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. ;)

Should I Start Packing Now?

Two weeks are gone since my last update. In the meanwhile, I have

○ said goodbye to many, many people;
○ missed all those people I have said goodbye to;
○ moved out from my cozy cozy apartment;
○ re-chosen my courses to Russia (for example, I have chosen 5 ECTS worth of history studies in Russian, just to hear the language)
○ remembered my little sister's birthday (it is today, btw); and
○ wrapped my staying stuff nicely so that 1) I can easily just pack them to a car when I move again, and 2) flies and other bugs would not find their rest among my possessions.