Blogs from Russia, Europe - page 309

Another early wake-up call this morning. I had enough time to have a bath and shave before breakfast, which was a huge plate of hot sticky vegetables and a lot of yoghurt. Then Marina Ivanovna went to work, leaving me some instructions. I turned off all the lights and shut the door to the kitchen using wads of newspaper to stop the cats getting in. Then the brown and white one opened it again with his head and they all came back to sleep on the radiator. Every time I picked one up and carried it to the hall the other two sneaked in again behind my back, a sort of weary slapstick comedy. As I was locking the front door the fat grey one scampered underneath my feet and hurried down the stairs, so I ... read more

OHHHHHH MAANNNNNNNNN! Jetzt ist dieser daemliche PC doch tatsaechlich vor dem Speichern von meinem Bericht abgestuertzt. Wer schon mal 1-2 Seiten durch so einen Mist verloren hat, der kann sich vorstellen wie ich mich jetzt fuehle. AHHHHHHHRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHH. Ich versuche das also mal zu rekonstruieren… Cool von euch zu hoeren. Das mit dem Schriftsteller werde ich mir ueberlegen. Nur dumm das meine letzten Dozenten das halt nich so gesehen haben :) . Aber ist ja nun Geschichte. Ich habe also das Wochenende erneut an diesem See verbracht wo schon das andere Seminar war. Wir, das heist also ca. 45 Leute, alles Studenten (ausser mir). Ich war Gast und es wurden verschiedene Dinge diskutiert. Ich durfte auch ein Thema halten. Ich hatte mich nach langer Ueberlegung dazu entschlossen ein wenig zu provozieren. Thema “Korruption in Russland” Eine Stunde. ... read more

My new flat is on ulitsa Bolshaya Oktyabr'skaya, which runs opposite ulitsa Pobedy. My building is near where I went horse riding last month, and I'm only five minutes away from Chiara who lives in a neighbourhood I know quite well. The stairs are almost completely dark and smell worse than where I have moved from. My room is an early 1900's style living room with a brown rug, a small bed in the corner and a cupboard that takes up an entire wall. Along the other wall is a five-seat sofa, with a foot rest. It is on the first floor so there is a permanent loud, high-pitched squeaking and low-pitched grunting of trams outside, and when one passes the building twice a minute the room shakes. My new hozyaika is a lady called Marina ... read more

Another cold, dull day. There has been no real daylight at all this week and the sky is low and grey. In Viktor's class we talked about bribes; what to give someone if you want something done in Russia. Rich parents pay thousands of dollars to make sure their child gets into a good kindergarten. For a good school it will cost a computer or a colour printer. You need to pay even more for a comfortable bed in hospital. Twenty years ago it was only a bottle of cognac or a calendar of naked girls. Corruption goes higher than that in Russia - but that is none of my business. We finished our second workbook with Lena. There were twenty minutes free at the end of the lesson so we talked about the most embarrassing ... read more

Still below zero this morning and it's raining. In Viktor's class we talked about another of Russia's social problems - this time homelessness. Surprisingly for a Russian he is very open with discussing his country's faults. We moved on to the more comfortable topic of Oligarchs, especially Roman Abramovich. He has twice as much money - 14 billion dollars - as the second richest man in Russia. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, many businessmen have become extremely rich. Many of them have broken laws in doing so. Russia has vast oil supplies, and companies such as SibNeft' - owned by Abramovich - are some of the wealthiest in the world. It was interesting to hear Viktor's point of view on the rise of Novye Russkie, 'new Russians' since perestroika. Whereas there used to be ... read more