The next biggest thing to hit Sochi after International Olympics Committee visit will be this year’s finals of the International beauty contest – Missis World 2007.

First thing’s first: the official website of the contest is www.mrsworld.com. This sorry excuse for the website is pretty useless, but it does have (low quality) pictures of all ladies, so check ’em out and let me know who you think should win the contest! :) I personally like Yulia Ogrokhyna of Ukraine :-D

The date of the event is March 8 – the International Women’s Day. Until then, ladies, who are currently in Sochi, are Read the rest of this entry »

«Narodnaya gazeta Sochi» reports that average monthly salary in Sochi in 2006 was 9270 rubles, which is around $350 US.

Average monthly salary in Russia in 2006 was 10736 rubles, around $405 US.

Forty seven students took part in Sochi local Armenian literary language competition.

Sochi is very multi-cultural city. People of over 100 different nationalities live in Sochi, with largest minority group being Armenians. According to census of year 2000, 17% of 420 000 Sochi residents are of Armenian nationality, and according to Russian migration agencies this number is a much higher considering large number of illegal immigrants. So, it is no surprise that almost 1500 school students in Sochi are studying Armenian language.

I should mention that real (literary) Armenian language is quite different from the language local Armenians speak. Armenians in Sochi lived for generations, and even many adults in local Armenian families don’t know literary Armenian language.

Other large national groups in Sochi include Russians, Ukrainians, Greeks, and Georgians.

Seven Sochi’s sportsmen have returned from Open Russian Kickboxing Championship Among Students in Chelyabinsk (Ural region) which welcomed 300 fighters from all over Russia, and brought back seven medals! I couldn’t find more details of the championship, but sochi-news.ru lists their names.

• Minas Kadian («Atlan») – gold
• Rasul Arakichev («Atlan») – gold
• Arsen Nagabedyan (Junior sports school of Olympic reserve) – gold
• Kazbek Zubairaev («Atlan») – silver
• Karlen Akopian («Legioner») – silver
• Ramil Mustafaev («21-Vek») – silver
• Artem Sarkisian («21-Vek») – silver

«Atlan» is a very well known Muay Thai / Kickboxing club in Sochi. Several Russia, CIS, and Eurasia champions came out of it.

Another energy related accident occurred in Sochi a couple of days ago. I didn’t want to write about it then because news reports were giving conflicting information and it didn’t look like a major accident. As turned out it was, but certainly not as big as what happened in Sochi recently. Here’s what happened this time.

February 22nd an accident occurred on a Maikop-Sochi gas pipeline. As the specialists were working on the problem they had to shutdown all city’s boiler-houses (which for the people meant no heat or hot water), and on February 24th afternoon they had to cut of gas to the public. This affected everyone who is using natural gas from Dagomys to Adler (that’s most of the city). By the end of the same day works on a pipeline were completed, and few hours later all boiler-houses were operating. Heat and hot water came back, but gas was still not coming. That meant everyone started using electrical devices to cook which in turn affected city’s electric system, and several parts of the Central district were left without electricity.

Right now most of these problems are fixed, though, as many as 60 000 people still do not have gas. Apparently after works like this, the restoration of the gas flow must be controlled by the specialists, because if air made its way into the pipes and mixed with gas, it potentially creates an explosive mix. To get every single house to get gas back will now take no less than two weeks. 35 specialists from neighbouring cities are coming to join 150 local specialists to speed up the process.

Not too long ago Sochi’s main theater – Sputnik – has been demolished, to make room for a new business center. This almost 50 years old building was located in the very center of the city, and had rather unusual architectural design. Its hard to imagine center with out this building, it was on of Sochi’s landmarks. But I still think it was a right decision. It was old theater, uncomfortable seats, and … it awfully smelled inside :) Last time I was there this past September, and it smelled as if we were in a shelter for homeless people. I wouldn’t go there again. I’m surprised it lasted there for so long. However, I wish they’d build something more cultural to replace it, not a business center, because this location is very close to many other tourist attractions – “Riviera” park, sea port, sea-front near lighthouse, shopping centers, and right across Sochi’s main post office building with its new fountains.

Here are a couple photos of “Sputnik” I found on Flickr: Read the rest of this entry »

With acceptance of federal program to develop Sochi as a year-round resort, the city is bracing for rapid development. It means we’ll need a lot of well educated working people really soon. According to sochi-news.ru there are 4296 children who will complete the “main” school course and 3309 will graduate from high school this year in Sochi. And they all need to decide where they want to go next.

“Make your choice” education exhibition and conference, which took place in “Zhemchuzhina” hotel this year, is designed to help them do just that. Many higher and professional education schools gathered here to tell this year graduates what they have to offer. They bring their teachers, and the students who demonstrate their skills acquired in their school.

Sochi-news.ru has following information on education schools in Sochi: there are 19 000 students learning 43 professions in 16 higher ed schools and branch of schools; 5 000 students are learning 39 professions in 14 professional schools.

I just want to add that in Sochi there is really only one big university – Sochi State University for Tourism and Recreation.

The high-school course in Russia is 11 years, and the “main” course (also called “complete middle school education”) is 9 years. After 9 years “main” course the students can decide to continue with the high school, and complete all 11 years – this will give them the opportunity to apply to a university, an institute, or an academy (all five or more years of higher ed), OR they can continue their education in one of the “specialized professional school” which is usually additional four years of ed. directly related to getting a profession (for example in construction, food industry, or in music) and experience in it. The first choice of higher education will often give a higher paid job, with better possibilities of professional growth. The second choice gets people a job quicker, since they can have a profession and some experience by the time they are 19-20 years old, however these jobs often pay less. Kids who choose the professional ed after 9 years of school can still complete the high-school course by attending “evening school” which are high schools operating during evening hours.

Russian businessman Dmitry Shumkov, who is also a member of Association of Russian Lawyers and Russian Olympic Committe partner, has acquired 50% of French prestige skis manufacturer Skis Lacroix. Following this deal, Skis Lacroix promises to invest €300 million in building Russian factory to build mountain skis, and in hotel constructions in Sochi.

Source: Gazeta.ru

February 11, 2007 around 580 000 people in 84 Russian cities will take part in traditional mass skiing competition «Ski-track of Russia». This year the competition will have two stages, first on February 11 in 84 cities, and second on February 21 in Sochi, in Krasnaya Polyana, where the winners of the regional competitions will participate.

What happened

As I wrote in my last night post, power to most Sochi districts was cut off after powerlines went down in severe weather. It was interesting to see that the reports on situation in Sochi in Russian online media were coming in live with various details. I guess we should thank Information Age and Sochi’s Olympic bid for this.

So the timeline goes roughly like this: Read the rest of this entry »

Tonight, around 5 PM, due to the severe weather conditions many regions of the Black Sea coast from Tuapse to Adler (basically the area of “Big Sochi”) were left without power. Gusty wind at 25 meters/sec, wet snow, and sudden drops of temperature cut the electrical lines in the mountainous regions of near Sochi. By the midnight power to many parts of the city was restored, however some regions remain unpowered. All repair works are complicated by continuing bad weather conditions, but they still expected to be completed by tomorrow.

Unfortunately this kind of power outages sometimes happen in Sochi, because some powerlines go over the mountains, so during winter they can snatch under the weight of snow. And snow makes it harder to get to the places of damage for repair. Major power outages in previous years would sometimes affect heating too, in which case people try to stay warm by lighting their gas-stoves. However some buildings don’t have gas lines, and people, who live in these buildings and normally rely only on electricity, find themselves in a tough situation. But of course neighbours in Russia don’t let neighbours suffer in difficult times like this, people invite others they know from the neighbourhood to their apartments to stay warm and/or prepare food to take home.

A new well-room will be opened this spring in the Chvizhepse village in Sochi, where the best known mineral water in the Black Sea region is found. Here tourists will be able to taste real carbonic mineral water found in this region, healing qualities of which are known throughout Russia. This well-room will be located near Adler – Krasnaya Polyana road, and all tourists will be able to stop by here for a quick rest.

Russian Railways is reconstructing connection branch in Moscow, this will decrease travel time from Petersburg to Sochi by several hours. The speed up will most likely affect train number 35/36 (#35 – from Petersburg to Adler, #36 back) and will begin with summer train scheduler, which becomes effective in the end of May.

Ministry of Transportation will allocate 16.2 billion rubles ($610 million US) for the construction of the alternative road around Sochi’s center between 2007 and 2009. Yuga.ru quotes the Minister of Transportation Igor Livitin saying that this road is one of the priority projects for the Ministry, and that in 2009 it will be completed. The road will be tied with city’s current transportation infrastructure. He also mentioned that more pedestrian underground crossings will be created under Kurortny Prospect.

As I mentioned several times in my previous posts, traffic jams caused by transportation infrastructure (which was never designed for current number of cars we have on the roads) in the city today is a major pain for both residents and guests. There are only two ways to get through the Center (for people going to Khosta, Adler, and Abkhazia) — drive though the main road, Kurortny Prospect, or take an existing alternate route, which is in a poor condition and is often overloaded with traffic as well. I don’t know if they are going to build another road or reconstruct existing alternative road. I think they’ll go with reconstruction, and will add several junctions. And adding pedestrian underpasses along the Kurortny Prospect should definitely help. I can think of several places where those are desperately needed.

Members of Russian National Anti-terrorist Committee will inspect southern resorts in April for safety against terrorist attacks. This planned inspection is part of government’s efforts to keep tourists safe.