EUROPEAN
DREAM
I had long thought of leaving Russia. I am a native
Muscovite from an intelligent family, my parents are kind and honest
people who have done no harm to anyone, but have not made a big
fortune. I went without cronyism. Wherever I worked, I was paid up to
20 thousand a month, and it happened that they did not pay it either.
One day, a girl in a dating network, after learning of my plight,
advised me to learn programming. I started to study on the Internet,
no paid courses, for many hours, day and night, sitting at the
monitor. I often understood that in a few more minutes I would die,
my head ached so much and there was not enough air. But he continued
to work hard with the only thought - to become a strong specialist
and leave the country. In the end, I got a job in a Moscow company.
But I hated everything in this office - illiterate, insubstantial
managers working on cronyism, the semi-gangster management of the
company and what they had to do - look for errors in programs that
are not completely refined, but will still be accepted into state
structures. Therefore, I lived with one thought - to leave as soon as
possible, start a family there, preferably with a foreign woman
(chronically unlucky with Russian girls - having learned that I was
poor, they immediately abandoned), have children in a democratic
country and take parents there. In addition, the international
situation is difficult, the war with NATO is about to break out, ours
is in default and a complete dictatorship with repression. And
there…. In Europe, everything is close - everything can be easily
traveled around, traveling every weekend! I love museums and theaters
so much, and there are a lot of them there! And finally, the
Europeans - they are our brothers, cultural and educated people,
excellent managers! They have the rule of law, no corruption! My
children will live in a free country without warrior and turmoil!
Over the weekend, I will take them to different theaters - in the
Grand Opera de Paris, La Scala, it will be possible even to visit
Covent Garden in London! We will travel a lot with my European family
and live in no need of anything! Eh, I would rather get out of here,
I just lose time and years in this musty swamp ... These were my
thoughts.
JOB SEARCH
To
start, I created a profile on Linkedin.com and started sending dozens
of resumes on this site and on the Monster.com page. Everything is in
English. By the way, I have no problems with the language, I studied
it well in my childhood. I began to call from different parts of
Europe and assign interviews. I passed them several times a day -
before work, during the lunch break and when I returned home from the
office. And all the time he received refusals. The language was
different: “Dear Alex, you made a good impression on us, but the
competition for the vacancy is over and we have to let you know that
you did not go to the next stage. Good luck in everything! ”,“
Dear Alex, thank you very much for the interview, but we received a
large number of resumes and must inform you that we cannot move
forward with you because your experience does not fully correspond to
what we are looking for ” “Hello, Mr. Orlov! Thank you for taking
the time, but we are forced to inform you that after a long study of
your resume, we focus on other candidates who are more suitable for
vacancies ”and an infinite number of similar variations ... Often
forgotten about me, even without sending a refusal, and I was engaged
in self-digging, thinking that something is wrong in me, something I
didn’t like or don’t take just because I am Russian. It is worth
noting that in most cases I was not hacked as a specialist - I
confidently answered all the questions, then I was still refused.
But
I persevered to my goal. At some point, I even began to realize that
on the weekend, when I was alone, I didn’t even have enough of
these interviews - so I got used to them, and I don’t communicate
with anyone anymore.
LONG-EXPECTED OFFER
Once I received a letter
from the Arms Development corporation with an office in Luxembourg -
I change the name of the company to a couple of letters. In this
story I will change the names of companies and people a little, so if
you deal with them, you will understand who they are. HR Harry Tsigos
offered to have an interview on Skype. At the agreed time, I got in
touch. The interview was conducted by Harry himself and the leader of
the team, Frenchman Jean Norse. Everything went like clockwork - half
an hour of conversation, basic questions and words about the fact
that I made an excellent impression and most likely will take me. The
result was promised to be reported within the next week. After that I
waited for 3 weeks and forgot about them already, when suddenly I
receive an email with an attached file. At that time I was at work
and, having seized the moment when no one was around, I downloaded
the file and opened it. It read:
"Dear Alex!
I
want to congratulate you - you showed a high level of technical
skills and that we share our values at the interview. Arms
Development makes you an offer to work with us in our Luxembourg
office!
We offer you:
- Contract for permanent job
-
Probationary period of 6 months
- A salary of 5,000 euros per
month before taxes
- 18 coupons for free meals per month
-
5 weeks vacation per month
- MacBook for personal use
Keep
in touch!
Respectfully,
Harry".
Believe me, I
almost jumped up with happiness! Honestly, I was ready to run, jump,
shout for joy, that at last I would give up everything and would
rather leave! But I remained silent and calm, because I was still at
work.
While still working, I applied for translations and
apostilization, after which I sent them to the Luxembourg government
for consideration. For a couple of months I was nervous that the
dwarf state would refuse me a visa because I am Russian, I have no IT
education or are not sufficiently qualified. They send the answer by
mail. Finally, one letter arrived confirming that the documents had
been accepted for consideration and then an invitation to the embassy
for a visa. I filed for dismissal and began to get ready to go.
And
here is the end of January, preparing for departure at the airport. I
am accompanied by my parents. “My dear, maybe I will never see you
again. After all, my father and I are already old”, - my mother
cried. It was very sad, hard to leave them, but I flew with the
thought that my future in Europe, everything will certainly work out.
And I will drag my parents later when I buy a house and we will live
together happily with them, my wife and children in a house in the
center of Europe.
FIRST TROUBLES
A ticket to Luxembourg cost me
700 euros. There are no direct flights from Moscow, and it is
necessary to fly through one of the countries of Europe plus I booked
it close to departure time. Upon arrival, I noticed that there is no
passport control at the airport of the dwarf country - it is carried
out in the state through which you fly. No one met me, it was
necessary to independently get with suitcases to the office of the
company. In order not to risk getting lost, I took a taxi. Outside
the window, clean, well-groomed streets, rare trees and low houses
flashed. Soon I was near the business center, where my IT company is
located, and immediately saw the human resources team Harry - he
smoked near the entrance to the building.
- Hi Harry, I’m
finally here.
- Hello, Alex! I'm glad to see you! How was your
flight?
- Normal, although tired.
- Ok, now you will sign
some papers and I will take you to a corporate apartment.
For
some reason, we entered the building and went not to the negotiation
room, but to the cafeteria, where a French girl from the personnel
department gave me to sign an employment contract, not to disclose
company confidential information and some numerous questionnaires for
the Ministry of Immigration. After that, Harry put me in his car and
drove, explaining everyday questions as he went.
- This is the
“Belle Etoile” shopping center, there is a large supermarket
“Cactus” here. There you can buy groceries. At this bus stop you
will take bus 77 and you will reach the center, and then you will
move on 21 and he will take you to our office. Take the SIM card
provider Orange, this company does not require a local residence
permit. A bank account is better to open in the bank ING, at first
they will get a Russian passport. Other banks will only open deposits
to people with local or European citizenship.
Finally, winding
in the dark for a long time (Harry didn’t remember exactly how to
drive), we arrived at a 3-storey house. To my surprise, there was an
elevator, a basement with underground parking and a laundry. Harry
opened the door with the key and we were in a huge three-room
apartment.
“Settle down,” - said Harry, showing me how to
turn on the internet modem. - “Just remember that here you are
temporarily and in 3-4 days should rent a house for yourself. People
come to our corporate apartment from the foreign offices of our
company, so this is a temporary solution”.
The next few days,
before work, I gave several medical tests to go, applied for a Blue
Card. There were countless pieces of paper needed and there was
absolutely no time to search for an apartment. I stayed in the
apartment, where my colleagues from Brussels regularly visited,
visiting on business in the Luxembourg office of the company. By the
way, there was a church outside the window of the house, whose clock
rang every quarter of an hour. I sleep very sensitively, so I often
wake up, not having enough sleep, I went on immigration matters
before work and only then to the office. In the evening, it was
necessary to buy groceries and catch the last bus to get home.
By
the way, all the shops in Luxembourg are closed at 8 pm and, if you
live far from the center, the last bus goes there at 9 o'clock. I was
just living far away, so there was no stopping. Already in the first
days I began to longing for Moscow. After all, I lived there
normally, came to work when I wanted and stayed late (and often
worked from home at all), after that I went to the convenience store
near the house and bought everything I wanted. I practiced dancing,
had a good job, which I easily coped with, my relatives were near.
What am I doing in this village? Why am I here? These questions began
to appear in my head, but I tried to put aside such thoughts. I
decided to fight to the end, because a lot of effort, time, hopes and
money were spent on the move.
MODERN SLAVERY
On the first day of work, I
was introduced to the chief, Jean Norse, with whom I had an interview
on Skype. A tall, very thin, stooped man with a round back, with
cold, evil gray eyes, a huge mouth and incredibly long fingers on his
hands for a long time silently studied me with his eyes, then with a
strong handshake squeezed my hand and said: “I am glad you are
here. We will start exploring all the projects. A lot of work and
work will have to be very fast. As you know, we are an outsourcing
company. We take projects from various major European players, they
need to pass as soon as possible. We have 127 projects, a few hundred
programmers, and there are only 8 testers so far. So there won't be
an easy walk. ”
I nodded silently, listening to how this guy
was very burry while talking and realizing that something was wrong
with him. Whether he is too nervous, with a frequent nervous tick -
twitching of eyebrows, head, or just simply abnormal. But I had no
choice. It was in Moscow that I could get up and leave the interview
simply if I didn’t like the person. And here he came, so he came -
there is nowhere to go, we must work.
A few words about the
company. The Arms Development company occupies the whole building
divided into huge open-space halls. In each room - 80-100 people. The
noise and din is endless, all the time someone is talking, arguing,
discussing work. Focusing is simply impossible. The furniture is all
shabby, she is many years old. Computers are also old. I could never
have thought that this could be in Europe.
The management of the
company is a separate song. If in Moscow I spoke with the leaders of
the company on “you”, in “Arms Development” the management
simply doesn’t notice their employees. You go to meet them, greet
them, but they do not respond, and they seem to not see you. The head
of the company, the Greek Turban Berberidis, set up a startup a few
years ago, which has grown to a multinational company with thousands
of employees. His office was next to my workplace. Sometimes he would
come to work on a Porsche - a small, bald man with a crimson drunk
face and a sodomist gay look. “Well, it was necessary to create
such a company in order to live a stupid meaningless life and
eventually become alcoholic,” I thought, watching how this man,
reeling, leaves his office in the middle of the day. Other managing
partners looked like executioners and inquisitors from paintings by
European masters, for whom people were consumables. Kicked out one
thing - in the personnel department are thousands of resumes from
around the world - take on the work of the next victim. We will
squeeze the juice out of him and if he breaks his the health - we
will get rid of him, next please. Indeed, for what respect cannon
fodder, which even did not pay for the move to the slaughterhouse?
And before that it seemed to me that in Europe the management of
companies appreciates its employees and stands with them on one
leg.
The team of testers consisted of 9 people: 3 French,
including Chief Jean, 3 Indians, a Belgian, a Spaniard, and I was the
only Russian. By the way, programmers from Russia and Ukraine worked
in other teams, but as soon as they learned that I was Russian, they
began to keep as far as possible. As I understand it, they were very
afraid that I would ask them for help. And everything was completely
incomprehensible to me in the new country, where, besides, everyone
speaks French. And the best advisers turned out to be Hindus. They
even suggested something, and so I was all alone.
The work was
no end. For each project, a week was allocated, a maximum of two, and
it was necessary to test the web application alone with dozens of
roles, hundreds of users and countless services. They simply did not
hear about test automation (and when, there was no time for it!) And
everything was tested in manual mode only. Imagine - you have a lot
of test cases in front of your eyes. Each test case consists of a
multitude of steppes and sub-steps and looks like this:
1. TC-001. Mailbox operation check
1.1.
Go to 12.13.145.66:8891
1.2. Enter "admin" in
the "Login" field
1.3. Enter "password" in
the "Password" field
1.4. Click the "Login"
button
1.5 Make sure you are on the page
1.6. Press the
"Write a letter" button
.
.
.
And so on
to infinity during the day. Interesting? Everything must be done very
quickly, because there is a lot of work and no one to work. And all
the time next to the evil driver, named Jean, who says that you are
not productive and need to work much faster. I often noticed that
Sandip, an Indian working next to me, rolls his eyes from fatigue and
is about to fall backwards on the back of a chair. I also crawled
home, not understanding anything, but continued to fight. I'm in the
richest country in the world, Luxembourg, in the heart of Europe. I'm
here for my parents and future children!
HOUSING SEARCH
- Well, Alex, how are you
doing with finding an apartment? - every day I asked HR personnel
Harry. He had windows to the corridor and he could perfectly see who
and where was going.
- Not yet, Harry, - I completely drowned in
immigration matters, for the time being I just didn’t have time to
go to shows ... And Jean demands that at 10 am I was already at
work.
I repeat, in Moscow I had a flexible schedule, I could
come to the office in 3 days, and leave at 12 at night, and have
dinner at 6 in the evening. Here I was required to dine strictly in
the interval from 12 to 2.
- Alex, I told you that corporate
housing is a temporary solution. The management is already annoyed
that you live there for several weeks. You urgently need to take
something off!
It is worth noting that several times before I
approached Harry and asked his other colleagues from the personnel
department to help or at least give advice on how to find an
apartment as soon as possible. After some time, I saw the hatred in
the eyes of these people and did not address them anymore. Europeans
are completely unwilling to put themselves in the shoes of another
person, to do something elementary and to mess around with you
somehow.
I took his words seriously, although now I understand
that it was necessary to continue to live and slowly search for an
apartment for myself. Nowhere on the street they would not kick me
out - they simply have no right to do so according to the law. Even
if you do not pay rent, according to local laws, the landlord can not
put you anywhere.
By the way, finding an apartment for rent in
Luxembourg is almost unreal. But first things first. The search
process begins like this - you go to www.athome.lu or www.immotop.lu
and look for a place to rent yourself, using the search. The cost of
a studio on the outskirts starts from 900 euros per month, a normal
apartment - from 1600. After you have submitted an application on the
site, a realtor contacts you (not always!) And you negotiate a
meeting time with him. In this case, you usually need to send an
e-mail or bring your documents and employment contract with you to
the meeting. If you get less than 3,000 euros per month - most real
estate firms and homeowners simply will not deal with you. But even
when the meeting takes place, the realtor says: “Ok, you are a
great guy, but I will send your documents to the property owner for
consideration and he will make a decision”. And then either the
answer does not come at all, or the refusal comes. The owner sees
that you are not a European, you have a low income compared to
someone, and simply rent housing to another person. Luxembourg is a
small country and apartments for rent are just a little. But there
are a lot of those who want it. People from everywhere, from Italy,
Spain, Russia, Ukraine, India and even Great Britain, go to high
wages compared to Europe. Yes, the whole of Europe is now flooded
with the Anglo-Saxons, everyone is fleeing from England because of
high prices and ethnic conflicts. There is another point. Luxembourg
massively accepts African refugees. In the six months that I lived
there, the number of black people doubled, if not tripled. All these
people need housing - and it is the state that pays for it, renting
it from the owners. But qualified professionals housing for rent is
sorely lacking.
There is another absolutely monstrous European
law. When you rent an apartment, you need to give a large deposit,
the so-called Security Deposit, which ensures that you do not break
or break anything. And if you spoil it, the owner of the dwelling
will deduct money from it in order to repair the damage. For example,
you have agreed on everything for 1500 euros per month and begin to
rent housing. You should pay the following amount in one sitting:
1,500 euros for the first month + 1,500 euros to the realtor + 1,500
* 3 euros Security Deposit + 120 euros insurance for the apartment
for a year. Total 7620 euros immediately. Now, if you have signed a
lease for a year (and for a shorter period they are almost not
signed) and want to terminate it early, you still have to pay for the
accommodation until the landlord finds a new tenant or until the end
of the contract! Will not you pay? Then they will not return Security
Deposit or your 4500 euros! Such a law of renting real estate is
valid in all EU countries, but employers are always silent about it,
luring those who are looking for a better share of people from
Russia, Ukraine, India and other third world countries.
HOUSE IN THE VILLAGE
- Well, Alex, did you
finally rent an apartment? - Once again I met the personnel officer
Harry at the door of the office.
- Not yet, Harry. - All
looking and continuous failures. No one wants to rent housing to the
Russians.
- Let's do it this way, - the Greek said grimly. -
It’s time for you to leave the corporate apartment for a long time,
the company’s management is very dissatisfied. Find yourself a room
through the AirBnB website and take it off for a while. Living there,
find yourself an apartment. I see this is a slow process.
I
began to look for a room through this application, but I have not had
a bank account yet. And as soon as I offered to meet and pay cash, I
was quickly finished chatting.
In the end, after much effort, I
found the hostess of the house, who agreed to rent me a room. Chantal
was a Frenchwoman who bought a 3-storey house in Luxembourg and made
a mini-hotel out of it. In the house 8 rooms were rented for 30-40
euros per day. But I had no choice - I had to rent something quickly.
In addition, to obtain a temporary residence permit, you must have a
rental contract and a permanent address - only then you can apply for
the EU Blue Card.
I paid in cash, giving 1800 euro for 2 months
and 1200 euro Security Deposit. If I break or break something, the
hostess will deduct from this money. Having received my copy of the
contract, I went to work, promising to move this weekend. And on
Saturday I took a taxi, loaded a single suitcase into the car and
finally moved.
Chantal warmly greeted me and took me to the top
floor, where a tiny room under the roof of no more than 10 square
meters in size was waiting for me. A double bed only, a plasma TV
panel on the wall, a window with blinds, a chair, a tiny table with a
dwarf electric kettle and a horizontal iron tube with clothes
hangers. The closet in the room simply did not fit.
- On this
floor there is a toilet, but it is used by your neighbor, who paid
for renting a room with a toilet. Therefore, use the bathroom on the
second floor, where everyone goes, - Chantal introduced me to the
rules, - You can use the washing machine once a week. See the paper
on the wall? You will need to sign up when you book the bathroom and
washing machine. And yet - be sure to wipe behind a sink, faucet,
washing machine and bathroom. For all this, there are separate
cloths, they hang next. After all, after you here will be other
tenants.
We went down the creaking wooden stairs and Chantal led
me to the kitchen.
- We have two refrigerators. I use one and my
boyfriend, for all of you, my tenants - this one. I give you this
shelf for products. All other products put in the closet, here is
your shelf. And be sure to wipe the table, as you eat my sink after
you wash the dishes.
Listening to her, I wondered how many rules
I would have to follow for a lot of money. By the way, in the
neighboring Belgium for 400 euros you can rent a 1-room apartment,
but here I pay twice as much for a tiny room and there is not even a
hint of any kind of service.
“As a bonus, you can take
breakfast from my shelf for a week,” continued Chantal, “it's
bread, cheese from the package, ham, and some greens.” Well, boil
water, tea, coffee at your service.
Of course, as a Russian
person who was accustomed to a hearty breakfast, I simply did not
understand this trifle and always cooked myself - for example,
scrambled eggs, porridge or potatoes with sausages, made a salad,
certainly fruits, yogurt. Chantal was surprised how so much could be
eaten, and that we Russians drink food, and the French eat and then
drink.
The rooms in the house never gave up everything.
The regular customers were the Corsican-bartender Max and the Belgian
builder Jacques. Both worked in the same village, literally across
the road. By the way, there were only a few streets in the village,
not a single store, but 4 restaurants worked. The bus went once an
hour, on weekends - once every 3 hours. There is absolutely nothing
to do, but near the forest, streams, small mountains, fresh
air.
True, for me, a resident of the metropolis to be in this
wilderness was torture. One day I was up late for a walk in the
center and missed the last bus to my canton. The time was about
midnight and I decided to get to the next village by another bus, and
only then walk to my walk. It is worth noting that I tried to contact
Chantal and my colleagues on my mobile, but so late nobody picked up
the phone. And here I am walking in the dead of night, on the street
not a soul, cars do not stop, no matter how you vote. I reached the
forest belt and saw that the pedestrian road was over - there are no
street lamps and no sidewalk. Well, okay, I think, here a little,
walk along the road through the woods and dedicate myself a mobile
phone. And suddenly, from behind a tree, someone growled. There was
total darkness, I did not see anything, but by a growl I realized
that this was far from a dog, but some large predator. “It was
necessary for me to go to Luxembourg from Moscow to be eaten by a
wolf!”, - I thought. - “No, I’ll turn around, go to the church
in the neighboring town, it’s not so cold, I will sit on a stool up
to the first bus.” In an hour I finally reached the center of
Steinfort, a small town on the border with Belgium and decided to
still search for someone alive to call a taxi. And lo and behold - I
came across a bar that was still working around one in the morning. I
go - inside a couple of alcoholics and the barmaid girl. Having
ordered a beer to relax, I asked her to call a taxi. The girl had
been dialing to different companies for a long time - they didn’t
pick up the phone somewhere, they refused to go somewhere, but the
car was called. And the cafe was already closed, another hour of
waiting outside and, in the end, I was in a warm taxi. I literally
threw myself around the neck of the Portuguese driver, taking him as
a savior. And, of course, when he drove me, gave him a generous
tip.
Meanwhile, life in a picturesque village was by no means
sugar. Every day, at 5 am, trucks, wagons, tractors and buses began
to walk under the windows (the house stood at the intersection of two
main streets), and at 8 am, demolition hammers, excavators and other
road repair equipment began to work outside the window. In the
evening, in a house across the road, a brass band rehearsed. I,
accustomed to my room in a good Moscow apartment, hardly slept. In
addition, the builder Jacques went somewhere for a night looking,
and, returning, in the morning, several times he fell drunk on the
stairs. The barman also finished work late and, returning to the
house, began to take a shower, destroying everything in the bathroom,
which was right next to my room. And, returning to his room, loudly
started rap. Needless to say, then at work I simply suffered and
could not focus at all, made minor, but errors, which caused anger of
the boss and colleagues.
“Alex, you already live with us for
two weeks, and we communicate so little,” - Chantal told me once. -
You know, my boyfriend comes from vacation, Yannick. Let's have
dinner tonight. I'm sure you will be interested to meet him”.
I
agreed, thinking that I would see some handsome Polish man, blond,
two meters tall. Yan is a Polish name, Yannick is probably his
derivative. It is interesting to see who Chantal chose as her chosen
one - a rather beautiful, but lonely 45-year-old Frenchwoman, whom
you will never give her age. And so I come home from work, sit down
at the table and instead of a Polish blond macho, a small, bald,
bow-legged Frenchman with a facial expression like a bulldog appears
before me. Chantal is higher on his head. You know, at that moment I
first flashed the thought of the degeneration of Europe, which I so
praised. If their women choose such men, so what can we expect from
these people? We sat at the table, ate a dinner primitively prepared
from convenience foods, drank red wine and I thought that in Russia
women still mostly want to have a husband, a family and children. And
this lady has got herself a coming lover who does not help her with
anything - she will come, eat, sleep with her and is absent for a
week. All the housework, the purchase of products Chantal did
herself. And I could not understand why she would not find herself a
normal man, would not marry, would not lead a child? Who will inherit
this house after her death? Yannick’s children from his first
marriage? To be honest, as a Russian Chirstian Orthodox person, I was
disgusted with living with such a woman and being present at all
this.
Gradually, our relationship with the hostess began to
deteriorate. For example, I, as a tenant, had the right to use the
kitchen for half an hour, according to the contract, the silence in
the house was supposed to occur at 11 pm, and Chantal rolled up loud
dinners with friends and acquaintances that lasted until one o'clock
in the morning. I tried to explain to the landlady that I need
silence, I cannot sleep, and my work requires concentration, but in
response I received an offer to join dinner and drink with those
present. The argument that I never understood at work tomorrow. Soon
the lady began to miss the money and she began to demand 50 euros
from each tenant for cleaning. Of course, all refused to pay - the
French and Belgians would rather hang themselves than give an extra
cent, but for some reason I was considered the instigator of the
rebellion. The first thing I was denied to use the dryer, which stood
in the room Chantal. “The dryer has broken, so here's a hanger for
you and hang your washed laundry right on the stairs,” - the
Frenchwoman explained to me directly and without blinking, and gave
me a standing structure with branches in the shape of a Christmas
tree. Is it worth explaining that without access of light on a wooden
staircase, the linen has dried for weeks. Then there were comments
like: “Snickers disappeared from the bus driver. I'm not saying
that it was you, but don't do that anymore”. At such times, I often
recalled the memoirs of the first wave of immigrants to France,
former White Guards who came to a foreign land and could not get used
to local reality, faced with the lack of sympathy, greed and utter
heartlessness. They longed for their homeland and many hoped to
return to it until the end of their lives, but they did not succeed.
In the end, I finally exhausted and decided that it was time to
urgently move out.
CHINESE "DYNASTY"
With great
difficulty, I found a hotel through Booking, which could be booked
for a month. All the other hotels were painted for a long time ahead,
as I understand, expatriates who came to the country in large numbers
like me. It was a two-star Chinese hotel with the proud name
"Dynasty", standing on the edge of the village in the
middle of the field. Room cost 82 euros per day. Of course, he was
two more spacious than the room at Chantal, so I transferred money
through the Internet site and, after a few days warning the owner,
began to collect things. I want to note that life in the village
nevertheless played a role in my legalization - I indicated this
address in all documents and presented a lease agreement, therefore
an invitation to immigrate to receive a residence permit came to him.
Soon the EU Blue Card was in my arms.
- Thank you, Chantal, - I
told her on the day of departure. - You helped me in a difficult time
for me. Now I have a residence permit, but I still got used to
silence, to live alone and have to leave you.
- Well, I
understand, - the Frenchwoman replied. - Just let's settle a couple
of questions. First of all, either you pay me 50 euros, or you clean
your room yourself before you leave. I need it clean for rent to new
tenants. And second, more important. I added to the contract here
that until you register in the new canton, I will deduct 35 euros per
day from you.
- Why is that?
- According to local laws, I
can not surrender a room to anyone while you are registered in it.
-
Okay, Chantal, of course, - I said, putting my signature. - You can
be sure, I will quickly get registered in a new place, there will be
no problems.
- Ok, then I will return your security deposit -
Security Deposit.
In order not to pay, I cleaned my room. By the
way, Chantal long fooled and asked to finish something, remove the
dust, where it was not at all - probably, to make fun at last. And
then I checked for a long time whether I broke something from the
furniture and whether there were scratches somewhere. I called a
taxi, we said goodbye coldly and the car drove me through the fields
to the hotel.
All the work at the tiny hotel was done by a few
Chinese women, and they cleaned the rooms, prepared, washed and
answered the phone at the front desk. Entering the room, I finally
gladly felt the silence and space. Finally I am alone! Freedom!!!
There is a fridge but no stove. No problem! My breakfast is included
in the price, I will have lunch in a cafe during working hours, but
dinner is generally harmful. I'll interrupt yogurt and fruit. And it
does not matter that the room is cleaned once a week, and towels are
changed and that less often - I will suffer! The main thing is that
all these neighbors are left behind: drivers, builders and bartenders
with angry housewives. Now you just need to register in the new
canton to deregister in the previous one. And here I was waiting for
another trouble.
In the morning before work, I arrived at the
administration of the canton to register. The administration was in
another village and I had to get there by bus for a long time. I went
into the office of a local official and introduced myself.
-
Hello. I am Alex Orlov, came to work in Luxembourg and just recently
changed my address. I came to you to register in your area.
-
Well, please give me your residence permit and rental agreement, -
the fat female clerk said dryly of no middle-aged appearance.
I
handed her a plastic card of my new local ID and a printout of the
hotel reservation.
- Unfortunately, we cannot register you
without a rental contract, - the aunt snapped dryly.
- Yes, but
I live in this hotel for a month. Here are papers about reserving and
paying a room. Understand, I have to be registered somewhere.
-
Sorry, I can not do anything. We register only if you rent a house,
otherwise it is not legal, the official said.
In a panic, I
arrived at work and began to ask everyone, including Harry, the
personnel officer, what I should do. “You should go to the central
administration and register there,” - he advised me. And everyone
agreed with him. “You must understand,” - Harry justified, - “we
have no experience working with people from third countries �" we
are just starting to hire them to our company. Most of us are
citizens of the European Union and do not need to get registered
here. The majority of our workers come from France, Belgium, Germany,
work out the day and drive home in the evening. ”
I went to
the Jean Norse, explained the situation to him and asked to let me
go, because the registration issue had to be urgently addressed.
-
When will you finally start working? - evil blinking and looking with
hatred into my eyes was parried by Jean. Jean's face twitched and his
dull gray eyes drilled through me. I imagined myself as a Russian
peasant-partisan of 1812, who was detained by French soldiers and was
given to this maniac, Shoulder Master who would torture me with
sophistication and then behead me.
- I’ll register and stay
today to work through the time spent.
- You are not disciplined.
You linger all the time for some endless business.We must work
strictly from 10 to 19. And lunch from 12 to 2. Do you understand
me?
I understood that this man does not want to stand in my
place, that he is much younger and he probably enjoys scoffing and
showing me his power. For example, endlessly transferring me to new
places for no reason.
And yet I was let go. Once on the bus, I
reached the center, where I wandered for a long time and hardly found
the central administration. And finally, I am sitting with my number
in front of the bald clerk and give him the documents for
registration.
- You have already tried to register in the canton
of Diekirch - all this is in our database. What brings you here? the
official asked dryly.
- Yes, but I wasn’t registered there
because I live in a hotel and I don’t have a rental contract. As a
result, I can't get off the check in Steinfort. What should I do?
-
According to the law, they should have registered you, but we have
each canton, and we have more than 100 of them, interpret the law in
their own way. What they do is illegal. You have two options - either
contact the burgomaster of the district to consider your situation,
or go to court. All this will take a lot of time, much more than the
month that you live in a hotel.
- So how should I be?
-
Move out of there as soon as possible. Remove the accommodation or
hotel in the center and then our central administration will register
you without any problems.
I returned to work, all in the nerves,
explained the situation and sat down at the 50 test cases. Every day
before work, I went to look at 2 apartments, and then went to the
office. Soon, the manager Jean called me back into the
conversation.
- Alex, you are completely unproductive. Will it
last long? I warn you once again that this will end badly, the boss
told me. His eyes often blinked, a huge mouth was grinned and air was
coming out of his massive jaws with a hiss. The long fingers of huge
hands drummed on the table.
- Jean, I explain the situation to
you. I’m about to find an apartment. There have already been a lot
of shows and it seems that we have reached an agreement. As soon as I
move and all these cases with housing search and registration end, I
will be able to work in full force. Put yourself in my place!
-
I do not want to understand anyone and put myself in someone's place!
- He almost shouted. - There is a plan, you do not fulfill it!
-
What is the specific plan? How many bugs in the program should I find
during the day? And how many test cases to perform? You do not call
anything specifically.
- You have to change, otherwise
everything will be very sad for you,” he said, stammering in anger,
and, slouching, quickly left the negotiation room.
I returned to
the workplace, and my colleague, Hindu Rakesh, was sitting next to
me. “Finally you came back, Alex, there is so much work”, - he
breathed. I looked at him and thought that, despite the salary of
5,000 euros per month, he was still a slave. He came from India to
Luxembourg, where he was introduced to and married an Hindu who
received local citizenship. Rakesh never loved his spouse, she had a
terrible temper and she twisted him as she wanted. Will the husband
behave badly? Divorce, send him home to India and find another fellow
tribe. Awful work, misfortune in personal life, but Europe. Is there
a need for such a life in Europe? Not for me.
MY ACCOMODATION
And finally, the long-awaited
day came when luck turned to face me - I rented an apartment.
Responding to the next ad on the rental site, made an appointment
with a real estate agent. The apartment was located on the top floor
of a 4-storey building in the pedestrian zone of the very center of
the city and cost only 1,200 euros, including utilities. You enter
inside and you get into the living room combined with the kitchen,
from which the door leads to the bedroom. Plasma hob with steam hob,
dishwasher, tiny fridge, sofa, TV, bed for a couple of seats.
Bathroom combined with toilet and standing space under the shower. In
the basement is a laundry room with washing and drying machines. What
else is needed for the life of a bachelor?
“Your neighbors are
calm here, the furniture is new, everything is close,” - Arab-born
realtor Daoud Hasani praised the accommodation, - “there are
several shops nearby, all within walking distance.”
I quickly
happily signed a contract for six months and at once gave more than
6,000 euros - for the first month of the lease, a commission to the
agency and the Security deposit, consisting of 3 monthly payments. “I
finally rented my apartment! I have never had such experience, but
now I live alone! What did I need to find housing, but still I won!
”- there were my joyful thoughts.
But the reality was tough.
In a hurry, agreeing to rent, I did not notice that the house across
the street was covered with a film - it turned out that it was
completely rebuilt. I did not realize that on the top floor it is
always hot - even at night. And, of course, I could not imagine how
it would be noisy to live in the pedestrian zone. Early in the
morning every day at 6 in the morning the jackhammers began to work,
and at about one in the afternoon it was all over. As I understand
it, the builders started and tried to complete the work earlier,
while there were few people on the main street. Only they were
finishing - street musicians came right under the windows, people
began to walk, children run. This whole celebration of life went on
until late and ended in drunken fights of blacks with each other and
local alcoholics. In addition, on the other side of the narrow street
there was a house and people living on my level all the time looked
at me through the windows. We could perfectly see each other and they
were happy to watch me: when I got up, I cook and eat when I went to
the bathroom ...
In order to somehow compensate for the
loneliness and meaninglessness of being in a foreign land, I gave all
the power to work. But the executor-chief was not always happy. Once
he once again called me to the meeting room.
- Well, Alex, I can
tell you that everything is very bad. You have no idea how bad things
are!
-
You’re not at all doing the job, - said Jean, grinning, looking
angrily at the eyes of a serial killer with bags under his eyes. From
his half-open mouth, a stinging saliva flowed right onto the table.
-
How can not cope when I do everything? The heads of all the teams I
work for are happy, - I retorted.
- You do not fulfill the plan,
I warned you earlier. This is the last warning. A little more - and I
will dismiss you.
I looked at this paranoid, realizing that he
hates me for no reason and that this is not about work. For some
reason he assigned me to enemies and will never calm down. It is
necessary to stop this torment. After all, I came to Luxembourg for a
better life. Am I supposed to die?
- You know, Jean, - I said. -
I have already made a decision. We have to part.
- Are you
serious? - He was taken aback and for some reason his neck turned
red, and his face, on the contrary, turned white.
- Yes, we are
different people and I will not work with you.
- Oh well. The
company will pay you for another 3 weeks ... You can not leave
tomorrow, but according to our rules, we pay our employees to find
something new for themselves ...
Do you think I was sad? I
left work to nowhere in another country and realized that, most
likely, I would not find anything new. Yes, I was happy and ready to
jump for joy! Breaking out of this juicer, preserving health, seeing
no more evil, annoyed, exhausted faces of colleagues and, on the
contrary, evil and aggressive leaders. We live once and should not
tolerate bad conditions and horrible people around! In addition, I
strongly stretched my foot when I moved, when I was dragging a heavy
suitcase and almost could not walk normally. And besides this, in a
hurry, he hit his elbow on the corner of the wall when he carried the
suitcase into the apartment. Elbow was very sick and swollen.
After
that, I tried to find another job. I sent dozens of resumes per day
throughout Europe, posted on the sites of Monster, Indeed, but there
were no offers. It is worth noting that I have always indicated that
I have a European residence permit and a work permit - it did not
help. My attempts to find a job in other European countries were also
unsuccessful. And then I decided to return home to Russia, which I
greatly missed. There was absolutely no regret - I was completely
exhausted, I hadn’t slept for almost half a year, I hadn’t seen
my parents.
Why did I come here? Indeed, in Moscow I lived in
a good apartment, I had an interesting job, I was valued ... I
created an idol for myself, that somewhere could be better! Being in
a foreign land, I realized how attached to Russia. The power of my
country, its size attracted and did not let go. I remembered going by
bus to some monastery - and for hours outside the window there were
forests, rivers and lakes, no shelter and not a soul! And our
Orthodox Church, its beautiful services, good grandmothers in
handkerchiefs. Moscow lanes near the Kremlin, in Zamoskvorechye, in
the city center. Our theaters are Big, Small, Moscow Art Theater, the
Russian army. Our literature is Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Bunin, Kuprin,
Pushkin, Lermontov. Our rock - Viktor Tsoi, "Alice",
Kipelov, "Nautilus" and many ... Vladimir Vysotsky.
Countless museums. Russian ballet. Our beautiful Russian girls - with
regular features, wheat hair, bottomless eyes and chiseled legs!
And here in Luxembourg - all some kind of small,
clumsy, puppet. The people do not know anything - neither their own
history, nor art, nor literature. Empty Catholic Cathedrals - they
have no soul.
And in general, the soulless people around - they
smile meaningfully to you, but their eyes are evil and, as soon as
they realize that you don’t know something and have slacked
somewhere, they will immediately dissolve them for money. I did not
see any values and moral principles, or rather only two values -
money and tasty food. No sympathy, no compassion, no sincerity, no
friendship, no love. I imagined the rest of my life in this country -
you are well off, you don’t do anything to anyone, you eat in a
restaurant every day, because there’s nothing else to do here and
the vast majority of the population lives like that. Years pass, you
become fat, still angry and something forever dissatisfied, as
everyone around is selfish and consumer. Only you buy more and more
goods, but this does not bring you happiness and satisfaction. There
is no friendship and love in your life, because those around you are
not capable of it. And all is just for the money. Is this the
ultimate dream? Meaningless life and hell after it. Oh, how we,
Russians, have deteriorated lately, but in Europe everything is many
times worse! Do I want my children to grow up in such a society and
become ignorant fat morons? Of course not!
Eh, it's time to go
home! But before I return, I decided, it is necessary, taking
advantage of the fact that while here, to see the neighboring
countries - Belgium, Germany and France and only then go home. And
hit the road.
BELGIUM
First I went to Brussels. From
Luxembourg there goes the train - 4 hours and you are in the capital
of Belgium. You sit, look out the window and see beautiful mountains
overgrown with forests, well-groomed European villages. It is always
good to be a tourist in a foreign country, not facing life
difficulties, but seeing only the most beautiful and interesting
things. I come to the capital, go out at the central station and
feel: something is wrong. Looked around - not a single white face!
There are only Africans and Arabs around. Wow! The capital of the
kingdom, the center of Europe! Having built a route using Google
maps, I got to the hotel booked on Booking. The porter-arab warmly
greeted me and, having learned that I was Russian, literally came to
hug, telling me how to get to the main sights. Once a beautiful city
struck by its former grandeur - what is the Grand Place square with
the Town Hall, the King’s House and gilded guild buildings,
numerous magnificent cathedrals, a huge Museum of Fine Arts, two
royal palaces ... There are modern parts in Brussels with low
skyscrapers where European Commission, European Parliament,
headquarters of leading European corporations. And next to these
buildings, a bizarre mixture of glass and concrete, homeless refugees
from Africa are sleeping on the benches. In general, being in
Brussels in no way feel like in the European capital - the streets
are full of women in hijabs, a sea of Arab shops, shabby
neighborhoods with people from the Middle East. I don’t feel any
aggression, everyone communicates culturally - after all, European
education and lifestyle gradually heaps. The white man in Brussels is
a rarity and endangered species. But in the north of Belgium, in the
cities of Antwerp and Ghent, where the Flemish live, Europeans are
much more visitors. Immediately visible different way of life of the
Flemish and Walloons. The country's problems are a huge public debt,
high taxes, uncontrolled migration (not having received refugee
status in France, many are illegally moving to Belgium), inability to
find work if you are not from the field of information technology. By
the way, I was often offered to have an interview at companies that
are located in different parts of this country. Would I like to live
in this country? Of course not. Here everything is alien, very
selfish isolated people and terribly dull, meaningless life. The
country is small and you can see everything here in two weeks. And
what to do next I did not understand.
NETHERLANDS
Then my path lay in the
Netherlands. That's where I really liked it! It seems to me that
today Holland is the best country in Europe. The Hague is a
beautiful, polished city with interesting architecture and typically
Dutch lifestyle. Castles, houses, even mosques are all red brick with
white framing around the windows. But, most importantly, as always,
people. Arriving here, I felt that something was wrong with me. I
looked around - everything is taller than me. The fact is that the
Dutch are the highest nation in the world. For girls, a height of
1.80 m is normal, men are 1.90, and often taller than 2 meters! And
there are so many bikes around - separate bike lanes are allocated
everywhere. Often you see how some beautiful red-haired girl goes on
a date, hanging her purse right on the steering wheel. A pensioner
with gray curls and a smooth beard rides from the store, in front of
a box with food. Tall blonde with curls in the wind with her hair
carries on a specially elongated trunk of three children. And they
love water very much. Often on the canal next to the house is a motor
boat or boat, a person sits in it and goes to work in a suit. People
are unusually beautiful, athletic, well-built. Descendants of
pirates, enterprising and optimistic, with a cheerful and
good-natured disposition, are real Europeans. A lot of blue-eyed,
blond and red, all speak excellent English. And how beautiful are the
canals in Amsterdam, a lot of greenery, complete freedom, the
opportunity to score a joint in the coffeeshop! From the side, when
you do not face the difficulties of registering, finding housing and
working, it seems that life here is a holiday. I have a friend
programmer Valera. Two years ago he found work on the Internet here,
he lives and does not live in misery. It’s a bicycle trip with the
Dutch colleagues every weekend, maybe even from Amsterdam to Antwerp
to get there. But recently he confessed that he misses Russia. Of
course, it is very interesting to travel around this country. By the
way, I was in Rotterdam - this is a typical American city with many
skyscrapers and absolutely no soul. The fact is that the Germans
almost completely bombed Rotterdam during the Second World War, so
they rebuilt the city again according to different patterns. Utrecht
is a small provincial town where life flows unhurriedly, Phillips and
many other technology companies are based in Eindhoven, and the old
houses in the neighborhood get along perfectly with modern glass. Is
it worth living in Holland? Only in Amsterdam, and maybe in The
Hague. Life in these cities is in full swing, there are many
restaurants, museums, theaters - everything works until late. In
general, you can occupy yourself with something. But, of course, I
would never recommend anyone to go to a foreign country alone -
anyway, sooner or later you will be bored. You need to move only with
your half. In addition, as I understand, for the Dutch we are too
small and they have their own standards of beauty. Therefore, it is
unlikely that a newcomer immigrant, who has nothing, will be found
here for marriage.
GERMANY
I often visited
Germany, and from Luxembourg it was within reach. The ancient city of
Trier with the prehistoric Roman arch and the museum-apartment of
Karl Marx, Saarbrücken, Stuttgart and even Düsseldorf - all this is
accessible by train or bus. It unites these cities, of course, a way
of life - everywhere there is a pedestrian zone from several
pedestrian streets, where people pour out after work and where you
can shop for food and drink beer in restaurants. German cuisine is
not intricate - fried meat, potatoes, burgers and beer. The latter,
of course, is beyond all praise. German beer perfectly combines all
their food, as if it was invented for this drink. Delicious
chocolate, pastry. Huge selection of goods, products, all cheap with
respect to salary. Near the restaurants and right in the bars,
prostitutes legally work, so by jerking beer, schnapps or Rhine wine,
you can immediately, without departing from the cash register, go up
to the apartment with the rented lady. Works - the sea, the mass of
IT people from Russia move here and work for the benefit of the new
homeland. It would seem, live and rejoice. Why, I'm just not happy -
seeing all these faces around. As a person who grew up in Soviet
times, I understood that these people are alien to me. My relatives
suffered from the fascists: my grandfather fell in a battle near
Kaliningrad, and my mother’s parents from my mother were Jews and
lived in a Ukrainian village. The war began and the grandmother, her
brothers and sisters, who had left for Russia, begged their parents
to leave and wanted to take them. But my great-grandfather Hirsch
replied to the children: “The Germans live in a nearby village -
conscientious, decent, good people. We have always dealt with them
and they never deceived us. Don't worry, they won't do anything to
us. ” But those were other Germans whom Tsar Peter I invited from
Germany and their children for generations lived in the open spaces
of Ukraine. And then came the Nazis. They had buried their
great-grandfather as a Jew alive, and great-grandmother Bella Riva
was placed in a gas chamber with a gas chamber. But that's not all.
My father’s grandmother had a grandmother Evdokia. She and her
husband Gregory lived in a village in the Tver region. When the war
began, the village was in the occupied territory - the fierce SS-men
from the “Dog's head” division entered it. Evdokia, on pain of
death, had to be placed in the house of many fascists, washed and
prepared food for them. When they ate, they loved to compete with
each other - who would burst and fart louder. At the end of the war,
the Germans began to leave the village and took with them civilians
as hostages. The fascists drove in front, and behind were trucks with
women, children, and old men in the hope that Soviet soldiers would
not shoot at their own. People were lucky - they were abandoned in a
village in the Pskov region, where local residents let them into
their homes for a while. They extinguished the bathhouse, Gregory
accepted it and died of a heart attack in the morning - the old man
left after all his peripitis. Evdokia returned to her village, burned
to the ground before the Germans retreated. She alone tried to
restore the house, but after half a year I died myself.
Remembering all this, and many Soviet films about
the fight against fascists, I always thought that the ancestor of the
waiter working in the cafe or going to the auto office clerk could
easily shoot my grandfather in Kaliningrad or bury my
great-grandfather near Dnepropetrovsk. Their numerous policemen with
dogs and machine guns seemed to me to be concentration camp workers.
Looking at all these people around, the well-groomed and well-fed
faces of the “veterans of the Second World War” sipping on the
beer benches, I realized that I would rather die of hunger than ever
live among these and work for the welfare of the country, brutally
who killed my family. Have the Germans changed in 70 years, have they
become democrats and civilized Europeans? I will never believe! All
the past is sitting in them and be sure to someday swim out!
FRANCE
Any cultural person should visit this
most visited country in the world at least once in a lifetime.
Interesting history with beautiful castles, palaces, estates of
aristocrats, many cathedrals, museums and attractions. Philosophers,
writers, artists, composers, various people of art can be enumerated
ad infinitum. And the French food - their brandies, wines, cheeses,
mussels, oysters, foie grasses! The cuisine is undoubtedly the best
in the world. A lot of former colonies and today dependent on the
Fifth Republic, nuclear weapons, a huge impact on world politics. The
French cities are so different, but the most interesting and
beautiful - Paris, Strasbourg, Marseille, Toulouse, Nantes and many
others. Cote d'Azur with perfect beaches and excellent service -
Nice, Antibes, Cannes, the opportunity in a few minutes by train to
Monaco.
Having been in France, many people want to stay here to
live. But do not confuse tourism with immigration. At first glance,
around the brothers - civilized Europeans, Democrats, free people.
Some French men are really beautiful - here they are wearing a
stylish suit, a slim, handsome man with black curly curls, a little
dartanyan beard and cold blue eyes. Just a model. Or a well-built
blond in yellow polo comes out of a red Jaguar. Well, just a dream of
women! However, do you know how greedy and sophisticated these French
are? Under a charming smile (however, their eyes never smile), with
cunning speeches and beautiful phrases lies treachery and a
sophisticated mind. At the restaurant, the girl will have to pay for
herself �" for these money, these genetically greedy people are
ready to die in the literal sense. In marriage, the French are
usually despots, they will certainly twist their wife, manipulate
them in every way (remember, they are very tricky!), And then in the
end, they will surely divorce, leave the child and find another
spouse.
I did not meet beautiful French women, although I heard
that they exist. But those of the local girls I saw and spoke of them
as beautiful women - by Russian standards at 3 out of 5, no more. And
at the same time jaded, arrogant with no expression in their eyes. In
general, in France, if you see a beautiful girl, when meeting you, it
turns out that she is from Russia or from Ukraine. Once I asked my
Portuguese friend Georges about his experience of meeting with French
women. “Don't even think about it!”, - He emotionally shook his
hands, - “The French girl will love only herself and consider that
the whole world should revolve around her. I lived with several of
them, flew completely into the pipe, and now I have found a modest
girl from Portugal and I am going to marry her. ”
Have you ever worked with a French boss? These are
the best innovators! Juice will be squeezed out of you with passion,
you will work for five, and then you will still be drafted and thrown
out like a squeezed orange peel. In addition, the boss will certainly
trample you into the dirt, showing you your place. Historically,
France has a very caste society and, even working in another country,
the French cannot change the mentality. I was repeatedly offered to
discuss a job as a programmer, but in the process of interviewing a
potential French boss, it turned out that I would also have to test
programs, study the market, set up computers in the office, and
communicate with clients.
Of course, one cannot ignore the fact
that France is an interesting country. The climate is wonderful,
there are mountains, lavender fields, two seas, palm trees. In Paris
- dozens of museums and theaters, life boils. By the way, getting to
the capital, you find yourself in a full international vinaigrette.
Prim French pensioners in vests, blacks in T-shirts and caps,
Arabians in hijabs, Hindus in sarahs. Life rages day and night -
there are shops and restaurants, strip clubs, cars roar, shouting
nights and screaming fireworks of the crowd of football fans. By the
way, during football matches, a massive psychosis begins - everything
from children to old people is poured into the streets, the French
tricolor is depicted on their faces, and they start yelling, dancing,
jumping. Getting into such a crowd, you understand that you can
easily be crushed and even this will not be noticed. And looking at
this mass psychosis, you doubt: are these people normal at all or can
I be crazy for them? You want to get out, but on the neighboring
streets there are the same crowds, the whole city is walking. The
ancestors of the present citizens of the Fifth Republic would see
that became the modern ideals of their descendants - they were
replaced by valor, honor, debt, money, restaurants and football.
Of course, it is impossible not to note their art
galleries. The Louvre is a huge museum, there is probably the largest
collection of paintings in the world. Passing through it for 8 hours,
I realized that I did not see even the fifth part of the whole
exhibit. And here you go through the halls, you look at the paintings
of French masters and you see on them the faces of French medieval
robbers, executioners, inquisitors. And going out into the street and
sitting down somewhere for lunch you see the same face, as if from a
painting that sits nearby or even serves you.
I come once in a
street cafe for breakfast. An elderly waiter began to serve me - an
intelligent-looking gray-haired man with glasses and a beard. It's
only 11 am, the cafe has been working for an hour, and this person is
already so tired that he understands very little and is about to
fall. They are promoted on raised tones by a young chief and require
a lot of tables to be served very quickly. For a long time I watched
the old Frenchman, who, on stiff legs and with insane eyes, finally
brought me a cold and tasteless breakfast, spilled coffee on the
table, and was very sympathetic to him. Surely divorced, robbed by
his ex-wife, takes off a tiny wagon somewhere, and every day works
for pennies for wear and tear without any prospects. If something
happened to him, if he fell ill or even died, no one would sympathize
and help, they would immediately find another employee and the
process of cruel exploitation would continue. No freedom, no
equality, no fraternity.
LUXEMBOURG
Luxembourg is a constitutional
monarchy led by the Grand Duke Henri. In 2013, the Democratic Party
wins the election and Xavier Bettel becomes prime minister, the
monarch approves his candidacy. By the way, the Prime Minister of
Luxembourg is gay and married to a man - the Belgian architect
Destenaye Gauthier. Luxembourg was one of the founding countries of
the European Union - in 1985, in the village of Schengen, an
agreement was signed “On the gradual abolition of checks on common
borders,” which marked the beginning of a united Europe. The
population is about 600 thousand people, the size is about 30 to 70
kilometers. The country does not lead wars and does not climb into
international adventures, but makes money on the banking sector and
insurance. Luxembourg is located at the crossroads in the heart of
Europe. There is a stable political system, there are no wars and
revolutions for decades, there are German, French, Luxembourgian
languages and serious tax breaks for companies. Due to these factors,
large holdings open their offices here, and rich people from all over
the world make deposits in local banks. There are no interesting
sights - you can get around the old town in an hour, the Museum of
Art is very mediocre. The local cuisine is extremely primitive -
wieners or fried meat with potatoes. The wines are good, but not so
hot, the local beer seems to have drunk one time already.
Once
in Luxembourg, which many people call for short simply “Lux” as a
tourist or for work, at first you feel that everything is
unrealistically cool and that is why it blows the roof off. Beautiful
roads, cleanliness and safety. The stores have a huge selection of
goods and products. Cheese from France and Belgium, sweets from
Switzerland, Belgium and Germany, fruits and vegetables from Italy,
Spain, Portugal. 100 grams of luxurious French Camambert cost 2
euros, a kilo of Spanish orange - 1 euro! With a salary of 5,000
euros and getting 3,300 a month, it's just nothing! Dine in a
restaurant 20-60 euros per person. Travel card for all types of
transport - 50 euros per month. Beauty! I, finally, in a quiet place,
the richest in income per capita state of the world! Life is a
success! Here is the place where you need to start a family and raise
children. But not everything is so simple and gradually the eyes
begin to open up to the serious difficulties of life in the Grand
Duchy.
The main problem is the inability to rent a house.
The country is small and therefore few apartments are rented.
Realtors cheat and behave as they want - require you to send them a
copy of your passport and an employment contract indicating the
salary via the Internet. And then they may not come to a meeting or
stop communicating with you at any time. The homeowners, without
haste, are looking for those tenants who will like them the most and
most likely will not be you. Russian, new to the country, without EU
citizenship, with a salary far less than local bonzes - why should
you rent a house when there are many others who want to? Thus, for
many months, the employee who came will have to rent a room, tolerate
bad neighbors and arrogant landlords and constantly, in addition to
work, look for housing and run around the authorities preparing a sea
of papers for obtaining a temporary residence permit. In
addition, the homeowner will show you his place all the time - to
control how you use, for example, a washing machine, and if you turn
it on at the wrong time, you threaten to fine you or take her away.
Want to wash? Buy your own! In addition, in Luxembourg it is almost
impossible to rent a furnished apartment - therefore, the furniture
will most likely also have to be bought independently. You enter an
empty dwelling, first take a bed, then a table, chairs, and so,
gradually, you will acquire property. There is no corner, but there
is something to sit on.
The second problem is a huge
competition between people. So your boss will demand that you fulfill
your plans above all human possibilities and squeeze all the juices.
You do not like? They will fire you immediately �" there are many
people who dream to get here from around the world and in any
personnel department there are hundreds of resumes to easily replace
any employee. And everywhere, in all companies, it is a tradition
here. When I went to the local airport, returning home to Russia, I
saw many people with sad faces and luggage leaving this country. They
were invited here, no one helped them, and then their bosses
exhausted them, squeezed out juices and threw them away.
The third problem is poorly developed
infrastructure. Shops close at 20 pm, and do not work at all on
Sunday. Restaurants - at 22:30. The last bus goes at best at 23:30.
Rarely buses go to the cantons - once an hour, on weekends - once
every 3 hours. It is inconvenient to live, everything needs to be
planned, there is nothing to do, to communicate, except for
colleagues there is nobody.
Do I want my future children to live here? So they
assimilated, then mixed with Africans, converted to Islam, became
gay? Of course not. I respect all nations, but I want my descendants
to preserve their Russian blood, genes, culture, Orthodoxy, speak
Russian. And there is no interracial hatred. Is this possible in
today's Europe? Of course not! I do not want to live here, so with
joy, finally, I am going home to Russia!
RUSSIA
And, finally, I am at the airport. A
polite border guard jokingly puts a stamp about my arrival in my
passport and I am going to my parents' apartment. I lived separately
from them, but I thought that I was leaving forever, so they rented
their second apartment for a year. Not a problem! How did I miss my
family dad, mom, grandmother! And how could I throw them? What for?!
And here I come to my sleeping area and wonder at the beauty. Yes,
the beauty of dangling branches of acacias, fir trees, pines after
rain. And how beautifully illuminated the center of Moscow in the
evening! Around - such close faces and native speech. I enter the
door, cuddle with my parents, do not rejoice at each other. And I see
that even my apartment in the five-story building is a palace
compared to the housing where I lived in Luxembourg.
By the way,
I lived in a Luxembourg rented apartment for only two months, and the
contract was for six months. And when I warned the real estate agency
that I want to terminate it and move out, the Arab realtor did not
come to the meeting. And then I was not returned a security deposit
of 3,600 euros, demanding that I pay until the end of the lease term.
God be with them, with money! I am not a European and do not kill for
them. Thank God, he returned home alive, although perhaps not very
healthy.
Two months after my arrival I came to my senses. The
hair on the temples turned gray, the stretched leg ached, the swollen
elbow did not pass. I felt that I was dead tired - I slept almost all
day and could not sleep. I didn’t have the strength at all and
didn’t want to communicate with anyone and didn’t want anything
at all. But nevertheless I was infinitely happy to return to my
native country and did not regret for a second and will never regret
it.
The country where I will travel again every
weekend - to watch Russian villages, cities, monasteries. And if I
want, I will go to Altai, Baikal. There are interesting tours to
Kamchatka, in Primorye and even on Sakhalin with the Kuriles. Maybe I
will go to China, but I definitely will not go to Europe anymore - I
ate to the core! A country with my people, beautiful girls, delicious
food and unlimited possibilities for a programmer. I will definitely
find a job, get married, have children. We will travel together, and
I will never leave my parents. And no matter how hard my native
country is, I will accept all the difficulties with it and never
again will I go to immigration.
MY THOUGHTS ABOUT EUROPE
What can I say
about my experience of living in Europe? During the entire time I was
there, I did not meet a single normal, kind, sincere person. It seems
that the locals have everything - at home, cars, high salaries. And
there is no happiness, joy, meaning of life. You often smile in shops
and restaurants where you pay money, but smiling eyes are always
angry. Give up the slack, show ignorance of the laws - they will
immediately take advantage of this and squeeze money out of you,
which is the meaning of life. No friendship, no love, no compassion,
no sincerity - only money and pleasure on the minds of these people.
But I got hardened, now I’m not afraid of anyone and I’m not shy.
He became smarter, learned to quickly resolve issues. He became the
best to understand people and in life.
For years I have thought
that life in Europe is better, strong managers and employers care
about their employees. And in fact, a bad juicer company lured me
into their networks, promised with three boxes and did not help in
adapting, leaving me in a foreign country and in new conditions to
the mercy of fate. And put in submission to the mentally-ill
boss.
And I was very lonely alone. Sometimes it seemed to me
that I found friends. For example, at the very beginning of work in
the company, my boss, Jean, invited me to have dinner together
several times, the landlord Chantal did the same. They communicated
benevolently, smiled and sympathized with my difficulties. And then,
asking a lot of questions and mine identifying weaknesses, used it
against me. There is no democracy in Russia, bad economy? Come
forever, do you want to stay here? So, this guy has nowhere to go -
you can squeeze out the juice from him in full and unfairly mock. And
as soon as they find out everything they need, joint meals end here.
It will seem to a Russian person that if someone walks to lunch with
you, then he is a friend. But no. Therefore, I no longer trust
Europeans.
I’ll note right away that I have to go to family
for immigration. If you are alone in a foreign country, depression is
assured. You will forget the worst and remember only the best and
constantly think about the motherland. Many go and hope to find a
soul mate in a new country. If you are a man, then it’s not
realistic to find a normal girl. In Europe, almost no beautiful
girls. So there remains a choice - either to find an African, or to
become gay, of which there are a great many.
And of course, the
main problem is uncontrolled migration. The states of Europe
willingly take them, pay big benefits, provide apartments. Do the
locals want it? No one asks them. The dynamics of arrival scares. And
often you see a typical picture - fat Luxembourgers sit in
restaurants with faces red from drunkenness, and black families with
strollers pass by. Parents are usually tall and strong. Children are
usually at least 5 - three go with their parents, another one in the
stroller and one in the mother's belly. Seeing all this, I, of
course, understood that all this is being done by someone else’s
malicious intent. If politicians do not stop these processes, it
means that they are interested in them. Or just totally corrupt and
completely bought. The question is - who benefits? I think, United
States, Saudi Arabia and Qatar to weaken the European peoples and
subjugate them. Someone pays bribes to European politicians for this,
and disunited citizens do not uphold the right of their culture to
exist and do not fight for their ideals and values, which, by the
way, are long gone.
I can say that for a simple person in
Europe a very bad life is much worse than in Russia. I had a high
salary, but I still could not rent a house, there was no one to be
friends with and meet. And what do I care about a strong economy, if
there is no happiness? The Europeans themselves are trying to change
their country to another and nowhere to find a place for themselves.
Often you communicate with a person and you find out that he lived in
several countries, worked everywhere and was bad for him everywhere.
Despotic bosses, poor housing, lack of prospects. It turns out a sort
of Brownian movement of individuals - Europeans travel around Europe,
hoping that somewhere better, they lose years of life on these
journeys and nowhere find themselves.
The time of Europeans is
over and all their cards are bits. The future of Europe is Islam and
Africanization. It began with the loss of morality, and ends with the
loss of identity.