While you're there

Life in Russia is never boring and your year abroad will definitely be a memorable experience. Some comments and pieces of advice from students, followed by some advice about food and drink, public transport, talking to people, shopping, money, the 'Russian soul' and some other ideas and information.

Everyday life

Here are some facts and pieces of advice based on students' personal experience, as well as some helpful words and phrases which you might not have been taught at school or university. Of course we can't explain everything and life in Russia is bound to be surprising and confusing a lot of the time, but I hope this gives you some idea of what it's like there.

To find articles about general Russian life, look at the BBC's From Our Own Correspondent page.

Food and drink

Lots of students go to Russia with the idea that they'll spend the year eating cabbage and potatoes and drinking vodka. Well, the vodka bit is often true. Apart from the inevitable cabbage and potatoes, however, there are some foods you should try, and others we think you should be wary of! Here are some students' ideas:

Favourites:

• Bliny with smetana (pancakes with sour cream). These are also delicious with herring, condensed milk, honey, jam, caviar or just about anything. Bliny cafes and restaurants are fairly common, and you can buy them at stands on the street too.
• Pel'meni with smetana (meat dumplings with sour cream). In fact, smetana goes with everything. You'll miss it when you leave.
• Smoked herring
• Red caviar: cheap and available everywhere.
• Pickled cucumbers and mushrooms: you know you've been in Russia too long when you start craving these!
• Honey beer
• Tvorog (a sort of soft, sweet cheese). Usually translated as cottage cheese which is not helpful as it isn't. Recommended with fruit yoghurt or smetana. Try it.
• Buckwheat pirozhki (pies), or just buckwheat with melted butter.
• Khachapuri (Georgian type of cheese pie). Georgian restaurants are common nearly everywhere and the food is delicious. If you travel to the south of Russia to places like Sochi you'll find this everywhere.
• Soups such as borshch (beetroot soup). A good, fairly quick and easy recipe for this can be found here.
• Watermelons: these are often sold in what look like big cages on the pavement.
• Sudak (pike-perch). This is very common in cafes and delicious.
• Shaverma (kebabs). These can be great, or they can leave you ill for a week so be careful where you get them from. The good ones are very good, though.
• Syrok (cheese curds)
• Ice cream: Russian ice-cream is particularly good.
• Honey cakes: You can buy these in most cafes, definitely recommended.
• Kompot, made by boiling a vat of water with dried fruits and a bit a sugar, 'the best way to drink water safely and tastily (doesn't taste like you boiled it). And you can drink it hot or cold.'

Least favourites:

• Kholodets (meat in jelly - on nearly everyone's list of least favourites!)
• Anything based around lard, especially sala which is sometimes misleadingly translated as 'bacon'.
• Salted dried fish - actually not as bad as it looks or sounds, but an acquired taste. Russians eat it with beer.
• Okroshka: 'the combination of chopped potato, onions, kolbasa [a type of sausage], drowned in kvas [slightly alcoholic drink, popular in summer] and served with a liberal dollop of mustard and mayonnaise is a particularly unfortunate one.'
• Unidentifiable meat: be careful as some of this is very poor quality.
• Beware if you don't like dill, as it appears in lots of dishes.

Don't be afraid to try things you've never seen before. If you live in a family you'll probably get used to being offered smetana or mayonnaise with absolutely everything, especially 'salads' which have nothing to do with lettuce! Russians drink tea more than coffee - it's nearly impossible to find good coffee in Russia so this is something to take with you if you think you'll miss it. It's also a good present for your host family or Russian friends. If you ask for tea with milk you might get some odd looks; the milk is often UHT anyway and tea is better without it. Good things to put in tea are lemon or jam. Russian beer is cheaper than lemonade and not classified as an alcoholic drink; you'll see people drinking it on the street at 8am.

Public Transport

This is ridiculously cheap and you can often buy a single pass valid for a month on metro, trams, trolleybuses and ordinary buses. If you decide not to do this, you buy zhetony (tokens) to put through the turnstile machines on the metro and tickets from the conductor on the bus or tram. Beware of the 'turnstiles' in the Moscow metro; it looks as if you can just walk through, but if you don't swipe your card or wait for the green light there are hidden metal doors which clamp painfully shut on your legs as you walk through.

On trams and buses the conductor will come round and tell you to buy a ticket but if there's an inspector there he will fine you if you don't have one, even if the bus is full and the conductor is at the other end. The fine is only about 20p, though.

You are expected to give up your seat for elderly people; if you don't, you'll be the target of abuse from nearly everyone there. This can be a bit frustrating when you've just seen the babushka in question leap onto the bus with her little shopping trolley and make an athletic dash for your seat when you're exhausted, but that's just the way it is. If you're carrying a heavy bag, someone with a seat might offer to hold it for you.

Be careful when getting on and off the bus or tram; people push from the back of the crowd and in the worst cases people can fall under the wheels of the bus. Usually the worst thing that happens is a war of elbows with a babushka who is trying to assert her 'right' to your space, despite the fact that you're squashed in so tightly you can hardly breathe. Be sensible; if the bus is too full then wait for the next one or catch a marshrutka. You'll have a much more pleasant journey.

Marshrutki are minibuses, or sometimes private 'Ýêñïðåññ' buses or coaches, which travel along the bus routes and pick up and set down passengers on request. To stop one, stand by the side of the road and hold your arm out. It can be helpful to stand at a bus stop because the drivers look out for people there, but you can stop one anywhere you see it. It will (usually) only stop when there are enough seats inside, although there are some drivers who like to squeeze as many passengers in as possible. Tickets cost about twice the price of a bus fare (around 10p in 2001, but prices are rising all the time) and they can also vary from city to city and route to route. You pay the driver when you get in and, as with all types of transport except taxis, you pay the same no matter how far you want to travel. You have to tell the driver where you want him to stop and let you out; this can be intimidating at first but absolutely essential if you don't want to travel to the end of the route. See the useful phrases below for some ideas.

Marshrutki are quicker and more comfortable than the city transport and you're practically guaranteed a seat.

Some useful phrases for travelling in buses and trams

The stressed syllable is marked by a " in front of it.

• 'Ñàäèòåñü!' (Sa"ditjes') - 'please sit down'. To babushkas.
• 'Âû ñåé÷àñ âûõîäèòå?' (Vy sejchas vy"khoditje?) - 'Are you getting out now?'. People will ask you this all the time if you're standing near the door or in the aisle. It's also a useful phrase to use, because even if people look as if they're going to get out they don't always do so, and you can miss your stop because you can't get through.
• 'Ðàçðåøèòå!' (Razre"shitje) - 'please let me through'. Imperatives like this are used all the time; it's considered perfectly polite and much more effective than the instinctive 'èçâèíèòå' (izvi"nitje) because people expect it and understand your meaning straight away.

...for marshrutki

• 'Ïåðåäàéòå, ïîæàëóéñòà!' (Pere"dajtje, po"zhalujsta) - 'please pass this on'. When you get in the driver wants to start off again straight away, and won't wait for you to pay him and then find a seat. This can result in you falling over trying to sit down when he's moving. To avoid this, sit down first and ask people to pass your fare forward. People will say this to you all the time when fares and change are being passed up and down the vehicle.
• 'Îñòàíîâèòå, ïîæàëóéñòà!' (Ostano"vitje, po"zhalujsta) - stop, please!. What you say to the driver. It is useful to tell him to stop in good time, so tell him where; e.g.
  • 'Ó ìåòðî' (u me"tro)
  • 'Äî/ïîñëå ñâåòîôîðà' (do/"posle sveta"fora)
  • ' íà÷àëå/êîíöå äîìà' (v na"chale/kon"tse doma) - when talking about long blocks of flats.
  • 'Íà îñòàíîâêå' (na osta"novke)
  • 'Ïåðåä ìàãàçèíîì' etc. ("pered maga"zinom)

Find out about long-distance trains in Russia here.

Talking to people

In Russia there is no official form of address for people you don't know, and if you use 'èçâèíèòå' ('excuse me') you are immediately marked out as a foreigner. This is true in cafes and shops, where it doesn't even work and you'll be served much more quickly if you address the waitress as 'äåâóøêà' ('young lady', 'miss') like everyone else. Russians use 'äåâóøêà' and 'ìîëîäîé ÷åëîâåê' ('young man') for young people. If you're a girl, don't be surprised to hear 'äåâî÷êà' ('little girl') from babushkas, or 'äåâóøêà' even from people your own age. I never worked out a way to address older people without sounding rude; Russians use 'æåíùèíà' ('woman') and 'ìóæ÷èíà' ('man'), and even 'áàáóøêà' ('grandmother') and 'äåäóøêà' ('grandfather'), but I know people who really object to being called this, although there isn't a viable alternative. You will still hear 'òîâàðèù' ('comrade') used, but never by young people.

Shopping

• Never expect to be able to change a 500 ruble note anywhere except big shops, and not always there. You can, however, walk into any bank and ask them to change it for you: 'Ðàçìåíèòå, ïîæàëóéñòà' ('raz"menitje, po"zhalujsta').
• Cashiers do not like giving change, so be prepared to give them the one ruble or 85 kopeks they ask for so that they can just give you a note in change. This will help you too; remember that you can't change coins back when you're about to leave.
• Carrier bags are not free so be aware of this and have your two rubles to hand, or carry one with you.
• Some shops have a system where you queue at one counter to choose what you want, take a slip of paper to the cash desk, queue, pay, get a receipt and then queue up again at the original counter to collect what you have bought. The only point of this seems to be to give more people jobs, but be patient and don't go into one of these shops if you're in a hurry.
• Western chain stores are no cheaper than they are at home, but Russian department stores sometimes are and it's possible to get a lot of things at markets, especially if you don't need them to last very long.
• You'll get used to having to ask for things in shops rather than collecting it yourself from the shelf. This is good for your vocabulary; the names of products are often written on labels next to them. You'll also have to ask for things like cheese and cold meats in grams. Shop assistants never smile, and phrases like 'how can I help you?' and 'have a nice day' do not exist. Instead you will hear 'ñëóøàþ!' (I'm listening), and they may not even look up. Just standing there waiting for them to serve you does not work; just say what you want.

Money

Taking lots of travellers' cheques to Russia may seem like a good idea at first, but it's probably the least convenient way to manage things. Even in the big cities there are only two or three places to cash them (usually just the big, expensive, foreign-owned hotels), and they tend to charge more commission than you would pay if you change foreign currency. In smaller towns it's unlikely that you'll find anywhere to cash travellers' cheques, so the added security probably isn't worth it.

The easiest option is to take your switch/credit cards with you. ATMs are readily available, especially in the larger cities. You can withdraw cash in rubles (and sometimes US dollars too) and there is a flat commission charge of £1.50 per withdrawal. Visa and Mastercard are accepted nearly everywhere, Maestro and Cirrus can be used in most places (the only exception I found was St Petersburg airport). You can also use credit/debit cards in some shops - these tend to be the expensive ones aimed at tourists, but also the larger department stores in Moscow and St Petersburg - useful if you're buying a winter coat, for example. If you feel uncomfortable using the ATMs in the street or at metro stations, you can always go inside the big hotels, banks or department stores and use the ones there - they often have security guards on duty.

If you are going to take cash with you which is probably sensible for use in an emergency, take US dollars as they're the easiest to change, and even to use directly sometimes (strictly illegal, but you'd be surprised how often you might need to). Don't take too much, and use a money belt under your clothes if you're carrying any amount of foreign currency.

Some important points

• Make sure your travel insurance covers you for lost or stolen cash as well as other valuable possessions.
• Take out credit card insurance and make sure you have the telephone number to call if your cards are stolen. Give someone at home a list of your cards with their numbers.
• Also arrange with your bank for someone at home to be able to receive your bank statements, sign cheques for you etc. That way any problems can be noticed and sorted out immediately from home.

Ðóññêàÿ äóøà (Russkaya dusha)

This is a phrase you'll hear often, and nobody will be able to explain what exactly this 'Russian soul' is. It can be used as an explanation of just about every Russian idiosyncrasy under the sun, including things like a particular attitude to punctuality (I'll say no more!) and the national adoration of Pushkin. It is also given as a reason for the fact that you're likely to make some of your best friends in Russia; once people know you they'll do anything they can to help you and they are unreservedly warm towards friends and family. You'll constantly come up against stereotypes of the British as 'cold' and ÷îïîðíûe (stuck up and prim); this word only ever seems to be used to describe the English! People also think that England is always foggy and that everyone, no matter what they are doing, stops and drinks a cup of tea at 4.30pm. It's fun to try and counteract these stereotypes by joining in with Russian life and not being reserved and standoffish, you'll have a much better time that way and experience more of Russian life.

Other information and ideas

There are many more public holidays in Russia than in Britain, some of the most important are:

• 1st and 2nd January: New year. More important than Christmas.
• 7th January: Orthodox Christmas.
• 13th January: Old New Year. No time off work, but often celebrated.
• 23rd February: Äåíü Çàùèòíèêîâ Îòå÷åñòâà, an honourary 'Men's Day' since all men are officially supposed to serve in the armed forces for two years. Cards and small presents are given, no time off work.
• 8th March: International Women's Day. You get a day off work for this, women often receive flowers and cards.
• 1st and 2nd May: International Labour Day and Spring Festival. You get a day off work.
• 9th May: Victory Day (World War II). A day off work, processions and fireworks.
• 12th June: Independence Day. A day off work.
• 7th November: Day of Accord and Reconciliation. Most people still celebrate this as 'Revolution Day' which it was until a few years ago. A day off work.
• 12th December: Constitution Day. A day off work.

Try skiing, ice-skating and sledging in the winter; there are hire places everywhere and it's really cheap. You might never get the chance to see this much snow again so enjoy it.

Having said that, be careful when walking around in the winter because the snow and ice is very rarely cleared, and no matter how much you think you love it, you won't when you can't stop falling over. You'll get used to walking on a couple of inches of compacted ice, and you won't get any sympathy from passers by when you fall over on it.

Keep up your interests or try something new; it's a great way to meet people and do something other than work or study. You'll practise your Russian more too.

Try to travel around a bit as you probably won't get the chance again. See the where to go page for more details.

And finally...

I don't know who wrote most of these as I received them as an e-mail forward, but a lot of them are very true as well as amusing:

You know you've been in Russia too long when...

• You don't think things are that bad right now.
• You have to think twice about throwing away an empty instant coffee jar.
• You carry a plastic shopping bag with you 'just in case'.
• You see someone with a plastic carrier bag when you don't have one and you're jealous.
• You say he/she is 'on the meeting' (instead of 'at the' or 'in a' meeting).
• You answer the phone by saying 'allo, allo, allo' before giving the caller a chance to respond.
• You save table scraps for the cats living in the courtyard.
• When crossing the street, you sprint.
• In winter, you choose your route by determining which icicles are least likely to impale you in the head.
• You are impressed with the new model Lada or Volga car.
• You let the telephone ring at least 4 times before you pick it up because it is probably a misconnection or electrical fault.
• You hear the radio say it is zero degrees outside and you think it is a nice day for a change.
• You argue with a taxi driver about a fare of 30 rubles ($2) to go 2 kilometres in a blizzard.
• You actually know and CARE whether Spartak won last night.
• You win a shoving match with an old babushka for a place in line and you are proud of it.
• You are pleasantly surprised when there is toilet paper in the WC at work.
• You look at people's shoes to determine where they are from.
• You are pleasantly surprised when there is real wine in the bottle of Georgian Kinzamaruli you bought in a kiosk.
• You notice that Flathead's cell phone is smaller than yours and you're jealous.
• Your day seems brighter after seeing that goon's Mercedes broadsided by a pensioner's Moskvich.
• You are thrown off guard when the doorman at the nightclub is happy to see you.
• You're not sure what to do when the GAI (traffic cop) only asks you to pay the official fine.
• You wonder what the tax inspector really wants when she says everything is in order.
• You give a 10% tip only if the waiter has been really exceptional.
• You plan your vacation around those times of the year when the hot water is turned off.
• You are relieved when the guy standing next to you on the bus actually uses a handkerchief.
• You are envious because your expatriate friend has smaller door keys than you do.
• You ask for no ice in your drink.
• You go mushroom and berry picking out of necessity instead of recreation.
• You develop a liking for beetroot.
• You know what Dostoyevsky's favourite colour was.
• You start to believe that you're a character in a Tolstoi novel.
• You know seven people whose favorite novel is 'The Master and Margarita'.
• You change into tapki (slippers) and wash your hands as soon as you walk into your apartment.
• You take a trip to Budapest and think you've been to heaven.
• You start thinking of black bread as a good chaser for vodka.
• You drink the brine from empty pickle jars.
• You can read barcodes, and you start shopping for products by their country of production.
• You begin to refer to locals as nashi (ours).
• It doesn't seem strange to pay the GAI $2.25 for crossing the double line while making an illegal U-turn, and $35 for a microwaved dish of frozen vegetables at a crappy restaurant.
• Your coffee cups habitually smell of vodka.
• You know more than 60 Olgas.
• You give your business card to social acquaintances.
• You wear a wool hat in the sauna.
• You put the empty bottle of wine on the floor in a restaurant.
• You are rude to people at the airport for no reason.
• You have to check your passport for an arrival-in-Russia date.
• Remont (repair), pivo (beer) and nalivai (pour!) become integral parts of your vocabulary.
• You've been to Tallinn at least a dozen times for visas.
• You are curious as to when they might start exporting Baltika beer to your home country.
• Cigarette smoke becomes 'tolerable'.
• You think metal doors are a necessity.
• You changed apartments 6 times in 6 months.
• You no longer feel like going to your 'home' country.
• You speak to other expats in your native language, but forget a few of the simplest words and throw in some Russian ones.
• You remember how many kilos you weigh - but forget how many pounds.
• A gallon of gasoline or milk seems like a foreign concept.
• You no longer miss the foods you grew up with, and pass them up at foreign-owned supermarkets.
• You actually enjoy shopping at the rynok (market), and you think that Ramstore is the most advanced supermarket you've ever been to.
• You think that the Manezh is a real shopping mall.
• You try to pay a traffic fine on the spot and get arrested for attempted bribery.
• You look for kvas and kefir in the supermarket, and ask to buy half a head of cabbage.
• You see a car behind you with flashing lights and think it's some politician.
• You don't feel guilty about not paying on the trolleybus.
• You can sleep through a hangover without curtains on your windows.
• The elevator aroma seems reassuring somehow.
• You no longer think washing clothes in the bathtub is an inconvenience.
• You can heat water on the stove and shower with it in less than 10 minutes.
• You do not take off that silly sticker on the sunglasses that you just bought.
• Your sister writes to you about the best prime rib she's ever had and you can't remember what it looks or tastes like.
• The sellers at the rynok start calling you by your patronymic only.
• You have had your clothes ruined by all the so-called Western style dry cleaners and have to start the cycle over again.
• You bring your own scale and calculator to the market to make sure the amount you are charged is correct.
• You know the Moscow Metro better than you know the subway system back home.
• A weekend anywhere in the Baltics qualifies as a trip to the West.
• You start buying Russian toilet paper.
• You sit in silence with your eyes shut for a few moments before leaving on any long journey.
• You look in the mirror to turn away bad luck if you have to return home to pick up something you've forgotten.
• You catch yourself whistling indoors and feel guilty.
• You never smile in public when you're alone.
• You know the official at the metro station/airport/border post/post office/railway station etc. etc. is going to say nyet, but you argue anyway.
• You save tea bags of Yorkshire Tea brought over especially from home to use for a second cup later...
• You go back to England and notice how frosty, unemotional, unsentimental and cold the Brits are and long to return to the warm rush of the Russian dusha (soul).
• When that strange pungent mix of odours of stale sawdust, sweat and grime in the metro makes you feel safe and at home...
• You are in awe that after 3 days home your shoes are still clean.
• You get wildly offended when you are asked to pay at the coatcheck.
• You are afraid of offending someone by asking him or her what they do for a living.
• (For women) When you dress up in your best outfits for work and ride the metro.
• When the word 'salad' ceases for you to have anything to do with lettuce.
• When mayonnaise becomes your dressing of choice.
• You can recite in Russian all the words to all of tampon and chewing gum commercials.
• When you begin paying attention to peoples' floors and can distinguish the quality of linoleum and/or parquet, and thus determine social status, taste, and income e.g. embezzled, earned, pension, unpaid, etc.)
• You get excited when the dentist smiles and has all his own teeth.
• You can spark a debate by asking for a decent Mexican restaurant.
• You do all your shopping at kiosks.
• You voluntarily take a stroll in the park, Baltika beer in hand, on a sub-zero day.
• When pulled over by a policeman, you pretend not to speak Russian and say Ya ne ponedelnik instead of Ya ne ponimayu on purpose.
• You pretend not to speak Russian when you walk in to a restaurant and ask to use their loo without buying anything.
• When a streetcab tries to over-charge you, you turn the incident in to an example of how Russia is losing its dignity in the eyes of the world.
• You are no longer surprised when your taxi driver tells you that before Perestroika he worked as a rocket scientist.
• You laugh at Russian jokes.
• You actually get these jokes.
• You actually spend time writing these jokes!
• You feel queasy when someone tries to shake your hand over a threshold.
• You continue to 'cross' the number 7 back at home.
• You think it's too hot, no matter what season you return home.
• You specify 'no gas' when asking for mineral water.
• You are dumbstruck back at home when high school or college students wait on you with a smile, reciting a 90 second spiel on the 'specials of the day' and display complete knowledge of the contents of each menu item...
• You realize that all the above and the other messages on this subject posted here are what you love about Russia, that you've been here long enough to feel at home and wonder whether you'll ever able to fit back in the old country...