Russia is alright. I grew up there. heres the thing:
russian business is handled very informally. things are agreed upon with handshakes, not contracts. You get things done by knowing people, not knowing things or having experience. at the same time, if you piss someone off things are likewise handled informally, and you might find yourself on the wrong end of a gun, knife, or fist; instead of being taken to court or just fired from your company. Everything is extremely corrupt, even as a teacher expect to be paying someone off to not fuck with you. especially since you are an american, people will want to hustle you. russia is a nation full of hustlers. after 70 years of communism, twenty years later they are all still hungry for capitalism, upward mobility, and money. it's very cutthroat. you have to be tough. Also as another aftereffect of communism, you'll find scores of people who are just wandering through life trying to survive on a bottle of vodka a day. People were told what to do and what to think for 70 years - three generations - the concept of individuality, of individual choice of action and lifestyle, one's choice of life direction is a difficult concept for many to grasp. You think american crack ghettos are bad? wait till you see the bands of orphans as young as five running through moscow (particularly the train stations) stealing everything in sight, huffing anything that has a chemical smell, finishing people's discarded cig buts, and drinking rotgut all day. The infrastructure is very bad also. the roads suck and are accident prone, and the drivers are horrible (half of em are drunk!). the water is atrocious, never ever drink from the tap, always ask for bottled water.
all in all, russia still is very much like the wild west albeit very civilized and sophisticated. you can do whatever the fuck you want if you have money - pretty much everyone in russia takes bribes, and if they dont, there getting fired soon for not taking any bribes.
what the other guy said about money and expenses is true, same about the clubs.
here's a joke that illustrates my point:
Ivan comes from st. petersburg to moscow to see his friend Igor, and notices when he first greets him that they both have the same exact phone - an iphone.
"how much did you pay for that phone, Igor?" says Ivan. "seven hundred euros and it's a stolen one from england!" replies Igor. Ivan responds in disgust, "is that it?! seven hundred!? you were ripped off! I paid fifteen hundred, and mine was shipped from america, unlocked in japan, shipped around the world one more time for good measure and finally shipped to me here in moscow. when i picked it up at the store, they even served it to me with some caviar and vodka!"
The women have the same sort of attitude. to them, their duty in life is to be pampered and showered with expensive things. that is the ideal of the russian people - the russian dream. in america, girls have "big house, three kids, nice neighborhood, adorable husband, cute dog and nice car" in mind when they are scouting out for a mate, and only if they are planning on getting married. casual american daters just look for someone emotionally compatible and physically attractive. Russian women are about as deep as the vodka they are drinking. All they care about is "what is this guy's buying power? what is his level of fear and respect?, how much jewlery can i get out of him?" thats it. trust me. thats all 99% of russian women care about. that, and weather or not her potential mate can get her the fuck out of the country and to either USA, france, england, or australia. all the men are hustlers or alchoholics, or both. the only reason for a man to not be an alcoholic is because he wants to be a tough-guy hustler (a la Vlad Putin), but russians have tons of practice and plenty of practice being functional alcoholics (yeltsin).
another russian peculiarity: expect EVERYTHING to be broken and mcguyvered into functionality. i mean EVERYTHING. People dont have the money to buy new like in america, nor does the government have enough money to maintain the crumbling infrastructure. but, life must go on, so people make do with what they have. You'll find some ingenious fixes, along with some downright scary ones.
shallow people, corrupt government, rampant organized crime, infantile capitalism, and run down infrastructure. not my cup of tea. there's a reason i left and came to the U.S....same reason everyone else in russia is either trying to get out or is dropping dead. You'd have to be INSANE to want to expat into russia. there's much better places out there.
Oh, forgot to mention, no matter what they say, you wont be getting paid anywhere near as much as they are claiming. you'll get there and find that a dozen people have already weaseled away half your paycheck before taxes....for "protection" and other crucial services for keeping yourself intact and alive. I had a freind just like you who was an american and took a teaching job in russia. he invested alot of time and money into it, and lost it all. he pissed off the director of the school by teaching the "liberal american" view of communism (e.g it's ok, good system, doesnt work with big populations, everyone thus far has fucked it up, yada yada...). That director got drunk at the bar and told some friends "what this stupid american idiot thinks about communism"...the next day there a bunch of goons with guns showed up at the guy's house telling him that if he ever steps foot in a classroom in russia again they will tear his balls out and make him eat them "so he can taste what communism is like".
