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