Yo y'all! So, here I am, in Moscow. Whod'a thunk?
I've just spent probably the most stressful few weeks of my life trying to get here, battling with bureaucracy and fucking idiots who were acting on my behalf, but not in my interest. Seriously, I was losing faith in the world and its ability to contain people who are either kind or at least vaguely intelligent. And by vaguely intelligent, I mean things like, able to predict that if they don't give me the information I need to fill in my visa application correctly, I probably won't get a visa. Etc.
I couldn't really see any point in blogging because it would have just been a rant at the amount of people trying to screw money and time out of me. Two banks have had a go at the former, 3 Russian organisations at the latter. Seriously, I'm up to here with it. *indicated point well above head*
But after all that, I made it at last. Flew in on Saturday, and had the evening to settle into my new flat with my flatmate Lena, though not her fiancé Paulus who will also be living with us, because he's currently at home in Lithuania where they're getting married later this month.
We went to the supermarket to pick up a few things, which was a little stressful but not too bad because we mostly agreed on what to buy. We also got a watermelon from the watermelon man outside our building that weighed about as much as a toddler, and was so big it wouldn't fit in the sink so we had to rinse it in the bath. I lol'd.
So yesterday was my first full day. I went to the drama school where I'll be working, and it seems a nice little place. It's got 3 teaching rooms, including one that doubles up as a photography studio, and a wee theatre that surprisingly seats up to 50.
I was halfway through a discussion with Martin (the big English cheese) when I was approached by Natasha (the big Russian cheese) and asked if I'd help them do some advertising on the streets, because yesterday was Moscow's birthday and there were loads of people out and about for the celebrations. She suggested that I do it in costume with them, and I idiotically agreed.... Half an hour later, I'm standing in a crowded park dressed in a bright orange dog costume, handing out flyers. When they said they wanted to draw attention to themselves, I hadn't quite appreciated how much attention they were intending to draw.... At least the kiddies seemed to appreciate me....
Luckily I was saved after about an hour by a potential new pupil coming to audition back at the studio, so Martin and I went back to meet him. Cute enough kid, 7 years old, and seemingly game for this acting malarky. Then I met an older pupil - about my age, I'd say - called Sergei, who was practising a monologue for that night's English Evening at a local bar. I helped him out a bit, very impressed that he had memorised a Shakespearean speech, and then we all went down to the bar to set up. How it seems to work is, this guy Alexei who is a world-class flamenco guitar player (and really is very good) plays his guitar for about half an hour while people interested in speaking English arrive; everyone chats for a while, then Sergei does his piece (I gather there are normally more little performances of that kind); then the other native speakers and I get up on the stage and introduce ourselves before a round of speed-English. Like speed-dating, except you're just speaking English to each other in the 3 minutes you get before the bell rings and you change partners.
I was hesitant to go, not really wanting to spend a lot of time speaking English, but I did get some new Russian friends out of it who are apparently happy to speak Russian with me another time, so all was not lost. Got home at about midnight, had some dinner finally with my flatmate and her best friend Olga who had driven us home, and so to bed. I have to say, for a first day, I don't think I did too badly. 24 hours and I'd already started working and acquired more friends than I could count on my fingers.
Today is day 2: started with a phone call from the mother of the little boy I'm teaching English to, arranging to meet at 12:30. When I rang at 10 the kid was still in bed apparently, so I don't know what kind of school he goes to because normally all Russian schools start on September 1st... Anyway, I'll be off there in a minute. Then a business lunch type thing in the restaurant of the theatre where Martin and I will be working, meeting...oh, I can't remember, some person of significance. Possibly someone looking to join the drama school, possibly someone connected with the melodeclamation performance Martin is doing there in a couple of weeks (which he apparently wants me to stage manage, news to me!)
So, off I pop. La'ers! xxx
I've just spent probably the most stressful few weeks of my life trying to get here, battling with bureaucracy and fucking idiots who were acting on my behalf, but not in my interest. Seriously, I was losing faith in the world and its ability to contain people who are either kind or at least vaguely intelligent. And by vaguely intelligent, I mean things like, able to predict that if they don't give me the information I need to fill in my visa application correctly, I probably won't get a visa. Etc.
I couldn't really see any point in blogging because it would have just been a rant at the amount of people trying to screw money and time out of me. Two banks have had a go at the former, 3 Russian organisations at the latter. Seriously, I'm up to here with it. *indicated point well above head*
But after all that, I made it at last. Flew in on Saturday, and had the evening to settle into my new flat with my flatmate Lena, though not her fiancé Paulus who will also be living with us, because he's currently at home in Lithuania where they're getting married later this month.
We went to the supermarket to pick up a few things, which was a little stressful but not too bad because we mostly agreed on what to buy. We also got a watermelon from the watermelon man outside our building that weighed about as much as a toddler, and was so big it wouldn't fit in the sink so we had to rinse it in the bath. I lol'd.
So yesterday was my first full day. I went to the drama school where I'll be working, and it seems a nice little place. It's got 3 teaching rooms, including one that doubles up as a photography studio, and a wee theatre that surprisingly seats up to 50.
I was halfway through a discussion with Martin (the big English cheese) when I was approached by Natasha (the big Russian cheese) and asked if I'd help them do some advertising on the streets, because yesterday was Moscow's birthday and there were loads of people out and about for the celebrations. She suggested that I do it in costume with them, and I idiotically agreed.... Half an hour later, I'm standing in a crowded park dressed in a bright orange dog costume, handing out flyers. When they said they wanted to draw attention to themselves, I hadn't quite appreciated how much attention they were intending to draw.... At least the kiddies seemed to appreciate me....
Luckily I was saved after about an hour by a potential new pupil coming to audition back at the studio, so Martin and I went back to meet him. Cute enough kid, 7 years old, and seemingly game for this acting malarky. Then I met an older pupil - about my age, I'd say - called Sergei, who was practising a monologue for that night's English Evening at a local bar. I helped him out a bit, very impressed that he had memorised a Shakespearean speech, and then we all went down to the bar to set up. How it seems to work is, this guy Alexei who is a world-class flamenco guitar player (and really is very good) plays his guitar for about half an hour while people interested in speaking English arrive; everyone chats for a while, then Sergei does his piece (I gather there are normally more little performances of that kind); then the other native speakers and I get up on the stage and introduce ourselves before a round of speed-English. Like speed-dating, except you're just speaking English to each other in the 3 minutes you get before the bell rings and you change partners.
I was hesitant to go, not really wanting to spend a lot of time speaking English, but I did get some new Russian friends out of it who are apparently happy to speak Russian with me another time, so all was not lost. Got home at about midnight, had some dinner finally with my flatmate and her best friend Olga who had driven us home, and so to bed. I have to say, for a first day, I don't think I did too badly. 24 hours and I'd already started working and acquired more friends than I could count on my fingers.
Today is day 2: started with a phone call from the mother of the little boy I'm teaching English to, arranging to meet at 12:30. When I rang at 10 the kid was still in bed apparently, so I don't know what kind of school he goes to because normally all Russian schools start on September 1st... Anyway, I'll be off there in a minute. Then a business lunch type thing in the restaurant of the theatre where Martin and I will be working, meeting...oh, I can't remember, some person of significance. Possibly someone looking to join the drama school, possibly someone connected with the melodeclamation performance Martin is doing there in a couple of weeks (which he apparently wants me to stage manage, news to me!)
So, off I pop. La'ers! xxx
Wow, that sounds extraordinary busy for landing in a new country with a different time zone! Good luck with it all, my mum had her first watermelon in Russia when she was 15, I always thought it was an odd place to have watermelons...
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Enjoy it, because you deserve success <3 xx
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