Only holidays, no crises

For those of you who didn't know, Russia has a lot of national (or public) holidays.  This year, for the first time since coming to work here, I had all of them off! This includes the two 4-day weekends in a row for May holidays.  The bad news is that I caught the flu and was so sick that I ended up calling out on one of the days we DID work.  The good news is that in June we had another long weekend, and I was well so I took a little England trip.  The week after that was normal in terms of it being a 5-day workweek, but then I had visitors and got to show them Moscow (and hopefully leave a good impression...I think I succeeded.  It mostly involved eating, shopping, and selfies, so I don't see how it could've gone wrong)! Everyone who hasn't visited, step up your game.  It's been 3 years, the dollar is really strong, and I live in an amazing location.  

Then there are summer holidays, or summer vacation in American - I'm coming home for a few weeks this summer to swim, sun, shop, and stuff my face.  Please pencil me in.

In other news, there's no "deep" crisis, whatever that means.  So everyone can calm down.  Everything is casually at least twice as expensive because THERE IS NO CRISIS and everything is totally fine, in case you were wondering.

Lastly, the Guardian recently did a really well-written, interesting, and informative series about Moscow called Moscow week - I strongly urge everyone to check it out; most of what they say is really accurate and will give you a much better idea of what Moscow is actually like, in addition to maybe explaining a little why I like it here so much.    

Things have changed

A big change: The roommate and I moved to a new apartment! While Steve was in England getting a new passport, our old apartment sprung a major leak - the latest on a long list of things wrong with the crumbling housing. The landlady decided I was responsible for paying the plumbers, while Steve and I decided we'd had enough. In short: Wednesday there was a leak, Thursday we'd decided we were moving. Friday Steve sent me a list of places to check out and I made a call, Saturday I viewed a place. Saturday afternoon I started moving, Sunday evening I finished. It was a marathon. The place is much nicer, in the center, and about the same price (finally we benefit from the crisis!).

Other changes:
1. I'm 25 now! Cue quarter-life crisis.  Not really.
2. Almost every expat I know has either left or will leave before year's end.  This makes me quite sad.
3. I've now cooked over 65 different recipes successfully! I guess it's a solid hobby now. Come get fed.
4. It has finally stopped snowing, we can rejoice - and put away our winter coats.
5. I've been summoned for jury duty again. No, I still can't serve because no, I still don't live in Connecticut.

If you're thinking of visiting Russia from the US/Europe, now is the time. Your currency is strong, meaning things will be cheap - but it won't stay that way forever (fingers crossed, I need the ruble to perk back up!). Plus you'll have a free tour guide :)

New Year's in Kyrgyzstan (and then some)

As mentioned in my previous post, I spent New Year in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan - a former Soviet Socialist Republic in Central Asia (it's near Kazakhstan, of Borat fame). So first - why? Answer: I'd actually wanted to visit Kazakhstan after a student recommended it, but the flights to Kyrgyzstan were cheaper.  At any rate, I wanted to visit Central Asia, and this certainly qualified.  I wanted to get further from Europe to somewhere that not many Americans (or Westerners in general) often visit.

What was it like? Though I was in the capital, the city itself was quite small and uncrowded, with fewer shopping malls, bars, and restaurants than you might expect in a capital.  It was fairly warm during the day (around 4C/39F), but the temperatures dropped drastically once night fell (-4C/24F).  Nearly everyone I met was really friendly, and people in general seemed quite happy.  The architecture is overwhelmingly still very Soviet, since the country is rather poor and doesn't yet have the funds for large construction projects.  The food was amazing - lots of noodles with fried meat and vegetables, dumplings, soups, and horse meat! There was also a fermented horse milk drink that I tried and didn't hate.  Everyone in Bishkek seemed to speak fluent Kyrgyz and Russian, and all of the store and street signs were in both languages as well.

What did I do? On New Year's Eve I went to the main square, where people were buying explosives on the side of the road and lighting them in large crowds of people (lots of families, in fact!) as the police looked on.  There was a concert, there were fireworks, the president's speech was broadcast in Kyrgyz and Russian, and there were taxidermied bears and lions, in addition to people dressed as Santa Claus, Tom from Tom and Jerry, sheep (because for some reason, in Russia and former Soviet countries, they use the animals from Chinese New Year), and rams.  There were bunnies, doves, and big displays you could have your picture taken with.  After midnight I went back to the hotel (because nearly every single thing in the city was closed; I did not anticipate that) and had a mini celebration that the hotel staff invited all of the guests to.

The next day, the entire city was still pretty much shut down, so I walked around a run down amusement park and ate some of the aforementioned delicious food.  During the rest of the trip I managed to visit the state department store (TSUM, which was essentially just a lot of random stalls selling even more random items; Moscow TSUM, on the other hand, is stocked with luxury brands), the State Historical Museum (the most Soviet thing in the city, except for maybe the giant Lenin statue out back), a museum dedicated to Mikhail Frunze (who won the Eastern front for the red Army pretty much single handedly), visited bazaars, saw the circus, the eternal flame, and travelled to the mountains to eat dinner in a yurt, among other things.

For me, Bishkek had two major benefits: the first being that it was completely different from anything I'd ever experienced, and the second that because it's in Central Asia, the crisis didn't affect prices much.

After getting back I spent a lot of time trying new recipes and relaxing.  I also went to see the Phantom of the Opera, which I highly recommend if you get the chance to see it!

Work is now back in full swing, but I'll think of a new adventure soon enough.   

Life on the edge

If you're not already aware (ie if you don't read the news ever), the ruble and the Russian economy are going through tough times - the word "crisis" has accurately been used to describe the situation.  To give a brief summary, the ruble is at its lowest rate against the dollar in its history, inflation is rising in Russia, companies are unable to pay back their foreign debt (held largely in dollars), and it's only getting worse.

Why? Partially because of Western sanctions against Russia for its actions in the Ukraine.  Another significant cause is the huge drop in oil prices - while this seems like a good thing because it results in cheaper gas prices for those of you back in the States, it's terrible for oil exporting countries, most of whom rely on the price of crude oil being somewhere around $100 a barrel (to give a rough average) to break even.  It's now fallen to around $60 a barrel and shows no immediate signs of rising.  

What does this mean in real terms, for people living in Russia? Because of inflation, it means that the prices of everything from food to medicines to clothing and electronics have gone up.  To give a real example, I bought medication today for 766 rubles that only 28 days ago cost 750.  Grocery bills are quietly going up 50, 100, 150 rubles more than you expect based on what you're used to paying.  

Because of sanctions, a lot of food items are simply not available.  The most noticable for me is imported cheese, as I find Russian produced cheeses to be fairly bland and plastic-y, and therefore lived on English cheddar and Italian mozzarella. Other items have gone the same route and will continue to do so as existing stock is sold.  

Because of the combined effects, going on vacation to either the US or Europe is simply no longer an option for many people, as the exchange rate vastly decreases their purchasing power.  When I first arrived in Russia two and a half years ago, the rate was around 30 rubles to the dollar; now it's around 70.  Luckily I planned my New Year's trip to Bishkek, so it won't be as bad.

While people are certainly worried, some are also finding some humor in the current situation. 

Unfortunately, things aren't slated to get better any time soon, but for the time being there's not much else to do besides sit, watch, and hope for the best.