First few days in Moscow and Barnaul

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(Location: Barnaul, Russia)

My travels got off to a slow start. Lufthansa canceled my flight and I was told I probably wasn’t leaving until the next day. It reminded me of a spin off of a Jeff Foxworthy joke: If you’re flight is canceled because workers are on strike, you might be a Euro, or at least dealing with them. Leaving the next day was especially ironic given that my mother in-law (still weird to say) mistakenly booked me for the next day and we paid lots of money to reschedule my flight. Needless to say I hung around long enough, asked enough questions, and talked to enough people and was eventually able to find a flight to Moscow the same day.

A few observations:

-Weather: The weather so far has been perfect, sunny, no rain dry, and about 80db/55wb (that’s for the York Dork’s out there, eh hem - Dave C.)
- Ja nieh gavaru par Russki: Not being able to speak much Russian I found myself amazingly useless. I can’t even read street signs. I also don’t know stuff works, for example it took me 2 hours to figure out how to get my ticket from Moscow to Barnaul despite having the receipt in hand. Ja nigh poni miya.
- The Moscow airport was my first awakening to Russia (I have been here once before) and I had forgotten how common drinking, smoking, and public intoxication is, even during the middle of the day. Every country has their ideas about freedom. Maybe Moscow could use a taste of the Olympic to clean that up a bit - seems like it’s working in China.
- This small town, Barnaul, is quaint, nice, and steadily growing in both size and maturity. If there were an American sister city it’d be in somewhere in the Midwest, maybe Omaha, Fargo, or Milwaukee. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnaul)
- Seat Belts: Wearing a seat belt in the back seat can be considered an insult to the driver and even unsafe. I don’t care, I’m wearing the belt, Maria thinks I’m crazy.
- Wedding rings: Now that I have this shiny ring on my hand I’ve taken notice to the rings of others and quite quickly I recognized the married crowd in Russia wears their rings on the right hand, not the left. Furthermore, women don’t typically wear diamond rings, but it’s just a matter of time before DeBeers breaks this market.
- Air Conditioning: In Barnaul (and most of Moscow) there are few chilled water systems, a few rooftops, and the vast majority are ductless split systems with radiated central hot water. This is definitely true for residential, small commercial/retail, and even in most larger buildings.
- Maria’s Mom: Ludmilla, I call her mamushka, is the sweetest lady the second arrived she was the first to give me a big hug - very affectionate. Maria’s mom owns a small pharmaceutical supply company along with two rental properties. Given her background as a music teacher during Soviet times Maria and I are both proud of her business experiences.
- Maria’s sister: Ole is Maria’s identical twin and the resemblance is uncanny, you can tell them apart except by their accents (Maria lives in the US, Ole lives in the UK) and hair color. She lives in London and is looking to get married and have kids and I’m sure she will if she stops being so stubborn and learns to say I’m sorry every so often! I’m joking, I’m joking, but half way Just in case YOU read this.
- Grandma: Maria’s Grandma is the cutest old lady, 85, and never has taken an ounce of medicine. She used to be a radio transmitter in WWII and had only one daughter.
- Russian women: Maria and I, while sitting near a sidewalk watching the foot traffic pass, had a conversation about the loosely categorized 3 groups of women. There are the peasant or village girls, the free spirited girls, and the dolled up girls. This applies to girls in their teens, 20s, 30s, and maybe their 40s. Once you get in to your fifties you go into the Babushka (grandma) category and everyone looks the same from there. Women in Russia, compared to American women, seem as if they are under much more pressure, even competition, to look their best at all times. Just going to the run an errand, you’ll see them prepare as if it were a night on the town. Russian men on the other hand are decidedly much less interested in their appearance. It’s also probably because for every 5 or 6 women there are only 3 or 4 men and this ratio only worsens when you consider issues with early death, alcoholism, etc... This may also explain why one could argue Russian women compared to American women have somewhat less expectations for men in general (must be how I snagged Maria)
- Books: I’m currently reading Warren Buffet, The Making of an American Capitalist. Truly a great read for any business professional or investor. However, given that Buffet may be the most frugal rich person ever, I started stressing about the money we’re spending and Maria told me to switch to another book until the wedding is over. She’s right, so now I’m reading about the oddities of traffic patterns in another great read, “The Wisdom of Crowds.” So far so good. If any one has any good recommendations for books on investments, business, or other genres let me know.
- Black Market Media Sales: I went to what I thought was a video rental store, but it turns out there are very few rental stores in Russia. Why? Copyright laws are openly ignored. The cost of a movie or CD is the the blank DVD or CD, the actual copying process, and the mark up and the artists and industry gets nothing. It’s short sighted, but it works for now…
- Black Market Police: Maria’s sister managed and owned a small store after her university days and one day a few men came to her and let her know her store would be closing if payment was received. WTF? Right? Justice was on her side, but situation was immediate. Her options included going to the police, various governmental authorities, or perhaps a lawyer, but those options are a joke. She mentioned her dilemma to a friend who happens to free lance in the black market police industry and the issue quietly solved itself quietly. I’ve come to understand many other similar situations and it’s just a part of how business is done.
- Courting: Maria had once (I’m being forgiving, it might have been twice) grieved that the courting process in the US just wasn’t like home and I see why now. When a Russian man pursues, the adoring words, gifts, sentiments are piled on thick, I will try to gather a few examples and post later. I find this a bit peculiar given ratio bit mentioned above, but it’s all a part of the culture.
- Guest of a Russian: The last time I came to Russia, Maria’s sister’s friend greeted me at the airport. I had no idea who he was. He was to meet me and take me to another airport and make sure I got off OK. My flight was delayed 6 hours and I had no way of communicating this to him, but patiently, he waited, got me to the other airport, negotiated a reduced fare, and bought me a beer. I was his guest and he absolutely insisted. I thought maybe he was just an especially nice guy, but then on this visit one of Ole’s friends took Ole, Maria and myself out to a local bar and here we go again. I mentioned Russian Piva (beer) and he literally snaps his fingers, “girl, get this man a Russian piva.” She politely explains that they don’t have such beer (despite it being a Russian bar?). Anyways, they go back and forth for a few minutes and I come to find out later that our host absolutely demanded the Russian beer and here you go - Russian beer for the guest. Then later I inquired about the proper technique for shots and sure enough vodka shots came in droves and all for the sake of practicing for perfection. I became an expert. I asked him to lay of the Russian beer, the shots was just an inquiry, not a request, I insisted on paying and no matter my insistence I found his to be unmatched. There are other examples, but I have found my experience as a guest here in Russia to be unrivaled by most experiences in the US and other places around the world.
- Publicly traded companies: I’ve asked more than one financially educated Russian including those with PHDs in finance, masters in business administration and a few of the black market police guys the following question, “Are there any publicly traded companies that act with integrity, have true values, are well respected, pay their taxes, provide good products and services, and have a relationship with the government that would allow them to safely operate for the foreseeable future.” During translation I was cut off at true values... It’s unfortunate. I see Russians as well educated, resourceful, motivated, and positive about the future, but systemic issues that surround how business is done is suppressing the society as a whole. It’s a prisoner dilemma, if everyone bought in trust would ensue and all would be brought up, but for not it’s ‘all for one’ not ‘one for all,’ but it is changing albeit very slowly.

The wedding is today and I should have more to say about that later.

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Photos

Maria
Maria told me that based on the sky it'll be raining the next day. It was sunny.