Not much ado about nothing

29 November, 2012

Well, here we are at the end of week 2 in Russia.  Really not much is happening so I will catch you up real quick and then share some observations.

Work - I have been in touch with both paces where I will probably work.  One place is working to secure my work visa - but this is Russia, so it is moving glacially.  I will meet with someone at the other place next week.  I have a rough outline of what I might be doing, but everything is rather vague and nebulous right now. I will just keep moving forward as best I can.  

http://www.flickr.com/photos/skemsley/7957760590/

Live - As I wrote, I have been living at my friends house about an hours drive outside the city.  It's not too much of a problem as Ksenia, my hostess works every day in the city, and Alexander (Sasha) also works most days so I can come in whenever I want with them, but the timing depends on their schedule.  The good news is that I think/hope I found a really nice apartment in a good location for a good price. I don't want to count my chickens or jinx anything, so I won't say to much until I actually move in.  It is still being fixed up so it won't be ready for about 3 weeks (or however long a time that means in Russia).

So I spend my time studying Russian on my own, reading, studying aikido with Sasha and working on improving my skills at web design while I wait for some of this to sort itself out.

Here's some pics I took of the house where I am staying for the moment:

 

And here are some pics I took while taking walks in the nearby countryside:

Weather - So, it had been above freezing for quite a while.  Kinda cold and muddy, rather than frozen tundra.  Most of the days were in the 5-7 degree range. That's really not that bad.  I was not wearing my down jacket and even bought some regular shoes because my boots were actually too warm.  A few days ago we had the first snow overnight, but it was not that cold.  Yesterday, it got real (as in WTF was I thinking?  I could be home in San Rafel in a nice 15 degree rainstorm).  The temp dropped 14 degrees to -7 (of course while I was out without my boots or super warm parka) and the snow started falling (pretty gently, though).  It still wasn't too bad and I wasn't outside for all that much time, but we will see how i feel about long walks in the stuff.



Some little things: It is not exactly like California as far as opportunities to get outside and get some exercise, but I am doing my best.  I have been walking around out here whenever possible.  Sasha and I spent some hours shoveling and moving some rocks to make a walking path along the muddy driveway in the picture of the house above.  When I go to the city I usually walk a fair amount.  Especially if I travel by metro, which I do often enough to visit a friend for lunch or talk to one of the prospective job people.  You walk a lot to change trains and then you walk to wherever you are going (as it is not usually right at a metro station.  The metro was also designed to be a bomb shelter.  So it is very deep underground.  The escalator rides up and down are just sooooo long.  I will try to take a picture, but I don't usually carry my nice camera around the city and I doubt my cell phone will capture it.  Never mind.  This is the internet.  Here are 2 sites with pics and if you want to waste 3 minutes of your day, an actual video:

A pic

Some one else's blog with a metro entry

Video

So anyway, I had this idea that I would walk up and down all these escalators as I traveled around the city.  I started doing this and was quite satisfied with the idea (I was even going to call it the St. Petersburg stair master) until I was foiled by yet another quirk of Russian society.  Apparently, the first couple times I tried this, I just did it in very low traffic stations.  In most places with moving pathways of this sort, people who want to stand still stay to one side while leaving the other side open to people who want to walk.  Well Russians do this too ... on the way down, but not on the way up.  Now sometimes it is just too crowded and people need to get on as fast as possible, I get that.  I don't expect this to work in rush hour, but unless there just aren't enough people to block me, I always find people spread out on both sides blocking my way, even if they don't need to be.  I guess they can just not imagine someone walking up for no reason.  Oh well, I still do it as much as I can.

Ok, this got long.  I guess you only get the one story.

This Blog

Hopefully, more interesting things will happen and my writing will improve with practice (like my swimming did).  Otherwise, I fear I might cut my readership in half (down to 2:).  Actually, I don't expect that many people will be interested in reading this, but I do want to reach anybody who is.  I tried to give this blog address to anybody who is interested, but if you know a friend or relative who would want to read this drivel for some reason (the best one I can think of is to say to yourself "damn!  I'm glad I'm not in the cold dark place") please make sure they know about it in case I failed to reach them somehow.

I also would be happy to write more (or maybe less) of what anyone is interested in, so email me (or write it in the comments if you want everyone to know your request) and I will try to expound upon your topic of interest.  I am happy to make this a bit of a conversation with everyone.

Lastly, if you have not done it, I encourage you to sign up for the email notifications for when I publish new posts.  I have no regular schedule in mind and that is the best way to know what is going on.

Russia, Whats not to love?

Welcome

I assume you already know why you are here.  In case you don't, or came to the wrong place.  This my blog about my experiences traveling to Russia to teach English.  It is also a bit about my attempt to move my life forward out of a rut I have been in for years.

I am one of those people with high ability, but relatively low motivation, although when I get motivated, things get done.  It was time to get something done.  That is all the "about me" you are going to get, for the moment.  More details will be added if they become relevant.  Well, here goes.

(Oh wait, one more thing.  This is my blog.  It will reflect my thoughts.  That means you will probably find it offensive at some point or other.  Too bad.  You were warned.  Try to keep your offended comments respectful ;)

November 22, 2012
I have now been here a week.  I am starting to get used to things.  I have visited my two potential employers (there are more if they fall through) and begun the process of arranging work.  (To those going WTF?:  for various reasons, I came here on a tourist visa. I will arrange a work visa while I am here so I can not just jump right in, but it gives me a chance to get acclimated and try to learn some Russian.

I arrived on Thursday the 15th.  I was met at the airport by Sasha (a Russian nickname for either Alexander or Alexandra - and I know one of each, both of whom are called Sasha, so that will probably become confusing for you at some point).  I am staying with Sasha and his wife Ksenia until I arrange a place to stay.  They live in the country side about an hour's drive outside the city.  Both of them work in the city, so it is easy for me to get there on any weekday, but I have to travel on their schedule.

Anyway, Sasha's birthday was Friday, so the 3 of us stayed up until midnight and drank some champagne to celebrate.  Then, on Friday night they had a party with many of their friends and we drank more champagne, rum (that I brought to contribute), cognac, and, of course, vodka.  Then on Saturday, there was another, smaller gathering.  So I basically partied and drank for my first 3 days here.

After that began day to day life of traveling to the city, meeting friends and making work contacts.  I have been here to Saint Petersburg 3 times before so I am comfortable getting around using the metro system, but I don't really like to take buses alone, yet.  The numbers are the same as English, but I don't really read Russian quickly enough to feel really certain about any particular bus.  Fortunately, the metro goes most places I need to be at the moment.  I have also been taking Aikido classes again, since Sasha is an Aikido instructor.  For those who don't know, my father is also an Aikido instructor, so I studied some as a child.  It is actually quite interesting, as I am studying a different branch of Aikido than I leaned before.

In other words, basically nothing has happened, yet, but I am getting settled in and am putting wheels in motion for the future.

Oh, I am sure you want to hear about the weather.  It has been pretty warm since I've been here.  The daytime temperatures have been as high as 8 (all temperatures will be given in celsius.  deal with it) and I have not needed my hat a lot of the time (but happy for it at night).  I have not needed my giant gonzo snow jacket and I even had to buy some lighter shoes because the boots I bought (which are awesome) were too warm. I am assured, that I will need everything warm that I brought in not too long, but for the moment it's mostly like a really cold night in San Francisco. It was raining on the day I arrived, but since then it has mostly just been grey.  And, of course it doesn't really get light until about 10:30AM and gets dark again around 5PM (and the days are still getting shorter).  So far this had not bothered me.  Again, I have been assured that I will be light starved before the winter is over.

So here is the first thing I want to share about Russia, well about Russians, really.  On the street they seem incredibly rude.  And they are.  They can't even seem to figure out that storming the metro door the moment it opens will only result in chaos as the people inside need to exit first so instead the two crowds kind of weave through each other.  They bump into you and don't say anything.  They don't acknowledge you when you are waiting at their counter (assertiveness is very important here!) and often actively ignore you.  BUT if you go to their home, they are incredibly welcoming and make sure every need that they can fulfill, they do.  I am really getting to like that part and I hope I can learn to be as good a host as any Russian.