Things I will Miss
This is not a serious list. I refuse to make a serious list of things I will miss. But these are things I will miss (well some of them are).
Marshrutkas. They are essentially the greatest thing ever. I think I might take a picture of my favorite #91. However, this will be an undercover picture taking operation. As in I will go make Susanna stand somewhere so that she is located by some sort of famous thing (достопримечательность) and by a marshrutka. And then the people will think I am taking a picture of the girl by the statue but I am actually taking a picture of the marshrutka which is parked on the street next to the girl and the statue. Yes. Brilliant idea. I know.
Russian MTV. At some point, you would think I would recover from my MTV deprived childhood and stop being obsessed with MTV. However that point has never come. I really like Russian MTV. Mainly the music videos. Except not the Britney Spears music video. Or the пятьдесть центов (Fi’ty) and J.T. music video (Ayo Technology). Both of those videos are alarming. Anyways I will miss Russian MTV. Half of the songs are in English anyways. Either because they are actually American or British performers. Or because they are Russian stars trying to make the jump to western celebrity status. Oh Dima!
Related to MTV. My American readers. Is there a song called Destination Unknown that you have ever heard? Because they play that song all the time on Russian MTV. It is in English. It is a very alarming song. And a more alarming music video in which all the women march about in slutty green marching band outfits.
I will miss the fact that the Russian language comes alive in Russia. Oh man. So lame and cliché and like, DUH. But I don’t know. I remember during summer school, how artificial it seemed to force myself not to read in English. I never thought about the fact that in Russia there’s hundreds/thousands/lots of bookstores full of books which are all in Russian. There’s no artificiality in functioning (trying to function) in Russian. They even have crappy tabloid magazines in the kiosks about all the latest Russian celebrity gossip.
I will miss Алла Пугачёва when I return to the U.S. She is so awesome.
Related to #4. I have pretty much been functioning under the language pledge for like the past 7 months. Which means my Russian is better (I hope) and my English is bad. The only English language I encounter is my grammer-less blogging and e-mail writing. And sometimes spoken English with my Russian friends who are worse at English than I am at Russian. Like where verb conjugation doesn’t exist. I’m pretty sure I will retain my speaking and reading abilities quickly, but writing papers will be hard. Also during the magic (English) weekend of summer school, even though we were speaking English, I would always just automatically say что? instead of What?. I hope that happens again when I return to the English speaking world. Or I will say чего. I don’t know why I like it so much when people say чего instead of что. Like why is there the need to decline the word into the genitive case. Seriously. It makes me so happy when people say чего!
Today Margarita got a Christmas card from the parents of a student she hosted a long time ago. Enclosed was a picture of the girl, Erin and her husband at their wedding. They were standing next to a Rolls Royce at a castle in England. But that’s not important. It just seems comical how far away that is from the dirty streets of Yaroslavl. (I will miss the dirty streets). So I was enlisted to translate the card to Margarita from English to Russian. So I did that. I felt accomplished. Then Margarita’s friend came over and Margarita shows her the card and picture. And explains that Erin вышла. Which makes sense but there’s a second part of the phrase (замуж= wife) which is apparently optional. It was funny. I can’t explain it. Then the friend looks at photo: «она вышла за НЕГРО?» As in, she married A BLACK PERSON. Also are we allowed to say “negro” in America. It’s only the other n-word that is bad right? But I feel like you’re not really allowed to say “negro” either. So that was funny.
I will miss my fierce independence. I am very proud of my ability to turn what was initially loneliness into so called “fierce independence.” At some point, one of the girls on the basketball team asked if I had come here alone. And I said, “No, there are 7 other American students with me.” And then she asked if I knew any of them before I came. And I said “No.” And then I tried to explain that I had friends who were studying in Irkutsk. Which is true. Susanna and Eddie and Natalie and Ivan are all in Irkutsk. Irkutsk is Russia so that is sort of reassuring. At the same time, Irkutsk is 5 time zones from Yaroslavl. Like, they are far away. 5 time zones is huge. That’s like practically the span of the whole U.S (I think N.Y. to Hawaii is 6 time zones?). And then I realized I was actually pretty far away from people. So yes. I’m glad I turned that potential bad thing, into something that gave me a lot of courage to figure out simple things about Russia (buying hockey tickets, train tickets, hotel reservations) and at the same time figure out lots of things about myself and what I’m supposed to do with my life and what I’m supposed to believe and …
Comment about dubbing. If you’re going to dub the damn film/television show, just completely cut out the first language and replace it with Russian. I hate it when there is English still audible in the background. It’s so confusing to try to make myself listen to the Russian when I can almost hear what they are saying in English. So yes that’s annoying. Also I got over the fact that I used to be annoyed when the mouths didn’t match up with what the people were saying. Probably this is a totally American thing. Like are English speaking countries, the only places where rarely are there shows/ads dubbed in from another language (i.e. it’s all originally produced in English). Actually I don’t know. I know lots of American things are dubbed into Russian. There is also a fair amount of French and German stuff. A while ago there even appeared some television ad for a car dubbed from either Japanese or Chinese. Also there is this new yogurt product called “Beauty.” The whole television ad and product is completely Russian except it’s called “Beauty.” Are more people actually going to buy the product because it’s an English named product? I would buy a yogurt called Красота. In fact, I would buy a yogurt called Красота before I would buy one called “Beauty.” It’s also said in this male, but breathy pronunciation of “Beauty.”
Why do they pick the worst possible American programs to dub into Russian. The more I type “dub,” the stranger a word it seems to me. That’s totally a Russian construction that I subconsciously translated into English! (мне кажется). Anyways, who decided My Sweet Sixteen needed to be broadcast to a Russian audience? Tonight on MTV there was some sort of dating show where the girl was having dinner with her two suitors and the two men got into some heated argument. And you can hear them in both quiet English and loud Russian. Ты меня не знаешь! Что ты сказал! (You don’t know me! What did you say!) And then the men start throwing their drinks at each other. And the girl just sits there in the middle of the chaos. And the camera men start restraining the men from attacking each other as they continue to yell at each other in amazingly translated Russian. It was so brilliant. I will miss that.
Lokomotiv. Oh man. Loko is so awesome. I don’t think I would ever get tired of it. The woman at the ticket office giving her exasperated sigh when I approach the window. Every time she makes sure I still want only one ticket. (Hopefully next week, I will be able to pleasantly surprise her and buy tickets for both Susanna and I). The thrill of the overcrowded marshrutka and the traffic jams getting to the arena. The mass of smoking and drinking hooligans outside the arena. The Russian national anthem (Surreal. Every single time). The hockey. The cheers. And taunting of the officials. I wish I could figure out the actual words they say. Goals. Power plays. Penalty shots. Oh man. It’s so BRILLIANT. I wonder if they would give me a work visa to come back to Russia and drive the zamboni at Arena? And hang out with the 50 yr. old Russian men who drive the zamboni’s. Also I could possibly become one of the cheerleader girls. Although that is on the bottom of the list of possible ways to return to Russia. Also I could become the mascot. He just skates around in a huge costume being a loon. I feel fully qualified for such employment.
I wonder if I have to change how I dress when I come back to Midd. I wonder if when I return to the U.S., I will still want to wear the heeled boots and the puffy coat with fake fur hood thing. At some point (like 4 months ago), I would have considered the clothes I wear now, completely ridiculous. Not all the clothes. Jeans are always practical. But the bright pink sweater. Yes. I now own a bright pink sweater. It is even a turtle-neck. Mainly I was forced into impulse purchasing of said pink sweater because the woman in the рынок/рынке shoved it at me and demanded I try it on and then began loudly saying красовица! (pretty/beautiful girl?) and so I just bought it. But it is actually very warm and comfy. So there needs to be some decision made about the bright pink sweater and its wear-a-bility in the U.S.
I can’t believe it’s almost over. Not really. I still have almost 6 weeks left in Russia. But it will more of a tourist and less of a person living in Russia. I remember when I was leaving the U.S. and I kept reassuring myself that “It’ll only be 4 months and you never have to go back to Russia after that. Just get it over with.” Wow. How much has changed. And I’m glad that I like being here so much and that hopefully I’ll be back in the very near immediate future.
Also I’m trying to formulate some sort of adequate but short answer to the question which is bound to occur like 8 billion times. “How was Russia?” Do I say it/she changed my life? Did it/she actually change my life? (The reason for the it/she construction is that I couldn’t allow myself to call Russia just an “it” and she is the “motherland,” so yes…that reminds me of the e-mail list that circulated called something like “Flying to the Motherland.” That seems like 8 billion years ago when we were buying our plane tickets.) So I don’t know what to say to people. And so I’ll end up saying some lame answer like “It was really cool and I can’t explain it.” That’s true though. I can neither explain Russia nor the impact she had on my life. So it’s not really a cop-out (real word? correct context?) answer. It’s the truth. Are all cultures and countries so different from each other? How hard is it for Americans to understand life in England (same language, similar quality of life)? What about other European countries with a different language? Italy or Spain? What about India or Egypt? Are all of these places equally difficult to explain to someone who has never been there? Is Russia really that hard to explain or am I just searching for some deep level of complexity because I read too much into the country? Does the русская душа (Russian soul/heart/hard to explain concept) really exist? We used to mock it all the time. But now I don’t know. Do I just think that it exists because I want it to exist?
And so I don’t know if Russia is any less explainable than any other country. How do you go about explaining an entire country, culture, language, life? It has to deal with my problems with explaining America to Vacilica. America to her is this complete utopia and she would sacrifice a lot to be able to move to the U.S. She tells me that the streets are clean and that everyone has big houses. The big house comment is drawn from her watching Home Alone. Andrei thinks I am a farmer due to the location of Montana on the U.S. map. I don’t blame him. Pretty much the entire U.S. population thinks everyone in Montana is a farmer. Unless they think the state was sold to Canada. Or confiscated as some sort of nuclear testing zone. (Note: farmer comment, sale to Canada, and nuclear testing zone are all real things I have heard said by other U.S. citizens about Montana.) How America is represented in Russia: President Bush, President Clinton and Lewinsky, Hillary, Paris Hilton, Britney, McDonalds, Big houses, excessive richness, Hollywood, New York, September 11, Iraq, Schwarzeneggar. There’s probably more, but I can’t think of them. Once when I went to play hockey, this girl after the game told me that it probably wasn’t weird that I played hockey at home, because everyone in the U.S. plays hockey. I stared at her. I don’t think that the U.S. as a hockey playing oasis is a wide spread belief in Russia (she may be the only one who thinks that). And for good reason. No one plays hockey in the U.S.
Those earlier mentioned beliefs of America are clearly ridiculous. At the same time, I can’t explain America to Russians. How do you explain an entire country, culture, language, people? You can’t. But I feel that maybe there’s a more cohesive binding together of Russian people than any sort of community in the U.S. Our grammar teacher always talks about the коллектив (collective) as in the sense of community and togetherness that existed longer before the Soviet Union but was only strengthened during the U.S.S.R.
This list has veered far off topic from things I will miss about Russia and my favorite Russian MTV videos. But perhaps these are good closing thoughts as I prepare for initial departure from Yaroslavl. Initial departure in that I’m coming back a week later for 3 days with Susanna. But I’m telling my friends in Yaroslavl that I’m leaving for good on the 17th because it seems simpler and more clear cut and Susanna probably doesn’t want to spend her whole time in Yaroslavl at Vacilica’s flat drinking tea.
Why is the United in USA and the United in UN two different words in Russian? USA United is Cоедённые (which I remember on our Russian final last winter we were supposed to know what CША stood for. And Susanna and I were disgusted by K Moss’s expectation that we know what США actually stands for. I mean, we knew штаты (states) and америки (America) Just not “united”. And the UN United is Объединённых. Also the UN in Russian is the “ООН.” Which is pretty awesome.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Thoughts
So I've been thinking about this alot. And after I say this I am going to stop discussing politics on this blog. I don't know what I'm supposed to think about politics in Russia. I mean you can read the earlier blog posts where I fairly soundly express my general support for Putin and what he is doing in the country. But I can't seem to reconcile that with the fact that well, lots of people keep telling me that I am wrong. Like smart people that I respect. Maybe the Russian media is not free, and is controlled by Putin, and that is bad. Maybe he really is as bad as he is portrayed in American media and I have been brainstormed by первый канал новости (Channel 1 News) into thinking that Putin is awesome. Maybe there is some sort of inbetween conclusion that needs to be reached where he won't be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but also won't be the worst thing since ... Well you get the analogy.
So mainly I suppose I don't really know what to think. Maybe that's the point. That studying abroad is supposed to challenge your perceptions of the world and how you see both your own country and other countries. Oh man. I am such a great study abroad student.
Also classes end on Friday. And so for all of those interested, these are my not very planned travel plans.
Monday, December 17: Leave Yaroslavl (tear- as in I will cry, not I will rip a piece of paper.)
Meet Susanna in Moscow!!!
Then we are in Moscow until Sunday the 23rd when we take a train to Yaroslavl. And Susanna meets Margarita.
Then we leave Yaroslavl on the 26th and go to Piter. Then we are in Piter/ maybe go to Novgorod for a day or two until January 3.
January 3 we go meet Laurel in Helsinki.
January 7 we return from Helsinki
January 9 board train from Piter to Kazan.
Then we ночевать (sleep over) in Kazan (I think) and some other town along the Trans Siberian.
Then we get to Irkutsk on the 14. I think we're taking the Circumnavigational Train or something like that around Baikal. Well around part of Baikal.
Then I think we're going the rest of the way all the way to Vladivostok.
Then the planned-ness sort of ends and at some point I purchase plane ticket/train ticket back to Moscow and fly back to the U.S.
Arrival in N.Y is (I think) January 28.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Russian Drunk Dialing
So remember long ago when I wrote about how I went to that Loko game and befriended girl (Anya) and her husband (Sasha). And they asked me if I was married. And how we should go ice skating some time. And the drunk husband wished me a good morning as I got on the marshrytka to go home at 10 p.m. Well, yes. Sasha just drunk dialed me. So that’s fairly ridiculous. Apparently things are “ok” (said in very amazing Russian accent) with him. The amazingness of this phone call was that the first minute, I really had no idea what was going on. And then he started yelling into the phone “Sasha, hockey, hockey, hockey, Sasha.” And I caught on. I don’t really know what else to say…That like made my (undetermined long period of time).
And approximately two hours later receive another drunk dial. I was invited to hang out with him and his brother who is in the army. I unfortunately had to decline. Then he suggested they come over here. I don’t think Margarita would have approved.
And approximately two hours later receive another drunk dial. I was invited to hang out with him and his brother who is in the army. I unfortunately had to decline. Then he suggested they come over here. I don’t think Margarita would have approved.
Third Blog Entry (the other abandoned ones are available if you scroll down)
This is now the third WORD document I have open on my computer in hopes of typing a successful blog entry. The first one started out good and turned into me talking about how much I love Russia. Although it’s interesting to type and try to explain my reasoning (there is no reasoning), and I spend a lot of time thinking about this lately, there’s no adequate explanation. Any “normal” American or Russian, in fact, probably any person in the world would want to live in America before they would want to live in Russia. And so it’s pointless trying to have people understand what I like about this country so much. I feel like I’m a puzzle piece and I sort of fit into the America puzzle, but you have to bend the piece (me) in order to get it to fit. But the puzzle piece fits into the Russian puzzle perfectly. I also don’t like my “I like Russia SO much” writing because I’m afraid that the moment I return to America, I will realize how much better America is and then I will have to look back at these blog entries read by lots of people in which I spent all my time talking about how awesome Russia is and I will feel like a fool. But that will not happen. I will always still love Russia. Ahh. We’re back on the “love Russia-ness.” So I abandoned the first WORD document.
Second WORD document. This quickly turned into me talking about how bad reverse culture shock is going to be (returning to the U.S.) which although is not directly saying that I like Russia a lot more than America, that’s pretty much what it’s saying. So I abandoned it.
Third WORD document. This is it. I refuse to allow myself to transition into my poetic thoughts about Russia-ness. So I will objectively explain important events which have occurred in the past days.
I went to basketball on Thursday for the first time in a while. I missed it while I was in Archangelsk, once to go watch a Loko game, once for Thanksgiving dinner… And one of the girls, Masha, asked me when I was leaving. And I had to say “in two weeks.” It always used to be “I don’t know, either in December or in June,” then it was “in six weeks,” “in five weeks.” And suddenly now it’s “two weeks.” Granted I’m not leaving Russia for probably 8 weeks. But I’m leaving Yaroslavl on Dec. 17th. Then I’m coming back for like 3 days with Susanna, but that’s too complicated to explain in Russian. So I just go with the 17th as my final departure date. Then she asked if I thought I had improved a lot in my Russian while I was here. I really don’t like this question. I can’t tell if I’m better. I feel like the more you know and the better you get, maybe the better you realize how little you know. Does that make sense? And so I went with my standby answer of “Well I understand a lot more now.” Then she told me that the first day at basketball, the only word I said was “Da.” So apparently I have improved. But I still share the fear with Natalie that we will return to Midd and people will not believe that we have spent the past what 7/8 months speaking Russian. Like we’re still bad. But then I remember the first days of summer school when like we just never talked (at least I didn’t). And if we did we talked very slowly. Now I talk and at a fairly fast rate, granted the grammar is sort of a nightmare. I don’t know what the point of this story was….
I don’t remember what I did on Saturday. Oh yes. I bought Love Actually in Russian. It cost 4 dollars. And now I watch it. A lot.
Sunday was the elections to the State Duma. So I tagged along with Margarita when she went to vote. After she showed her passport and received her ballot, the guy looked up at me. I just shook my head and backed away from the table. I wonder what would have happened if I had produced my U.S. passport to him. I bought one of the Russian Federation Passport Cover Things for it. So now people are especially surprised when they open that and see the damn American eagle flying about the pages and other general American looniness.
Anyways, Edinaya Rocciya (United/Unified Russia) won like 63 percent of the votes. Then the Communists, then LDPR, then Spravedlivaya Rocciya (Just/Fair Russia) all got the minimum 7% of the votes to make the cut to have seats in the Duma. So now Putin and Единая Россия can do whatever they want since they have a constitutional majority. So probably soon Putin will resign from the presidency, so that he will have the necessary amount of time out of office and be able to run again in the March presidential elections. Except maybe he won’t. But I think he will.
Also today in politics we talked about if the elections were democratic because already huge delegations of election auditor people decided not even to come oversee the elections (I already wrote about this.) They said Russia was making it hard to get visas. Russia said America made them pull out to make Russia look bad. But some big European group/organization/thing that came and oversaw elections just made some announcement that the elections were undemocratic. I don’t really know that much about it. Except today our politics professor was talking about it and said the solution to the problem was for Russia to stop being a member of that organization. That Russia was the largest, richest member of the group and paid the most money to support it, and if they were going to claim our elections were unfair, then we will just not be a part of their organization any longer. That is brilliant. Perhaps I should be appalled at how disrespectful it would be for Russia to pull out of the international organization. Perhaps I should be worried about their claim that Russia’s elections were undemocratic. Actually I feel like Russia is proving a worthy opponent on the world stage. Russia is doing things that only America is allowed to do. It’s brilliant.
I don’t think I like the fact that Единая Россия has that much power. It does seem sort of undemocratic (not the elections) but the fact that they will clearly dominate Duma. But the Communists are old and outdated and LDPR (which translates as the liberal-democratic party of Russia) is well crazy. Jirinovski (their head leader) is essentially the entire party. Margarita told me he is a very brilliant man and that a while ago, he proposed a law allowing Russian men to have more than one wife, because there is a severe imbalance of Russian men and women (as in there are a lot more women than men). I think the fact that he was brilliant and his wedding rule proposal were two separate things in our discussion, but anyways. He’s crazy. And справедливая россия is a really young and relatively weak party and they barely made the 7 % barrier.
I think I would have voted for Edinaya Rocciya. Maybe that’s only because I have spent the past month reading all of their pre election handouts and programs and propaganda and ads and such. But I just think that life in Russia gets better every year. They move further away from the failure of the Soviet Union and closer to the level of European/American lifestyle. Although, Russia will NEVER be Europe or America. Which is a very good thing.
I don’t know why I approve of Putin. Maybe it’s because they always talk about how awesome he is on the television channels. He’s always in a different part of Russia or different countries having some meeting, with leaders of Iran or miners in Kamchatka. They can’t make up the fact that he is having these meetings. He does do a lot of work. Does Bush ever meet with people? Aside from during election season. I guess I never watch the news in the U.S., but I get the feeling that Bush hangs out in the white house or farm/ranch in Texas or various undisclosed locations. Even if Putin’s politics are bad (which I don’t think they are), I feel like you have to admit that he is a good politician. Perhaps the fact that he is a good politician automatically makes his politics questionable. Ah. Now I’ve even confused myself.
Maybe I like Putin because he is making Russia strong. And an equal of America. I feel like America needs some opposition. Otherwise we’ll just go around starting wars with various countries. Today on the news, there was some news item about the U.S. and Iran. And some politician saying (I think) that we (U.S.) need to be careful with the U.S. and Iran, because Bush tricked us all last time into starting the war in Iraq. Are we about to start a war with Iran? Isn’t the world more stable when there are several strong countries than when there is one bully country that just does what they want? I’m tired of thinking about politics.
Sunday I purchased a ticket to the Loko game tomorrow (Wednesday). I have now done this three times. The woman at the ticket office is tired of me. There was an audible sigh when I approached the window on Sunday. Also, buying tickets is really much more than necessarily complicated. First I explained I wanted a ticket for Wednesday for the price of 150 roubles. Then she says, what section of the arena, as there are like 6 different sections of the arena where seats cost 150 roubles. So I said section 13 because I have sat there before. Then she said what row? And I asked what rows were available and she began to read them all of. Does it really matter if I sit in the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd row? So I said 3rd row. Then she asked another question. I didn’t understand it, so I went with the go-to answer of “yes.” That was not the right answer. She started listing off more numbers. I heard her say “first” and I immediately said yes. Only after I had agreed to “first,” did I realize she was asking me what seat number I wanted. I actually didn’t want the first seat as it’s on the aisle, but there was no way I was going to change my mind and ask for the 6th seat or something like that. Also during this discussion, she asked me how many tickets I wanted? Two? I was so flattered by her suggestion that I was in fact not only buying a ticket for myself, but also a ticket for some hot, hockey-playing Russian man. But, alas, I answered “no, one.”
But is it really necessary to pick your exact seat? Can’t you just pick the price and they figure out the rest for you? Is there this abundance of choice in the U.S.? Like if I went to buy a ticket to an N.H.L game would I actually get to pick not only the section and the row, but the specific seat. Especially if it was a cheap ticket. Granted a cheap ticket to an N.H.L game is way more than the 150 roubles, 6 bucks to the Loko games. But still. Wouldn’t they just assign you a seat for whatever price you were going to pay. So now I have a ticket to the Loko game tomorrow. Woot Woot! Also, there is a Loko game on Friday, the final one while I am in Yaroslavl. Well, Susanna and I are hopefully returning to Yaroslavl while there is another Loko game so that we can go to it after I “leave” Yaroslavl on the 17th. But that doesn’t count as me being in Yaroslavl as all of my luggage will already be in Moscow (hopefully, must call and order taxi man tomorrow). So essentially this means that probably on Thursday, I will have one of my last chances to buy a Loko ticket. And hopefully I will be able to successfully pick out a section, row, and even seat number and the women will not sigh (too loudly) at me.
Tonight I just returned from my zachyot/ interview/ final exam for my mainstream class. Essentially, this consisted of me having a 5 minute conversation with my professor about the fairy tale Cinderella (Золушка). So if anyone is interested in my character analysis of the various characters in Cinderella or explanation of some of the 31 events that often occur in fairy tales (and which ones can be found in Cinderella), I am well prepared for such discussion.
Then after returning from such exam. I allowed myself to write this blog entry. Well to start three different ones and finally finish this one. And now I have to do my grammer and my phonetics homework. And it is midnight.
Also tonight Margarita gave me this hunk of chicken to eat for dinner. There was lots of redness and bone and skin and just general not acceptable-ness occurring in said meat item. Plus I just don’t like chicken. Perhaps I should be ashamed to reveal this, but I would take a hot dog over chicken hunk any day. So I sort of ate the chicken. Meaning tried to disguise it by eating a piece of chicken followed immediately by large forkful of pasta or gulps of water/apple juice. And then when Margarita went to go turn on the chainik, I skillfully took most of the chicken and wrapped it in a napkin and put it in my lap and hoped that our cat, Vacya, wouldn’t catch on and suddenly start attacking my chair until it was revealed that I was smuggling gross chicken. Then the chicken was successfully thrown away on my way to class. Good story. I know. When I move back to Russia, I will not be eating hunks of chicken. Am I actually allowed to use “hunks” in this context?
Going to do my homework…
Second WORD document. This quickly turned into me talking about how bad reverse culture shock is going to be (returning to the U.S.) which although is not directly saying that I like Russia a lot more than America, that’s pretty much what it’s saying. So I abandoned it.
Third WORD document. This is it. I refuse to allow myself to transition into my poetic thoughts about Russia-ness. So I will objectively explain important events which have occurred in the past days.
I went to basketball on Thursday for the first time in a while. I missed it while I was in Archangelsk, once to go watch a Loko game, once for Thanksgiving dinner… And one of the girls, Masha, asked me when I was leaving. And I had to say “in two weeks.” It always used to be “I don’t know, either in December or in June,” then it was “in six weeks,” “in five weeks.” And suddenly now it’s “two weeks.” Granted I’m not leaving Russia for probably 8 weeks. But I’m leaving Yaroslavl on Dec. 17th. Then I’m coming back for like 3 days with Susanna, but that’s too complicated to explain in Russian. So I just go with the 17th as my final departure date. Then she asked if I thought I had improved a lot in my Russian while I was here. I really don’t like this question. I can’t tell if I’m better. I feel like the more you know and the better you get, maybe the better you realize how little you know. Does that make sense? And so I went with my standby answer of “Well I understand a lot more now.” Then she told me that the first day at basketball, the only word I said was “Da.” So apparently I have improved. But I still share the fear with Natalie that we will return to Midd and people will not believe that we have spent the past what 7/8 months speaking Russian. Like we’re still bad. But then I remember the first days of summer school when like we just never talked (at least I didn’t). And if we did we talked very slowly. Now I talk and at a fairly fast rate, granted the grammar is sort of a nightmare. I don’t know what the point of this story was….
I don’t remember what I did on Saturday. Oh yes. I bought Love Actually in Russian. It cost 4 dollars. And now I watch it. A lot.
Sunday was the elections to the State Duma. So I tagged along with Margarita when she went to vote. After she showed her passport and received her ballot, the guy looked up at me. I just shook my head and backed away from the table. I wonder what would have happened if I had produced my U.S. passport to him. I bought one of the Russian Federation Passport Cover Things for it. So now people are especially surprised when they open that and see the damn American eagle flying about the pages and other general American looniness.
Anyways, Edinaya Rocciya (United/Unified Russia) won like 63 percent of the votes. Then the Communists, then LDPR, then Spravedlivaya Rocciya (Just/Fair Russia) all got the minimum 7% of the votes to make the cut to have seats in the Duma. So now Putin and Единая Россия can do whatever they want since they have a constitutional majority. So probably soon Putin will resign from the presidency, so that he will have the necessary amount of time out of office and be able to run again in the March presidential elections. Except maybe he won’t. But I think he will.
Also today in politics we talked about if the elections were democratic because already huge delegations of election auditor people decided not even to come oversee the elections (I already wrote about this.) They said Russia was making it hard to get visas. Russia said America made them pull out to make Russia look bad. But some big European group/organization/thing that came and oversaw elections just made some announcement that the elections were undemocratic. I don’t really know that much about it. Except today our politics professor was talking about it and said the solution to the problem was for Russia to stop being a member of that organization. That Russia was the largest, richest member of the group and paid the most money to support it, and if they were going to claim our elections were unfair, then we will just not be a part of their organization any longer. That is brilliant. Perhaps I should be appalled at how disrespectful it would be for Russia to pull out of the international organization. Perhaps I should be worried about their claim that Russia’s elections were undemocratic. Actually I feel like Russia is proving a worthy opponent on the world stage. Russia is doing things that only America is allowed to do. It’s brilliant.
I don’t think I like the fact that Единая Россия has that much power. It does seem sort of undemocratic (not the elections) but the fact that they will clearly dominate Duma. But the Communists are old and outdated and LDPR (which translates as the liberal-democratic party of Russia) is well crazy. Jirinovski (their head leader) is essentially the entire party. Margarita told me he is a very brilliant man and that a while ago, he proposed a law allowing Russian men to have more than one wife, because there is a severe imbalance of Russian men and women (as in there are a lot more women than men). I think the fact that he was brilliant and his wedding rule proposal were two separate things in our discussion, but anyways. He’s crazy. And справедливая россия is a really young and relatively weak party and they barely made the 7 % barrier.
I think I would have voted for Edinaya Rocciya. Maybe that’s only because I have spent the past month reading all of their pre election handouts and programs and propaganda and ads and such. But I just think that life in Russia gets better every year. They move further away from the failure of the Soviet Union and closer to the level of European/American lifestyle. Although, Russia will NEVER be Europe or America. Which is a very good thing.
I don’t know why I approve of Putin. Maybe it’s because they always talk about how awesome he is on the television channels. He’s always in a different part of Russia or different countries having some meeting, with leaders of Iran or miners in Kamchatka. They can’t make up the fact that he is having these meetings. He does do a lot of work. Does Bush ever meet with people? Aside from during election season. I guess I never watch the news in the U.S., but I get the feeling that Bush hangs out in the white house or farm/ranch in Texas or various undisclosed locations. Even if Putin’s politics are bad (which I don’t think they are), I feel like you have to admit that he is a good politician. Perhaps the fact that he is a good politician automatically makes his politics questionable. Ah. Now I’ve even confused myself.
Maybe I like Putin because he is making Russia strong. And an equal of America. I feel like America needs some opposition. Otherwise we’ll just go around starting wars with various countries. Today on the news, there was some news item about the U.S. and Iran. And some politician saying (I think) that we (U.S.) need to be careful with the U.S. and Iran, because Bush tricked us all last time into starting the war in Iraq. Are we about to start a war with Iran? Isn’t the world more stable when there are several strong countries than when there is one bully country that just does what they want? I’m tired of thinking about politics.
Sunday I purchased a ticket to the Loko game tomorrow (Wednesday). I have now done this three times. The woman at the ticket office is tired of me. There was an audible sigh when I approached the window on Sunday. Also, buying tickets is really much more than necessarily complicated. First I explained I wanted a ticket for Wednesday for the price of 150 roubles. Then she says, what section of the arena, as there are like 6 different sections of the arena where seats cost 150 roubles. So I said section 13 because I have sat there before. Then she said what row? And I asked what rows were available and she began to read them all of. Does it really matter if I sit in the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd row? So I said 3rd row. Then she asked another question. I didn’t understand it, so I went with the go-to answer of “yes.” That was not the right answer. She started listing off more numbers. I heard her say “first” and I immediately said yes. Only after I had agreed to “first,” did I realize she was asking me what seat number I wanted. I actually didn’t want the first seat as it’s on the aisle, but there was no way I was going to change my mind and ask for the 6th seat or something like that. Also during this discussion, she asked me how many tickets I wanted? Two? I was so flattered by her suggestion that I was in fact not only buying a ticket for myself, but also a ticket for some hot, hockey-playing Russian man. But, alas, I answered “no, one.”
But is it really necessary to pick your exact seat? Can’t you just pick the price and they figure out the rest for you? Is there this abundance of choice in the U.S.? Like if I went to buy a ticket to an N.H.L game would I actually get to pick not only the section and the row, but the specific seat. Especially if it was a cheap ticket. Granted a cheap ticket to an N.H.L game is way more than the 150 roubles, 6 bucks to the Loko games. But still. Wouldn’t they just assign you a seat for whatever price you were going to pay. So now I have a ticket to the Loko game tomorrow. Woot Woot! Also, there is a Loko game on Friday, the final one while I am in Yaroslavl. Well, Susanna and I are hopefully returning to Yaroslavl while there is another Loko game so that we can go to it after I “leave” Yaroslavl on the 17th. But that doesn’t count as me being in Yaroslavl as all of my luggage will already be in Moscow (hopefully, must call and order taxi man tomorrow). So essentially this means that probably on Thursday, I will have one of my last chances to buy a Loko ticket. And hopefully I will be able to successfully pick out a section, row, and even seat number and the women will not sigh (too loudly) at me.
Tonight I just returned from my zachyot/ interview/ final exam for my mainstream class. Essentially, this consisted of me having a 5 minute conversation with my professor about the fairy tale Cinderella (Золушка). So if anyone is interested in my character analysis of the various characters in Cinderella or explanation of some of the 31 events that often occur in fairy tales (and which ones can be found in Cinderella), I am well prepared for such discussion.
Then after returning from such exam. I allowed myself to write this blog entry. Well to start three different ones and finally finish this one. And now I have to do my grammer and my phonetics homework. And it is midnight.
Also tonight Margarita gave me this hunk of chicken to eat for dinner. There was lots of redness and bone and skin and just general not acceptable-ness occurring in said meat item. Plus I just don’t like chicken. Perhaps I should be ashamed to reveal this, but I would take a hot dog over chicken hunk any day. So I sort of ate the chicken. Meaning tried to disguise it by eating a piece of chicken followed immediately by large forkful of pasta or gulps of water/apple juice. And then when Margarita went to go turn on the chainik, I skillfully took most of the chicken and wrapped it in a napkin and put it in my lap and hoped that our cat, Vacya, wouldn’t catch on and suddenly start attacking my chair until it was revealed that I was smuggling gross chicken. Then the chicken was successfully thrown away on my way to class. Good story. I know. When I move back to Russia, I will not be eating hunks of chicken. Am I actually allowed to use “hunks” in this context?
Going to do my homework…
Reverse Culture Shock
…is going to suck. I am already dreading it. I still have at least 8 weeks in Russia. I just know it’s going to suck so bad. I also don’t really know if I ever had “forward” culture shock. I can think of some days in September and October when I was sort of not totally cheery, but there was never a string of days when I just wanted to go home. Also the days when I was sort of miserable where always when it was raining and you are allowed a lot more misery than usual when it is raining. I think I should stop worrying about culture shock into America and enjoy the rest of my time in Russia.
Less than 2 weeks left in Yaroslavl. I have sort of accepted my departure-ness. Also, Margarita and I have lately been getting along like BFF’s (best friend’s forever). I’m not sure if this is because I’m leaving in two weeks or if we actually have sort of figured each other out enough that there is now some level of friendship, acceptance, compatibility-ness.
(This post was also abandoned becuase it was me talking about my new BFF Margarita and I couldn't take myself seriously.)
Less than 2 weeks left in Yaroslavl. I have sort of accepted my departure-ness. Also, Margarita and I have lately been getting along like BFF’s (best friend’s forever). I’m not sure if this is because I’m leaving in two weeks or if we actually have sort of figured each other out enough that there is now some level of friendship, acceptance, compatibility-ness.
(This post was also abandoned becuase it was me talking about my new BFF Margarita and I couldn't take myself seriously.)
When you say “I’m moving to Russia for six months,” no one ever says “Well, don’t fall in love.”
Mainly people say things like “Don’t die,” “It’ll definitely be interesting,” “You can always come home early, if it turns out to be that awful.” Mainly, they say “Don’t die.” I think if you were to look back at facebook wall posts written amongst the Midd kids setting off for Russia at the end of August, the verb умирать (to die- as in “don’t die”) would appear often. If you don’t know what facebook is, you’re clearly not that hip. But that’s not important.
Also before I go on for too long, I would like to clarify that I have not fallen in love with some Russian man named Sergei, Igor, Dima, or Alexander. I predict one person finds that sentence funny. Moving on. I fell in love with just…Russia. Also if you would like to continue to respect me, perhaps you should stop reading before I go into more of my “how awesome Russia is…” and you become more and more convinced that I have lost my mind.
Perhaps I had a more pessimistic view of my time in Russia, than other people do approaching their time in Russia. Like, I was scared. Crazy scared. I thought I was actually going to die. This is not a realistic fear. Realistic fears would be: I won’t have any friends, I won’t ever understand what is occurring, I will be really lonely and bored and unhappy… I think those are realistic fears when leaving for Russia. Fear of death is not a realistic fear. However, I really thought I was going to die. I don’t know why. At any point, I could have said “enough” and flown back to the U.S. I still just thought I was going to die. I definitely didn’t think I would be sitting here, a little over 3 months after my arrival, talking about how much I like this country.
Also, writing this is fairly scary. I feel like I’m going to make a huge fool of myself. Any sane person would look at the choice of America and Russia and well, pick America. Any American would make this choice, any Russian would definitely make this choice. And I feel like maybe when I get back to the U.S., I will realize how much of a fool I was. How much better life in the U.S. is. And then I will have to look back and remember how I went about proclaiming how awesome Russia was.
That’s not going to happen.
(At this point I gave up on this entry...it was too "I love Russia so much.")
Also before I go on for too long, I would like to clarify that I have not fallen in love with some Russian man named Sergei, Igor, Dima, or Alexander. I predict one person finds that sentence funny. Moving on. I fell in love with just…Russia. Also if you would like to continue to respect me, perhaps you should stop reading before I go into more of my “how awesome Russia is…” and you become more and more convinced that I have lost my mind.
Perhaps I had a more pessimistic view of my time in Russia, than other people do approaching their time in Russia. Like, I was scared. Crazy scared. I thought I was actually going to die. This is not a realistic fear. Realistic fears would be: I won’t have any friends, I won’t ever understand what is occurring, I will be really lonely and bored and unhappy… I think those are realistic fears when leaving for Russia. Fear of death is not a realistic fear. However, I really thought I was going to die. I don’t know why. At any point, I could have said “enough” and flown back to the U.S. I still just thought I was going to die. I definitely didn’t think I would be sitting here, a little over 3 months after my arrival, talking about how much I like this country.
Also, writing this is fairly scary. I feel like I’m going to make a huge fool of myself. Any sane person would look at the choice of America and Russia and well, pick America. Any American would make this choice, any Russian would definitely make this choice. And I feel like maybe when I get back to the U.S., I will realize how much of a fool I was. How much better life in the U.S. is. And then I will have to look back and remember how I went about proclaiming how awesome Russia was.
That’s not going to happen.
(At this point I gave up on this entry...it was too "I love Russia so much.")
Friday, November 30, 2007
такого как путин
Things I Should Be Doing Right Now:
---Writing спасибо (Thank You) cards to all of our professors and office workers. (This would usually be a good procrastination method from having to do real work. However the fact that said notes have to be in Russian and hopefully have minimal mistakes makes me very much not want to do this. At least Megan said that it isn’t that big of a deal if there are grammar mistakes. The professors would definitely not believe we wrote them if they were completely free of mistakes)
---Doing my phonetics homework.
---Proofreading my politics paper – because no matter how many times I read it and reread it, I will still get it back covered in red ink due to my complete inattention/inability to correctly use case declensions.
---Going to bed, as it is now 1:12 a.m.
Things I Am Not Doing Right Now:
---All of the above.
I finished writing my paper though. It is 20 pages long. Well, like 19 and a half. I’m not really sure how this happened. I guess I sort of have been writing it for a month. But still, it’s 20 pages and it’s in Russian and it’s FULL of mistakes!!! But it’s still done (well sort of). There is lots of footnoting and further proofreading that needs to occur. Then there is some sort of oral presentation/defense which has to happen. Ahh.
I told myself I couldn’t write a blog entry until I finished the paper tonight, because as soon as I start functioning in English to write the blog, it would have been impossible to go back to Russian writing mode. I mean more impossible than Russian writing mode is usually (and Russian writing mode is always very impossible and highly unproductive). However the lesson learned is that many nights of highly unproductive-ness can still result in a high overall level of productivity.
It’s like when you’re in high school and you take 6 months to write the 15 page senior paper and then you get to college and you write 10 page papers in a weekend – or if you are Flora, you write them in like 4 hours.
I calmed down off the “throw everything away/give everything away/leave it all in Russia” bandwagon and now tomorrow shall call cab driver to arrange for me to be driven with baggage to Andrei’s house in Moscow where I can leave my stuff for December and January while we with Sonya travel about the country. Also, I wonder why I brought my Chaco’s to Russia. Did that ever sound like a good idea? But I pretend that my excuse is that I wanted to wear them at Laurel’s house and then they just got brought along to Boston and then to New York and then to Moscow. But it’s still sort of highly ridiculous. Plus they’re heavy. Not that there is any way my luggage will ever be under the weight limit to get back to the U.S.
Things That Actually Relate To Russia
The Loko game on Monday: You’re not going to understand my amazing cleverness unless you speak Russian. Oh well. So I was on the marshrytka along with half of the population of Yaroslavl. Now that it’s actually cold and snowy, the marshrytka’s are almost always FULL of people. But my maneuvering/shoving of people skills to reach the door have greatly improved since that culture moment/getting disastrously lost in Bragino. So whenever you go to a Loko game, like half of the marshrytka gets off at the stop for the arena. But on this marshrytka, there were a lot of шуба (dead animal-fur coat) wearing women. Шуба pronounced “shoo-buh” and so I definitely assumed that they would not be exiting for the hockey game. Oh man, was I wrong. There were so many шубы (много шуб) at the hockey game. This is where my cleverness comes in. A hockey puck is called шайба “shai-buh.” And I came to the conclusion that if I was in charge I would make there be a mandatory decision for every woman between шуба and шайба. It’s clever because the two words sound like each other. Like you can’t have the best of both worlds. You can’t get to go to hockey games and get to wear the dead animal (Margarita thinks she has ridded me of my vegetarian habits-Haha. She has not completely. I still call it a dead animal and not a fur coat.) Every woman has to make a choice. You can pick шайба (puck) or you can pick шуба (animal/coat). I think it was a lot more clever when it only existed in my head. It doesn’t sound very clever at all, now that I have typed it.
Today at basketball practice the girls were talking about how their parents forbid them to play sports when they were young. So they secretly had to go to basketball or football practice (remember that when I say football, I am logically referring to the sport played by such people as David Beckham and Mia Hamm, and not the sport played by such people as OJ Simpson). And then I was glad that I had never taken my hockey stick to basketball practice when we used to play hockey on Monday nights. I don’t think they would have understood/been accepting of the idea of me not only playing ice hockey (Margarita has asked me like 800 times if I have ever tried figure skating. Answer: NO), but playing ice hockey on the boys team all the way through high school, plus playing pick up with the men at Arena. So the fact that they were forbidden from playing sports is so like 1950’s or something or earlier, I don’t know. It’s old. Also, mother, thank you for not forbidding me from playing hockey.
I feel like the blog is recently much less “this is what I did,” and more “this is what I think.” I don’t know how I feel about that.
The elections to the State (federal) Dyma are on Sunday. Edinaya Rocciya is going to win. They’re going to get like 60% or more. This is okay with me, I think. Today I decided I wanted to read what English newspapers were saying about the upcoming elections. Oh man. I forgot how much America doesn’t like Putin. Like they just ripped him apart and talked about how its not true democracy and how this European delegation of observers of the voting process (there has to be a better English word to explain this, but I can’t think of it) declined to come because according to them, Russia was being really annoying and only wanted to supply visas for like ¼ of their delegation. But the English-language (i.e. not just British) newspapers wrote that Putin said that the delegation didn’t come because America convinced them not to come so that Russia would look bad and look like we were trying to conduct somehow rigged or unfair elections. And then there were various Putin quotes about Europe and America keeping their noses out of Russia’s business and not meddling in our internal affairs. But the translations were not anything close to something Putin would ever say. He wouldn’t have insulting comments about “America staying out of our business.” I listen to his speeches on the news every day. He doesn’t talk like that. That’s more like Bush quality of speaking. Also I heard Bush’s voice on the news because the dubbing was delayed like 5 seconds after Bush started speaking. And I forgot how much I hate his voice. Like he just sounds like a complete loon. Perhaps even a goon.
So anyways, it was crazy reading what the English-speaking press is saying about the elections on Sunday. Also they keep mentioning the “next president” of Russia which we don’t really talk about in Russia, because everyone just sort of secretly thinks it’s going to be Putin. Maybe not everyone, but a lot of people. I think I agree with them. And since presidential elections are on March 2 (I won’t be here. Ah!!! The misery is overwhelming.) that means he would have to leave the presidency before Dec 23 in order to declare his candidacy. And he is also the only candidate on the Edinaya Rocciya list to the federal Dyma. And elections are on the 2nd (in two days). So there is the possibility that he could then become a deputat in the Dyma for 3 months and then go back to the presidency. But if he does this, he is going to have to resign from the presidency like soon. But he keeps talking about the “next president,” but no one actually believes him. Not that any Russians are really that angry about this. He has a huge popularity rating. I feel like I didn’t know that when I was in the U.S. The population actually incredibly supports him. And there are no other political personality’s in Russia even close to the support that Putin has. So mainly Russians would support him having a third term. I'm pretty sure that didn't make sense that whole thing I just wrote about Putin. But sort of the whole point is that it is really complicated and he might resign really soon in order to be able to have a 3rd term without disrupting the constitution. But he might not. But no one really knows.
Also this is related to earlier comment about the voting observing people from Europe not coming. When we saw this on the news, Margarita had the most awesome comment ever. I don’t actually remember what she said, but it was something that would be translated like “Well, who gives a damn.” Like, if the snotty Europeans and Americans don’t approve of our elections, we don’t really care, at all. And this attitude is awesome. Except of course, Russia gets completely trashed in the international press because of not complying with the election observer people (I really wish I could think of a better word), but America always has the “Fuck the world. We do what we want” attitude. Hey, let’s go invade Afghanistan. And Iraq. And not sign the Kyoto Pollution Treaty Protocol Thing.
Going to write the Thank-You notes. I bet as soon as I have to use some hard case ending, I will think of a really important thing to write about on my blog. I wonder if they’ll know if I write them all the exact same note.
Ugh. There’s 11 cards. I’ve only written 2. Ah. I just used the ты form instead of the вы form.
Also when I was reading about Putin in the U.S. press they referred to the такого как путин song in which the girl sings about how wants a boyfriend like Putin who doesn't drink or run away and is strong. And they used this to show how dominating Putin is and how he brainwashes all of the Russians into being in love with him and not being a true democracy. Except all of the Russians also realize how ridiculous this song is.
---Writing спасибо (Thank You) cards to all of our professors and office workers. (This would usually be a good procrastination method from having to do real work. However the fact that said notes have to be in Russian and hopefully have minimal mistakes makes me very much not want to do this. At least Megan said that it isn’t that big of a deal if there are grammar mistakes. The professors would definitely not believe we wrote them if they were completely free of mistakes)
---Doing my phonetics homework.
---Proofreading my politics paper – because no matter how many times I read it and reread it, I will still get it back covered in red ink due to my complete inattention/inability to correctly use case declensions.
---Going to bed, as it is now 1:12 a.m.
Things I Am Not Doing Right Now:
---All of the above.
I finished writing my paper though. It is 20 pages long. Well, like 19 and a half. I’m not really sure how this happened. I guess I sort of have been writing it for a month. But still, it’s 20 pages and it’s in Russian and it’s FULL of mistakes!!! But it’s still done (well sort of). There is lots of footnoting and further proofreading that needs to occur. Then there is some sort of oral presentation/defense which has to happen. Ahh.
I told myself I couldn’t write a blog entry until I finished the paper tonight, because as soon as I start functioning in English to write the blog, it would have been impossible to go back to Russian writing mode. I mean more impossible than Russian writing mode is usually (and Russian writing mode is always very impossible and highly unproductive). However the lesson learned is that many nights of highly unproductive-ness can still result in a high overall level of productivity.
It’s like when you’re in high school and you take 6 months to write the 15 page senior paper and then you get to college and you write 10 page papers in a weekend – or if you are Flora, you write them in like 4 hours.
I calmed down off the “throw everything away/give everything away/leave it all in Russia” bandwagon and now tomorrow shall call cab driver to arrange for me to be driven with baggage to Andrei’s house in Moscow where I can leave my stuff for December and January while we with Sonya travel about the country. Also, I wonder why I brought my Chaco’s to Russia. Did that ever sound like a good idea? But I pretend that my excuse is that I wanted to wear them at Laurel’s house and then they just got brought along to Boston and then to New York and then to Moscow. But it’s still sort of highly ridiculous. Plus they’re heavy. Not that there is any way my luggage will ever be under the weight limit to get back to the U.S.
Things That Actually Relate To Russia
The Loko game on Monday: You’re not going to understand my amazing cleverness unless you speak Russian. Oh well. So I was on the marshrytka along with half of the population of Yaroslavl. Now that it’s actually cold and snowy, the marshrytka’s are almost always FULL of people. But my maneuvering/shoving of people skills to reach the door have greatly improved since that culture moment/getting disastrously lost in Bragino. So whenever you go to a Loko game, like half of the marshrytka gets off at the stop for the arena. But on this marshrytka, there were a lot of шуба (dead animal-fur coat) wearing women. Шуба pronounced “shoo-buh” and so I definitely assumed that they would not be exiting for the hockey game. Oh man, was I wrong. There were so many шубы (много шуб) at the hockey game. This is where my cleverness comes in. A hockey puck is called шайба “shai-buh.” And I came to the conclusion that if I was in charge I would make there be a mandatory decision for every woman between шуба and шайба. It’s clever because the two words sound like each other. Like you can’t have the best of both worlds. You can’t get to go to hockey games and get to wear the dead animal (Margarita thinks she has ridded me of my vegetarian habits-Haha. She has not completely. I still call it a dead animal and not a fur coat.) Every woman has to make a choice. You can pick шайба (puck) or you can pick шуба (animal/coat). I think it was a lot more clever when it only existed in my head. It doesn’t sound very clever at all, now that I have typed it.
Today at basketball practice the girls were talking about how their parents forbid them to play sports when they were young. So they secretly had to go to basketball or football practice (remember that when I say football, I am logically referring to the sport played by such people as David Beckham and Mia Hamm, and not the sport played by such people as OJ Simpson). And then I was glad that I had never taken my hockey stick to basketball practice when we used to play hockey on Monday nights. I don’t think they would have understood/been accepting of the idea of me not only playing ice hockey (Margarita has asked me like 800 times if I have ever tried figure skating. Answer: NO), but playing ice hockey on the boys team all the way through high school, plus playing pick up with the men at Arena. So the fact that they were forbidden from playing sports is so like 1950’s or something or earlier, I don’t know. It’s old. Also, mother, thank you for not forbidding me from playing hockey.
I feel like the blog is recently much less “this is what I did,” and more “this is what I think.” I don’t know how I feel about that.
The elections to the State (federal) Dyma are on Sunday. Edinaya Rocciya is going to win. They’re going to get like 60% or more. This is okay with me, I think. Today I decided I wanted to read what English newspapers were saying about the upcoming elections. Oh man. I forgot how much America doesn’t like Putin. Like they just ripped him apart and talked about how its not true democracy and how this European delegation of observers of the voting process (there has to be a better English word to explain this, but I can’t think of it) declined to come because according to them, Russia was being really annoying and only wanted to supply visas for like ¼ of their delegation. But the English-language (i.e. not just British) newspapers wrote that Putin said that the delegation didn’t come because America convinced them not to come so that Russia would look bad and look like we were trying to conduct somehow rigged or unfair elections. And then there were various Putin quotes about Europe and America keeping their noses out of Russia’s business and not meddling in our internal affairs. But the translations were not anything close to something Putin would ever say. He wouldn’t have insulting comments about “America staying out of our business.” I listen to his speeches on the news every day. He doesn’t talk like that. That’s more like Bush quality of speaking. Also I heard Bush’s voice on the news because the dubbing was delayed like 5 seconds after Bush started speaking. And I forgot how much I hate his voice. Like he just sounds like a complete loon. Perhaps even a goon.
So anyways, it was crazy reading what the English-speaking press is saying about the elections on Sunday. Also they keep mentioning the “next president” of Russia which we don’t really talk about in Russia, because everyone just sort of secretly thinks it’s going to be Putin. Maybe not everyone, but a lot of people. I think I agree with them. And since presidential elections are on March 2 (I won’t be here. Ah!!! The misery is overwhelming.) that means he would have to leave the presidency before Dec 23 in order to declare his candidacy. And he is also the only candidate on the Edinaya Rocciya list to the federal Dyma. And elections are on the 2nd (in two days). So there is the possibility that he could then become a deputat in the Dyma for 3 months and then go back to the presidency. But if he does this, he is going to have to resign from the presidency like soon. But he keeps talking about the “next president,” but no one actually believes him. Not that any Russians are really that angry about this. He has a huge popularity rating. I feel like I didn’t know that when I was in the U.S. The population actually incredibly supports him. And there are no other political personality’s in Russia even close to the support that Putin has. So mainly Russians would support him having a third term. I'm pretty sure that didn't make sense that whole thing I just wrote about Putin. But sort of the whole point is that it is really complicated and he might resign really soon in order to be able to have a 3rd term without disrupting the constitution. But he might not. But no one really knows.
Also this is related to earlier comment about the voting observing people from Europe not coming. When we saw this on the news, Margarita had the most awesome comment ever. I don’t actually remember what she said, but it was something that would be translated like “Well, who gives a damn.” Like, if the snotty Europeans and Americans don’t approve of our elections, we don’t really care, at all. And this attitude is awesome. Except of course, Russia gets completely trashed in the international press because of not complying with the election observer people (I really wish I could think of a better word), but America always has the “Fuck the world. We do what we want” attitude. Hey, let’s go invade Afghanistan. And Iraq. And not sign the Kyoto Pollution Treaty Protocol Thing.
Going to write the Thank-You notes. I bet as soon as I have to use some hard case ending, I will think of a really important thing to write about on my blog. I wonder if they’ll know if I write them all the exact same note.
Ugh. There’s 11 cards. I’ve only written 2. Ah. I just used the ты form instead of the вы form.
Also when I was reading about Putin in the U.S. press they referred to the такого как путин song in which the girl sings about how wants a boyfriend like Putin who doesn't drink or run away and is strong. And they used this to show how dominating Putin is and how he brainwashes all of the Russians into being in love with him and not being a true democracy. Except all of the Russians also realize how ridiculous this song is.
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