Spring comes to Moscow

Spring has arrived here in Moscow at last! The snow is gone, and the temperature is finally consistently above freezing! It still goes down to around 2-5C (32-27F) at night, but the days are reaching temperatures around 9-12C (47-54F). We're in the annoying period of spring where the temperature gets drastically warmer in the sun/during the day, but still cold in the mornings and at night, and even in the shade, so you still need a warm jacket. Oh well, in a few more weeks it should get warm enough to finally put the winter coat away!

It's interesting for me to watch the city go through its spring transformations. Growing up in the suburbs, things are different. Spring in the suburbs means people working outside on their yards or maybe preparing their gardens, doing some repairs on their houses, and the first signs of children playing outside. Public parks get flowers planted and some things get painted, if they really need it. Here, children play outside all year round (which I think is wonderful – kids shouldn't just sit around during the winter!), so the sound of children playing doesn't associate with spring at all. All the work is done by migrant workers, it seems, rather than the citizens. Moscow doesn't like its workers to be idle. Two weeks ago, they were chopping ice and shoveling snow, now they're painting things. Literally, anything that can be painted is being painted! They're even painting the manhole covers and trashcans!!!

Everything really does look nice with a fresh coat of paint – but the smell… well, that is anything but nice. They're using a really heavy duty oil based paint, and it's got such a terribly strong odor. The places that they're painting in the sun are the worst – the hot sun just exacerbates the smell! Add that to the pollution from all the cars… UGH! Moscow is not good for the lungs, I think.

Daily sights and sounds

I suppose when I look back on my first winter in Moscow many years from now, a few things will stick out in my memory. The snow, of course, is one of those things, but there are a few other sights and sounds that are distinctively 'Moscow'. The first is the sound of a shovel scraping the ground. It's what I woke up to at least half of the days this winter, and what I heard all day for the better part of the past two months! If it wasn't scraping, it was chopping to break up the thick layer of packed down snow, from everyone walking on it. Moscow is nothing if not efficient at snow removal!

The other memories are all sights. One, the huge force of migrant workers who are out all hours of the day and night clearing the snow. Two, babushkas brushing snow away with an old fashioned broom made from twigs that looks like they've had for the past five decades. Three, men on roofs clearing off the snow and icicles, typically without any kind of protection whatsoever - just standing and balancing, perhaps leaning against a small railing at the edge of the roof.

The new 'normal'

After being here for almost four months, a lot of things that were once new to me, are just ways of life now. Here's a list of the five biggest changes for me.

• The metro. Three months ago the metro was a brand new concept for me. I lived in the suburbs in America, and had a car since I was 17. Now, I go through the metro on autopilot. I know which part of the train to get on, and I don't even need to read the signs anymore to know where to go, as I take the same route every day. I don't need to hold onto anything anymore, although I tend to take my preferred place leaning against the doors. There's the most room back there, and you don't need to shuffle around any time people want to get on or off. I usually don't sit, because chances are I'll give up my seat for an older person 2 stops later, and by then my place by the doors is already taken!

• Having to go to three different shops to buy the foods I want. Yup, just another part of daily life now. It was annoying at first to have to stop at two or three stores just to get what I wanted, but now I'm used to it, and I plan accordingly (well, most of the time :-D) so that I don't have to go to the stores in the same day. The good thing is, they're all on my way as I walk to my apartment from the metro, so even when I need to stop, it's not such a big deal.

• Just because the food store has something one day, doesn't mean they'll have it the next time I'm there. This took a bit of getting used to, and it still frustrates me, especially when I'm really craving something, only to find that it's not there... Take note of the point above - it's not like I can just pop into another store, since they probably don't carry what I want. But for the most part, I've learned to just sigh and roll my eyes, remind myself that I'm in Russia, and then find something else to eat instead!

• Waste. Unfortunately, this has become a part of life. Everything is wasted here, there's no recycling or even re-using of anything. Everything goes into the trash - papers, glass, plastic, and cans. Glass bottles are at least salvaged by old or homeless people, as they get a tiny amount of money for turning it in somewhere, at least that's what I assume. They are always digging through the dumpsters to see what they can find. Many people (myself included) leave the bottles out of the dumpster so that can get to them easily. 

• Getting bumped into and/or pushed. This too, is just part of daily life now. You will get pushed, shoved, or bumped into at least once per day living in Moscow. And don't expect any words of remorse from the pusher/bumper - after all, you were apparently in their way, so it's your fault. The pushing tends to only happen in the metro, but the bumping happens everywhere - supermarkets, the street, and even art galleries and museums! I think that people forget that they're not still on the metro...

How Moscow Does Snow Removal

This is how Moscow does snow removal. Shovel all the snow, pile it up in a dumpster, and then dump it somewhere else! They only do this for walkways and roads, parking lots still have traditional mountains of snow that children turn into slides! I'll take some pictures of how high some of the snowpiles are and post them within the next couple of days. 

Now the real question is, where do they take all of that snow?