It's warmed up. I've survived. It was so cold and awful for so long... not even that snowy, just freezing... and I was so used to it... but now, all that's over with. Russians have put away their fur coats until next year. I smell not only spring, but summer in the air.
I can't wait to go home!!! Not that I don't love my life here, but you get me. I miss my family and home country. I even miss the food. :) I am counting the days til July 1st, when I touch down in Florida for a couple months at least! This will be a relief for me, but a trial for Pasha :(
In Russia, things are all done less officially. This has it's advantages and disadvantages. Sometimes, in America, doing everything by the book is really annoying. There are situations where you'd like to just fudge it, just this once. But no. And by contrast, in Russia, you sometimes feel the pleasantness of a "relaxing" of the rules. In the long-run, however, I'm glad I'm from the country that does everything offically.
Renting an apartment, for example. If you're not brain-dead, you'll have a contract. Owner or renter, you'll protect yourself with an official, legal document that specifies everything the landlord has the right to and has the responsibility to do, and likewise the tenant. Both parties know exactly what they are getting into, right from the beginning. If problems do arise, we can refer back to that legal binding document.
In Russia, I live here without a lease. It's all kind of informal. I paid a pro-rated rent in September when I moved in in the middle of the month, out of my own initiative, being used to our officialness in the USA. I later found out that that was stupid; the landlords had no idea when I moved in and would not have known to ask for any money. More recently, my roommate did some badly-needed repairs in the bathroom, for which we later got charged. Yep, you heard me. As I told you before when we were talking about banking, Absurdistan. No good deed goes un-punished.
However, it's not all that much money, and you have to pick your battles. I'm out of here soon. On the bright side, it's actually a good thing that the landlords are seldom around. I am moving out soon, and I haven't paid May rent, because of the deposit in the beginning of the year. So felt a little financial boost because of that.
In the meantime, Lena is looking for someone to move in to take my place. Why her, not the landlord? Because. In Russia, having a place to live is a priveledge. When people are looking for housing, and they go through an agency, who pays the fee? The tenant. Landlords use it as a free service. So when you move in, be prepared to pay up to 4x the rent! First month's, last month's, deposit, and finder's fee. (She said she had better find someone herself, and fast! Otherwise they can kick her out and move a family in here.)
A partial explanation for that is that there is simply not enough housing in Moscow for all the people who want to live here. It is a huge, enormous, sprawling city. In 2010, the official census was 11.5 million, but it's since grown, and that's not counting the thousands of un-registered inhabitants. In the U.S., we have seperate cities for seperate purposes. L.A. and Hollywood are for arts and entertainment industry. DC is the political capital. New York has a lot of business and a little of just about everything. But in Russia, it's all Moscow. Politics, culture, art, science -- it's all in one place. Everyone I meet here is from somewhere else. They got an education, then came to Moscow to get a job.
What's life like outside of Moscow? Well, I've lived in Petersburg ang Tomsk, in Siberia, and both those cities are very, very nice. I really like them. But still, most of Russia is a sharp contrast to Moscow. They have a saying, "Russia begins beyond the MKAD" (the highway that encircles Moscow.) It's a lot, lot richer than the rest of the country, and a lot more westernized. I've also been to the countryside. Not long ago during the holiday Pasha and I visited his mother in Dubna, a little town outside of Tula. Chickens wandering everywhere, houses like huts, each with it's own ogorod (ah-guh-ROD), or farm-like garden. It was very quiet and peaceful compared to our life here. At first I had the scary impression of being in the middle of nowhere. But soon I got to love it for an indescribable, homey, genuine atmosphere, as if time there stands still, as if you're in a fairy-tale or something.
Ok, that's all for now. God bless and take care, and thanks for reading!! -Beth
I can't wait to go home!!! Not that I don't love my life here, but you get me. I miss my family and home country. I even miss the food. :) I am counting the days til July 1st, when I touch down in Florida for a couple months at least! This will be a relief for me, but a trial for Pasha :(
In Russia, things are all done less officially. This has it's advantages and disadvantages. Sometimes, in America, doing everything by the book is really annoying. There are situations where you'd like to just fudge it, just this once. But no. And by contrast, in Russia, you sometimes feel the pleasantness of a "relaxing" of the rules. In the long-run, however, I'm glad I'm from the country that does everything offically.
Renting an apartment, for example. If you're not brain-dead, you'll have a contract. Owner or renter, you'll protect yourself with an official, legal document that specifies everything the landlord has the right to and has the responsibility to do, and likewise the tenant. Both parties know exactly what they are getting into, right from the beginning. If problems do arise, we can refer back to that legal binding document.
In Russia, I live here without a lease. It's all kind of informal. I paid a pro-rated rent in September when I moved in in the middle of the month, out of my own initiative, being used to our officialness in the USA. I later found out that that was stupid; the landlords had no idea when I moved in and would not have known to ask for any money. More recently, my roommate did some badly-needed repairs in the bathroom, for which we later got charged. Yep, you heard me. As I told you before when we were talking about banking, Absurdistan. No good deed goes un-punished.
However, it's not all that much money, and you have to pick your battles. I'm out of here soon. On the bright side, it's actually a good thing that the landlords are seldom around. I am moving out soon, and I haven't paid May rent, because of the deposit in the beginning of the year. So felt a little financial boost because of that.
In the meantime, Lena is looking for someone to move in to take my place. Why her, not the landlord? Because. In Russia, having a place to live is a priveledge. When people are looking for housing, and they go through an agency, who pays the fee? The tenant. Landlords use it as a free service. So when you move in, be prepared to pay up to 4x the rent! First month's, last month's, deposit, and finder's fee. (She said she had better find someone herself, and fast! Otherwise they can kick her out and move a family in here.)
A partial explanation for that is that there is simply not enough housing in Moscow for all the people who want to live here. It is a huge, enormous, sprawling city. In 2010, the official census was 11.5 million, but it's since grown, and that's not counting the thousands of un-registered inhabitants. In the U.S., we have seperate cities for seperate purposes. L.A. and Hollywood are for arts and entertainment industry. DC is the political capital. New York has a lot of business and a little of just about everything. But in Russia, it's all Moscow. Politics, culture, art, science -- it's all in one place. Everyone I meet here is from somewhere else. They got an education, then came to Moscow to get a job.
What's life like outside of Moscow? Well, I've lived in Petersburg ang Tomsk, in Siberia, and both those cities are very, very nice. I really like them. But still, most of Russia is a sharp contrast to Moscow. They have a saying, "Russia begins beyond the MKAD" (the highway that encircles Moscow.) It's a lot, lot richer than the rest of the country, and a lot more westernized. I've also been to the countryside. Not long ago during the holiday Pasha and I visited his mother in Dubna, a little town outside of Tula. Chickens wandering everywhere, houses like huts, each with it's own ogorod (ah-guh-ROD), or farm-like garden. It was very quiet and peaceful compared to our life here. At first I had the scary impression of being in the middle of nowhere. But soon I got to love it for an indescribable, homey, genuine atmosphere, as if time there stands still, as if you're in a fairy-tale or something.
Ok, that's all for now. God bless and take care, and thanks for reading!! -Beth
