I have such a love/hate relationship with Moscow. It's overpriced, and that's the main reason I hate it. When I arrived here from New York or thereabouts in 2003, it was quite cheap in comparison, and then prices went up. And up. Every year. So did salaries, but now I mostly work from home, so why don't I get the hell out? I could go somewhere like Denver - I slobber over ads for apartments there because they're so much cheaper and seem so much nicer than they do here. Then again, who would I be in Denver? I edit translations into English and teach English to non-native speakers, which sort of implies that I could be an ESL teacher there if I got a master's degree. Then I would spend the rest of my life teaching bored Mexican kids the glories of English. Then again, I love my apartment. I live in the center of the city and can enjoy the glory of being somewhat interesting to many, many people, some of which are cute girls. That's always a plus.
Still, I intend to sell my car and weigh my options. It has a dent in the roof from where some idiot shoveled ice onto it from the roof of the building. I was trying to find a standard strong magnet to pull the dent out, and they cost about 10x here what they would in the US. WTF? I could probably make good money here charging them $100 to pull the dents out of their cars. Either that or I'd go Robin Hood style around the city, pulling the dents out of cars whose owners couldn't afford to repair them. Maybe I'll use a bathroom plunger. The dent is in the roof, so it's not like I can just bang it out with a hammer. Then I can get the thing repainted and sell it for $13k. Nobody needs a car in this city - traffic crawls at about 10 mph for most of the day, thank you Soviet civil engineering. People just get cars as status symbols, and owning a modest car actually makes some of them feel like they have bragging rights. Nicol from Yaroslavl recently said "when I lived in Moscow, I had enough money to buy a brand new Honda Civic!!!" Wow - you'd think she was talking about an Acura or a Lexus.
Still, I intend to sell my car and weigh my options. It has a dent in the roof from where some idiot shoveled ice onto it from the roof of the building. I was trying to find a standard strong magnet to pull the dent out, and they cost about 10x here what they would in the US. WTF? I could probably make good money here charging them $100 to pull the dents out of their cars. Either that or I'd go Robin Hood style around the city, pulling the dents out of cars whose owners couldn't afford to repair them. Maybe I'll use a bathroom plunger. The dent is in the roof, so it's not like I can just bang it out with a hammer. Then I can get the thing repainted and sell it for $13k. Nobody needs a car in this city - traffic crawls at about 10 mph for most of the day, thank you Soviet civil engineering. People just get cars as status symbols, and owning a modest car actually makes some of them feel like they have bragging rights. Nicol from Yaroslavl recently said "when I lived in Moscow, I had enough money to buy a brand new Honda Civic!!!" Wow - you'd think she was talking about an Acura or a Lexus.
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