My life and experience in immigration. Блог о моей жизни в иммиграции.
On Saturday I saw one of my long-time subscribers.
And I was just ashamed that I haven’t been writing for a long time.
The situation must be fixed, here we go..
I decided to see what’s going on in the world.
First I looked in Russian news:
Continue reading “February news-2, Tomsk, Russia”After listening to voice messages from my sister, I decided to watch the Russian news.
I started with the Tomsk news… and found a TV channel that I even didn’t know existed*. I watched one episode.
The new Tomsk oblast Governor Vladimir Mazur surprises with his activities.
-On February 8, he held a meeting with volunteers who were collecting humanitarian aid for Tomsk soldiers. He spoke about the results of his trip to the “Donetsk and Luhansk National Republics” over the previous weekend. I think on February 4-5. And, yes, the “National republics” that are now being “liberated” by the Russian army.
The governor put together a short video, most likely not by himself, and as he says, not for advertising purposes. The video is here.
-On February 10, he visited a plant that produces mining equipment, control systems for miners, etc. which are relevant for the Donetsk National Republic. Interestingly, the plant is heated with coal (!), while gas heating equipment is installed. But because of the bureaucracy, it cannot be connected. Now probably the governor’s assistants will sort out the problem.
-On February 11, Vladimir Mazur went to the ski track, took part in the marathon “Ski Track of Russia”. He published this in his telegram channel.
–Also I saw the gymnasium where my children studied. ..The director of the gymnasium (the same as 20 years ago) asked for modern security cameras and to improve the area around the school. I remember how difficult it was to get to the school grounds on rainy days. Nothing seems to have changed over the years.
Continue reading “February news, Tomsk, Russia”
Yesterday I wrote a post in Russian.
Just simple “about us”.
Here I will be talking about Tomsk, a little bit about Russia, and about us too.
November 20th – the 270th day of war.
-Positive daytime temperatures (above 32°F) prevailed in Tomsk until mid-November, the Tom River has not frozen yet. The cold snap began on Thursday, on Friday morning it was – 20°C (-4°F) in the city.
Cloudy weather with clarifications, gusty winds and -11-13°C are expected in Tomsk on Saturday, light snow is possible.
It’s November there now. The falling snow will no longer melt, but will accumulate until April.
Continue reading “November is everywhere”
The first Russian word I taught my husband was the word “жопа”=ass.
One day he came home from work and said that his boss was “жопа” (ass). I corrected him: ass is the situation, and his boss is a козел=goat*.
When my friends and relatives (actually Daniel’s relatives) ask me about my sons, the best way to answer would be the word “ass”.
If you read me you know what I think about Putin’s war.
My main concern was mobilization. Many Russians thought they were not interested in politics, the government was doing what must be done to take care of its citizens.
And now politics has come to almost everyone’s home. And mobilization has become not only my concern.
On September 21, president Putin announced a partial mobilization. Where the word “partial” means nothing.
August 1, 159th day of the war
Gasoline has become cheaper, water (water bill) has become more expensive, creative projects hardly help not to get bogged down in the swamp of everyday life and not to go crazy from the horror of the news.
I’ll start with a pleasant one: gasoline has become cheaper. On Sunday, I paid $4.19 for a gallon (at BJ’s). Sweet.
But the water bill went up a lot. It’s all about the long heat and lack of precipitation. We have to water everything: vegetable’s gardens, lawn, trees. Daniel bought a sprinkler. He moves it around the garden every 15-20 minutes. This way we save time but spend money. I do not know how these water bills are compiled. But for some reason, sewage in the bill costs twice as much as water supply. Hopefully it will rain soon.
While we have a drought in New Bedford for how long… last two-three weeks?.. There is a lot of rain in Tomsk. My friend complained that she could not (or did not want to) walk through the rainy forest to her dacha. My sister complained about huge water paddles everywhere in the city. This made her journey to work long and unpleasant. Here in the USA, we often complain about the roads. Well, Russian roads and sidewalks are often much worse.
By now, the rain has stopped in Tomsk. But another regan is under Emergency mode due to floods.
Flood waters flooded 1,747 residential and country houses in Chita and five districts of the Trans-Baikal Territory, rescuers evacuated 285 adults and 38 children. This was reported on August 1 in the press service of the regional Department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
Chita is a city in the south of Eastern Siberia, located on the Trans-Siberian Railway route.
I will leave a link to the article under the post. The article is in Russian but there are a couple of photos.
I am glad that there are no such big and serious problems in Tomsk. It’s a little different there. In some areas of the city, there is no hot water in apartment buildings. In some (about 500 buildings) there will not even be cold water during the day in mid-August. But who knows… this one day can turn into two days or longer.
The infrastructure in Russia is very old. Tomskvodokanal* repairs it every year, but it seems there is no light at the end of the tunnel.
COVID-19 is still with us, although people talk less about it.
The number of new COVID-19 cases in the city of New Bedford is growing, and in the week from July 21 to 27, the state Health Department reported 267 cases.
In the Tomsk region, 52 residents contracted the infection during the day on August 1.
Russians have stopped wearing masks almost everywhere.. Rospotrebnadzor** recommended that citizens from risk groups wear masks in crowded places and on public transport.
And The New Bedford Light published a promising article about Dartmouth’s Toxic facility. The link is here.
Briefly, The Tonix Dartmouth plant is developing live viral vaccines against COVID-19 and monkeypox and is increasing its production. A human trial is scheduled for 2023. It will probably be convenient to have such a plant locally.
Continue reading “Hot Summer 2022”The longest day and the shortest night. The beginning of summer.
Daniel says that if we lived in Fairhaven, we would celebrate with a bonfire by the ocean.
But we live in New Bedford, our house is in a relatively good neighborhood, but not on the ocean. There will be no bonfire tonight, and tomorrow is work.
Anyway, I don’t like summer.
Siberians can “throw slippers at me”*, and they will be right. Just like me. To each his own.
Continue reading “June 21, the 118th day of the war, the day of the summer equinox”
Many years ago, by December 31, I had to prepare 3-4 salads, 5-6 appetizers , hot dish, fish, etc. (well, Russians know) in order to properly/ deliciously/ joyfully celebrate the New Year.
Now I listen to my sister’s voice messages, where she complains that she has to separate the herring from the bones for salad, and I envy her. I make the “herring under a fur coat” salad only once every 3-4 years ((((
Continue reading “December news in January”
“My beautiful hairdresser”, Daniel called me when I took out the haircut machine. I would prefer that his hairdresser was professional. But in the era of Covid, it will probably safier to get a haircut at home.
In both countries, organizations attempt to oblige employees to be vaccinated against covid-19.
Continue reading “August, news, Tomsk, New Bedford”
According to the web site stopkoronavirus.rf, on June 28 there were 63 new cases of COVID-19 in the Tomsk region. Compared to the data for June 6 with only 30 new cases, there is a big increase.
Earlier it was reported that as of June 28, 34,028 people have been infected with a new coronavirus infection in the Tomsk Region since the beginning of the pandemic, 32,397 patients have recovered, 468 have died. In June, the region resumed an increase in the incidence of coronavirus, a weekly increase of about 20%.
Continue reading “Tomsk, still June news.”June 7 was the Tomsk 417th Anniversary.
Public utilities start turning off hot water in apartments.
Tomsk Airport will resume flights to international destinations from June 10.
Continue reading “Tomsk June news”