Sept. 1

After 2 layovers and a final 8-hour plan ride from DC to Moscow, we finally arrived in Russia!! It was 44 degrees and raining when we arrived, and has been grey and colder since we got here. We live in a thick forest, about an hour drive north of Moscow, in a gated community (which I’ll describe a bit more later) literally a couple of miles from a huge green wall which, our driver was very excited to tell us, hides “Medvdev residence”: where the President of Russia lives at least some of the time. We have everything we could ever want: washer, dishwasher, microwave, refrigerator, freezer, huge bathtub... No dryer, though. We use these electrical metal racks that we plug in to hang our clothes on to dry quicker. We are a five minute stroll from the school, where we will be teaching Mon. – Fri., 11 – 11:50 am (the “Pre-K” class) and 3 – 5 pm. The school has our apartment promises to have us hooked up with wireless, unlimited internet access here very soon (except no YouTube or other kinds of videos: apparently they pay by the megabyte here…) and 4,000 rubles a week for breakfast/weekend meals and transportation into Moscow: roughly 150 dollars, although we’re not quite sure what the dollar is worth here yet. We don’t start teaching until Monday, so we’re excited to get to explore a bit the next few days.

A few of my initial thoughts about Russia:

- Very little English.

It has been really surprising how few people know even basic conversational English. After getting through customs (which took about 30 seconds, which I guess is pretty remarkable) and finding the people with the “ILP – CAPTAIN” sign (“Moscow Captains” is the name of the school we teach at), our drivers escorted us to two very new, very sleek black cars with very tinted windows (all I could think was “mafia…”) to take us to our apartment. I somehow lucked out and got the front seat, which not only gave me a good view of things (lots of grey, sad-looking buildings and smokestacks…), but gave me the chance to chat with our driver, Yura, who turned out to be a big Lady Gaga fan (even though he made quite clear he thinks she is a “lady boy”). It was definitely fun hearing this funny Russian guy chant “Alejandro, Alejandro…” along with the song. Since he knew very little English, I had an interesting time trying to communicate with him:

Me: (pointing to radio) Like Lady Gaga?
Yura: Yes, good.
Me: Britney Spears?
Yura: No, no (gagging face)
Me: Hmmm… Lady Antebellum? (I heard they were big in England, thought they were my best bet…)
Yura: (confused look)

I’m thinking country music isn’t going to be here too much… oh well.

After “discussing” restaurants (Yura is a big “Mac-don-olds” fan) we had an interesting conversation about drinks:

Me: You have Mountain Dew?
Yura: (confusion) No, no Mountain Dew…
Me: Coca-Cola?
Yura: Yes, yes! Coke and rum, good!

He then opened up the jockey box of this super nice car we were driving in and showed us a huge bottle of alcohol he had stored in there: “Martini!” I think he may have known that we were some of those strange Americans who don’t smoke or drink, because he then momentarily pretended to offer me a vanilla cigar he had in his pocket, and then started to laugh really hard.

- Crazy drivers + no road rage = ?!?!

Although I’m sure this super nice black car came equipped with blinkers, our driver definitely never used them—nor did anyone else on the packed, 4 lane freeway as we flew around Moscow. Not wanting my first 15 minutes in Russia to involve throwing up all over this super-fancy car (or worse), I did my best to avoid looking at either the speedometer or the other crazy cars on the road. The lines on the roads in Russia seem to be looked at as more of nice suggestions than real boundaries, and everyone just kind of zig-zagged—albeit surprisingly smoothly—all over the place. What was most incredible, though, was the fact that even though these other cars were sometimes veering within what looked like millimeters of scraping right into us, Yura never ONCE became (at least outwardly) stressed out. While there are a few semi-daring things I’d like to do before I die, driving in Moscow will never be one.

- We live here?

When I initially signed up for Russia, I was pretty sure I was also signing up for 4 months of pretty deplorable living conditions: teeny-tiny, box-like apartments with concrete walls, terrible plumbing, limited electricity, undrinkable water… While this, I think, a large number of Muscovites probably live with, we definitely won’t be—nor will I probably ever live in as nice of a neighborhood as I’m now in ever again. I got lucky and claimed the bed right below the window that overlooks our courtyard. Yes, courtyard: with a huge, fish-filled fountain and everything. We also have our own maintenance man, Peter, who lives down the hall. He opens and closes the gate everytime we want to leave, fixes any problems we have, and takes care of the guard dog they let loose at 9 pm every night. I haven’t seen the dog yet, but hopefully he is bigger and meaner than the scrawny little chihauhau who lives downstairs, and who I’ve already seen sporting two different, brightly-colored outfits.

- Definitely not the Elementary School I went to…

Like our apartment, everything at the school is incredibly nice, clean and well-taken care of. Before we were allowed in for our first tour, we all had to put these plastic blue booties over our shoes, just like the ones they have you wear at temple open houses. I felt really out-of-place walking around in my plastic bag-covered flip-flops and baggy bermuda shorts—all of the women teachers we met were dressed very classy, and usually had super high heels on as well. I’m glad you made me buy all of those dressy clothes, Mom!