Solving the Russian Riddle

The Tchaikovsky Country Estate in Klin

2010-04-10T22:38:00.009+04:00

As previously blogged, International Women’s Day on 8th March, is a rather important holiday in Russia. In 1917 demonstrations held on Women’s Day were the first steps of the Russian Revolution and in 1965 it became a national holiday "in commemoration of the outstanding merits of Soviet women in communistic construction, in the defence of their Fatherland during the Great Patriotic War, in their heroism and selflessness at the front and in the rear, and also marking the great contribution of women to strengthening friendship between peoples, and the struggle for peace. But still, women's day must be celebrated as are other holidays."

The beautiful day we set out to do some culture.

So, what did my friend and I decide to do this time? Well, we thought we’d take a trip in her new car to Klin, a small town 90km north of Moscow to visit Tchaikovsky’s country estate. Despite trying to persuade some male friends to join us, we set off on our own. Briefly debating whether such a museum would be open on a public holiday, we came to the logic and obvious conclusion that it would be, as it would make a lot of money.

Tchaikovsky's country estate through the iron railings.

The exterior of the museum

This was, however, British logic. A far different beast to Russian logic.

The sign on the door of the museum stating that it is a holiday

After the one and a half hour drive (including a minor detour that the sat-nav took us on...) we arrived to find it closed! Кошмар!

The wood and dirt track that the sat-nav tried to tell us was an actual road...

... And the war memorial hidden therein.

A wander around the outside of the fence in the beautiful sunshine, and happening across a pretty little church meant it wasn't a completely wasted trip, but lesson learnt! Next time, we will certainly be more prepared.

This morning's metro explosions...

2010-03-29T14:14:00.006+04:00

Very quick update, just to reassure that all at the embassy are fine. Obviously a full post will follow soon, but for now be reassured that all are safe and just waiting to hear how things will pan out!

Moscow Dragons on MTV Russia

2010-03-01T22:21:00.001+03:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlsDq2uFDq g

For some reason MTV were at the rugby ball... I fear this may explain a lot of the debauchery that goes on over here. The clip is dubbed into Russian but I think you can get the gist!

Enjoy...!

Record-breakers

2010-02-23T11:39:00.002+03:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8529506.stm

Britain: stop your whinging about the snow! As this article shows, we had nearly 25 inches (63cm) in Moscow since Friday alone! And our trains and roads are still moving!

Whilst i may not agree with the articles statement of 10.5million inhabitants (a Muscovite recently told me the city now has nearly 18million, if including illegal immigrants), it certainly shows how much snow we've had...

Pics to follow soon!

Yumm...

2010-01-27T16:55:00.001+03:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jan/27/soviet-chocolate-lenin-russia

Chocolate and Russia in the same article. It's the greatest article (so far) this week!

Chilly!

2010-01-26T20:25:00.001+03:00

The temperature was -25c here this morning... Eeeek!

Maybe the Bridget Jones-style enormous thermal pants my Mum made me buy before I first came to Moscow in 2006 will finally come in useful! Or maybe not...

Quite an Eyeful

2010-01-24T13:13:00.002+03:00

Taken from this weeks Moscow Times website... Just goes to show that you never can tell what's around the corner in Moscow!

Porn Snarls Moscow Traffic

18 January 2010

An enormous television screen showing a pornographic film caused a midnight traffic jam along Moscow’s Garden Ring Road as stunned motorists slammed on the brakes to gawk at the writhing naked bodies.

The owner of the 9-by-6-meter advertising screen said hackers had broken into the screen’s computer system and turned on the porn. “They were either acting out of hooliganism or were from a rival company,” Viktor Laptev, commercial director of advertising firm Panno.ru, told RIA-Novosti.

Authorities said they are investigating the incident, which lasted about 20 minutes. “Within three minutes we found it out, and within 15 minutes the screen was shut off,” said the deputy head of Moscow’s advertising committee, Alexander Menchuk, Interfax reported.

(Reuters, MT)

Istra

2010-01-16T12:56:00.014+03:00

Thursday 7th January was the Russian Orthodox Christmas, and so we had a four day weekend. In honour of my new resolution to try and see as much of Russia as possible this year, my friend and I took a day trip out to a small town called Istra about 50km west of Moscow. The journey, which took one and a half hours on a suburban train from Ryzhskiy Vokzal (Рыжский вокзал), cost approx £4 (200r) for a return ticket and took us through some lovely Russian countryside, and past a huge artificial ski ramp that we didn’t know existed.

In 1656 the then Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church founded a monastery in Istra, which is the main attraction of the town. The monastery is supposedly famous for the amount of pilgrims it attracts, and is named New Jerusalem, as it was supposed to show that Russia should be centre of the Christian world. During WWII, the monastery was blown up by the Germans as they retreated from Russia, however it has been renovated, and when we arrived, it seemed to be pretty good shape.

It was a bitterly cold day, but a big bar of chocolate and bottle of Polish vodka did its best to keep us warm. Entry to the museum was again approx £4, and even after having had lunch the whole day out cost less than £20 (1000r). Pretty good value for money really, and it was very nice to get out of the city and into somewhere a bit more rural! We had a wander around the monastery, looked at some of the exhibitions (mainly which tried to highlight the similarities between Jerusalem and Istra) and a walk down to the very pretty river, which surprisingly was not frozen, unlike the River Moskva, which has been frozen for some time now.

One of the things that did really strike me as being funny, is that in Russia there are towns named after the distance they are on the MKAD (motorway) from Moscow. For example there is a town named 78km and we went through a station on the train named Platform 50km but then I suppose in the Russian wilderness outside the cities, maybe it’s as good a way as any for a town to identify itself.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow...

2010-01-09T14:50:00.002+03:00

Usually, coming back to the UK at Christmas means a chance to escape the cold Russian weather and the stresses of life on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain. This year, however, it seems I brought the Siberian weather back with me. Temperatures in Yorkshire before Christmas were colder than Moscow. That’s quite an achievement! It began snowing just after I arrived back; around ten days before Christmas, and it hasn’t really stopped since. Despite the North of England, Northern Ireland and Scotland all suffering massive amounts of snow, it doesn’t appeared to have registered with the rest of the country until it hit London and the South East. Last night. Just as I was supposed to be heading back to the airport. You would have thought that considering the rest of the country has been struggling for weeks with the “adverse weather conditions” (a favourite phrase of East Coast railways and BBC newscasters), London might have prepared itself, but that doesn’t seem to have been the case.

A couple of shots of my back garden in Yorkshire in the snow

Rather than take the train down to Heathrow on Wednesday as planned, I made an emergency decision to go Tuesday night. Cue speedy packing, panic and stress as we rushed to the train station to try and get on one of the last trains out of York to London Kings Cross. I did make it, and managed to get a room in a hotel near the airport, but not without battling through the snow first. Trains roll between St Petersburg and Moscow all through the winter: a 12 hour overnight journey through the empty Russian landscape, however East Coast and Grand Central Railways struggle to make the 2 hour York to London trip (whilst charging me four times the amount for the privilege of using their service. Unlike in Russia, you don’t even get a bed, but quite an uncomfortable chair).

Moscow has a city budget of $40 billion dollars a year (bigger than that of New York!), of which I imagine a vast chunk is spent on defending the city against the weather. De-icing chemicals are sprayed on the roads, which keep them clear of snow, and turns all the cars a slushy grey colour for four months of the year. These chemicals do a marvellous job of keeping traffic moving: the only downside (or maybe an upside depending on your point of view) is that they burn the pads on dog’s feet, so dogs have to wear special booties to go out walking in the winter. Hilarious!

This year, Moscow’s mayor announced he was going to cloud seed so there wouldn’t be any snow this year. This involves aircraft flying over snow clouds and releasing chemicals in the air to dissipate the clouds. Not good for the environment, but I imagine if it keeps the roads clear for him to get into the city from his home then he probably isn’t worried about a few trees. That seems to be the general attitude towards environmental protection and climate change in Russia. Looking at the weather forecast, I don’t think he has carried out his evil plan, but no doubt it’ll only be a matter of time before he does!

Not only are the streets kept well clear, but the pavements are gritted by an army of migrants, who work to keep the streets clean all year around; gritting snow in winter, clearing slush in spring, sweeping up dust in summer and leaves in autumn. The UK only had enough grit stocks to keep our main roads clear for one week, let alone the side roads (very important in Yorkshire, where main roads don’t get you to where you need to go) or the pavements. In fact, my Mum just told me that according to our local news, the good people of Scarborough have been removing sand from the beach to put it on the streets where it is needed. What’s going to happen come the summer and we all want to paddle in the North Sea? We’ll have nowhere to eat our ice cream, fish and chips or to leave our shoes... Disaster!

Best Christmas Present Ever...?

2009-12-26T18:24:00.004+03:00

My Grandma always comes up trumps with some fantastic Christmas presents: in recent years, I've received a spring balance type thing to weigh my suitcase with (very useful, and I haven't had to pay excess baggage since!), a great set of Bare Minerals make-up, a laptop stand so I can sit with it in bed, lots of lovely scarves and many many more.

But this year has to be the best. Surely a shoe made out of chocolate tops them all??

Merry Christmas! С новым годом и рождеством!

Bad Blogging Indeed

2009-11-24T20:27:00.017+03:00

I have been a very bad blogger of late: of this fact, I am both painfully aware and somewhat embarrassed. When I started this blog, it served as a bit of a ranting outlet; maybe it’s a sign that things seem (I say very tentatively) to be going well at the minute...

In the past couple of months, I seem to have been able to fit in more Moscow sightseeing than I have done in the last year. I must admit that there have been times when I felt like I have wasted this year a little. When I was a student, I visited different towns and cities, and hundreds of places within Moscow. Now, when I’m working, I want to spend my weekends seeing my friends, with my Handsome Young Man or relaxing at home. Plus, of course, as I now have responsibilities like rent, an overdraft and a student loan to worry about, I have to watch what I spend... At least we had a beautiful Autumn this year and I did manage to fit in the odd lazy Sunday stroll around the Sculpture Park at Park Kultury.

Now I have come to face the fact that I have to wear glasses (and having purchased a pair), I have been making the most of sightseeing. I recently went on a trip to two underground bunkers. The first one, at Partizanskaya metro station, claimed to be Stalin’s pre-WWII bunker. I have to admit, it did turn out to be a little disappointing. First of all, it was only 8m underground. That’s right... 8m. It was never meant to be a bomb shelter, but somewhere for Stalin to send orders from if he needed to leave the city centre and the Kremlin. Secondly, all the documents that state whether Stalin actually came to the bunker remain classified, and therefore nobody actually knows if he visited or not. Excellent! It was a pleasant afternoon wandering around the place, but certainly not worth the 1000r I had to pay to enter.

The second trip was to the Cold War bunker at Taganskaya. It was built and added to throughout the Cold War period and was 18 stories underground. It was dark, damp, and at one point a bomb siren went off, a row of red lights flashed and the corridor filled with smoke to highlight what it would have been like. The bunker was designed to hold the military command for 16 days, to give them time to launch a counter attack, before supplies would be exhausted and they would face certain death. Scary stuff. One of the most interesting parts was actually a DVD (or rather propaganda film) we were shown, charting the history of the Cold War from a Soviet point of view, which included footage of all the nuclear testing that took place. From my point of view, having been born in the mid-80s, it was fascinating to watch. Definitely worth the 600r entry fee.

Finally I went on a trip to the Bolshoi Teatr workshop. This is a building in the centre of Moscow, where the ballet shoes, costumes, sets, and advertising posters are made for the Bolshoi Theatre. It was very interesting to see how the ballet shoes are made, and we were even given the chance to buy some used shoes. (I went for a red pair from Don Quixote, complete with blood stains inside from use and a natural colour pair, which are thankfully clean!)

Right now, I’m back in Moscow after a fortnight break in the UK. I returned rested and recovered, mainly from the fact I was ill for almost my entire trip home, and so had an excellent excuse not to see anyone. Whilst I adore catching up with my friends and family, I sometimes feel pulled in a million directions trying to appease everyone. Being ill meant I could turn down invitations due to being contagious, stay in bed with my gorgeous matryoshka doll hot water bottle, and watch telly for an entire fortnight. Bliss!

Blind as a Bat

2009-10-08T20:38:00.003+04:00

I’ve always considered myself to have pretty good eyesight; particularly when taking that of my parents into account. I have to apply Mum’s make up for her, as she can’t see without her glasses, but can’t put her mascara on whilst wearing them, and Dad’s glasses have become a much more frequent feature in recent years than I remember as a child.

A couple of months ago, I went to see Carmen at the Bolshoi Theatre: a new production of a great opera, by British director David Pountney. It was a little too modern in some places for my liking. We all know that Carmen is a floozy, but with some of the action now set in a pole-dancing club, I did feel like I should cover the eyes, and protect the modesty, of one of the girls that came with us, who happened to be just 16 years old. But I’ve strayed from the point. As I am in Moscow, the French is of course translated into Russian on the screens at either side of the stage. During one of intervals, I casually remarked to my friend, how much difficulty I was having reading the words (I even had to use the opera glasses at one point) and how disgraceful it was that it was so unclear. Yes... well... It turns out the words were perfectly clear and it was my eyesight that was the problem. Oops!

So I stressed about it a little; phoned my Mum to thank her and Dad for giving me poor vision, to match the short fingers and thunder thighs I’ve long known about! It was with some indignation that she replied it would be nice if I phoned to thank them both for my intelligence and beauty just once in a while. (Oh and modesty, clearly!) And of course I would, if only my eyesight was good enough to make it out!

In reality, my eyesight doesn’t seem to actually be that poor. I think it is distance that’s the problem; something that I never noticed, as I haven’t driven for nearly a year. Just as I had consoled myself I had completely overreacted and my vision was in fact fine, yesterday I happened to be watching Slumdog Millionaire (a film I have already raved about on this blog) with quite a handsome man that I’ve been seeing rather a lot of lately, and rather embarrassingly I had to get up and move the TV stand two feet closer in order to read the subtitles (my Hindi not being quite up to scratch). So it looks like I have another appointment to add to my list of things-to-do upon my return to Blighty, which is to get an eye test. I have to say, it is all rather frustrating, because I would much rather spend the £150 that a pair of glasses will cost on a couple of new dresses. But until an experienced professional tells me I can’t see, I am going to have to live with the TV just that little bit closer.

Autumn Days

2009-09-26T20:53:00.003+04:00

Whoops, I haven’t posted for over a month... The weeks are flying by. I can’t believe it’s nearly October already. The days at work have been passing relatively slowly, but the weeks seem to be disappearing. Autumn has definitely arrived in Moscow- the trees are turning a beautiful golden brown colour, and the temperature has dropped. In fact, the state central heating hasn’t been switched on so the flat is extremely cold at night! Not to mention the fact that the office is so cold I’ve been wearing my jacket all week!

So what have I been doing instead of blogging? Well, there have been parties and nights out with the rugby boys. A very pleasant boat trip after the game, which resulted in a lot of alcohol partaken, my feet being vomited on by a so-called friend, and my flatmate losing his bag, containing his passport and house keys, and having to sit outside the flat for four hours, waiting for me to answer my phone. There have been shopping trips, museum trips, trips to bars and dates, not to mention the fact that I have been continuing my programme of self-improvement reading, devouring Fowles’ “The French Lieutenant’s Woman”, Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”, Maugham’s “The Razor’s Edge”, Dostoevskiy’s “Crime and Punishment” and Huxley’s “Brave New World”.

Saturday the 5th was Moscow Day. This celebrates the founding of Moscow by Yuriy Dolgoruki in the twelfth century. There were free concerts all over the city, the main streets were once again closed to traffic, and I spent a very pleasant evening wandering around the city centre, admiring the art work on show.

But really, for the last fortnight, my life has been consumed by one thing, and one thing alone: toothache. I’ve had a twinge in one of my teeth for weeks now, but considering that I’m going back to the UK for a well deserved holiday at the end of October, I was hoping it would hold out until my dentist in the UK could take a look. No such luck, unfortunately. I have been fortunate enough never to experience toothache, until the past couple of weeks. Once the pain started spreading into my ear, I decided it was about time I did something about it.

I headed off to see a Russian dentist (after recalling horror stories of the American Dental Centre charging up to $1000 for treatment), who recommended I had root canal work on the tooth that was giving me grief. Two 90mins appointments later and I am pain free! I have heard that the Russians are pretty keen on performing root canals, when it isn’t always necessary; however at that moment, I really couldn’t have cared what she did, providing she stopped the pain. Even better, is that it was entirely covered by the health insurance I received through work. I didn’t even have to pay a penny, as the clinic directly billed my insurance. When I return to the UK, we will see what the British dentist says about the work done on my tooth... But I must say that I have been mightily impressed with the treatment received so far!

Tonight, I’m taking it easy at home; catching up with some rubbishy British TV on youTube, finishing off this week’s Russian homework, enjoying a glass of orange squash (yes! I finally found a shop in Moscow that sells orange squash, and it's near my house!) and planning on the purchases I’m going to make when I return to the UK. Sometimes, you just can’t beat a Saturday night in!

101 Uses...

2009-08-23T14:20:00.003+04:00

101 uses for a man vs 101 uses for a woman

Plus a little bonus article I found whilst chuckling at the above!

The Women's Crusade- The New York Times

2009-08-23T13:42:00.003+04:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/magazine/23Women-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3&ref=magazine#

The article is one I found through a link to an article on The Guardian website and is definitely worth taking 10minutes out to read.

Birthdays

2009-08-22T14:47:00.005+04:00

This month it has been my birthday, and I think it's time I became an adult. In the eyes of society, one generally becomes an adult at 18; I managed to prolong putting off growing up until I was 21, and even then I felt not quite ready to give up the life of a student. But now, at the age of 23, living overseas, and working in an embassy, I feel like the time has come to (albeit reluctantly) accept the fact that I have to start making my own decisions, looking after my finances a tad better and generally being a bit more organised.

This was my first birthday away from home. One of the benefits of being a summer baby is that even when at uni, or travelling, I've always been back in the UK for my birthday. As a child, I remember one of the downsides being that my friends were always on their summer holidays when it came to having a party, which meant that numbers were always depleted. Even now, it's a similar scenario due to the fact that my friends are spread, not only all over the UK, but all over various parts of the world.

Whilst my family may not have been in town to celebrate with me, my surrogate and extended Moscow "family" were here to help! The girls in the office took me out for lunch, a friend took me out to dinner in the evening, who has unexpectedly reappeared in my life after moving to Kiev in the Autumn (gaining extra brownie points by buying me flowers). Of course there was the obligatory night out on the Friday, involving multiple G&Ts and a brand spanking new dress (fulfilling all the necessary requirements of a dress for a birthday night out: the cost of the dress being inversely proportional to the amount of material used in it's creation).

But the main event of last week was the Afisha Picnic in the Park. This was in an old country estate that was the tsars summer residence, called Kolomenskoe. This is a sort of one-day arts and music festival in the south of Moscow by the river. The headline act was Madness: that's right, the 80s British group, and the Russians went mad for it! (Excuse the pun.) It was so lovely to feel the grass in between my toes, sit on a hill and listen to some live music, then have a bit of a dance to some classic British tunes. Lovely way to spend the evening! Madness themselves were pretty good- the only slightly dubious moment being when they dedicated "Love is the Best" to "All the Georgians out there"... not the best thing to say in a park in Russia on the anniversary of last year's conflict.

Last night, my flatmate and I decided to have a few drinks in the embassy bar. I was on the Diet Coke (I still happened to be nursing a hangover from the previous evening, after going to a friend's place for dinner). He seems to think he does a good job of hiding how, shall we say, slightly inebriated he was... and I suspect he did from our colleagues. I, however, have spent far too many evenings with him in an equal state and can spot it a mile off! Particularly as I wasn't drinking. I was also vidicated (and very annoyed) after getting in around 1am and getting into bed, only to be woken by him at 3.30am phoning me, as he was outside our flat and "the keys just wont work!". Hmm... Considering they worked fine this morning, I think his argument may have a flaw. We also found his shoes in the corridor this morning- they obviously weren't Russian enough looking for anyone to think they were worth pinching! That's got to be either a sign of his good taste, or really bad taste, and I know which one I would prefer!

People-Watching

2009-08-09T17:51:00.008+04:00

This is an excellent example of the very odd Russian phenomenon of sunbathing standing up. Speedos, however, really never are a good look.

This poor chap was sat opposite my friend and I on Saturday night at 10.30pm as we made our way home from seeing Madness at a mini-open-air festival type thing at Kolomenskoe- one of Moscow's parks/ former country estates of the Tsars.

I think he may have peaked too soon... Never a good move.

This delightful ensemble was being modelled by a babushka who is old enough to know better at Serebryaniy Bor- a clean section of the river with beaches and banks for sunbathing. I personally feel that the pearls really set the outfit off.

Nothing beats a good spot of people-watching in Russia!

The Hard Life of Summer in the City

2009-07-21T23:09:00.001+04:00

Well, I know that I promised to upload another post at the weekend, after the shamefully sporadic posts of the last few weeks. And I was all ready to do so... until that was, I went out on Saturday night and didn't crawl in until 7.45am on Sunday morning. So forgive me, for the short delay!

A couple of weekends ago, my flatmate-friend-colleague-and-general-partner-in-crime and I decided that we should start actually doing something on a weekend, and not just wasting them away in a haze of hungoverness! This weekend, due to the lovely weather, we decided to go to the "beach". Moscow obviously doesn't have a sea coast anywhere near it, but in the Northwest of the city, as the river flows into town, there is a stretch of the Moskva that is certified clean for swimming, with cafes, a stretch of sand, and green grass all along the river bank. We went up there, with a friend from work, and spent a very pleasant afternoon gossiping about work matters and our colleagues, drinking beer, and eating a picnic packed by my own fair hand. (Well, I say packed, I mean bought from the supermarket and carried with me!)

After spending the entire day lounging about by the side of the river, we were in no mood for a quiet night in, so after changing and ditching all our beach gear, we went to meet a friend from university. We spent a few hours sat in a park at Kitai-Gorod before heading to a party in an outdoor courtyard. The music was very cool, and we were having so much fun in the gorgeous overnight weather that we completely lost track of time, hence why upon leaving the indoor section of the club, my friend and I emerged, blinking like moles, into the bright sunlight of 6am. Obviously, no night out is complete without the obligatory food on the way home, so we decided to make a stop at one of our favourite American diners. It was so early that they hadn't even started serving their breakfast menu- I had to make do with a burger instead!

This is the first summer I've really spent in Moscow- the only other time I've spent here over the summer months was a few days in late July in 2005, and I have to say I'm rather enjoying it. There have been some spectacular thunderstorms, and whilst the heat can get quite oppressive at times, there's always something going on that makes up for it. Tonight is the Pimms and Strawberries party for all the Embassy staff at the Ambassador's Residence. Once that's over however, I am not drinking until my birthday... a whole two weeks. Sounds easy enough, but there's always something happening in Moscow that involves alcohol! I've been invited to a party on Saturday night, but I'm going to stay strong and stick to my detox. Watch this space...

It's Been a Busy Month...

2009-07-12T20:52:00.006+04:00

I know I haven't blogged for a month. It makes me a very bad girl. The next few weeks I endeavour to make up for that. But first...

It isn't very often that I'm ashamed to be British. On reading the opinions of British Expats living in Dubai in this article, I was.

However, this week I've had other pressing and amusing matters on my mind.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/600/42/379430.htm and http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/5784149/British-diplomat-in-Russia-quits-after-being-filmed-with-prostitutes.html

Nothing brightens up the week, like a good old scandal!

Feeling Hot...

2009-06-13T17:09:00.002+04:00

This weekend (a public holiday here due to Russia Day on June 12th) has been unbelievably hot. It's too hot to move and certainly too hot to blog. When the temperature drops back below 25c, normal blogging service will be resumed.

Until then I urge everybody to amuse themselves on the following site: www.textsfromlastnight.com
(Although it isn't for the easily offended... whilst the texts are hilarious, they are pretty graphic in parts and of a grown-up, naughty nature. They did provide us with some excellent entertainment one afternoon this week, however!)

Charlie Brooker

2009-06-02T21:16:00.001+04:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jun/01/charlie-brooker-women-men-power

Charlie Brooker... How I adore thee...

May Days: part deux

2009-05-28T20:37:00.000+04:00

Gosh! I can’t believe it’s been nearly two weeks since I last posted. Terrible behaviour! But things have been just so hectic lately. Last week, I think I had a party, or a dinner, or a drinks thing every single night of the week. On the one hand, I love weeks like that. It gives me a sort of warm, fulfilled feeling, but on the other it leaves me pretty knackered. Last Thursday, I was in fact invited to four different parties. Typical: why does everything always fall on the same night?? It was most probably because they were all events surrounding work, and of course, we had our extra privilege holiday on account of the Queen’s birthdays. Marvellous! She was toasted as we sipped our wine on Friday afternoon in my favourite bar! (Well, technically, due to the worst hangover I’ve ever had, I was on the diet coke, but the thought was there! And yes, the ex was there again. I think this may be a recurring theme of the summer. Luckily the rain drove him inside and away from the table next door to us, so I could nurse my hangover in peace!) The previous evening, I had been to a work dinner party. The food was delicious and the company was lovely. It’s always nice to get to know a little better some of my colleagues from different sections. Afterwards, I went down to the embassy bar, where a Northern Irish Night was taking place. Another drink later and it seemed a really good idea to head to a club (yes... on a Thursday night! I haven’t done that since I left uni!) A ridiculous number of shots later I was neither feeling, nor looking my best... At least I had a three day weekend to recover!

Last Wednesday I went to the Bolshoi Theatre to see Tosca. I had front row Dress Circle seats and I bought the tickets just three days in advance for 750roubles (about £15). They were the last pair and I think I was probably very lucky to get them. I loved the first and second act, but I was actually really disappointed with the second half of the third act. Although I suspect that it was nothing to do with Puccini and more to do with the performance itself. I just never warmed to Tosca... The end of the first act and the beginning of the third act did, however, have me almost in tears. It was just so tragic and I loved it. I would love to see a more contemporary performance, as I think it may well become one of my favourites!

This week I have been mainly worrying about what to wear to work. We have quite a small office and there are a lot of bodies, which means it gets really warm. We also can’t open the windows as it messes up the air-con system (apparently). Today it was a balmy 24c in sunny Moscow and it’s due to rise to 27c next week. I always find the balance between being cool and summery and just looking inappropriate for the office hard. I tend to stick to summer dresses and hope that’s enough...

Just before Eurovision a good friend came over to Russia from Beijing. I first met this guy on my Year Abroad when he was a journalist in Russia and I was a student. I went back to the UK to finish my degree and he moved to work in China. We swapped email addresses and I was very sceptical at ever hearing from him again, but unlikely as it was, we kept in touch! Last summer he put me up and showed me the sights and sounds of Beijing, and to be honest, he pretty much kept me sane throughout the terrible ordeal that was my final year at uni. (This is very surprising when I think about just how far from sane he is most of the time!) He went off to St. Petersburg for two weeks after Eurovision before we were able to meet, so when he returns this weekend, I’m looking forward to having a nice long catch-up with him. After all, when you only see someone once a year (at the very best!) you have to make the most of when you both happen to be in the same city at the same time!

I feel very alarmed that I’ve already been in Moscow for nine months. This time two years ago my Year Abroad was coming to an end and I was preparing to leave. Now I feel like I’m only just getting started. There are so many opportunities here: jobs, meeting people, culture... I haven’t even scratched the surface.

Voting Fever

2009-05-17T21:52:00.004+04:00

I'm so upset with myself. I completely forgot about the upcoming European elections... But they aren't until June, I hear you cry! Why would that be a problem?!

It takes 11 working days to register as an Overseas Voter, which means my proxy application form needs to reach the Electoral Commission by Tuesday. I, somehow, don't think that's going to happen. I'm really annoyed because I feel it's so important to use our votes. Voter apathy is one of the things that makes me really angry. It's every single person's duty to vote, whether it be in national, local or European elections. Especially when the Suffragettes worked so hard and risked so much for women to be able to vote. We live in a world where there are so many countries that aren't a democracy, or don't allow women to vote, that we should make sure we use we grab on to this opportunity with both hands.

I've ruined my whole evening now at the thought of not being able to mark my X- or indeed at the thought of UKIP or even worse, the BNP gaining any seats at the European Parliament. I really hope the British people will do the right thing. I'm a big believer in the European ideal: a view that is unfortunately not shared by a large proportion of the British public. I suspect I'm in for a big disappointment.

Евроведение

2009-05-14T18:25:00.002+04:00

This week I have mainly been concerned with two things: Eurovision and cat-sitting! For the past week I have been house-and-cat-sitting in a lovely large apartment in the centre of town, not far from Noviy Arbat and work, for two lovely cats. I haven’t had a pet since my dog died when I was 15, and I hadn’t realised how much I’d missed having a pet until this week. When I get my own place, definitely the first thing I’d like to do is get myself either a dog or a cat. The two cats I’ve been looking after are so affectionate and it’s lovely to come home and be welcomed by them.

This weekend is the great extravaganza that is Eurovision. Inevitably the UK won’t do very well at all. We never do. In my humble opinion, I think it’s because we just don’t take it seriously. Last year, after Russia won, there were multiple claims of political voting and neighbour voting. But if that were the case, surely NO-ONE would vote for Russia! The former Soviet bloc has such a terrible relationship with Russia it would make no sense for them to vote for them. In fact, I believe that Russia won because they entered their equivalent of Robbie Williams. Dima Bilan is a massive star in all the Eastern European and former Soviet Union/ Russian-speaking countries. His track was even produced by Timbaland. I’m pretty sure that if the UK entered an artist anywhere near as popular, we might stand a better chance at winning...

In any case, all the cheap tickets sold out weeks ago. It doesn’t start until 11.30pm over here- I guess to make prime time UK TV, considering that the BBC allegedly bankrolls the whole event (which is apparently the reason why the UK doesn’t need to qualify, but instead automatically makes the Final). In addition, the UK doesn’t even perform until the 23rd place, so who knows what time that will be. There are going to be big screens put up over Moscow, including one in Red Square, so it should be a fun night...

Well, it would be, if it weren’t for the marches and demonstrations that are going to be held. Russia is widely acknowledged as probably the most homophobic country in Europe. Mayor Luzhkov, the mayor of Moscow, called gay people “weapons of mass destruction” (see the link at the bottom to The Guardian website) and said they were welcome in Moscow providing they didn’t hold a rally Which is of course what they plan to do. Now apparently there will be a march AGAINST those holding the pro-gay march. You couldn’t make this stuff up. However I really feel for anyone planning on attending these marches. The riot police (OMON- their motto is “We know no mercy and we do not ask for any”. Pretty scary stuff) will not hesitate to inflict some serious damage, not to mention the usual assortment of delightful drunk Russians looking to give out some casual beatings on Saturday night. I happened to be meeting a friend in front of Red Square on the public holiday on Monday and there were so many openly gay couples wandering around. Obviously, this is something that normally in the UK I wouldn’t bat an eyelid at, but it’s so rare here that it seems to stand out much more. And I really hope that these people have been informed about the dangers of Moscow, particularly this weekend.

Because I know that I, for one, will make sure I am nowhere near Pushinskaya metro station when these marches kick off.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/may/13/gay-march-eurovision

May Days

2009-05-11T18:31:00.011+04:00

I must confess how much I love May in Moscow. This is the second time that I’ve spent a May here, and even though we are only in the first part, this year I’m enjoying it even more than the last time. Firstly, there are two public holidays in early May: on 1st May, there is May Day, or Spring and Labour Day as it is known here, and secondly, there is Victory Day on 9th May, which celebrates the end of WWII in Russia, or the Great Patriotic War, as it is known here. This is one of Russia’s most important holidays, along with New Year and Women’s Day. There is a huge military parade along Red Square on the 9th, for which there are rehearsals all week in advance on an evening, when all the streets around Red Square are closed. I’m no military buff, but even I was impressed with the size of the rocket powered missiles on display! This is my second Victory Day in Russia, so I don’t feel too much pressure to go to all the celebrations in the city centre and around Victory Park: particularly because all the city centre metro stations are closed which makes getting around a pain. However, from my flat on the 9th floor, even way out in the suburbs where I live, it was still possible to see six different firework displays all over the city, which didn’t make me feel so bad for not making the effort this year. Additionally on 22nd May, the embassy celebrates a holiday that no-one in Russia gets... the Queen’s Birthday, which means another Friday off! Hoorah! Finally, on 12th June, it’s Russia Day. For me this marks the end of the public holiday season, as there isn’t another until November 4th.

So I imagine you’re probably thinking that I decided to try and make the most of these long weekends, right? Yeah... well... it didn’t quite work out as planned. I was lucky enough to acquire episodes 1-16 of 24 Season 7. I’m afraid there just isn’t anything that could tear me away from Jack Bauer. And, despite promising myself that I would only watch one out of the four discs, as any 24 fan knows, it is impossible to limit yourself, which is how over Friday and Saturday I managed to watch all 16 episodes. This left me in a bit of a dilemma, because I didn’t know when I could get hold of the next two discs, but my 24 source came up trumps and we met for dinner mid-week so I could get my hands on another four episodes. So it’s pretty much guaranteed that I will spend this long weekend, the same way I spent the last one... in bed with Jack Bauer and Tony Almeida. I can’t think of a better way to spend the weekend. I’m in a state of suspended animation now, however, until I can get my hands on the final four episodes. I’m so impatient- I hate having to wait for anything... It’s going to be a difficult couple of weeks.

There is however a second advantage to having a few quiet weekends in. Lately I feel like I’ve been so busy that my feet haven’t touched the ground. And of course, when you are so busy, you eat out more, spend more money, and generally have a rather large set of outgoings, meaning I’m a little strapped for cash until around the 26th, which feels a very long way away. The problem is always exacerbated in summer because my favourite summer drinking hole, with its outdoor terrace is always so tempting. The only bad point about the place is that it is full of expats and I always meet someone I know there. It’s not a good place for a first date. (Not that I’ve been on one of those for quite a while... but that’s a tale for another time.) I did get the chance though to catch up with someone that I’ve wanted to for a good couple of months now- even if he did set my butterflies going at twenty paces, plus meet some new people along the way, which is always a nice way to spend a Friday night! However, I am going to try and be really good for the next couple of weeks (until payday at least) so that I can enjoy myself guilt free, when I eventually get my hands on some cash. Well... that’s the plan at least...

Baby Boom

2009-05-01T20:26:00.000+04:00

On my way to work on Thursday, I saw no fewer than SIX pregnant ladies. These women weren’t just a few months gone- they were substantially pregnant. I even thought a couple of them looked as if they may go into labour at any moment. This was particularly strange because I don’t think I’ve seen six pregnant women throughout the whole six months of winter, let alone within the space of an hour. Where do they go? Do they just not leave the house during the winter for fear of falling on the ice and snow? It’s very strange. Maybe the long, dark, cold winter nights lead these women to conceive their babies during the winter, and therefore they only appear now. Whatever the case, there are certainly lots of women with child on the streets of Moscow!

Of course, I am more than happy to give up my seat on the train to a pregnant woman. It’s the right thing to do. Just as I would give up my seat to an elderly person. In fact the announcements on the metro say “Please be polite and give up your seat for invalids, the elderly, people with children and pregnant women”. The fine people of Moscow are usually pretty good at giving up their seats to those who need them the most, which is one of the more positive things about living here. In fact, sometimes a man will give up his seat to someone just because they are a woman! This was very surprising when it happened to me. (Unless of course, the fact that I’d just eaten a massive bow of pasta meant that he thought I was with child, which is not so good...)

Last night on the last train home, a girl asked me to give up my seat to her. I did because at first glance I thought she was pregnant. However as I was stood holding onto the handrail next to her, I realised she wasn’t pregnant at all, but was just fat. And she wanted to sleep. Lazy cow. So I had to stand, in a pair of heels that were killing my feet so that she could have a seat. I was very annoyed. Next time, I’ll make sure I look properly before I give up my seat to someone who really doesn’t deserve it!

The Sun Has Got His Hat On

2009-04-28T20:09:00.003+04:00

Since Saturday the temperature has been hovering between 17c and 22c. I can not emphasise enough how much I am enjoying the glorious weather. Today I wore a lovely little sundress to work that I bought last Summer in Hong Kong, and have been thoroughly enjoying the freedom that comes with not having to wear three thousand layers of clothing. Hurrah!

The only downside to this is that the little annoying flying insects that flit around have about eaten me alive, due to the fact that I left my balcony window open last night... I really need to invest in some DEET. Oh, and some heavy duty soap because the streets of Moscow are soooo filthy that my feet are black at the end of the day when I'm wearing sandals, which is pretty gross. But then I will be as happy as Larry! Woop!

Unexpected Surprises

2009-04-17T21:48:00.009+04:00

Yesterday was an uber-surreal day.

I was up at 6am on Wednesday morning in London, where i spent the whole day, after which i made my way to the airport to catch the Red Eye to Moscow. Upon landing back in the Motherland at some ungodly hour, i cleared immigration and luggage collection, hopped on the train into town and went straight to the office.

That's dedication for you.

So i'm sure you can imagine, i was not feeling my best all day Thursday...

I had to make up some time anyway, so i began working and sorted out all the emails i had received whilst i was away. I had one very interesting one from a friend of mine i studied with in Moscow two years ago- it was a link to an article, in a worldwide, household name, respected magazine.

In this month's Russian edition, there was an article profiling the most eligible, single foreigners in Russia and staring up at me (looking, i must say, very handsome) was the guy that i was seeing until just a couple of months ago.

I don't really want to say too much here: there were, shall we say, a couple of arguments over the fact that i write this blog. (Well, not a couple of arguments, more like one argument that lasted several days!) But i was so shocked! I had no idea that this person was such a big cheese. I felt, actually, a little ashamed that i knew so little about him yet we first met in the early Autumn.
But that feeling was soon overtaken by wonder at what on earth he saw in me!

I couldn't not say anything to him about this, despite the fact that since we agreed to part, we've only had one exchange of emails. (Oh... and one drunken text from me. It happens to the best of us. Let's not judge here...) But in hindsight that maybe wasn't the best idea. I hope he sees it for what it was meant to be: an electronic nudge in the ribs with a giggle and a wink to acknowledge that i'd read the article, and that he doesn't think that i'm some horrible, gold-digging, social-climbing bitch. That would be awful and most certainly not true. After all, one of the things i loved best about our time together was just hanging out at his flat on the weekend, watching rubbish on the telly, drinking lots of tea and him letting me babble about my week (although i'm not entirely sure of the extent to which he was listening...)

But it does make me feel cool-by-association, and for that alone, i will be forever grateful to him!

Kazakh Surprises

2009-04-09T01:35:00.006+04:00

The most extraordinary thing happened to me today...

I only worked a half-day so that i could leave plenty of time to get to the airport. Rather than take the metro, involving a line change, with my (not too heavy) suitcase and my (quite heavy) laptop bag, i decided to hail a gypsy cab from outside the Embassy. This is a totally acceptable practice in Russia- you stick out your arm, three or four Ladas or Volgas pull up, you haggle a price with the first one and if he doesn't drop low enough you just move on to the next. The drivers are usually from Central Asia and earning some extra money, although a few weeks ago i had a lovely Chemical Engineer from Moscow, not much older than me with a wife and a one year baby, who had just been made redundant and so was trying to make some extra money for his family.

But that's beside the point, today, as i was dithering about by the side of the road, a smart black 4x4 thing pulled up and asked me if i wanted a taxi. I told him that i wanted to go to the airport express train station, we negotiated a fair price and i jumped in. The driver then spent 15 mins trying to work out the best route for avoiding the traffic jams (i didn't like to mention that had we just taken the ring road we would probably have spent that time sat in the jams, but at least have being closer to the station!) He decided that if would be easier to head to the MKAD (motorway) as although it was longer in kilometres, it would be shorter in time. I was having some concerns at this point that i might never actually make it to the airport, but off we went.
All was going well until we got to the actual MKAD.

It was nose-to-tail and the cars weren't even moving. Disaster!

BUT what happened next was truly surprising. The driver (who was quite young, originally from the Kazakhstan/ China border area) said that for the same price we had agreed for him to drive me, he would come with me on the metro and carry all my bags.I didn't believe my ears! He was going waaay out of his way, and i had a sneaky suspicion that he may try to steal my bags... Hmmm... I weighed up the options and decided to go for it. The bags he carried were padlocked shut, plus i barely let him a metre away from me. We chatted on the metro (he wanted to know if i was married or not... maybe there were some ulterior motives going on?!) and he carried my bag practically onto the express train for me. I was so amazed at his willingness to do that for me. It's so rare and although I'm loathe to say this, i do suspect it's to partly to do with the fact that he wasn't Russian, but Kazakh.He gave me his email address and phone number, so that if i want him to come and pick me up on my return flight, i can get in touch with him.

What a nice chap! The sun was shining, the weather is getting warmer, and here was someone being nice and lovely and kind! Positively astonishing!

The Tangled Web of Life

2009-04-04T22:10:00.005+04:00

Over the past six weeks I have been the only person in the office that hasn't taken any leave. This is about to change as I am going back to the UK on Wednesday for a week. I am so unbelievably looking forward to having a long weekend at home: sleeping in my own bed, having a Chinese (and quite possibly Fish and Chips), catching up with my friends, going shopping (the prices in Moscow are far more expensive than anywhere else I've ever been in the world!).

The result of all of this leave is that whenever one person comes back to the office, they have to be filled in on all the events of the previous weeks. One lovely lady in the office on Friday was getting so confused as I threw out various people's names during the course of my tales that she suggested I draw a spider diagram on the whiteboard to help everyone remember who's who in my life: friends, exes, former colleagues, flatmates, current colleagues, romantic interests..., plus a defining characteristic: eg. the boy who didn't call me (twice!), the ex who used to spend his free time jousting for the English Heritage, the flatmate to whom I haven't spoken for a week and the friend with the floppy hair (although to anyone listening outside the office, they probably presume we call him "Floppy Wonder" for a totally different reason...) to name but a few.

A spider diagram?!

This is not a good state of affairs.

So Long, Farewell

2009-03-31T07:46:00.003+04:00

Yesterday I managed to sleep through my alarm for two hours! Goodness knows I must’ve been in such a deep sleep that I didn’t hear my alarm ringing. Luckily I have a very wonderful and understanding manager, whom I phoned informing her that I would be about an hour late into work and she didn’t give me a hard time about it. Thank goodness! My time keeping is something I pride myself on (although having said that, I have one friend who would disagree, considering I think I was late every time we met for the first three weeks he was in Moscow) and I hate being late for work. I don’t think it gives off a very professional image.

This aforementioned friend (and he has been cropping up in several blogs lately: Hi-kicks and Hi-jinks, Pure Decadence, Tantrums on Noviy Arbat, Irish Times, and Slumdog Millionaire) left town today for the foreseeable future. He was only here doing a temporary internship on a three month business visa. I was hoping to get to say goodbye to him in person, but my Russian classes, and the fact that he’d been at a business lunch thing for seven hours meant it didn’t pan out. I don’t think he quite realises just how much of a star he’s been. He has pretty much kept me sane for the past three months. It’s hardly surprising that I’m going to miss him: we’ve spent nearly every weekend together, and talked on the phone or spent the day emailing every day since January.

The last time we left Moscow together we did a pretty appalling job at staying in touch. However I feel that we’re now much better friends than we were the last time, and so I hope we pull our fingers out and stay in touch more regularly. I hope to see him, his floppy hair and his reproving tone that he seems to reserve especially for me again in Moscow very soon... With no one to criticise my Victorian values (which I prefer to call modesty) and call me by my surname, my Moscow life just isn’t going to be the same. But whether or not he returns is, alas, not up to me and so it is just a case of waiting to see what happens.

I know personally, I’d much rather be riding the global recession out here than anywhere else. I just have to keep my fingers crossed that he agrees!

Another Classic...

2009-03-30T21:28:00.003+04:00

It's fairly quiet at work at the minute, which tends to lead to events such as the following:

Today my mouse randomly stopped working. My boss helpfully suggested that I might have pulled out the cable, as I had been swinging my feet under the desk. I happened to be wearing a dress today (this point will be important later...) so I got down on my hands and knees under the desk to inspect the back of the tower. Sure enough, there was the mouse cable swinging freely. The one male in our office had come over, because as we all know, there can't be something technological going on without a man giving us his expert guidance!

I shout up "Which socket shall I stick it in?"

As there is no response, I fish myself out from under the desk, to find my male colleague and my boss, both looking at my backside the size of the moon, then at each other and trying not to laugh.

I really need to start engaging my brain before opening my mouth!

Hi-kicks and Hi-jinks

2009-03-29T16:48:00.003+04:00

This weekend has been one of multiple nights out, clubs, parties and drinks. A very good friend of mine is leaving Moscow on Tuesday- hopefully to return at a later date, but just in case he doesn’t, we thought it best to celebrate. Just to be on the safe side!

On Friday night we decided to treat ourselves, having just been paid, and go for a drink in Vogue Cafe. His mojito was a grand 650r (£13) and my margarita was 570r (£11.40). Admittedly, they were very very good, and it was lovely to spoil ourselves, particularly as we decided not to spend 4,200r (£84) on going to the Ritz Carlton for brunch.

Then yesterday we spent most of the day out together with my flatmate. I had the misfortune of spending some hours with one very rude woman. I was very shocked at her behaviour. My friend even apologised for her after she had left. I’ve always wondered why some Expat women are so hostile to others... I’ve met women like this in Moscow before. There are so few western women out here, when I meet someone, it would be nice to think that a new friendship could come out of it, but alas, it seems that not everyone thinks like that. But really, who needs friends like that?!

Anyway, our evening continued: as always with hijinks and drama. And last night was certainly drama-filled. There were multiple margaritas, B52’s and absinth involved (although I must admit the absinth was not partaken by myself), which makes a poor combination. We ended up at a club that my friend has been raving about for ages, but when we arrived it was a 50s American- themed evening. Elvis’ films were projected on to the wall, we were seemingly the only people NOT in full 50s styling (and the Russians really went all out!) and a live Rock and Roll band. It was actually really cool, but very strange... Being in a club with Russians dressed in 50s style clothing... Bizarre.

We left the club about 2am: my friend headed home, and I went on to a party. He actually got in a taxi before I did (something my taxi driver disagreed with quite strongly and made his feelings very well known!) I went to meet some people that I met last weekend: the party was kind of mellowing out by the time I arrived, so we had a few drinks, played Charades, and I finally left at 5.30am. All in all, another standard, random, Moscow night out!

I found some very interesting articles in the British press this week on Russia, which I would like to share...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7970525.stm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/mar/28/space-mars-steel-tins-russia

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/stress-takes-toll-on-moscow-metro-commuters-1655368.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/28/russia-gas-oil-arctic-nato

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/shaun-walker-trains-run-like-clockwork-but-shoving-babushkas-drive-you-to-point-of-insanity-1655367.html

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes- Part Deux

2009-03-23T20:35:00.001+03:00

I altered the look of the site. I felt it was time for a change...

Feel free to put comments here! I like people to voice their opinions. It may even change again in the next few days if I am bored.

Irish Times

2009-03-23T19:06:00.008+03:00

This weekend it all went a little bit Irish for me.

Saturday was, of course, a super day of rugby. With seemingly half our department from work, we set up camp in a sports bar from about 4.30pm (Moscow time) and there we stayed until 10.30pm. As half of our office are Scots, we had to have the obligatory English/Scottish divide, but all was well that ended well, and England's Calcutta Cup victory and Ireland's Grand Slam were duly celebrated by us all!

After watching the Wales/Ireland game a few of us headed to my favourite in club in all of Moscow, where for the first time ever we had trouble getting in. One of the people I was with (someone somewhat more senior than me) was really very drunk. Made all the more amusing by the fact that at work, he always seems to be very serious, and I never really thought he had warmed to me. I had to do some fast talking for the doormen to let them in. I don't think my Russian has ever been so valuable! As always, it was a fantastic night in the club: great bands, cheap booze, lovely people, met up with some friends I haven't caught up with for a few months, drunken banter and maybe even a date out of it to boot. All in all, a very good night!

Watch this space...

Then on Sunday, a friend and I went to watch the St. Patrick's Parade on Noviy Arbat. It was all a bit surreal really. Apparently 10,000 people turn out for it. Lots of the Russians get dressed up in kilts, or as pagans (I'm not entirely sure many of them have actually been to Ireland... They seem to think the Irish dress like they're something out of Lord of the Rings). Thanks to my friend's contacts at the Irish Embassy, we got some passes for the main stand so had a relatively good view of the parade and the thousands of militsia (police) who were out to ensure order. We bumped into some actual Irish people we knew (actually I knew them through the rugby club; my friend knew them quite independently through work and being Irish- only we had never connected them as being the same people... Moscow really does feel like a rather large village at times!), had an Irish Coffee... things were good! It was in fact a lovely way to blow off those Sunday cobwebs- I didn't leave the club until 4am but the sun was shining, the snow was gently falling, and it certainly helped to wake me up.

This friend is the same one, who was supposed to be my partner in crime to the Ritz but appears to be trying to wriggle out of it. BUT it's all ok, because even though he has to leave because of his visa, he has apparently come to the profound decision that he is going to try and get a new one, a new job and come back! HURRAH!

I told him he would and he didn't believe me.

It just goes to show that nagging really does work!

The Measure of a Successful Week

2009-03-19T21:25:00.004+03:00

This week has been a very successful week:

I haven't eaten out once and have therefore saved money;
I've been swimming twice;
I've done all my Russian homework;
I'm (almost) up-to-date with my ironing;
I haven't drunk any alcohol since Saturday night (which everybody knows doesn't count...)
I've bought my ticket to go and watch the final Six Nations games on Saturday;
I've paid all my debts to anybody that I borrowed money off (except my parents, which again everybody knows doesn't count) or I owed money to for buying a new iron, kettle and mop for the flat;
I've finished reading two books: Mansfield Park by Jane Austen and Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres (I didn't heed the warning of how sad this book would be and nearly found myself in tears during rush hour on the metro this morning).

A good week all round.

Pure Decadence

2009-03-18T18:58:00.006+03:00

There's been something that I've wanted to do for aaaaaages: Sunday Brunch at the Ritz Carlton.

I couldn't find an appropriate excuse to go. I thought maybe my birthday? But that's not until the Summer. I did harbour some deep wish that someone would sweep me off my feet and take me but that's hardly likely to happen. Then I happened to mention it to my friend and he thought it an excellent idea. Hurrah. An partner in crime! Plus we had a perfect excuse... he's leaving Moscow at the end of March and I've no idea if or when he plans on returning. He's seen me through a break-up, kept me entertained on numerous dull hungover Sundays, being my cinema-going partner and the receiver of my tantrum on the Noviy Arbat. He would appreciate the ridiculously extravagent brunch it would be, in the beautiful hotel that opened 18 months ago.

It's a wonderful brunch that lasts for four hours, with gorgeous food and the waiters just come round and refill your glasses with Moet whenever it's close to being empty. Heaven.

But then today we hit a bit of a snag... According to the information I had been given, it cost 2,900r (£38). Very expensive but worth every penny. When I phoned to book the table today, the girl told me the price had increased to 4,200r (£84). £84 is so much money for lunch.

He suggested going to Vogue or Aist: two other notouriously expensive bars in Moscow, and having dessert and a coffee, which wouldn't even come to the original Ritz price, but it just doesn't have the same idea of decadence to me. These places cater for the nouveau riche (known here as новые русские noviye russkiye- new Russians) of Moscow. That's just not the same.

Whilst I adore the idea of going, I just don't know if my conscience can part with the best part of £90... It's not a question of whether I have the money, but more of what else I could spend that money on, in place of one Sunday Brunch. I haven't really been feeling the effects of inflation or the financial crisis in Russia, but that did it for me. Right there.

Sometimes having a moral compass really spoils all my fun.

Slumdog Millionnaire

2009-03-10T19:26:00.004+03:00

What an amazing film...

It gave me such a warm, happy feeling inside that it was definitely worth dragging my ill-self out of bed, whinging horrendously at my extremely hungover friend to try (and successfully, I might add!) persuade him to come with me and being so late that we ended up sitting quite near the front and I got neck-ache. I spent International Women's Day (8th March- a huge holiday here) in bed feeling crap so I wasn't going to waste the public holiday we got in lieu of it, and I am so pleased I went to the cinema.

Go and see it! It's definitely worth the effort!

University Pride

2009-03-07T17:55:00.003+03:00

In a quiet moment at work this week, I happened to be surfing the sites of some of the British newspapers. I do miss being able to buy a proper newspaper to read. I came across this year’s Times University Guide and I was both shocked and extremely happy to see that Birmingham is behind only Oxford and Cambridge for Russian and East European Languages. I always knew that Brum was an excellent uni for Russian, but on telling people that I went to Birmingham, it has always been ever so slightly sneered at. There's a whole system of snobbery in the British university hierarchy. Whether it's the fact that no-one wants to end up at a former polytechnic (perish the thought!), or the jostling for league table positions between the Russell Group universities. Maybe it’s the reputation that Birmingham has as a city, but the Russian department has not only the biggest library of Russian language material in the country, but I was also taught by native speakers, which is not something that all universities can boast about! I now look forward to being able to defend my degree and my university with hard evidence!

I was recently asked to write a paragraph for CREES’ website (the Centre for Russian and East European Studies) about how studying Russian at Birmingham has helped my career or my future career plans and I was only too happy to oblige. I wax lyrical to anyone who asks about my time at university and that’s why I’m so pleased that Birmingham’s Russian dept. is doing so well!

http://extras.timesonline.co.uk/tol_gug/gooduniversityguide.php?subject=RUSSIAN

A List of Things You May Not Know About Me

2009-03-01T17:53:00.002+03:00

1) I am a fierce Royalist. Ideally I would like to marry Prince Harry and thus secure my position in the Royal Family but as that’s highly unlikely to happen, I’ll just have to settle with being a loyal subject.

2) Every night I have to listen to the couple in the flat above mine either arguing or having sex.
It is most unpleasant.

3) My favourite films are, in no particular order: Billy Elliot, Donnie Darko, Bridget Jones’ Diary, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Atonement, Some Like It Hot, The Illusionist, Love Actually, Hancock, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Holiday, It’s a Wonderful Life, The English Patient, Seven Pounds, Batman Begins, the Bond films, Gone With The Wind, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (a new addition to the list), the Bourne series and Casablanca.
Many of these are favourites because of their association to particular people or times that I saw them, in addition to them being damn good films!

4) I am a Leo and a Tiger according to my respective horoscope/Chinese Zodiac sign. According to my former Khozyaika (Хозяйка- Landlady), this explains a lot.

5) I’m 22 and have never had a long-term relationship.
Maybe this is why I am still a true romantic at heart?!

6) Nowhere I’ve ever slept, including some lovely 5* hotels, has ever beaten the feeling of sleeping in my bed at Mum and Dad’s.

7) My name is Moscow Muse and I am a Chocoholic.

8) I love the drive from York to my town as I know it means I’ll soon be home: even more, I love getting out of the car, walking across the garden in the clean air and seeing the night sky, full of stars and free from light pollution.
Nobody should ever take their home town for granted.

9) When I eventually get my own place, my one requirement is that I have a library, dedicated to all my books.

10) My aim in life is to be the British Ambassador to Russia. It’s going to be a long, difficult road, but I’m convinced that if you want something enough, you have fight for it, and I’m not going to give up this dream easily.

Tantrums on Noviy Arbat

2009-03-01T17:40:00.000+03:00

The past fortnight has been ridiculously busy. I got to see my very first opera (Carmen, which I thoroughly enjoyed, even if I had to have it explained to me afterwards), been on various nights out with various different friends (the downside to having friends in lots of different places means you never actually get to see them all in one place at the same time), been a tour guide extraordinaire to a friend from the UK passing through Moscow as he does the Trans-Mongolian Express (who over the course of a week nearly managed to cause two international incidents in St. Petersburg and Moscow... I was quite glad to see him off onto the train to Irkutsk!), and completed a three-day training course at work.

Yesterday managed to be a fun, tiring, emotional, drunken and altogether bizarre day. A work event during the day outside of Moscow in the Russian countryside, with just hot chocolate, mulled wine and vodka to keep us all warm meant that the day started in good style! Unfortunately it only got worse from thereon in. The plan was to go to my all-time favourite club in Moscow once the rugby was done, however we didn’t even make it that far. Just as the Ireland-England game was starting, my friend decided to tell me something I really didn’t want to hear, which made me pretty pissed off: I’m sure he knew that I wouldn’t want to hear his news and his excellent timing meant that instead of enjoying the game, I quietly fumed throughout the whole thing. This was exacerbated by the fact that he insisted on having a conversation, which I really didn’t want to have, in front of my work colleagues.

Once all the Six Nations matches finished my colleagues left. My friend and I then somehow ended up having another big fight (this is in addition to the one we had in the middle of a club last Saturday for pretty much the same reasons). I flounced out of the bar only to be caught up by him at the cloakroom. We set off into the street where we continued what he had stopped. He just had no idea that his behaviour was upsetting me. In fact, I seem to recall him asking me at one point (in more graphic terms than I would ever blog here) if my hormones were maybe making me slightly irrational.

A word to all my male readers... NEVER EVER say that to a girl, whether it may be the case or not. It really does nothing except inflame the situation.

This was the one person out here that I truly felt was on my side, all the time. After my meltdown resulting in major tears and tantrums on the Noviy Arbat, we sat in the metro station and talked until the last train arrived. I don’t know if we came round to fully understanding each other’s viewpoints, but I do feel like we can never just go back to hanging out the way we used to.

When I feel hurt or betrayed by someone, I can’t look them in the eye: something this friend of mine picked up on because he wouldn’t let me leave until I looked him in the eye, making me feel the most uncomfortable I think I ever have. In fact, just writing about it now makes me feel almost as unsettled as I did last night... This guy seems to know exactly what buttons to press to make me laugh, wind me up, or irritate the hell out of me and that drives me mad.

Sometimes I wonder if it would’ve been so much easier living in the 18th or 19th century, where I would’ve been married off to the son of a local farmer and probably would be on my second or third child by now. But then what are the chances of an 18th century girl from North Yorkshire being able to live in a city she adores halfway around the world, doing a job that she loves and seizing every opportunity that come along. Pretty non-existent, I’d say! I thank my lucky stars I was born into a time, where there are so many chances to be taken. And I'd be a fool not to give them all my very best shot!

BBC NEWS | UK | Henry VIII love letter exhibited

2009-02-14T14:13:00.004+03:00

BBC NEWS UK Henry VIII love letter exhibited

Why does nobody write love letters anymore? I can't imagine that in 500 years time, somebody is going to find all the emails and texts that we send to each other. Let alone want to put them on display at the British Library. They'll just be an example of poor use of grammar, bad spelling and inappropriate language.

(Incidentally, that is categorically not directed at any particular person, but just a general observation as to how the British public seems to communicate in electronic form.)

OK, Henry VIII may have been a complete scoundrel (to put it midly) but I think the fact that this declaration of love has survived today is remarkable.

Unfortunately I don't really think the modern world is suited to these sorts of declarations anymore, which I think is such a pity.

Maybe we'd all be a bit happier if we took the time to tell those around us what they mean to us.

This Was The Week That Was.

2009-02-14T02:27:00.007+03:00

This week has been a truly crappy one for me, for several reasons:

Firstly I appear to have caught some horrible snotty flu virus and have felt like staying in bed all week (although that may be more due to number 2 on the list...)

Secondly the guy I was seeing and I decided to call an end to our relationship. What was a completely amicable and mutual dissolution on Monday turned into a horrible, acrimonious, argument-having, Facebook-deleting break-up by Friday thanks to my completely uncharacteristic and unusual behaviour. Why am I never able to recognise a good thing when I have one? Maybe I should finally listen to all those words of advice I've had over the years and learn when is the right time to stop talking.

This guy was a Good Egg and I hate the fact that we're now not on speaking terms. But we live and learn from our mistakes, and I've definitely learnt this week that sometimes it's better to have a little faith in people and not immediately jump to the worst possible conclusion. I completely underestimated him and I don't mind admitting that I feel pretty stupid for doing so.

Thirdly, due to number 2, I decided to go out and drown my sorrows last night. Not a good move. I think it was probably the eighth vodka and coke that did me in, and resulted in me being a snivelling, teary wreck at 2.45am. When will I learn?! Probably never.

But one thing did make me laugh last night... Some joker of a taxi driver tried to charge me 100 dollars to go from Smolenskaya to Okhotnyy Ryad. A journey that should've cost about 150 roubles (I suppose about $5 at the minute- around £3) and probably would've taken under 15mins. Just who do these people think they are?! It's utterly ridiculous. Sometimes I hate the way that just because I have an English accent when I'm speaking Russian, it gives the Russians the right to automatically try and rip me off. What is this? The 1990s? The problem is due to all the expats out here who were earning ridiculous money and didn't care paying the crazy prices demanded. Maybe now we're in a Recession and people are being sent home, or aren't earning the money they used to, the natives will realise that we aren't going to be taken for a ride anymore!

Mamma Mia!

2009-02-07T14:33:00.001+03:00

I truly want this news story to be true... the fact that Prime Minister Putin's spokeperson has denied it, speaks volumes to me!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7875372.stm

Aeroflop

2009-02-03T18:56:00.004+03:00

If there's ever a reason needed not to fly with Russia's national carrier, surely this article says enough...

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/600/42/374157.htm

Let It Snow

2009-02-02T19:36:00.002+03:00

So England is having the most snow for six years? A whole 6cm?

It is -19c here and we have 15-20cm of snow piled up at the side of the pavement that still hasn't melted on top of all the rest that has.

Man up England! I don't want to hear any more complaining about the weather!

What a Difference a Month Makes...

2009-02-01T13:33:00.001+03:00

Today is such a beautiful day. The temperature is a rather nose-freezing -19c, but the sky is blue and the sun is shining. I find it pretty amazing the effect that the weather can have on your mood. It was a lovely sunny day yesterday, although the temperature was a balmy -5c. Much more reasonable! However it has meant that everyone’s spirits has been lifted. Maybe it’s the vitamin D boost, or the fact that the sun on my face reminds me that the winter doesn’t last forever, and soon I won’t have to wear five layers of clothing, but I’ll be able to wear skirts and shorts and not have to worry about hat-hair!

I can’t believe that it’s the first day of February today. Time really does fly when you’re having fun. Unlike the autumn, which seemed to go so slowly, January has positively whizzed by. I think it’s probably a combination of factors. A friend of mine, who I met when studying here before has recently moved back to Moscow, and its lovely having someone out here to hang out with at the weekend, with whom I have some kind of history - I suppose a kind of link to my life out here as a student.

The fact I love my job is also helping! Whilst I’m sure many people would find it repetitive or boring, I actually love it. I’m a sort of person that loves targets and goals to meet, and so this job is perfect. In addition, my new colleagues are so friendly and have made me feel incredibly welcome. I feel like I’ve been working in this job for much longer than the five weeks I have been.

Next week is going to be a busy one. Two leaving parties, one “girl’s night out”, not to mention my weekly Russian class, with a lovely lady called Maria, who is my new teacher. It always makes me feel much better, when I can open my diary and see that every day has something happening. It’s not only next week that’s busy... in fact the next couple of months are going to be busy: working I getting steadily busier, trips to the Opera to see Carmen, events at the Embassy, one friend coming out to visit at the end of this month, and family coming at the end of April. I’m not going to have time to feel homesick, or get stressed out about anything. Which is a good thing; I think I have a tendency to worry about the small stuff which doesn’t really need to be worried about.

Definite progress.

Because travelling through Moscow airports isn't stressful enough...

2009-01-20T19:40:00.002+03:00

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/1010/42/373633.htm

Is there any other airport in the world that makes it's travellers do this??

Sometimes i despair at the bureaucracy in this country.

New Year, New Price Hikes...

2009-01-18T11:50:00.004+03:00

This week I was actually struck silent. And that doesn't happen very often! After the new year holiday, my metro ticket had expired, so I dutifully queued to buy a new one. I used to buy a ticket valid for 60 journeys, which was just over 500r (about £12). To my horror, I discovered that the price had increased to 865r (about £18). Now admittedly the metro here is still cheaper than in many other capital cities, but that is about a 75% increase! Can you imagine the outcry if a single journey tube ticket in London went from £4 to £7?!

Unfortunately, there isn't really a lot I can do about it, except grin and bear it. Oh, and hope that the next increase isn't quite as bad!

Illogical, Capt'n

2009-01-13T18:35:00.003+03:00

Sometimes I despair. I have long accepted that Russians are not the most logical of people: the fact that they believe sitting on a cold stone wall or floor will freeze a girls ovaries, thus meaning she will never be able to have children, is a prime example of this. Today, I saw another great example. On Saturday the temperature was -15c. Today, it is 0c. The result is that all the lovely powdery snow that was great and relatively easy to walk on has melted. An army of migrants, who are the city’s main street cleaners, were out in force this morning clearing the slush. However, they haven’t gritted or salted the pavements after clearing the snow. This has meant that as the temperature has begun to drop again, the pavements have become deadly with black ice.

I slid home from work.

Ironically, the part of the pavements, where they did a crap job and some snow is left, is great to walk on! So an entire day’s work is completely worthless and utterly in vain.

I suppose I should be thankful that whilst I was slipping and sliding home, I didn’t have to contend with sub-zero temperatures... Well, until tomorrow that is, when the temperature starts to drop again.

Incidentally, as a bit of a side note, is anyone getting fed up of this whole Russia/Ukraine business?? It seems to me to be very simple. Ukraine wants to be a player on the European stage, thus they should pay the European price for their gas. Russia is perfectly within it's right to turn off the gas- after all, Ukraine hasn't paid for it, and I couldn't think of a better time to do it. In the Summer, what sort of a point would be made? At least, this way, things might get resolved a bit quicker! We would experience exactly the same if we failed to pay nPower or British Gas, for example. The EU needs to step up its monitoring and identify whether Ukraine is stealing the gas or not. Then we can all go back to watching and reading about the financial crisis, the chances of the rouble devaluing and ice-skating dogs. Rant over.

Baby, it's cold outside...

2009-01-07T13:33:00.003+03:00

I cannot physically describe how cold it is outside. Now, I know all of you lovely readers in Britain will claim that you are beginning to understand how cold it is, as temperatures have dropped to -10c in some places, and it is only -14c here. BUT, with the wind chill factor, it is supposed to be more like -20c. I was very concerned yesterday that I was going to get frostbite in my cheeks as they were the only part of me exposed, yet they were so unbelievably cold. In fact, my boss had icicles attached to her eyelashes when she arrived into work yesterday. That is cold.

However it could be much worse. I could be in Europe, with freezing temperatures but no gas. At least I'm toasty warm in my apartment, with it's heating controlled by the state. Hurrah!

The Politics of Energy

2009-01-02T13:33:00.002+03:00

Those Russkies have been at it again. Similar to last New Year and the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics, when the whole world is looking in the other direction, they decide to make their move. Before heading over to Red Square, my flatmate and I had a few drinks in the Embassy bar. As we left, I noticed the headline on one of the digital news channels stating that Russia was cutting off Ukraine’s gas supply. Anybody who follows European news will have seen this coming. Every year Ukraine kicks up a fuss about paying for its gas, and every year Russia threatens or indeed carries out their threat to cut them off.

I find this very strange. Ukraine makes its position towards Russia very clear. The Russians have always seen the Ukrainians as their “little brother”. In fact, Ukraine means “on the edge”, which is how many Russian view the Ukrainians. Ever since the Orange Revolution, when Russia’s involvement in the elections was revealed, Ukraine’s Westerniser’s have made no secret of their desire to join NATO and the EU. Yet at the same time, when Gazprom wants to increase the price Ukraine pays to the same amount that the rest of Europe pays, they object. Ukraine currently pays $200 per 1000 cubic metre of gas, compared to Europe’s $500. Russia wanted to increase the price to $250, which Ukraine refused. So now Russia has asked for $418, and Ukraine have offered $235.

If Ukraine is serious in its ambitions to become a member of NATO and the EU, surely they have to accept that they will have to pay market rates for their gas. Russia has assured that this time, supplies to Europe will not be affected. Quite how this is going to be resolved, we will have to wait and see!

New Year's Eve 2008/2009

2009-01-01T14:00:00.007+03:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Or as we say over here, S NOVYM GODOM (С НОВЫМ ГОДОМ)

Last night I saw in the new year on Red Square, something that I thought I wasn’t going to be able to do, considering I’d heard lots of horror stories about how you had to get there ridiculously early, all the OMON (ОМОН- Russian riot police types- not very nice people!) were out in force and you had to pay 3000r (£70 approx) to get onto the Square. Actually, there were plenty of police, OMON and army, but we turned up at 10.45pm, passed through all the security checks and were in place in front of St. Basils Church at 11.45pm. Perfect!

My resolutions this year? I haven’t really thought of any yet. I suppose to try and use the gym and pool at work regularly, and not just for the first four weeks of 2009, after which I get distracted by the bar! Also, to try and blog more regularly and not complain so much! (Yes, the comments of one particular person were noted over the Christmas period. You know who you are...)

Eventually I will add a video I took last night to give you an idea of what the evening was like. The chanting half-way through will be the Russians on Red Square shouting “S novym godom!”, however the internet is being very slow at the moment and wont let me upload the video file. Keep popping back and it will at some point appear.

Below are some photos that I took. Enjoy!

Resurrection Gate as we made our way through five security checkpoints to get onto the Square.

St. Basils Church just prior to midnight.

The big moment!

A selection of pics during the firework display.

Spot the Difference

2008-12-15T18:13:00.002+03:00

The more observant of you will have noticed that the tag line at the top of the page has changed. This is because now I am back in the UK for my Christmas holidays, I have officially ceased being a translator, and am in a transitional phase until I start my new job in a fortnight! All very exciting and I am very much looking forward to meeting my new colleagues and starting my Russian classes, not to mention taking advantage of the free gym and pool membership! Hurrah!

The Evils of Alcohol

2008-12-14T21:13:00.003+03:00

This morning I woke up with absolutely no recollection of going to bed, nor any idea of where I was...

It turns out I was at the house of one of my best friend’s, and she’d put me to bed after our night out last night. Cocktails and Chardonnay are not a good combination at the best of times: I especially don’t recommend it after having worked all day, gone straight to a post-work party, and then taken an overnight flight, including a transfer to Yorkshire. 48 hours with little food, even less sleep, courtesy of some lovely children on the flights, and some tasty cocktails leads to a rather hazy memory of the night before. I also somehow managed to sleep in all my jewellery, my party top covered in sparkles, my jeans and with a scarf around my head.

However, this is the season of over-indulgence: I’m sure that today will be the first of many hangovers over the next two weeks and at least I get to recover in my own room with my gorgeous comfy bed and my favourite pyjamas. Hurrah!

The Imperialism of English

2008-12-10T17:19:00.003+03:00

Sometimes I wonder why I bothered to learn, or indeed, continue to learn Russian at all. Unlike in France, there is no equivalent of the Alliance Française here (the organisation that protects the French language from being corrupted by the influx of English terms), which means that Russia’s obsession with the West, particularly in immediate post-Soviet period, led to a huge number of borrowed terms.

In my final year at university, I took a course in Business Russian: to me, borrowing business or financial terms is relatively acceptable, particularly as so much of the world’s business in done in English. All we have to do is look at the current Global Financial Crisis to see the impact that the US economy has on the world. But I was quite shocked to see the extent of the influence of English in normal Russian.

Kommersant (Коммерсант) is a Russian daily newspaper: I generally thought it of as being similar to The Times/ The Sunday Times, or the like. I thought it was quite high-brow; not full of stories on celebrities, a good weekend glossy section, business and political news etc. We used to use its articles in our translation classes, for example. Considering the fact it features adverts for diamonds and clothes costing between 500,000- 1,200,000 roubles (12,000- 30,000 GBP), I presumed its aimed at the rather successful reader. But reading last Friday’s issue, I wonder if I’ve been somewhat mistaken…
Here is a selection of the terms I found, in Russian, literally transliterated and where I found them… see if you can guess what they mean.

Селебритиз Selebritiz (Culture)
Ремейк Remeik (Film)
Аутсайдер* Autsaider (Interview)
Эстимейт Estimait (Profile of Sotheby’s)
Кэм-бак Kam-bak (Interview)
Пиар Pi-ar (Interview)
Таун-Хаус* Taun-Haus (Real Estate)

*These are particular favourites of mine, and I can’t see how Russians without knowledge of English would know what they mean!

All of these words have, or could have, perfectly acceptable Russian translations, so I can’t understand why Russians wouldn’t prefer to use their own language, rather than simply transliterating English words into Cyrillic.
Surely we have a duty to protect the language we speak, not to throw it away. I’m sure there would be an outcry if we Brits were made to convert our spelling rules to US English spelling rules for the sake of ease, but Russians seem to accept this slow erosion of their language…
It makes me quite sad to think of a culture corrupting its own language so quickly and on such a huge scale. Maybe a one-woman quest is in order...

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

2008-12-06T18:08:00.002+03:00

This week has been a fairly tumultuous one. You may recall from several of the recent posts that I was feeling pretty miserable, pretty homesick and all in all not really feeling my best. I had been feeling that way for a good few weeks, and I was positively dreading being the only native speaker in the office. I felt a whole mixture of feelings: boredom from having nothing to do all day at the office, fed up with having to translate birth and marriage certificates, overwhelmed and unappreciated when given audits and complicated financial documents to translate and upset when my work was criticised (which it often was). My emotions were so dependent on my day at work: I was feeling utterly overwhelmed by life, I wasn’t able to make any kind of a decision, I didn’t want to go out at the weekend, nor get up on a morning. All I wanted to do was to stay in bed. Translating is such an inexact science: it relies on feelings and intuition for the language, not to mention the fact that a word can have ten different meanings in ten different contexts. I just can’t deal with that. I like things to be logical, straightforward, with some sort of result or target I can aim for. And to be perfectly frank, I didn’t feel like the salary, nor the work, was enough to warrant feeling like that.

When I first felt like this several weeks ago, I happened to see an advertisement for a job at an embassy, so I applied, just on the off-chance that it might be better than the job I had at the moment. Last Friday I had an interview (to which I turned up late as I hadn’t been put on the list on the front gate so I wasn’t allowed in, and I still had the remnants of the black eye, I talked about in a previous post!), but nevertheless on Monday I was offered the job! This is when the drama started...

When handing in my notice, I was informed that upon terminating my contract I would have three days to leave the country and my work permit would no longer be valid. As the Embassy had informed me they would be unable to issue visa invitations, this left me in a rather sticky situation: stay in a job that was making me miserable, or leave Russia and try and get a visa through someone else... Extremely difficult to do and most probably slightly illegal. I wrote my dissertation on illegal immigrants in Russia; I didn’t want to become one myself! So after a bit of a tearful phone-call home (I don’t think my Dad copes well with hysterical women!) I realised that there was no way I could stay in my current job. I felt too bad, too alone and it wasn’t worth being in Moscow and feeling that way. But I was offered a lifeline... if I take Russian evening classes at the company, for whom I’ve been working as a translator, I can be registered in Russia as a student, which allows me to work here and continue using my Russian language. Obviously the only downside to this is that I won’t receive my holiday pay for the fortnight Christmas holiday I booked, so this month’s salary is going to be £350 down (just what I need right before Christmas!) in addition to having to pay the cost of the classes every month, but the salary increase due to changing jobs will cover this quite comfortably.

So things are most definitely looking up! I’m very excited about my new work, which I start at the end of December and whilst money is going to be tight until I receive my first pay check, I’m already feeling like Moscow is slightly more friendlier and more like home. The new job will be great experience, and hopefully I’ll get to meet some interesting people.

Watch this space...!

Literary Corner: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

2008-11-30T11:27:00.001+03:00

This book was one that I read nearly two months ago, not long after I arrived in Moscow. It was featured as one of Richard and Judy's Book Club books last year, and came highly recommended to me by a friend. She warned me in advance that it was a little strange and a bit of a tear jerker however what I found was a book that affected me unlike any other has done in a long time.

The Book Thief follows the story of Liesel, a small girl, who is taken in by foster parents before the outbreak of the Second World War and shows the impact that the war and Holocaust have on the life of a young teenage girl in Nazi Germany. Illiterate and feisty, her foul-mouthed step-mother and huge-hearted step-father teach her to read and introduce her to the world of books, along with an impressive amount of bad language. The book is narrated by Death... yes, you have read that correctly: Death visits the Book Thief three times throughout the course of the book and it is through him that her story is told.

Unlike many books, which send you down dead alleys, litter the pages with red herrings and lead you hurtling through the chapters, Death actually reveals the ending of The Book Thief quite early on. However, this in no way detracted from the attachment and involvement I felt with the book. In fact, it allowed me to fully appreciate the book without that impatient feeling of wanting to know what happens at the end. I was utterly absorbed and if the last chapter and epilogue don't have you crying like a baby, then, quite frankly, you must have a heart of stone. Just make sure you aren’t in a public place when you finish the book.

Zusak creates such beautiful imagery and the reproductions of the books written in The Book Thief bring them to life in a way that I think that words alone might not have managed. The characters are incredibly real, which makes the book all the more heart-breaking and despite the fact that Death has already revealed the ending, I found myself hoping that it wasn't going to happen and that it had in fact been one of the red herrings that I despise so much. But despite that, The Book Thief ultimately left me with a smile on my face and gave me a little more faith in the human spirit. For that alone, it's definitely worth a read!

The Fundamental Rule for Surviving a Russian Winter

2008-11-29T12:53:00.002+03:00

Sometimes I manage to surprise even myself with my clumsiness.

This week has been a funny one: the temperature has been hovering between -3c and +3c. This means the snow falls, melts, ices over, and the pavements have been transformed into an urban ice-rink. It appears to be particularly bad in the area where I live, as the streets haven’t been gritted and are only cleared every few days.

So picture the scene… as the snow was all clear on the morning I went to work, not in my eighties-style purple moon boots (incredibly warm and comfortable… not at all fashionable), but in my brown leather boots that see me through the autumn and winter. As the snow fell during the day, the streets were incredibly icy and I managed to make it from the metro to my apartment block by walking through the piles of snow at the edge of the road. I thought I was safe- my entrance (подъезд or podezd) was merely 50m away and rather than risk slipping on the road leading up to it I decided to take a short cut across the kid’s playground in front of the building. This was where I made my fatal error. As I was looking at my feet and not where I was going, I slipped on the ice and essentially walked into a post. Very classy. I don’t know if anyone saw me bounce off the kid’s play equipment (I truly hope they didn’t) but I definitely saw stars. I’ve never been in so much pain before, nor had stars floating around my head.

The result of this “incident” is that I have a rather swollen black eye. Luckily it isn’t too visible as I banged my head on my eyebrow: it’s just my eyebrow and eyelid that swollen and bruised, but I think my make-up is doing a good job of covering it up! I’m a little concerned that the good people of Moscow will presume I’ve got some abusive man tucked away somewhere, but alas, I can confirm that I am just an idiot!

British Health and Safety would never have let it happen…

Literary Corner: The Shoe Queen by Anne Davis

2008-11-28T12:04:00.000+03:00

Last week we had the unexpected bonus of a Friday afternoon off. This has happened for two weeks on a row now and I have to say that it's great! When there's no work to do, it's incredibly soul-destroying sitting around in the office, and particularly nasty on a Friday. So when our boss came in to tell us that we could leave early, it was a mixed blessing. Whilst it was a bad sign that there wasn’t anything to do, it did at least allow me to get to the English language bookshop Angliya (Англия, which means England) near Mayakovskaya metro station before it closed, and thus meaning I didn’t have to forfeit my lie-in on a Saturday morning. This bookshop is my lifesaver in Moscow, and I have spent a fair amount of both time and money in there during my time out here. Books are my weakness… the only problem is they tend to add quite a lot of weight to your baggage when you come to leave!

This book immediately caught my eye, on account of it being called The Shoe Queen. What girl could resist a title like that?! Set in 1920s Paris, it follows Genevieve, an aristocratic British society-girl, married to an American and living in Paris. Genevieve has a phenomenal shoe collection, yet it isn't enough for her. When the most exclusive designer in Paris refuses to make her a pair of shoes, she sets about convincing him otherwise whilst trying to avoid having an affair in the hedonistic period of post-War Paris.

However, don’t think that that makes The Shoe Queen all sugar and spice. Gradually throughout the chapters we begin to discover the reasons behind Genevieve's shoe obsession and without giving away any spoilers, the ending was a little unexpected! In the Author’s Notes, Davis reveals which parts of the book were loosely based on fact, and which she invented, which made it all the more intriguing.

This book is perfect for reading on those dark wintry nights, when it’s acceptable to be in your pyjamas by 8pm with a huge mug of tea and a packet of Jaffa cakes (or Russia's nearest equivalent). Davis’ descriptions make the mouth water and Paris comes alive. This book isn’t going to tax the brain, nor lead to any life-altering revelations, but it’s a great way to pass those cold miserable evenings!

Сдача есть???

2008-11-27T15:12:00.003+03:00

Russians seem to have this weird thing about change... Whenever you pay with a note, the first thing you're likely to be asked is "Haven't you got anything smaller?", or "See if you've got 11.38r" so that the checkout girl can give you an exact note in change. It gets pretty frustrating after a while, particularly as the cach-machines (Банкомат Bankomat) more often than not give out 1000r notes.

One would think that the supermarket would be the perfect place to break a note, but unfortunately they are one of the worst offenders! I've seen someone pay with a 5000r note (120 GBP) when buying a coffee and a beer at the kiosk near work (embarrassingly enough, the woman now recognises me as I get my usual chocolate fix from her), yet the supermarket next to my house has problems giving me change from a 500r (12 GBP) when I buy something that costs 367r!!

An excellent example of this was when my flatmate and I called in at the supermarket on the way home. I paid for my bits and bobs and the checkout girl owed me 28r change. She told me to wait whilst someone got some change for her. In the meantime, she rang my flatmate's shopping through the till. He was owed 28r change. Instead of getting the change for both of us, she simply handed us a 50r note and said "You can sort it out between the two of you, can't you?!"

Charming!

Literary Corner: The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

2008-11-26T13:33:00.002+03:00

In honour of winter arriving in Russia, along with the several inches of snow that usually accompanies this, I thought I’d start with a Russian book. Last week, I read The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (Мастер и Маргарита Михаил Булгаков). Although I was recommended to read Heart of a Dog before attempting Master and Margarita, upon arriving at the English language book shop, I found that Master and Margarita was only 40r (approx. 1 GBP) more than Heart of a Dog, but was about ten times as long! So my love of a bargain won out, and I will attempt HOAD at Christmas!

So, on to the business itself. MAM is set around the events that take place when the Devil and his associates pay a visit to Moscow, in Stalin’s Soviet Union. Although Bulgakov began writing the book in 1928, it wasn’t published until the mid-1960s in English, or Russian and the complete book wasn’t published until 1973. He was still working on the fourth version of the book when he died in 1940 and the work was finished by his wife.

There are three main strands to the book: the visit of the Devil and his associates, amongst which include a witch, a vampire, and a giant, talking black cat, with a penchant for chess and vodka, and the havoc they wreak in Moscow; Margarita, the Master’s mistress and the deal she strikes with the Devil, and finally the story of Pontius Pilate and his meeting with Yeshua Ha-Nozri (Jesus the Nazarene).

The book deals with the effect of good and evil, love, courage and truth and is influenced by Goethe’s Faust, along with references to Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov and Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, and in turn has influenced many others, such as The Satanic Verses by Salmon Rushdie, the Rocky Horror Picture Show and songs by Mick Jagger, Pearl Jam and Franz Ferdinand. The most famous quote from the book is “Manuscripts don’t burn” (“Рукописи не горят”) after the Master throws his manuscript into the fire, only to have it later returned to him by the Devil. This is apparently partly autobiographical as Bulgakov himself is supposed to have burnt one of the early copies of Master and Margarita.

I found MAM to be a thoroughly enjoyable read… Ok, you have to suspend disbelief, but as far as the story goes I liked it! Particularly if you have some knowledge of the Soviet Union in the 30s, or have read some background on the book, it greatly enhances your enjoyment of the book, which is a satire of the Soviet Union. By following different characters which appear in the book, the chaos inflicted by the Devil becomes all the more apparent.

I remember a friend of mine starting to read MAM when we were students in Moscow, but he gave up half-way through… I think he might have made a bit of a mistake.
After all, there’s a good reason why it’s considered to be one of the greatest books of the twentieth century!

Not Just a Financial Crisis

2008-11-22T16:25:00.005+03:00

This week I've had a bit of a personal crisis: I was very homesick and questioning why I decided to come and work in Russia. This resulted in a mad text to my Mum telling her I wanted to come home, watching a number of sad, romantic films (I thought a good cry would make me feel better when in fact it just made me feel worse) then going out and having one too many margarita's. (This did make me feel better, but only until the hangover kicked in the next morning!)

In the end I had a good think about what I was doing with my life, helped by a friend I text, who very aptly said, "But don't you love Moscow?"

So I've come to the conclusion that it was probably a combination of factors: the fact that I still haven't fully got rid of my cold I had TWO weeks ago, the weather has been utterly miserable (although as the first snow of the Winter appeared on Wednesday, it is at least a little brighter than previously), our company has been badly affected by the Financial Crisis so work isn't a great place to be right now and the general blues that I think many people get around this time of year.

But there is an easy way to fix this. This blog marks the end of my moaning, whining and generally feeling sorry for myself. I have my Christmas holiday booked and will be back in England in less than three weeks, Christmas (my favourite time of year) will soon be upon us, and I have a job, something that I should be thankful for.

Moscow is an amazing city, which I often forget when life starts to get hard. However from now on, I have resolved to enjoy myself a lot more, which means plenty of posts on my antics.
After all, what's the point in moving half-way around the world if I'm going to mope about?! I could do that in my home town and save myself a lot of cash!

Literary Corner...

2008-11-19T21:31:00.003+03:00

Books are a major part of my life. Ever since my Mum did a brilliant job at teaching me how to read before i went to school, my earliest memories have involved books, or reading, or writing. (Well, just the one book, when i was in primary school, about a Renault tractor named Robbie... complete with illustrations. I think i hit my literary peak around the age of nine.) My dream is to have a library in my future house or apartment that is floor to ceiling with books and maybe a chaise lounge to read them on...
I think i'm already on the way there with the number i left in my room at Mum and Dad's.

So where is this going, i hear you cry...
I've decided to start a literary section to the blog, in addition to my usual posts on the foibles and eccentricities of Moscow, where i'm going to post my thoughts and opinions on every book i read. Since coming to Moscow, i've read eight books, so over the next few weeks, my reviews of these eight will be posted! They are a bit of a mix, which i think is a good thing. Please feel free to comment if you have also read them, or if it encourages you to read them, all the better! All the posts will be labelled "Literary Corner", and can be found by clicking on the "Literary Corner" link on the right. They aren't going to be critiques, but just my own personal view on what i thought of the book. (Disclaimer over)

Whilst i'm not trying to rival Richard and Judy's Book Club, it would be nice to give a nod to my favourite hobby. I don't think there is anything in the world that would make me give up books. Take heed...

Thanks...

2008-11-19T11:35:00.003+03:00

I thought I'd take this opportunity to say a quick thanks to everyone who reads my blog. I wanted to put a hit counter on the page so I could see how many visitors I have been getting, however as I'm relatively IT-illiterate, I'm not entirely sure how to go about doing so, and instead it means I am reliant on having messages passed through my Mum and messages put on Facebook by those of you who know my real identity!

If you want to comment on the blogs, you can do so without having to register... just choose the Name/Anonymous option when leaving the comment and you can either type in your name or leave it blank and provide me with hours of fun, trying to work out who you are! It would be great to hear your opinions or anything you have to say about them, in addition to knowing exactly who is out there in blogdom!

Neighbours From Hell

2008-11-10T18:05:00.000+03:00

My flat mates and I have often talked about adopting a Russian soap opera each. I'm slightly ashamed to say that I do miss Neighbours, Hollyoaks and Coronation Street when I leave the UK. I already have my parents taping the whole of the current series of Spooks for me, and I’m on the hunt for season three of Heroes… I daren't ask for them to record too many. In my final year, Monday night was a brilliant night in our house: Neighbours, Home and Away, Hollyoaks, two episodes of Coronation Street, Eastenders and America's Next Top Model. Very little got done. But I digress. I think that adopting a good, or rather bad, Russian or dubbed Latin American soap might help. Particularly as Russian TV isn't exactly know for its high quality... on Saturday night I flicked between dubbed versions of Airplane! and Midsomer Murders.
In the end, I went out.

But I’ve come to the realisation that I don’t need to watch a Russian soap as I have one taking place on my doorstep. Or rather the doorstep above mine. The couple in the flat above us are either arguing or having sex. When they row, we can hear them anywhere in our flat: last week, she called him an idiot 40 times in the space of a minute; last night, she let loose with some of Russian’s colourful swearing, which is a whole separate sub-language and one that I didn't think women used all that often. Apparently, she was sick of doing all the housework and washing all the pots. Let that be a lesson…

However I can’t decide if hearing them rowing is better than hearing them having sex, which is something that only I get the pleasure of as their bedroom seems to be above mine. Week nights, 3pm on a Saturday afternoon, 8.30am on a weekday morning… I can hear them. Who has time to have sex at 8.30 on a weekday morning?! Even with my music and/or TV blaring, I can’t drown them out. It is very unpleasant.

I relayed this news to a friend of mine this weekend. He's coming to Moscow early next year, so I’m sure he'll have the pleasure of hearing them too. In fact, I rather hope he does... on complaining to him, not only was he not at all sympathetic to my plight, but he also had the nerve to ask me if I was jealous!
Me?! Jealous?! Of some short ugly Russian man with a bad hair cut?!

Well... maybe just a little...

A David Bailey Moment

2008-11-09T15:29:00.003+03:00

I thought i would share with you some pictures i took from my balcony last night. I caught the sun set just as it was finishing, before i headed out.
One benefit of living on the 9th floor is the view. So i don't get a view of Red Square, or the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour... at least i get to see "urban landscapes" at their best!

Momentous Events

2008-11-08T17:34:00.000+03:00

This week has been a momentous one. The election of Obama as US President has restored my faith in the American people. As Obama himself said in his victory speech, the world is facing the biggest crises of our lifetime: two wars, a global financial crisis and the fact that we are slowly killing our planet. Maybe this week will mark a shift- one in which the world can work together to set things right. Let’s see if the US finally signs the Kyoto Agreement before it’s too late. Cheap fuel and industry may all be very well and good, but no use when we don't have a planet to live on.

Speaking of which, the financial crisis hit home for me this week. A friend of mine out here lost his job due to the crisis. Luckily for him, he can go back home to Ireland and work there; not so lucky for his Russian colleagues who now have to start looking for work.

So this week has been one of departures. The second was someone I knew from when I was a student. Forgive me, whilst I digress a little and tell you a story. The main characters are my good self, a boy I spent nine months in unrequited love with and pining over (let’s call him The Boy I Pined Over, or TBIPO for short) and a Very Good Friend of mine. The story of our meeting is interesting. TBIPO and I went to see Starsailor at a gig they gave in Moscow. There I met VGF as he played rugby with TBIPO (you should by now begin to notice that rugby always seems to factor in my social life somewhere); after introducing me to VGF, TBIPO promptly informed me “not to even think about going there”. Apparently, VGF had a way with the ladies. This meant we developed a totally platonic, if slightly distant relationship. I always figured he was always far too popular to want to be friends with me and I’m ashamed to say after I left Moscow I let our contact slide, until this summer when I got back in touch. The handful of occasions when we’ve managed to get together in the last six months have been great and I am going to miss the fact that he is no longer in Moscow. At his leaving do last Friday, we got talking about the night we met. He informed me that TBIPO told me that as he was in fact in love with me. Whether there’s any truth in that, I guess I’ll now never know. It’s certainly interesting to hear a second side to the story, however, no matter how long after the event!

My own momentous occasion this week came when I finished Tolstoy’s War and Peace. I started it in June when backpacking around China (I say backpacking... I actually stayed in combination of a friend’s apartment, 3* hotels and guest houses in the middle of the Chinese countryside. Oh, and one hotel named “Fawlty Towers”. Classic. So I wasn’t really roughing it at all.) But I ended up having such an amazing time that I only read about 200pages. Yesterday however, I finally hit page 1,358 and it was all over. And I completely adored it. Tolstoy’s philosophising did annoy me at times, but the actual story of the Rostov’s, Bolkonsky’s and Pierre Bezhukov was utterly compelling. I’d almost go so far as saying I preferred it to Anna Karenina; although I loved Kitty and Levin’s story, Anna and Vronsky made my blood boil. I’ve also recently finished Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak. I was expecting a great love story, set in the wastes of the revolution, when in fact the moralising of Pasternak made it very difficult to finish, not to mention the fact that I positively disliked Zhivago himself. Next on my “Improving Russian Literature” list is The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov. Whilst I detested studying literature academically at school (hence why I avoided it at all costs at university and picked a social and political science based Russian degree), I think Russian classic literature goes a long way to uncovering the illusive Russian soul.

So whilst it may not be on a par with the historic events in the US on Tuesday, it was at least a small private victory for me.

Culture Vulture

2008-11-03T13:01:00.004+03:00

Yesterday I decided to treat myself by going to the British Film Festival. There was one film in particular that I wanted to see; called French Film, it was listed as being a comedy about the differences in attitudes between the French and Brits to relationships. So off I went, only to spend 45mins travelling to arrive and find that both showings had sold out. Instead, I bought tickets for the film showing that evening and decided to hang around the huuuuuge shopping centre, the Evropeisky Torgovli-Razvlekatelny Tsentr (Европейский Торговли-Развлекательный Центр, which literally translates as the European Retail and Entertainment Centre) that cinema was in. Birmingham Bullring: eat your heart out. This mall is 6 floors high, filled with European stores (Topshop, Marks and Spencer and The Body Shop to name a few) with a spa and an ice rink on the top floor.

After killing 3 hours it was finally time for the film to start. It was being shown with Russian subtitles: although this seemed to be a bit of a botch job as it was basically a Microsoft Powerpoint slideshow running underneath the screen. The director/producer/star of the film was at the showing and gave a bit of a presentation before hand. It was called A Complete History of my Sexual Failures and was a documentary about the star (Chris Waitt) trying to track down and interview all his ex-girlfriends to find out why he was so rubbish at relationships. It was quite funny, if not a little strange and quite sad in some parts. It’s certainly a very brave thing to do: not only because I don’t think I would want to talk to any of my ex-boyfriends and ask them for my faults, but because he admits to some very personal problems and we see him trying to get help for them.

After the film, everyone was invited to the bar for a sort of Q and A session, which I didn’t go to. Besides the fact that it was late and I had to run for the metro, I didn’t actually have any questions. I think I would have enjoyed the film a lot more had I not read a book eighteen months ago called Remind Me Why I Need A Man. This was a work of fiction, but in the book the main character joins a course to help her find a husband, which involves her tracking down and meeting her ten most important exes. So whilst I did enjoy the film, it didn’t quite have that air of originality that I was hoping for.

The festival finishes this week: French Film isn’t going to be shown again, but Hallam Foe is. Starring Jamie Bell (of Billy Elliot fame... a film that never fails to make me cry), it’s about a boy that retreats into a fantasy world following the death of his mother. Not exactly a comedy but I heard very good things about it when it was released in the UK and I just never got round to seeing it so I am definitely going to take advantage now!

It's Been a Long Week...

2008-11-01T23:50:00.002+03:00

Three reasons why today has been a crap day:

1) My brand new uni rugby shirt, bought at graduation and worn for the first time today has run in the wash despite me following the care instructions to the letter. The white collar of the black crested shirt is now a rather dirty and unattractive shade of bluey-grey.

2) Today was day six of my six day week. (Incidentally, i found out that the public holiday is to celebrate the Russians kicking the Polish-Lithuanians out of Russia in 1612. Nice and nationalist then!). Having to go into the office on a Saturday knowing you have an audit to translate is one of the most depressing things EVER.

3) You meet a guy, swap numbers, go out a couple of times, hang out, get to know one another. Then he stops calling. Disappointing.
You meet another guy. For some unknown reason (usually due to alcohol consumed) you give him your number, despite the fact that you don't really want him to call and he doesn't stop calling. Or talking to you every time you see him. Or generally harrassing you.
Sod's Law.

Two reasons why today has been a good day:

1) I got paid! Five days early as the accountant is going away. This is excellent news as finances were beginning to get very stretched.

2) The British Film Festival in Moscow is in full swing and as i am planning on taking full advantage of the next three days by going and watching some films in English. Hurrah!

Day of National Unity

2008-10-27T20:42:00.000+03:00

Next Tuesday (4th November) is a public holiday in Russia: the Day of National Unity. Nobody is quite sure what it’s for, however it is much appreciated. There used to be a holiday around this time of year in the Soviet period celebrating the Great October Revolution (which actually took place in November, but as Russia used a different calendar, was hence known as the October Revolution). After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, the public holiday was moved and renamed. All of this is rather unimportant to me however; the main thing is I get a day off work! Ura!

The bad news is that as Russia is a completely illogical country, the public holiday isn’t the nearest Friday or Monday... instead it simply falls on the date of the festival, which is a Tuesday. This means they have a crazy system whereby we all go into work on the proceeding Saturday, but then take the Monday off in lieu. Following me? So instead of having Saturday, Sunday and Monday off, we have Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.
So I’m on day one of a six day working week, which is most unpleasant.

It also means that I’ll get paid slightly later this month as the holiday falls on payday. This is baaaad news... I’ve been working for six weeks and this will be my first full pay packet on account of how the dates have fallen. (I say packet- I actually get paid in cash, not in an envelope, but just a fistful of notes. Nice and secure!) So finances are just a little stretched at the moment, and it’s fallen at a particularly bad time as not only has the British Film Festival in Moscow kicked off this week, but it’s my flatmate’s birthday, my best friend’s birthday and a very good friend’s leaving do.
So I am going to be counting every last kopeck for the next week... And I thought that being a graduated working person would mean my finances were easier than when I was a student.
Unfortunately, no such luck!

Gastro-Porn

2008-10-21T22:21:00.000+04:00

I’ve always fancied myself as a bit of a Nigella in the kitchen. You know what I mean... gorgeous food, low cut top, high heels, hair swishing all over the place- food as a prelude to the after-dinner entertainment, not as the main event.
Unfortunately, I just don’t have the cooking skills to match.
My philosophy is that as long as there’s plenty of wine, no one will notice what that food tastes like! It’s not that I can’t cook; it’s just that I don’t enjoy it. I enjoy the eating a whole lot more; especially when someone else has done the cooking for me!

Before I moved back to Russia, I had a “Russia evening” at the house of a friend I haven’t been in touch with for ten years: cooking me dinner and talking to me about Russia all night?! It was my idea of heaven! The only thing missing was dessert... men just don’t seem to understand the importance of a good chocolate tart, New York cheesecake or crème Brule.

However, at the age of 22, I think it’s about time that I learnt to cook more than baked chicken and roasted vegetables, spaghetti Bolognese (the secret ingredient being the 1/3 of a bottle of red wine in the sauce) and chicken casserole: my three speciality dishes. This was made especially clear to me on Friday night in the pub, when I was brutally informed by some (male) friends of mine that if I didn’t learn to cook, I would never find a husband. Not that I’m looking, obviously! But it would be nice to know that in the future, my love life won’t be impaired by the fact that I’m incapable in the kitchen. For some odd reason I thought that in the 21st century it might not be such an issue any more... apparently, I was wrong!

So, on Saturday afternoon night I took myself to the English-language bookshop and found a lovely cookbook at a bargain price, with lots of lovely pictures so I can see if mine looks like it’s supposed to, and the rather tasty Gordon Ramsey on the front, who I now always associate with my former housemate who was rather obsessed with him!

Now all I have to do is find someone brave enough to let me practice on them... I can’t return the dinner favour to my friend until Christmas at the very earliest, but at least it gives me plenty of time to perfect my fourth dish!

The name's Muse, Moscow Muse.

2008-10-16T20:29:00.003+04:00

The question on my lips this week has been who exactly is doing Daniel Craig's interpreting for him? The "Quantum of Solace" promo tour kicked off in Moscow on Monday, and had I known I would have most certainly staked out the posh hotel on Tverskaya Street, where he was staying and the press junket took place.

I would have done all his interpreting and translating for a very reasonable price, and as a Bond uber-fan, I think I could have even helped him to answer some of the questions.

The photo of him on Red Square on the front of Tuesday's newspaper now adorns my desk at work, alongside my copy of War and Peace, that I'm pretty sure I'll still be reading when I retire, my mug and a very sad looking apple that I cast aside in favour of some chocolate last week. He holds a special place in my life, indeed.

Verb of the Day

2008-10-15T16:54:00.005+04:00

to french it up (verb) to read articles, reports, documents in order to improve one's French

Example: "Oi, MM, are you still frenching it up over there?" (James the Jester, 2008)

Warning: This verb is to be used carefully as it may throw up millions of inappropriate hits on Google, not at all resembling the French documents or articles required.

Quote of the Day

2008-10-14T16:23:00.002+04:00

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, when asked if Saturday’s earthquakes would affect turnout in the elections held on Sunday, replied “The turnout will be no less than 100%, and maybe more”.

That would be pretty impressive, even for a region that had a turnout of 99.5% in the 2007 Duma elections!

Say what?! Part deux

2008-10-12T14:22:00.006+04:00

This weekend has been a rather surreal and strange one for me. I met some *ahem* interesting people and took part in some rather strange conversations. Here is a faithful and accurate account of three of them.

1) On Friday night, Moscow Muse went to the pub with some friends. What was intended to be a quick drink after work ended up in rather a late one and a nasty hangover on Saturday morning as drinking Vodka and Cokes on an empty stomach is never a good move. She missed the last metro train home by minutes, so took a taxi home.

Scene: MM is sat in the front seat of the taxi, her flatmate in the back. She strikes up conversation with the Taxi Driver. He is from Azerbaijan and after establishing that MM and her flatmate are from the UK, he begins telling them about the links his small city in Azerbaijan has with Britain:

TD: “Yeah, one of your kings from the 14th century came to Azerbaijan. I can’t remember his name though. Tell me some of your 14th century kings.”
MM: “Err...” British history is not the strong point of MM at the best of times, let alone after several vodkas. She knows a lot about the Tudors thanks to Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, but not a lot about pre-reformation history.
TD: “Come on! You must know your kings.”
MM: “Yeah I do, but...”
TD: “Call yourself an English girl! Idiot!”
At this point, MM is rather annoyed at being called an idiot and so keeps quiet.
TD: “I remember! Ludwig!”
MM: “He was German you idiot! He wasn’t an English king! Call yourself an Azerbaijani!”
MM now feels rather vindicated, as both she and the Taxi Driver laugh at the idiocy of the conversation that has just taken place.

2) Scene: Saturday night and Moscow Muse has been to the English language bookshop near Mayakovskaya (Маяковская) metro station to buy some cookbooks, in order to reinvent herself as a Domestic Goddess in the style of Delia or Nigella, only to find that she arrived fifteen minutes after it closed. Not a good start. Rather than take the metro the two stops to the bar where she is meeting a friend, she decides to walk as the sun is setting and it is a beautiful Saturday night in Moscow. Walking down Tverskaya (Тверская) Street, a Young Man stops her as he walks in the opposite direction and asks, in Russian:

YM: "Do you like me?"
MM: "What?!"
YM: "Do you like me?"
MM: "Err... I have no idea who you are!"
YM: Realisation dawning as he hears MM’s accent. "You’re foreign!"
MM: "Yes."
YM: "What kind of a foreigner are you?"
MM: "I’m English."
YM: "Oh, I thought you were Ukrainian."
MM: "Ha-ha... no."
YM: "You speak Russian well."
MM: "Thanks. I’m a Russian translator."
YM: "Oh right. Give me your phone number."
MM: "No."
YM: "Ok, well, have a nice night!"

You have to admire his nerve! I can’t help but wonder exactly often he tries it and how often it works.

3) This final conversation is one that I am extremely ashamed of. I have a habit of opening my mouth before thinking about what I’m actually going to say. Anyone who knows me well has countless examples of times when I’ve spoken without thinking. Please don’t judge me on the basis of what you are about to read.

Scene: MM is having a conversation with a couple of friends about logos of companies and how they bear no representation to the actual company or its activities. This is due to the fact that the friend of MM, works for a Lebanese financial company, the name of which is a type of sea shell.

MM: "Yeah, but there are lots of companies that don’t have symbols to do with their names. What about BP? Why do they have a shell as their symbol?"
Friend of MM thinks for a moment then realises what she’s said.
Friend of MM: "No, Shell has the symbol of a shell."
MM is both highly ashamed, and in fits of giggles at what she has just said, particularly considering she has in the past applied for a job with Shell.

Oh dear. It’s been a long weekend.

Correction

2008-10-12T13:30:00.001+04:00

I’m a little concerned that some of my blogs may be giving you the wrong impression. In several posts I’ve alluded to my woeful love life and the fact that I am single. But this isn’t to say that I’m some sort of sad twenty-something, who is desperate for a man to validate her life. On the contrary, I love being single. It means I can do what I want, when I want. It means I can be totally selfish and self-indulgent and not have to worry about what anyone else thinks. It means if I want to not get out of bed until 4pm and then not bother getting dressed at all before going back to bed at 1am, there’s no one around to criticise me.

The problems only start when I’m surrounded by couples. Then, my singleness is much more apparent. When my friend tries to set me up with his single friends, I know he’s only doing it out of the goodness of his heart, but it does have the unfortunate side effect of making me feel like I'm totally incapable of finding someone for myself! For the last four years my life has revolved around three cities: York, Birmingham and Moscow. This isn’t conducive to healthy relationships and so I’ve found it far easier to (on the whole) be single. It also means that I’ve been able to get the most out of every opportunity, be it nipping to Kiev for the weekend at three days notice, flirting with a handsome boy in a bar, flying to Beijing and taking advantage of a male friend living abroad to save on hotel costs, or having as many men friends as I like, without any boyfriend getting jealous (something that has happened more than once in the past!)

Russian women get married young, in their early twenties. It usually means they are divorced and onto marriage number two by the age of 30, however it’s a big deal for them not to be “left on the shelf” at the ripe old age of 25! Their first marriage is considered a “training marriage”: one in which they can make mistakes, so that their second marriage will be better. Women’s magazines are full of advice on how to get a man, how to keep a man, and what to do when you stop fancying your man: it’s all far too much hassle for my liking. In the age when women are supposedly equal to men, it sometimes seems like nothing’s changed in the last 30 years, especially in Russia, where men and women still hold traditional family roles.

So, ok, there wasn’t anyone to bring me flowers on Translator’s Day. I bought my own ice-cream instead! It’s one less gift to buy at Christmas, and I save a packet on Valentine’s Day. When the perfect man comes along, then I’ll be more than happy to settle down. Until then, finding my prince among some very handsome frogs is proving to be jolly good fun. And should I happen to meet an Oligarch’s son along the way, that’s all the better!

Every Day's a School Day.

2008-10-10T18:33:00.007+04:00

Things I have learnt this week, as Day 5 of having nothing to do, comes to an end:

1) The main picture on the BBC News website is a different depressed looking stock-broker every day,
2) The Russian media appear to believe that if they don’t report the financial crisis, then it isn’t happening,
3) It is a good idea to switch your mobile to silent during the night, or else text messages sent by drunken rugby-playing friends tend to wake you up,
4) The kiosk selling pancakes near work uses really cheap chocolate,
5) Vladimir Putin has been given a tiger cub for his 56th birthday. What exactly does he intend on doing with it?!
6) Newspaper headlines can be misleading, best demonstrated by the headline in The Moscow Times this week: “Several State Duma deputies are up in arms after a small kiosk selling drugs was removed”,
7) Not having any work is in fact the most boring thing in the world,
8) Walking up nine flights of stairs every morning to get to the office on account of the lift being broken means that I don’t need to join a gym,
9) Confusing the verbs perespat’ (переспать) “to sleep with (someone)” and prospat’ (проспать) “to oversleep” is not good,
10) James the Jester is in fact an idiot, by making me write this blog under duress so that he can have something to read at home tonight.

What have you learnt this week?

A Day in the Life...

2008-10-08T16:51:00.001+04:00

I sit and write this blog entry at work: not because I’m trying to avoid doing any translating, but because there simply isn’t any translating work to do. For three days now, I’ve essentially done bugger all. Whilst our native Russian speakers are busy translating documents into Russian, for us native English speakers, there simply haven't been any documents come in that need translating into English. However, if we don’t come into the office, we don’t get paid. This has resulted in a lot of sitting around, drinking water, drinking tea: the kind of thing that most British builders do on a regular basis! I can’t even waste time online, as we have an internet allowance of only 300mb a month, which we need to research any tricky terms that come up in the process of our translations. This means that there is no reading of all the BBC’s news articles for the last six months, no Facebook-stalking of people I haven’t seen for ten years and no looking up random articles on Wikipedia.

So, how have I been filling my days? Well, I’ve read all the instructions for editing and translating texts in French and English. I’ve looked up all the templates for documents in French and English. I’ve bought a notebook and divided it into sections for Finance, General, French, Judicial and Acronyms, so that I can make a note of any interesting phrases or recurring terms. I’ve (rather unsuccessfully) tried to explain the Credit Crunch in five sentences to a gap-year volunteer working in our office. And I’ve been to the coffee shop down the road and picked up a weeks worth of newspapers to read. The Moscow Times in a free English language newspaper, aimed at businessmen. This means it’s full of stories about the MICEX and RTS, and doesn’t contain Sudoku, horoscopes or entertainment news. It doesn’t even have a sports section, for when times are really desperate. I have, however, learnt an awful lot about the financial crisis, the price of shares, Somali pirates and Medvedev’s new podcast.

So, it hasn’t been a completely wasted day.

The Last Kiss

2008-10-07T15:05:00.004+04:00

On Saturday night i went out with my best friend here in Moscow. We hit an "elitnii" club, where we got in because we were on the guest list, had a dance, drank some cocktails. It was a good night.

Well, it was... until around 3am, when i lost my lipstick.

This wasn't just any ordinary lipstick. This was my favourite Dior lipgloss, bought in Dubai duty free on the way home from Hong Kong this Summer, and worn only on special occasions.

Who would want to steal my used lipstick?!?!

People are just plain weird.

My Name is (not) Earl

2008-10-06T22:37:00.003+04:00

First of all I’d like to make some apologies:

1) I apologise that the blog looks so dull. Eventually I will get round to uploading some photos, but the internet in the apartment is so unbelievably slow, that it’s all I can do just to upload the words, let alone the photos! So once I get myself to an internet cafe it will be done!
2) I apologise for the infrequency of the blogs. This is purely my own fault. Having spent all day staring at a computer screen, it’s usually the last thing I want to do when I get home. I hope the quality of the blogs make up for their quantity, however!

I’m a great believer in Karma. Cosmic energy, putting some Good into the universe, doing a Good Deed every day (yes, I was a Brownie)- call it what you will, but I think if you do Good Things, then the world has a way of helping you out.

I first came to this conclusion the first time I lived in Moscow. The gap here between the rich and poor is one of the biggest in the world, and can be pretty hard to stomach at times. I’m by no means on a good wage, but I’m much better off than the man I see begging every morning with no arms, or the old women who sleep in the underpasses. So when I returned this time, I thought that I would give my coins to the homeless and the hungry. No-one in Russia uses coins: we have a 10 rouble note (about 20p) so the coins, which go down from 10, 5, 2, and 1 rouble and 50, 20, 10, 5, and 1 kopeck (0.02p) are only ever used in supermarkets, when the checkout girl hands you a palm full of change that sits in your purse for a year.

So a couple of times a week, when I’ve gathered a suitable amount of shrapnel, I empty it into one of the pots of the beggars on the way to work. It probably amounts to less than 50p but that’s enough for these people to buy a loaf of bread, or a hot drink, whereas it’s the money I save by trying not to eat chocolate every day. Win-win for everyone!

So, what does this have to do with Karma I hear you ask? Well, for purely selfish reasons I hoped Karma might repay me. I have a terrible love life. Bridget Jones, eat your heart out. If you’re looking for someone unlucky in love, then look no further as Cupid’s arrow very definitely missed me! But a couple of weeks ago I met a rather handsome English/PE teacher from the UK, who took my number and I was quite hoping he’d call. Maybe my luck with the not-so-fairer sex was about to change!

Or maybe not. He never called and I felt Karma had let me down. What had I done wrong? Maybe it was that by doing Good Things I was starting to get a warm glow inside and I don’t think Karma works if you’re doing it for your own gratification.

Or maybe Karma had its own way of repaying me. On Thursday, I sent off to a friend’s birthday drinks, gift in hand, promising all to stay for one or two. Whilst there, I was able to meet lots of lovely new people, and three hours (and several margaritas ) later I left with the chance of some freelance journalism work, the possibility of some freelance translating work, the number of a girl looking for a new flatmate and the phone numbers of a couple of handsome rugby players!

Whether anything of this freelance work comes about, or the boys actually call, it’s good to know that my Good Deeds are having a positive effect in the universe!

С днём Переводчиков!

2008-09-30T20:43:00.002+04:00

Today is Translator's Day in Russia.

So whilst i have no man of my own meeting me at the Metro station, with a flower in celebration, i would at least like to say HAPPY TRANSLATOR'S DAY, to all my fellow translators and interpreters!

How will i celebrate? As it's a school night, i intend on watching a film and eating the tub of Kit Kat ice-cream i found in the supermarket.

It's a good life.

A Lesson in Antagonism

2008-09-28T11:02:00.003+04:00

The Moscow rush hour is not a pleasant thing. More people use the Metro here than the Paris Metro and London Underground combined. It’s hot, smelly and usually you have to stand far too close to someone than socially acceptable. So you would think the metro staff would try to make the experience as easy as possible, right?

Well, no. This is of course Russia, where nobody is happy without some sort of hardship to complain about. At the station where I have to change lines there are three escalators, of which two usually go up, and one goes down. Simple! Then during the evening rush hour they are reversed, as people head out of the centre, into the suburbs. However, on Thursday morning, all three escalators were going up! Great for me, as it was the direction I was heading in, but not for the hundreds of people waiting at the top of the escalators, with no way of getting down.

Strange... And I can't imagine to be very conducive to a happy commute!

Working Surprises, part 2

2008-09-24T20:29:00.006+04:00

I feel i should prologue this blog with a note about translating for the uninitiated. The golden rule is: translate what they mean, not what they say. There should be no grammatical errors or bad English in our translations. But what to do in a situation like this?!

Yesterday i was given a text to translate into English: it was a reference for a student leaving university. And i quote:

"[the student] entered the Academy on February 30, 2001"

These socialists are amazing! As well as being the last dictatorship in Europe, Belarus appears to run to it's own calendar!

I've got to get to Minsk...

Talking to Women 101

2008-09-20T14:27:00.004+04:00

Last night i went to the pub where i spent a lot of time as a student, to catch up with some old friends i haven't seen since i was last in Moscow.

One friend i was particularly looking forward to seeing again. In he walked around midnight, and i have to admit i didn't recognise him at first! He's grown a beard and acquired a rather fetching pair of glasses since i was last here.

But he spotted me, and came through the packed bar to say hello and give me a big bear hug.

"Wow! It's been so long! How are you?! You're looking gorgeous! Really, you're looking great!"

Obviously i blushed, told him i was looking nothing of the sort, returned the compliment etc. etc. So far, he was doing well. Passing with flying colours. I let him go off and say hello to some of the other hundreds of people in the bar: Russia doesn't seem to put limits on the number of people that can drink in any one bar!

A little later i went back to the bar to order a drink. He came over and this is unfortunately where he failed- like hitting another car as you drive into the test centre at the end of your driving test.

"Honestly, you're looking so gorgeous. So much prettier than on your Facebook photos"

I stop at this point: "What do you mean 'on my Facebook photos'?! What's wrong with my photos?! I look the same as i do now!"

He starts looking a little bit sheepish: "You know what i mean. I looked at all your pictures online. You look much better in real life. Your photos just aren't that great."

Rule number 1: A woman can always spot a back-handed compliment.

Hmmm... He was ever so slightly under the influence, so maybe this time i'll forgive him. But i think a refresher course wouldn't go amiss!

The Magic of the Russian Central Heating System

2008-09-20T14:19:00.004+04:00

My flatmate and i noticed something rather odd about our apartment this week: there are no radiators... anywhere! We began to panic a little. Surely our company hasn't rented us an apartment, probably the only one in the whole of Moscow, without central heating? What happens when the temperature hits -20c? One friend suggested that maybe we had underfloor heating, a suggestion that i found highly amusing! In our 70s built Soviet tower block?! Yeah... right...

So i did the only thing i could think of- i went to ask my boss why there were no radiators. What i wasn't expecting, was for her answer to be even more surprising! Apparently, in flats such as ours, the heating system is concealed within the walls. So our heat will come through the walls. Hmmm... Call me a sceptic but i'm not so sure i believe that. This is coming from a nation, that believes if a woman sits on something cold (like a bench or stone wall) she wont be able to have children because her ovaries will freeze. Fact.

There's only one way to find out: once the temperature drops below a certain level for five consecutive days (usually in October) the State switches on the heating.
Then either my flat will become a lovely sauna full of heat, or i'll be using three duvets for the next six months!

Working Surprises

2008-09-20T14:07:00.005+04:00

This week was my first ever week as a full-time, proper working person. Scary! My first couple of days i was given pretty easy tasks to do, so i could learn the ropes: university degrees, transcripts etc. I've come to realise that translating isn't so much about the actual text (although of course, it's important to be accurate), it's more about following the orders of the clients, or keeping to the norms of the culture of the language you're translating into, for example English-language legal documents use very specific language, and certain banks expect all their documents to be in a certain font and size. Of course, this is something you only learn with experience- my reason for being here!

But then on Wednesday i had a bit of a surprise! A text was put on my desk.. a letter in Russian from a couple who had been on holiday in France, incorrectly received a 135euro fine and essentially were trying to be let off! But i had to translate it into French! Now, i haven't spoken French since i was 18 years old and doing my A-Levels. This was certainly a challenge! However i tried my best and although i've yet to have any feedback, i hope i did ok!

So if grappling with translation isn't hard enough, i'm now doing it between two languages, neither of which are my native tongue! Life is definitely interesting at times.

Classic Anecdote #1

2008-09-15T21:42:00.003+04:00

Having just sent an email around some of my friends, informing them of this blog, i was surprised to receive this response, almost immediately, from one individual who shall remain nameless.

"By [sic] the way, I [sic] also met a bird who worked for that media company your boyf did in Moscow but forgot his name and now I've forgotten her."

To which i replied:

"1) His name was ***** [I feel i should probably protect his identity.]
2) He wasn't my boyfriend
3) Excellent story!"

To which he replied:

"Oh sorry. Yeah the whole story had the air of futility didn't it?"

I think it's a classic anecdote, don't you?

Say what?!

2008-09-15T21:21:00.004+04:00

Scene: Hottest and sweatiest club in the world, tucked away down an alley and behind some wheelie bins. The type of place you only know about when you know someone. MM is enjoying a cocktail at the bar, accompanied by her exceedingly beautiful Russian friends, thus she is feeling rather more like a Moscow Mule than a Moscow Muse.
They are approached by a Mysterious Stranger

MS: "Excuse me, but are you from North Carolina?"
MM: "No," she answers in her very obvious English accent, "I'm from Britain."
MS: "You sound like you're from North Carolina."
MM: "Well i'm not."
MS: "Hahaha," Long pause... "So, what do you do in Moscow?"
MM: "I'm about to begin working as a translator."
MS: "Wow. You hardly meet any foreign translators over here! They're usually all Russians. So, do you speak Russian?" MM smiles awkwardly at the stupidity of this person, and then walks away.

Quite how someone works as a translator, without speaking the language from which they are translating, is a bit of a mystery to me. Maybe he knows some secret way, that i don't. Maybe he was just an idiot. Either way, i didn't hang around to find out.

Tales from a Soviet Kitchen

2008-09-14T18:01:00.000+04:00

So, I feel it’s imperative to say a few words about the apartment. The area I live in is called “Otradnoe” (Отрадное), in the North of Moscow and is extremely residential. Tower block after tower block fills the view from my balcony. This is to be expected: I’m paying 12,000roubles (approx. £290) per month, including bills. Moscow real estate is comparable with that of London. A nice studio flat (read: bedsit) near the centre is easily £1000 a month so I have got a bit of a bargain. Personally, I’d rather have a bit of an old-fashioned apartment, and still have money left over to buy food!

The flat can only be described as “Soviet-chic”. This means that there are bookshelves everywhere, rugs decorate the walls (apparently a sign of wealth), and wallpaper that I though stopped existing in the seventies! Most Soviet flats I’ve stayed in have been like this, and I now find it part of the charm... mostly. Whether I’ll still think that when I’m hung over, is a different matter! The kitchen doubles as a diner/ lounge-esque room... we do have a dining room, but it also has a bed in it, ready for a third person, who I’m told is arriving next week. Unlike other Soviet flats I’ve stayed in, this one does have several TVs, an iron, an ironing board and a washing machine, even if it is very basic. Although I never thought that I’d be sleeping in a single bed again at the age of 22. Most upsetting.

At the forefront of political correctness

2008-09-14T17:59:00.000+04:00

My flight out here was very eventful. First of all, I had a minor breakdown at check-in at Leeds Bradford airport. This was due to the fact that despite already phoning BMI twice to ensure I could take two bags into the cabin, when I arrived, I was informed I could only take one. Typical. My advice: don’t trust BMI and their customer service helpline. This was swiftly followed by the check-in lady informing me I would have to pay £133 excess baggage, thus eliminating the saving I had made by not flying with BA. I won’t be making that mistake again!

So, after borrowing even more money from my parents, I was on my way! Once I made my connection at London Heathrow I was put on a plane, where we sat for 45mins, before being told the engine was leaking! Never a good sign. My fellow passengers and I were shipped onto a bus, driven approximately 50metres across the tarmac and seated on the plane parked next to us. Eventually, we were off, landing in Moscow at 18.00 as opposed to the original 16.25.

However, my adventure didn’t stop there! On reaching Russian border control, it appeared that several planes had landed from China and East Asia, yet nobody was being passed through immigration control. My fellow Brits, and the passengers of a plane that had landed from The Netherlands all dutifully took their place in the queue... there we waited...and waited, until a rather scary looking lady in the passport control service came over and told us all to go to a different passport control, usually reserved for residents of the CIS. (Commonwealth of Independent States- former Soviet countries such as Turkmenistan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan etc.) Interestingly, none of the Asian passengers were told to follow, and instead were left waiting at immigration control. Blatant discrimination in action here, folks.

After I whizzed through passport control in around 2mins, I headed over to baggage reclaim, where surprise, surprise, one of my bags hadn’t arrived! Russia, being as it is, I had to fill out five forms, have them stamped by customs, then take them back to the second person I spoke to before I could finally leave the airport. My poor driver, sent by my employer to collect me, had been waiting at the gate for three hours. There were simply no words that I could use, that would adequately apologise for that kind of behaviour! It also meant we hit rush hour on the MKAD. Two hours later I finally arrived at my apartment, looking like a drowned rat, with no food and nothing to drink. It appears my year was not off to as good a start, as I had hoped...

Introductions, please

2008-09-14T17:38:00.000+04:00

Let me briefly introduce myself: I’m 22, quite tall, a brunette, GSOH (or so I’ve been told), eternally single, obsessed with all things espionage and Soviet, and in July I graduated with degree in Russian Studies with Central and East European Studies. This left me with a bit of a dilemma when it came to job hunting: did I stay in the UK and look for a well-paid job but that didn’t use the skills I’d spent four years developing, or did I run away to Russia and take a lousy-paid job as a translator but at least be able to put off growing up for a while longer? I’m sure it will come as no surprise to you that I chose the latter! As part of my degree I had to do my third year abroad, studying at a Russian university. I picked Moscow, where I had, quite simply, the greatest year of my life. So in a bid to recreate those heady days of drinking, clubbing and doing not a lot else, I accepted a job working in a small Russian company that deals with legal and real estate translation, so that whilst I may have to get a job, at least I can live in a city that knows how to have a good time.

Whilst I was on my year abroad I wrote a fortnightly column for a local newspaper, which tried to give an insight into life in Moscow from a 19-yr olds point of view. I had no intention of doing that again, however having being back in Moscow I have realised that there is just too much going on not to share it with the world! Hence, instead of writing for the paper, I’ve decide to blog instead, which means it will be an unedited no-holds-barred account of life here!

You have been warned...