ExpatChick

Occasionally single expat seeks other self-centered wierdos for interesting conversation!

It was recently pointed out to me that my previous introduction page was a little sad, and massively out-of-date. So, having been motivated to change it, I am now stuck, so this is going to turn out sounding much like a personals ad. As my nick would suggest, I'm an expat, meaning that while I grew up in The Center of the Center of the World (Brooklyn, NY), I now live in Moscow, Russia. I apologize for the preceeding outrageous statement about Brooklyn, but take no blame for it, it's the title of a book. I have currently been in Moscow for about 2 years, and while I'm still frustrated by many things, I love it dearly and can't picture myself living anywhere else at this point in my life. Other salient points about my life are: I'm a photographer, aspiring pro photojournalist, work at a newspaper, desperately miss my collection of reggae records, have a cat named Merlin, alternately revel in and then make short-lived attempts to grow out of my punk-ness... Some of things I most like about where I live: whenever you live abroad, you tend to meet a broader range of people (so, for example, one of my best friends is Italian, my roommate is French, an ex is Moldovan, I work with Brits, Russians, Armenians...). It's light in the summer until 11pm. It's easier to travel - I think this is a combination of being geographically closer to things, and having a more adventurous mindset - so you can pop down to Turkey for a long weekend or over to Latvia for a beer festival. The Moscow metro, of course, is one of the marvels of modern civilization... There are also lots of irritating things about this place but in the interest of a good mood I won't mention them here.

I originally joined h2g2 because I was bored silly at a previous job, but that's no longer the case, so mostly I just enjoy the quirky insights on life, the universe, and everything that this place has to offer... and any interesting topic of conversation is warmly welcomes: politics and/or religion (dangerous, but always interesting), art, mass culture and other oxymorons, hangover cures, tasty recipies for yogurt, the preponderance of pink pebbels on the beaches of the Oslo fjord, and so on...