First Days in Moscow

Hello my friends,

on Wednesday I left Germany and flew to Moscow together with 5 other volunteers. We landed at Moscow-Vnukovo, where our country coordinator waited for us. I'm so happy I got through the passport control, because the staff always looks so grimmy and mean. We took the train (Electritshka) to one of Moscow's train stations and then took the Metro to another train station.

It really is an experience to use the Moscovian Metro, because many of its stations are pompously decorated and always crowded. Walking down stairs, taking escelators, waiting for the next Metro to come, squeezing through the crowd is especially stressful and exhausting when you carry more than 20 kilos of luggage and 10 kilos of hand luggage. Once we arrived we met the head of one of the organisations where I'm going to work. She took me to the northern end of Moscow where I will live in the next couple of months.

So I had to take the Metro again and after a 20 minute ride we had to take an old trollybus which brought us to my place, where my family was already waiting for me. My host family is from Armenia and consists of father, mother and son. They are really nice and always wanted to help. They showed my around the flat and my room. They only speak Russian which is of course a good thing, however I'm not sure whether I understood everything correctly. And it was often very embarrassing when I wanted to say something and it took me ages to find one word. Hopefully, my Russian will become better soon.

I spent my first evening eating a Ukrainian/Russian soop and talking to my host father. He asked me whether I liked Martini and then took a 1 liter bottle of Martini Bianco out of the fridge which we emptied together with his son on the same evening. I already felt drunk after 2 glasses but he continously filled my glass. Along the way we watched bad Russian soap operas. At ten o'clock I was finally fully drunk and I had to go to bed. On the next morning I went to Moscow to meet my country coordinator. She brought me to the Human Rights organisation Memorial where I met the other volunteer in Moscow. We filled out our registration form and went to the post office to be registrated. Now I'm officially and legally in Moscow.

After that we went to my work place - the Holocuast Centre and Fond. Most people were on holidays, but an Austrian volunteer who is already working there showed me around. My country coordinator told me that the boss of the centre is a little bit difficult and often choleric. Up to now he only liked Russian-Germans and one girl, which was an organisation genius. Hopefully, he will like me nonetheless. My first working day will be on Monday. I will bribe them on Monday with a box of chocolates, so they need to like me. Up to then I really want to go to the city centre, which I haven't seen yet. Maybe this is why I don't think that Moscow is really beautiful.

If you have any questions, just write a comment or send me an e-mail.