Its too late to travel around when you are old.
Time to travel and have fun is in your late teens to late 20s.

Maybe I am a stick in the mud but as Dorothy repeated "There's no place like home." I once considered moving to Oregon, too much of a culture shock I guess.

Moscow is not representative. Some cities are like a huge brain cancer tumor, sucking all resources out of the body and sending out signals a healthy brain wouldn't, but I shouldn't be specific. Moscow is very expensive, too. If you want a huge city with real Russian culture, go to St. Petersburg.


Forget about owning a rifle for five years, even a .22 LR. They've been talking about reducing it to 3 years.

You can be as woke as you wish, just don't bother other people with it too much, just like you shouldn't bother anyone with being straight or conservative.

Food is not cheap, but it's affordable. Cars and trucks are more expensive than in the US because of tons of ridiculous taxes and fees. Hot water and central heating are cheap. There are tons of laws but the way they are enforced makes life comfortable. Streets are very safe compared to western cities. European capitals are riddled with crime in comparison to an average Russian city.

Healthcare is affordable, accessible and good. Lots of good clinics and for an apparent reason there are lots of very skilled ortho/trauma surgeons now. I've been urging my bestest friend to come and get his joints fixed, but he won't listen. Stubborn men make me so sad.

My specific location is perfect for a geriatric hypochondriac. Qiuet, cozy, a bunch of clinics, MRI machines, dental clinics all with walking distance. Everything is withing walking distance in fact, including beaver/sable trapping.

There are a bunch of western immigrants here. A few Americans, simple people mostly. A couple of years ago a neighbor in my dacha community (dachas are areas with plots for gardening and summer houses outside cities) started building a really nice house. I heard him swear, "scheisse!" and thought it was lame, imitating German speech was was popular here among youngsters in the 2000's. Turns out he's German, doesn't speak Russian well, married to a Russian lady, and not even a pretty one, she looks like me. I also learned about a Swedish guy, an avid birder, who got his citizenship a few weeks ago and moved here permanently this year, even though it's probably not the best time, with all the geopolitical crap happening actively.

Also, you're not expected to be a part of the community. Nobody will consider you weird or bad if you keep to yourself, especially in urban/suburban areas. Rural areas are variable. I wouldn't recommend the south including all areas adjacent ot the Black and Caspian seas, southerners are notoriously untrustworthy, loud, insincere and manipulative. Northern people are much better even though we don't have the cultural urge to appear nice. People are much less superficially nice and more direct than in many other countries, it is perceived as rude by foreigners. Even when they dislike you, it's often more of a "wait, let me help you, you jerk" attitude. Takes time to get used to.

I'm poor but if you have even a below average American income there're some good hunting opportunies
up north




I wouldn't give up US citizenship for this, but having a second home here is probably not a bad idea.

And this is why our country has the issues it has. People forget the sacrifices made by generations prior for us to have what we have. Which by the way is greater as a whole than anywhere else on earth. My great grandfather and hopefully yours would slap me up the back of my head for talking in such a way..

Tatiana, come to think of it...getting hugs snd kisses from a bunch of very nice brown/black people might be darn good therapy for you! Might be good therapy for just about anybody of the human race. Kind of like the great apes picking lice off each other.

Tatiana, you sell yourself short, I've seen pictures of you and there's nothing to be ashamed of...