Merry Christmas

To whom it may concern,

Merry Christmas.

Things are finally getting moving.
1. My eyes. I can see 100% with my right eye, which means that I have on average -4 on my eyes. It is so strange to wake up in the morning and being able to see clearly. I am not allowed to be on the sun too much and I do feel like a vampire once in a while. The second eye should be up and running on the 5th of January.
2. My job. I got a contract! I got a contract! My coming boss was so interested in me working for the company (I am not! revealing the name of it yet!) that the whole process of hiring was in a matter of a week. And that is before Christmas! I got a contract in my hands 23rd of December. I am looking forward for the coming position. By the way, I got another proposal (yes, during the Christmas and financial crisis!) from Danish FSA (yep, me, not a Dane! Yes!) but the salary is way too low. The difference is literally 10000 kroner a month! (1300 euro!) so even the other job seemed very interesting and challenging (going to European Central Bank and so) I am going to say "no" to that one.
3. Off to Zurich again, but this time is not on business. David is dying to see pingos walking in the zoo and I am looking forward to see the fireworks. I got myself a great photo camera, so I will try to use it to get some awesome pictures!
4. Abby is turning 2 in 3 days. Oh my goodness, she is big! Lots of people around me keeping telling me that I should have a little sister for her. Oh no! I want my freedom, I got a cool job, I want to travel and to play Mario on Wii. When will I do that with 2 small kids?
5. David is doing quite good in school. His French has improved a lot since I told him to speak only french in school. Hopefully we will be going for a week to France in April-may so it will help him even more.
See you in 2010!

Interviews

Well, since 3 weeks have passed and things have started to change.

I have been called into interviews to the 6, I would say, good companies.
1). CODAN (an international life insurance for both residential and business customer)
2). ATP (Lifelong Pension fund).
3). Danish Nationalbank
4). WHO (World Health Organization, part of UN)
5). Nordea Bank
6). The Danish FSA (part of the Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs and acts as secretariat for the Financial Business Council, the Danish Securities Council and the Money and Pension Panel.)

Of course, going to the interviews does not garantee anything. But I am trying to look positive as much as a can.

On the top of that, I have an opportunity to take a Ph.D.

crappy day

Total crap at work today. Due to the financial crisis people got fired. And I am one of them.
So now back to the search of the jobs business.
This time I can go as far as Burkino-Faco if I need to. And then they will be so sorry for letting me go, even due to the financial crisis.

TV signal

A big thanks to the government on focusing on the problem of the many highly educated people. Tomorrow they will lose their TV signal, because they don't have flat screen TV nor cable television.
The shift to digital television signals is just one of many examples of how in a most shameful way the government did fail the cultural life in Denmark.First it went beyond the experimental puppet theaters and regional theaters. And now, the population, who prefers DR2 Channel Saturday programs on child slavery in Sierra Leone rather than DR1's reruns of X-Factor, are punished for having a different flavor than that dictated by the lowest common denominator.

typical situation at home and at work

There are two way different types of people in this world.

Nerd Alert

Davids picture, with violin and in action, made it into the TeX nerd journal. So proud of him!
The rest of us made there as well, as usual.

Denmark and Oprah

Have you seen a typical Danish apartment according to Oprah?
Look at that: http://www.oprah.com/media/20091021-tows-stine-home-tour

Present to my sons 8th Birthday

Being a mean mum and forcing my kid to go to French School and actually speak French there. To play violin, including extra workshops and concerts. To go swimming and actually listen to be good at that.
Well, now I have finally signed him to Russian as a Birthday present. David can understand quite a bit but he doesn't want to speak it. So from next Sunday someone is going to have 45 minutes of his mums language. My mum and I will be SO pleased. And David will be SO annoyed.

Office and old thoughts

It was a peaceful Thursday morning. I was making tea while suddenly I got hit by a ball. The ball managed to hit my nose and ended up into that cup of tea. And all that was happening in the office. And no, I am not working in a sport shop but in a prestige place with people who are wearing suits and ties.

The other news.. I am finally going to Switzerland. I have always wanted to see it, and now I am getting an opportunity.
But I can still feel the roots of my old passports. The first thought I had, when I have found out that I am going there is... Do I need a visa...
Now I am trying to tell myself. No, No, No.

Eye surgery

I always found it funny to talk about Russian Health System. Well, now I have seen how Danish Heath System works and I am not sure if I should cry or should laugh.
I have decided to make an eye surgery, as I have been having an eyesight of -8 on both eyes since I was a kid. In Denmark if one has -6 and below, one considered to be eye handicapped and in that case the state pays all the expenses to the surgery. So one actually does saves about 50000 DKK (10000$)

The procedure is quite simple one you get to understand the rules of the game.

Step one: You go to your eye doctor and get checked. Then the doctor sends an information to the hospital specialized in eye surgery. And you wait.
Step two: You get a letter saying that you got a time at the other side of DK in 3 months.
Step three: You call the hospital and tell them that you can't wait so long and you choose another hospital, in your region. ( In DK there is a rule that if you have to wait for more then a month to be checked by the hospital you have an opportunity to choose another hospital. ) And you wait.
Step four: The second hospital contacts you and tells you, that they do not perform such kind of surgery and send you to your own eye doctor. And you wait again.
Step five: Your doctor contacts you and you agree on the time of treatment.
You see, no way you can decide on a time and place from the get go. You have to go via this circle in order to get the treatment. And every link knows that this is the way it is, and you can't do anything about that.

From Down Under

When people say that Australia is down under it is literally true.

We are on the other side of the planet and how do we know that... By looking at the moon, it is not from the sides, as in Europe but the the up or down way in here.

We have been introduced to the snake in the bush, David has been in the fight with a kangaroo and we have seen a baby spider that was quite a big fellow.

People are very nice and friendly here. David seems to get alone very well with the boys, the family we are visiting here and boy, he can speak English now. He went to a typical Australian school and enjoyed it very much.

We have visited quite a bit of Queennsland already but there is more to see. We have manage to get to Steve Irwins zoo, which is highly recommended, even that is way too expensive. We went about 5 hours north from Brisbane to Bunderbarg and swam in Great Barrier Reef. We were bush walking, as native Australian, in the Glass Mountains. David and Abby became to be very fond of Kangaroos and Koala bears, and even fed them with no problems.

There are kangaroos on the roads, there are poison snakes in the backyards, there are killing spiders on the furniture, and there are possums occasionally falling from the roof of the house we are living in.

One thing that plays against visiting Australia, is that it is so far away. 19 hours on a plane and a jet lag that lasts about a week, and we are the once that actually do know what to do about jet lag.

If I could live here, I could. If I want to live here, I do. If I am going to live here, maybe who knows...

Back from USA

We are back. I don't know what it is about me and Lufthansa but on the way back from US I tend to get sick. Nothing major this time, but Morten had to call for a doctor assistance in the airport.
We have said our goodbyes to Chris and shipped him off to Montreal. Mean while we have stayed in Chicago, got jakkets and shoes, got to see Shedd Aquarium, Science museum, Planetarium. Discovered that David is terrified of 4D movies, even if that involves The most famous and favourite character, Spangebob.
Pictures are about to come.
And tomorrow off again, on a 24 hour flight to Australia. Talk to you all from down under.

Second week in America

So just an update that we are safe and surviving. We have managed to see Lincoln park with its free zoo while we were passing Chicagoland.
Then we went all the way to Wisconsin. Racine with wonderful beaches, Milwalkee with Discovery World and beer brewery, Green Bay with lighthouses and beautiful, beautiful nature, Oshkosh with cheese factory and now Madison with its capital. That is only a short list of things we have seen during this week.
We have all agreed, even David, that we had enough of burgers, so we are officially on a healthy food now (cheese, ham, salsa, spinach dip, beer and cookies).
Oh ja, Chris is still with us and kicking... Seems to enjoy himself, and it is just great to have an extra driver!

First week in America

So the first week in America is over.
Thanks to Herb and Chris Schultz we had a great time in Chicagoland. We were staying at their house for the first 3 nights and got an opportunity not only to enjoy River cruise and downtown Chicago but just had a great stay and a great company.
At the beginning we were not sure what to do in South Bend. Thanks to Martha, who organized the conference, we got all sorts of information about everything.
We took Chris Rowley to the zoo, where albino crock and lions were observed by everyone.
Then we took Robyn, Ross Moores wife to the Amish community. We had a great time, took a ride on the buddy and chat with a local Amish grandpa, dinnered at the 100% Amish restaurant and learned that Denmark is a part of Sweden with Amsterdam as a capital city.
There is a Chocolate factory here as well, which we got to visit as well. Kids ate so much chocolate that at the end they refused to eat that brown stuff.
Today we took a tour around the Notre Dame campus, where Martha was our tour guide.
Overall conference went very well. Everything was very well organized and most of the talks were quite interesting.
And of course, David did perform yesterday at the banquet on his violin. And he did super good!

Last minutes things

In less then 48 hours we will be in Germany, waiting for the Chicago connection.
There are so many things have to be done. So many, that I am asking myself if I am going to have time to sleep at all?
One of the strange things this year, is that I don't have to take care of visa stuff anymore, meaning I don't need to run around embassies, try to defend myself that I am not a criminal and beg for an entry allowness. This time I just need to fullfil all the neccesary stuff via internet, get the approval and that's it. It is so cool to be a EU citizen in that respect.

Packing is the challenge. We need to make sure that everything fits into the car. 3 suitcases, 1 portable bed, 1 trolley, 1 violin, 2 computers, 4-5 teddybears, books on credit risk, etc., etc., etc. Oh, kids!
I have discovered that Lufthansa doesn't have a baby-child food. Which means Abby is qualified as a baby, and will get a baby food. By baby food I mean a bottle of some kind of baby stuff and a bottle of milk. For a girl of 18 months that is definately not enough for a 8 hour flight. The request of upgrading her foot to a child meal was denided, but he got an offer from Lufthansa, to switch my food for hers. So she can get mine and I can get hers or nothing. Brilliant!
Now I have to sort of the car. I got my international drivers licence but no car yet.

Data mining and TeX

Right now I am writting some stuff on data mining. Funny, it takes longer to type it in then to make actual calculations or use Weka. The challange is to use TeX for writting. And I have about a week to get that done. From my past experience I should be able to figure it out, otherwise I have a pretty good idea that google.search is a good place to start.
Wish me luck.

Plans, plans, plans...

My mums birthday was last week. I am not going to write how old she is, in order to avoid troubles.
So what do you get to someone like her, as a present. I have decided to surprise her. And got her a trip to Barcelona, Spain. 5 star hotel, next to the beach, and the city, with a swimming-pool and pocket money. So she just needs to take herself to the airport and off she goes.

When I was booking the dates, I didn't realize that I got her the trip on the same dates, when I am in DK between US and Australia. That was not the idea, trust me, I am not trying to avoid her.
So this coming weekend is the last one before we are heading to US, my mum to Spain, then we to Australia and my mum back to Russia. Sadly, but this is the way how the modern society works.
So to make up for that I have decided to take my mum to Sweden for a weekend. 2 days, and we will be so happy to say 'see you soon' to each other. Kids are coming with.


As about other stuff...
12 more days till we go to US.
First 3 days, we are staying at Herbert Schulz. We are so greatful for that. I hope I will get an opportunity to see how an automatic gear car works before I get to rent one.
We got in touch with Chris, a very young friend of ours, who is doing good and coming to South Bend as well. He, apperently, willing to join us to the baseball game and a dinner. David is especially looking forward to see Chris.
As for the rest of the trip we are still open. There are so ideas but nothing is planned. All though Lonely Planet USA has been ordered and on the way to DK.

Camping

Last week David went camping with his school. THere were not so many places, but we have managed to sign him in time so he was one of the lucky 15 kids. THe most important fact was that Davids girlfriend, Pauline, went together with him.

So a day before the trip things like sleeping bag, food, batteries were suppose to be found or bought. And of course the packing happened to be in the morning, right before the trip. I was teaching David where to put his glasses during the night, how to get himself packed into the sleeping bag, what to do, if it rains, or if he gets scared. I have managed to tell him what to do with the flash light nad how to use it.

In other words, David is NOT ready for such adventures, but his mum, happens to sign him to different activities.

The kids went to the south of Copenhagen, where they were sleeping on the beach and singing (french) songs next to the fire.

This was the first time David went to such activity, so I have asked him, afterwards what he thinks about camping.

Well, he didn't like it what so ever. And you know why? Because you need to work! that is a quote. Yep, you need to work! Surprise! Work! So not like hotel when you go to the restaurant and there is food, and bed, ready to sleep. Here you need to go 4 km. with your stuff, then put it together, then get wood for the fire and then make your own food. Thank goodness they were not asked to catch there own food first.

So I guess more camping for such a gentelmen, so he will taste the reality of life. ;-)

Great news

Great news today. Not good, not okay, but absolutely great news. More follows when Zhenya can stop trembling.

America-Australia

Finally I got time to write.
Well, things have been crazy around here.
The new move is coming up, but at least this time to the permament place. Yes, the apartment is bought and officially ours from today.
4 big deadlines in June, some of the project take days and nights at the same time.
Then some course called Business Intelligence, which is taking all July.
And finally, we are out of here.
Abby got 6 more teeth at the same time (they appear like muchrooms in the fall). She is a very shy, great looking and charming lady.
David performed at the violin concert in Tivoli concert hall and getting ready for the 4th grade (notice, he is still 7 years old)
and then it is summer...


Yes, we are off to America, to buy 1/64 violin to Abby, to get David to see Sue at the Field Musuem, The largest, most complete, best preserved T-rex, to visit Amish and lots of my Christian friends in Indiana area and to just to the Tex 2009 conference.


We got Lufthansa (Star Alliance) tickets and off to America for 3 weeks.


And then, when we get back, the new adventure is infront of me. I got extremely cheap tickets with SingaporeAir (Star Alliance as well) to Australia, and I am taking the kids with me. So after spending 12 hours on the way back from America, I will take them on a 24 hours flight (12 to Singapore and 12 to Brisbane). We will be practically living in the planes for 3 days. And so what...



I would love to see koalas and roos, I would love to see my friends and I hate the thought of driving on the wrong side of the road again.


And on the way back we will get an opportunity to spend in Singapore, so me and David will get to show Abby the famous night safari and the Zoo and Sentosa, and the hippos of course.

Christmas is now every Saturday

The fact that many investors of danish fashionable shop were from Island, and that many declared bankruptcy is not a secret for anyone. Today, visiting Illum http://www.illum.eu/, that is the name of the shop, I have seen a very piculiar picture.

Discount of 70% were on all children clothers. That is unusual for my reasons, taht the discount on all the clouthers, that it is 70% and that it is in the middle of February.

Knowing a little bit about financial crisis and those methodes that many shops were forced to inforce in order to beat the crisis, I would say that it is a certain signal of panic attack and bankruptcy.

There were not to many things to choose from, but such brands as Ralph Lauren, Gant and Levi with 70% discount gets us, people living in Denmark, a little bit closer to the level of prices in the states.

Normally for the Ralph Lauren dress (1,5 y.o) you would end up paying 2100 kroner (360$), Levi pants 700 kroner (120$), and Gant blouse 554 kroner (95$). Yes, I am talking about kids clothers. So even with the 70% discount the prices are still way too high.

The worse thing is that for my Birthday I got a gift certificate for 700 kroner for this particular shop. Today I have realised, that all the money should be spent right now and there. Or what? If the bancropcy will be announced I will loose all the money. So I went shopping, blouses, pants and dresses were on my list. So now, my kids would have to wear those clothers day and night for the next 10 years in order for me no the feel so bad about the price I have paid.

From pension fund to data intellegence

Right after when it was announced to me that I woulo not be promoted I have decided to try to look for enother job. Well, the other thing is that it has been quite hard for the past 3 months, 2 times all the leadership has been changed and plans for the department has been changing so rapidly that at a certain point it began to be hard to follow up.

Anyway, I have sent my CV to 2 companies and was invited to the interview to both of them.

The first company (I will not disclosure the name of it, yet, as you guys, from my office will probably read this). It is a pension fund. I am applying for the risk management department as well. I have never, ever in my life have tried such an interview. It was 1,5 hours. But during this time, I had to show all the knowledge I do and donot have. I was crusified, literally crusified. I had a feeling that I was at an oral exam in finance, risk management, statistics and data management just extended about 5 times. Questions such as, and how would you write this function, and which passives can influence to risk forecast when there are no rate, can you draw Garch model for currency, and etc. etc. etc.
I came out dead. I had almost the same type interview about 2 years ago, when I applied to National bank. I didn't get it due to not possesion of Danish passport. Fair enough.
Good salary, pension... everything one wants. Great colleagues.
Today I have noticed that the vacancy was taking out of the website. Well, let us way and see.

The other company, was totally different type of company. I was suggested, by Morten, to send my CV to the CEO of that company. The interview started not in a way I was hoping and palnning. The CEO, happended to be called Morten, as well, asked me a quite piculiar question. About if I know that Russian girl, that Morten knows, who happened to study with him long time ago. Well, I didn't know what to say. So I said I do know her, more then one things, because it is me. With this tone we have started the interview process. It was a little shorter, about an hour, and the conclussion of this meeting is I need to make a presentation with the unknown data. Sound fun.
Not such a high salary, no pention. work 45 to... how knows, presentation, one should look and behaiv nice at any occasions, and one should play golf (well, that part I have to be better to)

Well, rapoing things together, I can tell, to get to 2 interview out of 2 applications is not bad what so ever, judging the current situation. I have not a clue what will happen. But I can tell, I want to get the company nr. 2. Less money, yes, but super cool and demanding job.

Time for celebration.

I am holding my EU passport. I did it. I got it. That is the greatest feeling in my life. Feeling I can share with the slaves that got a freedom. I got my freedom today. I can just get on a plane and go. I don't need invitations (unless I decide to go to Russia, then my mum should invite me as a guest from now on), proof of finance, visas, nothing. I can just go. And I can work anywhere I want. YYYEEESSS!!!!
I really need to celebrate that.

what has been and what will be

Finally I have decided to write something to the blog. Life is going so fast that it begins to give me frights.
If I begin to tell what has happened for the past 6 months it will take too long time...
But in short, what did happen last year...
I got a little girl,
I have changed work, sold an apartment, got a new one with a view to the sea, photos of which I still didn't manage to post...
I became a EU citizen, and while 'burning my passports on the dour-steps of the embassy', I have discoveret that I was not the only happy one, there were 2 other my former and my current citizens that were happy to get away from Russia...
I have visited almost half of the Europe, have travelled to Africa, have managed to get to 2 car accidents, but got into the mountains in Spain from the first time and managed to turn on the 1st (not the 3rd road) on a round about in Ireland.
I have managed to miss all the viokin concert of Davids in Denmark, the same applies to the parent meetings.
That is about all that I can remember from the past year. And now, it is 9 o'clock, and I need to get back to work, as noone has cancelled risk analysis, noone has canceeled currency backtesting. But my promotion has been cancelled and I have just managed to brag about that financial crisis didn't touch us....
Well, happy new 2009 year.

Press release "Citizen Dane"

And it did happen, believe it or not. 2 miracles in one day.

MIRACLE #1.
Get through to the Russian embassy after only 1 call.

MIRACLE #2.
The Russian government decided that I was not a valuable specimen for the former Soviet Union and I was released from carrying the "wrong" passport.(Which unfortunately for me results that if I ever decide to go to North Korea I would have to obtain a visa.)

Due to the confusion of the double citizenship for Miss Abby/Masha (in Russia she is a Dane, but in Denmark she is Russian), there are hopes that her case will be sorted out as well.

The older one was not affected by this event!