First impressions from the other side

Well... I'm getting to know Belarus step by step. Can't say that I understand every detail, but already I think I won't get lost.

From Minsk - Landmarks

I live in a room in a cottage on the outskirts of Minsk. It's a very good place, though the shower is on the floor and there's a common kitchen. The room itself is big and cosy.

From Minsk - Belrad

From Minsk - Belrad

As I understand there's no such thing as unlimited internet in Belarus. Traffic counts, so I use it from time to time from the office.

From Minsk - People

The country has a peculiar feeling about it. Comparing to Riga there's some kind of a spirit of a common ideology. There's lots of social ads in the streets, people address each other respectfully, they use father's names (which in Latvia we don't use at all), there are slogans from the soviet times in the streets.

From Minsk - Landmarks

From Minsk - Landmarks

From Minsk - Landmarks

It may seem strange but the main language in Belarus is russian. Belarussian was pushed away during political processes. And now there's even a whole lot of youngsters born in Belarus who don't speak the language. Which is a shame - it's a very pleasant and interesting language.

I use city transport a lot. There are all kinds of ground transport in Minsk and also two branches of the underground railway (called metro in slavic countries). The transport fees are a lot lower than european or even latvian.

Food costs on the other hand are quite like home, though the price-tags look confusing - 1 lat is around 5000 belarussian roubles, which is about 1.4 euro. So spending 15 000 on groceries is quite ok. Also there are no coins, only paper.

I didn't quite get to my duties yet, but already have some idea of what I can and should be doing. :) We'll see how it turns out.