1-29-07
I am wearing sock liners and fleece socks and slippers. My feet are still cold and probably won’t be comfortable until right before I take off my socks to shower.
Moving on, yesterday was the scavenger hunt. This was a 7-hour long scavenger hunt. It’s probably the most exhausting experience I’ve been through in this country, so far. 7 straight hours of running from location to location, taking pictures of things and buying things and taking tramvais and the metro and every possible means of transportation for 7 straight hours. And then not winning. At that point, I really didn’t care. I’d say that the scavenger hunt was about the voyage, not the destination, but the voyage exhausted me so much I’d rather not think about it.
However, my personal high point of the scavenger hunt was that I successfully hailed my first gypsy cab! Woo! Our group had split up and after Anthony, William and I ended up at the Armenian cemetery instead of the Armenian church, we took a gypsy cab back to a metro station to meet up with our team. We were told that, if possible, a girl should negotiate the price because they’ll always get a discount, and that the negotiator should, if possible, be the person with the best Russian. Surprise, surprise, I was the girl and the one with the best Russian out of the three of us. So I stepped off of the curb and assumed the hailing position. No, it does not involve showing any leg. Although I did take my hat off. The hailing position is just to stand with your right arm slightly raised out from your body, roughly at a 45-degree angle. Lo and behold, within a minute a guy pulled up and we got a nice cheap price. He had goofy Russian pop playing and blue zebra-patterned seat covers. So that was that.
After the scavenger hunt, I came back here and absolutely devoured my dinner. While I was eating, I noticed that Marina was watching the figure skating special “Plushenko and Friends.” They love Evgeny Plushenko here. Or, as Marina corrected me, he prefers to just go by “Geny.” She took her food in to the living room to watch, and after I was done I joined her. If it’s not the Olympics, I’m not really a figure skating fan, but at that point I was so exhausted it was kind of just flowing over me as opposed to me actively watching it. After about an hour of figure skating, I did by homework and collapsed.
Today nothing of note happened, but Marina informed be that it was –13 this morning. That’s Celsius. Tomorrow I’m thinking that I’m going to post this from Kolobok after school and then just take the Metro home. Classes are understandable and homework is busy work. Back in Indiana, I only had one class that had this kind of daily busy work schedule, and that was Russian. The rest of my classes were lectures. But here I’ve got Grammar, Phonetics, and Conversation with nightly work in addition to Gazeta, Civilization, and Literature. Sigh. I guess this means I’m settled into a routine, which is what I wanted so dearly back earlier this month.
I took a few pictures yesterday, I’ll upload them now so that I can post some of them the next time I’m online on this computer. I’ll also try to post some more pictures from Pavlovsk, instead of just one of a lion and the same picture of a kid and some birds twice.
Monday, February 5, 2007
Saturday, January 27, 2007
1-27-07
IMPORTANT---Posts should be read in order of date, ie, scroll down to the earlier ones first. I write this on my computer and then post them online when I can. Also, I'm a moron, so some of them are dated '06 and one of them is posted twice. Whatever.
1-27-06
I am currently in the internet café near the Metro. It’s Saturday night and Kate and I met up here with our laptops to feel connected to the world again. It’s a nice feeling. You know what else was a nice feeling? Sleeping in this morning. I didn’t wake up until there was actually light coming through my curtains. Yeah, first time that’s happened. Marina also slept in. I had a nice hot shower and then an omelet. I wish I could start every day here like that.
Then I met up with the rest of the CIEE gang at Pushkinskaya Metro station and we boarded a train to Pavlovsk. Pavlovsk is the site of the palace of Paul I. The palace was a palace, nothing too exciting. Okay, that sounds stupid, but really. It’s just so ridiculous to walk into opulent room after opulent room in the house of a guy who was only tsar for three years. He was strangled to death in his other palace in St. Petersburg because of his unpopular policies. What could be so unpopular? Perhaps enforcing a citywide bedtime in St. Petersburg of 8 o’clock and expecting nobles to rise at 5am to work in the city. This came after the liberal late-night partying of his mother, Catherine the Great’s, era.
What’s really great about Pavlovsk is the grounds. It’s on a 400-hectare (Marina showed me a book about it after dinner tonight) parcel of land that’s largely birch and pine forest. This, combined with the fact that it snowed last night and today and the place was beautiful. I took a ridiculous amount of pictures, and I’ll see if I can figure out how to put some on here.
After that it was a long, cold train ride back. Dinner tonight indicated that Marina has, I believe, exhausted her culinary repertoire, as it was a repeat of my first night’s meal and my breakfast was a repeat of my first breakfast. That’s fine with me, everything was tasty. While I was eating dinner, I heard familiar music come from the TV. Marina must’ve seen me perk up, because she went and turned it up so we could both watch and listen from the kitchen. It was the Russian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire! I actually was able to get a question right that had the contestant and Marina stumped. The question asked what was Rambo’s first name. I was so confused just hearing the question because in Russian, the ‘a’ in Rambo receives the stress, so the ‘o’ automatically reverts to sounding like an ‘a’. This meant that they kept saying “Ramba” and I had no idea who Ramba was and no idea what his first name was. But then I realized they were also saying “Stallone” and made the connection. I watched the rest of it together with Marina and she translated for me the questions that I couldn’t understand.
She then gave me the book on Pavlovsk and showed me her TV program guide that indicated there was an American movie on and asked me if I wanted to watch it. It’s always nice to hear a poorly dubbed movie, so I watched about an hour of “Ashanti” starring Michael Caine and Peter Ustinov. After that, I came here, and here I am.
Today marks the 63rd anniversary of the breaking of the blockade of Leningrad during WWII. There were parades, which I missed because I was in Pavlovsk. There are also terrifying commercials on with pictures of things like the Bronze Horseman statue boarded up and search lights going back and forth over a dark St. Petersburg. The only noise in the commercials is the sound of an air raid siren and then the words “We Remember” come up on the screen. Marina mentioned the anniversary as I was on my way out the door. I really want to ask her about it, if she was here for it, but that’s kind of an awkward question to ask. If I do, I’ll write about it, for sure.
1-27-06
I am currently in the internet café near the Metro. It’s Saturday night and Kate and I met up here with our laptops to feel connected to the world again. It’s a nice feeling. You know what else was a nice feeling? Sleeping in this morning. I didn’t wake up until there was actually light coming through my curtains. Yeah, first time that’s happened. Marina also slept in. I had a nice hot shower and then an omelet. I wish I could start every day here like that.
Then I met up with the rest of the CIEE gang at Pushkinskaya Metro station and we boarded a train to Pavlovsk. Pavlovsk is the site of the palace of Paul I. The palace was a palace, nothing too exciting. Okay, that sounds stupid, but really. It’s just so ridiculous to walk into opulent room after opulent room in the house of a guy who was only tsar for three years. He was strangled to death in his other palace in St. Petersburg because of his unpopular policies. What could be so unpopular? Perhaps enforcing a citywide bedtime in St. Petersburg of 8 o’clock and expecting nobles to rise at 5am to work in the city. This came after the liberal late-night partying of his mother, Catherine the Great’s, era.
What’s really great about Pavlovsk is the grounds. It’s on a 400-hectare (Marina showed me a book about it after dinner tonight) parcel of land that’s largely birch and pine forest. This, combined with the fact that it snowed last night and today and the place was beautiful. I took a ridiculous amount of pictures, and I’ll see if I can figure out how to put some on here.
After that it was a long, cold train ride back. Dinner tonight indicated that Marina has, I believe, exhausted her culinary repertoire, as it was a repeat of my first night’s meal and my breakfast was a repeat of my first breakfast. That’s fine with me, everything was tasty. While I was eating dinner, I heard familiar music come from the TV. Marina must’ve seen me perk up, because she went and turned it up so we could both watch and listen from the kitchen. It was the Russian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire! I actually was able to get a question right that had the contestant and Marina stumped. The question asked what was Rambo’s first name. I was so confused just hearing the question because in Russian, the ‘a’ in Rambo receives the stress, so the ‘o’ automatically reverts to sounding like an ‘a’. This meant that they kept saying “Ramba” and I had no idea who Ramba was and no idea what his first name was. But then I realized they were also saying “Stallone” and made the connection. I watched the rest of it together with Marina and she translated for me the questions that I couldn’t understand.
She then gave me the book on Pavlovsk and showed me her TV program guide that indicated there was an American movie on and asked me if I wanted to watch it. It’s always nice to hear a poorly dubbed movie, so I watched about an hour of “Ashanti” starring Michael Caine and Peter Ustinov. After that, I came here, and here I am.
Today marks the 63rd anniversary of the breaking of the blockade of Leningrad during WWII. There were parades, which I missed because I was in Pavlovsk. There are also terrifying commercials on with pictures of things like the Bronze Horseman statue boarded up and search lights going back and forth over a dark St. Petersburg. The only noise in the commercials is the sound of an air raid siren and then the words “We Remember” come up on the screen. Marina mentioned the anniversary as I was on my way out the door. I really want to ask her about it, if she was here for it, but that’s kind of an awkward question to ask. If I do, I’ll write about it, for sure.
1-26-07
1-26-07
Well. I took my files on a flash drive to school, and I could open them, but Blogspot refused to open on any of the computers in the lab. Tonight Becky recommended a free WiFi place near the Metro closest to school, so maybe I’ll check that out Monday after classes. On the one hand, I’m loath to lug my laptop around all day; because I worry about it and because it’s heavy and I do a lot of walking. On the other hand, if Idealnaya Chashka isn’t going to work for me, I’m going to have to find an alternative to post these things.
It’s kind of frustrating to look on my desktop and see entries from the 21st, 23rd, and 24th just sitting there knowing that they haven’t seen the light of day. But honestly, I am going to work on it. Obviously, if you’re reading this, I’ve found a solution. Unless that solution is something stupid like posting all of them in May when I get home.
So! Yesterday was my first visit to the Hermitage! First of many, I believe. It’s just simply too much to do in one day. We were there for at least two hours, just wandering around, and I know we didn’t see half of it. Hannah and I have both seen Russian Ark, though, so sometimes we would enter a room and say, “Oh! This is where he ran into Pushkin!” or “Oh! This is where he ran into his friends in modern times!” After that, it was tasty chicken and noodles here with Marina.
We had been told after classes that there was some kind of street party that night, Thursday, in celebration of St. Tatiana’s Day. St. Tatiana is the patron saint of students, so apparently all students of the city were invited. Plus, there were going to be fireworks. I love fireworks. Lots of people were making plans to go, so Hillary and I planned to meet up at Gorkovskaya Station and ride the metro in together. Well, we get there, and there’s a stage, and a bunch of people standing around, and some ridiculously loud and horrible Russian pop playing. There are students there, oh yes, but they’re all standing off to the side. Who was dancing in the street? Old people. Babushkas. Big women in fur coats and grumpy looking old men in little caps were busting some serious moves. Hillary and I just couldn’t look away for a while. But eventually, we realized no one else was there and we were freezing, so we turned to leave.
Before we can turn the corner, however, we run into Andrey, a fellow student. He assures us that more people are coming. Eventually Lael and Mattison arrive, and Marisa’s on the way. Once the newcomers get a taste of the “party,” they get cold and want to go somewhere else, too. So we end up at the “Off Road Café.” It’s a themed bar/café. The walls and floor are all rough-and-tumble adobe and dirty-style, and there’s a flat screen TV on the wall playing some Russian off-roading show. So we got warm there and then went back out to see a display of the fire arts. There were too many people to see it well, and honestly I’ve seen better on the beach of Lake Monroe in Bloomington. So at this point we start to walk away, but then the fireworks went off! It was great. Here I am, in St. Petersburg, Russia, on a street, freezing my butt off, listening to “Fergielicious” at a ridiculous volume and watching fireworks. Good times.
Today after classes we went on our official excursion to Peter and Paul Fortress. This gave me my first opportunity to take pictures. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll figure out a way to get them online.
When I walk home from the Metro, I usually look straight forward or at the ground. The other day, I shook things up and actually looked around. It was then that I noticed the sign with the sombrero and cactus that said “El Machete” in Cyrillic. Yes. I was super pumped about some Tex-Mex food. So after our excursion, a few of us made plans to be brave and try the Russian attempt at Mexican food.
El Machete’s location looks pretty sketchy at first glance, but it’s really nice and welcoming on the inside. The five of us sat at the only table in the middle of the room and made Hannah do the ordering for us. Our food was…interesting. It wasn’t bad, per se, but it certainly wasn’t Mexican. I ordered the burritos with beef and Hannah ordered the enchiladas with chicken. We’re pretty sure that other than the meat inside, we received the same thing. On the menu it said that it came with, “Mexican Salsa!” I’m not sure what the “salsa” was supposed to be. We each had two tortillas filled with meat, cheese, and possibly some egg. The burritos/enchiladas were then covered in some kind of sauce. It was yellow with green specks. It was kind of mustardy, but mostly flavorless. It’s possible that this could have been the salsa. This also came with a small scoop of rice with corn and green beans in it. And in a little bowl there were about 4 kidney beans in what Hillary said tasted like watered-down ketchup. It is also possible that this was the salsa.
Becky ordered the flauta and she basically got one of the tortillas that Hillary and I got, minus the yellow sauce and grilled in a pan. Kate ordered a quesadilla. Now, I didn’t take Spanish in high school, but I’m pretty sure “queso” means “cheese,” implying that the basis of a quesadilla is cheese. Kate essentially got mixed vegetables in a folded over tortilla. No cheese. She also had something that looked a lot like actual salsa, but she tasted it and it was simply tomatoes and dill. Hannah got the tortilla soup and it seemed to be just canned soup with tortilla strips and big hunks of cream cheese and avocado in it. This may all sound terrible, but it actually wasn’t half bad. It was cheap, too. It certainly wasn’t Mexican, but we definitely had to give it a shot.
After that we went to Idealnaya Chashka and hung out until it closed. Then I came back here and sat down to write this. As of the time of writing, Marina is not home. It’s her friend’s birthday. She left before I left and she’s still not back. Yeah, kind of makes me feel like a loser.
Tomorrow we’re going to Pavlovsk. Hopefully it will be very snowy and pretty. Right now I’m looking forward to sleeping in a bit and then showering to get the smell of smoke out of my hair. Hopefully hopefully hopefully I can get this up online soon. Bear with me, large reading audience. This is all for you. I just need to find a workable, convenient solution. I haven’t even been in the city proper for an entire week yet. Tomorrow, however, will be my one week anniversary. Go me.
Well. I took my files on a flash drive to school, and I could open them, but Blogspot refused to open on any of the computers in the lab. Tonight Becky recommended a free WiFi place near the Metro closest to school, so maybe I’ll check that out Monday after classes. On the one hand, I’m loath to lug my laptop around all day; because I worry about it and because it’s heavy and I do a lot of walking. On the other hand, if Idealnaya Chashka isn’t going to work for me, I’m going to have to find an alternative to post these things.
It’s kind of frustrating to look on my desktop and see entries from the 21st, 23rd, and 24th just sitting there knowing that they haven’t seen the light of day. But honestly, I am going to work on it. Obviously, if you’re reading this, I’ve found a solution. Unless that solution is something stupid like posting all of them in May when I get home.
So! Yesterday was my first visit to the Hermitage! First of many, I believe. It’s just simply too much to do in one day. We were there for at least two hours, just wandering around, and I know we didn’t see half of it. Hannah and I have both seen Russian Ark, though, so sometimes we would enter a room and say, “Oh! This is where he ran into Pushkin!” or “Oh! This is where he ran into his friends in modern times!” After that, it was tasty chicken and noodles here with Marina.
We had been told after classes that there was some kind of street party that night, Thursday, in celebration of St. Tatiana’s Day. St. Tatiana is the patron saint of students, so apparently all students of the city were invited. Plus, there were going to be fireworks. I love fireworks. Lots of people were making plans to go, so Hillary and I planned to meet up at Gorkovskaya Station and ride the metro in together. Well, we get there, and there’s a stage, and a bunch of people standing around, and some ridiculously loud and horrible Russian pop playing. There are students there, oh yes, but they’re all standing off to the side. Who was dancing in the street? Old people. Babushkas. Big women in fur coats and grumpy looking old men in little caps were busting some serious moves. Hillary and I just couldn’t look away for a while. But eventually, we realized no one else was there and we were freezing, so we turned to leave.
Before we can turn the corner, however, we run into Andrey, a fellow student. He assures us that more people are coming. Eventually Lael and Mattison arrive, and Marisa’s on the way. Once the newcomers get a taste of the “party,” they get cold and want to go somewhere else, too. So we end up at the “Off Road Café.” It’s a themed bar/café. The walls and floor are all rough-and-tumble adobe and dirty-style, and there’s a flat screen TV on the wall playing some Russian off-roading show. So we got warm there and then went back out to see a display of the fire arts. There were too many people to see it well, and honestly I’ve seen better on the beach of Lake Monroe in Bloomington. So at this point we start to walk away, but then the fireworks went off! It was great. Here I am, in St. Petersburg, Russia, on a street, freezing my butt off, listening to “Fergielicious” at a ridiculous volume and watching fireworks. Good times.
Today after classes we went on our official excursion to Peter and Paul Fortress. This gave me my first opportunity to take pictures. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll figure out a way to get them online.
When I walk home from the Metro, I usually look straight forward or at the ground. The other day, I shook things up and actually looked around. It was then that I noticed the sign with the sombrero and cactus that said “El Machete” in Cyrillic. Yes. I was super pumped about some Tex-Mex food. So after our excursion, a few of us made plans to be brave and try the Russian attempt at Mexican food.
El Machete’s location looks pretty sketchy at first glance, but it’s really nice and welcoming on the inside. The five of us sat at the only table in the middle of the room and made Hannah do the ordering for us. Our food was…interesting. It wasn’t bad, per se, but it certainly wasn’t Mexican. I ordered the burritos with beef and Hannah ordered the enchiladas with chicken. We’re pretty sure that other than the meat inside, we received the same thing. On the menu it said that it came with, “Mexican Salsa!” I’m not sure what the “salsa” was supposed to be. We each had two tortillas filled with meat, cheese, and possibly some egg. The burritos/enchiladas were then covered in some kind of sauce. It was yellow with green specks. It was kind of mustardy, but mostly flavorless. It’s possible that this could have been the salsa. This also came with a small scoop of rice with corn and green beans in it. And in a little bowl there were about 4 kidney beans in what Hillary said tasted like watered-down ketchup. It is also possible that this was the salsa.
Becky ordered the flauta and she basically got one of the tortillas that Hillary and I got, minus the yellow sauce and grilled in a pan. Kate ordered a quesadilla. Now, I didn’t take Spanish in high school, but I’m pretty sure “queso” means “cheese,” implying that the basis of a quesadilla is cheese. Kate essentially got mixed vegetables in a folded over tortilla. No cheese. She also had something that looked a lot like actual salsa, but she tasted it and it was simply tomatoes and dill. Hannah got the tortilla soup and it seemed to be just canned soup with tortilla strips and big hunks of cream cheese and avocado in it. This may all sound terrible, but it actually wasn’t half bad. It was cheap, too. It certainly wasn’t Mexican, but we definitely had to give it a shot.
After that we went to Idealnaya Chashka and hung out until it closed. Then I came back here and sat down to write this. As of the time of writing, Marina is not home. It’s her friend’s birthday. She left before I left and she’s still not back. Yeah, kind of makes me feel like a loser.
Tomorrow we’re going to Pavlovsk. Hopefully it will be very snowy and pretty. Right now I’m looking forward to sleeping in a bit and then showering to get the smell of smoke out of my hair. Hopefully hopefully hopefully I can get this up online soon. Bear with me, large reading audience. This is all for you. I just need to find a workable, convenient solution. I haven’t even been in the city proper for an entire week yet. Tomorrow, however, will be my one week anniversary. Go me.
1-24-07
Another day of writing, another day of not posting. I really need to get more regular about this. But honestly, today, I TRIED. I hauled my laptop around all day for the express purpose of going to Idealnaya Chashka after classes and just hanging out there for an hour or two online. But for some reason this time it wasn’t working. My laptop said there was a full-strength signal, but nothing would come up. That was frustrating. But I still have over an hour’s worth of time there; I’ll try again, maybe tomorrow, or maybe the weekend. Currently, I’m toying with the idea of just taking the last three posts I’ve written on my flash drive and attempting to post them from the lab at school. The guy that works there is really creepy, though.
So as of now, it’s been over a week since I’ve been at home. It won’t be a full week in Russia til tomorrow at about 4:45 and it won’t be a full week with Marina until Saturday. As frustrating as my experience in the café was (No one wants to sit on a computer surrounded by smokers with no idea why the internet won’t work and no way of communication what the problem is), I’m actually beginning to think that I might just be able to do this! By this, I mean, RUSSIA.
We had Conversation again this morning, followed by our class called Gazeta. In Gazeta we’re basically learning how to read and listen to the news in Russian. It’s about as thrilling as it sounds. Then we had lunch, and after lunch was Civilization. This class seems like it’ll probably be a good time, as the instructor is very lively. I’m quite pleased with the percentage of discussion in class that I’ve been able to understand. If all goes according to plan, that will only increase in the coming months.
We had mushroom soup, hot dogs, and cabbage for dinner tonight. I don’t know why I feel the need to write about everything I’m eating, but the mere fact that I was able to shovel as much cabbage into my mouth as I did surprises me, so I think I want it on record.
I swear, Marina is some kind of social butterfly. I have no idea what she does all day (that seems like an awkward question to ask, but I have to, eventually), but she’s getting calls every hour of the day and she just talks and talks while she watches her soap operas with way too dramatic music and horrible make-up effects for people with facial injuries. Also, I’m pretty sure that one girl has amnesia. I just watch it from the kitchen while I eat dinner. I can see half the screen and only kind of hear the dialog, a large chunk of which I don’t understand. But it seems to me that people are always either in the hospital or getting arrested. Some kind who had just gotten out of the hospital got arrested yesterday.
I think I’ll keep this one short; I actually have my homework tonight. Oh, and I was able to get my homework done yesterday before class, and then we didn’t even have to turn it in. Whatever. It’s weird to think about homework. I mean, I know this is STUDY abroad and not just SPEND TIME abroad, but it still kind of feels like we’re all at summer camp. Except in a huge, polluted, dark city. I’m sure that camp feeling will end soon. Okay, I’m crossing my fingers that I’ll actually post this tomorrow….
So as of now, it’s been over a week since I’ve been at home. It won’t be a full week in Russia til tomorrow at about 4:45 and it won’t be a full week with Marina until Saturday. As frustrating as my experience in the café was (No one wants to sit on a computer surrounded by smokers with no idea why the internet won’t work and no way of communication what the problem is), I’m actually beginning to think that I might just be able to do this! By this, I mean, RUSSIA.
We had Conversation again this morning, followed by our class called Gazeta. In Gazeta we’re basically learning how to read and listen to the news in Russian. It’s about as thrilling as it sounds. Then we had lunch, and after lunch was Civilization. This class seems like it’ll probably be a good time, as the instructor is very lively. I’m quite pleased with the percentage of discussion in class that I’ve been able to understand. If all goes according to plan, that will only increase in the coming months.
We had mushroom soup, hot dogs, and cabbage for dinner tonight. I don’t know why I feel the need to write about everything I’m eating, but the mere fact that I was able to shovel as much cabbage into my mouth as I did surprises me, so I think I want it on record.
I swear, Marina is some kind of social butterfly. I have no idea what she does all day (that seems like an awkward question to ask, but I have to, eventually), but she’s getting calls every hour of the day and she just talks and talks while she watches her soap operas with way too dramatic music and horrible make-up effects for people with facial injuries. Also, I’m pretty sure that one girl has amnesia. I just watch it from the kitchen while I eat dinner. I can see half the screen and only kind of hear the dialog, a large chunk of which I don’t understand. But it seems to me that people are always either in the hospital or getting arrested. Some kind who had just gotten out of the hospital got arrested yesterday.
I think I’ll keep this one short; I actually have my homework tonight. Oh, and I was able to get my homework done yesterday before class, and then we didn’t even have to turn it in. Whatever. It’s weird to think about homework. I mean, I know this is STUDY abroad and not just SPEND TIME abroad, but it still kind of feels like we’re all at summer camp. Except in a huge, polluted, dark city. I’m sure that camp feeling will end soon. Okay, I’m crossing my fingers that I’ll actually post this tomorrow….
1-24-06
Of course, I didn’t go to the café yesterday. Today (the day of writing, not of posting…God, this is confusing) is Tuesday. Yesterday was my first day at Smolny. Okay, you guys, I’m going to classes in pretty much the coolest place ever. Look up a picture of Smolny Cathedral if you don’t believe me. I’m not taking classes in the ACTUAL cathedral, but in one of the same-style buildings surrounding it. It’s all very baroque and sky-blue and is nice on the gloomy winter days we’ve been having.
There’s this place, after you get off at Petrogradskaya Metro and turn left to cross under the street, where there’s a magazine stand. The stand has rectangular lights on both sides and down the middle. The lights simply cannot be traditional bulbs; the light that they produce is far too natural looking. I swear to God, every time I round that corner, I think that it’s a window and there’s light shining through. It’s been a while since I’ve seen light shining onto or through anything. Not to say that we haven’t had clear days, I’ve seen a decent amount of blue sky recently. But the sun doesn’t really seem to shine; it’s just there.
So testing went fine, and the interview was easier than I expected. The Russian-only rule, while daunting at first, isn’t that big of a deal because it only applies to in-class and official group outings. But at the same time, since there are so many different levels of Russian students, it’s often easier to just use English.
So I had my first classes today, Grammar and Conversation. The Grammar teacher is nice but intimidating. I’m sure everyone’s had a teacher like her; she’s very easy going and willing to joke with everyone but at the same time she knows her stuff and if you’re wrong she’s going to tell you you’re wrong. Conversation was fun, as well. However, I have made my first classic Sally mistake of Russia.
On Monday, I took my laptop in my backpack to school because I intended on going to the internet café after lunch. Of course, I ended up not needing it and feeling like a moron for lugging around all the extra weight. So today, I just took a purse and a notebook. I had to carry the notebook kind of awkwardly, of course, because I’m me. So after lunch, a couple of us decide to go to the ex-pat haunt CitiBar because they have free WiFi (With purchase of food or drink). Of course, this would be a great time to have my laptop, because only 2 out of the 5 of us who went had laptops with them and then we had to pass them around the table so everyone could check email. Hillary saw me on the way there fumbling around with my one notebook, so she offered to put it in her backpack. This was very nice of her. So I put my notebook in her bag.
Of course, it’s still there, now that it’s nearly 10 o’clock. Of course, my very first homework assignment in Russia is in that notebook. Of course, I don’t have Hillary’s number, only Matt’s and Hannah’s. And Matt and Hannah do not have Hillary’s number. So we’ll see how this shakes out.
I bought a phonecard yesterday and called home about an hour ago. Dad was at a meeting, but Mom and I had a nice chat. The phonecard was super cheap, so I’m hoping this becomes a regular activity. Sometimes it’s nice to be able to discuss IU basketball and the Colts with someone who cares. You try explaining American Football to a Russian babushka. Or wireless internet. Or a woman working at a stone quarry. And try to explain it in Russian.
I just took a shower, so I’m writing this while I’m letting my hair dry. The water in the shower was not exactly what you’d call “hot.” However, Marina pointed out to me that it’s hotter later at night (when more gas is available), so I could take one later. I preferred to get it out of the way and deal with the consequences. The consequences were that I took, at best, a lukewarm shower and then stepped out into a cold bathroom. Oh well. I’m rolling with the punches.
Speaking of rolling with the punches, anyone familiar with my eating habits would marvel at some of the things I’ve been consuming lately. I told Mom this, and made her guess what I’ve been eating lately. Her first guess: Cabbage. Yes, cabbage. My old enemy. I’m still not sure that it entirely agrees with my constitution, but I have been consuming lots of cabbage. And borscht, which is surprising because I hate beets. Marina continues to be befuddled by the fact that I won’t have tea. Every morning she prepares me a coffeepot of water (She has to boil it first so I won’t get sick), and I drink that at breakfast and dinner and at breakfast I also have a small glass of milk. Whole milk. Again, not really my style. But I’m adapting! Studying abroad is all about stepping out of your comfort zone, right? Well, beets, cabbage, and whole milk are honestly pretty far out of my comfort zone. I’ve also started just eating things without wondering or caring what they are or what’s in them. This could possibly be dangerous in the future, but I figure at some point I’m going to hit the limits of Marina’s dinner repertoire and I’ll be okay.
At dinner tonight, as she continues to look for another beverage option for me (for reasons unknown), she offered me something…nasty. I’m going to have to find out the name. It looks like milk, but oh, it is not milk. Imagine cottage cheese. Imagine the milky part that’s always just hanging around cottage cheese. Imagine a glass full of this, but thicker. And also maybe some chunks in there. This is what Marina set in front of me at dinner while I was eating my chicken and rice (which was very tasty, but there was too much rice, and it’s the first time I haven’t finished a meal I’ve been given). Continuing my “out of the comfort zone” philosophy, I didn’t hesitate, I took a big gulp of it. Yeah, it was rough. Then Marina, seeing my distress, explained that sometimes she’ll put sugar in it. So then she takes a spoonful of sugar and puts it in the glass and stirs it up. I valiantly tried it again. It tasted just like before, but with pieces of sugar in it. When I told her I couldn’t finish it, she said, “It’s okay, I love it, I will finish it.” And right now, she’s in the other room, watching another one of her soap operas and drinking it. Blech.
I’m also trying to live for the moment culture-wise. Today, 6 of us bought tickets to the Mussorgsky Opera’s performance of Evgeny Onegin on February 2nd. I figure I have to get AT LEAST one opera and one ballet in while I’m here. Other people bought tickets for Romeo and Juliet. I saw that Carmen was also on the calendar, along with Boris Gudunov. I don’t know how many people I can convince to go to Boris Gudunov with me.
On a more American culture note, I’m about halfway through the only book in English that I brought. After discussing it with some of the other students, we’ve discussed the possibility of having a big English book-swap in a couple of weeks when everyone’s finished what they’ve brought. We’ll see how that goes down. As Hannah pointed out, she could give someone her Faulkner and end up with a Harlequin novel in return. But hey, “out of the comfort zone,” right?
I’m going to finish drying my hair and read a bit before bed. Maybe, just MAYBE I’ll actually post this tomorrow.
There’s this place, after you get off at Petrogradskaya Metro and turn left to cross under the street, where there’s a magazine stand. The stand has rectangular lights on both sides and down the middle. The lights simply cannot be traditional bulbs; the light that they produce is far too natural looking. I swear to God, every time I round that corner, I think that it’s a window and there’s light shining through. It’s been a while since I’ve seen light shining onto or through anything. Not to say that we haven’t had clear days, I’ve seen a decent amount of blue sky recently. But the sun doesn’t really seem to shine; it’s just there.
So testing went fine, and the interview was easier than I expected. The Russian-only rule, while daunting at first, isn’t that big of a deal because it only applies to in-class and official group outings. But at the same time, since there are so many different levels of Russian students, it’s often easier to just use English.
So I had my first classes today, Grammar and Conversation. The Grammar teacher is nice but intimidating. I’m sure everyone’s had a teacher like her; she’s very easy going and willing to joke with everyone but at the same time she knows her stuff and if you’re wrong she’s going to tell you you’re wrong. Conversation was fun, as well. However, I have made my first classic Sally mistake of Russia.
On Monday, I took my laptop in my backpack to school because I intended on going to the internet café after lunch. Of course, I ended up not needing it and feeling like a moron for lugging around all the extra weight. So today, I just took a purse and a notebook. I had to carry the notebook kind of awkwardly, of course, because I’m me. So after lunch, a couple of us decide to go to the ex-pat haunt CitiBar because they have free WiFi (With purchase of food or drink). Of course, this would be a great time to have my laptop, because only 2 out of the 5 of us who went had laptops with them and then we had to pass them around the table so everyone could check email. Hillary saw me on the way there fumbling around with my one notebook, so she offered to put it in her backpack. This was very nice of her. So I put my notebook in her bag.
Of course, it’s still there, now that it’s nearly 10 o’clock. Of course, my very first homework assignment in Russia is in that notebook. Of course, I don’t have Hillary’s number, only Matt’s and Hannah’s. And Matt and Hannah do not have Hillary’s number. So we’ll see how this shakes out.
I bought a phonecard yesterday and called home about an hour ago. Dad was at a meeting, but Mom and I had a nice chat. The phonecard was super cheap, so I’m hoping this becomes a regular activity. Sometimes it’s nice to be able to discuss IU basketball and the Colts with someone who cares. You try explaining American Football to a Russian babushka. Or wireless internet. Or a woman working at a stone quarry. And try to explain it in Russian.
I just took a shower, so I’m writing this while I’m letting my hair dry. The water in the shower was not exactly what you’d call “hot.” However, Marina pointed out to me that it’s hotter later at night (when more gas is available), so I could take one later. I preferred to get it out of the way and deal with the consequences. The consequences were that I took, at best, a lukewarm shower and then stepped out into a cold bathroom. Oh well. I’m rolling with the punches.
Speaking of rolling with the punches, anyone familiar with my eating habits would marvel at some of the things I’ve been consuming lately. I told Mom this, and made her guess what I’ve been eating lately. Her first guess: Cabbage. Yes, cabbage. My old enemy. I’m still not sure that it entirely agrees with my constitution, but I have been consuming lots of cabbage. And borscht, which is surprising because I hate beets. Marina continues to be befuddled by the fact that I won’t have tea. Every morning she prepares me a coffeepot of water (She has to boil it first so I won’t get sick), and I drink that at breakfast and dinner and at breakfast I also have a small glass of milk. Whole milk. Again, not really my style. But I’m adapting! Studying abroad is all about stepping out of your comfort zone, right? Well, beets, cabbage, and whole milk are honestly pretty far out of my comfort zone. I’ve also started just eating things without wondering or caring what they are or what’s in them. This could possibly be dangerous in the future, but I figure at some point I’m going to hit the limits of Marina’s dinner repertoire and I’ll be okay.
At dinner tonight, as she continues to look for another beverage option for me (for reasons unknown), she offered me something…nasty. I’m going to have to find out the name. It looks like milk, but oh, it is not milk. Imagine cottage cheese. Imagine the milky part that’s always just hanging around cottage cheese. Imagine a glass full of this, but thicker. And also maybe some chunks in there. This is what Marina set in front of me at dinner while I was eating my chicken and rice (which was very tasty, but there was too much rice, and it’s the first time I haven’t finished a meal I’ve been given). Continuing my “out of the comfort zone” philosophy, I didn’t hesitate, I took a big gulp of it. Yeah, it was rough. Then Marina, seeing my distress, explained that sometimes she’ll put sugar in it. So then she takes a spoonful of sugar and puts it in the glass and stirs it up. I valiantly tried it again. It tasted just like before, but with pieces of sugar in it. When I told her I couldn’t finish it, she said, “It’s okay, I love it, I will finish it.” And right now, she’s in the other room, watching another one of her soap operas and drinking it. Blech.
I’m also trying to live for the moment culture-wise. Today, 6 of us bought tickets to the Mussorgsky Opera’s performance of Evgeny Onegin on February 2nd. I figure I have to get AT LEAST one opera and one ballet in while I’m here. Other people bought tickets for Romeo and Juliet. I saw that Carmen was also on the calendar, along with Boris Gudunov. I don’t know how many people I can convince to go to Boris Gudunov with me.
On a more American culture note, I’m about halfway through the only book in English that I brought. After discussing it with some of the other students, we’ve discussed the possibility of having a big English book-swap in a couple of weeks when everyone’s finished what they’ve brought. We’ll see how that goes down. As Hannah pointed out, she could give someone her Faulkner and end up with a Harlequin novel in return. But hey, “out of the comfort zone,” right?
I’m going to finish drying my hair and read a bit before bed. Maybe, just MAYBE I’ll actually post this tomorrow.
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