Bulk post

18
I fly to Moscow from London. I'm met at the airport by someone from the school. I'm taken to my apartment and shown around the neighbourhood. My "flat" has a nice big window to let the light in, a small balcony, a kitchen, and overlooks a pond with actual Russian ducks. My couch-bed is notorious and aparently uncomfortable. However, it's more than adequate for my tastes since I've slept in less comfy beds.

There's a big, unblinking fluffy cat who lives on the same floor as me.


19
Mostly relax/sleep/settle-in day. I try to figure out the stove, which has no numbers on the dials. No kettle, so I boil some water in a pot on the stove. It must have taken half an hour. The stove and I are more used to one another now, and it never takes that long anymore.

Subway, anyone?


20
First day at work. I go in the afternoon and observe one class.

The commute, ah yes. A ten minute walk from my apartment to the bus stop, a ten minute bus ride to the metro station, and then the metro to wherever I am scheduled to be. There are two school branches, and several in-company clients, so the commute time varies. So far it's been between 40 minutes to and 1h 4om.

21
My second day at work and I teach an IELTS (British equivalent of TOEFL) student.

Mishap! I hadn't looked carefully at the coin currency and when I went to hand the bus driver 25 rubles, he looked surprised. I'd given him 5 rubles and 20 kapeks - which is not nearly enough.

22-25

Working. I accept a class in Saturday, thereby bumping my days off to Sun-Mon.

26

My weekend, bookstore Biblio Globus, the Red Sqaure, and the Kremlin.

There is a book signing at Biblio Globus by actress Elizabeta Boyarskaya.


Gate to the Red Sqaure with accompanying vendors:


Welcome to the Red Sqaure! Church of the Intercession, or St. Basil's Cathedral, in all its glory:


Department store GUM (pron. goom) :



Tomb of the Unknown Solider:


Enter the Kremlin:


There are a number of churches within the grounds. One contains the tomb of Ivan the Terrible and his son Dmitry. The latter had a mysterious death: at 7 years of age, he is said to have 'accidentally' slit his throat while playing with knives.



It's not too cold yet, but the wind sweeping through the Kremlin is brutal.


Music in a metro station:


28-30

There are lots of enclosed kiosks all over Moscow like this. In Asia you see people eating noodles in the street. Here, you see people drinking beer in the street.


There are a lot of flower stands as well.



Le Pain Quotidien - whose branch I first saw in New York City.


Part of the Olympic Stadium complex at Prospekt Mira:


Stop sign:



The Moscow metro. What can I say? It's the busiest metro in the world. The stations are decorated with marble, scultpures, chandeliers, and mosaics. The trains arrive so frequently that you don't usually see people rushing to catch a train. The stations are among the deepest underground of all metro stations, and double as bomb shelters. And, there are little shops that line the entrance and exits - just like this one:






I'd write in more detail if I had internet access at my place, but that may or may not happen. Everything is changeable here.