Stray dogs

There are stray dogs here every where in Moscow. I feel pretty bad for them sometimes as its beginning to get quite cold. Some are fairly clean and I just want to go up to them give them a big hug and pet them to let them know someone cares - much like the first time I went to Guinea. I did think about it though for about 10 seconds and realized that they might bite me and I could end up with rabies in Russia - not something that I think would be a very good idea.

These dogs are crazy though - the move in packs sometimes, and sometimes are alone. Some are always in the same place, same time everyday. Some like to hang out at metro stations, and some apparently even take the metro - not sure where they would be going but they are more alert than the drunk guys. I do wonder how they get through that metro gate though?- maybe they know to jump over at the correct height while passing through?

Anyway, I just thought it was interesting and thought a few people might find it funny, particularly the fact that they take the metro.

Interesting observations

I'm going to keep a list of interesting observations, in no particular order. Just remember what number was there the last time you looked and you can begin reading from that point again. I've stolen this idea from Nasty's blog as it seemed like a pretty good idea. If you want to check his out its at: http://2yearsinkiwiland.blogspot.com/

I mean no harm by any of these remarks. If I offend anyone in anyway I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. I'm just being my honest self. I actually really love this place and all of the people here.

1. The bank line: Russians are not typically good at waiting in line. At the bank there are always people standing around and presumably they ask each other who's next in line when someone new comes in. Usually this moves me back another person.

2. Lines in other places: There's a lot of place holding. At a cafe someone may hold the spot in line for friends, or at the supermarket friends will stand in multiple lines and then all congregate at the person who got to the register first.

3. The supermarket checkout: This is always chaos. You have to bag everything yourself, which typically shouldn't be a problem but it is. For some reason no one starts bagging their stuff until after they pay. I try to bag while my stuff is being scanned and I strategically shop and place my groceries on the belt so that they are pre-grouped for bagging but I can never get to bag until the person before me is done doing so because they take up so much damn space doing whatever they are doing. After that person is done bagging I can begin, but then I have to pay, and they will never just take 1,000 roubles. They always ask if I have a frequent shopping card or want smaller bills and coins. After getting the payment I have to bag as quick as I can before the next person's items start ending up in my pile.

4. Supermarket: When buying fruits/vegetables you have to get the items weighed in the produce section where they put the price on it. This is a great idea because it speeds up the final checkout line. The effect on 3 above is limited though.

5. Walking straight: People generally do not walk straight here. I feel like when I'm walking, especially behind someone carrying bags in each arm, that I'm a NASCAR driver and they are weaving to keep me from passing. The problem is they don't realize they are doing it - completely unbelievable.

6. British English: I realise that at one point we Americans were of the British flavour and we can thank their naval programme for moving people to America - but come on. I wish they would all do me a favour and start utilising the "Z" and drop the "U." (This does bother me, but I felt obligated to point out the short-comings of other cultures as well rather than purely pointing out flaws in Russia.)

7. Metro: The metro is awesome. I don't know how I will ever assimilate back into a society without a metro.

8. Russian Girls: They are hot. In Pittsburgh I would say that less than 10% of females are attractive (sorry to offend the other 90%). In Moscow it's closer to 20%. Within PwC Moscow it may be more than 30%.

9. Russian girls: They are still girls so the saying still applies, "Women - can't live with them, can't shoot them!"

10. Golf is expensive here: There's only one course I know of in the Moscow area, the Moscow Country Club and I understand it's approximately $300-400 per round to play. I won't be golfing while living here.

11. SIM cards: When will the States get with the program? They have them in Western Europe, Russia and even Guinea and China.

12. Business trips: When I go on a "business trip" (as opposed to "out of town") for work I have to take a paper which the client must sign and stamp a few times to prove that I actually went on a "business trip" for work. In addition I have to turn in all boarding passes and airline paper tickets.

13. Expense reports: Similar to 12, there's a lot of paperwork to fill out for an expense report - three forms actually and every receipt must be turned in with it.

14. Gypsy cabs: I can hold my hand out on just about any street and a car will pull up to me. I just have to offer a price and name a metro station that is close to where I want to go and then negotiate a price if my original offer wasn't good enough. I often just hold out 200 roubles to make things easy.

15. Travel time: It takes 30 minutes to get anywhere in this city. Minimum.

16. Flying: People clap when the plane lands. Bizarre.

17. Language: I'm not going to be a hypocrite - I need to learn Russian just as much as any immigrant to the USA needs to learn English.

18. Beer: Beer is often cheaper than water. The beer is good.

19. Drainage: With all of the brilliant engineers educated in Russia it blows my mind that not one person considered installing some type of drainage system within the city to reduce the amount of puddles when it rains. It rains a lot here. I can only imagine these puddles when it actually gets cold in Moscow and they begin to freeze.

The Metro

The metro is the best way to get around town as Moscow has one of the best systems in the world. There are 12 metro lines and 177 stops throughout the city. Most of the stops in town are very far below the ground - taking the escalator down takes a couple minutes and they seem to be deeper than 60 meters in many location - there are a few places where the trains go above ground but I stick to the center of the city mostly so it's not too bad. Many of the stops are decorated with murals, statues, stained glass, marble - it's really nice. The trains come often too - between 1-2 minutes most of the time and there are times where it take a bit longer but I never feel like I'm waiting long.

There one metro line that goes in a circle around the downtown area and connect the other metro lines to each other, and there are additional intersections of the lines within this circle ring. In the morning I usually take the circle line and transfer to another line to get to work. I find that if I go in the back car that it is the least crowded because there is usually a drunk or two passed out, sometimes vomit in the area, which makes people pick other cars. Often they'll be sleeping on one of the benches with people keeping a safe distance but no one seems to mind really. In the US the police would throw you in the drunk tank, but this is Russia and it's actually encouraged to drink beer on the metro or walking around town. Just a fascinating place.

I find it annoying most days when I take the metro that people do not make room outside of the doors for people to get off the train first. So there's people going multiple ways, and often its so crowded that it is difficult to get off the train. Also, for some reason, about 2-3 days per week someone will ask me a question even though I'm listening to my iPod - I can usually answer this question 1 out of 3 tries - as long as they are only asking about the stop or which direction they need to go for a different line.

In the evening its so crowded that getting through the area where I have to scan my metro card that I'm usually sandwiched in between a couple hundred people who are all pushing forward, even if there is no where to go. I literally don't even need to lift my feet - I just slide forward with the push. If you do not scan your card when going through the gate little arms come out very quickly and will crack you right across the knees. I am always careful to make sure that I scan my card and it's accepted before I try to pass through because this city is not very accessible for handicapped individuals.

I've put in some pictures and descriptions below.

The metro map - it's not scale of how far things are from each other. In relation to the map I live at about 11 o'clock, between the green, brown, and grey - specifically between the Belorusskaya, Mayakovskaya, and Novoslobodskaya stops.

This is similar to conditions I've experienced in the evenings - it's brutal sometimes. Even on a Saturday afternoon it's crowded.

The escalators are so long. As rude as the people are here, they typically stand to the right so that people can walk on the left side of the escalator if they choose.

This is the inside of a metro station, typical traffic flow.

The Komsomolskaya metro stop is one of the most picturesque in Moscow - I'm not sure how someone was able to take this picture without a crowd but I liked it.
The Mayakovskaya metro stop which is less than a 10 minute walk from me - it's pretty nice too.

Home Gym

The gyms in Moscow are pretty expensive (some a couple hundred per month) and there aren't too many of them. It also takes about 30 minutes to get anywhere in Moscow because I have to first walk to the Metro, take it a few stops, and then walk from the Metro. I thought it would be best to have my own little gym at my apartment so I bought PowerBlock dumbbells in Pittsburgh which go from 5-90 lbs., a bench, a mat to protect the floors, and a pull-up bar - this stuff all came over in my shipment near the beginning of the month. I've included some pictures of my stuff below, and some action shots because I am a meat head at times and I thought that some of you may appreciate them (likely just Mikey-Mac), but this is my blog and I can put what I want on it.

New TV!

I bought a nice flat screen that I can hook my computer up to as a second monitor in order to watch Pittsburgh sports through my Slingbox. Isn't technology a wonderful thing?I can use the computer and watch TV at the same time with the dual monitor set up, it's really slick. The sound even comes from the TV and not the computer. I'll have to get a better TV stand, but buying the 32" TV in Russia was splurge enough for this month.

If you aren't aware of what Slingbox is I zoomed in on the TV so you can see what it looks like. I have the same Comcast remote from home that I use on the monitor. There's hardware attached to a cable box at my parent's house in Pittsburgh, and it broadcasts through an internet connection there that I can log into remotely from anywhere in the world with an internet connection and the Slingbox software on the computer, blackberry, or cellphone. Without this I never would have been able to leave Pittsburgh. I can be a yinzer anywhere now.

Ufa

The same week I was in Kazan I travelled to Ufa to visit another team of mine out in the field. My time here was much more exciting as the client was really friendly and the team was from Moscow so I got to spend more time with others. Ufa is a city of about 1 million people as well and there's some traffic here. Ufa is the capital of the Republic of Bashkortostan and the people here speak Bashkir in addition to Russian. Some Russians are much like Americans as far as language goes - they say, "Why would I learn Bashkir if they all speak Russian?" The irony of the hypocrisy is not lost on me that we Americans only learn English - sure, we should speak something else, but other cultures think the same way.

The first night in Ufa I met the team for dinner in the hotel and learned that horse meat is one of the national dishes in this region. I've never had horse so I thought I'd give it a try - it was quite good. I don't think I'll get it often, but if I'm in this neck of the woods again why not?

During the morning I had a meeting with the client and at the close of the meeting they offered to show me and a director from the Kazan office that came to Ufa with me the city. I wasn't sure what the protocol was, but the director said sure, and that we'd like to see the city during the day as it would probably be nicer to see then. The client arranged for us to take a two hour tour, and two people from the economics department joined us along with the translator we brought and a tour guide. A girl from the economics department spoke good English too and was really nice in sharing more info about Ufa. I had to go back to the office to take a phone call but after the call I had to go join the tourism crew for dinner.... at a seafood restaurant! I don't really eat seafood - I still to the basics of California rolls and maybe a few other things where I'll try it, but never order it for myself. I didn't have the option as it was already ordered - grilled shrimp and scallop appetizers and a salmon fillet for the main course. Both were delicious, and although I was hesitant at first, I had no choice since I was with the client and I had to eat whatever was in front of me.

Also interesting during this trip was that at the client site they had a private dining room for the executives of the company and a cafeteria downstairs. Everyday at two the client had food prepared for the team to eat in the private dining room - it was really nice. I didn't have to eat anything too crazy there fortunately.

I've included pictures and descriptions of some of my tourism below.

This monument above was to celebrate 450 years of existence for the city of Ufa. Unfortunately it was only ready for the 456th year anniversary as they had to level a church which was in the place for the monument (1950's communism/government imposed atheism), and then the monument wouldn't stand up properly, so they had to prepare the land around it and level a mound as well.

This guy on the horse saved the Bashkir people from some type of oppression, I'm sure I could Google it but I was just too lazy. On another note, look how handsome I am in a suit! - I get to wear one to work Monday-Thursday between September and the end of May and any time I'm at a client site.

Also, during my tour I learned that the university in Ufa is the only one in all of Russia which has a major in "bee-keeping." They love their honey here.

Kazan

I got to work in Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tartarstan for a few days. It's a beautiful city of about 1 million people but the traffic of 10 million people. (Moscow is a city of 10+ million and the traffic of 100 million people, just they way Russia is.) The people here speak Russian ant Tartar and this republic is a part of Russia. I found it interesting that this is an Islamic area but I didn't see anyone dressed at Islamic people traditionally do - maybe like Guinea there are "modern Muslims" here. I didn't too too much here as I met a team of people from PwC who lived and work in Kazan so they all had stuff to do at night. One night I met an expat there for dinner and walked around a bit, but no big dinners or sight seeing.


A picture of the Kazan Kremlin and the river:

A mosque within the walls of the Kazan Kremlin:
The "Stary Arbat" of Kazan. In Moscow there's a street called Stary Arbat which is a walking street, a famous place to visit. I'm not sure which was first, the one in Kazan or the one in Moscow.

No Heat...

Anyone who knows me well is aware of how I don't like to be hot. I often would turn the heat down very far in the winter, open windows, and other measures to ensure that I was not too hot. Some people would walk around bundled up in sweatshirts in my apartment but I would stick to shorts and t-shirt still.

I reached a new level here in Moscow though. The heat is controlled centrally by the government (surprise) and they turn it on and off at specific times during the year. As it's radiator heat I can't set the temperature in my apartment but I knew it was hot. I decided I would just turn off the radiators and get the heat from the other apartments in the building as that likely would have kept it above freezing which is warm enough for me to sleep.

This all seemed like a great idea, until I got a message from my landlord today to see if I did anything with the radiators in my apartment and if I wouldn't mind if she checked them out. Apparently by turning them off where I did I effectively shut off the heat to the apartments above and below me. I did this last week and she was out of town as well and there was some correspondence in the building asking people to check for this because there were complaints of no heat. Leave it to the only American in the building to shut off the heat...

I was told that to regulate the temperature I should just open the windows. This will seem like a great idea when it's in the 20's and I have my windows open, with the heat pumping away, wasting natural gas which is free for Russia and it's only leverage to bargain with the West.

Yakutsk (Siberia)

Yakutsk is considered to be the coldest city in the world. Built on permafrost it's got about 200,000 people, but it's in such a small area as it's all Soviet housing blocks so it was quite interesting to see. For more details on Yakutsk I found this website which is pretty interesting: http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/europe/yakutsk-journey-to-the-coldest-city-on-earth-771503.html

True to the name of the blog I arrived in Yakutsk, Russia on Monday morning. I flew 7 hours East of Moscow in coach with a six hour time zone difference. Upon landing in Yakutsk we got off the plane on the tarmac and had to shuffle across snow and ice to a bus which took us about 100 meters to the airport exit - there's no where to walk to the baggage claim. We found our driver at 6am in the pitch black and got to sit in an old Soviet van which looked like a VW Bus until the bags were transferred to the baggage claim which was a separate unheated building. There was only one door in and out of the baggage claim and everyone had to show their baggage coupon and compare it to the ticket on the bag in order to get out the same door people were trying to get in while only one person was performing this check - chaos of course.

The van then took us along ice covered roads at approximately 30 km/h to our hotel which is quite amazing, I never would have expected one this nice in the middle of nowhere Siberia but that is not the case at all. (http://www.alrosa-hotels.ru/en/hotels/poljarnay_zvezda/)

After the first day of work we went to a restaurant in another hotel which we were told has Yakutian national meals. On the menu I saw a meat platter which was noted to be a national dish - upon arrival it was cold pieces of meat, pretty much corned beef, salami, and jumbo - needless to say I wasn't too impressed with the national dish.

On the last day of the trip we went to a restaurant recommended at the hotel that would also be a cool place to spend a Friday night apparently. When we got there it had a steep cover charge according to my staff, and it wasn't worth it so we decided to go somewhere else. It was quite cold when we were waiting outside for our cab and it didn't seem as if it were coming so we got in a car with two guys in there twenties as they offered a ride. It seemed as it they were driving us somewhere shady to take our money. We tried to get out at a light but realized the doors were locked and the guys up front said that everything was OK and they were taking us where promised. I really had no idea, and didn't trust them, but it was also in single digits outside, so it wasn't as if I could have walked back to the hotel, I couldn't call another cab (don't speak Russian, or know the phone number), so we were pretty much stuck and hoped that the beer guzzling (while driving, almost like Guinea) driver took us where promised. Eventually we did arrive to a bowling complex, and got inside, ordered some food and beer and bowled a few games. I wouldn't argue that I "fit in" everywhere I go in Moscow, but certainly more-so than in Yakutsk as most people looked more Chinese than Europea although this should have been expected based on the location of the city.

I've included some pictures of Yakutsk below, I wouldn't recommend going for any tourist activities. I didn't take these pictures they are just pulled from the internet, but it's about what it looked like.

Moscow Zoo

I went to the Moscow Zoo one weekend to walk around as I didn’t have much to do on a Saturday morning. It’s a huge zoo right in the middle of town with apartment buildings surrounding it. There were lots of families walking around and I was certainly out of place but it was definitely interesting to be there. I was really surprised with some of the animals there such as squirrels and raccoons, and the fact that people found them fascinating. At home I could walk through Phillips Park near Carrick High School and see about 50 squirrels running all over the place, and there they were, in a cage at the zoo. The water wasn’t very clean in for the aqua exhibits, but I guess in the wild it doesn’t look like swimming pool water either. People seemed to have no problem feeding anything to the camels, even garbage from what I could gather. I have a few pictures included below but unfortunately it was difficult to get good ones.

Zoo entranceThe raccoon

Camels up close
Shocking, the lion was hiding somewhere...
Polar bear exhibit - I should see these in my backyard pretty soon

Training in Turkey

I got to spend a week in Antalya, Turkey for training at an all-inclusive resort on the Mediterranean. This training was the Technology and Entertainment group of PwC-Moscow (I work in Energy, Utilities & Mining) and also included former Soviet Union nations such as the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Georgia, etc. It was a great opportunity to meet people from all over the region and I made some new friends at this training, but most were expatriates – all expatriates seem to mix together wherever I go, whether in Guinea or Russia. This training could have been more effective if performed over three days in Moscow, but who’s going to complain about a trip to a beach resort at the end of September?

There were many interesting things to note at this training such as people wearing sandals, shorts, jeans, t-shirts to training. A partner at my table was playing solitaire on her iPhone while another partner was instructing a session. There was heavy drinking through all staff levels, up through partner, even on week nights at a club at the site (I witnessed someone pass out on a couch by the speakers). I did have a couple hangovers, and went swimming in the Mediterranean Sea a couple nights after the club, but was up every morning at 7 to eat breakfast by myself and check my emails and the news in our ever slumping economy.

One day at training there was a team building event in the afternoon where the dress code was “beach casual.” (Sorry guys – I forgot to take my camera to this.) It was unbelievable what people were wearing and no one in HR at the US Firm would have let this happen, and it was surely a sexual harassment lawsuit waiting to happen.

Anyway, enjoy some of the pictures below and the link to the hotel.

http://www.antalyaresorts.com/listingview.php?listingID=9

Me and some new friends at the club at the hotel.
There was a Pirates night on Friday night in which dressing up as a pirate was encouraged and it had a pirates theme - it was very bizarre. They had belly dancers (two of them were men) and other strange things going on.
I didn't want to dress like a pirate, but I did have some Pittsburgh Pirates gear in Moscow so I thought I'd be slick because technically I did dress up if any partners were keeping track.
One of the team building events was to try to cross this floating bridge in the pool. As you can see, Speedos are not frowned upon. (Again - I didn't take my camera, these pictures were taken by a girl.)
Tug of war in Speedos - there are girls in the background if you look closely.

A joust as part of the team building.

Unattractive women jousting - they were probably from Kazakhstan and not Moscow.

My Apartment

I got my apartment and have included the pictures below. This is in an excellent location as I have less than a 10 minute walk to three different metro stops and there is a nice sized park nearby for jogging in the summer (there's no spring or fall here apparently). Additionally there are two small grocery stores at the bottom of the building . Best of all, my landlord speaks english and will be my neighbor. I actually had to "interview" (it really was an interview, "tell me about yourself") for the apartment as she wanted to see if I were going to be a quiet neighbor or having parties - I definitely do not want to have any parties and clean up after other. I'll also have a cleaning lady coming every other week to clean my apartment and do my ironing for me since I'm not into ironing.



The entry way to my apartment.

The living room looks pink, it's really not, it's more like a red and that couch is a pull-out bed in case anyone would like to come visit. There's enough space to move the second chair into my bedroom to turn this into my weight room once my shipment gets here.

The kitchen stuff - stove/oven, dishwasher, cabinets and such.

Kitchen table which is expandable, a TV hooked up to Russian satellite TV - about 20 channels - I don't think I'll watch too much of that.

The wardrobe and dresser in my bedroom.

Bed and dresser.

That thing about the toilet is a water heater. In Moscow, at the end of every winter, during the thaw, in May, the central hot water is turned off for the pipes to be repaired and we are left to fend for ourselves - luckily I'll be prepared with my water heater.

I can do my laundry from the can! How about that? I always called it the office, now I'll be doing some work in there. Unfortunately there is no dryer here - I just have to let my clothes hang dry on a rack.

CSKA - Spartak Hockey Game

On Friday night I got to go to the CSKA Moscow - Spartak hockey game. Both teams are based in Moscow and there is a strong rivalry between the teams. CSKA (Central Sports Army) is the famous Russian team which played many teams from the NHL and includes hockey greats such as Igor Larionov and Viachelsav Fetisov who won Stanley Cups with Detroit in the 1990's after the fall of the Soviet Union. In the office on Thursday I met Andrey and we discussed hockey and checked the schedule and noticed we could go to this game on Friday. Andrey bought a few tickets Friday and invited another friend of his in the office, Sergey.

Andrey got us great tickets right on the glass behind the CSKA bench (seats are elevated for good viewing, 500 roubles each or approximately $20) and it was a great game. I'm not sure of the exact number of seats, but I would estimate about 5,000 as it was roughly the same size of the Erie Otters arena (I'll go to a hockey game anywhere). Unfortunately there were no nachos or beer at the game, and not even Vodka! The fans were very passionate throughout the game as there were sections for each set of fans - it almost felt like college football with the cheering and enthusiasm of the crowd, truly an awesome experience.

The level of hockey was impressive - I would put it between NHL and college hockey as there was a very good skill level but the game was not extremely physical. It was exciting to watch the game on the big sheet of ice and it allowed for a lot of scoring. CSKA held a 5-3 lead late in the third period but after some suspect calls by the officials in favor of CSKA the Spartak fans took exception and began throwing coins onto the ice which took some time to clean up - the officials were picking them up one at a time and people continued to throw them. After resuming play Spartak scored a couple of goals to tie it up and force overtime, and then a shoot-out. Spartak won 3-2 as it went to four shooters each but it was an awesome game to go to. Hopefully I'll be going to more in the future.

Me, Sergey and Andrey

The Russian national anthem before the game. Note that the flag being held by the girls in the center of the ice is that of the home team, Spartac, and not the Russian flag which was up in the rafters. Spartak was red, CSKA white.

Spartak skating around during warmups while the CSKA fans display their banners, apparently this soldier is killing a pig. I have no idea what this really means, but it is not good for the Spartak team which is skating around in front of it.

CSKA celebrating a goal, the CSKA fans in the background going crazy. Too bad I couldn't zoom in enough on the Spartak fans on the other side of the arena who were chanting "F*!& You CSKA" and showing their middle fingers in unison.
I had no choice but to root for CSKA as PwC sponsors them.

As you can see below, sportsmanship isn't just for the playoffs in Russia. Good game everyone!