Moscow in the snow.

     So Inga and I had made the decision to stay in Moscow till the end of the holiday season and spend time with her sister Liana and Liana’s two teenage daughters. Moscow in the winter is like a bear, temperamental and unpredictable.  We arrived at the central Moscow Airport to minus 18 and blizzard like conditions. Coming from sunny Anapa, it was quite a shock as was our landing. It was the first time in my life, and hopefully my last, that I’ve been in a plane that fishtailed on landing. We aren’t just talking a wiggle in the junk either but a full on Dukes Of Hazzard fishtail on touchdown. I was certainly happy to have a Russian pilot on the controls that evening. Due to the storm our luggage took forever to reach the carousel and which exact carousel was in question as well. It changed several times with long blanks between changes. Finally, our stuff came down and we were on our way out of the now familiar airport.

    I often hear qualitative statements about cold. It’s a dry cold, or wet cold. I have never really understood those, so let me make up one of my own. It was a buddy ball liver cold, in that your balls recede up and snuggle with your liver. The scything gusts of the wind reminded you very quickly you need a toque on both your heads if your culture happens to follow the de-toguing practice. Yet the warmth of Apress’s Mercedes was just a quick jaunt across three lanes of traffic and so with anatomy returning to its usual place we made our way to Moscow.

The road has been updated and now you drive right by the mass of cooling towers for the nuclear power plant. Perhaps it is because I grew up with shows like The China Syndrome I find these silent energy sentinels a little foreboding. No one else seems to notice as the conversation is animated and in Russian mixed with Ossetian and I let my attention drift along with the falling snow marveling at the lack of cars in the ditch. Snow like this in the lower mainland all too frequently comes with the ditch decorated by various vehicles.  The trip out to what we would call the suburbs was much quicker on the new road and we arrived at my sister in laws house and to a much-needed meal.

   

Moscow is an incredible city both in size and culture. But perhaps what makes it most amazing is its History. The buildings contrast between Soviet-era block apartments and grand palaces and churches. The scale of some of these public spaces is hard to believe and the architecture breathtaking. The locals seem to pay them as much attention as they do the cooling towers I mentioned earlier. I guess you get used to what you have. The western influence on Moscow is easy to see in fashion and gadgets. More so in talking to locals about perceived value of some products. This kind of conversation has come around more frequently as a result of the economic sanctions imposed on the country and the connected falling Ruble.

    Russians just seem to believe Western products are better than Russian ones simply by virtue of being Western. A Dodge Colt is held above a Lada despite the Lada having definite build advantages and easy, cheap access to parts.  When I tell them I don’t see too many 1973 Colts driving around Vancouver yet I do see lots of Ladas from that time here, they see it oddly. They perceive I am saying we are rich hence no old cars and them as a people are not. It is only when I drag the conversations back to the original point of build quality and longevity of the product do they get my point. Yet despite this they still have a hard time with the concept. Advertising from the west, as well as marketing, is what I believe to be the difference. To say it is better or slicker is like comparing western ads from the sixties to those we will see at the next Super Bowl. Product marketing is not quite as bad but not up to the challenge either.  As an example, Aeroflot has a frequent flyer program that is better when compared with the ones in the west. However, their marketing of the product is so culturally locked and Russian language biased that they can’t hope to compete in the global market. Significant route changes and deals for award-point flights are sent to Russian speaking members, but not those that ticked the English box. Inga’s account gets significant communication in Russian, but my mailbox is empty. Even when they canceled the Toronto to Moscow direct flight in October they didn’t send out a notification to me. All, I see, are the save 2 percent on your next ticket purchase email that comes with my flight confirmation letter. Even this 2% that I've never used as it isn't mobile device friendly hits wrong with Western clients. Perceived value, loyalty recognition, and appreciation are very culturally biased and they have really missed the mark. Even their tier structure is based on a calendar year and not a year with them. So if you joined later in the year but flew 24 thousand miles, come January first you go back to zero with everyone else. The focus remaining large and general, rather than on the individual. Missing the point that discounts don’t attract Westerners to a frequent flyer programs individually focused service and commitment does. So despite having better service, much better food, and drinks, and the best route they had to cancel service from Toronto due to lack of passengers. No Aeroflot you lost the game out of the gate, culturally hamstrung like the Lada you can’t compete.

I don’t want these examples to look like I am bashing Aeroflot, Lada, or Russians! I am not saying they are bad, to be truthful they are better. I picked them to provide the example that while Russia may have a free market economy the global cultural differences are very vast. To compete in the world market, a company needs to get that.

    One Russian company that did get this is YotaPhone. They released an Android based phone designed by Russians, incorporating Russian thinking, and released it on a Global scale. The biggest selling point is it has two displays. As a westerner, I think ok pretty gimmicky, back and front displays make it hard to put in a case, easy to break, and why? So I checked out the website a very long time ago and then they rolled out the ad campaign, and I got it. I got it two ways actually, from a westerner living in Russia and knowing access to power can sometimes be a challenge and from a form and function design point of view. Then this company took the phone to the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas! The average Russian doesn’t know much about CES and the phone isn’t even for sale in the USA yet, and they really can’t hope to make inroads into that market share if it was for sale! BRAND RECOGNITION is why and they got more than recognition the YotaPhone2 Won!

So not every Russian company is locked into this old way of thinking but like in Canada the bigger giants are slow to change and adapt to global world economy than the new ones.  Perhaps even one-day Russian tourists will just stand in line at airport check in, luggage and passport in hand, and not a plastic protector carrying a sheaf of papers. “This is the modern digital age." If the Russian economy wants to be more immune from outside influence, it needs to boost its’ marketing. I bought a YotaPhone 2  because it works better for my needs than an iPhone 6. My sister in law’s kids really were at a loss to why until they saw the ads and I explained it. RUSSIA YOU MAKE GREAT STUFF, you always have made excellent products. The western companies just got better at propaganda and marketing than you ever were.

    So aside from buying expensive Russian phones and discussing Global economic structures and differences I went on a picnic in the snow. If you have been following this blog for a while you, will know that BBQ’s and social time is huge in Russian culture. So is discussing significant issues but I’ve already done all of that for this blog. The weather is so unpredictable that our plans had to be very fluid and luckily life in Moscow allows for that.

Inga and her Sister Liana set to putting stuff together one morning and before I knew what exactly was going on Apress was at the door and we were loading the car. It was warmer this morning about –12 metric and the snow had covered everything not walked or driven on in a gorgeous blanket of silk. We drove about ten minutes to a large park and unloaded. Apress had invited three of his friends to meet the Canadian and join in a winter BBQ celebrating the holiday season.  The three guests had arrived early and had a BBQ going and vodka chilling in the abundant snow. I was greeted in the warm fashion and with hands shook and names attempted we set to enjoying the day. Toasts were enjoyed and with the meat cooking, we discussed life, the universe, and our world. With a smattering of English, a dash of Russian and a splash of Vodka we all eventually understood each other and when it got past hand gestures Inga was there to translate.

The friends Apress invited were all great guys and really went out of their way to make me feel welcome. They all said hello in English first and this show of respect was not missed by me. I returned the respect by speaking as much Russian as I could whenever I could during the day.  What I find really cool is everyone knows what to do at a gathering like this. Each person picks a job and without any direction sets to making food, laying out tables, and getting everything ready. No one has to ask what to do. Back home this task sometimes takes on the feeling of a board meeting and can be as equally enjoyable.  In Russia, people are used to these types of social gatherings and just as they ignore the stuff I’ve pointed out earlier really miss this luxury as well. Society here is actually designed to spend time with friends in public places and engage with each other something the West could really learn from.

    A trip to Moscow in the winter would not be complete without a visit to Red Square. Russia really goes all out for this time of celebration and it actually comments on the culture and character of these people that despite the challenges the focus is fun and inclusive, focusing on what they do have and all things positive. A breath of relief and fresh air actually. The fireworks were measured in tons and no doubt so was the vodka. People on the street shook stranger's hands and wished them Happy New Year. The lights and decorations are something that should really be on everyone’s bucket list as is seeing the Kremlin itself. To be honest, I am not a big church and Icon kind of person. But the sheer size, age, and drama of the structures and design is incredible. So is the history these buildings hold, it confirms the things I’ve come to know about the Russian people. They are warm and generous, and proud to a fault with every right to be so!

    So with this Blog I close the chapter in Russia. I have done all the research I needed to do to make the next book rich with people, places, and culture. Thank you, Rodina for being exactly what you are and nothing like I expected. Thanks to all my friends in Anapa, Vladikavkaz,  and Moscow for your warm and honest hospitality. Finally thank you to my Russian family, without whom none of this would have been remotely possible!

Next stop Thailand and Chiang Mai…..

Russian Christmas and New Year!

    It’s tough to be away from friends and family, more so over the holidays. Long absences compound these feelings even more. I will have been away from Canada for almost a year. A great year it has been to be sure, but not without some heartache. Rarely do great adventures come without a little heartache sprinkled in. Facebook and Twitter make this a little easier, along with Skype, Facetime, and a few other tech apps. But they are a two-edged sword. The daily reminders a friendly connection but also a constant example of how artificial those “connections” really are. While Skype and Facetime are better, it is a pale replacement for a live conversation. This is the reason I have been a little remiss in setting up  ‘chat dates’. Technology is fine and while it is intelligent it is also artificial, and thankfully so. One day perhaps it may not be and that I think would be a shame. So put down the phones, and put away the computers, and interact with one another! Life is not a page or “like” count on your awesome Christmas selfie. I think it is far better to be “IN” the moment and not distracted by how you’re going to share the moment.


So Russians don’t really get into the Western Christmas thing. The reason for this is political correctness. Long before it became fashionable to be Politically Correct and regular people worried about appearing to be judgmental it was regulated in Russia by political policy. “Yes Ivan, there is no Santa Claus.” They didn’t celebrate the birth of Christ publicly as it was forbidden. Santa got tossed in with the Christian birth here too and was banned. Although they had a pretty good knockoff, Father Winter, and like most knockoff products it resembled the western version closely. Orthodox Russians celebrate Christ’s birth on the 7 of January and that is Christmas Day. No grand conspiracy they just use a different calendar than the West. It was illegal in the past under the Soviets but is legal now and gaining popularity. Vladimir Putin himself regularly attends Orthodox Mass. It is significantly more about Family, Friends, and Faith than Walmart, Best Buy, and Holiday.

So what is with the “Christmas trees and lights? Winter season! The time between the end of December and the middle of January is one of celebrations and gatherings. Russians actually enjoy two New Years, with Christmas tossed in the middle. How awesome is this? First they have New Years Eve very much like the West with the primary idea being how you bring in the New Year is how the following year will be. The next is Christmas on the 7th and then Old New Year or Старый Новый Год on the 14th. Another celebration focusing on the blessings received and the ones to come, shared with friends, family, and dancing.

In the spirit of research, I organized my month to fully take advantage of the season for you, my reader’s vicarious enjoyment.  New Years eve will be enjoyed in Anapa and Christmas, with Old New Years experienced in Moscow. Moscow goes all out with decorations and live concerts by some of the best Russia have to offer. The government has in the past declared a national holiday for this time, although with the drop in the Ruble no such announcement has been made this year.

I missed the traditional holiday and was feeling a little out of sorts this year. However, a few unusual events changed this. Despite it not being Christmas here I still said "Merry Christmas" to the shop owners, friends, and people I regularly interact with. This was met with confusion, past the language issue. Then most would smile and brighten with the realization that the “English speaking guy from Canada” celebrated today. They would say it back in Russian, or English, sharing the day with me. After having two New Years, two Christmases is a pretty easy leap. No one admonished me for getting the day wrong, nor did they say they were Jewish or Muslim. They took the time to enjoy the moment with me and left the political correctness in the past, with the Soviets. Russia is immense and has more ethnic diversity than any other country in the world today. It is home to Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, Christian and many more groups and subgroups. I believe this is the reason that has forced them to get along. Focusing on the differences would be a negative approach while sharing in the joy of the others culture and practice focuses on the positive. When I spent time growing up in Santa Monica, I would say "Merry Christmas" and my Israeli friends, that practiced Judaism, and they responded with "Happy Hanukkah". No big issue, both shared the joy, in their own way, together. Now people debate signs and make a great bit of noise around things during a moment of time meant to bring our communities together. Not here in Russia.

Inga and I bumped into a couple that have become our friends and when they found out I was missing my Canadian Christmas they instantly made calls. Despite working all day and having to work in the morning, everyone came back to our place, grabbing fixings required along the way. Then together everyone pitched in to make dinner and set the evening up for Canadian Exile Christmas. We had an awesome time together sharing stories and watching videos of how Canadians shared Christmas. It made me feel good to have friends and a wife that cared so much, making an enormous effort to make me feel welcome with my tradition and not one they shared. A true one of a kind gift just for me and one everyone could afford despite currency fluctuations and sanctions.


Perhaps a gift for you as well. Kindness, understanding  and choosing to share in the joy of another cultures traditions is without price and priceless at the same time.

Visa Run Complete.

   

     Aeroflot has great service and connections in Russia and outside. However, I say this with one caveat. If you're looking to book one class and then gate upgrade, if available, don't. Aeroflot seems to not get this procedure done all over the world. I booked my flight to London in their Presidents class as I had a very short connection in Moscow and knew I might run into long lines due to the time of day. I had loads of time returning so I left that as a coach ticket figuring I'd gate upgrade the redeye flight out of London and if I could the flight back to Krasnodar if it wasn't too expensive. Anyone that travels a great deal knows these gate upgrades are usually very inexpensive compared to booking ahead of time and rarely available with North American carriers practice of overbooking flights.

Now I don't know if it was just the two agents I dealt with or if as I suspect Aeroflot isn't really onboard with this practice. When I checked in at London, I was told I'd have to go to the ticket desk to change my flight. So off I went and talked to an agent. She was very nice, spoke English very well and told me this upgrade would be around 450 pounds! To have originally booked this flight in Presidents class was cheaper than this upgrade cost. So I left my ticket as it was and checked the front of the plane during the flight. It was a two and two three and three configuration. There were three empty seats upfront.

Just for the sake of research I looked into doing the same from Moscow to Krasnodar and was given one number that was way too expensive for a two hour flight, over 500 USD, and while I was working out the exchange she said she had made a mistake and gave me another number higher than the original price for upgrading from London!! After I saw the planes I was sure glad I had booked in coach, as the last plane was four rows of two and two and then the back being three and three. However, it was a newer plane with very comfortable pitch seats so the three and three seating was fine.

 As an international traveler, I have done gate upgrades a great deal. They work for the airline and me as the airline gets to now put another passenger onto the plane and show the first customer what the added space and service is like upfront. The idea is, of course, that the customer chooses to book in that class for subsequent flights with them.  Often the meal selection is limited and it is harder to do with two people but I have found for solo travel asking for a gate upgrade is always a good idea. I have recommended this to travel clients in the past but best not to do it on Aeroflot.

If I hadn't just spent three months in Russia, I might have thought they were trying to cheat me. It certainly would appear that way to an outside observer. How can the last two-hour leg of a six-hour flight be more expensive, by leagues, than the whole flight? But having lived here for a while I know this isn't the case and has something to do with Aeroflot's pricing structure.

So that's the bad about Aeroflot and hopefully they change it because if they do they will be a world contender for air service. I say this having traveled quite a bit on budget and not so budget carriers. Some of which I will never use regardless at price. One carrier that flys between Bellingham and Las Vegas comes to mind. I have seen fifty dollar round trip prices yet I will fly Alaska Air instead at triple the cost each way.  Service and my piece of mind are worth it.

     Aeroflot's service in the sky is awesome in either class. The President's class full flat beds on my flight to London where comfortable and the staff were super attentive. I saw the attendant serving my section check a couple of times with the other attendant to figure out how to say something correctly in English. Even in coach the effort was obvious. Compare that to a Canadian carrier flying within Quebec! Food from North America, Europe, and within the Russian Federation was tasty, fresh and plentiful. It also didn't come with an additional charge and even a glass of wine was complimentary even in the back of the bus!

I also noticed that kids are still invited up to the flight deck, on flights within Russia, to have a quick look around! I remember doing this as a child and it being a highlight of a trip to Disney Land. A great practice that ended elsewhere in the world due to fears of terrorists and hijacking.  Now the sixty-kilogram flight attendant stands in the aisle, supposedly to thwart access whenever the flight deck door is opened. Really? All it does is remind people they live in fear.  A real terrorist would be through her and into that deck before she stopped bleeding out on the lighted "this way out" aisle.

      So I soon found myself in London and was hit by the multicultural of it. Living within Russia and in the resort city frequented, predominantly, by Russians being in London was a culture shock. It was great to speak English, but it felt odd too. I found myself quickly adapting and very aware I was doing so.

Being the high season in London, I stayed at a "budget" hotel. It was still expensive by North American standards, but it was perfectly located and had awesome service. The rooms are small, but the hotel itself is a perfect business class design. It was called the Rockwell and it is close to Earls Court. I had a bunch of paperwork and various things to do and the desk staff was awesome at helping out.

I had booked six nights, in advance, as I was unsure exactly how many days it would take to get all these hoops taken care of. The stars aligned and gave me a few days to do some sightseeing. I have been to London before. I went to the London Book Fair when I released Grey Redemption as it was being featured. However on that trip I was only in the country for forty-nine hours and had little time to do anything. Prior to that trip, I had done some tourist stuff in-between flights to Africa.

This time I had loads of time and while being budget conscious I did get to see some very cool parts of London. I got to Gordon Ramsey's restaurant at the Savoy and spent a few hours at the Tate. I also took advantage of the open deck tour buses. The ones with real commentators as the recorded versions are a sad replacement. It allowed me to relax and get a good bit of research done while being entertained at the same time. I got a London Pass and travel card and I am certain this saved me money on my tube travel alone, not to mention the convenience of it.

I took advantage of a walking tour that was advertised as a Ghost Tour. It was more correctly a pub tour with asides about ghosts. It was part of my Big Bus ticket and was hosted by a short and wholly entertaining man. Rich in history, details, and jocularity it was a great way to spend a couple of hours. It wasn't a hard walk and we had a varied group from the US, Europe, Australia, and me. It was by far one of the most informative tours I have ever taken and well worth your time if you are in London
 
I also had the pleasure of meeting a long time internet buddy Elliot Taylor, or Riz. He has just finished writing a book called Up The Hammers. It is Military Non-Fiction and written in a style that is pleasing and interesting. So much of this type of writing is dry and reads like the textbooks that made you hate history. This is not the case with Elliot's book. He gave me a copy while we shared a long-promised cigar and some beers in the Garden of the hotel until they turned off the lights. Then we moved to a local pub and continued till they closed as well. This was not too late as London has rather old fashion drinking laws. It was a great time and awesome visit with someone I knew to be intelligent and was glad to discover a great guy as well. Get this book, it is available in soft copy, has great pictures and really sheds light on the realities of WW1 trench warfare from a uniquely British perspective.

I did a great deal of traveling on the tube while I was in London and even more walking and six days was more than enough. I was tired and relieved that my one-year multiple entry and exit visa was approved by the Russian Consulate.  This gives me a great deal more freedom to come and go from Russia as I please. Regular visas have many more restrictions.

     My return journey to the Russian Federation began in the evening with a trip to Heathrow four. The previously mentioned Aeroflot issues aside it went without a hitch. One thing for smokers to note Heathrow four is the only terminal that has a smoking area past the security checkpoint. It is out by gate three, downstairs and was a nice surprise as this was my last cigarette. I had decided and promised Inga I would stop smoking when I returned to Anapa. My journey ended at about the same time I left for the airport the next day. Being in coach, I was unable to really sleep; however I think I passed out a couple of times on the flight to Krasnodar and then again on the three-hour bus ride home with Inga

This blog is being written a week or so after I returned and so far so good on the no smoking promise and my back is just starting to feel normal after the journey. Sitting for too long is proving to be more of a challenge with the missing discs in L2 and L3 than it was when I was younger. Oh well, at least I know I am not wasting money paying to sit upfront! LOL!

Culturally Russia

     I was reminded; today by Robert Dugoni that one of the best things about being a writer is the research. If you've been following this blog, you know I am in Russia doing research for the next book in the series with Rhys Munroe. Why did I need to travel all this way and bare the expense is something the taxman may ask me, and something I asked myself.

Before I got here, I don't think I could have answered that question accurately. I mean I have Google maps and street view I could have done all this research sitting at home. At least those were my thoughts prior to getting here. Now I know it would have been a very bland account. Russia has a very rich and complicated history and culture. Even now after three months in the country I am just scratching the surface of this. My grasp of the language is still minimal, but my understanding of the culture is much better. Like a deaf person who is able to see better because of his lack of hearing my ability to understand body language and glean meaning via these observations are far superior to how it used to be. The Russian people and country are, for the most part, very misunderstood in the western world. Simple things like eye contact are ruled by culture. There is an old Russian saying. "A person that sees less lives longer." This saying and behavior is carried forward into the  day to day interactions on the street. You can look at the person coming toward you but if your gaze does more than linger you force the person you're looking at to access why. Eye contact is supposed to be only brief with strangers. These behaviors may be similar in certain subcultures in Western society, like gangs, but unlike subculture modalities it is common here.

Sometimes as a foreigner I forget. A very tall women wearing five inch heels on very uneven streets may catch my attention if I look too long she is forced to figure out why I am "staring." Now in western culture a stare is a look that lingers for say twenty seconds. In Russia, that time frame drops to about seven seconds. So I am trying to keep my thousand yard stare while allowing my perception to record the subtle observations and nuances of the scene I am viewing. As in the above example; how can she possibly walk on these streets with those heels and what kind of pain is she going through for fashion?

     Fashion and dress are another culture difference that was hard to get a grasp on. Neither women nor men just toss something on to go out. While it is a stereotype that Russians overdress for everything, it is partly true. But it is through our eyes and western perception that we judge this as overdressed. The importance of being successful and taking pride in what they do is part of this. The change Perestroika forced on them created a world that was hard in judgment.  If you weren't successful, it was because you were lazy or not trying hard enough. You were all of a sudden free to pursue whatever dream you had and could rise above your birth station in life. We in the western world have long understood that while every child born in America or Canada can rise to be the leader of the country time has tempered this ideology with understanding. Perestroika is still fresh and that temper has yet to take. While we in the west see it as a great thing here, the jury is still out.

This was one of the hardest things for me as a westerner to understand. I mean freedom is held as one of our most-sacred things. So as I was doing research and came to suspect that the average Russian didn't value the new Russia as I did, I had questions.

I asked this question to my good friend and, brother from another mother. He said simply; "Go walking in a graveyard and look at the ages of the ones you find there." I have done this on a few occasions now and I understand what he meant. Russia was handed this freedom without a "how to" manual. It tore a bloody swath through the youth of the land. That revolution was hardly reported on in the western world and the price for these new opportunities was huge. An entire age group barely survived the change.

 Now it is oddly karmic that it was Marx that said "only true change comes through violent (and bloody) revolution."  But what was stranger still to me as a westerner was most local average Russians do not view this as the Great Event it was touted as in the west! They are happy for their new-found freedoms and opportunities, but direction is still missing. The west is still viewed in less than accurate light. When I explain our taxation system and size of our government, I am greeted with stares that reflect a disbelief. Canada is still viewed by Russians as the land of great riches and opportunities. While this is partly true explaining the reality of taxes and houses priced in multi-millions of rubles is greeted with astonishment. Long waits for healthcare and surgery are openly viewed with suspicion. Education and post-secondary grants and structure are past easy translation. Like explaining to a colourblind person what is the colour blue.

Simple and very obvious questions about supporting tomorrow's leaders and researchers are past my ability to explain. The actions of my government in these regards are basically an embarrassment and something past my ability to convey. How do I explain to someone that respects the elderly and supports the efforts of children to learn that we in Canada spend over a hundred thousand US dollars a year to incarcerate a bank robber while allowing our pensioners to live below the poverty line?  That highly trained Officers in jail check on these pieces of social garbage every forty-five minutes overnight to ensure they are alive while my grandmother in an old age home is checked only twice during the night? These are concepts past easy understanding in my culture, yet they are reality and the reality that I can't explain. I mean does the average Canadian actually support this? No! But we lack the ability to change it. While our elected and appointed leaders are supposed to listen to the people there is a severe disconnect. In comparison; Prime Minister Putin actually has a time he takes questions and suggestions live on the air from average Russians. I would love to see my own Prime Minister Harper respond to questions from average Canadians. I mean he is responsible to us the taxpayers, right? These disconnects between the people and the government are far more vast at home than here in Russia.

 Some other observations that are not so politically loaded are the Russian Peoples acceptance. I have discussed this a little bit in other blog entries but let us spend some time exploring this idea. I speak very little Russian and while I am initially viewed as Russian when the truth is discovered it is viewed with a mixture of panic and interest. Panic because the person I am interacting with is now concerned they can't understand what I need. Compare that to the exasperation or outright contempt when most westerners encounter someone who doesn't speak English. When they get past that initial panic and understand that however we need to work it out, we will the interest sets in. They want to know where I am from and how I like it here in Russia. They don't assume that this is the best place on earth and I find that so refreshing.

At this point the broken English, Russian, and Google translate is mixed with a dynamic game of charades and, working together, we understand each other and get past the barrier of language.  This is viewed as fun for my Russian counterparts and they actually delight in the sounds and motions I have to go through to get my point across. The perception is joy interacting with another culture, rather than being inconvenienced by a fucking foreigner that is taking up far too much time.

This is not to say Russia or Russians are perfect. Lots of things are different or get under my skin being here. Time and boundaries are issues for my new Russian friends. The basic infrastructure of things and the way of doing things are different and as such a challenge. But perhaps most of all is the simple clearing of tables. You have to hang on to your drink as glasses left mostly consumed will be taken away.  Sometimes it's the little things in life that irritate you and can't we all be thankful for that!

Rolling like a local.

    I am always impressed by people's honesty. More so when that honesty is demonstrated despite temptations to the contrary. My father was a very wise man. It took me more than half my life to realize it, but that's fine as he used to say the same thing about his old man. Another thing my father used to say was if you can buy someone for a hundred dollars you bought them cheap. I use this wisdom when buying things in Russia.

     The value of goods in Russia fluctuates more than in North America, unless you're talking about fuel. It was weird to see fuel prices the same over the entire twenty five hour bus journey across this vast country, a dollar Canadian for a liter of fuel. Food, vodka, and cigarettes however fluctuate quite a bit. One of the things I do when arrive in a place I'll be staying a while is test shop owners close by to see if they take advantage of the obvious tourist that can't speak the language. I do this by buying something I know the price of and then handing them more than required or simply opening up a hand full of change. They say the amount in Russian and I apologize for not knowing how to speak Russian and offer the money. To date, in Russia, I haven't had a single person take more than they were supposed to. In fact in one case the sales girl got up from her chair and went and got a second bottle of wine as they had a sale buy one get one for half price. I obviously had the money for two as I had opened my hand with more than enough. While this level of customer service is rare in Russia, honesty is not.

      I am not sure if it is because English language training starts in grade three or why but almost all the younger people I've interacted with seem to feel they should speak better English. I am a tourist, and I should speak more Russian than I do. I try and I am apologetic when I fail but they too seem to feel like an apology is owed. This is a very strange concept coming from a country that has the attitude; "Speak English or get out." Some may take offence or at the very least umbrage at that statement but come on let's be honest. We feel, or know someone that feels that way and has expressed it and we have either agreed, or said nothing and that is the same as agreeing.

    So I have been in Anapa for a few days now and the feel of the place is starting to settle in a little. It has not been without a few challenges, but this is to be expected. TIR or This Is Russia has replaced my usual phrase of TIA or This Is Africa. Similarities between the two are constant, at least in my assessment. Lines to get things done and ways around lines to get things done quicker. Not being as culturally aware as I perhaps should be I've been standing in a few lines.

We both have phones now. These require a Russian Passport to acquire if you want the price the locals pay. I am not sure what the difference is in price but suffice to say the regular rate is cheap and the price for locals cheaper than spit. This is probably a very good thing as Russians spend a great deal of time using cell phones.  The prices of individual phones themselves are very cheap. Iphones are about the same price as in Canada. Compared to the average salary this makes them very expensive. Oddly lots of Iphones on display have little cards attached saying made in the USA. Iphones aren't made in the USA but because Russians on the whole don't trust products from China no one wants to part with five months salary for a product from there.

     I finally have a direct line connection to the internet now. It works sometimes, when it does work it has incredible fast speeds up and down. But it is hit and miss. Many things are hit and miss in Anapa. When they hit they knock it out of the park and when they miss well…It is something I as a westerner has to accept.

We had our first power interruption last night. They don't call it a power outage here. They say power interruption or "sending kids to camp." The local inside joke is that they turn off the power in certain areas to save money for social programs. I think it is part of Putin's plan.

Mr. Putin is trying to increase the birth rates in Russia. It's working as there are many women, young and old, pushing children in carriages. Financial incentives are offered for second and third children as well as women over forty that have a baby. Big incentives, one million rubles for women over forty. So if the lights go out and we send kids to camp what else is there to do? When in Rome…

     Another neat thing about Anapa is the buildings. They are not architecturally exceptional in design but in construction. The interior walls in all original builds are solid concrete or brick. This makes for very quite spaces and very strong buildings. A far cry from the thin steel stud walls sheeted in gypsum wallboard popular in Vancouver.

I saw a building yesterday and it had two-foot thick brick walls between the suites. The floors and ceilings are at least six inches and some as thick as ten! The downside of buying a suite here is you buy the space. No finishing, no lights, and no plumbing past what is roughed-in. If you want to make a room bigger, you have a great deal of concrete or brick to cut out.  But I think this is how you buy large commercial space in the US and Canada.

Because of this practice the average Russian is capable of doing a great deal of finish work. Perhaps not an expert at plumbing or electrical, but with so many people having to finish their own places everyone "Knows a guy."

     So this shorter blog brings to an end my second week in Anapa Russia. I have to be honest I love it. The language barrier is a problem and Inga is getting tired of being the official translator all the time. I am learning the language gradually and while I will never be able to read it, speaking is coming slowly. 

Russian Bus Trip

       We use words like "learning experience" or "it was up to local standards" to usually defend an entitled position or belief. I've done it and I am not ashamed to admit it. The sense of entitlement is only wrong if you haven't earned it, or don't deserve it. Part of this deserving is the intelligence and understanding that most of the world doesn't share the idea that by virtue of being born in a privileged society one automatically is entitled to the standards that come with it while abroad.

We see this perhaps best when booking travel. In Africa, I was offered First and Business class when booking rail or flight tickets. The person didn't offer me any of the three levels of coach, nor the lowest class that is on the top of the rail cars themselves. In Africa, the system of judging where someone belongs is much more obvious and simple for travelers of the western world.
    This is not the case in Russia. We encountered some difficulties with the amount of luggage we had in our possession and how to get it all from Moscow to the resort city of Anapa, located on the Black Sea. Flying was out of the question as we had already encountered overweight issues flying in Canada. Anapa, being a tourist area, usually means people flying there for a couple of weeks take one twenty kilogram bags. Rail was our next choice.

      We checked into various rail options and again ran into issues of weight and volume. Depending on the type of train, and where you're going dictates the type of classes and cabins available to you. On this trip, we had first, with two people sharing a cabin usually occupied by four or six, or second and buying out all of the four positions. While expensive by Russian standards a relative bargain compared to Canada where freight is given priority over people. The difficulty was getting the luggage on the train as people are on the lookout for people pulling too much. So with another roadblock we explored other options.

     Bus was the easy answer. This bus transportation is very luggage friendly as people in the smaller towns go to the Moscow market to buy wholesale goods and then pack it all home to sort, tag, and sell in their little shops. An entire industry has developed around this practice. Entrepreneurs travel from their hometown to buy goods imported from Korea and China. They spend the day bargaining and getting their goods wrapped and ready for transport. When done skinny porters with incredible strength bring all their stuff to the bus. The purchases get loaded and then tired from the days transactions these Entrepreneurs crawl up to the second level, find a bunk, and sleep. This leaves the first level virtually unoccupied. I say virtually because there is a kitchen and it gets used to prepare food and coffee at different intervals during the twenty-five hour journey from Moscow to Anapa.

    So it is here I found myself, bags in tow, surrounded by the cacophony of Russian and Korean calls for porters to move faster, in a different direction, or stop entirely. The drive through Moscow had been as exciting as usual and from my Canadian time oriented perspective we were late. I watched as our luggage was buried and tried to calm my rising sense of doom. The bus was not a sleek euro cruiser like I had seen on searches I'd made looking for "Russian busses" It was old and of a manufacturer I'd never heard of before. The driver's seat did have a Mercedes seat cover and I tried to take comfort in this, thinking perhaps it had come with a new engine job. I failed to convince myself on any level that this was true, lowered my head and sense of entitlement, thinking "Once more into the breech."

    My wife Inga and her sister decided it was time to leave me, most likely sensing my mood. So I stowed my bag and settled in a seat sure that I would die here in a fiery crash or killed and looted by the various characters moving in and around the bus. One of these characters was barking orders ferociously. Now small disagreements in Russian do sound, to a westerner, quite serious. This was more than that. He was a large man with military demeanors and a drill sergeant voice I thought I was long immune to. I physically jumped as directions launched from his mouth like Russian mortars. Over the back of the co-pilot seat was a safety jacket with some Russian Cyrillic on it so desperately needing a distraction I brought out my phone. I have an AP that is supposed to translate from pictures taken on the camera, it had yet to work at all but I needed to keep busy to avoid grabbing my towel and running in panic. It worked!  The one time it actually worked is the one time I wished it hadn't. The safety jacket said, "Tank Driver."

    Seeping deeper into doom, I was joined in the kitchen area by an older lady. In Russia, these ladies are called Babushka and can be very unpredictable.  In North America Older ladies may wear purple, here they can give you purple bruises. So I quietly sat there trying to disappear and hoping if I didn't obfuscate that the girls would return. The Babushka started talking, not to me directly but in that way people do to fill uncomfortable silences and encourage the other person to join in. Lacking the skills verbally, I chose instead to sing quietly to myself in English. It worked, she understood I was a visitor and sensed I was as uncomfortable as she was. She set on a new task with renewed vigor and while I sensed this has something to do with me I had no idea what.

    She joined me at the table with several small plastic containers and a bag filled with different types of bread and started making sandwiches. She finished two, took a bite smiled and handed me the other. I accepted it and noticed it was bacon and tomato! Thick pieces of smoke cured uncooked bacon with slices of fresh organic tomato. It was incredible. I said "thank you" in Russian and followed with, "I can't speak Russian." She replied simply by saying "Me neither." She continued to cut and arrange different delicacies on the table between us and then got up to make coffee. When her coffee was ready she simply pointed to another cup. I shook my head and said "Yes Please." She put milk and sugar into her cup and then looked at me with a questioning look. I said "No" and the questioning look was replaced by confusion.

     Russians almost always put sugar in their coffee so this yes I'll have coffee then no confused her, as no one would drink coffee without sugar.  But after a little bit of sign language and gestures we worked it out, once again settling down to cut veggies, fruit, bread, cheese, and bacon.
 Inga and her sister arrived back to find me lounging and eating and feeling if not comfortable then accepted into this new environment.  They too had bought food, drinks, and snacks for the journey and quickly set to sharing. We were joined by an older man that could have played many different roles if cast into a movie, all of them villains.
 
     He was a shorter man with tiny, powerful hands that bore the scars of a life spent using them. He had sharp facial features wrapped in well tanned skin that had lost its elasticity years ago, and now could be compared to the wings of a bat. But his eyes were what you'd notice first. Piercing eyes are easy if they happen to be green or icy blue. This man's were muddy brown, tinged with red and tore to the core of what they looked at. They didn't so much dart to things as they moved, they just changed focus like a fast sport's photography lens.

     I stood up to make room and those eyes catalogued me just that fast. Displaying the shortest of pauses at things he noticed; tattoo, clip from a knife, scars. All accessed and weighed as he raised his hand gesturing no and smiled a mouth full of gold.

    I sat back down beside what I was understanding to be his wife and he dug a bottle of Russian Standard vodka out of an old seaman's shoulder bag. Finding plastic glasses, he poured a round and raised his glass. Instead of trying to make a whole toast in English, he only said.  "New, Journey, Welcome to Russia." We all touched glasses around the tight little table, I lowered mine below the rim of his, a sign of respect in Russia, and was rewarded with a larger gold smile and even more appraising look.

Traffic in Moscow is amazing

I entered the arrivals area of Terminal three to the usual throng of waiting family and friends and looked for my ride. He was not to be found. So I made my way to some benches and set myself up to wait, enjoying a fair amount of people watching. Sitting there, I must have looked like low hanging fruit as the amassed taxi drivers kept approaching me, viewing the stacked luggage like a junkie views a spoon. I politely waved them off or spoke in Russian politely, the two words I’d learned to deal with airport types. “Nyet Spasibo." No thanks.
 
However, they were persistent and I was forced to abandon my rudimentary Russian for English to explain that the driver knew I had lots of luggage and it wouldn’t be a problem.
 
            This use of English quickly rang the bell to those around me that I wasn’t Russian. Something I like to avoid in new countries as it has many far-reaching, and potentially dangerous results. The most annoying of which is what I call the “Lemming”  effect. Two people nearby immediately walked over, got close, and started talking to one another and trying to engage me in English.  This cultural same same grouping behaviour is exactly what you shouldn’t do. An Airport is a long grassy field. The tall yellow swaying grass hiding the lions that are sure to be there. You’ve just got off a long flight, you are tired, confused and packing a great deal of good stuff. Nothing personal but at this point you’re just food and you’re the weakest one in the group.
 
So I got up and moved away from this clucking mass of perhaps soon to be statistics. People who would claim later that they don’t how anyone knew they had X explaining  to cops that could care less, not because they’re lazy, but because you rang the dinner bell.  Cops all over the world hate stupid people about as much as they do the ones that pray on them. Difference is in some countries they don’t hide it so the average Joe can tell.
 
            My ride showed up a few seconds after I moved. His apology two words “Crazy Traffic.” I followed him outside pushing my towering set of bags toward his car. It was a beautiful black G65 AMG Mercedes and it was already gathering a crowd of admirers.  I pushed past some of the taxi drivers that had earlier tried to engage me resisting the desire to ask if they thought my luggage would fit now. I jumped into the front seat and took the time to openly admire the vehicle. Paying careful attention to be respectful but not drool. My driver was a man of little words, noticed my attention and only said “Spasibo.”
 
            We shot off into traffic and I noticed he had a high definition dash cam pointing out the front and two cell phones. One phone was being used exclusively for traffic updates.  “So” I thought, “How could this guy have been late?” My answer came in a few short seconds.
 
Traffic moves in a pattern that probably mimics the forces and motion involved in the Big Bang.  The lines painted on the roads are purely for decoration and this confusion moves in all directions at the same time with only centimeters of separation. Try as I might I could not discern why some cars where jumping into one lane or another. Horns reserved for drivers that dare touch their brakes. While I knew some higher end vehicles had proximity alarms to warn the driver of low fences or dropped bikes I had yet to hear one. In Russian traffic, the sensor beeped like a teenagers cell phone on Friday afternoon. We careened through this deadly looking ballet my guy seeming not to notice close cars or very quickly diminishing angles of entry to off ramps or on ramps. What struck me most about it was everyone looked to be quite calm. No one was in a rage or making gestures at anyone. They were only concentrating on the drive and getting where they needed to be. It dawned on me at that point that the reason for this chaos was necessity and everyone was attempting to cooperate to get home. One accident could tie up a large section of the city for a very long time. So stupid behaviour got a long horn and then blocked out to the curb as no one would let you in. Stupid or inattentive drivers need not apply.