It's Russia

I truly love Russia! I wouldn't have been here for 1,5 years otherwise!
But besides all the good things in Russia like the tremendous hospitality, beautiful nature, relaxed pace of life and the innate ability to enjoy the simple things, there are outrageous conditions of living and surviving in this country!
There are loads of stories worth to write down, because they reflect Russia so well. Unfortunately I developed a great laziness (although my dear parents would agrue that it has always been around) and seldom write them down.

However, while riding home by metro last night, Laura told me the story of her wallet and phone stolen the other day, a story which I HAVE to share!!! Laura, being a party animal, frequently takes the first metro home in the morning around 6.30, and naturally falls asleep once in a while. Last Sunday she realized that her wallet and her phone were gone after the security guards woke her up (Laura and I live at the same metro station, which is the final stop of the line). But wouldn't other people say something if they saw someone opening the bag of another person and stealing something???
Yesterday, Laura met a guy who has worked for the metro some time ago. She tells him her story and he says, "I know who it was". Shocking news!!! How could he know?
It turns out - it is common knowledge among metro employees - that it is the security guards that search a sleeping person's things and take what they want before they wake the person up!!! Their salary is so low that they try to make money in other "businesses" :-(

Losses - and recoveries

March 20th and it is snowing like crazy. The sun managed to find a way through the clouds, but it is still definitely not spring!!! :-(
The past week was full of surprising and unusual events and I'd like to share some of the them.

As I might have mentioned before, Katya, the managing director of my company quit her job and is moving to Moscow. This very sad loss at least had to be celebrated adequately. So, all Telphin employees gathered in a German!!! bar on Friday around 7pm and we started drinking very efficiently. The metro closes at midnight, so we had to make sure everyone was hammered by then and ready to go home. And guess what, we managed that :-)))

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We gave Katya a photo album with pictures, most of the pictures we had hidden from her so far... most pics were taken by me, the paparazzo, but fortunately I was just as often on the those very compromising pictures (some of them I uploaded some time ago).

Katya looking at the pics

I got home safe and sound, but realized that one of my beloved earrings was gone :-( It was a rather expensive Christmas present from my dear mom and I can still hear her saying, 'take good care of them, Anna'. I was really upset! On Saturday I had a look at the 149 pictures taken the night before and noticed that at 21.51 o'clock I still had my earring, but a pic taken at 21.53 clearly shows that the earring was gone! Motivated by the knowledge of WHERE exactly I lost it I went to the bar and asked. They weren't being helpful and the people sitting at that very table just looked at me like, 'just leave us alone, we are having a beer...!' I left my phone number in the bar and was determined to go back the next day. BUT the manager of the bar called me yesterday morning... they had found it!!! Yay!!! I met him in the center and got it back! :-)

On Saturday all the AIESEC trainees gathered for the last party with Jenny, who is going back home to Germany on Wednesday morning :-( All the Germans are leaving... I'm last one and I will follow soon!


I recommend this article: Nine Years, Nine Whores, Nine Hours. It is disturbing, but brilliant, really well written. Especially men might find it interesting!

It is still cold, and the general situation is not very good in Russia... I saw a dead man on the street on my way home the other day! Scary!

Weekend adventures

It's the middle of March and we still have minus degrees :-( At least it is a one-digit number by now! I had fine weekend though, with A LOT of walking through beautiful and sunny St. Petersburg.

Well, that's a night shot - no sun there, but it is still beautiful :-)
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On Saturday Sonya and I crossed the Neva not by using a bridge, nor did we use any other medium... we simply walked over the river!!! It was a little scary in the beginning, but there were loads of people and an obviously frequently used trail which we simply followed.

Sonya in the middle of the Neva

Once again safe and sound on solid ground we visited the Peter and Paul Cathedral, and it is hard to believe, but Katherine II, Peter II, the members of Nicolas II family and other famous people are resting there in huge caskets.

Sonya works for the monthly newspaper Pulse, which is published in Russian and English, and we were invited to a press conference as Pulse journalists in the afternoon. It was the first press conference I have ever attended in life - after a lot of studying PR at university - but it wasn't just an ordinary press conference (which they should never be anyway): "Werewolf", a bikers' club just opened! A BIKERS' CLUB! OMG!
Free food and free drinks, it took very little time to get tipsy ;-) We had press cards and were soooo proud of them... as you can see below!


The bikers were also a lot of fun. Pulse editor Matthew had made it his mission to infiltrate the bikers and Sonya and I had to play roles as supporting actresses. We ended up having a photo shooting with some of the bikers, me being the official photographer. One of my pics might actually be published in the newspaper's next edition! I'm really thrilled!


After Werewolf we went on to Datcha... Yeah, Datcha again!


On Sunday I went for an extraordinary long walk - I'm working on my "to do - list" :-) For those who know the city: I got off the metro at Sennaya Pl. and walked all the way to Primorskaya where I met the girls for sauna! I witnessed one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen!!! In fact, I ran for it :-))) I crossed Vasilevsky Island running... and got the last bits of the pink sky!

International Women's Day

Best wishes to all women!

Women's day is a holiday in Russia and moreover, a really important one! Everywhere you can see men and women walking around with flowers, and I got a chocolate bar in shop yesterday as a present for women's day. I'm glad that they appreciated me as a woman :-))) Altough it might have been a pure business action!

We had a party in the office on Tuesday evening. It was soooo cute!

The male Telphin employees ready to hand over flowers


The female Telphin employees + CEO with flowers :-)