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.  

Black Fog

Yesterday, there was apparently a thick, black smoke in some parts of Moscow.  I say "apparently" because I luckily didn't encounter it, despite being in the center of Moscow for work and outside quite a bit.  It was also absent from where I live in the north-west of the city, so hopefully it's cleared up soon! Not before the State Department sent out an emergency email warning to all US citizens registered with the embassy saying we should stay indoors.

In other, lesser news, we celebrated Halloween last week with painted faces and good times; the holiday is becoming more popular in Moscow, at least among my age group.  My 12 year old student assured me that the day isn't observed in any of the state schools, so I decided it would be appropriate to spend a portion of our lesson watching Hocus Pocus.  

That's all I have for now, just a brief update. Also, in case you missed it, Putin being super suave in China. 

The summer, and then not the summer

I spent the first half of the summer finishing out my employment at EF Mayakovskaya, and with it my time teaching children for the foreseeable future. I'm glad to have had the experience, but it's not for me right now.  Before heading back to the US, I took a weekend trip to Warsaw to visit my friend Pawel and his family.  They were the best hosts I could ever have asked for, with Pawel's parents feeding us delicious (and huge amounts of) home-cooked food for every meal, and Pawel himself showing me pretty much everything there was to see in the city - the Old Town, New Town, parks and palaces, forests, a very new castle, and even a pit stop for shopping and a mad souvenir hunt. Warsaw is much smaller than Moscow, and most buildings are new - they were reconstructed after the war, but kept as close to their original style as possible. In short, I loved Warsaw and it was a welcome break from Moscow.   

The following weekend, I flew back to the US for the next month, where I was met with friends, family, and familiar food.  I spent as much time as possible at the beach, got a fair bit of shopping in, and spent a lot of time driving to and from seeing people.  I was able to help my dad out with doctor's appointments after his heart surgery the first week I was back, and I'm happy to say he's been recovering well and quickly.  Another thing I got to do at home was go to and camp at a 4 day music festival by the beach in my city called The Gathering of the Vibes.  I camped with a big group of friends, and in order to gain free entry I worked with another friend selling tickets in the parking garage for a day.  Not bad at all! I didn't get to spend a single day on my own during my vacation, but it was a lot of fun and flew by rather quickly. 

When I got back to Moscow, I started my new job teaching English to EF's corporate clients.  It requires quite a bit of commuting every day, but I really love it so far.  I've had a few stints of being ill and also found out I have a new lentil allergy, but I've also gotten out to see friends and enjoy some of our parks.  I even rowed a boat a few weeks ago before the cold set in! And despite what you may be hearing in the news, there is plenty of food on the shelves, and it has not decreased in quality.  Though cheddar cheese has all but disappeared, leaving me deeply distraught. 

It's been said that without regularity, your writing suffers, so hopefully this hasn't been too painful to read.  That's my news from Moscow for now! 

Notes from Russia

Notes from Russia! I made a nice little excursion to Vladimir over Women's Day weekend, and it was lovely - beautiful old things, minus the hustle and bustle of Moscow.  Also back in March I celebrated my birthday for nearly a week with dinners, walks, and happy hours.  

This summer I'll be coming home for about a month to soak up some sun, sand, and fresh seafood; tickets have already been purchased! Please prepare to feed me. 

Despite the situation in Ukraine heating up and the west placing sanctions on Russia, nothing has changed on the ground here.  Although I did find some really great sweet and sour sauce in the store, so that was pretty groundbreaking.  

In other news, my landlady callously (and rather unfairly given that we live at the last stop on the metro line and a 15min walk from the station) raised our rent, so we're hoping to move after summer vacation - hopefully closer to the center.  

Our academic year at school is nearly finished, which is exciting though also sad as many friends have left or are planning to leave Moscow.  Warm farewells and hugs to everyone as they begin new journeys, which goes for those of you back at home and scattered across the globe as well.  As for me, I'll be here...for now.  

An overdue synopsis

I have no excuses for my prolonged absence, so I'll just jump into a brief update since...what, October?
Thanksgiving was spent the same as last year's - diner dinner on the day of in a large group, followed by a Saturday potluck with a slightly smaller group.  Christmas was spent working, and New Year was spent in the north of England with friends.

Volgograd got bombed, but Moscow is literally closer to Poland than to Volgograd, so we were just fine here.  The Sochi Olympics have come and gone, wrapping up in a few weeks with the end of the Paralympic Games.  My friend Nic came for a visit after volunteering on the alpine track, and we watched the closing ceremony with a nice Williams representation.  Speaking of the Olympics, I'd like to note that they were incredibly well executed, especially taking into consideration that everything had to be built from scratch, unlike several previous sites.  Was it perfect? No.  Was it remarkable, to say the least? A resounding yes.

And now for the biggest news item: the current situation in Ukraine.  I think this is a nice summary of what's been happening since late December (for those of you who don't feel like reading in depth articles from legitimate news sources).  Things have carried on as usual here in Moscow, though people are starting to discuss it more and more.  This is also a nice piece on what's currently happening.  Interestingly enough, the only people I really hear talking about it at all are expats...I supposed it makes sense in some ways, since the ruble's rapid decline is making our money worth a lot less and our salaries suddenly much lower in real terms (since we'll need to exchange those rubles for dollars/pounds/etc at some point, and the exchange rate is increasingly against our favor).  Everyone is (obviously) also really hoping war doesn't suddenly break out, but for your peace of mind I will say that I'm registered with the embassy, I have the embassy's number saved in my phone, and my flatmate and I have an emergency plan just in case.  

In less interesting and less exciting news, the state of CT is being a real pain as they simultaneously inform me of my upcoming license expiration and summon me for jury duty...sorry, I won't be able to attend.  I'm busy being an expat in Russia, which had me ice skating, eating blini, and burning effigies for Maslenitsa today.

Back in the (former) USSR

The nicest part about getting back to my room was that my subletter, Ira, had washed all of the linens so that I didn't have to do it.  The day after arriving in Moscow, I had to go into EF for training and then the rest of the week for oral placement testing (OPT), demo lessons, and more training.  It was a rough week, as I was still jetlagged for all of it.  Classes officially started on September 3rd this year, and I have some comments about year two of teaching.  

This year has already been going a lot more smoothly than the last in terms of the classroom, and this is even with my new class of 4 year olds.  It was really nice to walk into a classroom of familiar faces, and even nicer when they were happy to see me as well and said they'd been waiting all summer to practice their English with me.  Even with classes completely filled with new faces, I still felt much more at ease because I know exactly how the courses work, what the exam schedules are, and generally how to be at the head of the classroom. 

Work aside, it's also really nice to be back in Moscow.  My Russian was a train wreck when I first returned (still better than September 2012, but...not good) but has already returned to its previous level, I'm already settled in with my apartment, I already have friends, and now I get to focus on seeing the people I love and discovering new things about the city.  People have asked me how I feel about Russia after going back to America, and while I loved being home, I also really enjoy being here.  A lot of stuff doesn't make sense to anyone (example: I went to the shop for apple juice.  A 2 liter box of the same brand with the same expiration date was cheaper than a 1 liter box.  Just because), but that's part of its charm in my opinion.  So, I'm going to keep on keeping on with my Russian adventure and continue my semi-regular updates in the meantime.