After some time in Russia, we can say we're starting to get used to it.
We've been here less than two months, but it feels ages, with all the things that have happened and we have done. Lots of people say that time perception depends on how many new things you do during the week (if everything is new, time feels longer), and moving to another country with a new different job definitely stretched our time quite a lot. Now, after almost 2 months, things are starting to get "normal"...and even then, there is new things happening every week, job-related or not...
First, we finally got a nice apartment in the centre of Adler, and did all the paperwork and payments necessary to rent it. It was not the original one that we wanted, but now we think this one is much better, since it came with almost everything (furniture, dishes, pots, etc.) and it's right next to the office and the main streets and markets. There were a few missing things, but we bought those.
We live in the same block as lots of other people from work, and it's nice to be able to visit them, or invite them, and do something at random, with no need to plan in advance, or spent time getting there first. Reminds me of some friends that all live in the same area of the city, and I understand them much better now, why they're always meeting without planning, it's quite natural if you're 2 minutes away from them...
The apartment is really big, it has several terraces, rooms and toilets, and we have adapted things to our liking and moved furniture a little. The main terrace, that has an extra kitchen apart from the main one, has sights to the sea, and receives a lot of sun. Even in a cold day, if it's clear enough, the place feels warm and nice.
We have received our things finally (the same day that we decided to buy and mount furniture for the TV that was coming....furniture that came with no instructions whatsoever about how to mount it, a thing that may require another post...), and we feel like at home now.
As I already said, Russian is a very curious place. There is a clear cultural shock. With people in the office we have not many problems, since these positions imply a certain level of education or experience that also guarantees a bigger mind, and a person who probably has travelled more or entered in contact with more different cultures. However, that is not necessary the case with random people in the street, and this is kind of noticeable sometimes.
In general, Russian society reminds me at the moment of Spanish society, 20-30 years ago more or less...it's clearly not an undeveloped country, and the culture is similar to the occidental one, but there's still a long way to go to resemble other european, cosmopolitan places like the U.K., Sweden or Denmark (they have their faults, but in some aspects they have incredible advances). Spain is not there yet either by far, but in some aspects Russia seems to have a lot more room for social and cultural improvements, apart from things like infrastructures, public transports, etc.
For example, we already commented that traffic is awful. The principle behind it is that everybody is on its own, and to help other cars is to show weakness. A social improvement would be the change of this mentality to something where solidarity is more important....if drivers were nicer, everybody could probably move faster around intersections.
Other things that we've noticed is that everything is under construction right now. Our current building itself is half finish, even if our apartment is clearly done. It seems people are preparing for Olympics and there's a rush to build more of everything. After all, Adler is very, very small, and Winter Olympics are supposed to happen in here...they need more roads, more hotels, more shops, etc. The current shops and restaurants also need to get bigger to compete with all these new ones. The end result is that we have the feeling sometimes of living in a construction site all the time. Even the office has this problem, the official desk were we are supposed to have a little place is in a building that only has the 6th floor finished, and the other 5 are a mess of unpainted concrete and dust. Our other workplace is not much better...it's more finished, but every day you find cables hanging from somewhere a hole in a wall that opens to the street, and other such things.But well, these things just cause minor inconveniences...
Major inconveniences are caused by the fact that all these constructions are messing up some basic services (like Internet). It's normal that, when it rains or it's windy, cables break, things flood, and electricity wavers or stops for a while, water doesn't reach our floor, internet does not work...
So far every week I think we've had some interruptions in the electricity, even if just for a second...and other times we had electricity, but the company that provides internet did not.
In general the effect can be a little bit annoying, but oh well....
For the moment, we're quite happy living in our apartment in Russia^^
