Soon... :)))

My time in Moscow is coming to an end! Tolstoy 31 leaves to Finland day after tomorrow, and the school stress is approaching level zero. Just one presentation to do on Wednesday evening (+ some boring paper work) and I'm done.

As I look back in time, so much things happened in a short time. Sometimes it was painful, but I also had a lot of great moments. At some point I regretted coming here, but now I'm glad that I decided to survive and learn my lessons. I couldn't be any happier of my new experiences and friends I got in Moscow. And soon I'll be at home :)

"Normal" exchange students would have approximately one year of studies left, thesis unfinished and perhaps internship place in search. But because I decided to do things differently, I'll luckily graduate from my home university next month! Please let this gif conclude my plans for year 2014:

(Source)

Weekend of Museums - Like a Tourist

As I've got some extra time in my hands, I've taken a chance to visit some museums! :)

On Thursday I had an intention to find The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, but then I missed the metro station. (Kropotkinskay and Komsomol'skaya DO make a difference... Oops!) After returning to the right metro station, I found the right street - but the wrong building. "The gallery you're looking for is the next one. Today it's closed though due to a performance held there", I was told in Russian. Time for plan B. I was looking for The Tretyakov State Gallery for a good while. I decided to take a break from walking by sitting in a cafeteria and finding out where to go. During my walk to the gallery I noticed that the gallery was ridiculously close to the metro station Tretyakovskaya and that I had passed it. I eventually found the gallery and enjoyed my visit. Finally I tried my luck for Moscow Manege, but they didn't take me inside anymore even though it was still open for two hours!

Tretyakov's gallery outside.

Finland's independence day was on Friday. What a great day to visit The Central Museum of The Great Patriotic War 1941-1945! (This is in Park Pobedy, which I visited with PK earlier). Actually there were hardly any signs of Finland, only a couple of maps where Finland appeared. You could spend a whole day in the museum. There is a park area which I didn't check because it's winter now, and I wouldn't have time for that. The "front yard" of the museum is already so large that it takes roughly 15 minutes to walk from the metro station to the entrance. (At least with my feet after the Thursday's adventures...) I also visited Anton Chekhov's home.

Power Rangers? The lights disturb a little, but you get the idea.

Anton Chekhov's working desk.

 On Saturday I had school, but on Sunday I saw Multimedia Art Museum and The Leo Tolstoy State Museum. I didn't take any photos in the latter one, but I added a couple of photos of contemporary art as a compensation ;)

Random Fact: Not Safe, Only Non-Dangerous

Russia seems to be a dangerous place, like, for real.

I ended up to my conclusion during the Russian class, when I heard that Russian language doesn't have a special word for "safe". It's just literally translated as "non-dangerous" (bezopasnyj).

:]

This and That and a Leaking Memory

I had to check what I've written last time. What a good memory I have!

This is my third week without lessons on Bachelor level, except for philosophy/sociology/whatever on Thursday afternoons. I've only had some Master-level lessons here and there, plus Russian lessons three times a week (!). Russian language studies are the reason why I particularly came to Moscow for this semester, so now I'm happier than ever. :) But anyway, I've had quite a lot of free time in my hands.

Due to a request by my older sister, I paid a visit to Semyonovskaya Pryazha, which is a shop for handicraft enthusiasts. There were shelves full of different types of yarns for knitting! The big disappointment was that most of the yarns were made either partly of fully made from acryl. After a careful research, I managed to find the yarns from natural materials. Alpaca. Mmm, so soft <3 (Sorry sis, I've forgotten to send the photos of your yarns!)

I made a discovery near my university. There's a really nice park in Yugo-Zapadnaya area near my university, perhaps 10-15 minutes of walking is needed to get there. I was astonished since I've grown on the edge of a forest and while staying here, I haven't seen nature for a long time :P

On Saturday, I was supposed to start a new course but it was cancelled due to teacher's sickness. To celebrate that, I went to State Historical Museum with my friend SK. I'm proud of myself that I survived well without taking photos all the time :)

And now I'm sitting in the library (my favourite place here <3), waiting that my evening class would start. Good thing I suddenly remembered during this afternoon that I actually have it.

Random Fact: Unity Day

There's a holiday in Russia on November 4th. I asked my classmates to explain the reason for this sign of generousity, - this university has no significant breaks during autumn semesters like my home university - but nobody could describe why this holiday exists. I decided to find this out by myself then.

Denʹ narodnogo yedinstva can be translated as "Unity Day", "Day of People's Unity" or "National Unity Day". Originally this day was celebrated in memory of year 1612, when Polish-Lithuanian occupation forces were pushed away from Moscow by a popular uprising, lead by Kuzma Minin and Dmitri Pozharsky. Other events celebrated are the ends of the Time of Troubles (1598-1613) and Polish-Muscovite War (1605-1618). The celebration of this day lasted till year 1917, when it was replaced with a commemoration of Russian Revolution on 7th of November. This holiday became also replaced in 2005 with 4th of November again, in order to have a holiday that would belong to all the nationalities in Russia.

Sounds confusing. No wonder Russians do not know about this celebration much. But at least we have one more reason among others to stay at home with a pure conscience and do nothing :)

(Sources: 1, 2)

Random Fact: Finns in Moscow

In 2010, there were 388 of us in Moscow. According to Wikipedia.
(This sum sounds ridiculous when the city has a total 11-15 million inhabitants...)

Long Time No Write

Considering my state of mind, my last two weeks have been kind of a rollercoaster. I have felt happy, sometimes nervous and at some times, I have had no idea what to think of.

The weekend before the latest, my friend PK from Finland visited me. Her visit brought a lot of joy to both of us. What a pity that she could not stay for longer than two days, but still we succeeded in having fun together :)

 Park Popedy and the sun.

 Sushi boat! I love sushi :3

 

Izmailovsky Kremlin. The sales tables are wonderful :) Antique, arts, handicraft works... <3

Over the last weekend, I was sick. Fortunately, I did have not had to skip too many classes since I have had some holidays during this week.

I have been thinking a lot of my future. As you know, I will graduate after leaving Russia. I have no idea of my future job, apartment or even the home town. Then, finally, I relized that it is not a proper time to think of those issues. It is way too early. Now I am doing my best living day by day.

My attitudes towards some issues have had to be changed. I will not provide any deeper information on the exact issues, but I can say that abandoning old negative attitudes and replacing them with new positive ones is really hard - but it can be done, if there is enough willingness for that.

I visited Dom Knigi at Arbatskaya on Sunday. I could have stayed there forever! Even though it is not the biggest book store in Moscow, I found it really atrractive with all the books and pretty notebooks available <3 And yesterday I visited the main post office in Moscow, Tsentral'naya Telegrafia. I have read that it would take 2-4 weeks for the post to deliver my post cards, but we will see.

So you can buy your homework in Russia? 8)

Note-to-self:
In metro, move to the door at least one stop before you are supposed to leave. Especially in rush hours. It is hard to get through the people. Asking Vy vykhodite? ("Are you leaving?") does not help much if there is no space to move. :)

Random Fact: Moscow Metro

My Advertising teacher told us that roughly 8 out of 11-15 million people in Moscow use metros every day. No wonder probkis occur so often. ;)

Random Fact: Phone Service

If you call to number 100 in Russia, you will hear what time it is. Per second increments.

This and That

My roommate thought that I was writing an essay. I thought so as well.

During the last two weeks, I have:

- Taken a look at the flashiest shopping centre in my life. Twice. "Vegas" is HUGE. And colourful. And it has everything you can imagine - even an ice ring and a Ferris wheel! During our second visit, the electricity went down a few times because of a band performance. So it was my first time walking in a shopping centre with no lights or music or working cashiers :d

Not all the corridors there look like this though!

- Been exercising. My aim is to go there three times a week, but somehow it seems to keep in only two times... Fortunately, walking in Moscow's streets can be counted as some kind of p.e. ;)

- Conducted career planning. This includes looking for a job (maybe I am too early, if I want to get a job starting from January 2014) and changing my future study plans every day. Maybe I just think too much.

- Seen a few peformances for the international light festival "Cicle of Light" with some international students. We saw Moscow Manege (funny that English page is actually Russian!) and Bolshoi Theatre worn in cool light shows.

Bolshoi Theatre shows some example! I was trying to upload a video from Moscow Manege but this plan fell down to technical issues :(

- Done a Russian language level test. I have not heard of my results yet, but I wish to get in Intermediate group.

- Taken my first exam in RANEPA. Only one more essay and I have also completed my first course in this school.

- Got familiar with the Russian customer service culture. Finnish customer servants are actually really nice. :)

- Seen the sun. The weather has now been way better in Moscow than before. However, the temperatures vary a lot, somewhere between 0°C and 14°C.

 

The following weekend is my second last without Saturday classes. I decided to take a couple of Master level courses after all since EP convinced us that they would not be hard. Let's hope so...

But I have another reason to look forward this weekend. My friend from Finland is coming to see me! Welcome to Moscow PK! <3

Alive

I have not updated for a while. That does not mean that I would have disappeared somewhere. I do not have much special to tell, except that I am here, alive, finding the routines for everyday life again. For example, my classmate KSH showed me the gym. My muscles will so be dead tomorrow.

The lessons are fine as usual (I even got my marketing course instructed in English as it was supposed to be). Since school is my only "work" at the moment, I am not that busy than before. I have been both working and studying since high school, so the current situation is like resting to me. For me it feels like both odd and relieving simultaneously :)

Since my schedules are loose and flexible, I have not needed to run anywhere. Now I just amble from a place to another, while I earlier I rushed from one place to another and got angry if something was slowing me down. Remember when I wondered the absence of wall clocks? Now I am actually happy for that. I have not needed to listen to the ticking sound since I left Finland (and I honestly hate that sound). One thing less to make me stressful.

And now: picture time!

NR and I visited the shopping mall Gagarinskiy, which is dedicated to Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space. We happened to go there at the best probki time.

For my pleasure, it is not raining anymore. The air is now sunnier but also chillier. We are looking forward October 10th, when the heaters will be switched on. Until that, we will have to deal with freezing cool room temperatures.

I did not imagine to see anything like this in my host university. I was so silly. I am in Russia anyway, so here everything is possible. Please check this beautiful example of Russian logic - whether to blame architectures or engineers is up to you - and have a great weekend! :)

Times Are Though, Huh, Bud?

Credits to Carl Barks!
Click here for the picture source.

I just could not avoid thinking of this evergreen quote in the morning. My roommate NR and I have faced here certain problems challenges, and we opened up about our last week to our international coordinator LK in Finland. I cannot tell everything here now, because later on it might lead to worse problems, but let me give some milder examples.

The language of instruction is...

I am taking a marketing course focusing on advertising. The course is supposed to be held in English.  The teacher SI said in the beginning of the class: "the principal of this school asked me to give these lectures in English. I do not understand why I should teach at a Russian university, to Russian students ( - adding "mainly" after hearing that I am not Russian), in English language". Then he asked the students' opinion about the issue, and even though majority of the class voted for classes in English, the teacher kept talking in Russian. During the class he repeated that he will explain later to me in English, but after class he offered me private teaching in English.

Excuse me? That teacher would save both his and my time by providing the class in English, as it should be. I heard from a student TK, who studied in my home university last spring, that the issue was the same last year as well. I sent an email to IS and also to our Russian-coordinator EP. Let's see what happens.

Chilly air

That is quite mildly said. Our dormitory is freezing. I heard from my classmate that on October 10th, the radiator will be switched on. Good old Soviet practices ♥ I am quite fine with the temperature (- thanks to my little sister who never keeps the radiator on even in the winter time!), but it is still quite annoying.

No student cards - yet

We have been waiting for our student cards for two weeks. We should get them next week. I hope so.
Now we heard that we cannot get the discount for metro tickets, because we are here less than one year. "It is the state policy", we were told. Later on, when I asked about it from RM, she finally admitted that it is the school's policy.

Internet is not working

Pretty self-explanatory. The Internet connection here sucks. The only website that properly works here is Facebook. And not even that always. And the Internet works faster with my phone than my computer. I always have problems with getting to my email, or read the news, because the connection is so bad. I have been able to open YouTube here probably twice or thrice. This would make whoever frustrated...

Am I in London or Moscow?

Because it is raining all the time. If it is not raining, it is so gray. In other words, the weather is rather depressing. I would not care if the weather was the only thing to be complained here.

What a pity...

With my roommate, we find this situation sad. We were really happy to get to Moscow, but at this point we are really disappointed in how the school has treated us. This I find especially pitiful because the lessons are, in my opinion, quite good (in most cases), and my classmates are really friendly.

LK comforted us as well as she could and told us that we will be stronger persons when we come back to Finland. Definitely. "What does not kill you makes you stronger". At least we will learn to fight for ourselves, if nothing else! :D

Something good?

Well, I saw the sun a couple of days ago. On that sunny day, we visited the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour with NR and her kind aunt. Then we took a ride in Moscow river by boat. I almost felt like it was summer again :)

And yesterday we got our extended visas. They will expire on December 25th, thus our return to Finland by Christmas is ensured ^_^

After all these complaints I want to wish you all a very nice weekend. [:

Crazy Circus + Shopping Time!!

Last weekend was rather busy, so I had no time to write anything. Now I am enjoying my second extra holiday within one week (- studying is hard indeed!), so I have time to explain shortly(?) what I have been doing.

Friday: Moscow State Circus

In the evening we went to see a performance from Moscow State Circus with NR. The circus squeezed a lot of things in three hours: gymnasts, dancers, jugglers and a variety of animals. The gymnasts did not have any safety nets, and only in few cases they used wires. What made me feel sick was to see guys jumping on a huge rolling metal... Thingie. Without any secures, of course.

The guys even had jumping ropes!

The most amazing thing was to see white tigers. Yes, the circus had two of them!

Saturday & Sunday: Shop 'Til You Drop

My friend NR told me, that in Soviet times, there were no shops like in today's Russia. Ordinary people had their own market places, where they traded whatever you can imagine. Sadovod continues this tradition inside a HUGE located on the edge of Moscow Ring Road (MKAD). NR's aunt was our kind guest on Saturday and Sunday. Спасибо большое!

Places like Sadovod require a full day for exploring. There are a lot of people around, so moving there is quite slow. Extra attention should be paid for bags, money and other valuable things carried. Salespersons usually take extra money from tourists, so foreign people should either know Russian or move around with a fluently Russian-speaking person. Salespersons are rather eager and may feel aggressive, so you really need to know what you want and what you do not - and also express that.

We took a marshrutka, the mini bus driving a taxi route between the metro station and the shopping mall. The atmosphere was, let's say, intense...

People squeezing into the marshrutka. My tip: do not hesitate elbowing.

The car was so full that it hardly moved forward!

During last weekend, I got a thorough experience of the Russian rush hour (probki). For example yesterday, when we travelled eight kilometres from Sadovod to Vykhino metro station, it took around 45 minutes.

The shopping weekend was a success for me. I found three jackets, gloves and a pretty umbrella (it has been raining in Moscow all the time!). Though I missed warm winter boots, but I hope I will have a chance to find them soon ;)

Ask, Ask, Ask!

My culture shock starts to get a little easier.

For instance, we noticed that Russians do not speak English unless you speak them English first. Our contact person RM started to speak English to us once I finally told that I do not understand Russian. Also, if you want to know something, you need to ask. Nothing is given in a ready package.

We had the beginning seminar in the morning. In Russian, of course. NR told me though that the things told were really general, like "do your homework", "do not cheat" etc. So nothing much informative. Classes start tomorrow.

Now I know my schedules, but only for this week. The school prepares them one week beforehand, because the lecturers are working while teaching in the university. In my home university, we know our schedules till the end of semester.

Funny thing is, that when we have tried to meet our international coordinator EP - we have asked to meet her three times - we were told that she is not even working in the office! Sounds confusing, because we have handled all our issued before coming to Russia with her. Our Finland's coordinator LK contacted her for us, and fortunately we will meet EP on Friday. So she does exist here!

We got our first new friend here: EW, the American Master exchange student. Her situation was even worse for her: she came to Russia all alone, and she does not know any Russian. I and NR were happy help her out.

With Ville Haapasalo's words: "Russia is a country where nothing works but everything will get arranged." My patience has been tested hard, but I am quite positive now :)

Here some pics from our exploration in Arbat in the historic centre of Moscow:

 "Fabergé eggs" in a souvenir shops.

 World leader matryoshkas!

A little more traditional matryoskas...

Cheburashka, the most famous character in Russian children's programmes.

 Fancy building in Staryi Arbat! I love old fancy buildings ♥

 Some paintings at Staryi Arbat.

Statue of Aleksandr Pushkin and his wife Nataliya Goncharova.

Frustration in the Air

My expectations towards this school were pretty high before arriving to Moscow. Now have been here for a couple of days, and my mind has changed totally.

At least the way we have been treated by this far is not good at all. We have not received any orientation. If we want to know something, we need to ask it ourselves. EP, our coordinator here, promised to send our schedules two or three weeks ago. We are still without our schedules – even though RM, the person taking care of us (some young girl, I do not even know of her position in the school) promised to send them on Friday. And later she said that the schedules would be sent on Saturday. And now when we called her she promised to send the schedules within one hour. Nothing happened. Our school starts tomorrow. How is this possible?

I was planning to take courses from Master level. I am not actually going to do that after all. The courses are in evenings and weekends, and if I am studying in Bachelor courses as well, I would not do anything else than study 24/7. No thank you. Maybe I will just do everything just like everyone else should: according to the schedules. The Bachelor courses are actually harder than in my home university, according to the Russian exchange students who spent last spring in Lahti. So why bother doing Master courses anyway? Maybe I should just keep everything as simple as possible... As far as I can.

Den' Goroda in Moscow

Moscow is celebrating its city day, Den' Goroda, this weekend. We went to Red Square and see what is going on.

At least there was Moscow Tattoo Convention, where military orchestras around the world are having concerts. The groups have had performances every day this week. They were marching on streets when we arrived to Red Square.

Hyvä Suomi!

We walked around shopping malls Okhotny Ryad and the world-famous GUM, which has been operating since 1893. Even though I could easily get bankrupt by just looking at the shops at GUM, at least I got to taste some soviet-time lemonade and ice-cream!

The floor of Okhotny Ryad and GUM in the evening. 

In the evening we spontaneously decided to see the performance of the orchestras - and I am so glad we stayed! They even had firework :)

Finally! The First Day in Moscow

Yesterday I hopped on the train from Lahti Railway Station at 7:11 pm and headed to Moscow. I had a great company escorting me to the station. Thank you for everyone who showed up! ♥

Right from the beginning, the journey has been full of surprises. For instance, the train cabin could not have been any smaller. The beds were only 55 cm wide, and the suitcases were problematic to get into their lockers. And that was meant for 4 people... Fortunately we shared the cabin with my friend NR only. The trip lasted 12 hours (I woke up several times during the trip but I still got some sleep), and we had time to drink a couple of cups of tea.

  

The train arrived to Moscow at 8:25 am in the local time. While Finland is still enjoying summer-ish temperatures between +15 and +20°C, here in Moscow it is only +8°C. Like the cool air would not be enough, today it was accompanied by a flooding rain... Even though the weather was not the most welcoming, we had a sympathetic old man picking us and our luggage up from Leningradskiy Railway Station. We experienced the probka, traffic jam instantly when we were going to our university. We had troubles with getting out from the parking lot because it was so stuck. The traffic culture makes no sense at all in Moscow: people walk over the streets when it is suitable for them, and cars just cut in where they fit. With NR:s words: "Russian traffic is a jungle. Only the best will survive." I actually felt really confident with our driver. He was a cool guy. :)

  Last photo credit: NR

I have not spoken a word in English today. Nobody here speaks English, I would be so lost without NR... I will owe her so much! Though my ears are getting used to Russian and no wonder: I have listened to Russian-speaking people all day long. Now the speech does not sound like mumbling in my ears anymore. I even managed to say something in Russian as well :)

Even though I have been only one day in Russia, I have already needed to face again with Russian sense of time.  We still have not received our schedules, even though classes start tomorrow, and actually I still need to do changes to my course selections. Things here take at 3 times more time than in Finland. If a Russian tells you: "it will take 10 minutes", reserving half an hour is not a bad idea at all!

Our apartment is located in a 25-storey soviet-time building. Fortunately we are only in the 9th floor. We do have a common kitchen here but alas, there are no dishes available! NR:s aunt was kind and promised to lend us some dishes. I will take pictures of our room after we have cleaned up here a little bit, but let's wait for the room pictures with some window view photos:

The "Green Chrystal" and our backyard.

I was so tired after this day I took a nap. Perhaps 4-hour sleep does not count as a nap anymore, but yeah. As I said, I took a nap. I am still really tired, so I guess I will sleep really tight soon. ;)