Happy New Year/С Новым Годом

Well its the other other event of the year. New Years Eve is here!! As I write this, you guys in Australia will probably be at the place you have decided to celebrate. Super!!! :) I hope the weather holds up for those with outdoor celebrations. Crazy weather you guys are having. We thought our weather was crazy....

Anyway, whatever you have decided to do, whoever you've decided to do it with, I hope you have a fantastic New Years Celebration. And may you all realize your New Years resolutions, no matter how outlandish or ambitious they may seem.

Missing you all greatly, take care but make sure you have a drink for me. By the time you get to sleep, our New Year Celebrations will just be starting. Ah, time difference... :)

Have a wonderful evening all and I will speak to you all in the New Year!

Enjoy...

Matt.

Merry Christmas for 2006!!

Well folks, its that time again (Well in Australia, not necessarily in Russia) As you know, i'm working today but that isn't going to stop me spreading the Christmas cheer. Today, we have Christmas Clubs at Lingua for which I have a rather killer lesson planned. And failing that, I have Bailey's and Amaretto to mask the event of a defeat.

We have a Christmas/New Years tree and snow outside. So it certainly seems like Christmas although many won't really be celebrating it until Jan 7th next year.

So may I take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you a very very Merry Christmas. I hope you all get lots of presents, at the very least, a few Quality ones, good food, good company and the kind of cheer that makes this time so special.

I'll speak to you all soon.

Love Matt.

I have Internet, I like M & M's!!

Its true, It's all true. Internet is mine and I have a weakness for M&M's...

Email: delxa@optusnet.com.au
MSN: delxa@hotmail.com
ICQ: 338-476-526
Skype: delxaau

SPeak me now!!!

Matt.

That big Swedish place..

I’ve been here three times now. I’ve caught the stupid problematic, overcrowded free bus from Rechnoi Vokzal Metro to Mega Mall Khimki three times now. One would have thought that twice would be enough to learn the lesson. If it weren’t for the facts that I’m a sucker for punishment, and Ikea is probably the best place by far in Moscow to get cheap and reliable goodies to stock our apartment with, trip number two would have been the last.

Unfortunately many Russians share my point of view about Ikea being the ideal place to get goodies for their apartments and therefore gather in their tens of thousands to do their part to strengthen the Swedish economy. To say Ikea was busy would be an understatement. Traffic inside the store was comparable to 6 o’clock misery on city roads.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, we got almost everything we came for and for reasonable money. Out list was 22 items long including a full set of pots/pans, knives, utensils, floor mats, chair cushions, the list goes on. We were fortunate in that Sveta’s mum came to the rescue to drive us back to our apartment. I can’t imagine how the trip back on the bus would have been if we’d had to face the same thing we had on the way there. (3 large bags and one large box of pots)

We got back, Made our apartment into an Ikea showroom, had some dinner and went to bed pretty early. Ikea is a very exhausting experience and we both had work the next day. The weekend had been rather successful. It would be interesting to see the kind of action that the upcoming week would hold.

I hope you all had a good weekend too. Have a lovely week.

Miss you all.

Matt.

A lot's happened since then..

I apologize for the delay in uploading shows. 5 & 6 were written last week on Friday but I was unable to upload them because I forgot to load them onto my camera to take them to work. Kinda silly thing to do. But here they are with my report from the weekend.

I was glad to see this weekend actually. Even though I only worked 3 days this week, I was still exhausted. For the first time in a long long time, I feel like it has been a long time since the weekend has passed. Could be for several reasons, a lot’s happened since last weekend. It could also be testament to how fast I have adapted back to living here, therefore making Australia seem like a very distant second. (This happened when leaving Moscow for Australia too..)

Saturday, I was still technically working too as I had to attend a seminar for teachers. From 2 until 4:30, the seminars are strategically placed to take a magical chunk out of your day in exchange for information and skills that, most of the time, are not relevant to my job at Lingua. Sveta also went for her driving licence today (and got it J ) and a fat Russian man came to our apartment to put a door on the kitchen that mysteriously arrived in the wrong colour when in first arrived.

Sveta and I met up later and went to get me some shoes from the shoe centre near Avtozavodskaya Metro station. After looking through 80,000+ pairs of shoes, I founc pretty close to what I was looking for and bought them. New shoes has been crossed off my list.

We returned home and I started to cook dinner. A stir-fry with carrot, chicken, capsicum, cashews and onion on rice. Super nice!! I think I’ve outdone myself. J I’ll have to see if there is puff pastries here so I can make pasties.

Watched Borat, Run Lola, Run and The Departed. Pretty good but wasn’t impressed by anything new.. Fell asleep because Sunday was going be a test of patience, will power, strength and resolve. We were going to go to Ikea Khimki.

The Novy Living Facility

Greetings Vsyem!!!!! It’s the end of the week, and keeping with tradition that we do something interesting or special at the end of the week, I thought I would share our apartment with you. (Just in case you were curious to see how the other half live..) Moscow when compared with our CBD is huge, but when compared with Greater Melbourne, they are roughly the same size (Maybe Greater Melbourne being the larger of the two) yet Moscow has 16-19million people living within this area.

Therefore Moscow is a city of apartment buildings. One cannot look anywhere without seeing apartment buildings. Our building is located 10 minutes walk from Timiryazevskaya Metro in the north of the city. A Soviet era flat, it is the equivalent of a studio apartment with a bedroom/living room, bathroom/toilet and kitchen. We also have an enclosed balcony (good for storing junk) All the windows are double glazed and we have at least four heavy doors with numerous types of locks between the street and the inside of the apartment. Even James bond would not have enough equipment to defeat every locking mechanism one has to pass when going home at night. So I include these photos for you to look at. We haven’t really started to decorate yet, but rest assured, we will get there in the end.

I hate our fridge, as does Sveta. I’m told the fridge is as old as the apartment (that is to say, fairly old) and it has a nasty habit of making large amounts of noise when the compressor clicks on (several times during the night) Our oven/stove unit is not much better and looks like it should be in a museum. (read: Antique)

Today also marks the first day I was able to sleep in. Previous days I have woken at 5am and 7:30am so it’s nice to have caught up on some sleep. I have four classes this afternoon, all straight from English file so it will be a fairly easy afternoon, unlike the previous two days where having to prepare clubs took time and concentration (concentration and thought abilities were pretty lacking as one can imagine.

On the weekend I will be working on the new-improved Radio Krasnaya which will have video’s, picture galleries, podcasts and video’s for you to enjoy. Please stay tuned for further updates. Any questions you ever have, please post them in comments and they will be answered. Please say hello too. J J

Have a lovely weekend all. Hopefully we will have internet at home soon so MSN, ICQ and Skype will be a goer again. Until then, I hope you are all behaving. Take care.

Matt.

Micro Go Go

Today marks the second day of working at Lingua and the fourth day back in Moscow for the welcome back tour. The day has been successful with another three lessons at Lingua communicating the English love to the willing. I had a clever idea this morning on how to incorporate my Micro Machine collection into a lesson. After all, who wouldn’t love to play with miniature cars in order to learn valuable driving and directions English. Especially when there were Australian coins up for grabs. But my plan would also require a large map and a list of different buildings in my paper-borne city.

The end result was a hit and I’ve outdone myself yet again, which will ultimately result in the inevitable. High student expectations for the next class. But I think I’ll ride on the success of the club just gone and see how far I get. IN other Lingua news, I’m told by the director that we’re having a party soon and I am required to prepare an authentic Australian dish. No ideas have come to me so anyone with an idea and/or recipe, please feel free to share. J J I will give you 50 rubles. You know I’m good for it. J J

I finally unpacked and sorted the rest of my luggage and it’s all away now. So the apartment is that much cleaner. I also went to the supermarket today and bought some of the ever lovely smoked spaghetti cheese. YUM!!! It is the tastiest indeed.

I have started listening to music at home now and am starting to realize how ace Noel Sanger is. (Thanks Daniel for the mad tracks. J ) If you would like your own, Hybridized.org is a wonderful place to start.

Stay tuned for the next edition where I will introduce you to my apartment and different parts of my world. Thanks for tuning in. J

That was quick....

What I thought was going to be quite a difficult and action packed day, turned out not to be. In fact, in hindsight, I could have had four more hours sleep and still have had time to burn. The fact that I was wide awake by 5 and unable to return to sleep was testament to my body clock having not yet adjusted to Moscow time yet.

My plans for the day were to obtain some matte finish photos and then take the photos to BKC for visa and registration purposes and to sign the new contract. Obtaining the photos took 10 mins worth of me speaking bad Russian to get what I had come for. But it was relatively painless and we had enough understanding to get it under control. The small studio was located just next to the Metro station nearest my house, Timiryazevskaya.

Next stop was BKC to sort out the business end of things. Three contracts, a metro pass and a spravka* later, I left BKC and walked to Lingua, through Red Square. There seemed to be an ice skating rink set up in there. (Weird, as it’s not really cold enough for it, but yet, it’s too cold to take a leisurely stroll in the park.)

I got to Lingua about 4 ½ hours earlier than required for my first day at work for the second tour. I had three classes to teach today and I had already organized two of them. I’m constantly reminded what a good investment that Nintendo DS was. J J It was also a great opportunity to meet some of our new teachers. I met fellow Australians Sharon and Mitchell who hail from Cairns (although originally Sharon is actually from Mooroolbark too) Small world gets smaller again… I actually feel a bit sorry for them as all they have heard about is the “other” Australian teacher who left earlier this year but was coming back soon. I hope now that I’m back, the students will settle down a bit.

When it finally came time to do my classes, I had an Upper Intermediate/Advanced Club (where we talked about Epitome, colloquialisms such as “on the ball” and “in the know” and even a quick stint on “the business end” of things.), an Elementary Grammar Class which was largely focused on houses and getting singular and plural questions, positive and negative statements under control (undoubtedly one of the most entertaining classes I’ve ever taught due to the fact that I was running on adrenaline alone) My final class was an Intermediate Grammar class which by the end, I was absolutely exhausted. I felt exactly how I did when I stayed up all morning to finish a program.

I made it back home again, had a wonderful dinner and practically fell into bed. I hope my body clock adjusts soon. Especially if they are going to insist on giving me the late shifts…

Tomorrow would be a new day with another 3 classes to teach. It’s what I’m here for. Spreading the love that is the English language…

*Spravka – This is a special document issued by the school to tell authorities that you do not have your passport because it has been taken for registration purposes, therefore hopefully avoiding a fine. The reality is that even with a spravka, you are still in danger of being fined. Contradictions of law seem to be commonplace in Russia.



 

No sun, No snow

I woke up at 10. Not bad for someone who’d endured 24 hours of airline/airport action + 3 hours of Moscow Traffic Jam Action. I stumbled mentally for the first little while as everything in this apartment capable of displaying the time, all had different times. Even Sveta’s laptop is still on Australian time!!!!

The other reason that made it so difficult to tell the time was the weather. Think of how light it is at 9:00pm in Summer. That might give you some idea as to how it looks outside. So when one of my telephones that I thought I had adjusted to Moscow time told me that it was 6pm, I almost believed it. Even when we left the airport last night, it felt like it was 10pm whereas, in fact, it was only 5. Still so dark,,,

It’s 3:30 here and I’m typing in the dark.

This season in particular is really getting people talking. This time last year, there was snow everywhere. Now, none. People are talking of “heatwaves” of +7c. And Ski resorts are having coronaries because the on resource they need to run their business is nowhere to be seen.

I visited my school today. Everyone is quite excited to have me back. One teacher there didn’t know I was coming back and almost jumped out of her skin when she walked into the room.. (funny, I thought everyone knew that MET IS BEK!)

Of all joyous things, they have decided that I will start work on Wednesday (Read: Second full day back in Moscow) And I have to also go back into BKC armed with some Matte Matt photos..

I think I’ve done quite well today, changing money, buying train tickets, telling someone which station we were at, and putting more money on my telephone. Let’s see how much I can accomplish tomorrow….



 

More Flight Action

The flight from Bangkok was a little better than my flight from Melbourne. Largely due to the fact that I had more legroom than everyone else on the plane, combined. (If you catch a Boeing 777, Row 31 is where it’s at) But the flight is still painfully long. I had numerous distractions available but I didn’t feel like partaking in any of them. All I wanted was sleep. But even despite the lovely amount of leg room I had, it was still impossible.



Our approach to Moscow was what I was waiting for. The sea of clouds beneath us seemed to stretch on forever.. At 1600m we were skating over the top of them, at 1550 we were in the thick of it and didn’t come out until 900m. Before we went under the cloud cover, I saw the sun, knowing that it would be months before I would see it again.



We landed at Moscow Domodedovo. (Try and say that 10 times quickly) and went through the motions very quickly. (About 1 fifth of the time it would have taken at Sheremetyevo Airport) And met up with my girlfriend and her mother. We went to the little Citroen and left the aiport. We wouldn’t see our apartment for another 3 hours..



One of the joys of Moscow is the traffic. There’s lots of it. We had hit peak time traffic in a huge city of motorists who all had their minds set on getting home. By the time we reached the apartment, I was so zonked that I wasn’t able to coordinate movement of my huge case. I thought I would sleep easily for the next few days…



 

Welcome Back Folks

Greetings peoples. Welcome back to Radio Krasnaya on the latest Melbourne to Moscow tour. THis edition comes live to you from Bangkok airport where the severe lack of snickers bars makes me quite despondent. Current terminal status... 30mins till boarding, and I'm the only non-Russian waiting for the flight back to Moscow, Although while they are all probably dreading going back, I have many exciting things ahead of me.

For a new airport, Suvarnabhumi seems to be aging quite quickly, THe windows are all dirty as are the canvas arches that form the main walls of the building. Our plane is here, a Boeing 777. It has only two engines but they are huge and reading about this craft on Wikipedia, it seems that the engines can be swapped for higher power models more easily than most other conventional passenger aircraft. Sorry to the non-aricraft buffs out there...

25 mins to go. Still no sign of anyone who isn't Russian. :) :)

Highlight of my trip so far is watching a lightning storm, from above. Fewer natural things can match the silent beauty of this. Whoever was underneath this baby would have been crying tears as big as October cabbages...

Anyway, I need to post before I lose battery and my place in the queue of naturally pushy Russians. Stay tuned for another update when I arrive in Moscow.

Behave, all of you!!!

Matt.