After 6 Weeks...

For the past two years I have been living stressed-out, disappointed, broke and out of a suitcase. I can also add "bored" and ...

Canadian Rejection

I am a dummy with women. It doesn't matter which culture they are from, I just cannot pick up on the subtelties of female communication....

Friday English

Today is Friday. Friday's are my busiest day of the week. From 3 pm until 9:30 pm I have back-to-back classes and the strain of teaching...

The Oaf

I feel like an oaf here in Russia. This really is a country where knowledge of the language is necessary. This isn't like Korea or any o...

Borodino

130 km west of Moscow is the small provincial village of Borodino. On this site, in September of 1812, Napolean's Grande Armee of over ...

The State Tretyakov Gallery

Yesterday Mr. Irish and I went to the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. This is the "second" national art gallery of Russia, afte...

Teaching English To Russian Adults

Thankfully I received my first class of adults last week. For the past month I have been teaching, exclusively, kids and teenagers and one c...

Slightly Homesick

Perhaps it's the early stages of homesickness. Perhaps it's the language difficulties. Whatever it is, a feeling of being uncomforta...

Nova Scotia, Vodka & Irish Girls

I want to talk about three things in this blog post: Nova Scotia, vodka, and Irish girls. Okay. So, as you read this pretend that you know t...

A Weird Weekend In Russia

Three of my work colleagues share a large 3-bedroom flat above the school we work at, which is lucky for them because Mr. Irish and I have a...

The Vodka Phenomena

The effects of drinking vodka follow a consistent pattern that I have witnessed in everybody save for highly-experienced Russian men, and it...

Battle of Moscow

The war for Russia was a true war of conquest and survival. The Germans had a plan for Lebensraum (living room) and the vast lands of Russia...

Rouble Rousing

I still find it kind of confusing to work with roubles. The problem isn’t that I can’t add or subtract, as obviously if you have 500 roubles...

Turist'

I had the incredible opportunity to tour some major points of interest in Moscow during my second weekend here. A very nice young lady who h...

Photos From Moscow

I was surprised to see that the South Korean department store chain Lotte was in Moscow! One of the Seven Sisters. Only 6 left to find! P...

First Few Hours In Russia

My first glimpse of Russia actually occurred in Vienna. There, I was made to go through a special ‘Russia-bound’ security screening gate at ...

Author's Note

After reading through my blog entries over the past year I realized that there is a certain crassness inherent which falsely reflects my act...

A Slice Of Cheese

The quality of food in Russia, or at least in the Moscow Oblast, is impressive! The night I arrived my DOS took me to the local grocery stor...