9 July 2012 - At "Home"

Oxley and the beautiful floor

["Home" by Michael Buble - yes, again]

So I had seen selective photos of my new residence on the internet before I selected it (sight otherwise unseen), but photos and reality are, as always, not necessarily the same.  You can be assured that the doors that I featured in the prior post were not included in the photos - don't want to scare off people thinking they need that much padded cell security and all....

The apartment is a one-bedroom apartment and relatively spacious by European standards.  My favorite feature is the beautiful floors as shown in the photo (with modeling by Oxley).  Quite nice.  When I first moved in, there was a long (and quite hideous) runner in the foyer and hallway made out of some synthetic plastic-like fiber.  Not so nice.  But there was a nice, thick rug in the living room and another one in the bedroom.  Added quite a nice, warm touch to the place.

The bed is, unfortunately, not at all comfortable.  It is a platform type of bed, no box springs, and I still wake up most mornings with a sore back/body.  There is a flat sheet on the mattress rather than a fitted sheet, so most mornings I also wake up to the sight of the striped mattress peeking through at the edges where the sheet has pulled away.  There is one not-down-filled duvet available.  It is an oblong shape, so it can either fit across the bed, but not high enough to cover your feet and your shoulders (and I'm short!), or you can place it the other way, but then it wouldn't be wide enough to cover the entire width of the bed.  Not so nice, though I guess it's a good thing I don't have to share the bed with anyone!  Pillows are flat and uncomfortable, naturally.  Topping all of this is a groovy washed out looking crushed satin bedspread. Fabulous.

There is, surprisingly, a relatively large armoire/closet cabinet in the bedroom.  There's also an old-school TV that I haven't been able to figure out how to turn on either directly or through the remote.  And a desk that is small enough to be nearly suitable for a child with a rickety chair that would seem able to bear only the weight of said child.

Note positioning of shower head

The bathroom is a bit fascinating.  When I arrived, I was impressed by the thick comfy rugs on the floor as well as by the fact that the bathtub also included water jets for the Jacuzzi effect.  However, it is situated rather oddly, as I have tried to show in the photo.  It takes up about 75% of the end of the room, which required the use of a shower rod that goes from one end of the room to the other, but then leaves the back of the shower open without a shower curtain.  This wouldn't be an issue if the shower head were located at the front of the tub as one would expect.  Instead, the shower head is perched about 1/3 of the way down the tub and is on the back wall.   So you can either stand directly in front of the shower, giving you all of one foot or so of space and the shower curtain touching you on the back side (I HATE that!) or stand in the tiny 1/3 corner (also with shower curtain likely touching you) or stand in the 2/3 section with water spraying out the open end of the tub.  Classy.

One of the surprising things I discovered on my first morning is that, while this is a serviced apartment and can be rented by the day or by the month, there was only a bar of soap.  No shower gel, no shampoo, nothing.  I hadn't thought to bring anything from Frankfurt as I had assumed that the basis would be here.  So this required several forays out into shops in the area, in a not-so-clean/tidy state, to try and find some shower gel and shampoo (finally found something at Yves Rocher, where I had a chance of reading the French labels as there was no way I could figure out the Russian labels!).

The bathroom also hosts the washing machine.  As many who have lived in Europe will recognize, it also has a drying feature, though it really just kind of leaves clothes in a steaming pile rather than truly drying them.  So I've learned to use the drying rack I found in a closet and build in time for drying into my laundry routine.  But I have no idea what I would've done if there wasn't a washer in the unit, so I am pleased to have it.

The kitchen is relatively pleasant.  It is full of fine German appliances (Bosch and Miele) which immediately made me feel better.  Obviously, the addition of the Nespresso machine that I moved with me from Germany added immediate comfort and charm to the room.  Several deficiencies remain, however.  Recall that I would be living here for months on end and I do need to eat and I also like to cook.  A brief sampling of the issues:

• Knives that are more dull than I can begin to tell you.  I couldn't cut bread, let alone dice vegetables like tomatoes.  I couldn't figure out where to buy a knife sharpener for several weeks, which was problematic.  Smashed tomatoes, anyone?  (Hand shredding of tomatoes doesn't work well, either.)  I eventually found an affordable sharpener that gets you up to the level of sawing at vegetables.  Delightful.
• No spices or cooking oil.  I need to do a separate entry on foraging for food, but suffice to say that it is difficult to read spices in Russian and they generally don't have pictures on the packaging, so not as comparatively easy as many other food items.
• No measuring cups or spoons.
• No wooden spoon.
• No vegetable peeler.
• Just forget about there being a pizza cutter.

The other thing that I realized within a short time after arriving (again, this was in the middle of winter when it was ridiculously cold outside, even to a proud and properly winterized Midwestern farm grill) was that it was really hot in the apartment.  There was no central thermostat and there were no adjustable valves on the radiators that would allow me to staunch the flow of the wasted heat.  The only thing I could figure out to regulate the heat was to open the winters, which of course could only last for a few minutes before it was like being in the arctic.  And don't think I didn't ponder seeing whether the air conditioning units outside would function in the cold weather, being the creature-comfort-seeking American that I am.  It turns out that the window method is the method used.  The heat, going back to the good ol' days of the Soviet Union, are on for the entire building/area for a specified period of months.  No variation.  You will have much heat and you will enjoy it.  I guess better than the alternative of having no heat but it made for many nights of tossing and turning trying to figure out how to get a relatively stable temperature that was suitable to allow one to sleep for multiple hours.

After I had moved in, there were a few minor changes.  First, after the second day of servicing of the apartment, the rugs in the foyer, living room and bathroom were suddenly gone.  I found them rolled up in various closets and corners.  Hmmm....  Did the Lads do something while I was gone?  Not clear.  But the rug under the bed remained until sometime in May when, suddenly, it, too, was rolled up.  Very odd.

Additionally, while I never really use the phone, a couple of months into the experience, it was suddenly replaced with a newer looking phone.  Okay.  There was one point in time, though, when I had need of this phone (namely, that I had become separated from my BlackBerry for reasons we needn't go into here) as I needed to dial into a conference call.  No problem - there was a local dial-in number.  Except I couldn't dial in on this new phone because it is a PULSE DIALING PHONE!  Not joking.  I could dial the number, but then couldn't enter the pass code.  Seriously?!  Do they even make these anymore?  I kept looking around the base of the phone and the handset looking for a small switch that would move it from pulse to touch tone dialing, but no luck.  So instead I had to use Skype on my iPhone (there is WiFi in the apartment, I should note, but it doesn't really work in the kitchen) to dial into this call.  Not pleased....

Oh.  And the apartment came with one pair of slippers and a shoe care kit.  But, several months later, the slippers have yet to be replaced.  Lucky for me, I tend to visit hotels and have brought back some backups.

8 July 2012 - Approaching "Home"

["Home" by Michael Buble]

There did eventually come a time when, much to my chagrin, I had to move out of the Swissotel and start living on my own without all the careful tending and nurturing of their wonderful Executive Lounge staff.  The firm had arranged for a furnished, serviced apartment for the remainder of my stay here.   They provided links to three places on the Internet from which I could choose.  Two of them had dingy kitchens with a tiny eat-in mini-table whereas the third had something that looked like a real kitchen and a table that might seat four.  The third one also was a tad shorter in terms of commute to the office.  None were available for viewing as people were inhabiting them at the time, so I selected the third place, sight unseen.

The day that I truly moved to Moscow started off not very well.  I was flying on Aeroflot, not Lufthansa, so that will give you a taste of my feelings and discomfort.  And Aeroflot is out of Terminal 2, which I think I had only experienced once in my entire time living in Germany.  It's where, well, the "lesser" airlines travel.  You know, like Delta.  :-)

Anyway, I discovered that it is relatively quick to get through passport control etc. and I was ensconced in the rather odd lounge that was accessible with my Priority Plus card - a lounge that appeared to be primarily for Korean Air (but honestly I would have expected something more posh from them) and anyone else who had the misfortunate of flying out of Terminal 2.  (Which is to say, there wasn't even cheap sparkling wine available and pre-packaged types of food - though admittedly this was before I had experienced the truly ghetto lounge experience of the Amber Lounge at Sheremetyevo Airport (SVO for those trying to avoid that airport.))   Oddly, though, while you clear passport control, you don't clear security until you're at a set of gates.  But as I walked to the lounge, the lines seemed pretty short, so no big deal.

Around 10 minutes prior to boarding, I made my way back to the security line for my gate area.  The line, while not long, took FOREVER.  First, they were letting people go ahead of us who were late for a British Airways flight.  Then, in the midst of that, they closed one of the security lanes because it was apparently break time.  Nice....  More people into our line.  I was actually cutting it quite short on time when I finally made it through and headed to the gate.  The monitor in the lounge had said that I'd be flight out of gate 21 and there weren't overhead monitors directly overhead when departing security, so I was peering into the gate 21 area, but not seeing many people.  As I turned to walk out, I was stopped by a security team which said they needed to block off my gate area for security purposes and that I would not be allowed to leave.  "Um, but my flight isn't leaving out of this gate it seems and I need to find it."  Sorry.

I was NOT pleased.  Nor was I at a place where I could figure out which gate my flight was actually leaving from and how far away it might be, but it clearly wouldn't be from gate 21.  As we were sitting there and departure time was getting closer, I had to admit I was getting a bit frantic.  I called my assistant, Sanja, to see if she could check and see if there was information online about the departure gate.  Nope.  And it occurred to me that, since the flight had been booked by our Russian firm, that I had NO IDEA who I should call to rebook if I missed the flight and how this would all work out, particularly since this was a holiday in Russia.  As I was starting to freak out (a bit more) about not being able to leave on my final departure date (ironic, no?), I saw out on the tarmac an aircraft with the Aeroflot colors and people boarding it.  Ruh roh!  And behold there was more freaking out.

Then security came around and asked us to all please move behind the wall on the other side "for our own safety."  I'm thinking, "What, you actually found a bomb and it might go off?!"  But of course you can't voice such concerns in an airport these days.  But we dutifully went around the corner and into theoretical safety.  About 10 minutes later they FINALLY let us go.  I rushed out and it turns out that the gate for Aeroflot was next door, separated only by an impermeable glass wall.  Doh!  So I ran in, thinking it was already gone.  "Frau Priser?"  Yep.  Miraculously, there was another bus, which left with two of us on it who had been stuck in the secured area.  Suffice it to say, though, this was not what I had in mind for a nice, leisurely, controlled move to Russia.  Then again, "nice, leisurely and controlled" are not words that I suppose one frequently associates with Russia - okay, perhaps "controlled" in a different manner, but you know what I mean....

The rest of the trip was quite uneventful.  All of my six bags arrived, I was able to fit them on one luggage cart and (shocking to me) the piled-high cart did not cause the customs guys to pull me over as I had assumed was a no-brainer with that much stuff.  So I cruised through, the driver was waiting, all my bags fit into his small-seeming car and we were off.

The driver had the address and seemed to know where we were going.  Since I hadn't seen the place other than in pictures, I had no idea of what it looked like on the outside, only that it was about two blocks from Red Square.   We pulled up into some kind of courtyard and the driver spoke with some kind of security person who finally let us into a sort of courtyard which, well - how do I put this nicely - seemed very ghetto as we searched for the entrance/door to my apartment. See photo at left.

Home?  Seriously?

I kept thinking, "This is a corporate apartment.  Surely this isn't right...."  But the driver insisted it was.  The person from the corporate apartment company was supposed to meet us at the building, but there was no one in sight, which made me keep believing that something was horribly wrong and we were not in the right place.  I begged the driver to please stay with me, rather than leaving me and my six suitcases in the middle of this ghetto.  He did, thank goodness.  And the woman from the corporate apartment company showed up.  And opened the door pictured to the right.  And yes, that IS real simulated woodgrain vinyl.  

I didn't cry at this point in time.  That urge hit me as we entered the building and I was assaulted by the scent of what I can charitably describe as that of the subway.  You know what I mean....  Quite unpleasant.    Repeat, "This is a corporate apartment.  Surely this isn't right...."

What I learned later is that when the soviet times ended, people ended up owning their own apartments, but no one owned the common areas.  So no one cared. This tradition appears to continue.  I really don't understand it.  I mean, when your guests come, do you want them to smell subway in your building?  Seriously?  Do you want them to see the grimy stairs, the afghan that serves as a rug at the bottom of the entry well, the graffiti in the elevator that is only large enough for may be two people (assuming you are not freaked out enough by it to decline to enter, that is)?

So we schlepped my bags into the rickety elevator and onto my floor.  And any way you go, you will have to transport yourself and your stuff either up or down one flight of stairs to get from the elevator to the entrance of your fine dwelling.  The door to my unit turned out to be, well, padded with vinyl.  Brown vinyl on the outside, off-white (or dirty white?) on the interior.  With two sets of locks, a strange knob in the middle of the door.  It was unclear whether I was being committed with the padded aspect and the very, um, secure feel of it all.  But nevertheless, there I was.  In my new "home" at last.....

22 April 2012 - It wasn't meant to be a pilgrimage

Security check at the cathedral

There is a booklet in my apartment called, "Moscow Far and Wide:  Guide of 50 To Tours of Capital."  It showed up a little over a week ago and I assume was deposited by the people who clean/service the apartment (which, yes, I really do need to do a separate post about).  Anyway, it appears to be meant for travel organizers who want some ideas of where they can take people, rather than a detailed guide, but it nevertheless has some maps and how long they are, so I have started to just go out and follow them and see what I come across.  What I stumbled across today, though, was most assuredly not covered in the guide.  Well, not exactly.

I set out this morning to do the Kremlin Outskirts route that was estimated at 4.5 kilometers with an estimated walk/tour time of 3.5 hours.  Based on my previous tours with the book, the time is usually longer than what is needed, which I suppose assumes that the tour guides themselves would be adding commentary along the way that would take up more time than me just walking the path.  It was scheduled (for those who know Moscow) to start at the Smolenskaya Metro station and end at the Park Kultury station.  Now, the booklet is just a hair too large to fit into my small purse and I don't like looking like a total tourist carrying around a tour guide, so my solution is to take photos of the pages in the book (one half of the page is in Russian, the other is in English, so it's not that much content) with my iPhone, and then follow the map and read the related descriptions on my iPhone as I wander along, while also taking additional pictures of what I'm seeing with said iPhone.

Well, perhaps I should have taken a closer look at the quality of my pictures before I set out today.  Because what became apparently near the end was that the end of the path kind of bled into the margin and I hadn't opened the book far enough to get the whole thing when I took the picture.  So while I see to have seen all the items on the tour (except a chameleon in front of a modern office/apartment complex -- which I'm pretty I sure I saw except this feature -- that changes color with the temperature, maybe like those cool little weather owls we had back in the 70s)  it wasn't abundantly clear how I was supposed to get to the Metro to get home.  Hmmm....  But around this time, I saw the Peter the Great statue in the middle of the river that I had been meaning to check out, so I started walking along the building side of the embankment to try to get closer.  

On the other side of the road were metal barriers with police or military spaced regularly behind them.  It seemed like pedestrians were allowed behind the barriers, but I couldn't figure out how/where I could cross the street and get through the barriers.  So I just kept walking.  After my wandering, I was a bit tired and not walking all that quickly and I noticed that many of the people passing me were women with scarves covering their heads and dressed in their best.  Something about it made me think maybe there was some kind of religious thing going on, but I didn't think much more about it, until I saw a priest walk by.  And the others started speeding up.  Then I saw on the bridge across the river a whole bunch of people carrying flags or something moving across the bridge to an area that appeared to be ahead of us.  Hmmm....  I quickened my pace to see what was going on.

Priestly types and banners/symbols out on the street

Well, it turns out that Christ the Savior Cathedral (yes, the same one I mentioned last week regarding the big Easter celebration) was directly ahead and clearly everyone was headed there.  As I got closer (we were approaching from the back side of the cathedral it seemed), there were several magnetometers and lots of police.   It wasn't clear to me whether just anyone could go in or if you had to be part of an official procession or something going in, and I figured I would be turned away if I started asking in English what was going on, not to mention that all I had to put over my head was a black pashmina.  And honestly, I didn't want to attend a service of some sort of service that clearly was special to the Russian church members and be an intrusion.  So I hung out near the entrance and started watching people coming up.

It was fascinating.  There were a lot of people showing up with all sorts of beautiful banners that looked like they would be used in the services of churches.  But it was strange to see people getting out of cars with these.  Other people were carrying religious paintings and symbols.  And there were a whole bunch of priests in full priestly garments walking up the street to the entrance.  So I snapped a few pictures which you'll see here.  Overall, just fascinating.

When I got home, I tried to figure out what was happening.  It seems that this was not related to Easter, but was a kind of gathering to defend the religion and the artifacts of the religion that have been stolen and vandalized in recent months.   Regardless of one's religious persuasions, it saddens me to think of people harming things that are so special to others that are likely quite old and certainly aren't hurting anyone else.

I'm including a video link below that tells a bit more about the service, which apparently was HUGE when you look at all the crowds.   Accompanying text and photos also can be found at http://rt.com/news/russians-church-defense-service-668/

I also learned that Pussy Riot (a group of female musicians that have been staging impromptu and unauthorized concerts, generally related to politics) had done one of these things IN the cathedral back in February.  I have to admit, I'm not a fan of them doing it in that particular venue, though I do appreciate what they did in Red Square, which I suppose may be just as special to others.  While I like the energy of the girls, I admit that I am a bit offended that they would do such a stunt in such a sacred place.  Though I guess that Red Square is perhaps somewhat "sacred" in a political sense and I have no issues with them staging a concert there to protest the political regime.  I will nevertheless continue to follow what they are doing.

22 April 2012 - Springtime freshening up

Painted railing. Note drips on the bottom and overspray.

In the last week or so as it seems that winter has ended and spring finally arrived, I've noticed two interesting things that seem to be part of springtime freshening up around the city.

The first is painting.  Over the last week, I have noticed a strange (and unpleasant) scent that I couldn't quite put my finger on.  Then I nearly almost literally put my finger on it.  All over the city, metal and some concrete are being repainted.  I noticed this around my apartment/block when the big gates into the inner courtyard were nearly dripping with a fresh coat of black paint.  Some of the lines on the driveway were also repainted, though apparently immediately driven over.  The playground area metal was also repainted, in addition to the lower 5-7 feet of the buildings that are concrete but have a brown kind of stripe.   I noticed this near the office, too, where the railing next to the canal was rather wet-looking one day.

Freshly painted curbs & metalwork near home

I find this interesting for a few reasons.  First, there doesn't seem to be a problem with the old paint, other than that it is covered with a layer of filth.  Second, this results in a loss of clarity of (particularly in some metalwork) in the details and ornamentation with each subsequent slathering of paint.  And third, the manner in which the paint is applied is generally rather sloppy, in terms of making sure the paint isn't spilled onto concrete or surrounding rocks or other materials.

Powerwashing in action.  And what a difference!

The second area is powerwashing.  I saw this near my apartment starting last week and thought that it was just to clean off a sidewalk.  But I think it's more than that, as I have now seen a lot of water in the gutters and on the sidewalks and streets due apparently to powerwashing.  This includes not only cleaning of sidewalks, but also of the pastel-colored buildings and the difference is really quite striking.

Overall interesting and thought I'd share.

22 April 2012 - The Cloakroom

I haven't generally given much thought to closets at work for, well, perhaps ever.  In the offices that I have worked in in the US, we generally had coat hooks or a small closet in the cubes or behind the doors of offices, so I didn't have to think about it.  I also had a coat hook in my office in Frankfurt.  Of course, when you were visiting someplace in any of these locations, there was always a coat room by reception, so that was nothing new.  But the situation is slightly different both in our office here in Moscow as well as in Kiev.  This may or may not be driven by necessity due to our use of open workspaces for most employees.

Now, having a coat closet or cloakroom is in and of itself nothing incredibly interesting, I will admit.  But what is kept in this space and how the space is used is perhaps a different matter.

The coatroom during the day

Our office area is designed with the offices arranged around the outside and then in the center section there is a swath of enclosed spaces, including two small conferences rooms, the room with the copier, a long galley kitchen area (yes, where the fruit man delivers the busy season fruit!), and the strange cloakroom/bathroom area.  Picture a narrow corridor accessible from the hallways on both ends with coatracks on one side and doors to the restrooms on the other side.  It is rather dimly lit, tends to be a bit stuffy and doesn't always smell very pleasant.  It is also very narrow - two adults cannot pass by without turning to their sides to scoot by.  Not a place that I suspect claustrophobic individuals would fancy.  Normally this shouldn't be an issue as it's not as if there should be a huge bathroom rush and coat rush at the same time.  But there are two other considerations in our office.

First, because the majority of our people work in open spaces, there aren't many places to make a private call.  There are notes posted that personal calls should be taken in the huddle rooms, but those are always full.  So you find people making calls in stairwells and, yes, in this dimly light narrow corridor.  I can imagine few worse places to make a call due to (recap) not-so-pleasant smelling, sounds of bathrooms in the distance, in the midst of traffic when someone else enters this area and it's dimness.

The coatroom at night

Second, we must address the issue of snow and shoes.  I have said a few times, while watching Russian women teetering on ridiculously high heels but nevertheless moving forward rapidly, that I could not cut it as a Russian woman - I just don't have the high heel gene.  Or, perhaps the case is that I don't have a gene that would ensure that I do not cause permanent damage to my ankles when one of those stilts gets caught between the cobblestones and I take a massive tumble.

Nevertheless, women are wearing high heeled shoes and boots even in the snow as well as some Uggs and other footwear designed for the extreme cold, snow or both.  So when the ladies get to the office, they exchange the boots for their office shoes.  The cloakroom is where this change takes place and this tends to take a bit more space than hanging up coats, so it can get a bit congested.  The wet boots also no doubt lend to the, um, scent of the room.  This also leads to the interesting contrast of the cloakroom during the day and at night.  During the day, it is just packed with boots and big coats.  During the night it is empty except for all the office shoes waiting to be claimed the next morning.  I find it all fascinating.

One other interesting thing in the cloakroom and in society in general is the sheer number of fur coats and fur trim.   My perspective on this is colored, as always, by my experience in the US.  Chicago knows cold weather for a couple days, but I always laughed at women on the commuter rail who showed up with their big mink coats as soon as the hint of chill hit.  Totally a status symbol - "Look at me, I've got a fur coat and I'm wearing it just to go to the office, from which you should assume that I have even better ones for evening wear."  I wanted to just say, "Oh, and P.S., you know that it adds more weight than the camera and it looks really ridiculous with your running shoes that you're wearing to the office, right?" (A friend of mine has a habit of making animal sounds when women walk by in fur coats, which I have to admit I find funny in a juvenile way.)  Aside from these ladies, though, I mostly saw furs worn to evening events where the mink went really well with black tie formality.

What seems different here is that nearly everyone seems to have a fur, not just those at the executive levels.  And there are so many different types of furs, both in style and in the actual fur.  Many of the furs are light or medium brown, reddish or gray.  Very few minks.  There are also some furs that have some type of pattern burned into them in some way, which was also a first for me.  And add to this that most of the fur trim on other coats is real fur rather than the faux fur I'm used to seeing in the US.  All in all, it has changed my perspective on fur as it really makes sense here with the extreme cold and isn't such a big "haves v. have nots" thing.  I'm still not planning on buying one of them as I am usually too hot even in my cashmere coat and especially in the big down coat I got for here.  I admit, though, that I have given serious consideration to a fur hat I've seen some women wearing that basically covers the head in what appear to be white or gray fur with some longer, darker fur sticking out that is just fascinating - hard to tell whether it's someone with crazy highlights or something else.  Maybe they will be on sale now that winter seems to be over....

19 April 2012 - Snow Removal

Now that it has been over a week since we have received snow, I fear (yes, fear) that winter may be behind us and spring on the way.  So there’s no time like the present to discuss snow removal in Russia (or at least parts of Moscow) before I forget it entirely.

What should be stated at the outset is that Moscow knows snow and is prepared to address its arrival and removal at a moment’s notice.  I contrast this with Chicago where we had a fair amount of experience with snow, yet there always seems to be a lag between when it starts to snow and when the snowplows are out and when sidewalks are shoveled.  My experience at home and here at the office are that the snow removal crews actually seem to be out before I have even realized it has started to snow.  Quite amazing.  

Let me start first with home.  In the rather ghetto courtyard in the middle of our block that leads to my apartment, there are a variety of haphazardly parked vehicles but a general one-way thoroughfare.  When snowflakes begin to fall, this area seems to be immediately swarmed by a group of people armed in brightly colored vests (like the vests you must wear in Germany when your car is disabled (clearly not an Audi, which would not be so humbled) so you’re visible and not popped by passing motorists) with brooms and, sometimes, shovels.  The snow is removed before it has a chance to be trod upon and become slick.  There also appear to be chemicals or other compounds applied to the ground so that even after a large snow, the sidewalks appear dry.  Given the harsh weather that I have experienced, I don’t think this is simply the application of salt as it would be too cold for that, not to mention that there is no salty white residue left behind.  

These same types of bright vest-wearing crews are also out on the public sidewalks, albeit in slightly less density of numbers as compared to my home ghetto, which I guess means it’s not a ghetto after all (I have been meaning to do a posting on my neighborhood for a while and it will come out soon, promise!).  Generally, the public sidewalks are still in quite good condition.  However, due to the use of snow sweepers (more on that later) on the sidewalks, sometimes there is a thin film of residual snow which at times freezes over night and becomes ridiculously slippery.  The surface ends up having roughly the surface of, say, crepe soles on those hideous shoes from the late 70s/early 80s (yes, dating myself here, and I do realize crepe soles are still used in limited instances, but which also generally involve ugly shoes).  You might think that would then provide some sort of traction, but you’d unfortunately be wrong – it instead creates a type of slick surface that, when one falls, creates the most unusual bruising pattern.  Not that I’m speaking from experience, of course…. 

Snow removal at the office is a bit more complicated and fascinating.  Our offices are part of a complex of four buildings around a courtyard parking area.  The surface is, like much of Europe, covered in small paving stones that are hell on your heels (though if you’re sporting crepe soles, I’m sure it’s fine…).  This could also create some issues when the blade of a snowplow is involved since, of course, the stones aren’t all the same height.  So the plow would either have to be set high enough that it wouldn’t grab all the snow, or low enough that it would pluck up some of the stones.  Hmmm….  The answer (and likely for other reasons as well that are not unknown to a Midwestern girl who’s only used to seeing sub-zero (Fahrenheit!) temperatures a few days a year) is to use snow sweepers.

There is a little CAT type of vehicle that apparently has interchangeable heads, or perhaps there are multiple vehicles, though that wouldn’t seem likely given the cost involved and space available.  But in phase one of the snow removal, the CAT with a snow brush attached goes up and down each aisle in the parking area, creating a little line of snow down the middle of the aisle.  In phase two, the CAT returns with a bucket loader attached and scoops up this line of snow.  (Yes, I understand the potential double meaning of “line of snow,” but that’s the best way I can describe it and I can assure you this is an entirely different type of snow, otherwise Russia would have a quite different basis for its economic growth!)  

The scooped up snow is then loaded into the back of a truck/wagon and carted off.  I understand, but have not seen this for myself, that there are various snow-melting facilities throughout the city.  I wonder if perhaps this is similar to the machine I once saw at O’Hare International Airport during some heavy snows.  In that instance, viewed from the Admiral’s Club above the point where the H and K gates of Terminal 3 converge (Chicagoans know what I’m talking about here), a large vehicle about the length of a tractor and trailer pulled down into the area directly beneath me.  Next to it was a gigantic pile of snow, which I assume had been cleared from the gate areas and couldn’t be pushed out into the runway areas, so it was kind of stuck there, with baggage carts and other ground crew and vehicles cruising around it.  The vehicle was carefully positioned and I could see through the open top of it that there appeared to be some kinds of metal spikes or poles sticking up in the bed of the vehicle.  Odd.  Then a certain CAT type of vehicle approached with bucket loader attached and started transferring the snow from the pile into this open bed.  I assume that the spikes/poles were heating elements of some sort because as soon as the snow was dumped in a huge cloud of steam rose out of it that the entire area in front of me was just whited out.  It cleared a bit after enough snow had been dumped in, and I could see that water was gushing out of the bottom of the truck directly into a drainage grate over which the truck had been positioned.  Fascinating.  So I’m think there’s some industrial version of this type of melting machine located at various points in Moscow to keep all the snow under control.

Anyway, the snow removal efforts here by the office have provided many moments of entertainment during long conference calls and the like.  I will miss it!

15 April 2012 - Russian Orthodox Easter

A tasty cake/bread with raisins for Easter

The Russian Orthodox church follows the Julian calendar, which creates differences in when Easter and Christmas are celebrated, so this year Easter was celebrated last weekend in most of Christianity but is celebrated today by the Russian Orthodox church.

I was curious whether there might be other differences in the celebrations and there do appear to be a few noteworthy aspects.  Let me say in advance, though (and in case it wasn't clear from my last post), that I am not a Catholic so some of the things that I may note may not be different from how non-Russian Orthodox Catholics may celebrate the holiday.

The biggest difference seems to be that the big celebration is not on Easter Sunday but the night before.  I had heard a bit about this celebration from a colleague (you may recall Larry from a previous posting) this week.  It came up as his birthday was this past week but he said he wanted to celebrate it next week because this is a special religious week.  I'm not sure whether that is a reflection of Lent still being in effect (it is apparently a seven week period here) and thus he couldn't indulge in cake or something else.  Anyway, he had mentioned that Saturday night was the big deal and he noted that the biggest celebration would be carried online on all the major channels and they culminated in the opening of the cathedral doors around midnight.  I was intrigued and wanted to learn more.

The celebration begins a bit before Saturday night, though.  A flame from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem is flown to Moscow and is known as the Holy Fire.  I am curious about the logistics of having a fire aboard a plane, I will admit.  Anyway, this Holy Fire is used to light a bunch of candles, which the patriarch and other priests/officials take outside with them.  They then walk around the church, and approach the cathedral doors and enter as the bells chime that it is midnight.  The remainder of the audience is still inside the cathedral during this time.  The patriarch then goes to the front and proclaims that Christ is risen, while swinging the thurible.  The crowd responds back as he says this several times.

As far as I can tell, the remainder of the service seems to be a regular mass with all the traditions, beauty, music, ornate vestments and pomp that one would expect of an important holiday.  I believe that the service that was broadcast is the largest service in Russia and perhaps the world.  It was held in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior (which has an interesting history of its own) and was attended by over 6,000 people.  Russian President Medvedev and Prime Minister (for now) Putin were in attendance and apparently (I didn't catch this part, so perhaps it was performed off-camera) exchanged Easter eggs with Patriarch Kirill who led the service.

A very interesting event that, of course, makes me wish I could understand Russian.  The following link provides a bit more background if you're interested and some photos and video links from the event.  Russia Today's article on Easter

This video link also provides some background.



One other thing that I have learned about the season through my grocery shopping, is that little cakes with some icing and other decorations appear to be popular for the season.  I bought the one pictured at the top of this blog and devoured it this morning.  Quite tasty and apparently a traditional cake/bread made with raisins.  It tastes like a braided bread my Mom makes at Christmas called Houska.  I looked that up today and it appears that Houska is a traditional Czech bread often made for Easter.  Who knew?