Light, Choices, Russia

It's strange how much light fills this country. When I came here in the dead of winter, I went quite a few weeks without sunshine. The cold, the gray, the ever-nights felt like they were swallowing me whole. I was Jonah in the whale. I never knew the time, the day. I felt turned, I didn't know which way was up, which way was down. There was just snow and black skies. And how odd that they are all now light?

In St. Petersburg it's the White-Night season. I've heard it's all quite romantic up there. 

Anyway, our sun kissed home has been filled with frantic emails, skype interviews, and long kitchen talks and bottles of wine. But decisions have been made. Decisions I feel comfortable standing next to.

Ben and I have decided to stay in Russia. 

When we were offered our second contract (which, up until a month ago, we had our fingers and toes crossed for), we immediately began to see dollar signs and other countries. We forgot about why we had really come here and it all felt very rushed. When we sat down and began to think about it all, we realized that we did not come to Russia to make lots of money. We had come here to learn Russia, live in another country, live in a big city, have an adventure. 

And to leave it all right when we had just felt comfortable here? After we had made friends, learned new words, knew where all the cool places were... well, it just wasn't sitting right. 

There have been some opportunities to make a bit more money here in Moscow, but we have decided against many of them. We are still waiting on some reach-jobs, but we feel that our current job situation is so good, why would we change it for an extra thousand bucks? We love our boss, we love our students, we know what we're doing... money isn't everything. And we make enough. Really, with our new contract, we'll make more than most of our friends back home. I think we just needed to take some time and put things into perspective. It's a nice feeling.

So, the small apartment we stay. But it's good; exciting things are still on the horizon. Our Germany trip is creeping up and plans to meet my parents in Amsterdam for Christmas and New Years are falling into place. And if Ben and I save well, we may even afford to meet some of our friends from the states in Thailand. 

A lot of happiness. A lot of sunshine. 

Paints, Changes

I've felt a lot that I brought all the wrong things with me to Moscow. I brought work clothes, winter clothes, heavy gloves and boats, and some towels for the bathroom. But what I left were the things that make me me: I left almost all of my wardrobe (the cool one, not the practical one), my watercolor set, my kindle (this was just a stupid decision I can't really explain), things that connect me to myself. However, I've slowly been rebuilding them into my life which has been a strangely therapeutic process. Every time I purchase a new dress that speaks to who I am (and not what I do in terms of work), I feel like I'm discovering my self all over again. 

Well, Ben and I went on a date the other day and we saw that across the way there was an arts and crafts store. I was so excited to peek around, I slammed my mojito and dragged Ben through the glories of clay, mod podge, and scrap booking supplies until I found a St. Petersburg watercolor set. Ben was so sweet and supportive and encouraged me to buy all the brushes I needed and I went home feeling quite accomplished. 

It's been such a wonderful thing to sit in my sun-covered room, listening to music while Ben reads his MCAT book, painting small pictures on the edge of our bed. For a long time I've joked about painting a children's book about robots, but recently a story has come into my head and I think it's time to tell it through this medium. We'll see how it goes, but it's nice to have a space to be creative again. 

In other news... Ben and I were offered a second contract with the current school we are teaching at. The contract offers more money, but it's not as much as we'd like to be making. We started talking about taking this opportunity to travel somewhere else, which at first seemed incredibly daunting. But we put up our resumes on a couple of different websites and were flooded were job listings and interview offers from all over the world--especially in Southeast Asia where we would really like to work. We pushed our way through our clogged inboxes and replied to the jobs we felt would both be an improvement to our current financial situation as well as somewhere we would live to travel to and experience life within. 

One job that has been put on the table that we're excited about is teaching at a Montessori school in China. It was a long shot when I applied for it (you needed a Montessori teaching certificate, but the pay was so good I promised I would get one online if they would just give me the job) so I was incredibly surprised when I got a phone call the other morning from a British man who wanted to talk to me more about it. He said that there was a program Ben and I could get into where we would make more than what we'd be making with our second contract and at the end we'd be fully certified to teach at Montessori schools. He also told me that Montessori schools are in high demand all over the world (including America) and that if this was something we wanted to do for awhile, taking these jobs we be a good career move. 

So Ben and I talked it over and we decided to apply. It's a little frightening to be applying to go live in China, especially since I feel like I just got settled here in Russia, but when something good comes along, I think you just need to go for it (YOLO, right?). It's still a bit of a long shot--we decided we should finish our contract here (which ends in October) and the job offers were for the end of July, so hopefully they can find us something. If not, we'll stick it out for another nine months in Russia and then reevaluate. Either way, I feel like there are the buds of good things all around us and I'm excited about the future. 

Sunday in Gorky Park

Oh, Moscow. How your obscene foliage has surprised me. 

The last time we went to Gorky Park, it was not at all what we expected. It was one of the first days we could walk around without our winter coats and the park was a mess. Mud, cigarette butts, glitter...

So disappointing. But now that our city has blown up with green, we decided to try again. We met up with our friend and enjoyed $10 beers and bipolar thunder clouds. 

There was some sort of baby parade going on. Bundles of pink and blue balloons were tied to strollers led by these women in pink polka dots. Why? Who knows.

Chekov.

I really like the fact that Russia celebrates it's writers just as much (if not more) as it celebrates it's previous leaders. 

Dogs with angel wings? Because why not.

Paddle boating, where none of the women paddled.

Aaaaand then we found Russian Chipotle. It was glorious.

So my friend Amy left Moscow and she wrote some really great thoughts about Moscow on her blog. I really agreed with her recognition that living in Moscow is having a love/hate relationship with Moscow. After I read it, I turned to Ben and told him that living in Moscow has been the truest love/hate relationship I have ever known. It's a confusing place to live, one with many contrasts, challenging contrasts that make it difficult to form opinions. I think Amy illustrates it wonderfully, so check out her piece when you get a chance. 

In other news, Ben and I have been talking about where we'd like to go for our December holiday and though nothing is set in stone, there's a lot of amazing options on the table. I'm really excited for all the possibilities and I hope we can pull it off. We might have to skip some meals out, but it'll all be worth it when we step off the plane. 

Till then, cheers! And enjoy this nice weather around the world. 

Good People

When I started this blog, I thought it's main purpose would be a photo journal my parents could look at, and a way to keep all my memories in one place while Ben and I goofed around in New Hampshire. And for a long time, it really was just that. I didn't have any followers, I didn't know how to get them or what I would do if I had them, and that was all okay. 

Fast forward quite a few months to my move to Moscow. I was contacted by a couple of ex-pat websites to be featured and write a little bit about my experience. I did so only with the intention of showing the good side to Russia because I felt that everything I had read online prior to coming here felt bitter and annoyed. There were definite downsides to Russia, but I really just wasn't having that kind of experience and I thought it was important to throw my two-cents into the interweb. So interview I did and I'm really grateful I did (which you can read here if you like).

As soon as my interview went up on the websites, I started receiving emails from all over the world from people who were living abroad and echoing feelings and thoughts I had been writing on my blog. At first I was caught off guard; I felt like I needed to be giving advice, good advice, and I wasn't sure if I could. But then I realized that they weren't writing because they wanted advice: they just wanted to reach out to someone else in the world and really, it was quite a beautiful, universal thing. We were separated by continents, oceans, forests, mountains, languages in some cases, but here we were, all exploring the world as bravely as we could. I wrote back, they wrote back, I heard some great stories, and "met" some fabulous characters from all over. 

Through all these emails, one poked it's head up a couple weeks ago that was quite different. From a girl (or woman? I never know what to write) who was currently living and teaching in Moscow and had found my blog awhile back. She said she was on her way out of the country, but... 

"I'm a big believer in reaching out to other people who share a similar lifestyle and find that even brief encounters can be important if not just simply nice in the moment. 

We create our own experiences after all."

I think normally I might have felt a little apprehensive, but when you're living abroad I think you're kind of in a "yes" mode constantly, so I wrote back right away and said I would be delighted to. 

And I'm so glad I did. Amy is a wonderful and inspiring person and her lust for life and travel is contagious. We spent her second to last weekend in Moscow (before she moves to Burma!) gallivanting around, sharing our Russian experiences, and discussing life and travel and love and everything in between. I'm incredibly sad she is leaving, but I'm grateful I got to know her and I know we'll always stay in touch. 

I think this blog has brought me a lot of unexpected joy and now it's brought a new friend and someone who will always inspire me. Blogging is a vulnerable thing, I'll admit, but the payoff is worth it. Your putting yourself, your words, your story, out into the world and when people respond to it, well, that is a cool, cool thing. 

So here are some photos from our Sunday dinner which turned into quite the night of balcony wine drinking.

Cheers to Amy and her wonderful, generous spirit and everyone else who has reached out to me. 

Keep it coming : )

Check out that view! It was dizzying.

Amy gifted Ben some Sriracha and he has worked it into every meal he has had since. She also gave us her cast iron pot to make bread in, so expect some posts about our Breadventurers. 

I do have to add this small side-note that Amy praised mine and Ben's relationship in it's maturity and genuineness. I think we've worked very hard to be as close as we are, and living in Russia has changed us as a couple a lot for the better. I was so pleased that my writing was able to accurately describe our love. 

Aaaaaand it's always nice to hear that you're a cute couple ; )