Ufa

The same week I was in Kazan I travelled to Ufa to visit another team of mine out in the field. My time here was much more exciting as the client was really friendly and the team was from Moscow so I got to spend more time with others. Ufa is a city of about 1 million people as well and there's some traffic here. Ufa is the capital of the Republic of Bashkortostan and the people here speak Bashkir in addition to Russian. Some Russians are much like Americans as far as language goes - they say, "Why would I learn Bashkir if they all speak Russian?" The irony of the hypocrisy is not lost on me that we Americans only learn English - sure, we should speak something else, but other cultures think the same way.

The first night in Ufa I met the team for dinner in the hotel and learned that horse meat is one of the national dishes in this region. I've never had horse so I thought I'd give it a try - it was quite good. I don't think I'll get it often, but if I'm in this neck of the woods again why not?

During the morning I had a meeting with the client and at the close of the meeting they offered to show me and a director from the Kazan office that came to Ufa with me the city. I wasn't sure what the protocol was, but the director said sure, and that we'd like to see the city during the day as it would probably be nicer to see then. The client arranged for us to take a two hour tour, and two people from the economics department joined us along with the translator we brought and a tour guide. A girl from the economics department spoke good English too and was really nice in sharing more info about Ufa. I had to go back to the office to take a phone call but after the call I had to go join the tourism crew for dinner.... at a seafood restaurant! I don't really eat seafood - I still to the basics of California rolls and maybe a few other things where I'll try it, but never order it for myself. I didn't have the option as it was already ordered - grilled shrimp and scallop appetizers and a salmon fillet for the main course. Both were delicious, and although I was hesitant at first, I had no choice since I was with the client and I had to eat whatever was in front of me.

Also interesting during this trip was that at the client site they had a private dining room for the executives of the company and a cafeteria downstairs. Everyday at two the client had food prepared for the team to eat in the private dining room - it was really nice. I didn't have to eat anything too crazy there fortunately.

I've included pictures and descriptions of some of my tourism below.

This monument above was to celebrate 450 years of existence for the city of Ufa. Unfortunately it was only ready for the 456th year anniversary as they had to level a church which was in the place for the monument (1950's communism/government imposed atheism), and then the monument wouldn't stand up properly, so they had to prepare the land around it and level a mound as well.

This guy on the horse saved the Bashkir people from some type of oppression, I'm sure I could Google it but I was just too lazy. On another note, look how handsome I am in a suit! - I get to wear one to work Monday-Thursday between September and the end of May and any time I'm at a client site.

Also, during my tour I learned that the university in Ufa is the only one in all of Russia which has a major in "bee-keeping." They love their honey here.