Today marked the twenty-second day of Ramadan. I attended a conference and spent the day in a very interesting and eventful way
Even though I am currently in Moscow, I began my day with fasting. The fasting schedule here is slightly different from what I am used to. Suhoor was at 04:47 AM, and iftar was at 06:27 PM. Honestly, the different timing did not cause me any inconvenience. I managed to begin and complete my fast quite comfortably. However, I had to skip breakfast at the hotel in the morning and lunch during the conference. Naturally, my colleagues noticed this and asked why I was not eating with them. I took the opportunity to explain the significance of the month of Ramadan for Muslims.
I received this bag of memorable gifts today at the conference. It was a pleasant surprise because I didn’t expect to get anything special. Inside the bag there was my badge. The orange rope was for the organizers, and the blue one was for participants. There was also a special notebook, a pen, a circular plate celebrating Infostart’s 20 years, a paper birthday hat, and a special set of tools for cleaning devices. All of these items were packed inside a blue decorated bag
My day was filled with new meetings and interactions with many new people, since I did not know anyone in the company apart from my colleagues. Fortunately, when I left the hotel, I ran into them. They were waiting for a transfer from the hotel to the conference venue, and I joined them. While we were waiting, people from different departments were greeting each other warmly. Many of them shook hands and exchanged enthusiastic greetings.
After some time, we arrived at the conference building. There, I recognized about five familiar faces. I remembered them from our previous online meetings, but this was the first time I had met them in person. When we reached the second floor, we encountered our executive director, and our deputy head introduced us to him. Our deputy head seemed to be quite well known there — almost everyone recognized him and greeted him with a handshake.
During the day, my colleagues and I spent some time in the open-space office working on our usual tasks. Fortunately, attending the talks was not mandatory, so we were free to move between the working area and the conference halls. The first speaker I listened to was our CEO, who officially opened the conference with a presentation about the company and shared some important updates and news. Later, I attended an interesting talk about AI. In between the sessions, I worked on my tasks and occasionally spoke with my deputy head, since our desks were positioned opposite each other.
I should also mention a rather stressful situation that occurred while I was trying to complete one of my tasks. I had hoped to finish it during the lunch break, but unfortunately the process was delayed for more than two hours, perhaps even longer. Meanwhile, my deputy head was waiting for me and eventually asked where I had been for so long. I explained the entire situation to him exactly as it had happened.
At some point, I completely lost my internet and GPS connection, most likely because these services were disabled in that area. As a result, I was unable to order a taxi or check my route using navigation apps. It was quite stressful, as I found myself unable to do much about the situation. Eventually, I approached a taxi driver and asked him to take me to my destination manually, but he refused and said, “Sorry, I can't do it because the GPS is disabled.”
Today is the twenty-second day of Ramadan. I visited the conference and spent my day interesting
Even though I'm in Moscow, I started my day with fasting. But in Moscow, the fasting time is a bit different. Suhoor time was 04:47 AM, and iftar was 06:27 PM. Honestly, this new time didn't bring me some inconvenient feelings. I easily started and finished my fasting. However, I missed my breakfast during the morning at the hotel and lunch during the conference. Of course my colleagues were involved in it, and they wanted to know, why I skipped my mealtime. So I explained to them about the month of Ramadan for Muslims.
My day was filled up with new meetings and new people. Because I didn't know anybody in the company, except my colleagues. Fortunately, when I left my hotel, I met them. They waited for a transfer from the hotel to the conference building, and I joined them. While we waited for our transfer, the people from other departments greeted each other. They ssually shook hands and loudly pronounced greeting words.
After some time we arrived at the conference building. There I recognized around five faces familiar to me. I remembered them from our online meetings, and today I met them in real life. When we went to the second floor, we met our executive director, and our deputy head introduced us to him. Honestly, our deputy head was so popular there, because everyone knew him and each time he shook hands.
During the day my colleagues and I spent some time at our open-space offices with our regular tasks. Fortunately, it wasn't mandatory. We could go to halls and listen to speakers. So my first speaker was our CEO, he opened the conference with a special program and talked about the company and some unique news. I also found one interesting speaker about AI and later visited it. Other free time I did my tasks and spoke with my deputy head, because our work desks were opposite each other.
I also should share one stressful story, that happened when I went to do my own task. I hoped that I could finish them during my lunch, but unfortunately it was delayed around more than two hours, maybe even more. In fact, my deputy head just waited for me and asked, Where were you for so long?. I explained everything as it was.
Shortly, I lost my internet and GPS connection, probably they were disabled in that area. I couldn't order a taxi or anything else, I couldn't check the route via maps and came back. It was really stressful because I didn't do anything. Even though when I manually took a taxi driver and asked him to drive me to my address, he just declined my offer and said, "Sorry, I can't do it, because there's GPS disabled".