Random things about Russia/Moscow

[schneefink]

Again, all of these are subjective. I'm not an expert, I'm just living in Moscow since September.

1. Russian trains are optimized for long distance travel. You can sleep surprisingly well, during the day you have a couch and a table, and they even have toilet paper.

2. Similarly, the Moscow Metro is also very good for falling asleep. This, however, is often inconvenient.

3. In Moscow they either have a very complicated system for when they remove the snow and sand the streets in winter, or it's random.

4. In some Russian cities it's completely normal not to have hot water for a few weeks in summer.

5. In Moscow you often see small stands selling hot corn on the streets.

6. A classic: There are thousands of different ways to prepare borscht, and since I've been here it hasn't tasted the same twice.

7. Porridge is common for breakfast, or blini, or other warm food.

8. But they do have proper black bread! Not as good and varied as in Austria, but still: proper black bread. A pleasant surprise.

9. It's very rare to see more than one star at night in Moscow.

10. When Russians talk about "skiing" (кататься на лыжах), they are often not talking about skiing on mountains, but cross-country skiing.

11. Russians are proud of their ability to endure the Russian winter, compared to foreigners. ("It's not cold today! Be happy it's not -30°!" I am.)

12. You can buy memorabilia of the Soviet time on every street corner, sometimes literally.

13. The Chinese zodiac signs are as important as the Western zodiac signs.

14. The extremely cheesy Christmas/New Year decorations and giant artificial Christmas trees with very many blinking colorful lights are everywhere from the beginning of December to – well, in many places they're still here…

It's so strange to think that I'm leaving in a few days and might not come back for years. I've become very comfortable in this city, and I enjoyed my stay here very much.

If you have specific questions, btw, you're welcome to ask! If you want an expert's opinion it's better to ask Russians, though. Anyone interested in a "things I recommend if you ever visit Moscow/Russia" post?

Comments

[acari]

11. Russians are proud of their ability to endure the Russian winter, compared to foreigners. ("It's not cold today! Be happy it's not -30°!" I am.)

Heh. I'm glad I went to Saint Petersburg in April that one time and not during the height of winter. I would've died. I would love to visit Russia again if only so my Russian does not atrophy entirely (it's almost at that stage already). Were you fluent before you went there?

[schneefink]

Until a week ago it was fine! No tourists anywhere (except directly around New Year's Eve) and not too cold, maybe 0°? But a few days ago the weather changed. Brrr. And St. Petersburg is supposed to be even colder... But very pretty in winter, too! I wonder which rivers freeze.

I wasn't fluent before I went, and I'm still far from fluent now. But I'm better! I can mostly understand people if they're not talking too quickly or talking about obscure topics, and I can make myself understood without searching minutes for every word. (My grammar is still horrible, my vocabulary is far too small, but I'm thinking positively here.) I hope to find a way to keep practicing Russian when I'm back home so I'll get better instead of worse. That's the biggest reason I came here, after all.

[astridv]

Are you staying in Russia for a job?
I'd like to visit Russia one day; however not in the winter!

[schneefink]

No, I was studying here for half a year. The university building of MSU is huge and very impressive.

It's a beautiful country! Probably best not in the middle of winter, yes *g* I'd love to travel on the Trans-siberian train one day.

[jae]

Fascinating! Thank you for posting this.

I miss my real German/Austrian bread here in the Netherlands. I know where to get it in my home city in Canada, but so far have had no luck finding it in the city I'm living in here...

-J

[schneefink]

My sympathies! I start to miss good black bread very much every time I spend more than ~two weeks somewhere where I can't get it. Every country probably has food like that (every time we get visitors from Belgium they bring many packages of Hagelslag *g*)

[naye]

Ahh, that's so cool! Living in a foreign country is such a fascinating, challenging experience - I'm glad yours has left you with so many thoughts and impressions!

[schneefink]

So many thoughts and impressions! It's so strange to be back - the house is so familiar that it feels like I never left, but on the other hand I just lived five months somewhere completely different and I'm still used to the oddest things like the light switches being higher up on the walls.

[mad_maudlin]

Mostly just wanted to comment that I've been reading your German blog about this on DW and enjoying it immensely; I remember far more German from high school than I thought I did! And it's been interesting comparing my own experiences in Kazakhstan. (IE, I never saw the hot corn stands, but things like hot water, Novy God going on for months at a time, bragging about winter...totally the same.)

[schneefink.livejournal.com]

Glad you enjoyed it! And yay for language practice :)

How different is Kazakh Russian from e.g. Muscovite Russian?

[mad_maudlin]

Not having a good sample of Muscovite Russian, I have a hard time describing it...some Kazakhs speak Russian with a very distinct accent (especially in southern/rural areas where Kazakh is more widely used) but many are fully bilingual so there's not much to notice.

One random thing I did discover only when I got back to Russian class in the states: a cell phone in Kazakhstan is "sotoviy telefon" or "sotka" for short. I never heard anyone say "mobilnik."

[schneefink.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I'd never thought about it until regional differences came up recently in a post at learn_russian. (I'm having more problems with language speed than accents so far.)

[amnisias.livejournal.com]

@1. I love rail travel if it's comfy. So much more relaxing than driving (as long as you've got good connections).

@8. Man, I envy you. In the UK that is still hard to come by. There is one variety of rye bread that you can sometimes get in one of the bigger supermarket chains but not choice beyond that. For a while IKEA was selling a ready-mix for rye bread, and I stocked up on that. But basically, anybody who visits me gets instructions to stock up on Schwarzbrot and Pumpernickel.

@13. I'd never would have guessed. Any idea why?

[schneefink.livejournal.com]

re 1, exactly. Austrian trains are not that comfortable to sleep in (it's a small country), but the Russian ones are much better. And they have samovars in every rail car.

re 8, my deepest sympathy!

re 13, Russia and China are neighbouring countries, after all, and while Moscow and St. Petersburg have mostly European influences it's different in the East. Actually that's a very interesting topic :) At the moment you find tiny dragon figurines and plush dragons and dragon cards etc. for sale everywhere because of the Chinese Year of the Dragon.

[tari-roo.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, please! I love reading other people's opinions about places. This is a lovely post too! :)

[schneefink.livejournal.com]

Glad you like it! I'd love to read similar things about other countries, too (hint hint *g*)

[tari-roo.livejournal.com]

Really? *ponders*

[schneefink.livejournal.com]

Really. I don't know if it's easier or harder to do about one's home country, though - you know all the little quirks and strange things, but you might now know what seems strange or unusual to other people.

[tari-roo.livejournal.com]

True.

I'll have to get my tourist cap on and think about what would strike me as interesting. Locals are too often cynical or blind to certain things.

Ok, I'll give it a thought and post something this week.

[schneefink.livejournal.com]

Great! Looking forward to it :D

[black-raven135.livejournal.com]

Years ago I visited your city, St. Peterburg, and Vladimir/Suzdal.
We were there for 18 days. Originally we were to visit Kiev also but the meltdown at Chernobyl happened three weeks before we were to visit. I rode the tube from Red Square to where our hotel was, just outside Moscow proper. Everybody else took the 'safe' route and rode the mini bus. They all thought I was crazy but to me it is part of discovering a city.. I did same in Paris, London,
Rome, wherever.....
We were fortunate that The Armory was open when we were there. A group who had gone before were locked out. We also saw a amazing performance of folk dancing from all over Russia. I had seen the Bolshoi, our other choice, before so opted for this folk dancing.
Speaking further of Russia, years later during a 2002 visit to Memphis, my friend Nancy told me that there was an Imperial Russian exhibit at the center.
It was amazing how much they displayed and all so beautiful; I was surprised to think the exhibit was in a city size of Memphis.

BTW, only complaint I have is that it was ((((((frigid))))) even though it was MAY, e.g. snow, ice, wind, etc.
Mom told me to ignore what tour company told me and to go
layered but take my fur hat, 3/4 length wool/cashmere coat and gloves. She was right. I used it all
:D
Would have frozen. Other 11 travelers with me were wearing spring time attire. . .

The overnight train featured window scenes like in Dr Zhivago.