A few pictures of Moscow and Berlin
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pribaikalskii/

Ah the art of controlling elections ( Read more... )

I'm back in California, the sun is shining, the broccoli in the backyard is ready to be eaten.

There are still some lingering topics from Moscow to be taken up and recorded though, which Ill get to one of these days - authoritarianism, a mafia boss's arrest, "yama's", eating in winter in moscow, consumerism overboard, khachapuri, etc.

This is an unusual editorial from the Russian newspaper vremya, on the current situation in Russia. Its writen by a well known theatre critic, but such is now that she wrote her column about dissent instead this time. And Ill also admit that I only know about it becuase a translation of it was ordered from the company I work for. By far the most ( Read more... )

In the past week there have been several tidbits of excitement - Harry Potter was finnaly released in Russian! Before this, the english version had already been adorning store windows and boughten up by quite a lot of non-English speakers. Just holding a Harry Potter book I guess, is part of the magic ( Read more... )

So, yesterday Im walking to the metro station after work. Its dark and Im focussing on the ground, so as not to fall in the slushy snow thats been falling for the last two days. When, passing a Central Asian restaurant, I look up to see a girl, in quasi-"central asian" costume, holding a camel. She was textng on her cell phone. What do you think ( Read more... )

I think this is bad news, but I suppose its partly good

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070202/60081891.html

"Orange Snow in Western Siberia Non-Toxic"

http://www.flickr.com/photos/afbrown/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pribaikalskii/

I promised to write about some of my impressions coming back to the US - there were a lot. So excuse the rampage Im about to go on ( Read more... )

Ive been back in California over a week, and having sucessfully regained fluency in English, I guess its time to close this journal, as its purpose was to record my time in Vladivostok. I could write forever on the topic of Vladivostok, and hopefully the effects of this time will be more than just memories ( Read more... )