who is an EXPAT?

I have decided that to start this new BLOG dedicated to expats and expats' life I shall first of all give a definition of what or better who is an expat, which kind of criteria are used to define someone as an expat. From tresaurus dictionary an expat (short for expatriate) is ''a person who is voluntarily absent from home or country''
....and what is the difference between expat and emigrant? and again what kind of meaning shall we give to ''voluntarily''? I will look into all the different aspects that create a person an expat, the benefits and difficulties that being away from home country can mean.

If interested and have topics and questions to ask me please write your comment and I will be happy to write about them.

NEW and NICE

Hi all, it is time to change so with a new look I am here to introduce you the new life of this blog. As an expat I am now ready to move onto a new adventure and will soon leave Russia but I liked writing articles, looking around for things to do and useful information so I have decided to keep the blog and just give it a different spin. My focus will be to keep in mind all the people who live like expats somewhere in the world and post news, announcements, info that could be useful for them.

Hope you will enjoy it, I will :)

C Novim Godom... a bit late

....And I am back, after the LOOOONG Russian holidays and ''few'' more days I am back wishing you all Happy 2010 and hoping to write something interesting also for this year. I have just discovered a review on TripAdvisor of Goodman's one of my favourite restaurants in town . I suppose another expat wrote it and I can't disagree with the comments. Also on Trip Advisor another Novosibirsk Restaurant is advised and wanting to be the first one to write on Trip Advisor, this time, I will have to try it this week end and let you know about it. The name is Shamrock and it is an Irish Pub on Namurkya street.

Waiting for the Christmas Holidays

Hi All, we are guaranteed a white Christmas here in Novosibirsk and few other things, activities and shows don't stop during this holiday time but actually grow.

Here the first taste of what is waiting for us in December. On Wednesday December, 9 the German Film Festival will open at the Cinema Pobeda. A rich program presents 3 new and pluri-awarded German films per day. To mention only few that you might have heard of: Vodka and Whisky a drama-comedy that will be on Friday at 6.30pm and more Hilde on Saturday night at 8pm.

For the full program and info on the tickets please click here http://kinopobeda.ru/events/33699

Italian Film Festival in Novosibirsk

The Italian Film Festival opens tomorrow at Cinema Pobeda and will last till next Monday (November 16). It offers a rich program to celebrate classic and new Italian movies and the always good relationship existed between Russian and Italian art and culture. This year the films showed are mainly recent movies celebrating the new Italian wave of important and already popular young directors that flourished in the last years.
Here below you can find the schedule for this rich 5 days of Italian movies and my comments on some of those movies that I know of. The movies will be shown in Italian with English subtitles (don't ask me why) and with a translator present in the room (don't ask me why here either), a part from 2 movies that have been already dubbed in Russian: "Gamorra" e ''Night of Caribia''
Festival Program:
12 November (Thursday)19:00 — Festival Overture«The Lake Girl» (drama)
13 November (Friday)19.00 — «Mid Summer Dinner party» (comedy)
14 November (Satrday)18.00 —«Gamorra» (thriller/drama)
15 November (Sunday)16:00 — «Family Friend» (comedy) 18:00 — «Forget to think, Jonny!» (drama)
16 November (Monday)18:30 — «Night of Caribiria» Federico Fellini (1957)

In my opinion definitely worth seeing ''Gamorra'' a film based on the best seller book written by Roberto Saviano a prominent young author that conducted deep researches and has real experience in the mafia environment of Napoli and southern Italy.
Very interesting could also be the film ''Family friend'', in fact the director found inspiration for this movie during an adventorous trip to Siberia.
I'll be there :)

From Jazz to Blues - November Highlights

In this November session we have a close look at what the Philarmonic theatre in Novosibirsk is offering. The program is definitely a full one, there are concerts or performances on almost everyday.

The followings seem to be fresh and could be particularly of interest for our audience:

• The group ''Jazz do it'' will perform on Saturday, November 14 starting at 18.30
• More on the classical side a ''Fantasy mix'' of different Operas' themes, a good introduction to whom is interested in operas and wants to know more about them before listening to a full one. On Friday, November 20th starting at 18.30
• Going back to modern contemporary style of music, on Tuesday November 24th the evening will offer a Blues Guitar night with melodies and songs from the 80's, 90's and latest (18.30 start)
• For lovers of Italian melodic music, on Wednesday November 25th, will be possible to listen to Italian operas, operette, arie and songs from classic Italian movies (18.30 start)
• Last but not least Jean Claude Gallotte a French Director presents his Modern Ballet on Friday, November 27th from 19.30

For more information and tickets http://www.philharmonia-nsk.ru/

International Music Festival - Jazz Jeans

For all Jazz fans and non, next week will see 3 full days of Jazz music with 4 different bands and different international guests playing. From October 22nd through 24th at DK Stroiteli* in Novosibirsk 3 groups will animate the Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.

Starting with Big Band a great jazz band that has already many times performed in the House of Scientists supported by 3 special guests, one from the States and 2 from germany.

On Friday, 23 the, DK Stroiteli will host 3 different bands: the Siberian Diksilend with Roy Young from the States, the Quartet with Igor Dimitrieva and Billy Evans as special guest for the Trio of Alex Nakimovski.

And if you still want to go with the jazz flow there are two different events to listen to jazz music on Saturday, 24th. Again at DK Stroiteli 2 special guests from the States who will complete the ''International Band'' in the final night of Jazz Jeans festival.

At Izum (the club founded by Ibrahim Ivanovich) not far from the city centre Jim Shein will perform starting from 9pm.

For more information please call: 333 36 82. For Izum related info only, please call: 217 48 17

Tickets are between 600r and 1500r

*at DK Stroiteli music will start at 7pm and at Izum it will start at 9pm

Welcoming the Golden Autumn (hopefully without rain)

Summer is definetely at an end and autumn is opening in front of us, if the weather decides to give us a couple more sunny week ends there are few activities that I would recommend to try. In the city at the underground stop ЗАЭЛЬЦОВКА (zaeltzovka) a nice, wide park has been open with roller blades routes, place for skate boarders, runners, play grounds for kids surrounded by green which always helpw and it is much needed in Novosibirsk. A good attraction in this park and from this park is also the fact that you can get the train from there and get off directly at the Novosibirsk Zoo Park, another place definetely worth a visit with lots of attractions, well kept and pretty impressive.

For something a bit different Экосапиенс (here is the link with some info details http://akbeli.ru/about.html) a group of people who organizes outdorr activities is inviting everybody who would like to play, spend some time outside, try some wood land challenges in a beautiful part of the forest not far from Morozovo, this saturday for a ''Golden Autumn'' event. Entry fee is 350r for adults and free for children. I would highly recommend this place and to get in touch with them, they can organize team building events, birthday parties anything will be with a bit of adventure. If you can't manage to go there this saturday, they are open all year round just need to book the place as it can get pretty booked up.

I also want to recommend a couple of events ''indoor'' just in case the weather turns out to be pretty bad.
At the Opera&Ballet Theatre this Friday, September 18 a great premiere ПРЕМЬЕРА!
Князь Игорь А. Бородин from 18:30 - 22:10 (we have to highlight that in the coir one one of the foreign expats will be singing!!! and we have an interview with him coming up soon)
To give you a bit more time to get ready for it on October, 27 also at the Opera&Ballet Theatre will take place a concert called ''Solisti from Moscow'' playing with Stradivari violins on a program that includes Bach, Mozart, Brahams and more....

Half Marathon in Novosibirsk sees 3 foreigners running

Yesterday, 12 September as part of the Interra Forum 2009, Novosibirsk hosted the yearly Half Marathon event. After few problems with registration (you can read more on Bruce Lenorf blog) myself, my husband Jonathan Abbott and Bruno Lecerf managed to get to the start line of the Novosibirsk Half Marathon and complete it successfully.

The event saw few runners participating (not sure how jogging or running is popular here, I think Russian prefer hockey or figure skating) running up and down Krasni Prospect, exactly 6 times.

The run started sharply at 10am for the women ( a bunch of 75 of them) and at 10.10am for the man (almost 350 of them). The organization wasn't bad at all, there was quite a lot going on around the race and even if I couldn't see much as I was running, it sounded like the non-runners were having some fun.

The foreigners didn't do too badly. Bruno, with good training in his legs managed to achieve a good result with 1h39min. Jonathan Abbott after a business trip, a week fighting a bad cough and only few weeks of training in his legs finished at 1h.55min

And what about me??? Well... few older women beat me and that wasn't great but I completed the race in 2h.5min and thanks to my elegant and fast finish I got also a little interview at the end but I was almost too tired to speak.

My impressions: the half marathon route was kind of boring considering you had to go down and up the same way for 6 times, the up part especially... I didn't enjoy!!!!

They had one water station which was much appreciated and quite a lot of photographers... I think a couple of them got a good one of me!

Overall I was a bit sad that so little people actually run it, if I compare it with other runs I have done this had the least amount of runners involved and effected the atmosphere around. Myself and the other foreigner runners thought that there could be a nicer route in Akademgorodok and the run could be a bit more interesting.... well this is a suggestion to take in for next year.

Pictures and results on http://www.marafon.nsk.ru/

A special thank you to the support team: Nicolas Droger, Nadine Skale and Natasha Eltzova (they delivered water, took pictures and videos and most of all got up very early on Saturday morning to be with us from the very beginning!!!!)

Young Californian Dancers looking for hospitality in Novosibirsk

A group of 43 young artists who are part of a Californian Dance Company will be flying to Novosibirsk week commencing September 20th for a Dance Festival for children.

They will train and perform during this week 3 days in Akademgorodok at the theatre Ynost and 3 days at the Globe Circus in Novosibirsk and they are looking for hospitality.

Each of them need a place to live during those 3 days in Akademgorodok and 3 days in the city and they are looking for free accomodation as from what I understood they are young and poor and the company doesn't pay for hotels but only for their trip.

So if you are interested in hosting them, providing breakfast and dinner for them for free, you might get a ticket to their performance in exchange, let me know and I will get in contact with them.

Exploring Russia with a foreigner's touch - tips on destinations

Traveling through Russia with the eyes of a foreigner. See what Nadine from the German Consulate in Novosibirsk can recommend and has done for her smmer holiday in Russia. Few nice tips on how to spend your free time in SIberia...

Where did you go to for your holidays in Russia?
- I love travelling and I want to see as much as possible of Russia during my three years in Novosibirsk. My latest trip I took was together with my parents. We went to Irkutsk and Lake Baikal.

Why did you choose this place?
- My mother really wanted to go there. She had watched a lot of shown on German TV about Siberia and Lake Baikal and its beauty. So she wanted to take the chance to go there while she and my dad were here in Novosibirsk. Lake Baikal was also on top of my travel list. It is the world’s deepest lake and famous for its beauty an rich flora and fauna.

Did you organize everything yourself or did you do it through an agency? - Tell us a little bit about the logistic of the organization of the trip and the trip itself
We organized everything ourselves. At first, I contacted an agency via email. However, they did not reply. Fortunately, my colleagues recommended us a good hotel in Irkutsk which I booked with the help of a Russian colleague. The train ticket I bought myself through a travel agency close to the place where I work in the city. I also booked the flights myself via internet. Trips and excursions in Irkutsk and to Lake Baikal we organized straight after our arrival at the hotel which cooperates with some travel agencies in Irkutsk.

Our hotel “Delta” in Irkutsk called the agency and they made a special program for us covering three days and including a German-speaking tour guide and a taxi. Within a couple of hours we received a very good and detailed program. Everything was well organized and I enjoyed our excursions – sightseeing in Irkutsk, trip to Listvyanka including the open-air museum “Tol’zy” and another tour on the old track of the Transsiberian railway, the Circumbaikal Railway.

Do they usually work with foreigners?
- The travel agency works with Russian as well as with foreign tourist. The majority of the foreign tourists speak English.

How long did you travel for? Did you go by train, car, boat?
- Our trip took six days in total. To Irkutsk we took the train which took us 30 hours. We were then staying in Irkutsk for four days and went back to Novosibirsk by plane.

What was the best part of the trip? ...and the worse?
- The hotel in Irkutsk was great. Also the food was very good. I loved our excursions – especially the one with the Circumbaikal Railway. This was just amazing and I can really recommend it to others.
The train trip wasn’t really nice. I only bought three tickets. So we had to share our compartment – Kupe – with one other guy who was not really friendly. Moreover he was snoring the whole night… So next time I will definitely by all four tickets for a kupe when travelling in a group of four people.

What was the impression of the people who were travelling with you?
- Usually, it is really nice to travel by train and to talk to the people travelling with you. However, this time we weren’t lucky. In Irkutsk it was only my parents and I. Our tour guide and the drivers were really nice and I liked the trips around Irkutsk and to Lake Baikal a lot.

Was this your first trip within Russia? Would you recommend it?
-No, it wasn’t my first trip in Russia. I’ve already been several times to Moscow and to other Russian cities like Saint Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Tomsk, Omsk, Barnaul. In April I went by trainon my own from Novosibirsk to Yekaterinburg, Moscow and Kiev.
I would definitely recommend a trip to Lake Baikal. If you want to stay in a comfy hotel the better choice is definitely staying in Irkutsk and taking tours from there. However, Olkhon Island in Lake Baikal is supposed to be great spot, too. Accommodation is said to be a little “simpler” there. That's why I didn't go there with my parents. Yet, I hope that I’ll make it to go there as well during the next two years.

Where else are you planning to go this summer?
- In August I’m going to Krasnoyarsk for a weekend with two friends of mine visiting from Germany. We’ll go there by train. Moreover, we’ll spend four days in Altai. I’m already looking forward to it.

Any tips for those who would like to try the same?
- When you speak Russian travelling around Russia is quite easy. It’s worth to consider buying tickets for a whole compartment when you want to make a 100% sure to travel without people who like to spend the night with snoring. On the other hand, it is really interesting to travel with Russians and to have a little chat with them. Most of the times travelling by train alone I was qute lucky. Well, I think it all depends on which type of traveller you are and how much adventure you want. Russia is a fascinating country and I love to discover as much of it as possible.
**

Summer is not only for tanning in Novosibirsk...especially!

If you are staying in Novosibirsk to enjoy the Siberian summer you can definetely find plenty of activities and events to go to and enjoy. Here a quick overview of interesting events happening in July.

18-19 July: Hotel Sosnovka (towards Bersk) presents the ''Festival of water and extreme sports'' with an exhibition of waterjets and waterjets competitions. See also www.rostonso.ru

22 July at Bariadcka Sabbaka (this is avery nice club in the city centre) and 23 July at Nii-Kuda (Akadem) will host Russian, fairly famous, singer Inna Gelanna. Her music style covers all Russian regions.

23 July: Saxophon concert at the summer veranda of Pobeda (cinema in Novosibirsk)

26 July a Book-Party will be held at the Botanical Garden in Akademgorodok. Open Air and open reading are the highlight of this event.

BUT if you simply want to enjoy the sun and possibly get some tan here a list of events that will be held at the most popular beach of Akademgorodok: Cvezda!!!! Don't think it is going to be quite.

In Akademgorodok at walking distance from Morskoi Prospekt at Czezda beach:

- on the 17th of July will take place a Beer Marathon a competition on beer drinking!!!

For those who like dancing more than drinking:

- on the 18th Cvezda present ''Beach Party'' with live music

- on the 24th ''School Disco'' (80's music)

- on the 25th ''Latin American'' Beach Party

- on the 31st ''Rock'' Beach Party

Summer will come soon

While waiting for the shashlik season to open officially and the weather to improve a bit, the theatre and concerts season at the Opera theatre will be cl closing on July 16th. Here it is what you can still enjoy while the rain keeps coming down.

Opera Theatre*:

This coming Sunday, June 28 - The Nutcracker (2 performances one starts at 11.30am and thesecond at 6.30pm)

Wednesday, July 1 - Modern Ballet (mix of 4 different styles by an American director - highly recommended!!!!)

Thursday, July 2 - The King Igor - PREMIERE. This is an opera-ballet that represents Russian historical events

Friday, July 3 - the Swan Lake, always a must see

Saturday, July 4 - La Traviata music by Verdi

Sunday, July 5 - the Nutcracker (same as above)

Friday, July 10 - Bajaderka. I watched this performance last week and I would say it is really worth it

Saturday, July 11 - a Gala Concert

and to conclude the 08/09 season, last 2 events:

Wednesday, July 15 - Karmen

Thursday, July 16 - Gala ballet

*please note that unless specified all performances start at 6.30pm

Summer Actions

HI, sorry for the long silence but I was on holiday in a very nice place with no connection whatsoever to be found.

Anyway I will start this summer edition of NICE with a little announcement. I have 3 tickets for next Sunday (21st of June) ballet BAIADERKA for 200r each.
Please let me know if you are interested and we can go together.

Tips for May

May will be a busy month for all music, theatre fans.

First hightlight for May is the premiere of the musical: NOTRE DAME de PARIS.

The musical will be shown at the DKЖ theatre on May 20th and 23rd at 7pm

Tickets can be bought at the ticket office of the DKЖ theatre, at the metro station Krasni Prospekt, shopping centre GUM, Megas and MEGA.

The Opera theatre* presents 2 evenings with ballets from the 'Bolschoi Theatre' from Moscow: 

on Sunday 10th and Monday 11th with "The room above" and Russian Season" ballet

...and 2 evenings with ballets from 'Marinscovo Theatre' from Saint Petersburgh:

on Wednesday 13th - Ballet 'Creative evening' 

on Saturday 16th - Ballet based on music by Chopin, Schubert and Chaicoski 

Also recommended:

Gisel - on Thursday 14th

Don Chiscotte - on Friday 15th 

Bajaderka on Tuesday 12th or Sunday 30th

*all shows start at 6.30pm

At House of Scientist the program is very interesting*:

• "Energetic concert evening" on Tuesday 5th of May with music by Bach, Vivaldi, and Griga 
  
• " Famous Italian Music all over the world" concert on Wednesday 20th of May with music by Respigi and Rossini (this must the the best ever....)
• the Novosibirsk Academic Orchestra presents "Rachmaninov" on Thursday 28th

*shows at House of Scientist start at 7pm

...last but not least at the Philarmonic Theatre*:

• "Energetic concert evening" on Thursday 7th of May with music by Bach, Vivaldi, and Griga 
  
• "Chamber Music" on Friday 7th with music by Bach and Bethoven
• "Novosibirsk camerata" with Fabio Mastrangelo as special guest with musci by Bach, Nielsen and Viren on Wednesday 13th
• "Famous Organ Music"on Wednesday 20th 

*shows at Philarmonic Theatre start at 6.30pm

one more for the French..and not only

Saturday April, 18th the French singer ZAZ will be at Sobaka Club in Novosibirsk, see also link here http://www.sobaka.su/ru/news/1484.html

Concert starts at 9pm and tickets are sold at Alliance Francais from 300 rubles. 

A little bit more about the singer: young French singer with soul, jazz, blues style of music will sing simply accompanied by piano.

For anybody who is interested, please let me know in the next few days, Sobaka is quite a popular place and tickets sell qiuckly. I am trying to get tickets for myself so can get for anybody else who is willing to attend.

Back to basics: music and culture

Rock or pop? Few concerts that can cover different tastes in music are on during the next week in Novosibirsk. 
For classic music fans:

11.04 Arias from Operas of Verdi, Gershwin, Griga and Debussi at the Philarmony Orchestra. Starts at 6.30pm

For Jazz music fans:

15.04 Big Bend Orchestra with special guest Ron Moton (Sax player from the States) - I would highly recommend this, I have already seen them and they are pretty good. At House of Scientists. Starts at 7pm

For blues music fans:

13.04 blues concert at Truba club (www.clubtruba.ru - tel. 2271569

French movie festival and one French restaurant (to try)

I found out today speaking with the French chef (already a good sign) that recently a new elegant, high quality french restaurant has opened. The name is not very French or not even European but I would definetely recomend it. Here more details on it:

Yasnaya Polyana Restaurant
Address: Borisa Bogatkova, 163/8
Contacts: 260-21-23

also listed as 'friendly place on http://novosibirskguide.com/english-friendly-places/yasnaya_polyana

Let me know what you think about it once you have tried. 

FRENCH Movie Festival - to open soon

For all French expats and not only, the French film Festival will be starting on March, 26th and will continue till April, 1st.  10 French movies will be shown at the Cinema POBEDA in the orginal language with Russian subtitles.

Please see below some movies' titles that will be shown and information on how to find tickets:

• March, 26 - French Festival Opening showing the movie 'FRANCE' from 7pm 
  
• March, 27 at 7pm documentary about director Frederique Oburten followed by his movie 'a bridge between two coasts' at 9pm
• March, 28 at 6pm the movie '7 years' will be showed
• March, 29 at 6pm  the movie 'all is simple'
•  March, 31 at 7pm the movie 'on the ring'
• April, 1 at 7pm the final movie of the festival ' 13square metre'

For tickets you can call: 362 02 11 or look at POBEDA website http://www.pobeda-cinema.ru/ 

'German' springs in Novosibirsk began

All, please have a look at this link below (in Russian and German).  A new Goethe institute has been founded in Novosibirsk and for the inauguration they have organised events (check their link http://www.goethe.de/ins/ru/lp/prj/sib/prm/ruindex.htm) throughout the whole month of March. A couple of highlights selected by me for you here below:

Concert 15.03.2009, 21 Uhr

popSTANCIJA LaBrassBanda  ul. Tereschkowoi 12 Nowosibirsk Tel. +7 383 2910450

Art-Klub "NII KuDA"

Contemporary 

ballet 19.03.2009, 18:30

tanzСТАНЦИЯ E-Motion  Новосибирск, 630099 ул. Ленина, 19 тел.: 8 383 210 06 71

Театр "Красный факел" Новосибирск

Electric Night  "STEREOЛЮДИ" 26.03.2009, 22:00  elektroСТАНЦИЯ  Новосибирск,  ул. Ядринцевская, 14 тел.: 8 383 299 64 64 Vogue кафе "DOЖDЬ" Новосибирск

Concert 21.03.2009, 19:00

cdСТАНЦИЯ  Jeans Team  Новосибирск Красный проспект, 37 тел.: 8 383 227 01 08

Клуб "Rock City"  Новосибирск