Masha had to wake up early to go to school and then I had a bit of extra time until her mum came and picked me up from the flat to go to work. The work day starts at 10 in Russia but often workers go in at 11 and work later, it took about an hour to get the office because of the morning rush hour.
The Friedrich Ebert Stiftung has the fourth floor of a building near Moscow's business centre. I was briefly introduced to some of the employees and then talked with Masha's mum a bit about the organisation. One of the workers is at a seminar this week so I've been put in her office, and I've been asked to do some background research into some of the speakers who will be coming here next month for a seminar and they need some notes of each of them. I also spoke with two other employees throughout the course of the day. The first, Dasha, is the person in charge of all the ecological sustainability issues within the organisation. She gave me loads of the research packs and conference subject material to have a look at and keep. A lot of what they do is heavily related with the economy and finance, some of the data and information is in English and I'm sure my brother and sister, who are both studying economics, would find it interesting from that point of view. The organisation deals heavily with international relations has has offices in over 100 countries (I think actually 101 countries). Then I spoke with (don't ask me to try and guess her name) the woman in charge of political issues in the FES (Friedrich Ebert Stiftung) she told quite a bit about what she does here, which was also very interesting.
At the lunch break I went with Masha's mum to a food centre in a business centre 10 minutes away. There was loads of things to choose from but we went this Asian section and I had this type of stir-fryed chicken with vegatables (loads of cabbage or something and peppers, olives, etc.) and rice. It was really tasty and I hope we go there again one day this week. After lunch I met with the boss. He is actually German and is quite weird, my brother would get on with him quite well - quite a profound thinker with strange analogies and examples to explain what the organisation actually does. He began by saying that if I probably was quite confused about some of the things FES did, by the end of this meeting I would probably be even more confused but by being confused comes the motivation to learn and discover more. He also told me that he would like to cut the string holding the UK to Europe and send us on our way to the USA, this is after he told me everyone who lives on an island is 'special'. He has worked in many of the FES offices, including ones in China, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and so on.
This experience is going to be really great for my German because that's all I've been speaking in the office and obviously in the long car journeys with Masha's mum, the only time I spoke English in the office was with the boss, which is ironic I know, seen as he was the only actual German one, but he enjoys speaking English when guests come to the conferences.
The work day for us finished at 6 and then we were stuck in traffic for 2 hours getting back to the flat, but I did have a very interesting conversation with Masha's mum about her job and the differences in the Russian and British education systems among other things. Overall it was a really great day, loads to do and to learn and can't wait to see what the rest of the week will be like.
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