Can anyone in Moscow verify this?

[AnastassiaAsh]

Frankly the two countries are behaving towards each other like a couple of capricious children.. "I'm better" "No, Im better" and so on..

I agree, and where is SandrOlga with their illustrative pictures of this?...hehehe...

[Mishenka]

Thank goodness someone had something of value to add to this thread. 

Now Mishenka can stop "worrying" (or was that celebrating???) the downfall of Russia while denying the problems at home.

Up until this post I was regretting even reading this thread... but now I can be comfortable the relatives won't be starving (or immigrating to the US to buy up some of that cheap Real Estate I've been hearing about.)   

Errrrr... can we go back to discussing women now and not US politics?

 Thanks Kuna, and yes please!  Our women are the reason we are here. Galina's daily words to me, Mishenka don't worry, everything will get better.  I can stop worrying for now... at least in my dreams.

I was never at any time denying problems at home, thats ridiculous.   We can all agree the media is busy sensationalizing the news. They make everything bigger than it is. Still we have serious issues that won't go away any time soon.  As I said in the first part of this thread, ask different people you get different answers. Depends on what neighborhood you live in. 

I just heard on the news how one complete development, a neighborhood of 5,200 homes, all financed with the same new home lender are ALL in foreclosure and all the families have moved out and no longer are registered to vote at their addresses. Today is the deadline to register to vote and they won't let them use the previous address. So we have complaints. I don't think a hotel address is acceptable. 

* The smart relatives will wait another year or 18 months until real estate hits rock bottom, then "immigrate and buy up all cheap real estate" A beach house in my town is still 4- 6 million. I don't think anyone will be buying up any of these places.

Glad to hear there is food on the shelves, now I must ask at what price. After paying USD $20 for tea and fruit at SVO 2 in May......won't be buying airport food again for next months trip.

Mishenka

[Sculpto]

Mishenka,
Tea and fruit costs about $20 in the airport in SF... airports are just like that the world over.. though it might be different down south where you are.. somehow I doubt there is an Il Fornaio consession in the airport there.

The real question should be what is the cost of food in the farmers markets where normal people buy their food.  How much has a blini from a kiosk gone up?

Here in SF there are several Farmers markets.  Food costs almost half what is charged in Safeway or less than half of Whole Foods where I only go to get cheese and fresh seafood. 

Ruble is going to be at 26.5 to the dollar most likely by the time I arrive in Moscow.  What a confusing number to try and do the exhange on the fly.. I will use the 25 number to keep things simple. 

[Mishenka]

Sculpto, we have Il Fornaio and the food is great, not really that expensive.

I paid nearly US $5.00 for a loaf of "Orowheat"  bread yesterday, the same bread in Tashkent is 50 cents. You can buy Uzbek bread 3 for a dollar, When I spoke with Galina this morning she was asking if I want to move to Tashkent, instead of her moving here, and for the first time, I actually, considered it.  Let's add up the cost of living downtown Tashkent:

Rent/house payment 0 dollars the flat is paid for
Food, $300 per month for the family including Mayson her dog!
Natural gas, $25 per YEAR for all cooking
Electric bill $25 per month
Hot and cold water, $25-28 per month ($300 per year) if you pay in advance to save 10%
Internet access, $20 per month for a certain number of GB, then buy new cards. 
Travel?>  taxi ride each day, maybe $1 each way.
Doctor visit $3
Dentist visit $3
Pharmacy, meds, $5- $10
clothes, mostly made in Turkey or China are less than in USA.

Now the cost of living in San Diego

Cheapest flat in comparison in San Diego $1600 per month
Car payment, $410
Car insurance, $80
Fuel, gas at todays prices $320- 400
Food, $600 per month
Gas$50 per month
Electric $60- $100 per month
Hot and cold water, $50 per month
high speed internet, cable TV etc $100 per month
Doctor visit at Scripps hospital $330 doctor - in office visit $130- 170
Dentist, $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Medicines $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$  from $20- 120 or more, or buy in Mexico cheaper.

She doesn't care if we live in San Diego or in Tashkent, she only wants to be together. When we spoke about me visiting next month, if I can't make it, she wants to come here, at her expense,  so she asked me to make invitation for her visa.  I never thought I would consider living there, I'm a beach boy not a desert rat.
Mishenka

[OlgaH]

I told him I would be bringing him a cap with a red star on it from Moscow.  The only thing I could find to talk to him about Russia was the current state of the old collective farms.  He was very interested in that topic.. being the cattle man he is...

Sculpto,

In such case the best present from Moscow would be a poster "Stalin and kolkhozniks (soviet farmers) 

[OlgaH]

OK, to make this post at least a little relative to the topic.. this Texan.. he can not possibly believe that the shelves in Moscow are anything but empty.  Even when presented with proof otherwise he insists the truth is life is miserable over there, everyone is starving, everyone not starving is in the mafia, and the return to communism is imminent.

I'm not surprised. If "his" media says so why he should doubt it 

[OlgaH]

She doesn't care if we live in San Diego or in Tashkent, she only wants to be together.  I never thought I would consider living there, I'm a beach boy not a desert rat.
Mishenka

Mishenka,

you could use for example "desert camel" for your  comparative metaphor... why rat     

[Sculpto]

Wow $5 for Orowheat?

Maybe I am spoiled in SF.. food here is cheap and we have tons of local bakeries.  I go to the Mexican bakery once a week and with five bucks I've got "bolio" (french bread rolls) for sandwiches for a week and pastries for a week.  Or I can get artisinal bread from Grace or Acme.. I like the Italian style flat bread.. its still only $2 and enough for the better part of the week.  Plus as I said the farmers markets here are awesome.  There are a lot of small organic farms within 100 miles of SF.  There are even organic farm delivery services where you pay a flat fee per month and they deliver a basket full of whatever they harvested that week.  I don't do it because it is way too much food for one person, even though it costs less than going to the farmers market but I can't even consider throwing away perfectly good food.

I totally understand your math on living in Tashkent instead of California.  I feel the same way about Mexico.  In SF I can get into a 240 square foot studio condo for $600,000.  (if I could afford it)  In Mexico in the area I lived in I can get a 3 BR house on the mountain on the edge of town for 30k.  All the other costs are similar to what you described for Tashkent.

My girl would not be unhappy if I decided to live in Russia.  I am not thrilled about it simply because of the weather.  I left the midwest to escape the cold and I feel like I would be miserable if I lived with real winter and short days.  I need the warmth and sunshine.  For example.. today there is not a cloud in the sky and it is right around 70 degrees F.  The weather doesn't get much better IMHO.  My girl has said she would not be against living in Mexico.. but.. that is still a pretty abstract idea for her I think.

I have even considered living in TJ and working in San Diego.   A really nice two bedroom at Playas de Tijuana goes for about 300 a month.  But, the violence in that city is a big deterrent.  Otherwise it would be a viable alternative.  I know some artists who are doing it and they are not unhappy with their decision.  They get through with the SENTRI pass in about fifteen minutes every day.  The money they are saving lets them concentrate on their art without having to stress nearly as much about making their bills every month.

This morning I had to go downtown to take care of some last minute business before my trip.  When I was finished I stopped off at a Vietnamese sandwich place and got a huge bbq pork with a pile of marinated carrots and cilantro for three bucks.  Then I walked over to the park by Civic Center and sat down on the bench to eat.  A woman at the next bench asked me if my sandwich was good blah blah and then told me she gets her sandwich at some place that charges 7.50 for not as good a sandwich.  I started thinking.. 7.50.. isn't that about minimum wage?  I have no idea how people on the low end in this city are surviving.  I have compared San Diego rents with SF and we are typically anywhere from 20-40% higher here.  Its not as bad across a bridge but I don't see the purpose of living here if not right in the center.  Anyway.. we spend more on rent, insurance, transport etc than you do down south.. but at least the food is cheap HAHAHA!

[Sculpto]

Olga, I like your poster idea.  I may very well look into it, however, I do not think my Texan will appreciate the humor of it.  He is over 60 years old and still completely stuck in a cold war mentality, probably not that much different from the Dad of my girl in Siberia.  Its really funny to provoke him on the topic of China.. the only thing he gets more upset about than Russia.  The really funny thing, now that I think about it, is with his last name it could easily be an "Ellis Island" shortening of a Russian name.  Certainly eastern European at the least.

BTW.. desert rats are cute.. camels are anything but cute.. nasty animals that like to spit.. LOL  In general rats get a bad reputation because city rats are filthy and have diseases.. but.. country, jungle or desert rats are ok in my book..

Hey we are really wandering far away from Mishenkas topic.. and I've just thought of a whole bunch of very funny rat jokes.. but I think I must keep them to myself.. I would not want to offend the rat police..

[Mishenka]

Mishenka,

you could use for example "desert camel" for your  comparative metaphor... why rat     

From wikipedia: Desert rat, colloquial name for a resident of a desert area, esp. in the American Desert Southwest area. Thus "desert rat" is most common term here.

To say I'm a beach boy, not a desert camel, is the same as saying I'm not a desert rat. They both work well.  We don't have many camels in my part of the world like they do in Tashkent. I like your metaphor better, thanks

[OlgaH]

BTW.. desert rats are cute.. camels are anything but cute.. nasty animals that like to spit.. LOL  In general rats get a bad reputation because city rats are filthy and have diseases.. but.. country, jungle or desert rats are ok in my book..

Sculpto,

If you are talking about desert Rat-kangaroos they are cute, it is just about association with a word "rat"... suslik would be more better, more over the susliks live in Uzbekistan clay deserts.

Camels are not  nasty, they are also cute. Camels are Ships of the Desert as you know. 
Don't call them nasty and they will not spit 

[youtube=425,350]JSjNkG6xO5o&feature=related[/youtube]

[Mishenka]

LOL  Ohh that was a great laugh Olga, thanks for that!   How do I add photos to the post?
Mishka

[OlgaH]

To say I'm a beach boy, not a desert camel, is the same as saying I'm not a desert rat.

They work well when people know about desert rat. I don't think many people in Russia and in Uzbekistan know about desert rat

Suslik, tushkanchik (jerboa), peschanka (gerbil), slepushonok are better known names of deserts rodents, especially in Uzbekistan desert fauna    

[OlgaH]

How do I add photos to the post?
Mishka

I have attached an "instruction" 

[Mishenka]

Wow $5 for Orowheat?

[/quote

Yes $4.99 and it is baked right here in San Diego,, its not like it has to be flown in from the Bay area like Sour dough bread!  Ok, I don't buy it often, I buy the 1.29 french bread from our local markets.  It is far cheaper to live in Tashkent if you can deal with the dirty city,( people don't respect the landscape or the streets enough to keep them clean of their trash)  deal with the weather, the crowds, and the vital services being turned off at different hours of the day and night, Water, power, phone and internet. All of which we need everyday to live. Galina was telling me recently she went 5 days before she could wash her hair in the shower because they were working on pipes in the boiler rooms, that make the hot water?  Man,,  I would go nuts, so she boiles water on the stove to fill the tub enough to bathe in. The water was not clean,, more like a light coffee color. This happened once a week on average while I was there. Maybe its the camels?  

We always had candles ready for the power outages at night, it made for a nice romantic time as we set out candles from room to room. I still had an hour of laptop battery power so we would look at our photo's from the day and enjoy "laptop by candle light" and watched a few music videos till the power came back on,
Not sure why this happened so frequently, maybe someone was in training at the power company.

[Mishenka]

I have attached an "instruction" 

Spacibo bolshoi

here is a friendly camel from the Tashkent Zoo.

[Sculpto]

Mexico it would seem is a bit more "civilized".    People control their own hot water, either using a gas heater with a tank outside the house, or, as in the house I lived in an actual wood burning water heater.  Gas trucks circulate almost every day so if you run out of gas you just hail the truck and they trade in your empty tank for a full one. I was carving massive wood sculptures at the time so it worked out pretty good for me because I did not have to have wood brought in nor dispose of all the scrap I was making.  I don't think water service was ever cut off in the three years I lived there.. but, that could be different in the north.  The south has a LOT of rain and there are deep wells with very sweet clean water.  The only time I had a power loss was when I first moved in to my house and didn't understand where I was supposed to go to pay the bill.  I saw the guy outside of the house disconnecting me, so, as soon as he was out of site I just went to the control box, opened it up and turned the power back on.  LOL.  I always had candles on hand because candle light in the evening was nice.. most everyone I know does the same thing and they only turn on the lights at night if there is a specific purpose to do so.  Phones and the internet are all run by Carlos Slim and unlike 20 years ago when I lived there access is cheap and consistent.  When I lived there to make an international call was sometimes an all day proposition as I would have to go to the phone office and wait as the operator tried over and over to get an international line.  Now.. it is instant like it is here.  The streets are not as clean as is typical in the US, but, that really depends on which part of town you live in and when the last big festival was.  The town I lived in is considered all accross Mexico as the cleanest city in the country, but, even downtown Mexico City is really pretty spotless.  People there are VERY aware about keeping litter minimized. 

Anyway.. yeah camels are cute.. I just like rats. 

BTW.. thank you guys for helping me keep my brain occupied today.  Normal travel anxiety is building up and of course my girl is out of touch as she crosses Siberia on the train so I am a bit, well, for lack of a better word.. tweaked.

[OlgaH]

Anyway.. yeah camels are cute.. I just like rats. 

BTW I also like rats even ordinary gray rats they are very smart ... Oh, one day I saw how a huge gray rat went crazy (probably because of poison) and was so aggressive attacking everything and everybody around. Fortunately nobody was bitten.   

[SANDRO43]

.. camels are anything but cute.. nasty animals that like to spit..

Camels may bite, belch and fart but they're not much into spitting (waste of precious water ), it's the prerogative of other members of the Camelidae family (order Artiodactyla, suborder Tylopoda) such as llamas, vicuñas and, of course, guanacos from PATAGONIA ! Photo shows my father (at right) handling nonchalantly a camel in a Cirenaica airfield back in 1943.

Speaking of camels, one is of course reminded of the Sahara desert which is actually a redundant expression, since in Arabic:

صَحراء (saharâ')

simply means desert, and they rightly call that enormous expanse as-saharâ' al-kubra (the Great Desert) .

[OlgaH]

Camels may bite, belch and fart but they're not much into spitting (waste of precious water )

I would say the alternative to spitting  leaves much to be desired...

Mishenka, I think you should choose tushkanchik for your metaphor.   

[Kuna]

* The smart relatives will wait another year or 18 months until real estate hits rock bottom, then "immigrate and buy up all cheap real estate" A beach house in my town is still 4- 6 million. I don't think anyone will be buying up any of these places.

Mishenka,

Your feelings of superiority are unfounded even if they are laced through almost every post you make.  

I think if you took the blinkers off you'd realise there are MANY people in RU still capable of buying the little people like you and me.  The beach house you mention for instance doesn't appear out of the reach of at least one I know as his home is valued significantly higher than that you mention.

Not all Russians are poor desperate peasants waiting for an American white knight to come and save them.  Many are fiercely proud and wildly successful. Yes, Russia most certainly has it's issues but every nation does, don't you agree?

Whilst your never-ending love for your country is admirable and plain for all to see, your need to feel good by denegrating others is not a sign of the good character I assume you have.

Kuna

[chivo]

Things are normal in Moscow. There was a week when it seemed some retailers were behind on payments to their distributors due to the credit crunch, couldn't get the usual credit needed, and that left the shelves a little empty at some stores (not most) for a few days. Things are back to normal at the stores affected. That was about 3 weeks ago when the financial shit was deep.

Nobody is "not" getting paid, but banks and financial institutions as you might expect have been hit the hardest and are laying people off. There is also a hiring freeze with many companies at the moment. Matter of fact, the biggest problem I've been hearing about is that many people are working too many hours because many companies are understaffed and no one is hiring.

Talk has been focused on doing away with year end bonuses and the possibility of pay cuts, but it is mostly business as usual.

There is also speculation that the real estate bubble will finally have some of the air let out of it to the tune of 10-30% in the coming year. Time will tell, but i believe this to be true myself. Who will be affected? Well, not many as most I know who actually have mortgages, have seen so much appreciation, that even -30% will not matter overall. Most own their home free and clear as well.

Couple of things to consider regarding this crisis; 1) the price of oil has to drop below $50 for things to really be affected here and when OPEC meets and cuts production, I think the price will at worst stabilize, if not edge up some.

2) This crisis is different from the one in '98, mostly because this time most of the people who have been hit the hardest are the rich (billionaires like Deripaska, Abramovich and Mordashov) who were heavily leveraged in the RTS and MICEX. Yes, of course it does have a trickle down effect.

Remember Russia/Russians unlike the west, has/have no sub prime loans, infinitely less credit debt, and some of the biggest reserve funds in the world to maintain the economic climate. Not to mention a government that seems to be much more proactive (IOW, not just taking the money and running) than in '98.

As was mentioned, much of what goes on here in Moscow, especially what is reported by the western media, is typically overblown.

Yes, Russia most certainly has it's issues but every nation does, don't you agree?

I agree, but remember, Americans not only live better than anyone else (just ask them ), they hide their problems better as well, or is that wear their rose colored glasses more often  .
Good luck.

Chivo

[chivo]

Mexico it would seem is a bit more "civilized".   

Not in TJ  . Anyway, to answer another question Sculpto, if push comes to shove, i'll take the margarita mix. The shelves are full of tequila, even if the price here is 250% more than in America. :hairraising:

chivo

[Sculpto]

LOL Chivo.. no, TJ is a special situation and I suspect there are few places in the world as messed up.  It is interesting though and can be a lot of fun if you know where to go and speak spanish and know how to blend in a little.  Oddly the TJ mafia seems to have very similiar tastes to what I hear about the Moscow mafia.. re: big black cars and Italian clothes..

OK, on the mix.. I will stop by BevMo tonight after work and get my Frangelica and some margarita mix.. you know I think there is some powdered stuff also.. would that be ok since if I can find it I could bring a lot more in less space..

Ok, different topic.. I have a friend that lives in the mountains above San Francisco.. it is a private road that cuts through several state parks, a really beautiful area.  on the way down the hill to my friends house there is a sign.. it says.. caution, camel crossing.  No one knows if the eccentric who put up the sign actually owns camels..

And finally.. good to know that Russia is not falling apart..

[Mishenka]

Mishenka,

Your feelings of superiority are unfounded even if they are laced through almost every post you make.  

I think if you took the blinkers off you'd realise there are MANY people in RU still capable of buying the little people like you and me.  The beach house you mention for instance doesn't appear out of the reach of at least one I know as his home is valued significantly higher than that you mention.

Not all Russians are poor desperate peasants waiting for an American white knight to come and save them.  Many are fiercely proud and wildly successful. Yes, Russia most certainly has it's issues but every nation does, don't you agree?

Whilst your never-ending love for your country is admirable and plain for all to see, your need to feel good by denegrating others is not a sign of the good character I assume you have.

Kuna

Kuna,  you could not be more wrong about me.