Hello, from Ireland!

Hello friends,

I am an Irish citizen who is currently residing in the Irish capital. I am 17 years old, and I was born in Ireland. Both of my parents migrated here after the Ceausescu regime collapsed in Romania. They might sound like your typical benefit-snatchers, but I assure you they both work high-paying jobs...

I joined this forum because of my ever going interest in Russian culture, politics,military,etc. I hope to end up in Russia one day, as I imagine I'd like it there since I like it more in Romania than Ireland, and Russia is just a way better version of Romania. I hope to find lots of things I didn't know about before here! Thank you...

My name is Alexandru, btw.

Welcome, Alexandru.

BTW it is nice to have high expectations, but the reality is random... I had two friends who thought Britain and the US were wonderful (respectively) until they went there. The friend who went to the UK probably didn't like it as she was murdered in the street outside her flat. My other friend thought the US was wonderful... he is a huge Rugby player (130kgs plus) and very religious and he loved the deep south of the US. I am sure if they met different people instead of the ones they did their opinion might have been very different.

GarryB wrote:

BTW it is nice to have high expectations, but the reality is random... I had two friends who thought Britain and the US were wonderful (respectively) until they went there. The friend who went to the UK probably didn't like it as she was murdered in the street outside her flat. My other friend thought the US was wonderful... he is a huge Rugby player (130kgs plus) and very religious and he loved the deep south of the US. I am sure if they met different people instead of the ones they did their opinion might have been very different.

Is the message here that Russia might not live up to my expectations? If so, yes I know. It's in a bad spot economically and I'll wait to see how it plays out in the future. I didn't mention it here but it's probably not my first choice. Once again, the USA or UK is my choice. I don't like the politics or the government, but it would probably be more suited to my lifestyle of the west... I don't know, we'll see how it plays out.

I see now. I always knew that Russia as a whole is hard to integrate with, and I know about how the bad parts are in Far East and central Russia usually. From what I hear, all the riches are in the west... The European part. Any specific reason why you suggested Belgorod? And what about that guy who moved to Saint Petersburg, is he still there? What was difficult for him. Thank you for welcoming me to the forums by the way, I really am enjoying my stay here. I'm scrolling through some old topics for info at the moment, I hope I can contribute soon...

Sorry to be so zen with you... basically what I was trying to say is that it is good to have goals and dreams, but you need to be realistic in your expectations.

You might go to Russia and find no friends and not find a decent job and think the place is hell on earth, or you could meet the girl of your dreams, be welcomed into the community and get a great job and settle down and be happy.

Keep your eyes open... take measured risks, because that is where the opportunities are, and work hard and be honest.

Anyway, thanks for your wisdom Garry...

sepheronx wrote:

xelandru1 wrote:I see now. I always knew that Russia as a whole is hard to integrate with, and I know about how the bad parts are in Far East and central Russia usually. From what I hear, all the riches are in the west... The European part. Any specific reason why you suggested Belgorod? And what about that guy who moved to Saint Petersburg, is he still there? What was difficult for him. Thank you for welcoming me to the forums by the way, I really am enjoying my stay here. I'm scrolling through some old topics for info at the moment, I hope I can contribute soon...

Flaming Python is the one that moved to St.Pete and still lives there.  Dunno about his troubles as he doesn't talk much of it.  I too would be interested in knowing more.  You can always message him.

The other guy was going by the alias as Russian Patriot and this was some years back on mp.net website.

Why Belgorod?  It was rated as the best city to live in Russia due to being clean, quiet, well developed and overall higher standard of living.

Far east isn't bad from what I was told and gathered.  I talked to a guy who lived in Novosibirsk and he absolutely loved it.  I heard plenty of good about the city.  Krasnoyarsk is my ideal place as it looks beautiful with lots of potential.  But peoples main complaint of the city is lack of a metro (no subway due to expenses and the fact that the city is roughly 1 million people spread out) and that it is very windy.

I see, I should look more into this myself... It's nice to find out more as you go. Do you have any plans to move or is it where you would live if you were to live in Russia?

xelandru1 wrote: I see, I should look more into this myself... It's nice to find out more as you go. Do you have any plans to move or is it where you would live if you were to live in Russia?

You need to contact the local Russian Embassy. Getting a visa to visit is often not easy now and moving here with no relatives and such is difficult. Getting permanent residency can be a years long and difficult process. For starters to get residency you have to display fluency in Russian and a good knowledge of Russian history. law and culture. One can't just pop on over and drop anchor.

You are only 17, you are not mature enough to make such a life decision and your school education is not complete. Life in Russia can be difficult to an extreme but if you know the culture before you come here it can be heaven on earth, operative term being 'can be'. For a small look at Russian contemporary culture as far as Sevastopol is concerned, read the introduction to this:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ZGCY8KK

Click on the 'look inside' book cover. That gives you an idea of our culture in Sevastopol and Krimu, how we speak and how we act. Can you live with that? Can you live for the next twenty odd years of meeting me and my wife at for instance Island Restaurant and addressing us in public as Tovarich and Madame Starshi Sarjant? Here, my wife carries my rank socially and in any military or public event you may or may not meet us in you will address us in such manner if and until we tell you otherwise and at public events, civilian or military, you will always refer to us thusly, no exceptions. This is one tiny cultural item you must follow, there are a lot more.

Russia may seem to you to be exotic and different and to an extent it is, but at your age you are in no stage of maturity to make such a decision. Finish your education, get your higher education degree, get some life under your belt. Then, after you study Russia, and to understand Russia you must start with a deep study of Byzantium for Mother Russia is the heir to that culture lock, stock and religion, you can make a decision to come to a culture that is as different from yours as night is to day.

Kind regards
Auslander

sepheronx wrote:If I had the skills and wasn't married + Children, I would have moved indeed.  I also need to work on my Russian (I blame my parents for not teaching me it, since they can speak some of it).  But my wife's cousin (she is from India, her whole family is) lives in Moscow and works there, as well as some other family members as well.  I presume that if we went, I could probably get a job in Moscow.  But I don't like big cities and I would prefer something like Belgorod or Sochi (I could possibly afford to live there initially, but if I cannot find a job, then I may be hooped).  I would also start my own business if I could but the issue is, I am dealing with computer hardware: Servers, networking, desktop, terminals, etc.  Apparently Russia has plenty of those people by the sounds of things.  My wife on the other hand is a .net developer and could find a job far more easily than I could (and probably make good money too over there).  But the other hurdle is the fact that she herself wants us to move to India more so.

Thank you for the explanation. I wish you find what you are looking for in life:) Everything is just one big hurdle... Thanks for all the information you gave me by the way. I got a very good idea of some things...

Hello Auslander,

   Thank you for all the information that you gave me, I appreciate it. And as for that Amazon book I have it bookmarked and will take a look later. As for all these difficulties that there are with integrating with Russia, I understand. My mind might be wandering off right now at this stage, but I think I have so,e things that I might find easier. For the culture and way of life, the Eastern Bloc really forged a way of life into all of the member states and If you look around them now you'll find many similarities between the countries. The look and feel of all the countries sre really similar, and the people all seem to have been modelled in a similar way by the socialist regimes. As for culture, my family comes from the Moldova province of Romania which was influenced by Russians. We both eat borscht, have love for all type of salamis and meat, weird traditional music... Religion is also similar we are both Eastern Orthodox majority countries. I know that only scratches the surface but it's something to start with at least.

I also wanted to include some pictures here but if you have time maybe you could search up the cities of Iasi,Ploiești, and București and you'll see how similar they look to a normal Russian city.
Our Sibiu is a Germanic city, it's equivalent in Russiw would be Kaliningrad. We also have Constanta, which is a cheaper version of Yalta...

I'd say don't be put off by the naysayers, albeit factual naysayers. Every nation has a different culture to some extent. If you go in expecting things not to be all fine and rosy, then you're on the right track already, Russia is to a marginal extent, still a recovering nation at the end of the day. But, in the same breath I'd say that without a doubt it will become the most advanced and one of the most prosperous nations within the next few decades, so now is as good a time as ever to get in there. My 2 cents anyway, keep in mind I've never been to Russia myself (as much as I'd love to go there some day, and perhaps live) I'm just going from other's experiences. But from what I do know, being an NZ'er where we have a large tourism culture, one of the most common mantras is "If it's what you want, go do it." Simple as that.

Thanks for the input mate. I agree that you can't be all too negative and put off people completely from going to Russia or wherever your dreams are, but I also agree that they may have concern for you knowing that this persons live may have been ruined by promoting a country to someone like its paradise. I have high hopes for Russia and I really hope the country lives up to them. But that in itself is another problem, the country turning out to be something completely different...