Day 38

Finally, a call from the agency: "Hello Ivan, we found you a construction job, here is the foreman's number." I called and talked to him, he asked where I was from, I said Altai, he had served somewhere near there, he's been in America for 10 years. Then he asked what I used to do and what I can do, and I kept talking until he stopped me and told me to come over to talk. I arrived, and in general, it was a 40-year-old healthy Ukrainian guy. He said he would put me on a Manhattan construction site later because he needs hardworking guys there, but for now, I'll work here. He led me to a huge sanding machine and told me to do 3 rooms, and then the edges with a small manual one. I started working, and after the first room, 2 guys came up to meet me, they were about 25-27, also Ukrainians. They asked with surprise, "Have you done this before? You're sanding better than our foreman" (and indeed, when I started, the foreman had done 1/3 of the room, the rest was mine). I said, "First time." "Where are you from?" "Siberia, Altai Krai." "Wow, are you Russian?" "Well, yeah." "No way, I've never seen Russians work like that, especially on a construction site." "How long have you been here?" "7 years." "And I've been here 2 months." "Why did you want to come here? It's cold in Siberia, right? (and the Ukrainians joined in) Did you come to warm up?" "No, to see the country, earn some money." "Well, that's right." Anyway, we met, and I started the second room, then the third. The foreman arrived, surprised that I finished everything in such a short time, and said, "Vanka, well done! Great job! Now you need to varnish these rooms, but before that, sweep and vacuum everything." I did everything, he came, accepted the work, and was surprised again. In general, he will pay by check for the week's work, the salary is quite good. I went home, ate, and I think I'll go to bed soon, work at 8 tomorrow. For the first time, I like my job, no one yells, they swear but not at me, I close the door, put on headphones, and go. The Ukrainians say this is very hard work here, I tell them to go work in my store in Florida, that's where hard work is.

Day 39

Came to work, now I'm working with a guy named Sanya, a little about him: 50 years old, 2 children 27 and 23, has a granddaughter, 10 years in the USA, works here, goes home, buys real estate, rents it out, last year in the USA, went through Afghanistan. You can work with him, but I hear very few Russian words from him, mostly swearing, and he does it to himself. For example, the picture is: sanding parquet, Sanya: "Oh you [censored] [censored] [censored] [censored] it all to hell [censored] [censored]." I turn on the machine, you can't hear anything. 20 minutes pass, Sanya: "[Censored] so that [censored] shoots [censored] [censored]." Like that all day. I started bringing headphones to turn on music when I turn off the machine. Anyway, today I had to sand 4 rooms and varnish them. I put on glasses, a respirator, and went for it. The work process for one room is: go over it completely with a huge collider, then the sides and corners with a small one, then sweep everything, vacuum twice, first with a brush on the sides with varnish, and then with a huge, as Sanya would say, [censored] the rest of the floor. I did it, cleaned everything, the Boss came, praised me, and I went home. At home, Parviz congratulated me on getting the construction job and told me to be wary of Ukrainians because they are real bastards, they can set you up at work, in short, a lot of things I don't need; he already had experience working with them. And I've been told this more than once, so I try not to contact them so that nothing happens. I sat at the computer and went to sleep, I have no strength left to go for a walk.