Nobody smokes

Something I couldn't imagine and didn't even think it's possible before I came here. I haven't seen a single person smoking here so far. No, that's not true. Just one our new friend, russian. But apart from him nobody. I mean in public eating places, on the street, on the train station etc. I'm so used that I see people smoking from time to time in Russia and in Austria as well. Though I saw cigarets, you can by them at gas stations at least. They are by the way more expensive than in Austria even. But it looks like nobody smokes here in USA. Strange feeling but I find it good.

Confusing road signs

This thing confuses me. Obviously it was supposed to be read following your move direction, i.e. beginning from the closest and further up. But it dosn't work neither for me nor for my husband and I believe for many other people. We still read these things in the natural up-to-down direction and it comes out to sound silly "clean keep", "down slow" and so on.... 

New home

Austria definitely spoiled me. I was born and grew up in Moscow, one of the biggest, busiest, crowdiest cities on the Planet. I have never spent in quite small places longer than a week on vacation and even there I was mostly busy with organizing some events, going out, travelling, sightseeing and so on. I always declared that I will never be able to live in a small town, even more on a country side. I coudldn't imagine my life without 24hour shops, everyday choice of cultural events, driving a car and lots of friends around me. Ok, the last is still my priority. And I still prefer driving a car or at least to have a choice of driving it or bycicle. But the rest.... I really got used during my 4 months there to this nice views, nature, to destinations not longer than 30 minutes, to bycicle or walk somewhere. First several weeks there I was uneasy before going to sleep because it was too silent and I felt like the world probably was gone and we're the last men alive. But gradually I got used and I really started to enjoy it. I also got used to the fact that you have to buy food on week-days or on Saturday (but not anytime, only during the first half of the day) and no-way on Sunday. And you really can plan that if you don't have to stay at work until late in the evening and it takes you only half an hour to commute home. And this feeling of safety... this is the best thing ever. There's nothing better than to go home in the evening and be completely relaxed and not be afraid that something can happen.
So, after all this I feel surprisingly strange and too nervous here in US since I compare it not to Moscow but to Altach:) Though it's really a nice place here in Silicon Valley. They say that it's one of the safest places in US and the crime rate here is quite low (of course, it varies again in different areas of California). And the roads are wide here, there are lots of people and cars, there are big shops and there are those which are open during the night. But I find myself sometimes suddenly complaining about "too loud", "to "crowdy" or something like this or saying that I don't want to go out, I just want to come home, probably watch a movie and go to sleep not very late. Funny, no?

But of course it's just probably the consequenses of several big changes in my life lately, obviously I appeared to be not so open-minded about changes as I thought myself to be:) It still takes some time to re-adjust one more time.

My work permit. Everyday something new.

3 weeks ago I've submitted an online-application at the USCIS web-site. After I've had to pay the fee (I've already told about the problems I've had with paying it which I have fortunately solved). Simultaneously I had to send some supporting documentation. In paper. By regular post. And here I've made a mistake. I though that I don't have to go to the post office. After all, I'm living in a high-level residence. Normally the hotel of such level is able to assist you with this kind of paper-work. So, I've went to the reception and asked them to send a letter. They've done it. 3 weeks ago. And yesterday the letter came back with indicatied problem that there was... not enough stamps. I'm not even talking about the fact that it took US post service 3 weeks to identify that the mail doesn't have enough stamps and to send it back (everything within 1 state, California and I suppose that if the letter doesn't have enough stamps it doesn't even leave the initial post office). But I was of course extremely angry with the receptionists. Ok, if you don't know the rules, can you just check them before providing your guests with un-checked information which leads to the dramatic consequenses???
Fortunately, as I'm a maniac in terms of timing I've sent the letter early enough to get it now back again early enough to have some more time to re-send the letter (my appointment is scheduled for the 16 of August). So after kicking up a row at the reception I went yesterday to the real post office and sent my documents with the express mail including receipt confirmation option, which costed me 20 dollars but guarantees that the mail will be there 1 day later (today) before 3 p.m. and provides me with a possiblity to track it online.
By the way the front-desk operator at the post office, a middle-aged Asian was exteremely nice and helpful and patient to my not-perfect speaking English. It's just in comparison with russian post-offices which I've not visited since very long time though but which are normally famous for the soviet-style level of customer service.

Roads, cars and traffic and just some other my impressions

Russia is known for 2 problems: Fools and roads. I am not ready to judge the intellectual level of americans yet but the roads make me feel like in my motherland already:) Of course I cannot judge overall state of roads in the whole US either, I only describe what I see in the area we live. It's San Francisco Bay area. We live in the heart of Silicon Valley, in the city of Sunnyvale which is next city to Santa Clara where my husband works. 

These are a couple of examples. You may see that it's not a small village road, it's one of the biggest roads in the city (El Camino Real). And these holes are not the worst ones, they are just those I wasn't lazy to take picture of.

First steps in USA

So we've arrived here almost 3 weeks ago, on the July, 17. We are very lucky since one of my husband's best friend Pascal and his wife Nadja have moved here just about 4 months before us for Pascal's postdoc or something like that (it may seem strange for non-russians but for me these kind of concepts are not natural to use since in Russia we have a bit different educational and science system and names of levels and tasks in this system). But, at least I know that he's working in Stanford. After all we were lucky since they've even pick us up from the airport and brought to our temporary apartment which is till these days in the Marriott residence in Sunnyvale. The environment in the residence is like in a hotel. We have breakfasts and dinners here, we have a cleaning service, wifi.... So, until this days we haven't yet tried a real life, I would say:) During these first several weeks we've had to deal with several main tasks. The biggest were to buy a car and to find a permanent housing. The smallest (in terms of time used to fulfill them) were to buy sim-cards and to apply for my EAD. EAD is employment authorization document which will allow me to obtain an official work in US. That's why it was the matter of the highest priority for me. It was not completely smooth proccess. First of all they needed a US paying card to proceed the payment and we had to rush to the closest bank office which appeared to be Citibank to open an account. Here we both were surprised. I have only seen the cheques in the movies. In old american movies. And they exist here! And are being used a lot! Neither in Russia nor in Austria we don't use any cheques! But on the rest Citibank in US works similar to Citibank in Russia:) That's nice when you find something which is similar to you living in a foreign country. There are already so much different things which you are not used to and which you have to adjust yourself to that any of simple familiar things makes you feel a bit more sure that you still keep your sense of mind and still understand something about what's going on around you:) Going back to EAD - the story didn't end happily with the Citibank card. After about a week when I was already peacefully waiting for a mail from USCIS (the authority which is responsible for all this stuff) it appeared that the payment was declined and my application has been suspended. Nobody nows what has happened and it took me half of a day and some of my nerve cells to make the new payment including additional fee and return into status of peaceful awaitness of the next step. Though I'm checking the online status of my application several times a day now in order to be ready for any urgent measures in case something goes wrong again. For now I have an appointment at USCIS office at the 16 of August where I'm supposed to submit my biometrics.

By now we've already bought a car and rented a permanent apartment (means that we've signed the contract but haven't moved yet, we have about 10 days in the hotel more which makes the moving proccess very smooth, we are just starting to look for some furniture and other households). The details of each I will describe in some later posts.

After the car and apartment rush is completed we are gradually starting to have much more normal life than it was before. Now while Johannes is at work my days consist mostly of fitness (I've signed into a great fitness network 24hour fitness. They are really open 24 hours a day! It was my dream in Moscow where I was working all day long and it is not at all useful for me now but still it's somehow nice:) Anyway they are just a great fitness clubs, they have lots and lots of equipment and different classes as well. And a great instructors, at least I've really liked the one who gave me 4 sessions already. His name is Byron, he's around 70 and he was working out together with Arnold Schwarzenegger! I couldn't stand to try to work out under his supervision:) He found my deadlifts perfect by the way....:) ) and internet surfing in order to find what to do here on a permanent basis. I'm looking for volunteer, internship, job options. I'm looking for different areas - HR being my main occupation in Russia, social/charity work being my strongest desire, IT (testing) being somehow related to my education, math teaching being kind of in my blood due to my family history..... And anything other. I'm trying to use any opportunity that comes across my point of view since I'm already starting to feel very uneasy about this after 4 months I've left my job in Moscow. I don't loose hope and am sure that it will work out this or that way.

At the same time we're making some acquiantances here. Mostly it is the russian community represented at Russian ladies in SFBay area Facebook group and SFBay area livejouranal community. People there are extremely helpful and I've really learned a lot from them even before we moved and also after we've moved. Some of them has already became a friends which really makes us feel here comfortable. It's very nice when you already have somebody in the foreign country to call to, to invite for a cinema or for a dinner. The area which is not clear yet is if we will succeed to make any friendship with locals. Let's see:)

INTRODUCTION

So, here I am, started my first english blog.

My name is Masha (which is a short version of Maria in russian), I was born and lived 30 years of my life live in Moscow, Russia. In 2012 I've married to an austrian and in 2013 after we've succeeded with all paperwork I've moved to live in Austria. We live in Vorarlberg, which is a austrian region located just at the border with Switzerland. We literally go for a walk to Switzerland and even can reach it swimming in an old Rhein:) Vorarlberg is a beautiful place to live and after I've recovered a bit from my cultural schock I've fallen in love with the place.
Not to confuse anybody - right at the moment I'm writing this we don't live in Austria. In summer 2013 my husband got transferred to his company's mother-company to USA, California. That's why you may expect to read a lot about California for the whole next year beginning from now (August 2013).
My husband's name is Johannes and probably he will also post somethings here from time to time.

The main goal of this blog is to keep in touch with our non-russian speaking friends and let them follow our expatriation experience.

I write of course much more in my russian blog which is augenblick.livejournal.com which I've started in 2007 but I hope that I'll be able to fill this one with the interesting information as well.

P.S. The name of both my blogs "augenblick" means "a moment" in german. With this I mean that the blog is mostly dedicated to the moments of my life, to say in other words, it's a diary which represents my day-to-day life, experiences, thoughts, joys and worries.

Test post

so, here it is. Finally I took the courage to start my english-speaking blog.