From Russia with Love: June 2005

Off to the Crimea

Just testing out the email blog entry thing. I'm off to the Ukraine today for 10 days so might not be able to get online much. Bought some nice summery tops yesterday and am all ready for hitting the beach!!! It's 28C there and the beach is 5 mins from where I'll be staying! It's not all going to be a holiday though as I'm interpreting for a training seminar there. Should be good though to get away from the busyness and Moscow and of course to get away from the mice, rats and other pets which hang around my neighbourhood!!! Takes 24 hours to get there by train and the border control is in the middle of the night which is perfect!

Hope to post some news soon - watch this space!

MICE....

Everyday is an adventure in Russia. Last night came home - managed to get into my appartment. Went to bed when all of a sudden a brown mouse came running out from under the piano. Took one look at me and ran back. He was as shocked and scared as I was... Was just about getting over it when he decided to make a dash for the kitchen. Needless to say I didn't sleep very well last night and I'm expecting him to dash out from under the cupboards at any second. Have spent the day at work thinking of methods to get rid of the mice. Buy a cat, mouse traps or poison. Think poison could work best - I'm not a cat fan either and mouse traps are kind of mean... Any thoughts anyone.

Russian Locks

Pretty tired today - got locked out of my appartment last night! It's happened about 5 times now. The key just won't fit in far enough and I'm stuck. Got to know 2 of my neighbours though at least although neither of them could get it open and suggested getting an axe and breaking in. Didn't really want to pay out for a new door and lock so I said it was ok! In the end one of my friends came round and somehow managed to get it open. So I got home at 12:30am which I'm not too impressed about.
You never know what to expect here in Russia. As I was walking home saw a fat rat run in front of me across the pavement. Not very impressed by that either!!!! As you can probably tell I live in a great part of Moscow - NOT! I live near one of the railway stations so there are lots of portaloos, lots of homeless and quite a few drug addicts and dodgey looking people! It's always pretty lively though and is right near the centre of town which is good. Will have to get my lock changed though.....

Me and Oksanna at the Bolshoi Theater!

New Blog

What with everyone getting blogs and writing thought it was about time I set one up too. Another reason being I'm kind of bored with work at the moment so have time to waste on the internet. Well the point of this blog is to let you know what life is really like out here in Russia and give you insight into the Russian mind - which I am still desperately trying to understand!!!
I love living here but it's not the easiest place to live - I'm constantly surprised by the Russians!!!
Enjoy!

Me and my mates

The photos are of me and my mates Pasha and Andrei. They are musicians from Krasnodar and cool friends of mine. They've recruited me as their personal photographer hence the various photos. It's nice to finally have some decent friends to hang out with in Moscow. Their music is pretty cool. If I work out how to put audio files in this blog you can listen...