Hugo Chavez, Zoo and a New Job

Last Thursday I went to a lecture on the situation in South America. Normally, I’m not really interested in South America, but the invitation proclaimed that Hugo Chavez, who came to Moscow to meet Mr Putin and Mr Medvedev, would also hold a speech. Therefore, my colleague and I sent the organisation an e-mail to register for the lecture. The lecture was supposed to start at 4:30, but the whole event was badly organised, so it took us an hour to get into the lecture hall, because the security guards started to check the passports and bags of all guests only when the lecture was already supposed to start. First, some Russian experts on South America talked about the situation in South America until it was the turn of Hugo Chavez. He has a really deep voice and is an excellent speaker. However, throughout the lecture I didn’t understand what he was saying because he spoke in Spanish and it was only translated into Russian. Therefore, I didn’t really know whether I should clap. Because sometimes he talked about North Korea and I didn’t want to clap when he was saying that it is the best country of the world. So I just didn’t clap. And he also criticised the United States several times and said how great Venezuela was. But at least I can say that I’ve seen Hugo Chavez. Yeah!

On Saturday I went to the zoo in Moscow. They only important thing to mention is that the living conditions for the animals are pretty upsetting. The cages are small, seldomly cleaned and the animals just sit around, look sad and are bored.

Yesterday I went to a refugee centre in Moscow. When I came to Moscow our country coordinator told me that I will also work in this refugee centre. I had thought that only the other volunteers would work there, but it sounded interesting so I was excited and happy to have the chance as well. We’re going to work in the centre one or two times a week after our regular work and help children with their homework or just teach them how to study. Every volunteer can choose what he wants to teach and he or she will get one child to take care for. I believe that next week I will get a call by the head of the centre to find out when I’m going to start my work.

Russian Post, Reparing Windows and Sergiev Pasod

You need a lot of patience in Russia. Patience and a lot of time. I had to experience that last Thursday. And although I thought that I’m a patient person, the Russian Post definately did proof me wrong. Sometimes one of the volunteers at the Holocaust Center has to go to the post office to pick up a package or a letter. This time it had been my turn to pick up three letters. So I walked to the office and waited in the queue. There were only 5 people in front of me but I had to wait 50 minutes until the lady at the counter helped me. I still can’t believe how slow a person can be. The staff at the post offices are everything but consumer oriented. The whole post system is so circuitous. Although, some other employees were working at that time, they didn’t seem to think about opening another counter. This woman even helped one of her colleagues to fill out a form, instead of continuing to serve the customers. I became more and more annoyed. When it was finally my turn, the lady told me that they only hand out packages at this counter and that I had to go to another counter. So 50 minutes for nothing. I went to another building to reach the other counter. But this was apparently the immigration office. After waiting 10 minutes the lady at this counter, however, showed me the way to again another counter. Finally I was able to pick up my letters. Next time I will carefully look whether I have to get packages or letters so this doesn’t happen to me again.

On Friday I went to my Babushka as usual. This time I cleaned her windows and I did the caulking for her windows. I guess I haven’t done that much repair work for ages. After that she prepared lunch and we listened and talked about classical music.

On Sunday I went to Sergiev Pasod with a group of business students from Moscow. The volunteers from Moscow including me got to know these students, because the students meet every Tuesday to drink one or two beers. And we normally join them there. Some girls planned this day trip to Sergiev Pasod, a city 90 minutes outside from Moscow. It’s famous for it’s Lavra, which is something similar to an abbey, just a little bite more impressive (as you can see in the picture at the top). We met really nice people, ate great food, saw beautiful buildings and walked through the Lavra. The weather was amazing and I really enjoyed this trip.

A weekend celebrating German Unification Day

I spent the last weekend practically eating, drinking, and talking all the time. I also had the possibility to listen to a concert and of course celebrate German Unification Day. The best thing about it - everything was for free. My friends and I started our festivities at the German culture and education institute Goete, which invited all Germans and people who study German to their central office. After some introductiory words and quiz games, it was time to eat. I had hoped for a buffet, but it turned out that the institute had organised waitresses which walk around with food and drinks. This however, wasn’t really the best idea, because everybody was hungry and the waitresses were chased by the masses and the trays were already emptied after seconds. Therefore, I also had to punch myself through the masses to snatch at least bites from the different kinds of food and beverages. Later on the German band Anajo from Augsburg played a conert in a big festival tent outside in the garden. The concert was really good and we all had a lot of fun.
The next day was a little more formal, because all German citizens were invited to the German embassy. It took us ages to walk to the embassy, because it is located between two metro stations and we didn’t know that it would take us 45 minutes. But we arrived and we were allowed into the embassy after we had shown our passports and passed the security check. Luckily, I had worn my Action Reconiliation for Peace T-Shirt. This way some people approached us and talked about our projects. Overall, the evening in the embassy wasn’t as good as the one in the Goete Institute, but the food was slightly better which is of course very important.

How to Treat an Old Lady

Today I went to my Babushka for the first time on my own. I called her half an hour before I arrived at her place. Surprisingly, this phone call went better than I had expected, because I'm normally not the best when it comes to talking Russian on the phone.
I also took the right bus and stopped at the right station on the way to her place. I went up the stairs in the house to her flat. The doors were already open, because her bell isn't working at the moment. I stayed there for half an hour and we talked a bit about what needed to be done in the flat and what we had to buy. We then together took the bus some stations further to go to a supermarket and a kind of building supplies store. It was a special social supermarket where everything was way cheaper than in other supermarkets. One could really feel that she had to decide and calculate what she really needed, because she recieves such a low pension. Although, it wasn't that far it took us 3 and a half hours to go there and back, because, as I already mentioned previously, she can't really walk well. Especially the three floors in the house are troublesome. But also daily life such as crossing the street and taking the bus are difficult. However, I enjoyed helping her and talking to her while walking with her arm in arm, because I felt like I did something good and that it really helps her when I carry the bags. When we came home, she cooked for me and we talked again about her life and about my family. That's what interests her most. I had taken my laptop with me to show her pictures of Kiev, because she was born there. She really seemed to enjoy looking at the pictures and talking about her experiences there.

P.S. I have a new (or rather a used) mobile phone. So I can really call people now and they will understand me. Yeah!

Moscow Nightlife

Moscow is famous for its unrestrained and unlimited nightlife – at least this is what my city guide told me. Therefore, I was really excited to go out for the first time with some friends in the inner city. First of all, however, I had to tell my host family that I will be away over night and asked them not to lock the bar of the door of the flat. Because in that case it’s impossible to open the door from outside. I also told them that I won’t come home before 7 o’clock in the morning, because the first Metros are driving at 6 o’clock in the morning. I really can’t understand why huge cities like New York, London, Tokyo, Moscow and so on do not have a Metro which drives non stop. At least every hour at night would be fine.
Anyway, I met my friends at a Metro station in the inner city, but they all had to wait for me because I couldn’t find them, because there were two platforms and I was waiting on one of the platforms while the others stood at the other platform. Problematically, my mobile phone isn’t working properly. When I call someone or someone calls me, I can hear him or her, but he or she can’t hear me. Therefore, it took us some time to find each other. We didn’t directly go to the club but walked around a bit to find some place to drink and to eat. But we only found a small kiosk where we bought some bear and chocolate cookies. Some drunk guy came to us and told us his life story and something about his wife. But I didn’t really listen and we were all soon really annoyed.
At 1 o’clock we went to the club Propaganda. We were 6 people (3 girls, 3 boys). One girl, which had been in Sankt Petersburg the last year told us that doormen don’t like it when you go to a club in a big group. Therefore, we went to the club in pairs. Oh, I forgot to mention that every club has doormen, who are usually really strict on the looks. So one should always be dressed fancily - meaning leather shoes for men and high heels for women. Our club, however, wasn’t such a strict high fashion club, and the entrance was for free. We were dancing for some hours, until we thought that we might go to another club, which wasn’t too far away. However, the doormen at this new club noticed that we were a group and didn’t let us in. It was the first time ever that I wasn’t allowed into a club. Then a strange old man approached us and told us that he knows a great club nearby where we can come in without problems. So we walked for 20 minutes to the next club. BUT they didn’t let us in. This man told us that he knows still another club. This time we had to walk even longer to discover that we weren’t allowed entrance to the club another time. Pretty disappointed we went back to Propaganda until the first Metro drove. A friend of mine and I went to a little bar close by to eat something. At 6 o’clock we all drove back home. The door to the flat wasn’t locked with the bar so I was able to lay in bed at 7’clock.

Speech, Babushka and Dancing Lesson

Last Friday had been a very busy and exciting day. First I went to the People’s Chamber of the Russian Federation, which discussed the whole day about civil services, volunteer work and the role of foreign volunteers in Russia. This is a highly discussed topic in Russia and therefore it was interesting to see the different opinions of organisations. One of the organisations I’m working for in Moscow is called Sostradanje, which supports victims of the Nazi and Stalin dictatorship and takes care of the household of these very old people. My job in the People’s Chamber was to hold a speech on my experiences so far in Russia, what I think could be improved concerning volunteer work, and what I want to achieve with my volunteering. I had to hold this speech in Russian. And I was totally shocked when I heard that the organisation wanted me to hold this speech, because my Russian still isn’t the best. But I had no other choice, it needed to be done. So I prepared this speech and the employees of Sostradanje corrected my Russian. As you can see on the picture, quite a lot of people were present when I had to hold the speech, and I’m really not the best public speaker. As you can imagine I was really nervous. After waiting for 6 other speeches to end, it was my turn. I told them that it was my first speech in Russian and that I was really nervous. They all smiled. And then I held the speech. It wasn’t too bad. I had practiced it hundreds of times beforehand. I still made some mistakes when pronouncing some words, but everyone clapped and I felt relieved when it was over. Afterwards there was a huge buffet and I was actually eating the whole time instead of speaking with other people.

In the afternoon I went to my Babushka (Grandmother) for the first time. The employees of Sostradanje call their clients Babushka and Dedushka (Grandfather). She is already 86 and a Russio-German. But she only knows 6 German words, which is good, because this way I have to speak Russian. She really can’t walk well anymore, but she lives in the 4th floor without an elevator. I can’t see how she manages to go down all these stairs when she wants to go outside. Furthermore, as all of the pensioners in Russia, she doesn’t get a high pension. I’m going to visit her every Friday and help cleaning her flat, buying products and most importantly talk to her, because these old people are often very alone.

In the evening I had my first dancing lesson in Moscow. I started to like dancing so much during the preperation camp before my year abroad in Hirschluch, where I took a dancing workshop.

First Day at Work

Today I had my first day at work and I was really nervous. I woke up at 7:30 in the morning and also my host father checked whether I was awake. I guess he was just wondering why I wasn’t awake yet, because I had told him the night before that I will get up at 7. But I just love sleeping too much.
At 8 o’clock I took the old trolley to the station. The streets were already full of cars, so it took me a little bit longer to arrive at the Metro station. Also the Metro was crowded, which meant that I had to stand for the next 25 of minutes. Apparently this wasn’t the Rush Hour yet, because Russians tend to go to work later (10 o’clock) and finish work late (7 o’clock). I only got to know the real Moscovian Rush Hour on my way back. I arrived at the Holocaust Centre 10 minutes early and thus walked along the River Moskva for 15 minutes.
The Center is located within a building in which also the Conservatorium of Moscow rents its rooms. Therefore, there are always young people around and it’s always noisy. Only the Austrian volunteer Cornelius was already in the Center when I arrived. We talked for a while and he showed me around. At 10 o’clock my boss also arrived and said hello. I was still nervous, because I heard so many bad stories about him. But actually he didn’t seem to be that bad. Then, Cornelius and I discussed what we wanted to do in the coming year. We planned on improving the website of the Center and also write wikipedia articles about it. My chocolate present sadly didn’t really get attention at first.
Our boss gave us the task to write a letter to a fund which usually gives the Center financial aid. But in the last years the Center has always used the same text in their application for the funds. One should usually tell the fund what was achieved in the last year and what the plans are for the upcoming year. The lady which sent the mail to the Center seemed to be quite angry that the Center had always used the same sentences and therefore asked several questions. It was our job to find the answers. This wasn’t as easy as it sounds, because even our boss didn’t state exactly in the reports what they did in 2010 and were planning to do in 2011. I wrote down some sentences and my boss added new ones. But his English was so bad that it took me ages to rewrite what he had written. Until the letter was finished I already worked two hours more than I should have. But after work the whole Holocaust Center team drank wine and ate my beloved chocolate and other sweets and talked about this and that. Cornelius and I had dinner after work and then I went home again. However, I stood in a traffic jam with my trolley bus for more than 30 minutes. But overall it had been a nice day.

The picture shows the Lomonossov University in the evening.