How did I change to the unexpected in Moscow?

Did Moscow surprise me? The answer is - yes and no at the same time. I heard a lot about Moscow before coming here. My parents lived for a while in Moscow (well it was 30 years ago). Several of my good friends visited Moscow recently and were able to tell me their opinion about the modern Moscow. Also when I’ve lived in Kazakhstan I heard a lot about Moscow as a center of influence on the post-soviet territories. Looking back I can conclude that a lot of things turned out to be as I have anticipated, but still the city had surprises for me.

In general I find people here to be relatively polite, with major exception sales persons. Such unprofessional sales personnel I have never seen in my life. No matter whether you buy a product, or inquire some information from a salesperson usually you will be disappointed with their rude responses. To deal with such situations I have noticed that the best tactic is to change the tone of your voice. If you get a rude response then adopt the command voice. Usually it works! As I understand it you have to appear assertive and confident in order for others, especially salespersons, to pay respect to you and, hence, be polite with you.

Accommodation and living expenses are exceptionally high in Moscow. Before coming here I heard that the city is famous for overpriced products and services (I believe it was ranked in 2007 as the most expensive city). However, the city was able to surpass all my expectations. Amazingly but I end up spending here more than I have used to spend in Toronto, while the quality of products and services that I get here is much lower than in Canada. As a result I had to restrict my spending. I did impose spending restrictions in the past, but this time it is different as I impose them not because of lack of funding, but because I don’t want to waste so much money for poor service and bad products. I am planning to keep records to see more precisely where the money is gone! That will be an interesting observation.

These were my ideas when I’ve asked myself a question: what did surprise you and how did you change? Looking at them one may say these are not huge changes. However, it is difficult for Moscow to surprise me because I have got used to live in a relatively similar environment in Kazakhstan, Almaty. But in my homeland people are much more polite and prices are relatively reasonable (I am not advertising Kazakhstan, but all of you are welcome to visit it). So these are the two not so pleasant surprises that Moscow had for me!

Several weeks in Moscow

My first three weeks in Moscow are over, so I would like to elaborate more mature thoughts about the city. As I already started writing about differences between cities I would like to continue this narration. But this time I will compare and contrast Moscow to Toronto.

It is difficult to compare Moscow and Toronto because they are completely different. If we look in general then we can say that Toronto is alike many modern American cities with tall skyscrapers in business downtown area and small building in suburban area. Meanwhile Moscow has different structure. It has a lot of small and historical buildings in its downtown area (Sadovoe koltso). Presence of soviet architecture is noticeable in the city. But the city is apparently in transformation, as it looses its authenticity and becomes more Americanized. There is a new business district located near the historical downtown of Moscow. It has new tall skyscrapers to attract foreign companies. Also to make it more accessible it was has a new subway line. In my opinion this is good and bad, as there are many arguments pro and against globalisation. As when we globalise we are loosing uniqueness, but at the same time gain access to the new ‘global world’.







Toronto (tall) vs. Moscow (wide)


If we look at micro level then we will notice more differences. I would like to elaborate more on Moscow recycling program or actually its apparent absence. Funny, but one of the first differences that were noticed by me was recycling program in the city. I saw some symbols of the previous attempts to introduce recycling. For instance, in the city-center (Sadovoe koltso) I saw machines accepting cans and bottles. Hence, it was a monetary attempt to attract citizens to recycling program. However, many of them seem to be broken and I have never seen anyone disposing a bottle or can in the machine. In reality for me it is more like a symbolic action rather than a real.

The first surprise is location of the garbage collecting machines. Why in the city downtown? It has no logic behind it. Those who live and work in the area are wealthy enough and few cents from disposing their cans and bottles won’t matter to them at all. Just simple presence of separate garbage collecting bins for bottles and cans coupled with city wide advertisement of recycling effort would make a difference. Those machines should be situated in poor areas where people might be willing to spend their time and effort to collect bottles/cans to dispose them. In my opinion it was waste of taxpayers’ money!

Living several weeks in Moscow presents me a unique opportunity to enrich my experience. I can see cultural, historical and social differences between Toronto and Moscow. The example of recycling program in Moscow allows me critically analyze different approaches used to tackle common problems. It gives me ideas of what can be successful and may not.

My first week in Moscow

Finally I am in Moscow!!! I am discovering the city and country for myself! In the past I have never been to Russia, but funny fact is that I was born in the country where once Russia and Kazakhstan were members. That is why I always feel that former soviet countries are my fatherland.

It was not surprisingly that I found a lot of similarities between Moscow and Almaty, my home town, but differences are also present. The biggest difference is caused by the size of the city. The only convenient and cheap way of transportation in the city is the subway system. If you need to get anywhere you will have to use Moscow Metro (subway). Traveling by car is not an option for a lot of middle income people. Surprisingly the Moscow subway system is very convenient and user friendly. Everywhere are signs and information boards about how to travel. However, it is easy to find directions only if you speak Russian (most of the signs are in Russian only). Trains are going extremely fast and noisy. On the other hand, it is not tidy and subway trains look old but it perfectly works. I like Moscow Subway for its convenience and distinct appearance.

Also I was impressed by the State Tretyakov gallery where I ended up spending more than 5 hours. It has a big collection of Russian fine art and a lot of art works have interesting stories and in general represent history of the land. In the 5 hour period I was able to enjoy great works of Vereshchagin, Aivazovsky, Rublev and at the same time to deepen my knowledge of Russian political, social and cultural transformation throughout the history. Also I was able to visit the famous Red Square, but wasn’t much impressed. I went there on Sunday afternoon and the place was full of tourists walking everywhere and taking pictures. It was so fake and unnatural that I decided not to act as everyone else and after taking a few pictures I put my camera aside.

These are my first impressions and thoughts about Moscow!

Amsterdam

My first stop on my trip to Moscow was Amsterdam where I was staying for 3 days. The city is gorgeous and I loved the night life :)) It was a lot of fun and new discoveries. This place is perfect for people who wish to party all night and discover paintings of Picasso, Van Gogh and sculptures in Madam Tussuad museum during the day time. Also I was lucky to see fields of tulips in Keukenhof park. I took amazing pictures and posted them on facebook.

Since it is my first entry I will keep it short and promise to write more in future :)