Time is a funny thing when you are in a situation you do not enjoy. Days seem like months and months seem like years, tick tock as the clock ticks slowly by. Moscow is a strange place, big, bold and dirty. Huge tower block flats stretch as far as the eye can see when you arrive by plane looking down on the Moscow region from your arm chair in the sky. Roads are huge with four to five lanes in each direction. The roads are chocked with cars. People drive top of the range cars with blacked out windows but crawl along the roads at a snails pace, stuck in the traffic all in a hurry, all with a mission. People walk the streets in a hurry, men spit and blow there noses on the floor, you must walk with your eyes on the ground to avoid walking on these bodily deposits.
Flat prices are crazy you get very little for your money and the quality is poor. They advertise flats as being "western standard" when in fact the standard is normal to poor. Russian police stand about on the streets with fat guts, shirt buttons undone, fag in mouth, hat tipped back at an angle, looking to take your money for any offense real or imagined if your skin is dark or brown. Supermarkets are packed and stressful experiences. The expat community is large and varied. There are many Americans here as well as other nationalities all living in their own areas and communities all here on an agenda. Many are on large pay packages with all the benefits that go with it, free rent, free medical cover, free childcare, free schooling. Don't come here unless you have those perks. We did and are struggling to get by, but life takes you where it takes you.
Moscow really is another planet and do not come here with expectations and always expect the unexpected. Love it or hate it. I am still searching for the positive here and have not yet found it but I will keep looking under every rock and in every possibility. Try not to let depression get to you if you are stuck at home, depression can eat you alive and swallow you up without mercy. Make friends and get out, take regular breaks out of Russia, you will need to as often as possible. Stay here for as little time as you can, get in, save money and get out as fast as time will allow you.
A year in Moscow has been a long trip for me dear reader, I hope the next one goes faster.
You are not alone in this, I tried many times to like Moscow but I hate rude people of Moscow. As my wife is from Moscow I have to visit this holy place of corrupt people. Every time I get some bad experience that turns me bitter towards this city. I know every city have good or bad things, but when even in Zac's office one has to pay extra money to get married then you really think this is another planet. But still I have to come here to keep my wife happy.Hope you will find some good thing one day. Best of luck.
ReplyDeleteWhat or who is Zac's office?
ReplyDeleteFirst - i thought you've gone to England- long time no news -now i understand you'll have to fight one more year in this disgusting City. The City is cruel that's true all you've written above - mostly true. I don't want to justify this city for i don't like it either though i'm russian and love my country (but i think if you're here -so who can argue with destiny??) - anyway thanx for fruitless efforts to like The City.)))) Second - Zac's office ))))))- Devon man has meant ZAGS office - the place where couple're getting married (she signs the paper you sign the paper -congratulations - you're married))) ZAGS (Zapis' Aktov Grazhdanskogo Sostoyaniya or Signs of acts of civil status or Registry Office for simple.))
ReplyDeleteGlad you're here .
If you survive in russia -you will survive anywhere))
Sincerely. Oleg The Ubiquitous
Sorry its ZAG's office
ReplyDeleteThanks Oleg. Our first year in Moscow has been hard we have been frozen and then cooked and then smoked!!! Lets hope its better from now on!!
ReplyDeleteHi, this is Tracy from Motyl. I will take a look at your forum. I gloss over the struggles on my blog, but I too have had them over my year in The Czech Rep. Think being a stay at home parent makes it all the more intense. Be good to yourself and do something that helps you feel better, if poss (perhaps not a descent into alcoholism, though at times it is tempting!) Cultural differences can be hard and it sounds very different where you are.
ReplyDeleteHi Tracy. I used to live not far away from CZ in Slovakia. I liked CZ and Slovakia very much. I am sure life has not been easy for you living there if you are another nationality.
ReplyDeleteLife in Russia is different to anything I have experienced. The way they park, the police, the lack of laws, the mass of people, the pollution etc etc. I could easily sink into alcholism since I love wine but it makes me fat so I try to stay off it for months at a time then binge drink and stuff.
Being at home all day with a toddler is isolating but in other ways I am lucky to have this time with my son while he is little.
I Like your blog I'll follow it. Are you British married to a Czech? Your daughter looks the same age as my boy almost two.
I've been reading this blog since this past spring, when I moved from the America to London. I have felt a lot of similar feelings - especially depression - because I couldn't get a job, hadn't any friends, and spent most of my days inside, online. Now I'm feeling better and hoping this coming year is better for me. I'm hoping yours is better, too.
ReplyDeleteBrany dont worry I am sure it will get better. Its hard veing a long way from your own country. London is not as big, dirty and as expensive as Moscow. I think Moscow is probably safter than London. I dont plan to stay too long in Russia.
ReplyDeleteMoscow is not for me and I dont like big cities. I try to make new freinds and get out but I am a man at home with my child and most people I mix with are women with kids and I go against the sterotype and expected norms so its harder for me to integrate. I think London is OK but I would not live there.
English man,
ReplyDeleteChild seats are actually required by law, but it is rarely checked. I did once pay a "fine" for having my 7 year old belted in a normal seat instead of the booster seat.
The guys in kilts that saw in the airport, mentioned in one of your posts, were here for the marching band competition on Red Square a few weeks ago.
Keep sane.
David, also in Moscow.
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ReplyDeleteDavid also in Moscow,
ReplyDeleteThere is a fine line be between sanity and insanity but I feel at times to have crossed it living here. When I start talking to trees in the park I know its loopy time.
Just found your blog. I'm an ex-pat in Kosovo and have so many of the same problems. Cars beeping me for walking on the road when the footpaths are full of cars, pollution is crazy also.
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
English Man!
ReplyDeleteI can sign under every word of your article! I've been here for two weeks by now, but it seems like eternity, especially since I do not work -- hence, no way to make friends.
I used to live here as a family member of the US diplomat and it was totally different back then. Now, it seems that the city I kind of liked went crazy! I do not understand how people commute here -- the subway (metro) is crowded and hot and the city is just one long traffic jam!
Prices are absolutely unjustifiably high and the service is so so. I am from Manhattan, but NY seems like a bargain now.
I can't wait to get out of here!
I am sorry to say it, but Moscow WAS different years ago and I still have warm memories of the city that is gone forever.
Russians born of the 90's don't know any change as they were still sperm in their fathers balls. RIP and leave it or fight it.
ReplyDelete