The Party's End: Sad Musings

After several years, the language school I work at has finally started to suck nearly as much as all the other ones I've worked at.

Schedules, formerly always a very reasonable 4:30 - 9:30pm, Monday through Friday, are now scattered around mornings, evenings and weekends with all-too-typical disregard for human sleep, social and dining patterns.

There are a lot of women running around the administrative offices, but none of them seem to know who's supposed to do what.

Our salaries continue to be devalued by inflation and the weak dollar, while benefits are slowly whittled away.

Typical prices for a beer in a nightclub or restaurant are now about the same as you'd find in America, perhaps a bit more. Food at such places costs about 30 - 50 percent more than a similar place in America.

Russia's economy is booming; fortunes are being made and spent quickly -- but not on infrastructure for the country or anything, just on fancy, shitty, boring,expensive new restaurants and nightclubs.

People can't really remember communism anymore. Five years ago the thought of going to a nightclub was as exotic as going to Turkey or Egypt; now having fun is a right, not a privilege. People don't appreciate it anymore.

And what's more, people are now eager to work on the weekends so they'll have money to buy more expensive clothes and jewelry they don't need, rather then just (more sensibly) blowing the money on vodka.

Yes, they've gained some prosperity, but they've lost something precious and beautiful. . .