Hot chicks vs. revenge of the Mullet

Hey everyone, Nadia has kindly offered me to do this section of blog!!! I got to admit that it was a hard decision, but I accepted after all, I will try to keep an objective view and incorporate the most comments Nadia usually would do on the pictures :-P

To do so, I've establish, of course, a scale on which you will be able to give your input!!!!

HOT CHICK Definition : the term refers to any "female" gender we incounter that for XYZ reason is wearing near to nothing on a nice sunday afternoon!

The Mullet!!

Definition : Well let's just say that is why I'm fearing my first haircut in Russia!

N.B. Eventhough we are having a blast doing this section, please note that unfortunatly most picture will be back shots, since we are still a little bit shy to take out our camera and take them live. Sorry for the inconvinience. This is why there is no criteria related to beauty of their face or personnality!!! BABY GOT'S BACK!!

Judging parameters :

The girls :

- Height of there stoleto (HS): 0 = flat ; 5 = Crazy stripper shoes!

- Lenght of skirt (LS): 0 = OLD USSR standard for pants ; 5= ah! nice "Victoria's secret" underwear

- Location or day the outfit is worn (LDO):0 = Da! Da! we were at a strip club ; 5 = Geez, come on it's my nephew baptisim ......

OVERAL points = HS + LS + LDO (couldn't help it, engineer geek) The boys :

- Lenght of the mullet (LM): 0 = baby/wannabee mullet ; 5 = Jesus Christ, thank God I brought my clipper, Nadia please shave my head.

- Mullet Power -thickness of hair (MP) : 0 = come on your about to be bold shave it off ; 5 = that is some race horse thickeness power! Bravo Champion!

- Overal clothes (OC) : 0 = At least your clothes is nice (not going to happen folks) ; 5 = Geez, is it the clothes Canada shipped 30 years ago to help out, yep that's Grandpa sweatpants!

OVERAL points = LM + MP + OC

WTR (welcome to Russia!) You will quickly notice that as much as the girl were incredible dearing clothing, the guys on the other hand are still in the USSR regime!!!

Enjoy, and let's begin!!

OKAY! OKAY! All the category could be in this photo!!! but if you look closer you should notice one person standing out!!! I got to admit, I volontary started hard core!!! To her defense it was the Navy thing that day, but still can I hear it for some bonus point on the nice head gear!!!!! (not sure where to add those bonus point to the formula :-P)

<--- (1)

HS = 4 (height is good, but flat in the front, what the hell was she thinking)

LS = 4 (I can really complain, but she does have 1-2 in under her butt, that's kind of long for here!) She would score points on thighness of dress!

LDO = 5 (Well like mention that's more than okay to go to church with! she had a small black vest :-P, it was in a touristic place with kids !!! ) Total = 13 , but i'm giving her a extra 2 points for the hat!!!

Okay we didn't get much guys on camera yet, but like they say it's not quantity but quality!!!! The other side, the girl was haging with our big CHAMPION here! must have money or related!

<---(2)

LM = 4, we saw longer but it's well defined!

MP = 5, Enjoy the profile lady, doesn't look like a solid Mullet!!!

OC = 5, just love the pink t-shirt on guys!

The fact that he was beside the girl (3) makes his style stand out!!!

Total = 14

(3) ------> HS = 4, they are high but come on, they are full instead of a small steleto!

LS = 3 , we are talking of 3-4 in lower than butt!

LDO = 4, It's still sunday (we got lucky on the picture taking) , but at least she is wearing white for god's day!

Total = 11

Okay, back to serious contenders!!! We have the perfect barbie in the next one!!! you can also get a special two extra chicks for free in the back ground (they were coming out of work)! As for Barbie, she came inside our building to get ....... I don't know maybe she finish her stripper jig early and she wanted to suprise her boyfriend!

(4) ------------>

HS = 5, this is the perfect example of what we mean, please notice the 1-2 inch height in the front of the shoe!

LS = 5 , I believe this one was 1 in over her butt line! :-P, do notice eventhought the lenght she still have space for a pocket, and her hand fits in it!!

LDO = 5, it's 5 o'clock, we are in a working district , not on the main, or the strip club!!!

Total = 15 +2 points for the bleach blond look or her fake breast!, but I like the fake breast :-P!!!

There so much women here that they even put them on the building!!! Incredible!!

This is a other classic example of what we are seing here most of the time! A nicely dress lady we a guy wearing sport wear or something not up to the level!!! <---(5)

HS = 4, It's got good standard height, in her case it's were she is wearing them that counts! LS = 4 , Believe it or not, this is the standard height of skrit here!! LDO = 6, This was taken on a Saturday at Petergof (summer palace, 45 min boat ride, all dirt road, but still she stick with her saturday nite club outfit!!! That's dedicated to the cause!

(6)---> HS = 5, she is worth it, setting such a good example for her girl, plus they look so stable in the dirt to run around with her "dochka"!!

LS = 3 , Believe it or not, this is the standard height of skrit here for mom's!!

LDO = 5 , same has before plus what a role model for the kid, what do you want to be when you grow up, a hooker like 'mommy'! Total = 14 Hey all the guys "entrepreneur" out there, why haven't we started this concept in montréal, which guy wouldn't pay to get sushi plus a schoolgirl waitress!!! Nice concept this restaurant also have 'Japananimate' everywhere on the walls!!! Plus they have nice business lunch menu, serve quickly!!!

Extra points for the socks !!!! This is one of our waitress that is really really nice!!!

It's the most confusing thing to have a oriental girl speak russian to you!!!!

She started understanding our point technique for ordering!!!

<------- (7)

To her defense at least she's on the main street so it's normal to dress up!!! HS = 4, Nice height and thin!!! all we look in a good shoe! LS = 2, kind of long for the main street!

LDO = 2 , on neivesky prospeckt, more than normal! We got use to it!

Total = 8

Okay let's finish with something to convince all the guys to come to see us in St-Pete!!!

We went about 30 min out of the city to a cool lake where we had a cool BBQ with the Russian and all their family! It's in the woods, nothing but campign around!!! Small beach, you can look at the Facebook photo!!!

This girl out of no where is dress for a catalog picture shoot or a playboy party!!!

HS = 0, I got to admit that it would of been superb to see her with stoleto! They are probably in the car!

LS = 5, well for a bikini, it's pretty short!

LDO = 5, Saturday in the camping zone!!! Bravo!

Total = 10, if only she cared and would of worn shoes!!!

To bad!!!

YOU CAN STOP LOOKING FOR MORE PICTURES!!! FOR NOW!!!

A culinary adventure

How can you tell that someone has Italian heritage? They talk with their hands and they love food. I am guilty of both these things. What comes to mind when we think Russian cuisine? Borsh? Yes, that's important but there is so much more! Before I get to the food, let's back-up one step: groceries! This seems trivial, but grocery shopping isn't the easiest task when you've just arrived... Once Matvei and I moved into the corporate apartment, we had to sort out where to buy groceries. The first night we wander around a bit and finally discover a "producti" on the other side of the bridge, which is a small store with different counters, each run by an independant vendour. As is commonly done in Europe, you must ask the vendor for what you want, they bag it, weigh it and then hand alll your purchases over once you have paid. All this is fine if you can ask for what you want!! This was the point where I realised I was coming up blank on all the Russian I had learned and quickly discovered that very few people out side our office actually speak English. It tooks us about 20 minutes of walking back and forth up the aisle of this little store before we actually built-up the courage to ask for something! We started with "the fruit lady"*, who was very nice and found us charming as we tried to ask for things in Russian. The next two vendors were not so nice... But the "bread lady" who we spoke to last was great and we managed to leave with enough food to make a few meals. We then walked 10 minutes back to our flat lugging all our stuff, which for Matvei also included several liters of bottled water since you can't drink that tap water here. Much to our dismay, the next day we found out that there was a grocery store with actual aisles and shelves that you can take things from yourself right DOWNSTAIRS from our apartment building. (**insert us feeling like idiots here**) So what do the Russians eat? There are these wonderful things called Blin (ьлин) that are like crèpes and are filled with anything and everything. We went to a Russian fast-food chain and had blin filled with red caviar. The picture is from our night at the Ukranian restaurant when we went with our Ukranian colleague). There are two things that come up very often: sour cream and dill. A large dollop of sour cream (сметана) is added to soups just before serving, or as a side for pelmeni (= something similar to ravioli that are delicious). As for the dill, it comes with everything. If it isn't one of the rare times where it is not part of the dish, a large sprig of it is added as decoration. They have even added chopped dill to an inside-out roll at our local sushi shop! If you do not like these two things and find yourself here, you are S.O.L. Getting back to the topic of caviar, Matvei and I made a sad discovery: we'd been eating imitation black caviar!! We came across the jar of black caviar in a super market for only 77 Rubles (~$3 CAD) and we thought it was too good to be true. We found out a week later that indeed it was... We have since seen caviar at the markets and grocery stores for more than 100 times that price. The good thing to come out of that discovery was the mix between salty and fresh. We've often been served kolbasa sausage with a piece of pickle or salted herring with cucumber, which makes for a nice mix. We had also done this with the (imitation) caviar. Then there are some familiar things that are just slightly different to cater to the Russian market... The Feta cheese here is excellent, though with a very different texture - more like solid cream cheese. I loved the instructions I found when I opened the package! As for the Lays chips, there are all sorts of unusual flavours here (except for "regular" it would seem). We first tried the Caviar flavoured chips, which tasted more like butter than anything else. But the шашльык were a different story... Chips aside, actual шашльык is yummy and we took an instant liking to it. It's basically marinated meat that is grilled as brochettes, much like shishkabobs. So whenever one of us is craving meat, we head out for some шашльык! On the weekend, Matvei and I visited a few farmer's markets (Рынок) that are close to our future "neighbourhood" (we should be settling into our long-term apartment next week). Markets are always an intersting place - lots of colours, smells and flavours. The second one we visited we really enjoyed. We found spices!! "The spice lady" was lovely - she spoke zero English but was still very talkative and keen to help us. We must have spent half an hour with her smelling the various spices at her kiosk. I have a feeling we will be paying her another visit soon... I know it's not exactly food, but I don't think I can end this post without mentioning vodka. Yes, vodka is popular here and, yes, it is great - a lot smoother than what we find on our shelves overseas. The Russians drink vodka straight, which is why I got some strange looks when I ordered a "vodka soda" at the bar the other night. It arrived as a plastic bottle of sparkling water (for the soda) and a shot of vodka in a large shot glass. The other fortunate discovery for this cosmo-drinker is a little something called морс (pronounced like "Coors", but with an M), which is a sort of cranberry juice here and is very typical Russian. We had home-made морс at the restaurant the other day and it was really good. So my favourite drink has become vodka морс. My luck with wine here hasn't been great, so I needed to find an alternative!

*the X lady term should be trademarked by our Australian colleague. He has a "bank lady" contact, the "apartment lady", etc. We thought the term was adorable so we've started applying it to everything! BTW - we met the "bank lady" today, so we now understand why he made such an effort to keep her as a contact!

First impressions

We arrived on Thursday each with 3 pieces of luggage and our bicycles. Our driver from the airport got a flat tire before we made it to our hotel. Welcome to Russia! I was reprimanded at the airport by a security guard for trying to take a picture of a sign written in Russian and English. That was the moment that I finally believed that after 5 months of talking about this opportunity, it had finally materialised. The airport, buy the way, resembles the Fairmont/Labrador City airport much more than something suitable for an international city of 5 million people. We walked to the office from downtown for our first day of work, about 40 minutes, when we never managed to meet the colleague at breakfast who was also staying at our hotel. And let me tell you that it's not so easy to look for someone you don't know: I got a lot of weird looks from men when I was going around asking people "Are you Lee?" The reason he didn't show up at breakfast was because they were out with the clients until 4 am... 66 people work at the office here - 68 including Matvei and myself. About a dozen are expats and the rest are Russian. I have a feeling that I will be in a good environment to learn Russian!!

Our first day of work (Friday) ended with a cruise on the Neva River, where there was dinner, some dancing, and of course, vodka. It was a great way to get to know our colleagues and get a great view of the city! It was something else to get off the boat and the sun was still shining bright in the sky (the photo was actually taken at 10:30 pm!!) . And yes, there was indeed vodka on the boat - and it IS that much better than the stuff we get in Canada. We spent Saturday shopping for apartments - quite the culture shock!! Here the common areas are the responsibility of the city, which essentially means that no one looks after them. So to access most Russian apartments, you leave the noisy, bustling streets to step into an interior courtyard that is unexpectedly quiet. Once you are buzzed in through the heavy metallic door, you come in to the stairwell, which is often dark and musty smelling. There are sometimes elevators, but some are so small that I can't see more than a single person fitting in then. So goes the alternative: the stairs. Lots and lots of small stairs. They are usually rough concrete and the electrical boxes are exposed on the walls. There are some buildings that have renovated stairwells and proper elevators, but those are few and far between. Once through the 8 foot tall door the apartment, it is amazing to see some of the real estate gems hidden there. Moday we moved out of the hotel into what will become the "company apartment" in St-Petersburg: it's across the street from the office and is a 2-bedroom, 2-bedroom place in a new, beautiful building. Our CEO will be here in September and the office manager wants someone to live there before he arrives so that we can figure out what is missing in the place.

The Russians are lovely people (and I'll get to the beautiful women in a minute). Though most people we meet outside of the hotel industry don't speak English, they are still very patient and eventually we manage to find what we need. I tried to buy a subway pass, but couldn't find a way to convey "metro card". In the end I walked away with a handful of tokens, so I was able to take the metro home anyways.