Um. My interest in blogging has decreased now that I have lost my home. I liked having a home and a life in Russia. Now I'm just a tourist. And while that might seem more interesting to most people. I don't like it. I liked having a place. So yes.
We left Moscow.
We got to Yaroslavl.
We did stuff in Yaroslavl. Margarita made us a chocolate cake for Christmas. We went to a Loko game. We walked along the Volga. We probably did other things which I forgot about.
We left Yaroslavl.
There was a crying baby in our plats-kart compartment of the train.
We got to Piter.
We were in the train station for a long time. Susanna and I don't talk about that day in the train station any more. We wiped it from our memories.
We went to Novgorod.
We survived for two days without tea and eating/drinking condensed milk sometimes with cheese, or apples, or crackers, or with canned corn. Plus Snickers.
Novgorod was very pretty. and cold. and calm. Like alarmingly calm and unchaotic.
Then we did other things in Novgorod. And now we are in Piter. Now we are leaving with some people from the Ukraine to go to one of the huge palaces outside of Piter.
Good bye
Happy New Year to all!
Monday, December 31, 2007
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Moscow
Moscow is .......
big. like huge. like really really really huge.
an eternal traffic jam.
expensive.
way more America/Europe/civilized-ness than the rest of Russia
There are probably other important things to say about Moscow. Mainly I can’t get over how big it is. It’s huge. Something like 14 million people. I don’t know. Highly alarming.
A brief rundown of the past week:
Left Yaroslavl on Monday morning. It was sort of a relief to go. I had just been dreading it so much that it was okay to get in the car and drive away. This ease of leaving was actually because I knew I would be returning to Yaroslavl in like a week. So yes. Then the driver decided that he was going to take a smoking break like approximately every 5 minutes. Not really. But there were lots of smoking breaks. So we were sort of way behind on arrival into Moscow. Which meant I was taken straight to the hostel/ straight to the general area of the hostel where both driver and I carried/pulled/dragged about my suitcases trying to find the mysterious hostel which we eventually did find. This has already become much too long and detailed. Arrived at hostel. Then Susanna got there. Then we went to Red Square. I like Red Square. Then we went to this hipster bar with Eddie and Sarah (from summer school) and tried not to spend all of our money. Mainly we spend all of our time trying not to spend all of our money. Mainly it always fails because Moscow (as listed above) is expensive. Moving on.
Tuesday:
Train tickets to Helsinki for Susanna and I have been purchased. We were helpfully yelled at by many different people. We were in the wrong train station, then we were not at the international ticket counter, then we were at the correct ticket counter but we incorrectly understood that there was only one line which was waiting for two different windows instead of two lines waiting separately for the two windows (there were definitely two different lines), then we were yelled at because other people had gotten tired of standing in line so they were now sitting, but they wanted to make sure we understood that we were actually behind them in line even though they were now sitting, then we were pleaded with by a woman from Belarus because she needed to change her train ticket in an emergency, then we were yelled at by sitting woman because we had let the Belarus woman cut in front of us but not told the Belarus woman that she was actually behind the sitting woman and not the man in line, then we were yelled at by the ticket woman because there are apparently no trains returning from Helsinki to Piter on the 7. I’m not sure if we were actually “yelled” at . I think in the U.S. it might count as yelling. Or at least not very friendly or polite and dismissive commands. But it’s the sort of the thing that is the standard quo in Russia. I like it. It’s just sort of openly brutal. It makes me feel like “me against the world.” So ticket buying to Helsinki was this game that began 3 weeks ago with emailing about buses, and then became attempted purchasing in Yaroslavl (for me successful) purchasing in Irkutsk for Susanna (unsuccessful), and finally culminated in successful purchasing in Moscow. It’s just a big game. If you can’t see it as a big game, you might want to kill yourself with how frustrating the whole process is. But really it’s just a huge challenge. I don’t know how I will deal with life in the U.S. when buying train tickets involves going on the internet and typing in a credit card number and an address where the tickets will be mailed to. It will be so much less climatic. I won’t be allowed to lose sleep for weeks and procrastinate ticket buying because of how scared I am of train stations and then finally go and have to bravely fight for a place in line and etc....Yeh. That got way out of control.
Other things on Tuesday:
Went to the большой театр (Bolshoi Theatr). Is it always translated to english as the Bolshoi or is it translated as the «Big Theatre» because it if is translated as the «Big Theatre», then that is lame. Then we found ridiculous shopping malls full of like 2000 rouble scarves and perfume and the sort of frivolity and excessive money that I sort of forgot about. I guess I didn't forget about it. But I liked that it doesn't really exist in Yaroslavl. Moscow malls are stately and majestic. They have escalators and heat and a general level of classiness and sophistication that doesn't exist in Yaroslavl. We also found the Masaratti and Ferraris store. That was a good success.
Wednesday:
We went to a cemetery. It was stately and majestic. Like most things in Moscow. There was also a nearby pond. It was pretty. Did more wandering about Red Square. Got lost and found the neither stately nor majestic statue of Peter on the river. It is really just alarming. I feel like our time in Moscow has been less dominated by a huge list of necessary museums and more dominated by random riding of the metro to stations which I sort of remember reading about in Lonely Planet and then sort of wandering about looking for something which might be of importance. I mean the museums are important to. But I like the people. I like that life is everywhere and you just get completely caught up in how many people there and ...I don't know where this thought is going, so I'm going to abandon it.
Thursday:
Tretyakovskaya Gallery where I was once again embarassed by my lack of knowledge of really anything about Russia. Not that I really know anything about art in America. I know the Mona Lisa is important. That has nothing to do with America. I remember walking very fast through the Louvre with Emily to find the Mona Lisa. Okay moving on. We went to Sparrow Hills and walked through the forest/park in the evening snow and it was nice. We found the huge staduim that they built for the 1980 Olympics. And this ski tower thing which I think is used for aerial ski jumping or whatever Eric Bergoust does. But I don't understand because it would sort of lauch the skier into either the river or like the roof of the Lijinki stadium building. Then we read the sign and discovered there was lessons on specific days and so that is the most ridiculolus thing ever and so we spent long amounts of time completely not understanding if it was possible for an actual normal person to pay an unspecificied amount of money and fling himself off the huge ski tower jump thing and land in some unspecificed location. So yes.
Friday:
Kremlin. There were churches and icons and a real live yolka except I guess the fact that was cut down means it wasn't «live» but still it was like a complete tree instead of just being patched together on like a steel frame. And then I tried to be the translater for this tourist who was mistakenly buying Chinese post cards. I'm not sure why they sell postcards of Chinese art in the Moscow Kremlin. But they do. And he just looked around hopelessly as the woman yelled at him saying «китайские открытки» And then in his limited english, he told me he wanted to buy the miniature cannon. And then I told the saleswoman. But she didn't have change for his 1000 roubles. Which is sort of understandable. Then we dug through his wallet and found 500 roubles. The cannon cost 150 roubles. Anything over 100 roubles can be paid for with a 500. That is my rule. However saleswoman kept yelling at us that she had no change but that she could take a credit card. Then the poor man thanked me in his sort of english and defeatedly walked away. It was all very sad.
Saturday: (today)
I just realized there are like 800 other important things we did in Moscow. But I don't feel like going back and adding them.
Side note: The host/owner of the hostel is this amazing man. Who just sort of sits around and then engages in fights with young men about the internet or computers. Actually this is like the craziest hostel ever. It is so out of control. It's also very un-understood whether actual tourists stay here or just that the hostel is full of Russians who are somehow employed by the owner/host man. I don't know. It's ridiculous. Also it is somehow afficilated with the most ridiculous mode-ish cafe ever in the history of the world. There's just lots of black and white boxy furniture and tv screens which silently show like artsy slideshows of very strange artsy pictures. It's so weird. Sometimes we go eat breakfast there. The people at the hostel have told us this is allowed. However the people at the restaurant always give us the most exasperated looks whenever we arrive. also sometimes we see the woman who is always cleaning at the restaurant emerge from this secret room in the hostel. It's so ridiculous, I don't even know what to say. So then this morning we went to the restaurant and it was covered in confetti and the server girl just gave us the most pathetic laugh ever and said that they had been busy all night and that we should come back later for breakfast. But instead we ran away and will not be coming back. There is no way anyone will understand how crazy the hostel and the restuarant are. Oh well. Also in the stairway to the restaurant there is the creepiest green faced halloween dummy man and I was scared for my life the first time I saw him. And he is still the most sketchy thing ever.
We went to a museum about Tolstoy. We went to a Gruzincki (Georgian) restaurant. There was some sort of meat item that cost 4,000 roubles. We did not order that. We went to Victory Park and saw a lot of brides walking around. There were 6 of them at one point. I never thought I would need the genetive plural to talk about the шесть невест.
Then we came back and ate dinner and drank tea. We do a lot of tea drinking these days. Mainly because whenever we enter the hostel we are asked by the owner man if we have замерзли (frozen) and instructed to drink lots of tea. But the tea bags are free. So I don't complain.
Tomorrow we are taking the train from Moscow to Yaroslavl. There is sure to be quite a welcoming feast upon our arrival. I can only imagine how excited Margarita will be to have two students who she needs to be feeding. She already asked me if Susanna is big or small. Because if Susanna was big that would mean the extra cot wouldn't be acceptable for a sleeping place and then Susanna and I would have to take over the main room/Margarita's room for sleeping and Margarita would sleep in my room. But thankfully I answered that Susanna is small so I will be allowed to sleep in my bed and Susanna will be given the cot in my room and everything will work out. I don't know what we're doing in Yaroslavl. Going to watch Loko on Monday. I hope. Taking a bus to a nearby town on Tuesday where the Kremlin is really pretty and they films lots of historical movies there. I don't know what Wednesday. Probably eating a lot of food from Margarita before we are then on our way to Piter and back to a diet which consists of Snickers bars, ice cream, pasta which is always very al dente because of the lack of proper cooking stove appliances, and alarming tomato sauce which is actually more tomato paste but we try to pretend that it was a good purchase so we eat it anyways.
big. like huge. like really really really huge.
an eternal traffic jam.
expensive.
way more America/Europe/civilized-ness than the rest of Russia
There are probably other important things to say about Moscow. Mainly I can’t get over how big it is. It’s huge. Something like 14 million people. I don’t know. Highly alarming.
A brief rundown of the past week:
Left Yaroslavl on Monday morning. It was sort of a relief to go. I had just been dreading it so much that it was okay to get in the car and drive away. This ease of leaving was actually because I knew I would be returning to Yaroslavl in like a week. So yes. Then the driver decided that he was going to take a smoking break like approximately every 5 minutes. Not really. But there were lots of smoking breaks. So we were sort of way behind on arrival into Moscow. Which meant I was taken straight to the hostel/ straight to the general area of the hostel where both driver and I carried/pulled/dragged about my suitcases trying to find the mysterious hostel which we eventually did find. This has already become much too long and detailed. Arrived at hostel. Then Susanna got there. Then we went to Red Square. I like Red Square. Then we went to this hipster bar with Eddie and Sarah (from summer school) and tried not to spend all of our money. Mainly we spend all of our time trying not to spend all of our money. Mainly it always fails because Moscow (as listed above) is expensive. Moving on.
Tuesday:
Train tickets to Helsinki for Susanna and I have been purchased. We were helpfully yelled at by many different people. We were in the wrong train station, then we were not at the international ticket counter, then we were at the correct ticket counter but we incorrectly understood that there was only one line which was waiting for two different windows instead of two lines waiting separately for the two windows (there were definitely two different lines), then we were yelled at because other people had gotten tired of standing in line so they were now sitting, but they wanted to make sure we understood that we were actually behind them in line even though they were now sitting, then we were pleaded with by a woman from Belarus because she needed to change her train ticket in an emergency, then we were yelled at by sitting woman because we had let the Belarus woman cut in front of us but not told the Belarus woman that she was actually behind the sitting woman and not the man in line, then we were yelled at by the ticket woman because there are apparently no trains returning from Helsinki to Piter on the 7. I’m not sure if we were actually “yelled” at . I think in the U.S. it might count as yelling. Or at least not very friendly or polite and dismissive commands. But it’s the sort of the thing that is the standard quo in Russia. I like it. It’s just sort of openly brutal. It makes me feel like “me against the world.” So ticket buying to Helsinki was this game that began 3 weeks ago with emailing about buses, and then became attempted purchasing in Yaroslavl (for me successful) purchasing in Irkutsk for Susanna (unsuccessful), and finally culminated in successful purchasing in Moscow. It’s just a big game. If you can’t see it as a big game, you might want to kill yourself with how frustrating the whole process is. But really it’s just a huge challenge. I don’t know how I will deal with life in the U.S. when buying train tickets involves going on the internet and typing in a credit card number and an address where the tickets will be mailed to. It will be so much less climatic. I won’t be allowed to lose sleep for weeks and procrastinate ticket buying because of how scared I am of train stations and then finally go and have to bravely fight for a place in line and etc....Yeh. That got way out of control.
Other things on Tuesday:
Went to the большой театр (Bolshoi Theatr). Is it always translated to english as the Bolshoi or is it translated as the «Big Theatre» because it if is translated as the «Big Theatre», then that is lame. Then we found ridiculous shopping malls full of like 2000 rouble scarves and perfume and the sort of frivolity and excessive money that I sort of forgot about. I guess I didn't forget about it. But I liked that it doesn't really exist in Yaroslavl. Moscow malls are stately and majestic. They have escalators and heat and a general level of classiness and sophistication that doesn't exist in Yaroslavl. We also found the Masaratti and Ferraris store. That was a good success.
Wednesday:
We went to a cemetery. It was stately and majestic. Like most things in Moscow. There was also a nearby pond. It was pretty. Did more wandering about Red Square. Got lost and found the neither stately nor majestic statue of Peter on the river. It is really just alarming. I feel like our time in Moscow has been less dominated by a huge list of necessary museums and more dominated by random riding of the metro to stations which I sort of remember reading about in Lonely Planet and then sort of wandering about looking for something which might be of importance. I mean the museums are important to. But I like the people. I like that life is everywhere and you just get completely caught up in how many people there and ...I don't know where this thought is going, so I'm going to abandon it.
Thursday:
Tretyakovskaya Gallery where I was once again embarassed by my lack of knowledge of really anything about Russia. Not that I really know anything about art in America. I know the Mona Lisa is important. That has nothing to do with America. I remember walking very fast through the Louvre with Emily to find the Mona Lisa. Okay moving on. We went to Sparrow Hills and walked through the forest/park in the evening snow and it was nice. We found the huge staduim that they built for the 1980 Olympics. And this ski tower thing which I think is used for aerial ski jumping or whatever Eric Bergoust does. But I don't understand because it would sort of lauch the skier into either the river or like the roof of the Lijinki stadium building. Then we read the sign and discovered there was lessons on specific days and so that is the most ridiculolus thing ever and so we spent long amounts of time completely not understanding if it was possible for an actual normal person to pay an unspecificied amount of money and fling himself off the huge ski tower jump thing and land in some unspecificed location. So yes.
Friday:
Kremlin. There were churches and icons and a real live yolka except I guess the fact that was cut down means it wasn't «live» but still it was like a complete tree instead of just being patched together on like a steel frame. And then I tried to be the translater for this tourist who was mistakenly buying Chinese post cards. I'm not sure why they sell postcards of Chinese art in the Moscow Kremlin. But they do. And he just looked around hopelessly as the woman yelled at him saying «китайские открытки» And then in his limited english, he told me he wanted to buy the miniature cannon. And then I told the saleswoman. But she didn't have change for his 1000 roubles. Which is sort of understandable. Then we dug through his wallet and found 500 roubles. The cannon cost 150 roubles. Anything over 100 roubles can be paid for with a 500. That is my rule. However saleswoman kept yelling at us that she had no change but that she could take a credit card. Then the poor man thanked me in his sort of english and defeatedly walked away. It was all very sad.
Saturday: (today)
I just realized there are like 800 other important things we did in Moscow. But I don't feel like going back and adding them.
Side note: The host/owner of the hostel is this amazing man. Who just sort of sits around and then engages in fights with young men about the internet or computers. Actually this is like the craziest hostel ever. It is so out of control. It's also very un-understood whether actual tourists stay here or just that the hostel is full of Russians who are somehow employed by the owner/host man. I don't know. It's ridiculous. Also it is somehow afficilated with the most ridiculous mode-ish cafe ever in the history of the world. There's just lots of black and white boxy furniture and tv screens which silently show like artsy slideshows of very strange artsy pictures. It's so weird. Sometimes we go eat breakfast there. The people at the hostel have told us this is allowed. However the people at the restaurant always give us the most exasperated looks whenever we arrive. also sometimes we see the woman who is always cleaning at the restaurant emerge from this secret room in the hostel. It's so ridiculous, I don't even know what to say. So then this morning we went to the restaurant and it was covered in confetti and the server girl just gave us the most pathetic laugh ever and said that they had been busy all night and that we should come back later for breakfast. But instead we ran away and will not be coming back. There is no way anyone will understand how crazy the hostel and the restuarant are. Oh well. Also in the stairway to the restaurant there is the creepiest green faced halloween dummy man and I was scared for my life the first time I saw him. And he is still the most sketchy thing ever.
We went to a museum about Tolstoy. We went to a Gruzincki (Georgian) restaurant. There was some sort of meat item that cost 4,000 roubles. We did not order that. We went to Victory Park and saw a lot of brides walking around. There were 6 of them at one point. I never thought I would need the genetive plural to talk about the шесть невест.
Then we came back and ate dinner and drank tea. We do a lot of tea drinking these days. Mainly because whenever we enter the hostel we are asked by the owner man if we have замерзли (frozen) and instructed to drink lots of tea. But the tea bags are free. So I don't complain.
Tomorrow we are taking the train from Moscow to Yaroslavl. There is sure to be quite a welcoming feast upon our arrival. I can only imagine how excited Margarita will be to have two students who she needs to be feeding. She already asked me if Susanna is big or small. Because if Susanna was big that would mean the extra cot wouldn't be acceptable for a sleeping place and then Susanna and I would have to take over the main room/Margarita's room for sleeping and Margarita would sleep in my room. But thankfully I answered that Susanna is small so I will be allowed to sleep in my bed and Susanna will be given the cot in my room and everything will work out. I don't know what we're doing in Yaroslavl. Going to watch Loko on Monday. I hope. Taking a bus to a nearby town on Tuesday where the Kremlin is really pretty and they films lots of historical movies there. I don't know what Wednesday. Probably eating a lot of food from Margarita before we are then on our way to Piter and back to a diet which consists of Snickers bars, ice cream, pasta which is always very al dente because of the lack of proper cooking stove appliances, and alarming tomato sauce which is actually more tomato paste but we try to pretend that it was a good purchase so we eat it anyways.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
An Abby Favorite (List Making)
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.
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.
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.")
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