Sashas and Vladimirs

Inspired by the previous post:

Sasha is a very popular name, and I like it. And it can be both male (Alexander) and female one (Alexandra, but that is more rare). But in a short version (like me being Sveta) they are both - Sasha. There were always several Sashas in every class or university group, and there are lots of Alexanders in the older generation – as here in Russian we all have middle names based on the Fathers` names, there are a lot of Alexandrovitch (for any boy with Alexander as a father) and Alexandrovna (for a girl). I am Vladimirovna by the way.

Other options, but not Russian. One of Obama`s daughters is Sasha. And there is also Sasha Guitry (the “Faison un reve” author) – named so because he was born in Russia, when his Dad, the French actor, was here, and the name is in honor of Russian Tsar Alexander II. But if he were Russian he would be Alexander Guitry in his passport :) Short names are not official.

One of my first boyfriends was Sasha. Though if you knew me at the age of thirteen, you would know that it sounds much more promising than it was in reality. I mean we were very serious kids, so nothing too adventurous. He had the most blue eyes in the whole school and a very beautiful and quite an exotic for simple me family name - it sounded very Polish, finished with “- vsky”).

I actually saw him last week – we had the class reunion. Fifteen years already. That is our school tradition to invite the graduates on February 1st, though honestly I was always trying to avoid the meeting. I can meet my close friend, also Sveta, anytime I want – and that actually happens like twice a year. For some reason I am not inspired by the idea of meeting the past. Perhaps I rather disliked my school experience. School system was based on very Soviet traditions, everything was pretty strict with a very high possibility for pupils (for me to start with) to loose one`s personality.

It was actually a specialized English language school – now, in modern Russia, they are called “gymnasiums”. In England the closest analogue would be “grammar schools”, supposed to be more “classy” to some extent. In reality some of the graduates went into real linguistics, like translators in the embassies or so - but that was already not that popular with my generation (I can speak about the reasons but that will take much time). But most of us keep forgetting all the “theory” they`ve got at school (schools here were very “theoretical”, with not much really useful practice - that is being changed now, a bit).

So what`s about Vladimir? As you perhaps have noticed, it is both the male name and the name of my native city (almost native, because there are still more details about where I was born). So “Vladimir” was the name of the Russian Prince (“Vladimir the Baptist” or “Vladimir the Red Sun”), its founder back to early medieval times. Actually that is a tricky moment, because there were several Vladimirs on the ancient Russian Throne, like another Vladimir, Monomach. And for years and years - in “my” times there - it was him to be known as the city founder, which was making the town like 890 years old. But then, in the end of the twentieth century, the archaeologists have found some piece of something which was proving that the town is older than a thousand years.

Perhaps that sounds a bit too complicated, so – just in case - here are two wikipedia articles about Vladimir (as usual they will be opened in a new window, unless you click the right button). Enjoy the photos (if you are lucky to know Russian) or the text (a bit in English, though feel free to ask me about the true stuff).

And the following is something from my part. No way it is the story about the town, but I just happened to have the camera with me. So not promising to show you the full picture, am just showing a bit of this and that. “Real stuff” sort of thing, and in random. Enjoy!

The fence. Creative usage of materials. The houses in this part of the city are not skyscrapers, five floors maximum. Old “Stalin” buildings. They actually have large rooms and high ceilings. It is only after Stalin they began constructing huge buildings for hundreds flats (apartment is a too big word for them, though it solved the lodging problem). You may notice that some windows have modern plastic windows now (bit of luxury, to be honest).

Old mailbox, in use. The small ventilation window is covered with tulle – because the real net was in deficit for years and years before, though you can find some leftover material. And tulle looks nicer than just ordinary soulless net, right. One of the secrets of the Soviet charm – use whatever you have at maximum. Also you can see the “triple” something near the number plate. It`s for the flags during the holidays (again, in earlier years). There are some flags now for holidays, but the feeling of “the nation united” is not about modern Russia. Good it or bad… Still those transitional times.

Kind reminder: “Free food here”. Near the Milk shop. Plastic bag is the modern upgrade.


We do have a lot of celebration in winter: “western’ Christmas, New Year, Russian Christmas (January 7th). We also have Old Russian New Year (January 13th – because the calendar has been redone after the Revolution of 1917). The most devoted ones celebrate Chinese New year (beginning of February, I guess). The photo might be called “Enough” or “Communal service also celebrates”.


Sometimes funny colors are being chosen for the buildings in smaller (than Moscow) towns like Vladimir. Most of the buildings are municipal, so presumably city authorities have a large stock of funny colored paint. It looks quite lovely though. And yes, the roads are less cleaned than in Moscow (I am that spoiled now, ahah).


One entrance, lots of adverts. The ground floor is sometimes given to small businesses, and that started since after the USSR period, when private business was allowed. By the way, in Russian we count “the ground floor” as “the first floor’, because it is more obvious not to be confused with the total number. So think while using the Russian lift (US elevator). Typically lower parts of trees are whitewashed - painted every spring if a town has money. That is "city design", to make it nicer :) And electrics - neat and obvious :)


The “message” graffiti. Again, honestly, more often there are far less humane slogans, vice versa even. But this one is worth putting here even if it is spoiling the wall. And again – the corner of rather lovely “Stalin`s time” building. By the way the window bars should give an impression about the safety of the place. In nineties there were a lot of (the “really a lot of”) thefts and burglary. It is far (the “really far”) from being perfect now, but it was worse.


The modest entertainment of my childhood. Once in my school years I organized three British girls staying in our flat for couple of weeks. That was some exchange, but only from their side. Some language practice for me. And once I offered them to go to the city park (on the photo). At my fourteen I still could be excited by such carousels. “Merry-go-round”, my dictionary is suggesting me. Well, it was definitely going round, but nothing more or else happened, so those Liverpool girls were not impressed at all.



Kids playing on the pile of dirt – because that is sort of construction site – nicely covered by some snow. Again, I totally believe that this is fun for kids, climbing and falling, though it looks a bit too exotic even for me now.


The so-called “garages”, with enough space just to keep a bicycle. More important, they may accommodate several sacs of potatoes and dozens of pots with salted cucumbers or tomatoes and jars with jam (hello, winter - preparation done in summer). Again in nineties it was impossible to keep anything here – too much small crime. Though it is close to “my” house (the roof of the higher, five floors building on the left), my family never had anything like that – never rooted enough to treasure such piece of real estate.


The stairs to nowhere. It was so d* freezing, my fingers couldn`t control the incline of the camera, so pardon if hurting anybody`s artistic feelings.


It`s winter time. And you sure do know what to do with the icicles, right? You throw a stone trying to avoid the window - you should never confuse icicles and windows – and with all your luck you have it, the icicle, fallen down somewhere in the deep snow which prevents it from breaking. And don`t know what you will think right now, but that is almost an ice-cream)) Not that we were so bad with ice cream during my childhood but still. There are so many things I can`t even imagine doing now.


Yes, that is a lovely view, and not trying to spoil it, but that is a cemetery. I visited it this time, for the first time in several years and for the first time on my own. Usually I was using somebody`s car for that journey. Now I was using some old bus, very dirty on the outside because of the changing weather and lack of cleaning. It is outside the town in the forest near the village Ulybyshevo (ironically translated like “Smily-evo”). My Dad is here for already seventeen years. I felt very quiet, calm and sort of comfortable after that journey with minus 23 Celsius outdoors. It was calm.


The main street, the old one. With rows of small shops (“Trade rows”, built like a gallery in the 19th century). The so-called Golden Gates are on the far away left and are dated the 12th century. It was part of ancient city defence. Now you just pass it on a car, bus or on any vehicle – just two meters from such ancient walls. And that is a busy road in the city center (pictured on a less busy Sunday).


Stopping now, perhaps unexpectedly and with no logic, but that was a short story about the town where I came from. See you later!

Is this about sport?

While lots of important events happening all over the world – the US inaugurating the new president (actually, nice photos, but they won`t open the new page, sorry), and Russia choosing the new Patriarch (which somehow became the event for the whole country, even for its non-Orthodox parts) – what`s about my modest life?

Christmas holidays finished. Job began. The office looks like a burrow full of rubbish – boxes, cables and stuff all around, the window view is still great.

This is my present director Tatyana. My work space looks almost the same. That is NGO for you, working non-profit, managing educational programs.

The French center is still being visited on regular basis. The new musical attended - “The Count of Monte Cristo” to be precise and it was rather fun, full of vigorous music and energetic moves.

Was doing some sports. In reality it all happened in one day – we had five birthdays in the office, so that was the treat. Some quality time together. Cake in the office and the skating-ring after. The plan was to enjoy real ice, but the weather being unpredictable (read: warm) has put real puddles on real ice (read: outdoors), which didn`t look like winter-ish at all. So we opted for the closed space (read: skating-ring with artificial but still a bit melted ice).

As I said here is a warm winter, but we couldn`t afford any risk so provided several thermos flasks with Gluhwein (my dictionary says that in English it is “mulled wine”, challenging to guess, but perhaps that`s correct).

Most of us were doing some skating in early years (read: in deep childhood), but there were several of us for whom it was the first ice experience. Anyway it was fun. Somehow I managed never to fall down – a was totally prepared for that, because you can`t skate without falling down. That was in the Gorky Park (perhaps the name of some post-Soviet music group pretending to do some “Rock from Russia” is still in somebody`s memories).

As usual, the photos are seriously resized to avoid any privacy issues, just in case.

General view with not me in the center.

Then, full of sporting enthusiasm we moved home (to one`s home). The crowd has been divided. We had several of us ready for walk - no underground taken to enjoy the city center. I happened to go in somebody`s car (because there was a car), and that was the way to enjoy traffic in the city center.

And then there was boxing, virtual one though – with holding something in your hands and watching the screen. That`s how the actual fight looks like. The “young Brad Pitt” fighting with me is our office manager Sasha (Russian short for Alexander). I won and I was won, and then I had a fight with Pamela and she was the best.



There also were tacos quickly made out of quickly defrosted meet and martini-based cocktails quickly drunken, and that is the end of sports for some time. Game over. Ciao now!

How many cats?

For half a month I had a chance to change my Moscow location. The friend of mine, the colleague actually, offered me to live in her place while she was in Ireland. So I moved from my tiny room to the whole real separate apartment on Nakhimovsky avenue (*Nakhimov was Russian admiral in the 19th century). It`s also on the south of Moscow, like my place, and there are a lot of sea-region-based names there: the Sevastopol boulevard, the Warm Camp and Southern metro stations etc.

Of course there was some idea there, and that was to take care of her cats, trying to replace the happy owner (happy because of Dublin).


It`s three of them. All three names are ended with softening endings (the Russian thing, special diminishing suffix - you can put it to the end of any name and the name will obtain a nicer kinder meaning :)

Actually they were (well, they are) pretty nice, moderately jovial, quite independent cats preferring to get up at approximately 5am for a small run around the apartment.

Feeding them made me feel very important, refilling all their plates (the whole line of several plates with different cat-food).

One of my supporting friends even gave me the book about how to speak with cats. A bit of theory never hurts.

The apartment was pretty noisy by the way - the big avenue full of cars all 24 hours. Machinery ready to clean the snow, which was late this year. With all my luck their meeting point was below my windows at 2am, and they do make the noise.

My Windows (c), part 3


Other news: the new year`s come, I met it on the Red Square - the best and unique point for that because the main state clocks are there, on one of the Kremlin towers; I also went to Vladimir (my native town) for couple of days; now back to work… Well, today I was going only to tell about the cats and to boast how I managed them :) All is sort of fun, got a minor cold though. Bye now, all the best!

Once again - have a great year!

Happy New year (in) Moscow ;)

Hello everybody, and have a nice year!
Some pictures from Moscow to show the holiday season. The weather was not specially winter one, but funally we have some snow. At least a little bit, though not everywhere.



In the center (technically it is an island in the middle of Moscow).

Typical Megalopolis Christmas tree

Some trolleybuses have been repainted to make the streets more colorful and ready for celebration. Perhaps that was the plan, though don`t know for how long the words about the New year will be on board (I mean they might look a bit bizarre later in the year). I also saw the tram driver in the costume of Father Frost (our Russian Santa Claus, looks the same). Well, that was a nice idea, makes people smile :)

Near where I live - the Metro station "Prazhskaya" (named after Prague, to confirm the "friendship" during the Soviet times)

Another one in the same area, but on the other side - close to the shopping center.

Many office and shop entrances are decorated with something looking like the X-mas trees


"Chanel" written in Russian.

The hot-dog spot

Undecorated but real. The red-ish building on the horizon is the Moscow city hall.

While Saturday walk with my friend we also found the Wish-tree. Examples of wishes (read there and translated here): "Wish to pass the winter university exams on the Customs law", "Wanna cool boyfriend and an I-pod", "Would like to study in the acting (theatrical) colledge and a car", and lots of healthy-wealthy wishes.

Near the Moscow City Hall.

Near the Kremlin, entrance to the Red Square

Fifty meters apart - the next one. With two policemen on the horses (the town center exotica) and the police people truck (is it exotica?)

This year innovation - the flying snowmen :)


In the Indian food place, mixing the styles :)

In the bookstore

Bye now and have fun!
From Moscow, photographed with love :)

The conference and some fun

The conference for one hundred and a half teachers and professors all over Russia - done. We are very tired. Participants are very happy. We are very proud.

Three days of living in the middle of the forest outside of Moscow without actually seeing it. One of the comments: “Well, it`s like the monastery: you brought us here and never let us out”. Lectures, discussions, open space work etcetera – for participants. Contracts, money, guests and program, food, lodging and transportation logistics, sleaping with the cell phone – for us. Some fun on the last evening: we`ve invited the photograph people with costumes. That was fun – choosing between feather boas and lace caps. We were doing the old style, and that`s how it looks now.

Our team (am always quite careful about publishing other people faces but it should not be a problem now as we are proud of ourselves and pretty open minded about that).

Do you like my jeans? (the “before” shot).

And yes, we already have an X-mas tree in the office.

Patrick and Patricia. Plus Amel and us :)

The welcome news for Moscow based francofollies (if there is such a term) – “chanson francaise” is getting closer and closer.

Patrick Fiori – yesterday, Patricia Kass – a week earlier, both in the Kremlin palace, which is actually able to accommodate six thousand persons at once, but having been created for official ceremonies, communist conferences and stuff like that - it just doesn’t have any ambience suitable for shows. Somehow you never feel or behave naturally there. The famous Kremlin security people also never help with the concert atmosphere. Anyway...



Patrick Fiori. Very energetic, with charming voice. "The thrilling voice”, as the announcement says. Sweet melodic songs, with several vigorous digressions to make people jump (and be stopped by the securities). He on the stage allowed running and jumping a bit, even entering the public zone (again, escorted by the guards – nothing wrong the girls could do to him, but it is always like this in Kremlin). I think he himself was pretty excited by the thought of singing there. In short, Monsieur Fiori is in a very good shape and as a result the audience was singing, shouting, applauding, feeling excited and thrilled, and that was nice to be part of it. According to the tradition there were a lot (a lot!) of flowers, so the girls were taking their chances to have a quick handshake with “him”. Just to clarify: of course the hall was not totally full, but it was okay considering its whole size and the amount of locals interested in French culture. Advertising also was not really serious but finally it turned out to be a very welcoming event and our guest can feel quite impressed that he managed to make a good show in all local circumstances.


Patricia Kaas. Good, very good. Again, it is worth keeping in mind that she is the best known French female singer – here (in Russia) and now. The most well known male one is Aznavour I guess. People know some others of course, and such experts like me (hahah) knows all the rest but generally it is like this: everybody in Russia expects that it is only Patricia Kaas who exists in France, and almost everybody can remember a couple of her early days hit-melodies. That is only partially fair because since then (late eighties) she has obviously done lots of other things but at least that shows her popularity in Russia. This new show is quite experimental: a mixture of cabaret traditions and modern electronic sound. Lots of black color, the big screen showing her close looks with no attempts of decorating. Such a dark glamour – sincere and sombre, a bit mysterious, very feminine showing her feelings, thoughts and sufferings. There were new songs and the oldies. I got an impression that the audience was not ready for such a show – which speaks good for it. It was a bit difficult (even for me, hahah again) to understand the whole conception, the language of course, all other details which mattered. And also as we (me and my concert buddy) decided it would be better in smaller halls, with tables and perhaps some wine. I think it is planned like that for Europe. As I said the Kremlin is not a totally singers-friendly concert hall. It is always fun – though a bit sad – to look around during the concert to see people trying to seat quietly because it is not allowed to come closer to the stage. And the whole huge "territory" of the hall doesn`t look cozy enough.


Another topic here: Moscow prices which are always shocking. Starting from twenty euros (which is okay though the balcony is really high and far away) and up to whatever, to almost a thousand in those cases. Besides there are also several rows for VIPs, entertained for free on the best seats. By the way Madame Medvedeva (the President`s wife) was attending the Kaas`s concert. I told you she is popular, Patricia :)

So considering all those circumstances (desire to visit the “French” event, the prices and an uncomfortable surrounding) it is always the best deal to pay less and then to seat better, which we managed again, after some manoeuvring in the dark. By “we” I mean myself and Slava whom some of you may remember from the “Zazie-en-Russie” video which we shot last autumn. It was done to participate in some sort of competition and to entertain us (creating it was a big fun). Feel free to enjoy it again – this example of us being enthusiastic and a bit naive :)

And back to the francophone events in Moscow. Even Amel Bent was here last Sunday, though I missed her show because didn`t have enough curiosity (or free money) to visit it. The handwritten note on the advert says: “Persons under eighteen years old are not allowed, take your passport” :)) It`s nothing to do with her naked knees on the photo (I hope) - it should be because the concert was in the night club.



So that was a short story – a little bit about almost everything, bye now :)

RuNet etcetera

Hello, need to verify that time is flying by… I mean it always runs pretty quickly but it`s getting speedier these days. Working all day, jumping from the office to meet people in the middle of the day, running out of the office to visit something else… The Runet Awards ceremony yesterday.

Think about Russia and about Internet – that is the RuNet (the Internet in Russian language). State support plus lots of sponsors are equal to some champagne and a concert with local celebrities lip-synching their songs. Maybe it`s fun, maybe it`s just one more event. This actual ceremony haven`t done anything but it was the part of the whole process which is advancing IT skills, still a task.

One of our projects got the prize and a really heavy goldenish column with RU letters on the top is standing on the table in the middle of the room now. It is surrounded by plastic plates with cake`s leftovers. The local office celebration was brief as lots of work is around - preparing the conference for the next week.

Snowing in Moscow (the first autumn snow) though the temperature is around zero so everything melts away creating puddles, but the streets looked clean and light yesterday night and my evening promenade – from underground to my apartment – was agreeable.

Just a bit of useless information now. My street is named “Ulitsa Krasnogo Mayaka” (never fear, I`ll translate). Literally it is “Street of Red Lighthouse” (or Beacon). During the Soviet times the toponomy (is it a word?) was seriously influenced by certain circumstances, so there are lots of “Reds” in the names of streets, towns, factories or whatever, because the word “red” was obviously seen as a synonym to “communistic”. And a lighthouse is supposed to show you the way, the red one. Translated into English now it sounds a bit funny as streets with red lights typically have a particular sort of reputation (not particularly our case but it`s questionable perhaps). My present-day street is just a vast territory with lots of high blocks buildings overcrowded with people. The percentage of people from Mid-East is pretty high there (and here "Mid-East" means Uzbekistan, Kirgizstan, Kazakhstan etc – former Asian republics of the Union).

The good news – my Mum was visiting me. Since recently she enjoys coming to Moscow occasionally - for one day of a weekend, to have a walk, a chat and a lunch with me. This time I provided her with the copy of “Oscar and Lady in pink” by E.-E.Schmitt. She called me the next day to say: “Can I give your book to Kolobkova at work?”. I love my Mum, and it is also because she can use phrases like that.

Ok, need to go now, see you soon.

Oh, and just in case anybody was interested in the RuNet stuff – it`s here though the more serious it is… okay, am not judging, but there is still now update on their website after the ceremony. Bye now.