Pictures of the metro

Another site with pictures of the Moscow metro:

http://www.beeflowers.com/Metro/-Startfiles-/index.htm

Only in Russia (2)

Last week I needed some pictures for my accreditation at Lighthouse. Apparently there was one of those 1-minute boots in a metro station nearby. I found the thing sure enough, but noticed an old lady sitting next to it. On the table in front of here lay some tickets for classical concerts, so I figured she must be selling them. I looked into the machine to check how much change I needed, but noticed a woman was paying the lady for this kid who had to have his pictures taken. The old lady helped the kid with the difficult and complicated task of setting the stool at the right height and pressing some buttons. Another typical example of me being a foreigner and not understanding Russia.

Only in Russia (1)

Only in Russia do they sell mushroom flavoured crips and they are tasty too I must say!

Back to Mother Russia

Having just returned from graduation, it was already time to get ready to head back to Moscow. Packing my bag and sorting out all the things that still needed sorting out was made a lot easier with the help of my ever-caring mum. I got slightly stressed when on the morning of my departure my suit could not be found at the drycleaners, but eventually I got to the airport in time. Checked in, said goodbye to my mum and bought some chocolates for the people at the office and the family I stayed with (and will stay with until I find my own place). The landing at Moscow gave me a gorgeous view over snow-covered forests, as winter has finally arrived in Moscow.

The new driver of the office Aleksey met me at the arrivals. As we left the terminal, I was immediately hit by the cold (it was about –13 degrees). I first went to the office where I was greeted by some old and some new faces. Some colleagues left the company while I was away (which is a very normal thing in Russia where staff turnover is a lot higher than in Western Europe). Birgit, one of my bosses, immediately opened a bottle of champagne that was kicking about. It seems the tradition of having beers at the office on Friday afternoon had sort of disappeared in my absence, so I will have to make sure it is reinstated. Aleksey then took me to the Russian family where I had been staying last time. The two sons Ilya and Sasha were at a dacha of a friend, but their mum Svetlana greeted me with a big meal. Was great to see her and Gena, her brother. After dinner I went into town for some drinks with some colleagues and before going to bed I had some drinks with Gena and Svetlana.

Graduation

After sorting out my visa for Russia, I could turn my attention to the graduation ceremony in Warwick. Somehow I hadn’t had the time to get really excited about it, but as it drew nearer I started looking forward to it. I took the Eurostar to London the Sunday before graduation to meet up with some people there. I met up with Jens and Nacho for lunch and it was great to hear what was going on in their lives. After that, I went to an exhibition with Marlon (a friend from Leiden) and Jens on 20th century European photography at the Barbican, which I enjoyed a lot.

I managed to see Abe on Monday morning, which was great as he was not going to graduation but flying back to the US on Tuesday. Took the train to Leamington with Jens in the afternoon and ran into Hani, Hussein and Ali at the train station. After we arrived in Leamington, Jens and me met up with Rick, Roy and some others for a couple of drinks and food in Wetherspoons. Before heading to the Union, I dropped off my stuff at Eric’s place who was kind enough to let me stay with him. We hit Top B hard with a whole bunch of people and all in all I think it made for the best Top B ever.

Then came the big day on which we were to become Warwick graduands. The Arts Centre was packed with people trying to sort out their pictures, robes and tickets. I had lunch with Joris, his sister and her boyfriend, Dan, and Rick before getting myself robbed up and heading to the department for a couple of pre-graduation drinks. The ceremony itself was nothing special: boring and uninspired speeches, bad organ music, etc. Luckily I sat next to Oscar, which made it all a bit more bearable! The certificate itself was a cheap, thin piece of paper in a plastic folder, which was also a bit disappointing. But I ran into a lot of friends and took loads of silly pictures of people in robes and hats, so all in all it was still a lot of fun. We headed to Leamington for some food at an Italian place with a small group of people before hitting Evolve. The night got better and better: loads of friends, drinks, dancing and shannanegans topped off with an afterparty in Dom’s hotel room. I still cannot believe the hotel management did not break up the party as there were about 30 people buying beer from the reception and having a good time till early in the morning.

Wednesday was spent recovering from a big hangover. Had an English fry up on campus with Joris, Rick, Dan, and Jens, misbehaved like little kids in the Warwick Bookstore and killed some time in Coventry before heading to the airport to fly back. All in all, graduation was a fitting finale to a great year in Warwick.

The metro

The ride on the metro on my way to work is always an interesting experience. The system daily carries more than the London and New York metro combined (9 million) with metros running every minute. Funnily enough, people still run to catch the metro in the station and so do I, in my attempt to integrate. Another way of integrating is striking the typical metro pose. Russians do not smile to strangers and most people look like they are all in a terrible bad mood (see http://weblogs.nrc.nl/weblog/moskou/2007/01/30/in-de-metro/ for some examples). But you always get a good overview of the Muscovian society in the metro as it is one of the last things that are still relatively cheap in Moscow (with tickets as cheap as 20 eurocents per ride) and a lot of people like pensioners are entitled to use it for free. This morning I couldn't help myself smiling (twice). The first time was when I spotted a guy having a beer as I was on my way to work and still in the process of waking up fully at around 8.30 AM. The second time was when I spotted a stray dog on the metro platform that attempted to go down the escalators. Nobody seemed to pay any attention as everyone is always in a hurry to get somewhere. One of the things I don't like about the metro is that it's so hot in there. No aircondition and since you are all wearing thick winterjackets, one can imagine what the results are of that!

Weather alarm

I had a bit of a laugh when I read that a 'weather alarm' had been given out in the Netherlands as they were expecting 5 to 10 centimeters of snow. Apparently, snow also wreaked havoc in England and Belgium where flights were airports were closed and gigantic traffic jams developed. I had just come from outside were it was -18 degrees celsius and at least 10 centimeters of snow covered everything. This does not create any serious problems in a city with over 10 million inhabitants. Somehow, the pavements, squares and streets are kept snowfree by an army of snowshovellers.