He's now staying in the Intourist Hotel (Tverskaya St.), so he's made a few comments about Russian hotels in general. Unlike other countries, he says, in Russia hotel guests must pay in advance, not when they check out (only 5 star hotels with Western management accept payment after the period of stay). He has a fridge in his room in Intourist, but, oddly, he's not allowed to keep food in it. There are cups and plates in the cupboard, but he can't get boiled water to make tea of coffee, and meals are not delivered into rooms.

I translated for him on 1, 2 and 4 May. This work doesn't keep me very busy, the meetings last about 2 hours. He says that he may open an office in Moscow also, then there will be probably a permanent job for me.

A meeting with Swedish students. On 3 May I went to the meeting of Swedish and Russian students at the Swedish-Russian Academic Centre of RGGU (Russian State Humanities University). I'd never been there before, I visited their website recently and send them an e-mail, so they invited me to come.

The Swedes were from the Uppsala Military School of Translation. I remember having read a big article about this school in Dagens Nyheter about two years ago and it impressed me. The teaching methods are very intensive: students learn 350 new words per week. They cover the Russian grammar up to the advanced level in 6 months. At this meeting they spoke Russian well. Since this is a military school, they specialise in military translation. One student said that his first Russian word he learned was minomiet (mortar). Still, there were quite a few girl students among them too. When they graduate, some students will start work as guards/clerks at the Swedish embassy in Moscow.

I also got the permission to come lectures at the Swedish-Russian Centre (history of Sweden, etc) and to meetings with guests.

P.S. The following week I attended two lectures (Swedish art and history). I think I'll drop out, because since officially I'm not a student there, I can't use the library. I also have to start working soon.

Exhibitions. I visited two new exhibitions at the Historical Museum. The Eagle and the Lion: Swedish-Russian relations in 17th century: books, maps, dresses, arms, coins, etc. I think it was interesting. Unfortunately, the halls are very badly lit, the text on the explanatory plates is written in a very small font. I wanted to buy a booklet about the exhibition to keep the impressions in my mind, but all they had was a heavy tome costing usd 27.

Then I went upstairs to see the second exhibition: photos of the Read Square in the 20th century. It showed how people and the square changed with the times: pre-revolutionary (construction of the GUM department store), early Soviet period (speaches of the leaders from the tribunes, construction all the 3 Lenin's mausoleums - they replaced one another), Stalin's rule (replacement of double-headed eagles with Soviet stars, marching sportswomen, military parades with aeroplanes flying in the skies), post-Soviet era (Gorbachev and Yeltsin coming side by side in a rally, concerts on the Read Square). Particularly interesting were photos portraying people in informal situations in 40 - 70s (young people listen to a car radio, women cleaning snow around Mausoleum, etc.).

Gardening. I've worked a few days with Mother again. Today I carted away all the trash left by the Moldavians who lived in our small hut (next to our house) during winter. We had four Moldavians living there, but sometimes there were as many as 11 dwellers (they slept on the floor). Mother rented it to them to supplement her pension. Now that all of them have left, we were preparing our "izba" (cabin) for summer guests.

The work of making terraces (landscaping) is almost completed. We'll need to plant potato also. Now the garden is in full bloom and we have fresh greens on the table.

12 May, Saturday
Victory Day. On 9 May there was the Victory Day celebration, a big holiday in Russia. For me this holiday has always been too official and ideological. Same events reoccur every year: parade on the Read Square, the president's speech, gatherings of the veterans, fireworks.

Russians are glad to have another day off from regularly work. In the morning they watch the parade on TV, then work in their vegetable gardens (now that the season has started in earnest, and there's a lot of work there). The evening is the time to sit by a festive table, watch TV (concerts and films about the war), eat and drink. Many drink far too much, then hang about outside enjoying the warm evening and shouting songs.

This day I worked in the garden too - with my mum and her female friend. When it got darker, we could see the fireworks over Moscow from our place.

Employment prospects. On Friday I was invited by a Russian PR company to a job interview. The interview itself was short, they said they have a temporary vacancy to translate publicity materials for the English version of their website devoted the forthcoming session of the International Olympic Committee which will be held in Russia. They gave me a text about the website which I translated on their computer. I think they were satisfied with my translation because afterwards they invited me to come again on Monday (14.05) to talk about the job in more detail.

The American for whom I interpreted this months, has gone back to the States for a few weeks. He sends me e-mails and says that he's got some plans for me too.

16 May, Wednesday
Employment prospects (cont.). On Monday I visited the PR company. Unfortunately, I forgot to write down from the email the name of the person with whom I was going to talk. When I arrived I asked the secretary, but she didn't know. There are about 20 people in that company sitting in various offices, I turned to the man with whom I had already spoken. He told me that the man who was going to interview me was having talks and that he would be busy for several hours, so it was better not to wait, instead I could phone them. I had his phone number, so he told me that I could phone him (I should've asked him about the name and phone number of the interviewer, but I didn't want to show that I had forgot the name - that was a big mistake).

I called the company twice in Moscow, but the man was either away or not on his place. Then I returned home and got a message from the interviewer saying that he waited for me. I sent him my explanations, but I haven't heard from that company again. Pity, but it's not a big loss: they are hardly going to pay over usd 400 per month.

St. Basil's Cathedral. I saw the inside of it Monday. This cathedral, with its differently painted domes, is very well-known (for foreigners it's a symbol of Russia). It stands next to the Red Square (on the southern side), near the Saviour's Tower of the Kremlin. The Russian name for it is Sobor Vasiliya Blazhennogo.

The cathedral's inside is not so magnificent as the outside: thick brick walls and steep staircases. There are a couple of very big icons, the tomb of Saint Basil, and the ikonostasis.

P.S. Events in the second half of May:
- Went again to the court, bailiff, and also to the Russian central bank with the issue of my frozen deposit.
- Had email contacts with the American IT businessman, wrote comments about his commercial site.
- Met a Russian professor in linguistics from MSLU with whom I've been occasionally corresponding for one year. I've been thinking of studying linguistics and he suggested me some books to read on the subject at the Library of Foreign Literature. However, later, after looking them through, I decided that they're too advanced and theoretical for me.
- Arranged weekly French language practice with a Canadian student in Moscow (first meeting on 30 May).

New pages of the site:
Favorite sites and mass media, Where I go in Moscow also there are many new photographs, e.g. in the Photo Album.

Books this month.
- Polyakov, V.; Yanovskaya Yu. Kak poluchit' horoshuyu rabotu v novoj Rossii (How to get a good job in the new Russia) - M, Infra-M, 1995, 176 p. (in R)
Strategies of job-hunting adapted to the Russian realities. A useful book, though written before the Internet era.

- Berlin, Peter. Eti trannyye shvedy (The Xenophobe's Guide to the Swedes) - M: Egmont Rossiya, 2000, 96 p. (transl. to R.)
A humourous book about the Swedes. Most of the book is well-written. The problem is to see where the author writes the truth and where he exagerates to make a joke.

Films this month:
Russian TV
- Svad'ba (Wedding; Russia - France).
This must be one of the best films recently produced in Russia. How people live without money in Russia and how they get married. A tragicomedy. I included it in my list of the favorite Russian films.

- Lost Luggage (Netherlands).
A young girl takes a child-minding job in a Chassid (Hasid) family. A good film giving an insight into the Jewish way of living.

- Runaway Train (USA, 1985 by Andrei Konchalovsky).
A two criminals who have escaped from prison rush on the train without the driver in Alaska. Not just an action film but a psychological drama (Russian film director!)

Video
- L'Amant (The Lover; France).
A story of love of a French 17-y.o. girl and a Chinese man in Vietnam of the 1920s. Elegant style. Many sex scenes (this film is banned in Vietnam as pornography). I saw it in French