the arctic sky at 5am and a pic from inside the mill building.

cheers!

Woken up by the helicopter, loud Frenchmen and a fiery furnace...

Wed, 23 Aug 2006 03:34:06 GMT

So I've been put on night shift, it's been just about a week. I'm finally get used to it, it took a little while to switch over. I'm finished at the camp so I'm working over at the mill where they're gonna be making the gold. We're doing the concrete prep work there. It involves building concrete forms, driving bobcat, stuff like that. I'm liking it alot. Plus we get our own truck so we don't have to take the bus.
I should be leaving here on the 6th of Sept, so see you guys in 2 weeks.
Oh yea, and the Governor of this region coming in to visit the site today. He's the third richest man in the world, like 33 billion or so. He's appartently doing alot for this region trying to open it up to the whole world. He flipped the bill for the facelift of the Anadyr Airport himself.
He's also been getting schools built in small villages everywhere.
Maybe the supper(my breakfast) will be extra special today.

six months, to the date...

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 07:18:57 GMT

...and I must say, I've had a good time. I've met alot of people, and learned alot about this trade and this country of Russia...well the Far East part of it anyway.
The last couple of day I haven't been feeling too well, last night I could barely eat supper, I went back to the room after work, and with the help of some pills got a 10 hr sleep without waking up once. That was nice. Later in the day again I started to feel not so good so I took it easy for the rest of the day. Hope I can sleep it off tonight...in fact 'I WILL'.
As for work these days not much has changed, there's still work to be done, actually for the next 3 years there will be stuff to do, all I can say 'there must be alot of gold here'
Well there you have it,
-Nothing too exciting
-Being sick is not pleasant
-been here for 6 months (means big tax break)...that's pretty awesome
-the lunch's are starting get less tasteful
-but we'll be in the new camp soon!
-gotta stay positive!

goodnight,
from Russia with Love.

It's the story of my life...

Mon, 07 Aug 2006 06:21:32 GMT

Hello all...I think there's still people checking this thing out.
If you can believe it I only got 3 weeks left this shift, but I'll be back for another 2 months yet this year. Then at least a 6 week christmas vacation, going somewhere warm for 2 weeks for sure.
As for work, I'm back in the camp after 2 weeks of working out in the rain, there was a couple nice days but was still really wet. We are now going through everything in the camp and finishing off everything we can so the inspectors can go through it and make up a list of more stuff we missed. That's the way it goes though.
Yesterday they moved half of the sewer treatment plant up to the new camp, just thought I'd let you know that.
Right now, my Neufy roomate is singing with his headphones on, and doing a little air guitar. People have been complaining about it...I just turn up my headphones, I just have to laugh.

Leo should be back in just over a week.
The days are going by faster, and I'm losing track of time...which is good.
Yesterday I called my mom and dad,I got ahold of them finally, first time talking to them since mid-July. They are doing excellent.
Ever since Leo took off for his vacation, I've been having coffee break with the plumbers, one is from Saskatchewan, and the other is my roomate from Newfoundland. They brought a whole wack of Tim Horton's coffee and a coffee maker from Canada. It is the best part of the day. Yesterday, Sunday afternoon, the sun came out for the rest of the day, I just wanted to pack up work cause I was so lazy...then came along 3 o'clock coffee break; 2 cups of Tim Horton's...man it was almost better than a cold beer. Wow it's good stuff, especially working everyday.

So apparently one of the Chukchi's was talking to Kim one of the plumbers, the weather is supposed to get warm for a week, and then it's supposed to get cold and then the snow is coming.
Kim worked with this Chukchi 2 years ago about 75 km south of here. He said he was dead on his prediction then, and he would bet on him again being right.(those of you who don't know what a Chukchi is, it's like our Inuit people in Canada). Apparently he sleeps on the tundra sometimes...

Wow, I didn't know I had that much to share, well here's a pic of one of my Russian carpenters feeding the fox that always hangs around camp.

goodnight..

The Lone Ranger

Sun, 30 Jul 2006 07:25:16 GMT

Well it looks like I'm the only English speaking carpenter left on the new camp site. This is all because Leo left for his break, he deserves it though he was in camp over 10 weeks! I think my first stint was 8.
So I was given a drawing and 2 Russians and off to work I go again. It's quite the task to keep these guys motivated all the time. They wouldn't last a day back in Canada, but I'm pretty sure this is the hardest they've worked since they've been here these past few days.
We have a good time, except when I'm trying to tell them what to do next and I can't get through to them cause of the whole 'different language' thing and my translater is somewhere not to be found whenever I need him.
Soon enough we'll be in the new camp, maybe 3 weeks, that will be nice.

But yea, everything is going well out here, we keep so busy it's hard to think about anything else that's happening in the real world. It sure is a different place out here. I'm gonna try to get a month off this time, we'll see.

sleep time zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Back to the land of gold and cabbage

Sat, 22 Jul 2006 06:50:09 GMT

    I've been just having so much fun at work these days, I just never thought about updating this thing...right.
So my time off was really good, I flew first class on my way from Anchorage back into Vancouver. I had about 5 days through the states with my parents, then about a week and a half back in Manitoba.   I got to see the Oregon coastline, Old Faithful in Yellowstone and a whole lotta interstate. In Manitoba I went camping with some good friends Jeff and Jon for a couple days. Just east of Falcon Lake up a pipeline road, getting a truck was a good idea.
We stayed there for a couple days, did some fishing and had some camping beers!
I think it was Friday July 6th, I headed down to the Winnipeg Folk Fest cause I'd never been and one of my most listened to artists was playing...miss Neko Case. I was really glad I went.
I've been to quite a few festivals on the west coast, and I was only at the Folk Fest for just one evening but I'm sure it would be a fun to camp for the weekend there.
The rest of my time off included visiting friends in Winnipeg, Carlos and Murphy's and Sushi. Not bad I might add.
    So it's July 22 here, I've been here in Russia just about 2 weeks. This is my third shift here since Feb. I'll be coming back one more time this year, then we get 6 weeks off during Christmas and the New Year. The weathers usually really bad and they just keep a skeleton crew on during that time.
So Leo's leaving on the 26th back to Canada for a well deserved break. So that will leave me the only Canadian carpenter on the camp site, my other co-worker Al works the night shift. Should be interesting. I heard today that Aug 23 will be the ribbon cutting day of the new camp, I can't wait to move in there and get outta these tents.

Here's some pics of my time off and up here in the Far East of Russia.

cheers.

Thunder and Lightning!

Mon, 12 Jun 2006 08:24:02 GMT

Today was definately a Monday. I wasn't too keen on going to work today, kinda tired of working, just wanted to be somewhere else maybe?? Oh well the day went by, probably the longest day of my shift so far.
So we get back to camp, wash up and go for dinner, go back to our tents, check email.
Later on after I go for a shower, there's some pretty dark clouds coming this way. Yep, our first thunderstorm arrives.
I know we get them all the time back in Manitoba, but I thought this was kinda cool, being in the arctic circle and all...and in Russia. The mechanic Randy said he was here last year, and he said there was not one T-storm all year.
It's really loud in the tents as I type cause of the heavy rainfall. (just like camping)
So, the day turned out all right, I got to see my first thunderstorm here, and I'm one more day closer to being home for my 3 weeks of summer! It's been 43 days since I've left and I only got 8 more days to go!
I hope to update at least one more time before I leave.
bye for now!
I took this pic after the storm. Russia Rainbow!

On top of the world...

Wed, 31 May 2006 08:10:51 GMT

Yep, it's time for a little update. Spring is coming in full force, it was like 17 and sunny today...I know, it's crazy. The days are still zippin by, I've had the pleasure to get to work with Leo quite a bit lately, we're the finishing crew. It's pretty good work, it takes time cause you gotta make whatever you're doing look good; that's what I like about it, you can look back and see the finished product.
Yesterday I got sorta a warning from the safety officer(which is Russian) cause I wasn't wearing my hard hat. I have a hard time justifying it while working inside doing finishing but I guess cause of the bad accident that happened here a couple weeks ago they're trying to be tough on safety.
Whatever, I'll keep my hard hat on.
Sorta on the same subject, the thing at work between the guys has been asking each other "how many puppies?" or "make puppies?" or even "puppies?" For example if you've ever been caught just talking to someone at work, instead of working. We here call it "making puppies".
So Vlad, the Russian foreman has been in it too, (that's probably the best English he knows..>"make puppies?") anyway he came up with this thing that if you make 10 "puppies" a day you get a star put on your hard hat.
Here's me getting written up by Vlad...all together I've got 4 stars, 2 big ones, and 2 regular sized ones...more than anyone on the crew!
Good times!
The second pic is of the camp all put together...over 200 units...just under 900ft at it's longest.
That's all for now!

Camping in the arctic circle

Tue, 23 May 2006 07:55:22 GMT

The time is cruisin right along. The weather is getting better, snow's melting, and we're workin inside. What more can you ask for? Well maybe some weather like what you guys are getting back in Canada...we're still only hitting like 5 degrees.
My foreman Al finally got out, he was in camp here for 3 months, he was sure happy when he found out he was getting on the chopper. My date out is June 21, that'll be 7 weeks. Then I got a return date for July 12. I'm not sure how many more times I'll be heading back, I'll be forsure here until the permanent man camp is completed. And then maybe do some concrete work afterwards.
So I'm pretty sure I got my appetite back from that 24hr flu thing that I had last week. I was wondering if I was gonna be able to eat another full meal here, cause you do get sick of it. It's the same thing everyweek. The only thing you really look foreward to is the icecream on sundays, it's like the best thing ever.
Today at work I had to run around a bit and get ahold of the translater and the Russian foreman to explain to the Russian carpenters to do what they were doing differently. It's quite the experience working with the whole language barrier, you sure learn alot you wouldn't learn back in Canada. I value the time here in Russia alot, the experience is priceless. For carpenters, there's just 4 of us expatriates and about 25 Russian labourers and carpenters. Looks like the camp should be up and running about the end of July, maybe I'll even get to stay in it before I'm outta here for good. It's like the 'Las Vegas' of camps out here in Russia. These are the tents we stay in right now, that's it for now.

Always something...

Sun, 14 May 2006 09:01:50 GMT

Today I had a hard time getting up in the morning, I was up a little late visiting with Antoine, he was showing me his pictures from his time off in Russia and I showed him my pics from back in Canada.
So I made it for breakfast, and headed to the bus with my co-worker Dean, realizing that yesterday one of the bus driver's blew up the engine in one of the bus'. So they were down to one, so we waited and waited. Finally a half-ton came and picked us up, as we drove up to the site we see the only bus that worked is now on the side of the road broken down. I swear, I think these bus drivers think they're Mario Andretti or something, they are rough on them. We made it up to the office for the safety meeting, and then waited to get a ride to camp to work. The camp is actually coming along quite nice, we've been working inside which is nice, actually we'll be indoors pretty much my whole 2 months here.
I might find out soon when I'll be going back to Canada for my time off again. I also found out today that I have the option to come back a third time to get my 6 months in, so I can collect alot of the tax money back that the government's been taking off my pay. It's almost 40% they take off. So I was glad to hear that I can come back, since I have no home really I may as well. But I still want to enjoy some time back in Canada for summer. So hopefully I can make it to the Winnipeg Folk Fest, there's alot of good bands I'd like to see. Neko Case and The Sadies stick out the most. Since I most likely won't be able to goto Bumbershoot this year in Seattle or the Sasquatch Festival in Washington State, the Winnipeg Folk Fest will do just fine, since I've never been there.
So all is going good out here in the Far East of Russia, I'm back in the swing of things and maybe we'll see tomorrow if Leo will get his ass out here! If you didn't know leo's been stuck in Bilibino for the last 5 days with about 20 others waiting to get into camp. It sounds like he's having a good time though.
Here's a view from the chopper...yea there's still alot of snow.