When a very good friend asked me, “How are you doing trying to adjust?”, I responded to him that it is all so foreign yet all so familiar. It really is the little things that make a big difference.
Like any big city (and by big I mean gargantuan) there is serious gridlock every which way you look but, at the same time, there is pedestrian traffic everywhere. I notice that more people walk here than back home. Of course there are 10 (16?) million people here compared to the 1 million we have in Ottawa. It is easier to walk here as the entire city is an urban setting with pedestrian traffic taken into account in the urban planning as opposed to sprawling suburbia where you need a car to get to the grocery store. You can very easily get around without a vehicle and, frankly, I'm loving it. I'll get back to you when the weather falls apart and it is -40'C outside but, for now, I'll take it.
Like back home, people make appointments for service calls and they call to confirm their arrival. UNLIKE back home, the guy who called to say he'd be there in an hour decided after talking to Mr. Unmentionable that we didn't speak enough Russian, he wasn't going to bother coming. He never called to cancel, he just never showed. Back home you'd get in shit...here, nothing. The guy who came on Monday was better about it. He never called to confirm, he just showed up about 20 minutes before the scheduled time. Mr U got a detailed email about time and price for the hook up. Neither were correct. We ended up having to kick in an extra 540 руб for the phone jack filters. There was no fine print to that effect, we're just lucky that we had more cash on hand and exact change at that.
I've also noticed that people here look like people that I know back home. I am constantly doing a double-take as I think I recognize people but, really, they are just Russians who look like people I know. Unless...Ted, were you on the Stariy Arbat the other day? I swear I saw you there! Best check his passport, Lan.
I love shopping at the local markets for fresh produce. Back home the farmer’s markets have prices posted so you know how much you will pay and can compare form booth to booth. Here the price is a means test. I can’t even begin to budget for a shopping trip so I just bring tons of cash and pray for the best. The more you frequent a stall, the better your price is. As an example, on one occasion, the “nut girl” from whom I usually buy cashews and walnuts was not able to help me so her mother stepped in. When she came back from her errand her mother was trying to charge me 800 руб for 200g of cashews. She shooed her mother away and charged me 80 руб instead. I had been coming to see her for a few weeks and was entitled to “local pricing”, I guess! The same goes for our fruit and veggie guys and the cheese/dairy lady. Our cheese price fluctuates between 80 and 300 руб depending on who is at the counter that day.
If, by some chance, you find yourself out and about leaving a bar at about 2 or 3 AM (just sayin’ is all - I’m admitting nothing) and are searching for a way to get home that does not involve a trek in high heels, you always have the option of catching a local horse. Yes, I said horse. Not a horse-drawn carriage, nor a calèche, nor a rickshaw...a HORSE. I’m not even going to go into detail here. Suffice it to say that it is apparently a commonly accepted use of late night/early morning transport that explains the mysterious piles of dung that I have noticed during the morning trek to the gym.
Other than that, really, things look about the same only they are spelled using Cyrillic letters and they are HUGE!
Like any big city (and by big I mean gargantuan) there is serious gridlock every which way you look but, at the same time, there is pedestrian traffic everywhere. I notice that more people walk here than back home. Of course there are 10 (16?) million people here compared to the 1 million we have in Ottawa. It is easier to walk here as the entire city is an urban setting with pedestrian traffic taken into account in the urban planning as opposed to sprawling suburbia where you need a car to get to the grocery store. You can very easily get around without a vehicle and, frankly, I'm loving it. I'll get back to you when the weather falls apart and it is -40'C outside but, for now, I'll take it.
Like back home, people make appointments for service calls and they call to confirm their arrival. UNLIKE back home, the guy who called to say he'd be there in an hour decided after talking to Mr. Unmentionable that we didn't speak enough Russian, he wasn't going to bother coming. He never called to cancel, he just never showed. Back home you'd get in shit...here, nothing. The guy who came on Monday was better about it. He never called to confirm, he just showed up about 20 minutes before the scheduled time. Mr U got a detailed email about time and price for the hook up. Neither were correct. We ended up having to kick in an extra 540 руб for the phone jack filters. There was no fine print to that effect, we're just lucky that we had more cash on hand and exact change at that.
I've also noticed that people here look like people that I know back home. I am constantly doing a double-take as I think I recognize people but, really, they are just Russians who look like people I know. Unless...Ted, were you on the Stariy Arbat the other day? I swear I saw you there! Best check his passport, Lan.
I love shopping at the local markets for fresh produce. Back home the farmer’s markets have prices posted so you know how much you will pay and can compare form booth to booth. Here the price is a means test. I can’t even begin to budget for a shopping trip so I just bring tons of cash and pray for the best. The more you frequent a stall, the better your price is. As an example, on one occasion, the “nut girl” from whom I usually buy cashews and walnuts was not able to help me so her mother stepped in. When she came back from her errand her mother was trying to charge me 800 руб for 200g of cashews. She shooed her mother away and charged me 80 руб instead. I had been coming to see her for a few weeks and was entitled to “local pricing”, I guess! The same goes for our fruit and veggie guys and the cheese/dairy lady. Our cheese price fluctuates between 80 and 300 руб depending on who is at the counter that day.
If, by some chance, you find yourself out and about leaving a bar at about 2 or 3 AM (just sayin’ is all - I’m admitting nothing) and are searching for a way to get home that does not involve a trek in high heels, you always have the option of catching a local horse. Yes, I said horse. Not a horse-drawn carriage, nor a calèche, nor a rickshaw...a HORSE. I’m not even going to go into detail here. Suffice it to say that it is apparently a commonly accepted use of late night/early morning transport that explains the mysterious piles of dung that I have noticed during the morning trek to the gym.
Other than that, really, things look about the same only they are spelled using Cyrillic letters and they are HUGE!
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