Spring cleaning

Spring cleaning is something celebrated all over the world, unless of course you live in the southern hemisphere. So like many of my observations of Moscow, I was walking home from our Metro station, through the park, over the river and through the woods, and…. wait a minute! I hear the sound of spraying. I looked over to my right. Is that for real? I see a guy spraying his car. But what was that in his hand? Spray paint? I don’t know if he was treating scratches, rust or it was just dirty (ha ha), but he was going to town on his “Lada.” I almost couldn’t hold in my excitement as I giggled with a sinister grin, “I can’t wait to blog this!”

A Lada is an old Soviet car that if you owned a car, the only thing different from year to year was the color choice (I suppose this guy was exercising his right to choose a custom paint job). No upgrades or improvements in the engine power, Lada’s are to Russian what the VW bugs were back in the 80’s: A hobby, fix it yourself with Bubble Yum, tinfoil and a coathanger when necessary, type of car. If there’s a car on the side of the road being worked on, it’s a Lada! Remarkably and against all reason, I’d love to own one! There’s something really cool and nostalgic about the design and old features. A man can still be a man and work on his auto, instead of taking it to the auto shop each time it needs a tune or an oil change. No computer chips here.

Anyway I stopped and snapped a photo without him being all weird on me, sorry you can’t see the actual can, but you can see he’s got it all taped off.

My brush with fame

The funny thing about Moscow is that it’s like D.C., N.Y. and L.A. all in one. It’s the capital, where everything happens in showbiz, and entertainment. One friday date night, Olya and I went to the mall down the street from my office to walk around, and then have something to eat. Little did we know that Russian MTV was filming some episode where this famous crazy man sssstylist interviews famous singers and stars in a big pink and red cube of a room. It’s very Russian MTV! Anyhow, I didn’t know this guy, but he’s supposed to be some kind of famous singer from Turkey. He actually spoke english well and seemed unfazed by “stardom.” So I was like, “ummm……cool! Let’s get a photo.”

Elevator Syndrome

You know the feeling of awkwardness that you feel when you are in an elevator surrounded by complete strangers? I realized this morning that that feeling has been normalized here. Moscow is a world of encountering new people each day as you take public transportation. That awkward silence you feel and trying not to get caught as you check other people out….is normal. I think that’s why they view anyone loud and attention-getting as suspicious.

The Godfather era lives

                                                   

I’ve always been fascinated by those greasy, stubble-faced, italian suit wearing mobsters from the Godfather movies. Even if they did illegal things, they were relatable and even charming in their own way, living in luxury and above the laws of ordinary people like myself. They drove expensive black cars and had entourages and ….wait a minute!!! I live in a Godfather movie.

Welcome to Moscow, where status, clothes, cars and “bling” is literally everywhere!

This friday, while Olya and I had our usual date in the center of the city, we walked around buying souvenirs and things for our family in Napa we will visit this thursday for two weeks. I was noticing more black Mercedes and Land Rovers than normal. These seem to be the car of choice for the “civilized” or newly bankrolled gopniks (google “Russian Gopnik” and you’ll know exactly what I mean). I’ll note that I almost got run over by a black BMW Suv while taking this photo. Oh the savage lust of the Russians with more money than they know how to spend it…. maybe on another black Mercedes.

Buy ‘em while you can

Although a new Russia is developing, some soviet practices are still in effect, like customer service….or the lack thereof. Another law at work in my dilemma this morning (tues.) was that it was raining and I wanted to forego my usual 10 minute walk from the Metro station to the office. So I thought, “well, yesterday’s closed ticket kiosk must have been a fluke. Surely I’ll be able to buy a trolleybus ticket today (with 10 trips on it)!” But no such luck! “What?” I guess the Lord is telling me that whenever the kiosk is open, I should buy as many as I can. Who knows when it will open again? Maybe in Summer? “ehh….Is problem.”

 

Overnight Spring

As I was walking to work this morning, something else struck my mind is how quickly the weather changed from bitter cold to pretty mild in just one week. Literally, the landscape has gone from brown and grey to green and grey….Ok, to some extent the greyness is due to the rain. But check out the carnage on the sidewalk. It was worms galore all strewn about, and no birds to be found! What’s that all about? I’d be like, “Free lunch! Woo!”

Pastor Bling

Most people could not afford good dental care in Soviet Times and so you saw many people with Gold Teeth??? I don’t understand this, but it’s true. I guess they wanted to keep their inheritance on their person. Anyhow, at church on Sunday we had a visiting pastor who received his dental work pre-90’s, so check out his grill. I saw 7 or 8 teeth, I think. I don’t know, I couldn’t really see with the reflection. 

After work-Moscow style

So yesterday, I’m heading for home, leaving the metro by our house, and at the top of our metro station when I saw the usual: various characters congregating (and I don’t mean like a church service). Plus, last night was particularly warm so you can imagine the scene. I wanted to get a picture of all the sketchy men with their 7 o’clock shadows, dressed in dark, we’ll call it mysterious clothing. They hang out after work smoking heavily, as if cigarettes will cease to exist the next day….more like their lungs! And they line up empty beer bottles on the railing. So, alcohol in hand, they loiter around the top of the metro station sounding tough, grunting at eachother, and starting the occasional fight (I saw one once…it beats the octagon and pay-per-view)!!! I thought about it 5 seconds too late to get a good picture…..not a good idea to stop and fish for your iphone while you’re being stared down. Needless to say, I didn’t want to get beat up! Maybe I’ll be ready and play it a little more incognito today.

Daily Route

In the morning, I walk 15 minutes to the Polezhaevska Metro (3 stations NW of the circle), the Pink line (7) to Pushkinskaya station (3rd stop) and switch lines to the Grey line (9) and exit 5 stops later at Nagatinskaya (3 stations South of the circle). I walk another 12 minutes to the Office, and then I invert this process to go home. Pretty exciting! Actually it is, and I get a lot of insight from travel. It’s about an hour each way, but I get to have time to read on the Metro, and being around different people has been really nice.