Goodbye, Lenin

This is it!  I have 26 hours left in the Motherland.  Until next August, when I come back for an unspecified amount of time.  WOOT.

I'm not really sure what to say.  I don't have any deep musings about life in Russia, or funny stories about exciting things we have done in this last week of not having classes.  My days have been filled with last minute present acquisition and TV watching.  And playing with Andrew's kitty.  Poor Kiti, I don't know how she's going to live without him.  Fortunately, I think all of my stuff is going to fit in my luggage.  I'm going to wear two jackets, a sweatshirt, a cardigan, and a turtleneck.  Definitely won't be cold!

I'm so excited to be coming back to a country with plentiful coffee, toilet paper, sidewalks, and where strangers smile at you.  That's one thing that's confounded me about Russia- strangers seem to consider you as a threat until proven friend.  While it's nice for me to not feel pressured into talking to anybody, the atmosphere is just kind of cold- literally and metaphorically!  Of course, this all changes when you visit someone's house.  Then Russians turn out to be incredibly caring.  They tell us to stop by whenever we are in Novgorod again, which I definitely will.  But overall, I don't think I could live in Russia for an extended period of time.  There's a lot of frustrating things here.  Oh well, it has helped me appreciate America!

I'm looking forward to getting off the plane and eating at Paula Deen's buffet.  That'll shock me back into America like nothing else!

I can't believe Christmas is on Saturday.  I've missed all the Christmas preparations!

Pictures

I forgot, I was going to make demands for what I want to eat when I get back.
-NO hot dogs

-NO potatoes

-NO beets

-NO sour cream

-NO soup

-NO plain macaroni

-NO herring

-NO porridge

-NO mushrooms

-NO whole milk

-NO greasy meat patties in greasy dough

-Something with flavor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now here's some pictures to get your mind off my negativity. 

Hold the potatoes please

Woohoo!  The 6th of December!  I leave in 16 days!!!  Unfortunately that means I still have to suffer through 4 more days of class and some exams.  The ends of semesters are AWFUL.  Everyone is tired of school, anticipating break, and pretty much thinking everything is stupid.  It's especially noticeable for us because we have no big projects or papers due, and our grades won't actually count for anything.  Sooo, basically it doesn't matter how well we complete any of these worksheets or translations.  But we still have to attend classes.  Anyway, I'll try not to be completely depressing in this post, in which I have no idea what to write.  But Mom wanted me to write another one, so here I go!

It got down to -20 C last week.  What fun!!!  It would be ok if there were no wind, but Novgorod has a lot of wind.  Yesterday Lindsay and I wandered around the Kremlin to take pictures of all the prettiness in the snow, and we were frozen after about 20 minutes even though it was only -3 C outside!  I think the highlight of that trip was seeing the reindeer with a sleigh randomly in front of the Kremlin.  I said, "Is that a REINDEER?  I think it is!  It is!"  I didn't want to approach it too enthusiastically though, out of fear that the person who seemed to be in charge of the reindeer would charge me for looking at it too closely.  I really wish there were some caf trays here I could swipe to go sledding down the old moat hill around the Kremlin.  It's such an awesome hill!  Steep with no trees to run in to!  I saw some kids snowboarding on it yesterday.  That looked like a challenge.  I don't think the hill is long enough for that.

Every day I wish I had brought more books to read.  I have so much down time here, and I never know what to do with it.  My internet is too slow to watch shows online, and even if it was, many of those online TV watching sites don't work in Russia.  I saw that Hulu was going to expand its service overseas though, because there is "an unmet need for TV streaming on the internet" everywhere else in the WORLD.  Other countries seem not to have caught on to the "TV on the internet" thing.  I think it's great, especially at college, when I don't have time or the right schedule to watch my shows.  Anywho, I'm often bored.  There's not much to do in Novgorod in the winter if you don't want to spend any money (and I sure don't!).  There's a skating rink in front of my apartment building, but I can't skate.  And I bet no one in Russia makes skates in my size.  I'm not proud to say it, but I have played 1939 games of solitaire while in Russia.  We just don't have enough homework to keep us occupied.  Not that I want more busywork!

Oh man, I have to tell about the worst bus ride in the history of all bus rides.  Lindsay and I went to this souvenir shop on the other side of town to buy mittens, which we accomplished within 20 minutes.  Then we saw our bus at the bus stop across the street, but we were too far away to reach it, so we waited for another one.  And waited.  And waited.  TWO other no. 16 buses passed by our stop without stopping, even with a bunch of people waiting!  I don't get it.  Why do they only stop there sometimes?  This was on a day when it was -23 C (about), so we couldn't feel any of our extremities after about 30 minutes.  So we hobbled down the street toward another bus stop, where about 60 people were waiting.  We arrived at the same moment that bus 16 stopped, and we pushed through the crowd to attempt to squish on the bus.  I think the ENTIRE crowd got on that bus.  There was nowhere for me to stand but on the step in front of the doors.  Unfortunately, the doors on this model of bus open inward, thus crushing the feet of any overflow people.  I got one foot out of the way in time, but my other foot was trapped between the door and the wall, and slowly being crushed as the door tried to open its full extent.  I made some unhappy "in pain" noises, and two guys pushed the door out far enough for me to get free.  They were like, "Get up here!  The doors open inward!"  I was thinking, "I KNOW, but I didn't want to be clinging on to you like a monkey for the whole ride!"  The rest of the ride was less stressful except for the fact that it was so cold my hands couldn't hold on to the metal bars, and I was twisted in an awkward position trying to maintain an upright stance while simultaneously not stepping on anyone else.  Needless to say, I was VERY happy to be getting off the bus after that ride.  Oh the perils of public transportation.

I'm going to throw in a little side note here about how glad I am that public drinking and public drunkenness are illegal in America.  Some incredibly drunk guy stumbled his way onto our bus one day and started yelling something about the plight of the motherland.  He couldn't understand the money-taker lady, so she forced him off the bus at the next stop, but until then we had to endure him flying everywhere after every bump and stinking to high heaven.  I have never smelled anything so bad; like fermented vomit. Blergh!  It made me want to barf.  This is why we don't drink to excess, kids.

Thanksgiving with the Putins

Can you imagine eating Thanksgiving dinner with Putin?  You'd be eating a turkey that he obtained by swimming the black sea on the back of a dolphin to a forest full of tigers which he wrestled with his bare hands until he reached the one turkey to be found in Russia and killed it with his icy glare.  You'd go around the table and say whatever you were thankful for: "Our wonderful and brave prime minister!", "The United Russia party and the greatness it has brought to Russia!", "My fearless leader Vladimir Vladimirovich!", "My cats and my family!" (Putin sends his death ray and *poof.*  That person has nothing to be thankful anymore.)

Well, enough fantasizing about what a great time that would be.  We had a pretty awesome Thanksgiving here in frozen Russia.  We gathered at 10 am to begin prep and cooking.  We made turkey, chicken, boiled beets with glaze, green bean casserole, corn, two kinds of stuffing, and apple crisp.  Plus some sangria.  All of it was DELICIOUS.  Alton Brown has a very good recipe for homemade green bean casserole.  We had to make quite a few substitutions and leave some things out that they don't have here.  Like sage.  We happened to buy some cloves that we didn't really need, so we boiled them with the beets.  That was really good; not an overwhelming flavor, just a nice clove-y aroma.  It smelled like Christmas while we were boiling those.  We ended up having way more than we could ever eat, and we all had second helpings of everything.  It felt just like Thanksgiving, being stuffed almost to vomit threat level.  It was so nice to have that little slice of home here.  And boy are we good cooks.

I wish I had brought my super warm boots.  I don't know how I convinced myself to leave them; maybe because I wore the boots I have here in January in Russia, and I managed.  I wore two pairs of socks today, including one thick wool pair, and my toes were still frozen.  I'm considering buying some ridiculously cheap Ugg knock offs simply because they look super warm.  It was -12 C today, and it's only going to get colder.  Oh dilemmas.

The Plague

Sickness has descended upon us!  At least three of us have had something akin to tonsillitis.  What's funny is that the Russian word for tonsillitis is "angina."  So every time they say that, heart problems come to mind.

My understanding of the world has been shaken by two important events: 1. Apparently "chernika" and "chyornaya smorodina" are two DIFFERENT berries.  I thought they were both black currants, and that chernika was just a diminutive name of the other one.  NO.  Chernika means blueberry.  This throws me off because that name means little black thing.  Don't Russians know that blueberries are BLUE?
2. All this time I've been thinking that my host sister in law is named Olya.  Today I begin to doubt myself, because it sounds like they are saying Lolya every time.  How am I supposed to know?  Soft l's are really hard to hear.  I can never tell if they say Alyosha or Lyosha in referring to Marina's husband.  Oh well, I just won't refer to anyone by name.

Today was (L)Olya's birthday, so we went over to her apartment for dinner.  I thought it was extremely unfair that she had to cook dinner and her own cake on her birthday, but it was good dinner.  She made some great chicken.  The cake was weird, like all Russian cakes.  They seem to believe that a cake is not a cake unless there is some fruit flavor somewhere.  That's perfectly fine with me, but sometimes you just want chocolate cake with chocolate icing, you know?

We went Thanksgiving produce procuring today.  The store had four 8 pound turkeys amidst other strange meats like duck and goose.  Turkey was 200 rubles a kg.  So we had to pay 823 rubles for our modestly sized Turkey.  That's about $25.  But we're splitting the cost of the meal among 7 people, so it should turn out reasonably.  The spice selection at the store is incredibly sad.  They have black pepper, red pepper, garlic, dill, salt, cloves, and parsley.  No sage, rosemary, or nutmeg.  I'm going to attempt to make Alton Brown's green bean casserole for our Thanksgiving on Saturday, but it will have to be without the nutmeg.

We're going to celebrate Thanksgiving by going to see Harry Potter!  Sarah already saw it and said it was good, maybe even better for being in Russian, because you don't have to listen to Daniel Radcliffe's voice.

IT SNOWED!  AND IT'S STILL SNOWING!  It's a winter wonderland out there!  Russia is so much more pretty under a blanket of snow.  All the Russians are breaking out their shubi(fur coats) and those great fur hats.  My host Dad wore his fur hat today, and I sooo wanted to take a picture, because it makes him look like the stereotypical Russian guy.  But he's not, because he's not drunk all the time.

How about them apples?

I found the perfect class to take for interim!  It's something about Indonesian music, and involves playing in a gamelan ensemble.  Finally!  I can fulfill my requirements for my minor in Ethnic Instrument Playing!  If anyone here remembers my old profile on Myspace, I said I was minoring in Ethnic Instrument Playing.  Now my dream can come true!  This whole thing came about because of the slideshow I saw at St. Olaf on Accepted Students Day, which consisted of a great many pictures of students playing ethnic instruments.  It's unfortunate that St. Olaf does not have a major in this.  I would LOVE to be a Nykelharpa (however that's spelled) major!  Maybe even a double major in Bagpipe as well.  I would be so rich!

Today I had an interesting array of breakfast choices: spaghetti, egg with hot dog, and prepackaged fried blinichki with meat and potatoes.  I wasn't sure what I was supposed to eat, so I chose some of all of them.

We had a fire drill today!  It was the silliest fire drill ever!  We weren't supposed to know the time when the alarm would sound, but the teachers tend to gossip, and they told us it would be at 12.  So instead of hanging around inside waiting for an annoying bell to ring, we went outside early.  We knew the drill had started when everyone else joined us.  We weren't allowed to actually walk away a safe distance from the building though, we had to stand right in front of the doors.  We all would have died in the event of a real fire.  And then it took us forever to get back inside, because the teacher with the key to our floor didn't go in first.  What I thought was most amusing was how they were giving announcements that I assume were connected with the fire drill through a loudspeaker, or megaphone, to a huge group of foreign students.  Have you noticed how hard it is to hear from a megaphone?  All I heard was "Mwop, mwo, mwowo."  Just like in Charlie Brown.

We're going to Peter again this weekend!  I'm not sure how to write that in English.  People here call St. Petersburg just "Peter" but spell it with an "i."  Piter.  Maybe Peter the Great should have named his city something his countrymen recognized better, like Pyoterberg, or even better, Petyaberg.  This time we're going to the Russian Museum, which is full of Russian art.  I sure have been to a lot of art museums in Russia. You'd think I really love them!  I like the Russian Museum because it has some Aivazovsky paintings that are HUGE.  Very nice.  I wonder if they'll have any of my new favorite Russian artist Grabar?

Fun Fact: Fruit flies don't like grapefruit.  Or pomegranate.

Russia's not all that bad!

I realized after writing that last post (and after Sarah's decree), that lately in my blog I've been complaining a lot. This post is to reassure you that Russia is a nice country, and I actually am enjoying (most of) my time here.  So, I've decided to make a list of the things I like about Russia.

I LIKE:
1. The cats- there are cats everywhere for me to exclaim about their cuteness.

2. The juice- they have such delicious juice here!  Cherry and green apple are my favorites, but pumpkin, pineapple, and pear are also high on the list.

3. Cheap food- means cost of living here isn't too high unless you want to wear clothes.  Makes for fun snacks too, exploring all the weird foods.  Crab chips are addictive.

4. The hats- everyone has beautiful hats!  Except the teenage hoodlums, of course.  Now that it's colder everyone is breaking out their lovely шляпы (shlyapi).  Fur-lined and fabulous.

5. Babushkas- The little old grandmas are so cute!  They hobble everywhere in their giant rubber boots, aprons, head scarves, and giant coats, acting as if they own the place.  "Here, young man, carry all my 14 bags onto the train.  They are too heavy for me!"  "Young man, give up your seat for me, I'm old!"

6. Hazelnut Snickers- These are soooo delicious.  Way better than regular Snickers, and available everywhere here.

7. Everyone grows a lot of their own food- Have lots of fresh veggies and fruits to can and/or make juice out of.

8. Everyone loves ABBA- that's the sign of people with good taste.

9. Tiny little stores, right where you live- I live within 2 minutes walk of two grocery stores, and 3 shoe-fixing stands.

10. Convenient public transportation-It's not necessary to own a car in Russia at all.

11. The babies- Russian babies are way cute, especially all bundled up like marshmallows.

Ok.  For now I'm going to stop and work on some homework.  I might have to add more when I think of them.