16 March, 2008

A Minor Update

This little update is to let you know that I have moved my little journal over to a wordpress address: http://recountingrus.wordpress.com/ This page will remain as a memorial but all new posts will be at the new address.

I also promise that this week will see a major update chronicling my adventures to Jerusalem, Yaroslavl and more.

28 February, 2008

A scrambled post

So one thing I've noticed is that egg shells here in Russia are harder than what I'm used to. The woman I lived with said it's because they're brown eggs which I hadn't thought of. Besides that I can't remember the last time I broke a brown egg in America. So if any of you in the land of the free feel like testing a brown egg and letting me know...

In other observations, I have been disappointed by the so-called winter here in Moscow. I thought it was promising when we had the first snow in October but since then it's all been a wash which has turned into a mudslide. The snow has been minimal - there hasn't been one time that it has been up to my knees - and a far cry from any image I previously had of a Russian winter. It has been quite cold a few times but no colder than the coldest parts of Chicago's winter. And now it seems the winter is over. For the past three or four days the snow has been melting to reveal the piles of poo that will probably be there until summer. I do have to say, however, that when I've been outside of Moscow the snow appears to be more prevalent.

If anyone hadn't heard I've been working as an editor for an English language magazine and news source. I'm now on my third week at the office and going strong...

So you (self-centered) Americans probably didn't know that last Saturday was Day of the Defenders of the Fatherland here in Russia. Originally it was the day for the Soviet army but all that's done away with now. Besides being another day for those who serve in the armed forces it is a day for men in general (of course everyday is men's day but this day particularly so). So last Friday afternoon at work the women in the office, of which there are about 20, had a small party for the 5 men in the office. On Saturday my ever attentive fiance took me to a concert in honour of the day and Patriarch Aleksey who's names' day was coming up.
So here's the program of the concert which was appropriately called "Defenders of the Earthly and Heavenly Fatherland" (contrary to the picture, however, it was not in that church)

The performers ranged from a few choirs which sang church music to traditional Russian folk music to orchestral compositions.

To my surprise when I was looking at the program it seemed to me that one of the soloists looked like one of the men in the choir at St. Antipas where I go to church. When said performer entered the stage my eyes proved not to have been tricking him. Moreover also in the small choir in which he performed turned out to be two more members of the choir at St. Antipas. On top of that, the choir director deserves some recognition...imagine Neo (except in light brown) doing the robot dance and you have the choir director:

For those of you who don't really believe I'm in Moscow or that I attended such a concert I will present photo evidence for your doubting eyes to see:

For more pictures (of the concert, not of me at the concert) click here.

While you are all particularly self-centered I think you all know that an election is coming up in the ole RF (Russian Federation that is). I have to say that I am pleased with the lack of advertising such that can be seen in the US of A. (Of course, I don't watch tv so I don't know what goes on there.) But one interesting bit of spreading the word I noticed conveniently printed on a metro pass:

The observant viewer will probably notice that this is simply an exhortation to vote in the elections with no mention of who to vote for. You may say that there really that there really isn't much of a choice of who to vote for but for me that's neither here nor there.

Now, in the consumer crackhaven that is consumer America no crackhead is surprised by seeing a comment card at your favorite crackhouse. Russia, on the other hand and probably for a short time being, is approaching the consumer cooler. Where else but in the window to the West would we be likely to see this cooler warming up? Observe:

For those of you deficient in the art of reading I will translate to the common: Dear guests! We work for you, therefore your opinions and wishes are important for us. Please answer our questions and express your thoughts about service in our restaraunt.
For those of you whose memory has not been completely cracked you will remember my post about my upcoming wedding and the paperwork involved. I now present you with photo evidence of a certain paper exhibiting (even for the deficient) the handwriting that caused so much trouble:

19 February, 2008

It's the handwriting that counts



This fabulous piece of crapitecture houses the "Palace of Weddings"


I believe my regular readers know that I have proposed marriage to and been accepted by a certain resident of Moscow. You residents of consumer friendly America probably think that there couldn't be much of a simpler thing to do considering anyone of you could be in Vegas within the day and marry the citizen of the opposite sex (for the time being) of your choice. Well in Russia it's not so simple considering its unfortunate bureaucratic Soviet past. During Soviet times, and remaining unchanged to date, "marriage" became the act of signing a marriage license at ZAGS (registry office).

Soon we will be this happy couple signing "the document."


What is most unfortunate is the great pomp that is now the modern Russian "marriage." It is comical how so many modern Western traditions have been imported into the Russian wedding (limos, receptions, &ect.) but that all the real substance is the signing of a document.

Soon my bride and I will ascend these majestic steps to the above seen "desk of destiny."


Once again you may say that signing a few papers is not so difficult. I would agree with you but then you have to remember that I am a foreigner and almost everything is more difficult for foreigners. First of all the foreigner must have an approved statement ($30) from the American embassy stating that they are not currently married. Next this statement must be approved ($4 and one week wait) by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the RF (Russian Federation). While waiting for this the foreigner should have their passport translated and notarized ($20 and next day service). Having gathered all these requisite documents my Russian bride and I made our way to "the palace of weddings no.4" to submit our paperwork.

As upon visiting almost every office to do with the government one needs to be ready for a long wait. Surprisingly the day we went there wasn't a huge line so we only waited for probably 30 minutes. After being admitted and declaring our intentions our papers were checked and scrutinized. After a few adjustments to my declaration of not being married my passport translation was checked. And thus began the problems... The silly translators translated "Given Names" as "Name, Patronymic" and proceded to state my first name as "Name" and my middle name as "Patronymic." Disregarding the fact that my declaration of non-marriage had just been illegally modified this slight mis-translation couldn't be accepted. Once again, never mind that other government bodies often call middle names "patronymics." So only thing left to do was go back and have the translation fixed. One consolation, however was receiving the paperwork and bill ($8) in advance.

Thankfully the translators were nice enough to fix their mistake but, however, when I arrived at 4 or 4.30 on Friday the notary had already left for the day. So all that was left to do was leave it for the next week. Having picked up my translation on Tuesday we once again set out for the "palace" which one, thinking it not be so busy on such a day, would be wrong. This day we waited at least an hour while 6 other couples either filled out declarations of marriage or divorce.

Having been given a marriage form on our last trip we filled it mostly out in advance but had a few questions before completing it. So the ZAGSer glued our receipt to the back and examined what we had done so far and told us how to fill out the rest. Well my lovely fiance had filled out my part as I don't have pretty hand writing. So once she was all done the ZAGSer noticed that she was filling out my part and started saying it would have to be re-written by me. (Don't forget that with such official papers there is the space for a signature which I, of course, would write.) I must remind you that this same ZAGSer had all but 2 minutes ago examined this paper which had the exact same handwriting all over it. So now the ZAGSer proceeded to rip off the receipt that she had just glued to the first sheet and glued it to a new one (once again disregarding the obvious that it would be much easier to fill out the paper without glue smeared all over the back of it). Once the paper had been thoroughly filled out the ZAGSer compared all three of my documents and my passport to one another for the third time.

At this point I, of course, have to tell you the kicker. One of the questions we had asked about filling out the document was which address to put as place of residence as both my fiance and I live at places other than where we are officially registered as living. (On my declaration of non-marriage I had accidentally put my as well as my fiance's actual place of residence.) It turned out that such details are of no importance but what is really important is penmanship.

The other thing that makes Russia different from Vegas is that one has to wait 31 days before the marriage document can be signed. So on March 20 we will be "married."

To see more photos of so-called weddings click here.

01 February, 2008

A picture post












Peter "the Great" piloting the storm cloud he brought over Russia.













A strange statue to find in any case and especially among old Soviet statues: Archbishop Makarios of Cyprus.









Memorial sculpture of sorts for those who were repressed by the Reds.