I’ll be putting a few pictures of the elevator in our apartment here in Москва on my Web site. As you’ll see, it dates back to the Soviet era when the building was first put up, I’m guessing in the 50’s or early 60’s. This thing is a man eater or limb snatcher and seems to have a mind of its own.
Its floor area is about 1 meter by 1 meter (actually a little less) and a little over 2 meters high. So it’s about the size of a coffin which is appropriate because when you get in it you sometimes, often times, feel like you might die – this just might be your last day!
I used to think it was some wise guy in the building who’d push all of the buttons (we have 9 floors in our building; we live on the 5th) making you stop at every floor. We realized that every so often, for no apparent reason, when you push the button for your floor all 9 light up making it a local. Sometimes only a few light up. Sometimes when you push the button to go to the ground floor it goes up. This happened to us today. We pushed the button to go down to the parking lot and it ascended to the 9th floor and just stopped. It seems to like hanging out on the 9th floor for some reason. It does this quite often. When we stopped nothing happened. The doors didn’t open and when we pushed a button to go down nothing happened either. Thinking that we were trapped we realized that neither one of us had our cells phones so it might a while before we got out. This happens in all 9 elevators in our compound and we know of people who’ve been trapped. We then pushed the door open button and to our surprise (and relief) they did! We decided to walk down the 9 flights of stairs grateful that we weren’t going to have to spend the night there. About 20 minutes later when we returned we pushed the button to call for the elevator, got in and pushed the button for the 5th floor and were delivered there – no problem. This happens often. Sometimes you’ll push the button to call the elevator and you’ll hear it groaning but it never stops at your floor...to the stairs again.
The doors of the elevator that Nancy refers to as a cranky bitch, are equal in size and come together in the center. Sometimes, but not always, when you’re half-way in the doors snap shut quickly kind of like the jaws of a man-eating shark. Sometimes it grabs your whole body, and sometimes a leg or arm gets caught. There isn’t a sensor like in modern elevators that make the doors open if something or someone gets pinched between the doors. Once you’re stuck you have to push off the doors with your full body weight to force them to open. And then there are other days when you push the button and the doors open giving plenty of time for even 2 people get in. One of these days were going to get in, see a pool of blood and wonder “Which one was it, an arm or a leg that was devoured?
About a third of the time it just stops working all together. No lights, no groaning, no nothin’ When this happens 2 guys in blue overalls come with a crowbar, force the doors open, use the crowbar to giggle something inside and everything is back to normal - no problem.
I’ve mentioned in previous posts that life here is Москва is tough when you’re new and don’t know the language. We knew this when we signed up to come here. What we didn’t know was that we’d have to do battle almost daily with an old, cranky, mind of its own, bitch of an elevator. Always the unexpected…
До следующего раза ...
Борис (Boris)
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Just Took Delivery
in Москва
September 21, 2011
Well after about 4 weeks of endless paper shuffling, multiple times back-and-forth to the US Embassy, a couple of false starts and an infinite amount of personal patience (not my strongest quality – although better than Nancy’s) I drove our new car, a 2000 Nissan Almera gray 4 door sedan out of the motor pool parking lot. I immediately drove into a gut-wrenching traffic jam that would make a hardened New York commuter cringe.
The car has a couple of dents and a few small rust spots and the interior will need a little work but for $3200 it was a steal. I drove it off to work this afternoon and instantly ran into another crushing jam-up. I had mentioned in a previous post that you can sometimes see cars stand still for multiple red-green cycles before moving a few meters. It was one of those until I got on the highway and then it was clear sailing. The ride home was a piece of cake.
The concept of synchronized traffic lights has not been embraced by Москва. It seems like someone went out of their way to make sure the lights blinked on and off randomly to maximize traffic congestion. There are many Москва police officers about, especially during rush hour, but they never seem to intervene. They just stand on the corner and take in the sight of a massive 6-lane wide tangle of cars all moving close to 0 km/hr.
The word aggressive understates Russian drivers by an order of magnitude unseen in the US. Words like viscous, brazen, maniacal and brutal seem much more appropriate. They make New York or New Jersey drivers look like little old ladies going to church on Sunday. One thing that is the same is the use of horns. There can be 10 people in front of you huddled at a red light with the guy behind you leaning on his horn, cursing you out while giving you the finger. Luckily for me, after crawling down the FDR drive in NYC for more than 20 years I ignore the jack-ass behind me just like I do in the US.
Our car has a 5-speed manual transmission but in and around Москва the last 3 speeds are wasted.
We plan on using the car mostly on weekends to explore and go out to the big malls to stock up on supplies. The Megamall we go to has a Walmart-like store although 3 times as large as we’re used to, an IKEA and a Home Depot-like store called, or at least pronounced “OBI” Once we wonder out into the suburbs I’ll let you know how it is. And yes, I did buy a GPS. We just need to find out how to input Gruzinsky in Cyrillic. If you know please call me. Stay tuned…
The car has a couple of dents and a few small rust spots and the interior will need a little work but for $3200 it was a steal. I drove it off to work this afternoon and instantly ran into another crushing jam-up. I had mentioned in a previous post that you can sometimes see cars stand still for multiple red-green cycles before moving a few meters. It was one of those until I got on the highway and then it was clear sailing. The ride home was a piece of cake.
The concept of synchronized traffic lights has not been embraced by Москва. It seems like someone went out of their way to make sure the lights blinked on and off randomly to maximize traffic congestion. There are many Москва police officers about, especially during rush hour, but they never seem to intervene. They just stand on the corner and take in the sight of a massive 6-lane wide tangle of cars all moving close to 0 km/hr.
The word aggressive understates Russian drivers by an order of magnitude unseen in the US. Words like viscous, brazen, maniacal and brutal seem much more appropriate. They make New York or New Jersey drivers look like little old ladies going to church on Sunday. One thing that is the same is the use of horns. There can be 10 people in front of you huddled at a red light with the guy behind you leaning on his horn, cursing you out while giving you the finger. Luckily for me, after crawling down the FDR drive in NYC for more than 20 years I ignore the jack-ass behind me just like I do in the US.
Our car has a 5-speed manual transmission but in and around Москва the last 3 speeds are wasted.
We plan on using the car mostly on weekends to explore and go out to the big malls to stock up on supplies. The Megamall we go to has a Walmart-like store although 3 times as large as we’re used to, an IKEA and a Home Depot-like store called, or at least pronounced “OBI” Once we wonder out into the suburbs I’ll let you know how it is. And yes, I did buy a GPS. We just need to find out how to input Gruzinsky in Cyrillic. If you know please call me. Stay tuned…
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Follow-up: Parking in Москва
September 20, 2011
For the past 2 weeks construction workers have been working on a section of road next to our apartment compound. The road is called Gruzinki. The workers have been tearing up a good bit of the sidewalk to add additional parking spaces. This of course will only attract more traffic that will further contribute to the gridlock I mentioned in the previous post.
Heavy equipment carved out the additional spaces and curbing has been installed and the areas have all been graded smooth. There is a slight bit of asphalt laid down but clearly the paving has not been finished. There are construction barriers placed in front of the new parking spaces obviously indicating (at least to me) the project is still ongoing.
As you might have guessed drivers have already wiggled between the barriers and parked and already filled the spaces. You might have also guessed they’ve parked their cars perpendicular to, diagonal to and parallel with the curb…as usual.
The addition of more parking and more congestion has certainly improved the neighborhood …gridlock persists…long live gridlock!. And of course, pedestrian traffic is now reduced by at least half…now we have sidewalk gridlock. Progress…
Heavy equipment carved out the additional spaces and curbing has been installed and the areas have all been graded smooth. There is a slight bit of asphalt laid down but clearly the paving has not been finished. There are construction barriers placed in front of the new parking spaces obviously indicating (at least to me) the project is still ongoing.
As you might have guessed drivers have already wiggled between the barriers and parked and already filled the spaces. You might have also guessed they’ve parked their cars perpendicular to, diagonal to and parallel with the curb…as usual.
The addition of more parking and more congestion has certainly improved the neighborhood …gridlock persists…long live gridlock!. And of course, pedestrian traffic is now reduced by at least half…now we have sidewalk gridlock. Progress…
Sunday, September 18, 2011
On Traffic and Parking
in Москва
September 18 2011
Many years ago when we were in Rome I used to think the traffic there was the worst I’d ever experienced. The streets were very narrow and cars drove very fast – pedestrians didn’t seem to have a chance.
In the 90’s when we when lived outside of Taipei for a little while my opinion changed. It wasn’t that cars drove fast - they couldn’t because the traffic was always a mess. No one seemed to pay much attention to rules like keeping to the right or not getting stuck in an intersection after the light changed. In fact, the only “rule” seemed to be: Whoever got there first would fill up any available space. It didn’t seemed to matter whether you were on the right or left side of the street. Sidewalks were mostly impassable for pedestrians since they are used as parking lots for motor scooters of which there are thousands - millions. At the time I think I remember hearing there were about 6 million motor scooters on the road on an island with a population of about 21 million. If you were walking you had to walk in the street because the sidewalks were always clogged with scooters.
Now that I we’re living in Москва I’ve changed my mind again. During rush hour, which seems to be most of the day, except for Sundays, streets are literally gridlocked. You can stand on the sidewalks and watch lights turn green and then red and then green again without a single car moving, making a turn or anything else. While left turns are not outlawed no one makes one because of the gridlock.
I’ve been paying special attention to these rules and behaviors because this coming Tuesday I’ll be driving the car we bought about 5 weeks ago (more on buying a car and getting a Russian driver’s license in a future post) from the US Embassy. I’m trying to figure out a route from the Embassy to our apartment compound that doesn’t require left turns. I’ll be picking the car up at 18:30 – rush hour – wish me luck…
In the 90’s when we when lived outside of Taipei for a little while my opinion changed. It wasn’t that cars drove fast - they couldn’t because the traffic was always a mess. No one seemed to pay much attention to rules like keeping to the right or not getting stuck in an intersection after the light changed. In fact, the only “rule” seemed to be: Whoever got there first would fill up any available space. It didn’t seemed to matter whether you were on the right or left side of the street. Sidewalks were mostly impassable for pedestrians since they are used as parking lots for motor scooters of which there are thousands - millions. At the time I think I remember hearing there were about 6 million motor scooters on the road on an island with a population of about 21 million. If you were walking you had to walk in the street because the sidewalks were always clogged with scooters.
Now that I we’re living in Москва I’ve changed my mind again. During rush hour, which seems to be most of the day, except for Sundays, streets are literally gridlocked. You can stand on the sidewalks and watch lights turn green and then red and then green again without a single car moving, making a turn or anything else. While left turns are not outlawed no one makes one because of the gridlock.
Parking along the street in Москва is interesting also. You can walk along the sidewalks but it often means weaving between parked cars. Parallel parking along the street does occur however among the cars parallel-parked you’ll see the nose or tail of a car wedged in at angles. Many times one or two wheels are bumped up over the curb either diagonally or perpendicularly to the curb. In some spots the entire car is parked up on the sidewalk even in parks and on what in the US would be called safety zones where two streets intersect. On my site (http://www.andrewmcdonoughphotography.com/russia.htm) is a brief 5 frame slideshow showing some the parking options you have here in Москва. The file is called: parking.exe. The parking rule here seems to be “If there’s a space between cars, fill it anyway that you can – no problem.” If you live in a city like New York within an hour your windshield would be filled with so many tickets you couldn’t see through it or worse, your car would be towed to a pier along the Hudson River tickets flapping in the breeze. Not so in Москва.
I’ve been told by several people that the police can write parking tickets but they probably won’t. If they write a ticket and the recipient knows someone in the police department or government they’re afraid of being reamed out by their superiors or worse, fired.
Crossing a street in Москва can be a challenge too. At intersections and every so often along the streets are striped areas that in the US are called “safety zones” If you’re on foot and crossing in one, in theory, cars, buses or trucks are supposed to stop for you while you’re crossing. The trouble is only about 2 in 5 drivers observe this rule and speed by, if there’s no gridloack. If you cross the street elsewhere, as I’m used to doing in New York – you’re fair game – let the walker beware! Sometimes this is not a problem. If the street is in total gridlock (see above) it really doesn’t matter – just wind your way between the car bumpers and you’ll get to the other side.
Street lights take a bit getting used to here. They look the same as those in the US – red on top, orange in the middle, green below. There are also walk, don’t walk signs usually at intersections. It’s their blinking pattern you have to get used to. In New York after a few seconds of constant green there will be 10 blinks of the walk sign before the orange and then red light changes. In other cities you get 12 or 15 blinks. In Москва it’s different. After the green light is on for a few seconds the walk sign blinks twice – just 2 times – after that you’re fair game.
I’ve been paying special attention to these rules and behaviors because this coming Tuesday I’ll be driving the car we bought about 5 weeks ago (more on buying a car and getting a Russian driver’s license in a future post) from the US Embassy. I’m trying to figure out a route from the Embassy to our apartment compound that doesn’t require left turns. I’ll be picking the car up at 18:30 – rush hour – wish me luck…
Andy
Friday, September 16, 2011
Москва
On Boris and Natasha
September 16, 2011
In my introductory message yesterday from Москва I made reference to Boris and Natasha. I’m the supporting member of our team (Nancy and me) here known as a trailing spouse in the officialdom of AAS (http://www.aas.ru). By the way, I take no offense at this designation – it is precisely what I am. In that posting I said I’ve taken on the rolls of Natasha the housekeeper and Boris the chauffer (at least once we get the car) and all-round maintenance man. In using these 2 names I wanted to make it clear that I didn't us them in a mocking or disrespectful way. If fact, I have known a number of people named Natasha and Boris over the years. In the late 80’s and early 90’s we had quite a few Russian students at NYU named Natasha and Boris who were perfectly lovely people. Here in Москва I know people by these names right now.
When I was a kid growing up in the early 60’s there was a “cartoon” show on TV called “The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show” (http://www.hulu.com/rocky-and-bullwinkle-and-friends; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rocky_and_Bullwinkle_Show ). Rocky was a hero-type flying squirrel and Bullwinkle was a side-kick moose. Their arch enemies were Natasha and Boris Badenov who had Russian accents, and while never stated, they were clearly supposed to be Soviet spies attempting to over-throw and outdo R & B.
On its face Rocky and Bullwinkle was a kids’ cartoon show that was somewhat like a slap-stick program something on the order of the Roadrunner and Wiley Coyote. Am I bringing back any memories for you 60-somethings? There were also side characters such as Dudley Do-right and others. In fact, the show was not a kids’ program at all but a satirical look at the relationship between the US and the then USSR. Parents, if they could bring themselves to admit it, watched the show too. If you are of this era you’ll remember the US were the good guys and the Soviets were the bad guys who always wore black as did Natasha and Boris. Recall Ronald Reagan’s “evil empire” quote when he was president.
As I got older I came to realize satire for what it is (some of my former students at NYU will attest to my use of satire on days I just didn’t think anyone was listening about anterior compartment forearm muscles) and for as long as the show aired I watched every episode as did, I suspect, a lot of grown-ups. In fact, I would watch it again and I have a little bit – you can still find references and clips on the Internet (see above). Some of the comments were and still are hilarious and biting at the same time. I’ve posted a picture of Natasha and Boris on my site if you (you know who you are) forget what they looked like.
As it turned out, Natasha and Boris were my favorite characters which is how I’ve come to use their names in my first Москва post. So as you can see I’m rather fond of the names Natasha and Boris.
Andy
When I was a kid growing up in the early 60’s there was a “cartoon” show on TV called “The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show” (http://www.hulu.com/rocky-and-bullwinkle-and-friends; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rocky_and_Bullwinkle_Show ). Rocky was a hero-type flying squirrel and Bullwinkle was a side-kick moose. Their arch enemies were Natasha and Boris Badenov who had Russian accents, and while never stated, they were clearly supposed to be Soviet spies attempting to over-throw and outdo R & B.
On its face Rocky and Bullwinkle was a kids’ cartoon show that was somewhat like a slap-stick program something on the order of the Roadrunner and Wiley Coyote. Am I bringing back any memories for you 60-somethings? There were also side characters such as Dudley Do-right and others. In fact, the show was not a kids’ program at all but a satirical look at the relationship between the US and the then USSR. Parents, if they could bring themselves to admit it, watched the show too. If you are of this era you’ll remember the US were the good guys and the Soviets were the bad guys who always wore black as did Natasha and Boris. Recall Ronald Reagan’s “evil empire” quote when he was president.
As I got older I came to realize satire for what it is (some of my former students at NYU will attest to my use of satire on days I just didn’t think anyone was listening about anterior compartment forearm muscles) and for as long as the show aired I watched every episode as did, I suspect, a lot of grown-ups. In fact, I would watch it again and I have a little bit – you can still find references and clips on the Internet (see above). Some of the comments were and still are hilarious and biting at the same time. I’ve posted a picture of Natasha and Boris on my site if you (you know who you are) forget what they looked like.
As it turned out, Natasha and Boris were my favorite characters which is how I’ve come to use their names in my first Москва post. So as you can see I’m rather fond of the names Natasha and Boris.
Andy
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Moscow (Москва), Russia
September 15 2011
Well, it has obviously been a very long time since my last entry in this Blog. And, a lot has happened since the last entry. I’ve left Seton Hall University after a brief 3 year stay. Counting the 32 years I spent at NYU I decided 35 years in the university business was enough. So, as of June, 2011 I guess I have retired from university life. Nancy retired from public school teaching (Tenafly, NJ) a year before I left Seton Hall having put 36 years in and spent her first year in “retirement” planning what we’d be doing in Chapter III of our lives.
The big change for us is that we are now living in downtown Moscow, Russia for at least the next 2 years. Nancy was still interested in teaching; not so for me, so she landed a teaching job at the Anglo-American School of Moscow (www.aas.ru). AAS is affiliated with the US Embassy and many students are children of diplomats and business people working in Moscow. Children from the Canadian and British Embassies also attend AAS. The school goes from pre-K 3 years olds (this is Nancy’s program) all the way through high school which offers an international baccalaureate program. The school is an amazingly well endowed complex. I’ve posted some photos of the school if you’re interested on my Web site: http://www.andrewmcdonoughphotography.com, then click on the “Russia” link.
Nancy was hired to resurrect a pre-K 3 year olds program which has been dormant for several years. She’s been developing the entire program with 2 teaching assistants. Tomorrow (Friday) will be the second full week where her kids are in school for the entire day (8:30-15:30 – note the time format). She’s already done a remarkable job although 3 years tend to wear her out more so than her 2nd graders ever did. She comes home beat every night. If you know Nancy she rarely goes to sleep before 12:30 until now – by 23:00 she’s in bed and out like a light.
As for me I’m “working” at AAS in the after-school programs. I am (will be – I start next week) teaching photography to middle and high school students (2 separate groups) and a high school woodworking class.. If you know me I’m an ardent photographer (URL above) and I’ve been a woodworker since I was in grammar school. I was, at one time a long time ago, a carpenter foreman building houses. So, I’ve pretty much got it made “teaching”. Nancy has the real job and I’ll be “teaching” what I like to do most having NOTHING to do with human anatomy or college/university kids. Because Nancy is the bread-winner of the family I have taken on the roll of Natasha the house (apartment) keeper and Boris the chauffer and all around handyman – more about this is future posts.
So here we are living in Moscow for the next 2 years. AAS has some rather liberal holidays so we plan to use Moscow as a travel hub. And, we’ll be back in the US occasionally as well.
My plan for this blog is to write about US people (us) living in Russia where very few people other than our colleagues at AAS speak English And as I think you’ll come to see the Russian culture is very different from our own making for some major (and minor) challenges. For the first few weeks we’ve been here I averaged being lost about twice a day – sometimes on the street and sometimes on the Metro (subway). Not knowing the language sure makes things exciting when you’re trying to get oriented to a new city and country
Russian is based on the Cyrillic alphabet with some letters that have English equivalents and a bunch that do not – 39 letters in all. More on the Russian language in future posts but let me give you one common example. In Cyrillic “Cnachбo” (pronounced ‘spa-see-ba”) means “thank you or thanks”. While many of the letters look like they are in English they aren’t so reading and speaking words and phrases is very tough. At the moment I have about half a dozen words/phrases that I can say/read and this includes “yes’ and “no”. The whole alphabet looks like this: А, Б, В, Г, Д, Е, Ё, Ж, З, И, Й, К, Л, М, Н, О, П, Р, С, Т, У, Ф, Х, Ц, Ч, Ш, Щ, Ъ, Ы, Ь, Э, Ю, Я so you can see I’ll be needing more than a few lessons in Russian – we start classes next Tuesday – wish us luck.
Some of the things I plan on writing about include: the Russian language, our apartment, getting a driver’s license, buying a car, parking, traveling on the Metro, getting lost, security guards, high-heels and more. Hopefully, I’ll have a lot more material to post this time around. I hope you find it interesting – we sure do and notwithstanding a lot of challenges we’re having a great time here – stay tuned…
Cnachбo,
Andy
The big change for us is that we are now living in downtown Moscow, Russia for at least the next 2 years. Nancy was still interested in teaching; not so for me, so she landed a teaching job at the Anglo-American School of Moscow (www.aas.ru). AAS is affiliated with the US Embassy and many students are children of diplomats and business people working in Moscow. Children from the Canadian and British Embassies also attend AAS. The school goes from pre-K 3 years olds (this is Nancy’s program) all the way through high school which offers an international baccalaureate program. The school is an amazingly well endowed complex. I’ve posted some photos of the school if you’re interested on my Web site: http://www.andrewmcdonoughphotography.com, then click on the “Russia” link.
Nancy was hired to resurrect a pre-K 3 year olds program which has been dormant for several years. She’s been developing the entire program with 2 teaching assistants. Tomorrow (Friday) will be the second full week where her kids are in school for the entire day (8:30-15:30 – note the time format). She’s already done a remarkable job although 3 years tend to wear her out more so than her 2nd graders ever did. She comes home beat every night. If you know Nancy she rarely goes to sleep before 12:30 until now – by 23:00 she’s in bed and out like a light.
As for me I’m “working” at AAS in the after-school programs. I am (will be – I start next week) teaching photography to middle and high school students (2 separate groups) and a high school woodworking class.. If you know me I’m an ardent photographer (URL above) and I’ve been a woodworker since I was in grammar school. I was, at one time a long time ago, a carpenter foreman building houses. So, I’ve pretty much got it made “teaching”. Nancy has the real job and I’ll be “teaching” what I like to do most having NOTHING to do with human anatomy or college/university kids. Because Nancy is the bread-winner of the family I have taken on the roll of Natasha the house (apartment) keeper and Boris the chauffer and all around handyman – more about this is future posts.
So here we are living in Moscow for the next 2 years. AAS has some rather liberal holidays so we plan to use Moscow as a travel hub. And, we’ll be back in the US occasionally as well.
My plan for this blog is to write about US people (us) living in Russia where very few people other than our colleagues at AAS speak English And as I think you’ll come to see the Russian culture is very different from our own making for some major (and minor) challenges. For the first few weeks we’ve been here I averaged being lost about twice a day – sometimes on the street and sometimes on the Metro (subway). Not knowing the language sure makes things exciting when you’re trying to get oriented to a new city and country
Russian is based on the Cyrillic alphabet with some letters that have English equivalents and a bunch that do not – 39 letters in all. More on the Russian language in future posts but let me give you one common example. In Cyrillic “Cnachбo” (pronounced ‘spa-see-ba”) means “thank you or thanks”. While many of the letters look like they are in English they aren’t so reading and speaking words and phrases is very tough. At the moment I have about half a dozen words/phrases that I can say/read and this includes “yes’ and “no”. The whole alphabet looks like this: А, Б, В, Г, Д, Е, Ё, Ж, З, И, Й, К, Л, М, Н, О, П, Р, С, Т, У, Ф, Х, Ц, Ч, Ш, Щ, Ъ, Ы, Ь, Э, Ю, Я so you can see I’ll be needing more than a few lessons in Russian – we start classes next Tuesday – wish us luck.
Some of the things I plan on writing about include: the Russian language, our apartment, getting a driver’s license, buying a car, parking, traveling on the Metro, getting lost, security guards, high-heels and more. Hopefully, I’ll have a lot more material to post this time around. I hope you find it interesting – we sure do and notwithstanding a lot of challenges we’re having a great time here – stay tuned…
Cnachбo,
Andy
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
