Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Don't worry...

Being an optimist I cannot bear long-lasting sadness or depression. My approach to life is "make it better". If I don't like something around me, I know that I can improve it. If I think that there is no way to improve the situation, that means that I just did not get it yet and need to either think better or change my own attitude towards it, or just to walk away from it. Last option is like runaway, but it is still better in some situations than to spend my time, effort and nerves trying to solve it.

When I feel that there are some circumstances where I cannot do anything to make it bearable, I start telling myself that it is going to pass. Some time it will be gone and I just need to sit there and wait till this time comes. When I was in my teens, every exam was a real horror to me - I thought, if I failed any that would be end of world. Eventually I figured that I would not even remember passing the exam in the long-run... Now I realise that most things in life are lessons to be learned as good as we can, but we need to try and get experience for the future from any situation - be it a good or a bad one.

Monday, November 29, 2010

Xmas time is coming

It's everywhere around - in the shops, on the radio, in small talks at lunch... I start worrying that I won't have time to buy presents, but I am not yet in the mood for it... I hope it will eventually get hold on me, because I love this feeling of excitement so much! :)

Friday, November 26, 2010

Don't mess with Russians

Yesterday at 12:15 am Alex and I were woken up by loud music. Alex discovered that the music was played in apartment on the 4th floor (we are on the 8th!). He tried to knock on the apartment’s door to ask to lower the sound or to turn it off. He did not get any answer neither did the music stop. We had to call police and ask them to interfere. They tried knocking on the door, but were ignored as well. To our disappointment they said they couldn't do anything more unless this repeats and we call them again. Then they would have to open a file and try to talk to this moron. He eventually did lower the sound at 1:15 am.
I've just prepared a written complaint to the management of our building that we will mail tonight. I also printed several letters to our neighbors from apartments on the2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th and 7th floor asking them to mail complaints as well explaining that several complaints would increase chances of management's interference. I will put these letter under neighbor's doors tonight.
I hope that these actions will lead to something.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

First anniversary in Canada

Yesterday it's been a year since we came to Canada. This year has brought as many changes as one can imagine. And the changes keep going. I've never been opposed to changes - I always considered them as new opportunities to pursue, new challenges to become stronger. Nietzsche was right saying "Whatever does not kill me makes me stronger". This saying is exactly the way I feel about negative changes. There is another saying - negative experience is experience as well.

Luckily we did not have many negative changes during the last year. Compared to Russia living in Canada is quite calm and enjoyable. There is no such stress and life goes at a slower pace - one has a chance to actually enjoy it. I do not feel that time files by and I do not have enough of it to stop and think of where I am and where I am going, and where I want to go to...

During the year I have been writing down wish-lists for myself - way of programming myself to get where I wanted to. I checked them yesterday - most of my wishes have come true. I have found a job (technically it has found me, but that is not important), we found new friends, we prayed, we went into sports, we watched movies and series we wanted to watch for so long, we read many books, we studied and travelled...

We would be ungrateful not to say thank you Canada for giving us a chance to make a fresh start in a better place!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Real Human Being

As part of our quarterly meeting yesterday Dave Howlett was making a presentation about Real Human Being concept he invented and is promoting. I liked the presentation itself - it was fun, entertaining and at the same time thought-provoking.

I am not sure I am going to become an active follower though. Maybe it is in my nature or in my experience, but I am inclined not to trust such kind of trainings and lectures and not to take them as a directive for actions.

Maybe we had too many people trying to deceive us back home – getting us believe in their fair intentions only to get money out of us. There is a feeling deep inside “I’d better not trust one fair person, than I will get deceived by a bunch of cheaters”.

Also, I am already trying to pursue the very same goal as the RHB concept – to be a good person, to help people around not to get something in exchange, but just because I feel it is right to help. This is in substance the idea of Christianity as far as I see it. Hence there is no need for me to become an adept of RHB at all.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Characters

I recently read an immigrant's complaint - she was saying how hard and depressing Canada is for her. She came here without English, had to learn it for a year and now, when she started getting to some job interviews, nobody makes her a job offer. The reason for that according to her is in her accent. She says she is disgusted by such unfairness.

I was always fascinated in a way by people who come to the foreign country without making an effort to learn its language and feel offended when nobody is willing to hire them directly at the exit from the airport. I guess it is an easy way to live with a feeling that everyone around owes you. Period. No further considerations as to why and how. Just the unbeatable certainty. People like that never learn from their mistakes - they are sure that any misfortune happening to them is due to someone else's fault. Like I said, fascinating!

As for the person I was describing above, I guess that she fails to get a job offer not due to her accent, but due to her feeling of disgust towards those interviewing her. There is always an intuitive feeling of what somebody really thinks of you - and I guess that when HR person feels being afraid of and disgusted by, they will hardly want to hire the person.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Sponsorship

To get my mum to live with us in Canada on a permanent basis I need to apply for sponsorship, wait for about 5 years and then get her the same permanent resident status I now posess. By that time I hope I will get my citizenship - one must live in Canada for 3 years being a permanent resident to be able to apply for citizenship.

I am currently gathering paperwork needed to apply for sponsorship. It is quite a list - I guess the same size as when I applied for immigration, which makes sense. What I cannot comprehend is why I have to pay $550 now, where they will process her file in 3 years only? I.e. the file will be lying there waiting for its turn. It would make more sense to ask for processing fees when you start processing, wouldn’t it?

Travelling

Mark lost the race and his teammate Sebastian Vettel is 2010 world champion or Weltmeister as he put it being a German. Well done, Sebastian! :)

My mum is going to come to stay with us for 2 months in a week. I was busy preparing both her for the trip and our place for her arrival. She is flying with a connection in London - and as far as I know, Heathrow is a really confusing place even for those who have travelled a lot. Last time my mum travelled was years ago and she always travelled with me at her site to take care of everything. She does not speak any language but Russian. I have been able to speak English at a level good enough for travelling purposes since I was 10 years old or so. I also speak German and therefore had no issues while traveling in Austria or Germany. I can remember how awkward it feels when you cannot talk to anyone around from my trip to France. French people won't speak to you any language but French even if they know other languages. I have no explanation for this, but it is really annoying - when we arrived at the international train station in Paris and were not able to buy subway tickets any other way but by feverishly gesturing to the woman in the booth. I felt like a total idiot and I did not like the feeling.

I only encountered a similar feeling once after that - in Sicily, but since the Italians do not pretend not to speak other languages, but actually don't bother to learn them, it did not feel that irritating. They are also not acting pathetic when you try to explain yourself, but instead are doing their best to understand you.

So now that my mum is on her own on the trip I am trying to do my best to help her on the way. I have downloaded a step-by-step instruction on how to get through her connection in London. I translated it and in case she gets lost, provided her with notes saying "I do not speak English, please help me get to the gate of my flight" to show to people around in case she needs help. I will make such notes for Canadian customs as well. And when she goes back to Russia, I will make her start learning English. :)

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Formula 1 - go Mark go!

Yas-marina circuit in Abu-Dhabi that hosts the last race of the season in very beatiful. Last June we went to Motreal and attended all 3 days of the race. From then on I became a F1 fan. There is a huge difference between watching it life and on TV screen. We wish we could go see the Abu-Dhabi race - it should be quite an experience.

My favourite pilot is Mark Webber - I won't deny - my choice was partly (yes, partly) influenced by his look and resemblance with Colin Firth - who is really gorgeous. For those who do not know what I am talking about here are the pictures:
Colin Firth
And Mark Webber:

Now that the female readers are back from their flight of fancy and male readers stopped scrolling down, let me continue. The tomorrow race will decide if Mark becomes a champion or not. So today I could not miss the qualification - it was the first time when I came late to the CMA class. Mark is the fifth in qualification which means unless something happens to those in front of him (do you hear me over there?) he will start the race in the fifth position. It is not that bad and might even turn out for good - cause he was not really good at turning pole position into a win during the year.

Anyway, I wish I could be in Abu-Dhabi tomorrow - never wanted to go there before. :)

Friday, November 12, 2010

Why immigrate

People keep asking me this. Why did you come to Canada? Meaning "What was wrong with Russia?"
One needs a good reason to leave their homeland. Well, I had a bunch of them.

As I heard somewhere "Russia is a country with unpredictable past" - as absurd as it sounds, it is true. When power in Russia changes - and I have witnessed one of the changes - where we stopped building communism and went on to democracy - history books are re-written in the process. Good guys become bad guys and vice versa. You might say that it is a natural thing when the regime changes. It is. However, there were 2 such changes during the XX century - which witnesses of how unstable the situation in the country is.

If you ask someone in Russia what their plans for the next 25 years are, they won't understand the question. Russians do not plan for such a long time ahead. They have learnt how naive it is to plan something there. If you live on a volcano, you do not go planning your future. This volcano life is quite tiresome. Constant feeling of uncertainty can drive one crazy over time.

Aside from volcano feeling there is corruption. You cannot live in Russia and avoid meeting with it. It is everywhere. You need to get some document from officials - don't forget the envelope with bribe or you don't get it. You want your child to go to university? Go and pay for that. A friend of mine had to bribe the police and the judge so that the man who tried to kill his pregnant wife and was caught by my friend at the crime scene was actually sentenced and sent to jail.

I was born in USSR. There were universal healthcare and education systems that were free. They still say that these systems are in place in Russia. Well they are not. Healthcare has lost on its quality over the years and keeps worsening every year. Same is true for education. There are private hospitals and schools available as alternatives. But they do not guarantee a much better service or quality and around 95% of population cannot afford their services.

Social inequality is another factor that influenced my decision. Russia is famous for its oil and gas export. However, the money from it is distributed among those close to the top - government. If you visit Moscow, you will see so many luxurious cars you will hardly encounter anywhere else. Exclusive yachts can be seen on city's rivers, cottages with price tags of millions dollars can be found all around the countryside close to the capital. Those cottages are hidden behind 10-meters fences, security services with automatic firearms are patrolling these houses... They belong to those who call themselves elite. I was employed by one of them some time ago - most of them have a criminal background and believe to be owners of the country.

There is also a thin layer of middle class - those who are educated, ambitious and able to earn enough money to buy a car, travel to the favourite destinations among Russians - Turkey or Egypt - once a year and rent an apartment. You cannot afford to buy one living in big cities - the prices are ridiculous (1 bedroom apartment in Moscow starts from 300k dollars, whereas average middle class salary is somewhere at 1500 USD). Mortgages with interest at 20% are of no help in the situation as well.

The total majority of the population is fighting poverty. There was a poem written by a famous Russian author back in the XIX century that is still up-to-date - it read "Russia is the coutry of owners and slaves". I did not want to live in that society anymore.

There are many more minor reasons why I chose to leave, but I tried to list the major above.

First post

Ok, here I go - cheating on livejournal nastyushca that I have had for 5 years now. The Journal is in Russian - do not bother to follow the link unless you speak it.

The saying "do not put all eggs in one basket" has been bugging me for a while now. But today I decided to actually do it.

I guess the first post should be some introduction of the author to the public. So be it. My name is Anastasia, I am living in Canada since November 2009. My husband Alex and I came here from Russia. My immigration process took me 3.5 years to complete, which is unusually long compared to others.

We are now living in Waterloo, Ontario and like it here a lot. We have two cats - one came with us from Moscow, the other we took in June 2010. We love them dearly and they seem to bear with us ok as well.

My other hobbies include plants, reading, watching movies, travelling, photography, Formula 1 racing, football (or soccer as they call it in North America for some freakish reason). I am also a fan of Babylon Five series.

I am working in finance and studying towards my CMA (chartered managerial accountants) designation.