DAY 33, other recent days, and notes besides

Today wasn't really that interesting, honestly. Yesterday was cool though. I went to Храм Спаса на Крови (Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood). It's a pretty awesome looking building. After that, there was lunch and hanging out at The Other Side for a crazy amount of time, followed by not a movie. So basically, the weekend was all about small talk and hanging around. And that's fine. I still need to fix my black pants though.

Oh, and I got my first test back. Got a 5. Don't know what that means? Well.

I was asked to describe a normal day for me. I'll get to it eventually. Not today though I don't think.

DID YOU KNOW?

Cigarettes in Russia are very cheap. Hey dad, I figure you don't read this, but over here your Camels cost about 38 rubles a pack. That's $1.27! Congratulations, smokers.

Russians don't keep their personal lives secrets. If you ask them "Как дело?" You may get an EXTREMELY long answer. Take a seat.

Time doesn't seem to be important. If a Russian is 10-25 minutes late, it generally doesn't matter to anyone. I'm still as punctual as ever though.

Parking. Parking, parking, parking. From what I've been able to figure, there are no parking laws here. I've seen cars parked on the side of the road, at corners, in crosswalks, on sidewalks, and generally anywhere. If they started enforcing parking laws, even with 75% of the police force being corrupt, the state could make some serious money.

and hey people, I only have about 83 days left of school here. How crazy is that? and then it's only an 11-day jaunt around eastern Europe before I'm back in Northfield. My flight comes in 6:55pm on June 2nd. Who wants to pick me up? (I WILL hold you to this!)

I'm having fun. Wednesday I might see a movie? In any case, I guess that's all I have to update for now. March starts tomorrow.

Evan

Movies, etc.

Okay, so here's the plan. It has occured to me that there are movies here which I would like to see. Just thought I'd share them with you.

1. мы из будущего (We are From the Future)

This seems to be a movie about guys who hunt for WWII medals, and somehow end up getting

sent back to 1942.

2. мы из будущего 2 (We are From the Future 2)

The sequel, clearly. I'm mostly watching the first one so I can see this one in theaters, because

the posters for it look so good in the theater near my place.

3. Операция "Мертвый Снег" (Operation "Dead Snow")

This wasn't originally a Russian film, but seeing a trailer for it sophmore year (remember, Matt

and Gunter?) made me totally want to check this one out, and the Russian version comes out

May 7th. Awesome.

So... Yeah. Not much else to say right now? I have a Russian friend who we call George Harrison.

We went to the Ермитаж. He speaks good english. I explained to him what embellishment is.

Evan

Day 24 and more on Russian Television

Okay, so now that I've seen it, I have to make this post.

DAY 24: Today, not much of anything interesting happened. DURING THE DAY. In the evening however, I went to a соседники event at a bar called The Other Side. It was a CIEE (the program I'm here with) sponsored thing, and the idea is that it's basically speed dating, but for making friends instead of getting a date. Whoever I end up with doesn't really matter though, as I exchanged phone numbers with many russian people there, including one Feodor, who we met earlier in my story. That's pretty much it for the day though. I'll let you know who I end up with later.

The Russian TV thing? Okay. So I saw a poster on the street for the familiar American TV show, House M.D. However, something was off, and I stopped as I read it. It was spelled out right there. Доктор Хоус. Does anyone have a decent Russian translator? the translator widget on you Mac doesn't count this time, just like it didn't work when you tried to translate соседники. Sorry. Translated back to english, Доктор Хоус means "Doctor Chaos."

Somehow, I find this appropriate.

On Russian Television

Okay, so my host mother watches this show on TV, and I just can't figure it out. It seems to gravitate around a few different groups. One of them is a community (tribe?) of Indians. However, whether they are from India or native american seems unclear. In any case, almost half of them are played by asians.

Opposite from the Indians are what appear to be rednecks, circa 1995. They travel in groups and drive large farm and construction equipment. They carry rifles. Clearly, the decade (or possibly century) that this is supposed to take place in is not well established.

There is also a small group of what I believe are thieves. High class high tech burglars, really. Their connection to every other part of the show remains a mystery, but they dress the most like real people.

Sometimes, there are little dramatic moments about an old man who seems to be running some kind of orphanage. The children are robotic and slightly creepy, and dress in a manner similar to the cast of Newsies.

In the background is a random smattering of different music, from the 80s, 50s, country, or tribal. The structure is similar to a soap opera, but with even more plot lines to follow.

And sometimes, there are cowboys.

DAY 21

This morning, I was eating breakfast, and my host father suggested that when I go back to America, I take their cat with me.

Does that remind you of anyone? If you've ever met my dad, it should.

Because that's who it reminds me of.

Also, I bought a guitar the other day! my musical wheels are spinning once again. Unfortunately, I learned very quickly that my hard-earned finger callouses have completely disappeared over the last few months, and now I have to work them up again. My B string actually cut my finger a little today! Not past the first layer of skin, so no bleeding or discomfort really, but I'm not used to that anymore at all.

I was in Novgorod this past weekend. I had lots of fun. There was a winter wonderland of historical significance. I pushed little Russian children on sleds.

I have no homework tonight! In other words, I'm not doing anything. Besides, I was social earlier today (and last night).

I still plan on buying the new James Bond novel in Russian. Also another pair of pants. Special thanks to Capers for giving me some fabric to patch up my black pants though. They are slowly but surely falling apart, but hopefully this wonderfully mismatched fabric will keep them going for a bit longer.

Э

Notes on Russian Culture #1

In this section of my blog, I'd like to focus on cultural oddities and interesting educational points, rather than my roller coaster of a personal life.

1. The city of St. Petersburg (where I am living) has a city population of: Minnesota. Holy crap that's a big city (possibly the 2nd biggest city?)

2. Coffee comes in the smallest possible mug/teacup here. seriously.

3. Beer is sold in EVERY building. That's too much. What's the deal? Also, every store is a liquor store.

4. Hulu does not work here.

5. I saw a babushka stare down a car. In the road. And win.

more to come.

Days 12-16

DAY 12: Yesterday, I really started to feel like I was settled in to my home here, and was finally comfortable enough walking around the city to listen to my ipod. I even hung out at a cafe, and the people behind the counter might not even have noticed that I'm an American.

But today, pretty much all of that crumbled. I'm feeling extremely lethargic, doing my absolute best to avoid the world around me, and I'm halfway pretending that I don't have any homework. In addition, as of the time I'm writing this, I have no internet or source of outside communication, which is unfortunate because I would really like some right now. I might even end up not being able to do any skyping tonight, which was basically the only thing I was looking forward to today. I'm reading more than I do at home, but more out of a need for escapism than any real desire to read, which is too bad, because the books I'm reading are pretty good. I guess this was bound to happen at some point during this whole trip, but I didn't think it would be so early on.

You know how I start these with DAY X:? Well, I counted, and all in all there are going to be 127 days, from when I got on that first plane until I come back to the US on June second. That seems like a lot. And I'm on day 12. Tomorrow is more or less the 10% point. I never realized how long 4 months is.

Anyways, for the sake of always having internet, I might have to buy a Yota. They cost a bit, but then I'll definitely always be able to get online when I need to. The store is close to school, so that'll probably be my plan for tomorrow.

I'll let everybody know how things are going again soon.

DAY 13: No change. blech.

DAY 15: Today, I rediscovered coffee. Also, I feel like much less of a failure. While I haven't done anything too interesting, I can now say that the sushi place across the street is decent. My feet kind of hurt.

DAY 16: I don't feel as bad about Russia as I did a few days ago, but I do just generally feel junky. I didn't get to watch Psych with Annie on day 14, yesterday, or today, which is awful for me, as I think that doing that would make me feel a lot better. Really, just talking to someone would be good right now. But here I am, alone and just feeling kind of crappy. Valentine's day is coming up, which really snuck up on me since they don't do that here.

I heard a story while I was mandatorily at the Peter-Paul fortress today. I guess the angel/cross at the top of the chapel tilted once after a storm, and they had to find someone to put it up right again. The guy that did it was awarded with free drinks for life in any of the pubs and bars in St. Petersburg. He died of alcohol poisoning within 2 weeks.

Lastly, I go to Novgorod on Saturday morning (friday at 11pm for you midwestern folks). I'll probably update again on Sunday. Hopefully I can talk to some friends then too (if not earlier).

Evan

Days 6 and 7

DAY 6: Today was pretty crazy. I got to check out the city with a group of us CIEE students, led by Fyodor, a Russian student at СПБ. After a while, we all met up at Carls Jr. for a little... taste of home I guess? Except that Northfield doesn't have one, so not so much for me. I did however learn that Carls Jr. and Hardee's are the same business. Okay. Anyways, a couple friends of Fyodor showed up, Yurii and Kirill. They're both students at СПБ, where I gathered that they study business. They both spoke some english, and asked who spoke better. It was about the same to me. Yurii told me that works as one of the militsia here. In case you don't know, the militsia are the police.

Eventually, we left and went on a little stroll with Fyodor, Yurii, and Kirill. Kirill kept disappearing and reappearing. Watching them interact, I realized that Yurii and Kirill are Russian versions of Erik Dahlke and myself. It made me happy. Yurii told me a story when we passed by the main СПБ campus. He pointed to the 2 gryphon statues by the entrance and told me: “It is said that if a girl graduates from СПБ and is still a virgin, the gryphons will fly. However, as you can see, they're still sitting.” I'm not sure if that would make him me or Erik. Probably neither, since Erik and I mostly talk about music and movies and longboards. Maybe it would be Heider.

and guys

GUYS

There is a sushi bar across the street

DAY 7: I decided that it's pretty awesome that none of the people I live with speak any english. It forces me to use Russian all the time, so I've already learned a lot, and classes don't even start until tomorrow. I don't know what language level I'll be in. There are 5 of them, and all I know is that I'm not in the top one. That's okay though, because the people who are have either already been here for a semester, or they're students who have Russian parents.

Also, as a side note, Valentina Alexandrovna is always spouting little phrases in Russian that I really enjoy. They're the kind of little things that you'd expect your grandmother to know and recite, which is perfect. she often says “Дурок не мало, мало не дурок.” She also always says “Так так так так так так так” as she looks for things in the kitchen. I love it.

Now, let's see. It's been a week. What do I miss about home?

-Friends

-Never needing public transportation

-Smiling at people on the street

-Being able to refuse food without having to give a good reason to not eat

I would say that Russia is going to fatten me up, but since the walk to school is 40 minutes one way, I don't think I have to worry about it.

-Evan