Monday, January 31, 2011

No Time For Fun

Life in Moscow these past 4 months has been incredibly boring. My time-consuming, energy-draining schedule persists. Wake up early in the morning, get on the bus to Moscow (1 hour), take the metro (30 minutes), walk to my first class (30 minutes), after that walk back to the metro (30 minutes), take the metro to my next class (30 minutes), get on a marshroutka bus (20 minutes), after that class get back on the bus and back on the metro, walk again (20 minutes), and after that take the metro to the train station and take a train home (1 hour), then another marshroutka (30 minutes).

By the time I walk in the door it's around 11:30 at night. My wife, who has to wake up around 6 am to get to her job in Moscow, is usually asleep by the time I get home. I have just enough time to slam back a cup of tea and then crawl into bed to do the same thing the next day. Day after day after day. The worst part is that I'm making as much as I made with Language Link last year, but working 40 hours per week and travelling almost as much, instead of the 28 hours I worked before. Add to that the fact that Language Link provided an apartment, and all my classes were in one central location, and I'm actually getting burned with my current schedule.

Because of this schedule, I have not had time to meet up with any friends or make any new ones, or visit any museums or interesting places, or party, or go clubbing, or anything like that. So I have no new stories about life in Moscow to share.

A year ago I was in love with Russia and with Moscow. I was captivated by the overall sexiness of this great country, and the deep and rich history and the incredibly funny people and the laissez-faire attitude of living here. Now I've turned completely against Moscow and Russia. As Katya told me: "Now you see what life is REALLY like here." I miss the rose glasses I was wearing a year ago.

So with no time to enjoy myself, and no interesting stories to write about, and a growing annoyance for everything Russian, I will be heading back to my home soon. It's too bad, because it used to be so great here. Oh Russia 2009/2010, I miss you!

4 comments:

  1. I call this welcome to the machine, its how car parts feel, kind of close to russian people. Just the best comparison I could come up with, maybe its not correct lol.

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  2. When you say heading back home, do you mean Canada? I found your blog by accident, surfing the net. I'm in Victoria, BC. Life is good here, there was no snow this year. I was actually thinking of moving to Russia, to teach English, but it sounds like it's not worth it. What would persuade you to stay there?

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  3. Thanks for commenting. Actually Russia is a wonderful place to teach and to live. I would reccomend not doing it as a private teacher, but going as a contract teacher with a school. I personally reccomend Language Link. When I worked for them I enjoyed my time in Russia immensely.

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  4. Hi, I am looking in to teaching in Russia and I would love to talk to you more about your experiences with Language Link. Did you do their internship program?

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