My Russian Adventure | Pt 2
Welp. My time in Russia has finally ended and I am back on U.S. soil. So much has happened since I first got here (major and not so major), so I wanted to give you guys my final thoughts and talk about my stay overseas.
I don’t think I ever publicly mentioned this, but from December 28, 2021, to April 2, 2022, I lived in Krasnodar, Russia. Krasnodar is in Southern Russia and is about an hour flight from Moscow. There were more differences than similarities living there than in the U.S., but overall it was a really dope experience. I do want to note that this is not a country that you just book a flight and pull up on. I had to get a Russian visa, which my boyfriend’s team was gracious enough to secure for me.
Arriving there and adjusting to the time zone was beyond difficult. I was literally sleeping the days away and I felt like a vampire. Krasnodar is eight hours ahead of the U.S. Eastern Time Zone, and it took me maybe two weeks before I finally got in some sort of swing.
While there, I stayed in the cutest apartment with my boyfriend. There were brick accent walls, a floor to ceiling window in the kitchen, and a heated towel rack in the bathroom. We were centrally located downtown, so everything took about 5-15 minutes to get to. And the best part is that I was walking distance to the mall They had a few “American” stores like Zara, H&M and Sephora, but I was introduced to new stores like Lime, Gold Apple and Love Republic.
One thing that I noticed about the elevators in the building I was staying in is that in the U.S. there are two buttons with the option to go up or down; in Russia there is only one button and you just have to pray that the elevator is moving in your favor. One time, one of the elevators was broken and I literally had to hike out the garage up a ramp, around the building and up a hill to get to the apartment. No exaggeration, the next day my arms and calves were on fire because I forgot to mention, I was carrying groceries. My attitude was on 100 after that stunt.
Weather
The weather in Krasnodar is pretty similar to back home. There were actually times that it was warmer in Russia than it was in Detroit. Temperatures were mainly in the 40s and 50s, but there were a few snow days and one snowstorm. (Quick sidenote: There were a lot of stray dogs in Russia, and during the snowstorm I could hear a dog howling which made me so sad as a dog mom. And not to make this weather section about dogs but they hang in packs in Russia too lol). Any who, I probably needed an umbrella twice max, but I’m thankful I didn’t need to wear my heavy coat the entire time I was here.
Note: I did stay in Moscow for 24 hours and it was colddd. It was giving bring a Canada Goose.
Teleworking
I was fortunate enough to be able to work while I was in Russia, but it was hard. I took off the first week I was there so that I could adjust, but living in two different time zones is tough. I would wake up around 11:30 a.m. so I could try and enjoy the day and see sunlight, start working around 4 p.m., log out around 1 a.m., and then go to sleep around 2:30 a.m. Having meetings at 11 o’clock at night is draining, and it especially sucked when I wanted to go outside but couldn’t because I’d have a meeting or worry if I was going to get a call. My coworkers were pretty flexible if I told them I’d be away or something, but I told my CEO I would make myself available when necessary and I am not a liar. What made things even more stressful is that I was being trained on new projects at times when my body was ready to wind down. But we did it, Joe. We did it.
(Side note: Because the U.S. and Russia aren’t the best of friends, I did download a VPN so that I could have a secure network and access U.S. sites.)
Food
We talked about this a little in my last blog, but since that post I was able to have some really good food and try new things. If you’ve checked out my food page, you’ve seen a few of the spots that I hit. Frank’s became one of my favorites because it had a hip-hop playlist and sweet potato fries. I also had risotto for the first time while in Krasnodar, which wasn’t as bad as I thought it be, and I tried a Russian pancake which wasn’t my cup of tea. I thought I was biting into something sweet, but it was meat and some other undistinguishable flavors. Also, mozzarella sticks are served with jelly, and I don’t like that. #TeamRanch
We would often order lemonade to drink, but lemonade in Krasnodar was not giving what it was supposed to give. Some places would be fizzy, some would add mint. Either way, it wasn’t what I was used to, and honestly, I wasn’t a fan. I did eventually find some snacks that I liked (which were actually kids’ snacks) and an apple juice that high key tastes just like Martinelli’s. The décor in the restaurants and lounges though were beautiful, which made up for the sometime mediocre food. You can see my food experiences here.
People
As I mentioned, my initial airport experience was kind of tough because people were rude, so I was nervous about how the people would react to me when I got to Krasnodar. Surprisingly, everyone there was really nice! Our servers were always patient, the beauty salons were accommodating, and I even got complimented about my appearance by some of the Russian women.
Most people didn’t speak English, but there was a handful who did which was very helpful. Very random place to put this, but I even got tatted in Russia and the guy couldn’t speak English but played rap (that I knew) the entire time. And apparently, he always does. When I would book appointments via WhatsApp, I would let the people know in advance I was American, and they would schedule me with an English-speaking esthetician. I also downloaded the Russian keyboard so when I would use my translator they could communicate with me as well.
As far as style, the Russian women all dress alike: mom jeans, chunky sneakers and bubble coats lol. It was honestly giving Urban Outfitters. A lot of the brands they wore I’d never even seen before though. It was very rare that I’d see the latest Nikes or designer bags/shoes. I’m honestly not even sure if they sold that kind of stuff in Krasnodar. I did buy one dress from Love Republic and wanted to do a little bit more shopping, but my credit cards got cut off because of sanctions. Which leads me to my next topic…
WW3
Before I get into this, I just want to say thanks to everyone who messaged me regarding my safety. But let’s talk about this foolishness.
If you haven’t been under a rock, then you know that Russia invaded Ukraine and has been causing havoc ever since. When the invasion first started, I was scared because I didn’t know what was going to happen. Was Ukraine going to retaliate? And the airport in Krasnodar ended up closing and Russia was kicked out of the airspace. So I’m like am I stuck here? Am I going to be held captive and interrogated because I’m American? I was scheduled to leave March 25, but I really didn’t know what my fate was going to be for the next coming weeks.
Contrary to the news, honestly, everything was business as usual. Not to sound petty, but the Russians were the aggressors, so we were fine. And again, I was in Southern Russia, so I was very much away from all the rah rah. But I still didn’t really know what was going to happen next.
Once all the sanctions came raining down is when stuff really started to go to hell. Before it got “bad,” I went to the bank and tried to take out some money and I could. But maybe two weeks after that I wasn’t able to get any rubles or use my credit cards. All the places I would frequent (Zara, McDonald’s, Sephora) closed down. And the airport still hadn’t opened. The Russian teams got kicked out of the European basketball leagues, so it was like what’s going to happen now? My man and some of his teammates were like this is dead and bounced. But bouncing was far from a simple task….
The Journey Home
Now here’s where it gets ghetto. To start, I ended up staying about 10 days longer than planned because I refused to leave without my boo, and he wasn’t gonna let me go by myself anyway lol. But because the airport closest to us was still closed, we literally had to go on an adventure to get back to the U.S. To start, we took a 5-hour car ride to this random airport in the middle of nowhere. (Let me add here this began on Sunday, April 3.) Our driver was speeding like we were going to miss the flight or something, but we ended up getting there in one piece. In true Russian fashion, they scammed us and made us pay for our TSA approved carry-on bags, in addition to the six pieces of luggage we came with :) Meanwhile, all these other people were in the airport strolling with their luggage and my Prada duffle and was somewhere getting tossed like a salad. One thing I noticed at the airport was people wrapped their luggage in Saran Wrap. I could have done that had I known…
From this janky airport, we caught a flight to Moscow and had a 24-hour layover. Thankfully the hotel we were staying at was at the airport, but we still had to push our luggage over the meadow and through some snow to get there. So the next day we leave the hotel to push our luggage again (I’m saying “we” like I helped. It was my man and some airport guy) and we got there 3 hours before our flight was scheduled to takeoff. In theory this is perfect timing, but we had to wait in line for an hour to check our bags. Once we got to the front of the line, we got bullied (literally sis stood up and yelled at us because we disagreed) to check our TSA approved luggage. But the kicker is to pay for your bags you have to go to another line, which we stood in for basically another hour because people aren’t competent. In total, all of our bags there costed us almost $800. Andddd, as expected, people were walking around with the same kind of luggage as us with no worries. Is it because we’re Black? American? Idk. But we got played moral of the story. After making it through TSA and Customs and eating some nasty pizza, we boarded our flight for the next leg of our trip: Turkey.
I don’t want this blog to get too long but we had a 36-hour layover in Turkey, and I had a blast. I could speak to people in English, there was familiar foods and I even went shopping :) I definitely have to go back to explore a little more. Now Wednesday morning (and when I say morning I mean 4 a.m. on April 6), we began our journey to the airport to catch our flight to the U.S. The flight home took 11 hours, and I slept the entire time. Once we landed, I was sooo happy to be back on American soil, but I was tired.
In the end, I really did enjoy being in a different country, even if it was Russia. I’ve never done anything like that before so it will be an experience that I will never forget. I wish I could have gone out and did more there, but some of my plans I literally cancelled because of the war. I’m so thankful though that we made it out safe and that they didn’t confiscate my laptops so I could post this.
I know I’m already inconsistent, but the next few months are about to be a little crazy. But I’m going to try veryyy hard to post. Hold me accountable, please!
Until next time!
XO,
Aja