Moscow Travel Guide

I arrived in Moscow in August 2012 and most of the bad rap about this citiy is outdated. The subway is safe and quite easy to use. There is an iPhone apps like 'Metropolitan" that calculates itinaries and give station names in English. Cyrilic Alphabet is quite easy to learn to read signs in the metro and supermarkets. You have several options to learn survival Russian from private teachers to collective lessons or university for a more intense training. Someone just helped me carry very heavy grocery bags walking on the snowy streets to my building, obviously he was Russian and did not expect ... More anything for the help. So far I have found many friendly Russians who smiled back to me unlike the reputation that they don't smile to strangers. International clinics are very good and speak fluent English and French. Many expat friends gave birth in Moscow and were very happy with the care. Beside housing which is horribly expensive, you can find food relatively cheap in supermarkets such as METRO or AUCHAN. International schools are also expensive and waiting lists long, better register your child in different schools at the same time as soon as you can, be careful of schools who are not following any specific curriculum.