Here’s a “status report” on the horrors of existing in Russia.
Studying Russian in Russia does offer some intriguing insights on Russian history and culture, which I’ll probably describe in detail in a later post. Here are my textbooks.
Русский язык is Russian language. Incidentally, matters of “Russian” culture/ethnicity and nationality are two different words. Like Русский/Русская (gendered as always) in the previous sentence, and Российский/Российская, like Российская Федерация (Russian Federation), or Российский паспорт (Russian passport). A person can be of Russian ethnicity and also a Russian citizen, or, say, Tatar and a Russian citizen. Is this that “multiculturalism” thing NATO media talks about endlessly?
Anyway, here are some of my horrendous attempts at writing Russian. Still in block letters, as I’m not brave enough to even attempt crazy and seemingly unreadable Russian cursive yet.
Apparently, Autumn has arrived to the very typical Moscow region suburb I live in.
Meet the neighborhood cat. He takes care of vermin, and is house trained. He waits by the door for people to let him in and out.
Вкусно – и точка (Tasty, period) seems to have taken over most of the former McDonald’s that closed down. Earlier this week I dined at the one at a nearby shopping mall.
I never ate at Russian McDonald’s, but I would bet the food is basically identical. By the way, western reports of sanctions finally biting the Russian economy are true. American brands of soda pop suddenly became a lot more sporadic. A couple of flavors disappeared altogether.
Yesterday evening Maria and I went to the local bowling alley. It’s powered by this thing called “electricity” which is apparently becoming a scarce luxury item in certain western countries.
A butterfly mural I happened to pass by on the way to school one day.
Getting to school entails riding a suburban commuter train and the Moscow metro.
I brought Spazz the dog to Russia from the USA, and he seems very content here. He likes to stare out the window.
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Horrors, indeed). We have local soda brands, time you try them.
Perhaps Chernogolovka’a Tarkhoon (SPb Polyustrovo used to make better one, closer to Soviet original, but not sure one can get it).
At least i think that taste would be unknown to Americans.
And sodas aside, i hope Arizona teas would somehow remain. Those would be a real loss.
They’re probably better. I go to Mexican Grocers for mine. Topo Chico beats Perrier and costs half as much.
By the way, I had Borscht last weekend. I’ve been craving it for months and learned to make it myself.
Welcome to Holly wars, whether this was Ukrainian or Russian soup, by origin or at least by better variations.
Personally i think Ukrainian veriations, while maybe yet further from “healthy food” ideas of today are more about what Borshch should be, but i also kmow about the opposite opinions 🙂
Lovely post.
btw, is Scotch Whisky readily available over there? I can’t imagine life without Scotch.
hmm, need to check offline stires, not smth i often look at, but it’s on online catalogues, and I do buy Italian, French, Austrian and German wines here even in my local store, we had Spanish cider the other day. Stuff like Bailey’s is available too, creme de cassis did disappear from the nearby store, tho can be a temporary thing
Frankly, never could get what people find in whiskey, but would Maccallan count?
https://krasnoeibeloe.ru/catalog/viski/
Or https://www.winelab.ru/catalog/viski-shotlandiya
Maybe Old Bridge?
https://www.coolclever.ru/catalog/otdokhni/viski
Those are three chains whose shops you can find on really many Moscow streets just ransomly stolling around
Aberlour Single Malt 17 year old. Oh yeah!
The McTasty-with-Period cherry pie was good, btw;)
At least, I finally tried it.
McDonald’s also used to have quite satisfactory coffee for non-specialized fast food chains.
And perhaps, McFlurry stuffed ice cream once in a while.
As for their burger meals… They are cheap. That is a good thing to say. But unremarkable. So of USA-style fastfoods i’d rather go KFC and get a chunk of meat instead 🙂
McDonalds coffee is surprisingly good, and I am a fan of the mcflurry too, not withstanding the joke of the ice cream machine being always broken.
They are told to insist on a very special brand of iceshaving machines (soft ice cream makes), that are expensive in mantainance and unforgiving in cutting corners.
I heard rather heated opinions whether it is cronyism or actually “knowing better” in a niche where “doing it right” is surpisingly hard and lowing the bar by floor personnel neglection surpisingly easy.
So, some shops decide this machine is more of liability and look for loopholes. Easiest way is to wait it break then drag their feet about paying for repairs.
BTW, went out of Moscow today, so had been near MacDot for the first time.
Yeah, i can only confirm.
McFlurry was good (albeit they no more give those sturdy spoons that were hallmarks of it, today they give flimsy casual ones). Cherry pie was cheap and decent. Burgers… They did not get worse, but neither they got better. Buyer remorse, really.
Colour me KFC fanboy on burger and chicken 🙂 Their chicken and potato wrap is a good variation of shawarma/kebab motives.
I have some vague feeling that 10-15 years ago, roughly the time they introduce BigTasty, they used to be more expensive – but more, ahem, tasty too.
They used to have tasty burger with grilled bell pepper. Those were relatively expensive but remarkable.
Some moment later it felt they repositioned themselves into cheap niche. Or maybe those were BK and KFC doing total offensive and raising expectations, not sure. BK then lost something they had too IMHO, introducing “Angus”. And – standard burgers became dull, yet Angus ones are waaay too pricey. Their marketing team probably have better stats, yet for me they’re totally avoid “sweet spot” now.
And i missed it, or BigMac is out if MacDot menu by any name? Was a good value proposition. But perhaps could not be hidden as “generic” burger.
Would shamelessly promote https://russian.stackexchange.com/
Even to Russian speaking ones.
Because, what is better way to understand how your “tool for communication” works, than comparing to other tools working on same tasks.
Besides, there are things told to foreigners, but not to natives. Cause natives learn proper patterns as children in streets and do not have to understand them.
I was very proud to make one observation on Russian verbs…
…until some foreigners mentioned it as something obvious and teched to every student. And actually thrice of what i deduced on my own 🙂
Burger King has the best fast food coffee. It’s better than Starbucks. I learned the brand is Seattle’s Best. Guess what happened. Starbucks bought them up just like Chicken of the Sea bought Snow’s Clam Chowder. Both corporations were smart and did not change anything about the brands they bought.
Those are beautiful photos of a beautiful place. I got a kick from the neighborhood cat.
who hurt you so badly as a small child that you grew up to be an irrational, primitive, uneducated person unable to understand basic history and scientific principles?
all empires ruled by a “strong man/men” fail. who remembers tito?
lol, russia in 2022 has effectively continued to force all russians with an iota of true intelligence to leave the motherland of potemkin villages leaving only the parasites, idiots, and peasants behind.
like cambodia and china killing its intellectuals during their most blatant episodes of angry inferiority, russia hates russians who are educated, cosmopolitan, psychologically well adjusted.
the peasant mentality is strong in putin, a kulak in height and intellectual powers, lol!
На здоровье!
You managed to be russophobic, racist, and classist all in one comment. Who hurt you? A peasant, apparently.
Many remember Tito, actually.
As for Potemkin villages, you need to brush up your history knowledge. Potemkin took Catherin the Great to the area which is, btw, Donbass. It was recently taken from turks who had a slave traffic hub there (in Crimea, in particular). Potemkin’s idea was to show Catherine and foreign guests accompanying her how the place will look in 15-20 years from then. So, what you know as Potemkin villages was not an attempt to hide something, there was hardly anything at all to hide, it was an 18th century ppt presentation of a development project before ppt.
Now, I don’t even expect you to become smarter after reading it, your retardation is beyond help.
So, is “kulak” supposed to be a good thing or a bad thing?
Lening and Staling disposing of them was good or bad?
I’m especially offended by “peasant”. My grandparents were peasants…
The Kulak thing is actually complicated. Popular resentment was not ungrounded. People who illegaly owned a lof of land and exploited their neighbours did exist. Yet, of course there were those who suffered for no reason at all. And of course the young Soviet government needed to redistribute property for its own purposes.
The church issue is complicated too, I remember mom telling me how her mother saw a priest drinking, and eating beacon and eggs during the Lent. There was a sincere popular dislike of the clergy. I guess, revolutionists found it useful to get church property and to deprive clergy of power. And I don’t see the latter as a bad thing, tbh.
Oh, and murals.
They popped out about 10 years ago.
Before that there would be either all kinds of graffity out there, neglected by local offices, or once in a while just wide brush “remove them all”, including ones really talented and unassuming, that didn’t offend anyone. I personally remember one 5-legged Black-and-white cat with a fish draen on her belly. Silly as it sounds, yet it was draen in some very endearing way, warming your heart.
Guess, this “industrial giant” approach is easiest to manage.
Then about 10 years ago something happenned, probably they managed to select good artists and have them free reign, not sure. Just in few months those murals popped up everywhere, and i would not pretend i was even in 5% of Moscow streets, but those i were… The murals were different style, yet they all were good. Amazingly, i never met one that would brush me wrong way. Some of them were explicitly patriotic and military, and that is notoriously easy to make in lifeless “just executing orders” way. Yet, they had this sincerity vibe in them too…
So, if that is consistent all across the giant Moscow then it is a surpisingly good job of gov’t.
If anyone bothers i could perhaps look through old photos to find some samples
It’s not just in Moscow). Still a lot of ugly stuff which is just soil on walls, but good murals are good, esp on those small service buildings (the one on the pic is related to power supply I guess), they are ugly boxes and need decoration).