Vashe zdrowie!

Все хорошого!

cool! enjoy, and i hear to expect lots of delays and red tape still in getting things done, like phones hooked up and stuff. And people rave about St. Petersburg, if you can get there at some point.

have a horosho time!

всего хорошого! why did I type that?

That's really fantastic - I wish you love, luck, and lollipops. I don't know what that means, but my mother used to say it to me when I was a little icon. You're going to take many beautiful photographs and share them with us, right?

And will you continue to make music?

Are you moving for business, pleasure, both, or neither?

Don't I ask a lot of questions?

Be on lookout for moose und sqvirrel.

Thanks everyone!

Iconomy, I will continue to make music - (I don't know who that other fake is, but Dobbs posted some of my stuff here once ...) I've been trying to get it on a label or something, but now I'm considering just giving it all away.

I've got another album in the works and I hope to finish it there. Pretty different from the first one, much harder stuff.

I'll be going to Obninsk, to teach English, but mostly to escape Fargo, North Dakota and change my life. I've got a year visa, and the furthest from the States I've ever been before was Toronto - so it will be totally new.

I'll take pictures, yeah, and post them on the ol' blog- probably a lot like I did for LA.

Thanks for everything, everyone! I'll check in sporadically.

So very cool...good luck.

Oh, cool...I downloaded the ones that dobbs linked to, and just assumed the other fake was you too, without listening to the music. So he's a fake fake? Or are you a fake fake fake?

I don't know - I think I'm the real fake - but I've only been fake since 2000. Damnit, if nothing else, I'm the MeCha fake.

Awesome, good luck.

Russians are great--don't be shy in getting them to help and give advice.

and a lot of the stores still are weird, where you go the cashier first, get a ticket for whatever it is, then to the counter, then back (or something like that)

Whoa, that is a little weird. Thanks for the tips and good wishes, amberglow! I still can't believe I'm going to leave tomorrow morning and arrive Saturday afternoon..

Hi, hope you're still checking in! Here's what I learned from my Russian Peace Corps'in buds:

Travel. Reserve as much time as possible to get around. Depending where you are, trains can be terribly late or early, and cabs difficult to come by.

Toasts. If you're a lightweight alcoholically speaking, you're going to have an interesting time of it. It's rude to refuse a toast, and toasts are many, and drinks are strong. Take some aspirin and drink a lot of water before you ever go out for a party.

Laundry. Laundry is really hard to do and very, very hard to get white. Don't pack white T-shirts or undies.

Toilets. Apparently, the seats can be a mite splintery and plumbing generlly temperamental. I suppose it's too late to pack a toilet seat but hey, you could luck out.

Money. You will be poor, duh, but you will be shocked at how much wealthier you are than most extremely well educated and professional Russians. Maybe you already knew this, but it was still shocking for my friends to experience it.

Other stuff that culture shocked them: sweetness and generosity (Russians love parties and feeding you and giving you stuff), poetry (just about everyone can quote huge amounts at length), sex (this was several years ago, but my friends described a sort of 60s free love vibe, complicated by a high STD rate), and violence (which I'm sure you'll be informed about, but the clubs/nightlife can be pretty hair-raising).

So you're in for a wonderful head-spinning experience and I hope it's all you wish it to be. (Oh, since you're there to teach, one of the assignments my friends did was to have everyone write a postcard to someone in America. I was on the list and I loved mine!)

Thank you, Melissa May!

Best of luck!

Fake: be warned . Beer is cheaper than coffee, and you can't get coffee before 12 noon. Atleast in St. Petersburg. And good luck (plus: love your music)

I hope you speak a bit of Russian, I was there for a week, and I had to buy a phrase book..

Plus i read somewhere that you could get throught the entire length of russia knowing only three words in russian. If anybody asks you anything, just say, Nyet, ya koshka (no, i'm a cat).

keep us updated on the whole thing, fake! i'm so envious!

So ... will you be checking back in online?

Hope so, you lucky bastard.

maps! we need maps!
hack into their GIS!