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.
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