FOR YOUR INFORMATION

I'm updating due to recent world events in Moscow. Yes, there were two suicide bombers in the metro this morning. However, I am fine. I left Moscow late last night, and missed the bombing by a full 8 hours.

Evan

The last update of the month

I'm heading to Moscow tomorrow (а потом Israel), and I'm not bringing my computer with me, so my next update will probably be on April 4th, when I'm back here again. I'll keep notes while I'm gone though.

Let's see, what has this last week held for me? Mostly midterms. Somehow I have 7 tests in 5 classes over the course of 4 days, which is a little bit less than fun. It's still been alright though.

I had sushi for lunch today. I still haven't managed to figure out if it's cheaper here or more expensive. I think that it's kind of even really. A california roll in the US is usually about $5ish, right? Well, here they're more like $8.50. The thing is, all of the specialty rolls are too, and in the US they usually cost more like $12-$15. So yeah, it's more or less the same. They don't have winter rolls anyplace here though, which is too bad because I've been craving them.

I have lots of pictures! I just haven't uploaded them yet. Maybe

tonight? I don't know. In any case, they will be findable on my facebook page one I do it. I do have a (not great) picture of my school though, so for those of you who were unaware, this is what it looks like.

That being said, what else have you missed? On friday I went to a british pub with some American students and a bunch of Russian students. We celebrated St. Patrick's day, only 2 days late. I talked to Anton Stepanov for like an hour and a half about music. An extremely drunk Russian student told me something about my area of town, but it wasn't terribly appropriate. I thought it was funny though, just because of the way he said it. I won't repeat it here though, as my mom would probably not approve of such foul language being typed by her own son's fingers.

Saturday we went to Pushkin, or Tsarskoe Celo. It's a пригород (prigorod) of Petersburg, which is kind of like a suburb. I saw a palace. Admittedly, I've been inside a lot of palaces recently.

Sunday I met up with Russian students who have been learning advanced english under the tutelage of one Brenna Garth. They were okay I guess. Not my favorite crowd, not that interesting to me. Anyways, we went to Dostoevsky's house and Anna Akhmatova's house. Neither of them are living there or anywhere anymore. Since getting home from that little excursion, I've basically been studying nonstop.

Also, eating yet more Kinder eggs. Man, I love the Kinder. I found them (across the street from my apartment!) for only 26 rubles (88 cents), which is the best price I've seen so far. Go Diksy, with your good Kinder prices, and your 19 ruble (64 cent) Baltika 3, which I plan to bring home for dad. I don't know how I'd get it to you Allie, but if you want, I can most likely smuggle you back a Redd's. You told me you like that. Anyone else need anything snuck to the US? I'm already supposed to bring my host mother back a man from Israel (specifically, one with a beard. I don't know why?). My international business career has begun.

Also, seeing as it's nearing April, I'm starting to try to think of gifts for everyone back home! ('Everyone' currently includes my mom, dad, Lisa, Annie, Heider (if he's going to be in MN), Gunter (if he gives me his mailing address), and the next-year roommates). If you didn't make that list, you'll still probably at least get a Kinder Surprise. Coolio?

Anyways, I guess I'll ramble some more on the 4th. Bye!

Evan

DAY 51

Can you believe it? Day 51 already! The halfway point is IN ONE WEEK. Jeez.

So, here's the news. First of all, did I tell you already about playing music last week? It was pretty great. I played American Music by the Violent Femmes, and Ballad of the Boll Weevil by Leadbelly. 80's folk-punk, and 30's blues. What more could someone ask for? In any case, Anton Stepanov and I hit it off, which is cool. Also, Jarlath knows some pretty great tunes. We're planning on doing this again some time.

What else? I went to a little art museum called Етажи today. It wasn't amazing. My conversation partner and I went, but we both thought it was kind of a letdown. Kind of interesting though I guess. Then, I went home, to what else? Cold, unseasoned fish, skin-on, bones-in. I like my host mom a lot, but she doesn't have much of a talent for cooking. It's okay though. Some of the food here is simply amazing, and I LOVE her chicken soup with dill.

I think I love dill in general.

Oh, and hey! Wednesday (yesterday) a bunch of us CIEE students got to tour Балтика! That's Baltika for those of you who haven't learned Cyrillic yet. It's a brewery for what seems to be the most popular beer in Russia. They also own Kronenburg, Carlsberg, Tuborg, and possibly Nevskoe? In any case, the tour was pretty fascinating. The tour guide was a funny guy who knew a little english, and made a joke about it being "St. Patricksburg" that day. We went through the brewery, and the carboys were HUGE! The bottling stuff was really cool too. I really like the smell of malt for some reason, so I really enjoyed everything. One of the rooms was like 40 degrees (celsius)! Then, at the end, there was beer tasting. Pretty much everything they make, and we had about half an hour to sample whatever we wanted. I think my favorites were Baltika 4, 6, and 7. I haven't had 1, 5, or 9 yet. Maybe I'll have to bring some home to dad? In any case, we got free .5 liter mugs when we left, and I also have a shirt and a bottle opener, and Jarlath gave me a couple of coasters. So yeah, that was quite an experience.

Let's see, what's next? Tsarskoe Celo on saturday, then midterms, then Moscow and Israel!

Evan

Russian messaging, and curiosities regarding parenthesis

I'm about to head to bed, but I thought I'd share this with you first. We already know that instant messaging is the lowest form of communication (right below pointing and grunting), but how does it change in Russia?

Anton Stepanov sent me this message, in english:

Hi!
If you have a vkontakte account you can visit this page:
http://vkontakte.ru/event1621409
and you'll find there exact information about this revel. There you can find mind account as well.

Notice, if you will, the lack of concern for word order. When speaking in Russian, this is perfectly normal. Also note the use of the word "revel" and the mis-spelling of "mine", which is in fact intended to mean "my."

I like it when Russians use words like "revel" and "festival" instead of "get-together" or "party." It seriously makes my day, and the first time that Kirill said "festival" instead of "holiday," I was completely giddy.

Next, this instant message excerpt, from Kira Slobodina:

тоже хорошо! выспалась сегодня, а теперь вот тоже дома сижу, надо сделать много по учебе :(
подруга звала вечером куда-то, но не думаю,что смогу, так как я и так вчера с вами пошла вместо того чтобы делать уроки))) хотя я не жалею,что сходила)
а почему не знаешь чем заняться? что сегодня делают твои друзья?)

Now, my only real point of curiosity here is the parenthesis. I understand the content, but the parenthesis which seem to occur very often when some Russians I know type just baffles me. Can anyone shed any light? You can run the message through a translator if you want, but I know some of those verbs have some differing meanings, so whatever you get will be an approximate at best.

Also, sorry about the messy font work, but blogger doesn't seem to care for what I tell it to do.

Okay goodnight!

Evan

Meetings

So, two weeks from today I'm going to Israel. How about that?

This weekend, I met a bunch of people. I met Lauren's boyfriend Matt, who's visiting this week during his spring break. He's pretty cool. I also met an Alaskan girl named Julia who likes to swing dance. She told me where a swing club is. I might check it out some time, but it sounds expensive too. Then there was a French girl who's name I can't remember. Actually, I can't even remember what she looked like. Hm. I guess she wasn't that memorable. Next, there was a German girl who I would've thought was British, except I was told she's German. She has no German accent. She had a very good grasp of irony and sarcasm, which I enjoyed because most people here lack that entirely. However, I still forgot her name too. Lastly, a Russian girl named Kira. She's nice and reminds me of Lisa, except, you know, she's nice. Aren't I an awesome big brother?

Also today I met with Antonina (Tonya), my conversation partner again. I taught her that it's not normal to say "100" when it's 1 o'clock and someone asks you the time.

Bye!

Evan

Day 42 I think

This might be day 42? Whatever. How have things been going for me?

Well, for one thing, it has been SUNNY FOR 2 DAYS. I feel like this must be like a record for this city. It's normally rainy/snowy or overcast pretty much every day. But here I am, and it's beautiful. Earlier today, I even joined in with all the anonymous middle aged Russian folks at the park who were just sitting on benches, closing their eyes, and soaking in the sunlight. It was awesome.

After that, I paid for another month of this internet that I'm enjoying so much, and then accompanied my friend Hayley to Окей. I had never been there before. It was amazing to me. I had gotten so used to продукты that I had forgotten what a real supermarket was like. It was like a K-Mart and a Cub Foods rolled into one. I say K-Mart because it wasn't up to Target quality. It was also very busy. But anyways, Hayley was on a quest for peanut butter, which she happily bought 2 containers of. I myself purchased 4 Kinder Eggs (YES!) and as of yet have not eaten any of them. I'll have one after dinner, I'm sure (pelmeni today). I also bought cashews because they're great. And that pretty much brings us up to the present.

What have I missed recently? I know that my host mom and Kirsti's host mom were force-feeding us champagne last friday... They're best friends and we think they're trying to set us up, but we both have other people back home, so good luck. Um... I don't know. March 8th was earlier this week, which meant gifts for all women everywhere. Awesome? I got my host mom truffles. She loves truffles.

In the future, I'm playing guitar publicly tomorrow! There's a music discussion going on at Смольный tomorrow evening, with musical acts, and due to my incessant guitar-playing in the hallways, the guys who are setting it up asked me if I could play. I said yes. Hopefully I've been practicing enough? I'll let everybody know I suppose.

Kinder Eggs!

Evan

Future Plans: Plans For The Future

So, other than living in St. Petersburg, what's in store for me? Very briefly (and some dates are approximate), here are my travel destinations in the upcoming months:

March 25th-28th: Moscow, Russia

March 28th - April 3rd: Tel Aviv, Isreal

April 30th - May 2nd: Pskov, Russia

May 21nd-22rd: Moscow (revisited), Russia

May 22th-25th: Kiev, Ukraine

May 25th-28th: Budapest, Hungary

May 28th-30th: Prague, Czech Republic

May 30th - June 2nd: Amsterdam, Holland (The only girl I ever loved, had roses in her eyes)

June 2nd: Northfield, MN

So that's the plan. Volunteers who want to pick me up from MSP in June, I still need someone. If you're going to be any of these places at any of these times, look me up. Props to Charlie Gutfleisch for already agreeing to meet me in Prague.

As for life in general? It's all pretty good. I haven't done a whole lot lately because the weather has turned the city into what is generally referred to as a lake, but I'm seeing Alice in Wonderland tomorrow (in Russian). Also, I have my conversation partners now. I get 2. Most people got one. I guess I'm popular? I don't know.

Here are some not-Russia related things.

The new OK Go album is out, and no one told me. Why did no one tell me? Anyways, here's the music video, which is AWESOME:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w

Also, Here's a comic I started reading. It's new, so there's not much to it. Oh, and it's really dumb and childish. Why? Because it was written by a 5-year old.

http://www.axecop.com

I think that's it for now?

Evan