Third year Bachelor's student
My Summer Job During the World Cup
"Tell us about sights in Saint Petersburg in English, please" - the phrase at the job interview began with. A few days later I worked in a hotel in the city center selling tours to foreign visitors. It was like being in the center of an international fest, as it was the middle of the FIFA World Cup Championship. My summer job became a journey to several countries at the same time. And every time it was not only interesting, but also fun.
One time a man from the USA came up to me and asked where he could buy a ticket to Moscow. We found out the website had no English version, so I offered my help to him. It turned out that to buy a train ticket is pretty hard as it could be done only by Russian bank cards. I offered to deposit money into my bank account. When we printed out his ticket, we realised that it was a ticket to the other way, so we had to change it to a new one. Fortunately, it took us only a few minutes. The man was over the moon and left me tips, which allowed me to drink coffee for the whole week.
A few days later, an elderly couple from Budapest asked my advice about museums and then they needed help with a taxi. In the evening they returned from the Hermitage and wanted to thank me. I said that the best "thank you" for me would be to know how they spent the day. They told me about their day, and then gave me a huge cake (Zaher) that I could eat all week too.
Besides foreigners there were a lot of other interesting people. I met a colleague, who lived in Brazil for two years and learned Portuguese and Spanish there. Also, I met a girl who spent a year in the USA and studied in China. At the end of July I met a boy who studied in Prague and he spoke Czech. That was unexpected as you hardly ever meet people speaking Czech. I can speak Czech rather fluently so I really enjoyed it. One day Czech tourists moved into the hotel, so we got to know them. Then the Czech tourists tried to speak Czech with all the hotel staff as they were sure everyone in the hotel was able to speak speak their language.
A lot of amusing situations happened. Once a woman from Germany asked me about getting to a cafe using a printed copy of Google Street View maps. I've never seen such a thorough preparation. A man from Germany asked me:"Can I wear shorts in Russia?". He really thought that it's forbidden. Moreover,some Finnish women asked me how often I met clergymen on the street. They also wanted to know whether clergymen had to wear their robes all the time?
To be honest, most of the days the hotel was empty, so I almost read my annual norm of books. For one working week I read Zweig's complete works and several Remarque novels. To sum it up, it was a short life which was filled with interesting people and adventures. Frankly speaking, my salary also pleased me. I think the reason is the World Cup, but if I didn't speak English, I wouldn't have done it, so I highly recommend you to improve your English language skills.