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!
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Monday, December 6, 2010
Pictures
I forgot, I was going to make demands for what I want to eat when I get back.
-NO hot dogs
-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.
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.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
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.
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.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
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.
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.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
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.
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.
Friday, November 12, 2010
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.
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.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Too much class
This week we've been having double classes- two of the same class in a row. It's horrible! The days seem to drag on and on. We have a new history class that I would like very much if it wasn't for 2 hours at a time and we did something other than sit and listen to the teacher talk at us. We never have to actually respond or anything in that class. It's a struggle to stay awake, even though I really like that teacher and she talks about interesting things.
I asked my host family for help on my homework the other day for our "Learn a few obscure words" class, and they were very surprised at the things we were being asked to learn. "What? These are very complicated words! No one uses these unless they are a translator for political people!" And here we are being asked to learn that a word that literally means "to puzzle, confound, take aback" is actually used to mean "give work" in political dealings. AND we're asked to figure out the idiomatic meaning from the context of one sentence. We aren't given direct translations. So much fun!!!
In other news, registration is not going my way. I thought I could take a purely fun class because I had an entirely open spot in my schedule. But NO! Every class I wanted to take either conflicted with a class I actually needed to take, or was so sought after that I couldn't get into it, even as a second semester senior. In the past, seniors could get into whatever class they wanted, but in the sake of fairness the powers that be changed the way that system works. It's not fair to ME! No King Arthur, Archery, Photography, or other interesting classes, mostly because I have to take Women's Studies. And I have to make THAT my first choice or else I won't get into it. So now I'm taking Teaching English Grammar, and Weight Training instead. I figure those will actually be useful. Plus the teaching one is only half of the semester!
Little Vanya my host nephew seems to have taken a liking to me. Today when he arrived the first thing he asked was where I was. Then he wanted to play with me in my room. He took my hand and led me to where his toys were. The most frustrating thing is that it's incredibly hard to understand anything he says, and he is constantly asking me questions. Everything anyone says to him he always asks, "What? Why? How? For whom? Which?" And each of these questions sounds the same when he says it. I had to try and explain my camera battery charger to him today. It was hard because I don't know any of those words. I just said, "Battery, like this, here. Then...here. Ta Da!" He just kept saying, "Чо?" which is the bumpkin way of asking , "what?" Luckily his grandpa arrived and he was distracted.
It's been raining a lot lately. Why won't it just SNOW!!!!!
I asked my host family for help on my homework the other day for our "Learn a few obscure words" class, and they were very surprised at the things we were being asked to learn. "What? These are very complicated words! No one uses these unless they are a translator for political people!" And here we are being asked to learn that a word that literally means "to puzzle, confound, take aback" is actually used to mean "give work" in political dealings. AND we're asked to figure out the idiomatic meaning from the context of one sentence. We aren't given direct translations. So much fun!!!
In other news, registration is not going my way. I thought I could take a purely fun class because I had an entirely open spot in my schedule. But NO! Every class I wanted to take either conflicted with a class I actually needed to take, or was so sought after that I couldn't get into it, even as a second semester senior. In the past, seniors could get into whatever class they wanted, but in the sake of fairness the powers that be changed the way that system works. It's not fair to ME! No King Arthur, Archery, Photography, or other interesting classes, mostly because I have to take Women's Studies. And I have to make THAT my first choice or else I won't get into it. So now I'm taking Teaching English Grammar, and Weight Training instead. I figure those will actually be useful. Plus the teaching one is only half of the semester!
Little Vanya my host nephew seems to have taken a liking to me. Today when he arrived the first thing he asked was where I was. Then he wanted to play with me in my room. He took my hand and led me to where his toys were. The most frustrating thing is that it's incredibly hard to understand anything he says, and he is constantly asking me questions. Everything anyone says to him he always asks, "What? Why? How? For whom? Which?" And each of these questions sounds the same when he says it. I had to try and explain my camera battery charger to him today. It was hard because I don't know any of those words. I just said, "Battery, like this, here. Then...here. Ta Da!" He just kept saying, "Чо?" which is the bumpkin way of asking , "what?" Luckily his grandpa arrived and he was distracted.
It's been raining a lot lately. Why won't it just SNOW!!!!!
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Real Russian Recipe!
It's not really a recipe, you just kind of make it up as you go. Are you ready for some real Russian food?
Ok!
Ingredients:
1 or 2 boiled potatoes-peeled
1 or 2 hard boiled eggs
1 smallish cucumber
1 pickle
A couple hot dogs
1 can peas
mayonnaise
Chop all that up (except the peas, just drain those and plop in bowl) and slather it with mayonnaise! Mm-mm-mm!
I'm joking about the deliciousness. It's ok. It would be better with fresh peas and ham instead of mysterious "sausage" that tastes exactly like hot dogs.
Side note: I've learned that my host brother did not get new ceiling tiles, but new wallpaper. It's kind of hard to tell when all they say is "glue."
Ok!
Ingredients:
1 or 2 boiled potatoes-peeled
1 or 2 hard boiled eggs
1 smallish cucumber
1 pickle
A couple hot dogs
1 can peas
mayonnaise
Chop all that up (except the peas, just drain those and plop in bowl) and slather it with mayonnaise! Mm-mm-mm!
I'm joking about the deliciousness. It's ok. It would be better with fresh peas and ham instead of mysterious "sausage" that tastes exactly like hot dogs.
Side note: I've learned that my host brother did not get new ceiling tiles, but new wallpaper. It's kind of hard to tell when all they say is "glue."
Saturday, November 6, 2010
The Smell of Snow...
...is in the air. I don't know if it's supposed to snow soon or not, it just smells like winter.
So, I'm beginning to think that I am funding home improvement for my host family. First they got new windows. Then their son got new ceiling tiles. Today they bought a new dining table and chairs. Hmmm.
I really don't have too much to report from this week, because I've mostly done nothing. On Wednesday I got sick with some strange stomach bug. Possibly food poisoning? I looked at the causes of food poisoning, and it seems that my family does EVERY ONE of those things. 1. They don't wash their hands. 2. They leave food sitting out on the counter for hours on end. And not just vegetables, cooked meals and raw meat too. 3. They have only one sharp knife which they use for everything in the kitchen, often without washing it in between. 4. They eat foods that have been sketchily processed- not that I'm blaming the pork they fed me that my host mom's sister's family butchered, it just isn't cleaned very well, probably. 5. All the veggies and fruits are washed in water that I'm not supposed to drink.
So I don't know if any of these things were suspect in my strange stomach sickness, but it's probable. My host mom blames the yogurt, which is probably the most innocent food product in their kitchen, being packaged and in the fridge. I'm mostly better now, at least my insides aren't trying to rearrange themselves anymore, but every time I eat my stomach seems to say, "what is this? I've had enough of this!" I could have eaten about 12 potato pancakes last night, but this morning I just couldn't bring myself to eat the kasha.
Today I went wandering around out of boredom and stir-craziness. I bought a new shirt because ALL of mine are dirty and my family just did laundry, so the hanging line is full. Also, I'm tired of wearing the same clothes over and over. I'd never noticed how nice it is to have clothing variety in your life. It's a gray shirt with a turquoise leopard face on it. Haha! But the leopard face is made up of dots, so it kind of looks just like an interesting pattern until you really stare at it. The tag said the shirt was gray and violet, which sure confused me. Green is in no way purple. The clothing sellers at the malls have gotten out all their winter coats! I think I need a bright teal down filled thigh length coat with teal dyed fur lining, don't you agree? I would be so STYLISH!
Ok, that's it for today!
45 days until I leave for home!
So, I'm beginning to think that I am funding home improvement for my host family. First they got new windows. Then their son got new ceiling tiles. Today they bought a new dining table and chairs. Hmmm.
I really don't have too much to report from this week, because I've mostly done nothing. On Wednesday I got sick with some strange stomach bug. Possibly food poisoning? I looked at the causes of food poisoning, and it seems that my family does EVERY ONE of those things. 1. They don't wash their hands. 2. They leave food sitting out on the counter for hours on end. And not just vegetables, cooked meals and raw meat too. 3. They have only one sharp knife which they use for everything in the kitchen, often without washing it in between. 4. They eat foods that have been sketchily processed- not that I'm blaming the pork they fed me that my host mom's sister's family butchered, it just isn't cleaned very well, probably. 5. All the veggies and fruits are washed in water that I'm not supposed to drink.
So I don't know if any of these things were suspect in my strange stomach sickness, but it's probable. My host mom blames the yogurt, which is probably the most innocent food product in their kitchen, being packaged and in the fridge. I'm mostly better now, at least my insides aren't trying to rearrange themselves anymore, but every time I eat my stomach seems to say, "what is this? I've had enough of this!" I could have eaten about 12 potato pancakes last night, but this morning I just couldn't bring myself to eat the kasha.
Today I went wandering around out of boredom and stir-craziness. I bought a new shirt because ALL of mine are dirty and my family just did laundry, so the hanging line is full. Also, I'm tired of wearing the same clothes over and over. I'd never noticed how nice it is to have clothing variety in your life. It's a gray shirt with a turquoise leopard face on it. Haha! But the leopard face is made up of dots, so it kind of looks just like an interesting pattern until you really stare at it. The tag said the shirt was gray and violet, which sure confused me. Green is in no way purple. The clothing sellers at the malls have gotten out all their winter coats! I think I need a bright teal down filled thigh length coat with teal dyed fur lining, don't you agree? I would be so STYLISH!
Ok, that's it for today!
45 days until I leave for home!
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Persimmons
Well, after 2 weeks of traveling, I don't know which highlights to write all about here. I'll just start from the beginning, a very good place to start.
Moscow was fabulous as ever, except for the horrible rainy and windy last day. We had so much planned that we didn't get to! But that's ok, we had lots of fun anyway. We wandered through Izmailovsky park, which was a favorite relaxation spot of Peter the Great. The birch woods here are incredibly beautiful, especially when they are all gold in the fall. Lindsay had brought her trail mix to ward off the inevitable hunger that occurs when you are surviving on a diet of bread, cheese, and yogurt, but it also turned out to be a valuable tool for attracting squirrels and chickadees. Lindsay got some birds to land on her hand, and all of us had encounters with the squirrels, which are SO much cuter than US squirrels; they have ear tufts! Adorable. Then we went to the souvenir market, where we were pretty much the only customers, and bargained us some deals. Then we got some honey! There was this lady selling honey in the lobby of a movie theater out of giant tubs. We got to taste all the different kinds, and I ended up buying a kilo of honey.
We met some pretty great people in our 10 person dorm room at the hostel, as I've mentioned before. None of them spoke or read a word of Russian. I was amazed at their courage for coming to a country where so few people speak English, and which refuses to put English on many of its signs. Of course, before coming they figured more people would know English, you know, like the entire rest of Europe. Boy was that a surprise! Anyway, Sarah and I ended up being the personal tour guides for two guys from Denmark, which was a lot of fun. Even if we managed to lead them to the Pushkin literary museum and not the Pushkin Fine Art museum. Oops! Who thought to put two such closely named museums on the same street anyway? We ended up going to both, plus a church. That's a lot of museums. Sarah and I were quite loopy from aching feet and food deprivation by the time we entered the art museum, and therefore could not take it seriously. There sure were some great pictures of fish in there though. The others found and patronized Starbucks that day without us, after they went to the Kremlin.
The next day I didn't do much. I got my traveler's checks cashed, which was hard. DON'T take traveler's checks to Russia. Hardly anyone cashes them! There was a fancy FAO Schwarz type store next to the bank, so of course we had to visit that. It was 4 floors of overpriced children's paradise. A Barbie doll that is $20 in the US costs $150 in Moscow. RIDICULOUS. I totally would have gotten the book Cats: and Nothing Else Besides Cats if it hadn't have been $50. Then we were supposed to meet the Danes at the Sculpture Park, but it was horrible rainy weather, so that didn't happen. I did manage to find a hole in my boot though, that's exciting. We did pass by Gorky park from the other side though, and I saw the BURAN!!!!! They have it parked in their amusement park in the middle of Moscow! Weird.
That evening we went to the Tretyakov Gallery. It was a nice museum. I found my favorite Russian painter: Grabar, a post-impressionist. No one wanted to go to the Georgian restaurant that night :(.
Off to Sochi!!!!!! 25 hours on a train, and then jumping off the moving train onto the platform, and we arrived in Sochi. There really is no way to know where you are on a Russian train. No one announces it, there aren't any helpful signs on the platforms; it's so frustrating! Turns out our hostel was in Adler, not Sochi, and we had to take a $100 taxi there. If only we'd known how to use the vans that will take you there for $1.50!
Oh well. Adler/Sochi was really great. Sooo relaxing, and so warm. It's about 18 miles from Georgia, so there's lots of Georgian food, and the climate is tropical, so we had fresh fruit everyday. The tourist season is rapidly ending down there, so most things were closed, but it was nice that the place wasn't crowded with tourists. Plus, a lot of the things they sold in the stores were silly little things made of shells and stuff made in China, so I didn't feel like I had to own any of them. Except an Olympics shirt, of course. The winter Olympics will be there in 2014, and preparations are well underway. Most of the events will be in Krasnaya Polyana and Adler instead of Sochi proper, so there was lots of construction going on. Cranes EVERYWHERE. We didn't do much in the entire week we were there except relax on the beach or the roof of the hostel, wander around Sochi, wander around Adler, and go to McDonald's in Sochi for the free wi-fi. It was nice.
But I'm glad to be back in Novgorod where I don't have to buy and prepare my own food, and where I know where I am.
Moscow was fabulous as ever, except for the horrible rainy and windy last day. We had so much planned that we didn't get to! But that's ok, we had lots of fun anyway. We wandered through Izmailovsky park, which was a favorite relaxation spot of Peter the Great. The birch woods here are incredibly beautiful, especially when they are all gold in the fall. Lindsay had brought her trail mix to ward off the inevitable hunger that occurs when you are surviving on a diet of bread, cheese, and yogurt, but it also turned out to be a valuable tool for attracting squirrels and chickadees. Lindsay got some birds to land on her hand, and all of us had encounters with the squirrels, which are SO much cuter than US squirrels; they have ear tufts! Adorable. Then we went to the souvenir market, where we were pretty much the only customers, and bargained us some deals. Then we got some honey! There was this lady selling honey in the lobby of a movie theater out of giant tubs. We got to taste all the different kinds, and I ended up buying a kilo of honey.
We met some pretty great people in our 10 person dorm room at the hostel, as I've mentioned before. None of them spoke or read a word of Russian. I was amazed at their courage for coming to a country where so few people speak English, and which refuses to put English on many of its signs. Of course, before coming they figured more people would know English, you know, like the entire rest of Europe. Boy was that a surprise! Anyway, Sarah and I ended up being the personal tour guides for two guys from Denmark, which was a lot of fun. Even if we managed to lead them to the Pushkin literary museum and not the Pushkin Fine Art museum. Oops! Who thought to put two such closely named museums on the same street anyway? We ended up going to both, plus a church. That's a lot of museums. Sarah and I were quite loopy from aching feet and food deprivation by the time we entered the art museum, and therefore could not take it seriously. There sure were some great pictures of fish in there though. The others found and patronized Starbucks that day without us, after they went to the Kremlin.
The next day I didn't do much. I got my traveler's checks cashed, which was hard. DON'T take traveler's checks to Russia. Hardly anyone cashes them! There was a fancy FAO Schwarz type store next to the bank, so of course we had to visit that. It was 4 floors of overpriced children's paradise. A Barbie doll that is $20 in the US costs $150 in Moscow. RIDICULOUS. I totally would have gotten the book Cats: and Nothing Else Besides Cats if it hadn't have been $50. Then we were supposed to meet the Danes at the Sculpture Park, but it was horrible rainy weather, so that didn't happen. I did manage to find a hole in my boot though, that's exciting. We did pass by Gorky park from the other side though, and I saw the BURAN!!!!! They have it parked in their amusement park in the middle of Moscow! Weird.
That evening we went to the Tretyakov Gallery. It was a nice museum. I found my favorite Russian painter: Grabar, a post-impressionist. No one wanted to go to the Georgian restaurant that night :(.
Off to Sochi!!!!!! 25 hours on a train, and then jumping off the moving train onto the platform, and we arrived in Sochi. There really is no way to know where you are on a Russian train. No one announces it, there aren't any helpful signs on the platforms; it's so frustrating! Turns out our hostel was in Adler, not Sochi, and we had to take a $100 taxi there. If only we'd known how to use the vans that will take you there for $1.50!
Oh well. Adler/Sochi was really great. Sooo relaxing, and so warm. It's about 18 miles from Georgia, so there's lots of Georgian food, and the climate is tropical, so we had fresh fruit everyday. The tourist season is rapidly ending down there, so most things were closed, but it was nice that the place wasn't crowded with tourists. Plus, a lot of the things they sold in the stores were silly little things made of shells and stuff made in China, so I didn't feel like I had to own any of them. Except an Olympics shirt, of course. The winter Olympics will be there in 2014, and preparations are well underway. Most of the events will be in Krasnaya Polyana and Adler instead of Sochi proper, so there was lots of construction going on. Cranes EVERYWHERE. We didn't do much in the entire week we were there except relax on the beach or the roof of the hostel, wander around Sochi, wander around Adler, and go to McDonald's in Sochi for the free wi-fi. It was nice.
But I'm glad to be back in Novgorod where I don't have to buy and prepare my own food, and where I know where I am.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Moscow
Yay Moscow!
We got here at 5:30 am on Saturday, tired as all get out. The wind here is quite windy, but definitely not as bad as being here in January. We walked down to Red Square and around Kitay Gorod in the morning, and then walked back and watched 1 and a half of the National Treasure movies in the hostel lounge. We couldn't check in yet, so we were just lollygagging. When we finally could check in we met all the really nice people in our room. Instead of napping we talked to all of them for 3-4 hours. At that point we were so hungry we could faint, so we went to someplace that had Hofbrauhaus signs all over it. It was NOT a Hofbrauhaus, they only had a few Hofbrau beers. SO disappointing. Then we finally got some sleep after about 36 hours straight of no sleep. Maybe some people can sleep on a train with lots of snoring people that stops every hour, but I couldn't. It got really warm in there, душно, as we say in Russian.
Sunday we got up at about nine and headed back to Red Square to have a chat with the dead body of Lenin. Boy was that fun! I hadn't seen him before, because his mausoleum has strange opening hours. It was a really weird experience. We had to wait in a huge line, check our bags (which we had to pay for), walk through metal detectors, and then through this maze of walkways with guards pointing the way at every corner. The mausoleum was very creepy. All the stone inside was black, and there was weird low level lighting. Lenin's glass coffin (just like Snow White!!!) was surrounded by red velvet and velour roses. We had to walk by him slowly, without stopping. You're not allowed more than, say, 7 seconds to look at Lenin before a guard comes and taps you on the shoulder to get you to move on. Livi discovered that you're not allowed to have your hands in your pockets while viewing Lenin either. The guard was very adamant about that. Lenin just looked fake. He gets a new chemical bath every 18 months, and he is bathed every 3 days. He looks like he's covered in shellack. It's just so weird that they still have him here, so blatantly against his wish to be buried next to his mother in St. Petersburg. They are considering moving him to St. P though.
After that we tried to find a Starbucks. The rest of the world seems not to have discovered the joys of drip coffee; all they have is espresso and instant. But Starbucks, that's another story. They DO have drip coffee, just like America. Anyway, we settled for Shokolodnitsa, which turns out to also have American coffee and French press. MMMM. We ate lunch at the baked potato stand- cheap and filling! Then, the highlight of my day: THE SPACE MUSEUM!!!!!! I finally got to go! I tried to go in January, but it was only open for tours, weirdly. Anyway, it was awesome. They had the stuffed forms of Belka and Strelka (who were adorable doggies), Michael Collins' space suit (how'd that happen?), and a bunch of other cool stuff. Cosmonauts used to wear suits on the space station that looked like they came right off the set of Star Trek. We then took the metro to Gorky Park, but it was not exciting, so we went back to the hostel and ate giant bowls of buckwheat for dinner.
Today we're going souvenir shopping and to see a new Russian movie in the evening. It's a 3D movie in which there is a demon stronghold in Moscow State University. I think it sounds hilarious. We also might go wander around Patriarch's Ponds; try to strike up a conversation with the Devil (Master and Margarita reference.)
We got here at 5:30 am on Saturday, tired as all get out. The wind here is quite windy, but definitely not as bad as being here in January. We walked down to Red Square and around Kitay Gorod in the morning, and then walked back and watched 1 and a half of the National Treasure movies in the hostel lounge. We couldn't check in yet, so we were just lollygagging. When we finally could check in we met all the really nice people in our room. Instead of napping we talked to all of them for 3-4 hours. At that point we were so hungry we could faint, so we went to someplace that had Hofbrauhaus signs all over it. It was NOT a Hofbrauhaus, they only had a few Hofbrau beers. SO disappointing. Then we finally got some sleep after about 36 hours straight of no sleep. Maybe some people can sleep on a train with lots of snoring people that stops every hour, but I couldn't. It got really warm in there, душно, as we say in Russian.
Sunday we got up at about nine and headed back to Red Square to have a chat with the dead body of Lenin. Boy was that fun! I hadn't seen him before, because his mausoleum has strange opening hours. It was a really weird experience. We had to wait in a huge line, check our bags (which we had to pay for), walk through metal detectors, and then through this maze of walkways with guards pointing the way at every corner. The mausoleum was very creepy. All the stone inside was black, and there was weird low level lighting. Lenin's glass coffin (just like Snow White!!!) was surrounded by red velvet and velour roses. We had to walk by him slowly, without stopping. You're not allowed more than, say, 7 seconds to look at Lenin before a guard comes and taps you on the shoulder to get you to move on. Livi discovered that you're not allowed to have your hands in your pockets while viewing Lenin either. The guard was very adamant about that. Lenin just looked fake. He gets a new chemical bath every 18 months, and he is bathed every 3 days. He looks like he's covered in shellack. It's just so weird that they still have him here, so blatantly against his wish to be buried next to his mother in St. Petersburg. They are considering moving him to St. P though.
After that we tried to find a Starbucks. The rest of the world seems not to have discovered the joys of drip coffee; all they have is espresso and instant. But Starbucks, that's another story. They DO have drip coffee, just like America. Anyway, we settled for Shokolodnitsa, which turns out to also have American coffee and French press. MMMM. We ate lunch at the baked potato stand- cheap and filling! Then, the highlight of my day: THE SPACE MUSEUM!!!!!! I finally got to go! I tried to go in January, but it was only open for tours, weirdly. Anyway, it was awesome. They had the stuffed forms of Belka and Strelka (who were adorable doggies), Michael Collins' space suit (how'd that happen?), and a bunch of other cool stuff. Cosmonauts used to wear suits on the space station that looked like they came right off the set of Star Trek. We then took the metro to Gorky Park, but it was not exciting, so we went back to the hostel and ate giant bowls of buckwheat for dinner.
Today we're going souvenir shopping and to see a new Russian movie in the evening. It's a 3D movie in which there is a demon stronghold in Moscow State University. I think it sounds hilarious. We also might go wander around Patriarch's Ponds; try to strike up a conversation with the Devil (Master and Margarita reference.)
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Cat Envelope
I am so TIRED! It seems like I can't recover from the St. Petersburg trip this weekend. And we have a lot of work to do this week because it's the last week of school before our vacation. Blergh. But, we leave for Moscow on Friday! So much to do! Laundry, print out tickets, packing, obtaining money, planning things to do, oh, and homework.
Today we had a test in Leksika class. The whole point of this class is to teach us minute differences between very similar words in Russian. For example, there are two words that mean whole, or entire: весь and целый. They are almost interchangeable, except for very stupid circumstances. If a whole watermelon is sitting on a table, it is целый арбуз. But, if you are eating the entire watermelon, it has to be весь арбуз. Our teacher thought we'd come to this understanding naturally, even though she'd never told us this weird distinction before the test. The explanation for this usage is sooooo convoluted, I don't know if I can even attempt it. It has to do with watermelon being a food, but if no one has eaten any part of it, it is still whole in a container. Russian is so WEIRD! So anyway, we had a 6 page long test to fill in these types of words in sentences. Before the test our teacher said that she knew it was a lot, but that we shouldn't have to think about it very hard. By now it should be intuition. PFFFFTT! It might become intuitive after a long period of acquaintance with these words, and hearing them used all the time, but that is just not the case. It took us way too long to do that test.
Well, St. Petersburg was awesome, thanks for asking. It is so much better when it's not -100 degrees and windy. The sun was even shining on Saturday, so it was beautiful. We spent more than 3 hours wandering around the Hermitage, and boy did that wear us out. It was just too much to take in! Every room of the Hermitage is decorated differently and more beautifully than the last. We would walk into a room and our jaws would literally drop open in amazement. They also have such great art there! It probably has the best collection of art anywhere in the world. They have Da Vinci, Bernini, Van Gogh, Renoir, Cezanne, Manet, Monet, Degas, Rembrandt, El Greco, and basically any famous artist you can think of. Plus, they have a huge collection of ancient statues and art. I discovered that actually seeing a painting in person is much better than seeing a print of it. Especially for Van Gogh. His paintings have so much texture. I had always liked them before, but now I really know how awesome they really are.
After recovering from all the excitement of the Hermitage we went to Dom Knigi (House of Book). It really should be house of books, but the name literally means house of book, as in one book. It should be Dom Knig. It's the best bookstore in the world. It's located in the old Singer Sewing machine company building, which is gorgeous. It still says "Компания Зингерь" (singer company) above the door. I have now accomplished my goal of buying some Russian literature in Russian. I got some short stories by Pushkin, and A Hero of Our Time by Lermontov. Oh, and I musn't forget my purchase of HARRY POTTER IN RUSSIAN! So excited to begin the long process of reading that book.
We went to Shokolodnitsa for dinner. MMMMMMM. I had some melted chocolate in a cup. Not really, but that is what their hot chocolate is like. It is so powerful that they give you a tiny espresso cup, and also a large cup of water. I think it is the most delicious thing on earth.
We went to a Czech pub that night, after shopping at H&M, because it was Lindsay's birthday and we had to celebrate. I had some Czech beer, which was pretty good. I can admit that some beer is tasty, but I still don't prefer to drink it over other things. It's just kind of weird-tasting.
Ok, this is a completely different topic, but while I'm thinking of it I have to write it. No one here wants to make change. It is so annoying! The bank-o-mats usually only give out 1000 ruble bills, or 500's. But when you actually want to buy something, the cashiers look at your giant bill and ask you to look for correct change. And when you say that, unfortunately no, you do not have correct change, they all sigh heavily and rifle about in the cash drawer to plop down your change. Also, if you try to pay with a 100 ruble bill when your total was 67.87 or so, the cashier will always ask for a strange amount of rubles and kopecks. Like, 23.13. Plus, they talk very quietly and quickly, so a Russian may be able to understand the exact amount the cashier wants, but we most definitely cannot. I usually just poke around in my change purse and then woefully say, "Nyet," when I should say, "No! It's your JOB to make change! So do it!"
I'm getting really tired of potatoes. Come on now, not EVERY SINGLE DISH has to include potatoes. Seriously, what did Russia eat before they discovered potatoes? Gruel 24/7?
Today we had a test in Leksika class. The whole point of this class is to teach us minute differences between very similar words in Russian. For example, there are two words that mean whole, or entire: весь and целый. They are almost interchangeable, except for very stupid circumstances. If a whole watermelon is sitting on a table, it is целый арбуз. But, if you are eating the entire watermelon, it has to be весь арбуз. Our teacher thought we'd come to this understanding naturally, even though she'd never told us this weird distinction before the test. The explanation for this usage is sooooo convoluted, I don't know if I can even attempt it. It has to do with watermelon being a food, but if no one has eaten any part of it, it is still whole in a container. Russian is so WEIRD! So anyway, we had a 6 page long test to fill in these types of words in sentences. Before the test our teacher said that she knew it was a lot, but that we shouldn't have to think about it very hard. By now it should be intuition. PFFFFTT! It might become intuitive after a long period of acquaintance with these words, and hearing them used all the time, but that is just not the case. It took us way too long to do that test.
Well, St. Petersburg was awesome, thanks for asking. It is so much better when it's not -100 degrees and windy. The sun was even shining on Saturday, so it was beautiful. We spent more than 3 hours wandering around the Hermitage, and boy did that wear us out. It was just too much to take in! Every room of the Hermitage is decorated differently and more beautifully than the last. We would walk into a room and our jaws would literally drop open in amazement. They also have such great art there! It probably has the best collection of art anywhere in the world. They have Da Vinci, Bernini, Van Gogh, Renoir, Cezanne, Manet, Monet, Degas, Rembrandt, El Greco, and basically any famous artist you can think of. Plus, they have a huge collection of ancient statues and art. I discovered that actually seeing a painting in person is much better than seeing a print of it. Especially for Van Gogh. His paintings have so much texture. I had always liked them before, but now I really know how awesome they really are.
After recovering from all the excitement of the Hermitage we went to Dom Knigi (House of Book). It really should be house of books, but the name literally means house of book, as in one book. It should be Dom Knig. It's the best bookstore in the world. It's located in the old Singer Sewing machine company building, which is gorgeous. It still says "Компания Зингерь" (singer company) above the door. I have now accomplished my goal of buying some Russian literature in Russian. I got some short stories by Pushkin, and A Hero of Our Time by Lermontov. Oh, and I musn't forget my purchase of HARRY POTTER IN RUSSIAN! So excited to begin the long process of reading that book.
We went to Shokolodnitsa for dinner. MMMMMMM. I had some melted chocolate in a cup. Not really, but that is what their hot chocolate is like. It is so powerful that they give you a tiny espresso cup, and also a large cup of water. I think it is the most delicious thing on earth.
We went to a Czech pub that night, after shopping at H&M, because it was Lindsay's birthday and we had to celebrate. I had some Czech beer, which was pretty good. I can admit that some beer is tasty, but I still don't prefer to drink it over other things. It's just kind of weird-tasting.
Ok, this is a completely different topic, but while I'm thinking of it I have to write it. No one here wants to make change. It is so annoying! The bank-o-mats usually only give out 1000 ruble bills, or 500's. But when you actually want to buy something, the cashiers look at your giant bill and ask you to look for correct change. And when you say that, unfortunately no, you do not have correct change, they all sigh heavily and rifle about in the cash drawer to plop down your change. Also, if you try to pay with a 100 ruble bill when your total was 67.87 or so, the cashier will always ask for a strange amount of rubles and kopecks. Like, 23.13. Plus, they talk very quietly and quickly, so a Russian may be able to understand the exact amount the cashier wants, but we most definitely cannot. I usually just poke around in my change purse and then woefully say, "Nyet," when I should say, "No! It's your JOB to make change! So do it!"
I'm getting really tired of potatoes. Come on now, not EVERY SINGLE DISH has to include potatoes. Seriously, what did Russia eat before they discovered potatoes? Gruel 24/7?
Monday, October 4, 2010
Number One Fan
I learned a new word this week (well, not only this one, but it's the best): детка (dyetka). It means babe, or chick. This word comes from listening to the songs of Dima Bilan over and over again, as his is the only music I have on my netbook here, besides WAY too much Vysotsky. All day long I am singing in my head, "Я твой номер один, baby, я твой номер один...знаешь!" I believe I am becoming a hardcore Dima fan. Look him up on Youtube. He is pretty hilarious because he's a pop star, and boy does he know it!
Before I said that all of us love our literature class. Well, maybe I have to revise that and say we have a love/hate relationship with it. It is an excellent class because we read and discuss literature in Russian. However. It is an extremely frustrating class because we have to read and discuss literature in Russian. Coming from a liberal arts college, we are frequently asked to analyze works of literature, philosophy, theology, etc. Therefore we naturally jump to this method of thinking when reading something. In this class, our teacher does NOT want us to do this. We are asked simply to know what the text says, and answer very simple questions. It's really hard to just describe who has six bulls pulling his cart up the mountain, and who has four, rather than our favorite questions: what does this mean? Another note, it is very hard to tell who is talking in Russian literature. They love to use pronouns instead of actually saying which "he" it is that's talking. Plus, you're expected to memorize the name, patronymic, and last name of every character and be ready to recognize about whom they are talking in the event they use any of these names to describe someone. Sigh. It doesn't help that our teacher thinks we're pretty dull. She sighs and laughs at us all the time and doesn't give a lot of positive praise. I would hazard a guess that the Russian educational society hasn't been introduced to the theory that encourages teachers to encourage self-esteem in their students. There's no way any of our teachers would use a green pen instead of a red one in case red made us feel stupid.
In other happenings, we went to a lovely concert on Sunday, with three tenors. Not the Three Tenors, just three individual tenors. One was from Georgia (the country), one from Italy, and one from Mexico. The Mexican was absolutely adorable. He was so short and wearing a tux with tails, and he sang beautifully. One of his songs was "Besame mucho." One of the reasons he was so cute is because he was enjoying himself so much. When he was singing he was intent, but after he was done he was all smiley and gave everyone lots of thumbs ups. He liked to drag the accompanist up to bow after each song, which I think the accompanist thought was annoying. He seemed weirded out by the strange applause of the Russian audience, and I totally understand. They all clap in unison. It's so creepy and communist! It's like there's someone (aka Putin) hiding in the walls counting "Clap, 2, 3, 4, clap, 2, 3, 4." I refuse to clap with them. I don't care if it sounds dissonant, I don't want to be caught up in the creepiness. Anyway, he would bounce along with the beat of the clapping, and act like he was conducting us. It was so funny! I wanted to meet him and speak to him in whatever Spanish I could remember (mostly: Muchos Gracias! and Que pasa, calabaza?), but unfortunately the singers didn't come out into the hall at the end. But it was a great concert. They all together sang Funiculi, Funicula! It was one of their three encores.
I'm going to St. Petersburg this weekend! Hermitage here I come again! Maybe this time I will get to see at least half of it.
Пока!
Before I said that all of us love our literature class. Well, maybe I have to revise that and say we have a love/hate relationship with it. It is an excellent class because we read and discuss literature in Russian. However. It is an extremely frustrating class because we have to read and discuss literature in Russian. Coming from a liberal arts college, we are frequently asked to analyze works of literature, philosophy, theology, etc. Therefore we naturally jump to this method of thinking when reading something. In this class, our teacher does NOT want us to do this. We are asked simply to know what the text says, and answer very simple questions. It's really hard to just describe who has six bulls pulling his cart up the mountain, and who has four, rather than our favorite questions: what does this mean? Another note, it is very hard to tell who is talking in Russian literature. They love to use pronouns instead of actually saying which "he" it is that's talking. Plus, you're expected to memorize the name, patronymic, and last name of every character and be ready to recognize about whom they are talking in the event they use any of these names to describe someone. Sigh. It doesn't help that our teacher thinks we're pretty dull. She sighs and laughs at us all the time and doesn't give a lot of positive praise. I would hazard a guess that the Russian educational society hasn't been introduced to the theory that encourages teachers to encourage self-esteem in their students. There's no way any of our teachers would use a green pen instead of a red one in case red made us feel stupid.
In other happenings, we went to a lovely concert on Sunday, with three tenors. Not the Three Tenors, just three individual tenors. One was from Georgia (the country), one from Italy, and one from Mexico. The Mexican was absolutely adorable. He was so short and wearing a tux with tails, and he sang beautifully. One of his songs was "Besame mucho." One of the reasons he was so cute is because he was enjoying himself so much. When he was singing he was intent, but after he was done he was all smiley and gave everyone lots of thumbs ups. He liked to drag the accompanist up to bow after each song, which I think the accompanist thought was annoying. He seemed weirded out by the strange applause of the Russian audience, and I totally understand. They all clap in unison. It's so creepy and communist! It's like there's someone (aka Putin) hiding in the walls counting "Clap, 2, 3, 4, clap, 2, 3, 4." I refuse to clap with them. I don't care if it sounds dissonant, I don't want to be caught up in the creepiness. Anyway, he would bounce along with the beat of the clapping, and act like he was conducting us. It was so funny! I wanted to meet him and speak to him in whatever Spanish I could remember (mostly: Muchos Gracias! and Que pasa, calabaza?), but unfortunately the singers didn't come out into the hall at the end. But it was a great concert. They all together sang Funiculi, Funicula! It was one of their three encores.
I'm going to St. Petersburg this weekend! Hermitage here I come again! Maybe this time I will get to see at least half of it.
Пока!
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Some pictures
This is a fountain of the sea god. A very old legend of Novgorod tells of the musician Sadko. He played such beautiful music that the sea god called him to his palace to play under the sea. After he played, the sea god married Sadko to one of his daughters, the Princess Volkhova. But Sadko could never be happy under the sea, because he loved his fair city of Novgorod, which is situated on the Volkhov river.
Here's a view of the beach by the Kremlin, and the river heading to Lake Ilmen.
This is one of the Kremlin towers that I thought was cool. They are all cool, but this one has a fresco of sorts, and a cross in the side.
This is the monument of 1000 years of Russia. It was made in 1862 all out of brass. There are figures on it from all of Russian history. There's a bride and groom in front, getting their pictures taken. It seems to be a tradition here to get pictures in front of this statue, and in front of the art museum nearby. I have seen so many weddings!
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Another week
Well, not much very exciting happened this week. Other than finally acquiring a Рив Гош plastic bag. It goes against my bargain senses to buy anything from this makeup store, because nothing is very cheap there. But, I had to have the bag!!! I'm not sure what the attraction is for carrying this specific plastic bag everywhere. I know Russians are especially fond of makeup, so maybe this store is their mecca, full of all the makeup anyone could ever want. I got some purple mascara. I can't wait to wear it everywhere!
The nice blue tights I had brought from home got a run the first time I wore them. Stupidly, they were the only pair of tights I brought. I finally bought some the other day, from a little store in the giant mall next to the university. Can I just say I hate shopping like that? Where you have to look at all the options behind glass cases, and then talk to the shop owner to find out which ones are actually available and in your size. Of course, here I have no idea what my size is. So, with my limited vocabulary, I pointed to different pairs and none of them were available. She suggested a black pair with an argyle pattern, so I was like, "Sure." Anything to be done with this uncomfortable situation trying to talk with a surly Russian seller. I got them, even though they were $10. Way too much for tights! I wore them the next day with my new high heels and my black dress. I felt so Russian! Until we had to walk about 50 miles to the grade school to talk with the 17 year olds again. Halfway there it started to feel like the skin was being scratched off my feet from the friction with the tights. I was limping all the way there and sweating all over in my leather jacket. Turns out my new tights, which kind of resemble fishnets only with tiny holes, had given me giant blisters. Fun! The one on my left foot was kind of shaped like India. I'm not wearing those tights again without other softer socks beneath them.
Living here is expensive. My host sister Marina and her husband are looking for an apartment (I think?) and they are all expensive. Even the ones with only 3 rooms! Those are about $150,000. A nice apartment, that seems more like a condo, with two floors, a garage, 2 bathrooms, and 5 rooms in all is $300,000. My host brother Sasha has been looking for a car for the entire month that I've been here. The men in the family discuss cars every single time they are together, and debate tiny little details of the benefits to one kind over another. I think Sasha's planning to go to Moscow to get his car, which seems really weird. There are car sellers here, and I'm sure they have cheap cars, why go 9 hours away to get one? Maybe they only sell old Ladas here, and he doesn't want one of those. Good for him, I say. Too many people here still have old Ladas.
Yesterday was such a nice day. No one else wanted to do anything, so I took a bus to the Kremlin park and walked all the way around the Kremlin. It was so beautiful! There were lots of gnats that liked to get in my hair, which was GROSS, but it was such a beautiful day I didn't really mind. There were lots of little kids riding on horses throughout the park, and even a donkey pulling a carriage. Some guy running an archery stall called me over and asked for change for his 100 ruble bill. I totally understood him and was able to give him two 50's! I took lots and lots of pictures of all the towers of the Kremlin, which I will upload when I have access to reasonable speed internet. I then went to Lenta, which is kind of like Wal-Mart. It was so much like shopping at home! Except for everything being in Cyrillic, and the million cans of pate in the canned food aisle. I got me some Italian trouser socks for $1. And some chocolate covered halva. MMMMMM. That stuff is better than Reese's. Really, it is. The guy in front of me at the checkout asked me if he could use my Lenta card, and I had to tell him I didn't have one. At least I hope that's what he wanted.
Stay tuned for further developments.
The nice blue tights I had brought from home got a run the first time I wore them. Stupidly, they were the only pair of tights I brought. I finally bought some the other day, from a little store in the giant mall next to the university. Can I just say I hate shopping like that? Where you have to look at all the options behind glass cases, and then talk to the shop owner to find out which ones are actually available and in your size. Of course, here I have no idea what my size is. So, with my limited vocabulary, I pointed to different pairs and none of them were available. She suggested a black pair with an argyle pattern, so I was like, "Sure." Anything to be done with this uncomfortable situation trying to talk with a surly Russian seller. I got them, even though they were $10. Way too much for tights! I wore them the next day with my new high heels and my black dress. I felt so Russian! Until we had to walk about 50 miles to the grade school to talk with the 17 year olds again. Halfway there it started to feel like the skin was being scratched off my feet from the friction with the tights. I was limping all the way there and sweating all over in my leather jacket. Turns out my new tights, which kind of resemble fishnets only with tiny holes, had given me giant blisters. Fun! The one on my left foot was kind of shaped like India. I'm not wearing those tights again without other softer socks beneath them.
Living here is expensive. My host sister Marina and her husband are looking for an apartment (I think?) and they are all expensive. Even the ones with only 3 rooms! Those are about $150,000. A nice apartment, that seems more like a condo, with two floors, a garage, 2 bathrooms, and 5 rooms in all is $300,000. My host brother Sasha has been looking for a car for the entire month that I've been here. The men in the family discuss cars every single time they are together, and debate tiny little details of the benefits to one kind over another. I think Sasha's planning to go to Moscow to get his car, which seems really weird. There are car sellers here, and I'm sure they have cheap cars, why go 9 hours away to get one? Maybe they only sell old Ladas here, and he doesn't want one of those. Good for him, I say. Too many people here still have old Ladas.
Yesterday was such a nice day. No one else wanted to do anything, so I took a bus to the Kremlin park and walked all the way around the Kremlin. It was so beautiful! There were lots of gnats that liked to get in my hair, which was GROSS, but it was such a beautiful day I didn't really mind. There were lots of little kids riding on horses throughout the park, and even a donkey pulling a carriage. Some guy running an archery stall called me over and asked for change for his 100 ruble bill. I totally understood him and was able to give him two 50's! I took lots and lots of pictures of all the towers of the Kremlin, which I will upload when I have access to reasonable speed internet. I then went to Lenta, which is kind of like Wal-Mart. It was so much like shopping at home! Except for everything being in Cyrillic, and the million cans of pate in the canned food aisle. I got me some Italian trouser socks for $1. And some chocolate covered halva. MMMMMM. That stuff is better than Reese's. Really, it is. The guy in front of me at the checkout asked me if he could use my Lenta card, and I had to tell him I didn't have one. At least I hope that's what he wanted.
Stay tuned for further developments.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Livi, Lydia and the Antechamber of Doom
Ok, so Russians are kind of paranoid about home security. The doors all have four locking mechanisms, so you have to turn the key four times to get in or out. In most of these buildings, there are some apartments that share a big safe outer door, and then have two inner doors to different apartments. Livi has one like this. So. I went over to Livi's today, we were all going to do homework and hang out together. Lindsay was arriving, and Livi and I started to leave the apartment to go meet her. We walked out the first door into the antechamber without any of our stuff; we figured it would be a short trip. Livi locks the door behind us, turns around, sticks her hand in her pocket for the keys to the outer door, then looks at me with a horrified wide-eyed stare. We were trapped!! Livi had left her keys inside! She immediately starts freaking out, "I can't believe I did that! What are we going to do! I'm so sorry! What's Lindsay going to think? Oh God, I'm going to throw up." I'm trying to remain calm, to reason how we are going to get out of this mess. I say, "It's ok, it's an adventure. We will laugh when we tell this story." I try wiggling the handle of the inner door, hoping the lock will pop out. No luck. I try seriously yanking on the door, willing something to give, but no luck. Livi spotted a loose wire on the doormat, so we pried that off and straightened it, and then attempted to pick the lock. Again, no luck. I think those doors are built to be unpickable. About this time (maybe after 15-20 mins?) I was noticing a lack of fresh air. I looked again at the outside door and saw that it was pretty much all sealed up around there. I thought there were gaps, but no. Now I had to worry about air! I thought, "We are going to suffocate in this vestibule because Russians are too good at security." And because Livi's neighbor appeared not to be home. We had knocked before. Livi knocked very loudly again, out of desperation, and a wish to not have to shout "POMOGI MNE!" Luckily, she answered!!! We explained in very broken terms our situation, and she invited us in to sit in her living room. She thought we would just wait for Livi's parents to get home, but then we had to tell her that they were at the dacha. She went, "Ohhhh." She went downstairs to talk to someone, because she didn't have the mobile number for Mama Lena. Eventually she returned and explained that Livi's host sister Nastya was walking from her apartment to come open the door. We were saved!!! We thanked everyone profusely for going to so much trouble for us, and then sat in Livi's room trying to calm our nerves. First we had to call Lindsay and explain why we never responded to her calls or came outside. She thought we must have gotten carbon monoxide poisoning. Once that was all straightened out, we popped open our cans of watermelon cocktail and grapefruit gin and tonic and took a few deep breaths.
TODAY'S LESSON: Never EVER leave your house without your keys and a phone. Also, learn how to pick locks.
TODAY'S LESSON: Never EVER leave your house without your keys and a phone. Also, learn how to pick locks.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
We no speak Americano
Have you heard this song? It is ridiculously popular here. Everyone has it as their ringtones, and I hear it being played ALL the TIME! It's a very catchy tune.
So on Thursday Lindsay, Livi, and I went to a grade school after classes. We thought we were going to be talking with little kids in English, but nooo. We were shown to the 11th grade classroom full of 17 year old boys who are going to be engineers. Needless to say, they found us very entertaining. It was such a relief to go and talk about our favorite movies and hobbies, etc. after a class spent trying to understand Russian literature. I shouldn't complain too much about the Russian literature though, because it's the best class EVER. It is so helpful to read Pushkin in Russian, and learn new words and phrases in context, and then talk about what these phrases mean very simply in Russian. Pushkin writes so cleverly, it's really wonderful to read his actual phrases, rather than English translations.
But back to 17 year old Russian boys... They are so cool! After we chatted with them in the classroom, they escorted us home. A big group of 7 or so teenage boys walked us back to our street. Mikael and Aleks in particular are characters. Mikael was wearing saggy jeans, a huge hoodie and a backwards cap. He listens to a bunch of rap, and also does parkour, which is says is not very scary or dangerous, just very exciting. Except for the time when he fell on his head, of course, but he was lucky that time and didn't have to get stitches. Aleks is a break dancer. He says he will teach us how to do it, and that it is not very hard. Ha! Several of these boys are dancers, but only hip hop and break dancing. They didn't seem too excited when I told them I do ballroom dancing. They were very excited when I said I could drive. Aleks was all, "Wow, that is so cool!" They were trying to convince us to go to this club, "Night Ocean" which we have heard is somewhere never to go from people our age. Mikael thinks it is awesome.
Hahaha!!! These boys are so hilarious, because they are so eager to talk to us and entertain us. I think Thursdays will be fun every week.
Yesterday we had an excursion about the Kremlin. Our tour guide told us all about the statue in the middle that everyone in Novgorod is practically in love with, the statue for the millennium of Russia, built in 1862. It has figures from all of Russian history all over it from Rurik the founder of Novgorod to Catherine the Great. The Germans were going to steal it during World War II, as a sign that they had conquered Russia, but lo and behold, the day they were going to move it became the day Novgorod was liberated. Hah! We also went in St. Sofia's cathedral, which was built in 1040 something, and talked about all the inscriptions Novgorodians had scribed in the walls of churches. They found one from the 13th century that said, "Clergymen, please stop drinking!" There was a wedding going on in the cathedral while we were there, with a small choir singing all the bits of the liturgy in lovely a Capella harmony.
So on Thursday Lindsay, Livi, and I went to a grade school after classes. We thought we were going to be talking with little kids in English, but nooo. We were shown to the 11th grade classroom full of 17 year old boys who are going to be engineers. Needless to say, they found us very entertaining. It was such a relief to go and talk about our favorite movies and hobbies, etc. after a class spent trying to understand Russian literature. I shouldn't complain too much about the Russian literature though, because it's the best class EVER. It is so helpful to read Pushkin in Russian, and learn new words and phrases in context, and then talk about what these phrases mean very simply in Russian. Pushkin writes so cleverly, it's really wonderful to read his actual phrases, rather than English translations.
But back to 17 year old Russian boys... They are so cool! After we chatted with them in the classroom, they escorted us home. A big group of 7 or so teenage boys walked us back to our street. Mikael and Aleks in particular are characters. Mikael was wearing saggy jeans, a huge hoodie and a backwards cap. He listens to a bunch of rap, and also does parkour, which is says is not very scary or dangerous, just very exciting. Except for the time when he fell on his head, of course, but he was lucky that time and didn't have to get stitches. Aleks is a break dancer. He says he will teach us how to do it, and that it is not very hard. Ha! Several of these boys are dancers, but only hip hop and break dancing. They didn't seem too excited when I told them I do ballroom dancing. They were very excited when I said I could drive. Aleks was all, "Wow, that is so cool!" They were trying to convince us to go to this club, "Night Ocean" which we have heard is somewhere never to go from people our age. Mikael thinks it is awesome.
Hahaha!!! These boys are so hilarious, because they are so eager to talk to us and entertain us. I think Thursdays will be fun every week.
Yesterday we had an excursion about the Kremlin. Our tour guide told us all about the statue in the middle that everyone in Novgorod is practically in love with, the statue for the millennium of Russia, built in 1862. It has figures from all of Russian history all over it from Rurik the founder of Novgorod to Catherine the Great. The Germans were going to steal it during World War II, as a sign that they had conquered Russia, but lo and behold, the day they were going to move it became the day Novgorod was liberated. Hah! We also went in St. Sofia's cathedral, which was built in 1040 something, and talked about all the inscriptions Novgorodians had scribed in the walls of churches. They found one from the 13th century that said, "Clergymen, please stop drinking!" There was a wedding going on in the cathedral while we were there, with a small choir singing all the bits of the liturgy in lovely a Capella harmony.
This is a really bad picture of me in my purple leather jacket, and my new scarf.
Then they took us to the humanities campus of the university, which is situated in an old monastery, from the 12th century. It's really beautiful over there. But, they didn't let us eat lunch!!!! We had to talk to the English students of the university for a long time. They were nice and all, but we were all starving!! As soon as that was over we went and got shawerma, which totally hit the spot.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Strange Love
So yesterday I bought some green apple juice boxes, because I was so thirsty. It seems like Russia is trying its best to dehydrate us. Russians only drink tea after meals, and alcohol if so inclined. They think it is really weird that all of us Americans drink so much water. Like water isn't worth drinking or something. And coffee! They don't believe in real coffee here. It's instant everywhere. Lindsay's family is so lucky to have a coffee maker! Andrew's family has a french press, but they think it's for tea. Instant coffee is SO GROSS! I can't wait to get to shokolodnitsa in Moscow and have some real coffee drinks.
We finally decided what to do for our two week break! Going to Irkutsk was toooo expensive. $600 for a round trip ticket! The train was kinda spensive too, and it would have taken too long. We'll just have to get to Lake Baikal some other time. This time we're going to Sochi, where the 2014 winter Olympics will be. It's in the south, on the Black Sea. It will be warm! And there are beaches! And mountains! It will be a real vacation. And the best part is the ridiculously cheap hostel we found to stay in. My host mom said we should just show up in the train station and there would be people there holding signs saying they are renting rooms. I thought that sounded like a scary idea, but she said it is really cheap. I guess I'd rather pay for knowing that we have a place to stay. We're stopping in Moscow first, before Sochi, for 5 days. I will get to show everybody around the city, especially because we're staying at Godzilla's hostel again. Maybe this time I will finally get to the space museum! Unless it's only open from 2:00 to 2:30 for tours
Oh, the name of this post refers to the name of the ice cream treat I ate yesterday. It was a waffle cone lined with chocolate, with vanilla ice cream and black currant flavor in the middle. MMMMM. It sure was my "Strange Love." Why don't we have black currants in the U.S. everywhere? They are DELICIOUS.
We finally decided what to do for our two week break! Going to Irkutsk was toooo expensive. $600 for a round trip ticket! The train was kinda spensive too, and it would have taken too long. We'll just have to get to Lake Baikal some other time. This time we're going to Sochi, where the 2014 winter Olympics will be. It's in the south, on the Black Sea. It will be warm! And there are beaches! And mountains! It will be a real vacation. And the best part is the ridiculously cheap hostel we found to stay in. My host mom said we should just show up in the train station and there would be people there holding signs saying they are renting rooms. I thought that sounded like a scary idea, but she said it is really cheap. I guess I'd rather pay for knowing that we have a place to stay. We're stopping in Moscow first, before Sochi, for 5 days. I will get to show everybody around the city, especially because we're staying at Godzilla's hostel again. Maybe this time I will finally get to the space museum! Unless it's only open from 2:00 to 2:30 for tours
Oh, the name of this post refers to the name of the ice cream treat I ate yesterday. It was a waffle cone lined with chocolate, with vanilla ice cream and black currant flavor in the middle. MMMMM. It sure was my "Strange Love." Why don't we have black currants in the U.S. everywhere? They are DELICIOUS.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Holodets
The one thing I hoped I'd never have to eat in Russia was meat jello, which I have discovered is called holodets. This first week I never heard anything about it, but last night I sat down to dinner and my host mom brings this bowl out of the fridge and sets it down in front of me. As soon as I saw it, I knew- this was meat jello. The family was very interested in my reactions to this new food substance. The kept urging me to try it. I asked, "Is it tasty?" They just said, "Well, just try it!" Meanwhile my host sister Marina was digging in, scooping up large pieces of gelatin and chicken. So, I dipped my fork in and took a bite. My eyebrows went up in surprise, because it is actually not bad! The chicken was really good, at least. I told the family that I was surprised that it was tasty, because I'd heard of it before and thought it would be nasty. I would still much rather have the chicken on its own rather than suspended in gelatin, but at least now I know I can eat it, and that it's way better than lutefisk.
I told my host mom that I was thinking of buying new shoes because my tennis shoes are "not beautiful." And nobody wears them. So Marina took me shopping yesterday, and I got some real Russian heeled shoes. They are not ridiculous heels, but higher than I've ever worn before. And they were more expensive than any shoes I have bought before! $70, or so. I said that seemed expensive, but Marina said it's a very normal price. Her husband Lyosha bought some shoes recently for $150. They pay a heck of a lot for clothes and shoes here, which is odd, because the food is so darn cheap.
We have found the perfect cafe to go to after school and drink coffee- called Black Continent. It is the coziest little place, and not too expensive. I had some delicious coffee there yesterday that had peppercorns in it! I found this out when I drank the last bits from the cup and unpleasantly discovered that the crunchy bits on the bottom were not bits from the sugar/honey lump I put in, but peppercorns. This cafe also has great ice cream, including cheese flavor. We saw this on the menu and thought it must mean cheesecake, or something. But no, it was really cheese flavor, including little bits of cheese in the ice cream. It was surprisingly good, but sooooooo strange!
I now have internet on my laptop. I bought a mobile modem for $20, and have internet for no extra money all the way until December! WOOT!
I told my host mom that I was thinking of buying new shoes because my tennis shoes are "not beautiful." And nobody wears them. So Marina took me shopping yesterday, and I got some real Russian heeled shoes. They are not ridiculous heels, but higher than I've ever worn before. And they were more expensive than any shoes I have bought before! $70, or so. I said that seemed expensive, but Marina said it's a very normal price. Her husband Lyosha bought some shoes recently for $150. They pay a heck of a lot for clothes and shoes here, which is odd, because the food is so darn cheap.
We have found the perfect cafe to go to after school and drink coffee- called Black Continent. It is the coziest little place, and not too expensive. I had some delicious coffee there yesterday that had peppercorns in it! I found this out when I drank the last bits from the cup and unpleasantly discovered that the crunchy bits on the bottom were not bits from the sugar/honey lump I put in, but peppercorns. This cafe also has great ice cream, including cheese flavor. We saw this on the menu and thought it must mean cheesecake, or something. But no, it was really cheese flavor, including little bits of cheese in the ice cream. It was surprisingly good, but sooooooo strange!
I now have internet on my laptop. I bought a mobile modem for $20, and have internet for no extra money all the way until December! WOOT!
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Germs
There isn't any soap in the bathroom at the university so I had to buy some. I wanted hand sanitizer, but they didn't have any. Russians don't care very much about germs. They don't wash their hands after using the bathroom, and they are not fond of using tissues. It makes me wonder why they aren't sick all the time. Maybe their home remedies are really reallly good or something.
So yesterday was an adventure. We walked a long way to the center of town. (Within walking distance, my foot. Maybe if you aren't carrying a heavy bag and a jacket and wearing comfortable shoes.) And then we took our favorite bus number 16 back. 16 goes everywhere! It goes right by the two sections of town where all of us live, right by the university, pretty much anywhere. We went to an Irish pub last night. It's always interesting to see how the Russians think of England and such. Phil Collins and Amy Winehouse were playing the whole time. Livi convinced me to try some Hoegarten (sp?) beer. It was inoffensive, but still tasted like beer. We tried to head back around 10:30, but the buses run rarely at that time. We had to get on 6, and we'd never ridden that before. So we ended up having to walk half an hour through the maze of apartment buildings and double back the way the bus went to find our houses. But we made it! What adventures.
Today we ate at Chainaya Loshka! One of my favorite places! They have real coffee!!!
Why did I bring my tennis shoes??!?! No one wears them! I stick out so badly like a foreigner! I might just have to buy some real Russian heeled boots. If anyone carries size ginormous feets.
I'm going to Livi's to do homework and pet cats!
Do zaftra...
So yesterday was an adventure. We walked a long way to the center of town. (Within walking distance, my foot. Maybe if you aren't carrying a heavy bag and a jacket and wearing comfortable shoes.) And then we took our favorite bus number 16 back. 16 goes everywhere! It goes right by the two sections of town where all of us live, right by the university, pretty much anywhere. We went to an Irish pub last night. It's always interesting to see how the Russians think of England and such. Phil Collins and Amy Winehouse were playing the whole time. Livi convinced me to try some Hoegarten (sp?) beer. It was inoffensive, but still tasted like beer. We tried to head back around 10:30, but the buses run rarely at that time. We had to get on 6, and we'd never ridden that before. So we ended up having to walk half an hour through the maze of apartment buildings and double back the way the bus went to find our houses. But we made it! What adventures.
Today we ate at Chainaya Loshka! One of my favorite places! They have real coffee!!!
Why did I bring my tennis shoes??!?! No one wears them! I stick out so badly like a foreigner! I might just have to buy some real Russian heeled boots. If anyone carries size ginormous feets.
I'm going to Livi's to do homework and pet cats!
Do zaftra...
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Mushrooms
Hello!
This has been quite a lazy weekend for me. I actually got up at around 9 both today and yesterday, so I feel special. My host mom tells me she will teach me how to cook borshch! Yesterday, my host sister Marina and her husband Lyosha went in the forest near the family's dacha and picked mushrooms. Lots and lots of mushrooms. There were some really gigantic ones, and so many different kinds I couldn't count. Some orange ones were eventually deemed to be poisonous after much discussion and consultation of mushroom authority books. Thank goodness for that! Then they asked me what kinds of mushrooms we had in America. I had to look through all the pictures of hundreds of kinds of mushrooms to find recognizable ones. I saw the Champignon mushrooms, and morels. The others I have no idea. Yesterday we were eating prunes. Lyosha told me what they are by saying that old people drink their juice a lot. Got it: sliva= prune. They are really tart! I bought a phone yesterday too, a really cheap one for only 850 rubles. Marina's brother Sasha had to bring my a sim card. So now I can call people! But only 50 rubles worth of calls. Later they will tell me how to add money. Sasha's little son doesn't quite know what to make of me. He'll run into the room and then just stare at me with a little smile. He's really cute, and can't pronounce tomato (pomidorka). He calls them opidorka, which the whole family thinks is hilarious. It was supposed to be sunny today, but there are still some clouds. I don't think it has rained yet today, but it's still kind of cold. The Dad and Lyosha went out hunting today. I wonder if they will bring back a huge boar head to put in the shower room to match the one in the bathroom. Lyosha says my host Dad is the best hunter in the country.
Well, I can't wait for school to start so I'll have stuff to do. I'm over jet lag, I think, and ready to feel like I'm living here.
This has been quite a lazy weekend for me. I actually got up at around 9 both today and yesterday, so I feel special. My host mom tells me she will teach me how to cook borshch! Yesterday, my host sister Marina and her husband Lyosha went in the forest near the family's dacha and picked mushrooms. Lots and lots of mushrooms. There were some really gigantic ones, and so many different kinds I couldn't count. Some orange ones were eventually deemed to be poisonous after much discussion and consultation of mushroom authority books. Thank goodness for that! Then they asked me what kinds of mushrooms we had in America. I had to look through all the pictures of hundreds of kinds of mushrooms to find recognizable ones. I saw the Champignon mushrooms, and morels. The others I have no idea. Yesterday we were eating prunes. Lyosha told me what they are by saying that old people drink their juice a lot. Got it: sliva= prune. They are really tart! I bought a phone yesterday too, a really cheap one for only 850 rubles. Marina's brother Sasha had to bring my a sim card. So now I can call people! But only 50 rubles worth of calls. Later they will tell me how to add money. Sasha's little son doesn't quite know what to make of me. He'll run into the room and then just stare at me with a little smile. He's really cute, and can't pronounce tomato (pomidorka). He calls them opidorka, which the whole family thinks is hilarious. It was supposed to be sunny today, but there are still some clouds. I don't think it has rained yet today, but it's still kind of cold. The Dad and Lyosha went out hunting today. I wonder if they will bring back a huge boar head to put in the shower room to match the one in the bathroom. Lyosha says my host Dad is the best hunter in the country.
Well, I can't wait for school to start so I'll have stuff to do. I'm over jet lag, I think, and ready to feel like I'm living here.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Here I am!
So far, everything's good. I have a really nice family that has hosted Oles before, so they are pros. They know just how slow to talk, and are very good at synonyms when I don't know a word. I have my own room with a TV! I am always being fed. When I am in the kitchen it's constantly, "Will you have tea? Cheese? Butter? Jam? Sour Cream? Sauce? Compote?" The food's pretty delicious. There are fresh home-grown tomatoes, cucumbers, and apples from their dacha. And my host mom makes really good juice from their home-grown strawberries. I have a family with a Dad, Mom, daughter and her husband, and the son lives a couple minutes away in another apartment building. I have the only real bed in the apartment, everyone else sleeps on foldout couches. I suppose there isn't much comfort difference between them. The Mom likes to eat mayonnaise in her soup. I can't imagine that being good. Some of the family speak a little English, and they are so cute trying it out and trying to remember how to say things. Today we were shown around the center of the city, which is pretty far from where I live. It was just as I remember from January, but way less cold! There were four weddings going on inside the Kremlin today. And it's not even a very nice day! The brides kept having to hold up their dresses from the puddles. I haven't given the family their chocolates yet, because Livi told us to wait to give them their gifts. Maybe I'll give those tonight. I hope the bourbon balls are good.
Hopefully sometime this weekend we'll get to go shopping so I can buy an alarm clock and a cell phone. And some new tights. The first time I wore these nice blue tights, and they get a run! I'm so bad at tights. I should just stock up on wool ones. Those are sturdier.
It's going to rain some more. My family says it's supposed to get nicer on Sunday. That would be nice.
Hopefully sometime this weekend we'll get to go shopping so I can buy an alarm clock and a cell phone. And some new tights. The first time I wore these nice blue tights, and they get a run! I'm so bad at tights. I should just stock up on wool ones. Those are sturdier.
It's going to rain some more. My family says it's supposed to get nicer on Sunday. That would be nice.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Airports
Don't you just love airports? Every little thing about the workings of an airport seems to be designed to drive passengers crazy. I'm just sitting in the very small food court of the international terminal waiting for the dumb ticket people to arrive. Apparently being a ticket person in the international terminal is a good gig. You don't have to come to work until a few hours before the one flight of the day for your airlines. I was so tired of sitting in the sun looking at empty desks that I finally tried to check in using the few self-check in machines. None of them could read either of the credit cards I have with me, and the only other options are to scan your ticket, or enter your booking number. Of course, I never write down any of my important numbers for flights, so I had to buy some internet to look that up. Finally the self-check in started to work! Unfortunately it only checked me in to Stockholm. I don't want to have to check in yet again! But I sullenly accepted the fact that I would and tried to enter the terminal area. The passport checker lady didn't let me in because my flight isn't for another 5 1/2 hours. At least the Louisville lady was nice enough to check my luggage all the way to St. Petersburg so I didn't have to deal with all that again in Chicago.
By the way, peanut butter is NOT allowed to be in your carry-on.
I will update as soon as more information is available, ladies and gentlemen. Please remain in the gate area.
By the way, peanut butter is NOT allowed to be in your carry-on.
I will update as soon as more information is available, ladies and gentlemen. Please remain in the gate area.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
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