Yo! I've been here for 3 weeks! It's crazy! A month is almost up, so it's time to sum up some intermediate results! Today my peaceful sleep was interrupted by shouts of "hey." It was Sasha. "Come on, let's go!" "Where?" "To Downtown." Everything was so mysterious and unclear, as if we were plotting a revolution. It turned out we were going to the Coca-Cola museum. We were there for about 2 hours, I spent $15, and drank a lot of different colas from all over the world (Russia, of course, wasn't there). But first things first. Coca-Cola was invented by an Atlanta pharmacist, John S. Pemberton, in 1886. Since then, it has continuously conquered its position all over the world. In the very first hall, we were greeted by Coca-Cola advertisements from different years, the oldest being an image of a bell calling to drink "this" for 5 cents in 1886. Next, we were treated to a cartoon ad (Happiness Factory), the same one that Coke is showing on TV now with various little monsters. A funny, cheerful cartoon about what happens inside a vending machine. The main message is that Coke is great, we all love our jobs, we are part of a whole, and we put our soul into every bottle. Next was the lobby, where you could take a picture with a polar bear (cool job, you just sit there, open your mouth, and everyone is happy), which I did; I'll post the photos and videos later. Then came the history of Coke. But it doesn't take up much space, mostly pictures and videos—you need more entertainment, and boring history "doesn't fly." On the other hand, you don't learn much about the drink because you get distracted by all sorts of other things. After that, they showed us an assembly line, kind of like a real one, like they have at their factory. Everyone's attention was drawn to a camera that everyone was looking into (I made a couple of faces for a police file) and taking pictures. The second floor was a 4D cinema (we were given fancy glasses, look in the album) about the 4 secret ingredients of the drink's success (sugar, cocaine dust, a little oil, charged water). Seriously, right? I wouldn't have believed it either if they had said that. They didn't. It's simpler—a unique taste, a convenient bottle, wide popularity, and, of course, us. It was great; during the screening, the chairs shook, water poured on us, springs hit us from behind, we jumped up, and the kids in the hall almost peed themselves. After that, we had to see Warhol and his perception of Coke and, of course, try all the swill that this company produces around the world. There were 5 columns (Asia, Europe, Africa, Latin America, North America), and at each one, you could try 6-7 different flavors. Some were outright swill, some were actually not bad (I liked India, pineapple-nut flavor). In the end, I grabbed 3 bottles of Coke, which made them look at me scared and say—you can only have one.
After that, straight to work. The day was very slow, 77 people. I had to draw slips of paper again, and this time I drew before our boss, so he went home because the remaining one was marked. The day was a bit "smeared" by the manager, David. Some homeless woman dressed in rags started jumping around outside the window, and he says to me: "Oh, Nikolai, your girlfriend is waiting for you there!" Ugh, I got so worked up, my eyes probably became so angry that he was a bit stunned and immediately said: "I'm joking, I'm joking, calm down buddy!" "I think you should go out to her, she's waiting for YOU after all," I told him. "Come on, everything is fine, it's just a joke!" Well, we don't have a good relationship with David. Well, at least he rarely comes to see us, so I only see him about 3 times a day.
