Day 2 - The Journey Continues

After I looked at the bed at ATH for just a minute or two, I thought I would be getting just as good a night of sleep as if I would slept on a friend’s run down futon in college! However I woke up on Day 2 of my travels feeling very refreshed and not sore at all. We dropped our bags off at the luggage office. We found out that our bags will actually travel out to Tengiz on a train while we fly out on a little Jet (more on that later). After the luggage office, we decided to go on over to the kitchen to get some breakfast before it closed, plus we wanted to try some local Kazakh food for the first time (we really didn’t count the sandwich from the night before as local food).  As we arrive, we see that it is very much “cafeteria” style where you tell a nice lady behind a counter which food items you would like on your plate. It’s a little difficult with the language barrier so our communication basically became us pointing to an item and her repeating it in Russian as we try to learn the language somewhat. So Kazakh meal number one consisted of scrambled eggs (that were very thin and rolled up like a crepe), potatoes (which we have come to find out is a staple in most meals), bacon (which looks more like un-trimmed ham), and something that resembles French toast. Everything was pretty good, but there was a strange flavor in the eggs, that I just can’t pinpoint. Also, they don’t have maple syrup here, but they do have honey that they put on their French toast, which is actually quite tasty. I may have to try that when I get back to the US.

After breakfast we make our way back to the ATH Lounge to relax and wait for the shuttle to pick us up and take us back to the Atyrau Airport. As we wait, more and more Ex-Pats start showing up that are taking the same flight that we are. As I sit there and people watch, I begin to realize just how culturally diverse of an experience this is going to be. I can hear accents from the UK, Australia, the deep south, and many many other languages that I can’t even recognize. This is already shaping up to be a fun experience.

Right on schedule at 8:15 the shuttle arrives and we all cram into it like sardines. From what I can tell, there are probably about 50-60 people all making this same trek. We get back to the Atyrau Airport and we can very easily get checked in and through security since this looks to be the only flight leaving from that airport all morning. We only wait a couple of minutes and we start walking out to our “Jet”. The reason for the quotation marks is because that is how it was described to me. As you can see in the photo, “Jet” doesn’t quite properly capture it. It’s a cozy fit with only two seats on either side of the aisle and maybe only 15-20 rows. So the flight is pretty full. As we take off we fly up and over the Caspian Sea, which is a wonderful view. As I came to find out later, that flight took me from the eastern part of Europe in to the western part of Asia. So I have now been on three continents in three days. Amazingly enough, the flight out to Tengiz fairly smooth with only very limited turbulence. It’s amazing for two reasons; 1. The size of the plane, and 2. The amount of wind that was blowing that day!

After we land, we all get off the plane and we meet Gaukhar, our admin in the DE organization in Tengiz that has really helped us set up a lot of our travel details. She welcomes us to Tengiz and to Shanyrak Village (that’s the name of the living compound in Tengiz). Gaukhar then takes us over to the Admin building at the Village, where we get our room assignment and keys. The living accommodations here are hard to describe. I added a Google Earth view of what the building look like. They are called “Domes” here, but look like stars or sunbursts to me. In the middle is the “Dome” where the Canteen (cafeteria), bar, gym, shop, and other amenities are located. All of the arms (we call them blocks) are where all of the living quarters are located. The rooms themselves are very similar to the rooms at ATH. They are small, with a bed, a bathroom, closet, TV (with very few English channels), a mini-fridge and a desk. Of course when you work 12 hours a day, you don’t exactly need the nicest place to live in the world.

Once we are all done getting settled in, Gaukhar takes us to meet our supervisor while we are over here. Alex is a country boy from the south that used to work in our Pascagoula Mississippi refinery. We sat down and talked with him for a while and he explained to us that our role in the T/A will be as consultants to the engineers out here answering questions and overseeing work. We won’t be creating any paperwork, which will be nice. He also gives us a rundown of what our day to day lives will be like and some expectations both about our work and what we can expect while we are living here.

At this point in the day, we’re all pretty hungry, so Alex takes us all over to the Canteen for some lunch. There is some local Kazakh food that is available, but interestingly enough, there is also something called “Wok at Work”. Well needless to say, I’m intrigued and the line is short, so I go over there to check it out. Sure enough you have your choice of vegetables, meat, sauces and spices and they grill it on a skillet right there in front of you. For my friends from El Segundo, think Big Wok! This meal has significantly raised my expectations about food while I’m living out here. This may be alright after all!

The rest of the afternoon is relatively short for us. We’re allowed to get on some computers to check our work emails and finalize some of our more important documents like linking our bank accounts and travel expense reports. One of the nice things about this whole trip is that our Chevron Badges will allow us to use the computers out here. We only work until about 4 or 5 in the afternoon and then we head back over to the admin building to pick up our luggage.

The evening rolls around and all of us Ex Pats decide to have dinner together despite being in different domes. I finally decide to try the local fare for this meal. I got something that looked liked some dumplings, some potatoes, bread, and some kind of cake for dessert. I immediately dig into the dumplings. I quickly learn that they are filled with a certain kind of ground beef that has a decent amount of onions mixed in. It’s actually quite tasty, but with the amount of oil that was in them, I’m pretty sure I could hear myself getting fatter. The potatoes were a little underwhelming as they were fairly under-cooked. The bread was quite tasty, a little on the dry side, but good. The cake however took dryness to a new level. After a delicious lunch, the bar has successfully been lowered back down.

The rest of the evening was very low key. I unpacked my things, read a little bit, unsuccessfully tried to find something to watch on TV and then called it a night. This is has got to be one of the earliest bed-times I’ve had in a while. I was probably out cold by 8:30.