One Year In
(Eldar)
By Jared De Luna
Bronx Journal Staff Writer
It has been a year that I set foot into this country. Russia has grown on me, the culture and the lifestyle. Every time I head back to America to visit my family and get a new visa, I tend to feel out of place. For instance, when back in America I want to speak Russian. Here in Moscow, it is normal for people not to hold open doors, say excuse me or other wonderful words. I am still getting used to the fact that this is just in their culture. Now I am afraid to report that I no longer hold doors, although I always feel bad afterward. This blog post is not about all this though. It is about the year I had.
While here in Moscow, my American Express card was eaten by an ATM. Spending hours on the phone with the bank and three days waiting for it, we were told to go an pick it up. Going to the head office was not quite fun. However, when we got there we had to call again using a special phone. On the phone, they said that the card was destroyed. It is a policy that American Express and this bank that I will not name enforce this rule. Why then, for all of those hours and being told that we can pick up the card, did they destroy it is beyond me. This was the first of my “fails” here in Russia.
The winter brought no fun, either. Starting in October and ending in April was SNOW! The roads and sidewalks were icy, not really great for walking or driving for that matter. On my way home from work I slipped and fell on the icy, landing on my computer. Thinking nothing of it, when I got home my screen was cracked. Costing me countless nights, I used my wife Anna’s computer to do work. I finally was able to get it fixed. Bringing it to a place to get it fixed that gave me a good price was a totally different thing. My salary went into fixing the computer — not very fun when at the time I was the one working.
Spring has arrived! But the woes haven’t stopped coming yet. My advice to anyone looking to live in Russia is this: don’t become an English teacher! If you do, go to work for a college or someplace that will actually pay you and not some small school. Being a native English speaker I was offered so many jobs to teach. I thought I landed in a gold mine. This was not the case — the company that hired me offered very good rates for me and of course being my first real teaching job I took it. They never paid on time, always giving me a bit less than they promised claiming that I wasn’t keeping my hours right (which I was). Finally in spring we had a big rush of people. I was amazed. They told me I would have classes everyday, from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. This is all nice and everything but when I looked at the time table they gave me, they really did mean every day. I worked hard two weeks a month. They told me the reason for so many people was because of a site like Groupon. They were offering a 60 to 80 percent discount for classes. This resulted in me getting much less money then I was originally promised. Leaving the company at a time when Anna and her self-made photography business was getting off the ground and us getting an apartment seemed like a good idea.
Summer time: no woes to report. The apartment is being worked on and we are planning to move in very soon. The only problem with all of this is that we are in a financial hole. We borrowed money from Anna’s grandfather for the apartment and we hard up for cash. However, our company is now doing well. We are currently doing a Groupon deal which is of course very hard for the both of us. Not only that, schools are back in session! That is right: school albums means money for Anna’s business, Deluna Studios! Our hard work will pay off and it is only a matter of time before it does.
September is here and we are moving into the apartment. The Groupon deal is winding down. The school job is kicking in and we are back taking photos for a store. Anna and I went to a “Fashion Night Out” here and interviewed an MTV star and a singer for the store. This is only the start of good things to come. Although money will always be an issue, the company will soon outpace the trivial problems that we had over this year.
To cap it all off the first year in Moscow, was not all that I wanted it to be. However, I am happy I set off on this adventure. I love Moscow, I love the people, the sights and the sounds. Talking about the future, it is hard where I see myself, whether it is here in Moscow or in America. One thing is for sure, I can’t see myself in America for a long time nor can I see myself here for a long time. I am now a citizen of the world!