Every week I'm busier and busier, it's a little insane.
The week before last we went to the Opera. We saw Eugine Onegin, which some of us had actually already seen last spring in New York City, but this time the theater was smaller and we were closer to the stage so I could actually see the actor's faces. In other words, the opera was amazing. Eugine Onegin was written by Pushkin, the poet most dear to Russia. There's a saying, Пушкин - наша всё (Pushkin is our everything).
He's kind of a big deal.
Eugine Onegin is a novel written in verse, so Tchaikovsky composed music for it and voila: Opera. It is a classic tale of tragic love. So good.
Friday night we went on a walking tour around Moscow, at night. The tour was based off of Bulgakov's Master and Margarita. Now. I'm sure the tour would have been really really awesome, but I've never read Master and Margarita. I kind of knew what it was about, but the tour also had actors who would pop up occasionally and act out parts of the book. It was all really neat and cool, I just didn't understand. I do want to read the book, now, though.
Saturday the group met in the wee hours of the morning, aka 8 am, to catch a train to Aleksandrov. Aleksandrov was once the capital of Russia during Ivan the Terrible's reign. After a tour of the Aleksandrov Kremlin we took another train to Sergiev Posad where there's this really really big and beautiful monastery.
I'll post pictures sometime next week.
Tonight we are off to St. Petersburg! We're taking a sleeper train, which I am so very very excited about. The train leaves at 9:30 pm and arrives in Petersburg at 5:30 am. We'll also be staying in a hostel, so the group has one big room alllllll to ourselves. Should be interesting, to say the least.
27 September 2009
26 September 2009
I'm slacking in the frequent blog writing department, my apologies.
Tomorrow we're going to a few towns outside of Moscow and I have to leave my apartment around 7 in the morning, so this post will only contain two short stories:
First, a story of an unfortunate event:
The other day a few students and I tried to turn in the paperwork to get our student metro cards. Our program director said we could turn it in at the station by our university, so we went there only to be told "No no no, look at this list of stations and go to one of those." We looked at the list and went to the next station over because it was on the list. However, once we got to that station, we were again told "No no no, look at the list of stations and go to one of the ones which are highlighted in green." We finally made it to an acceptable station and stood in line for about an hour. The ticket counter closes at 7, and we were finally at the front of the line around 6:40.
This is where it gets fun.
We tried giving the lady our paperwork which the university had already filled out for us so that it would all be OK, but she said we needed to write more things on the papers. She then said we needed to make a copy of our passport, but make it in Russian. I don't know about you, but I never learned how to magically transform a passport into another language when copying said passport. Meanwhile, the line behind us was full of angry Russians who I'm pretty sure wanted to kill us because we were stupid foreigners taking up more time than they would have. It was about 6:59 by the time we gave up, and the line of angry Russians grew angrier as we walked away and the ticket counter closed behind us.
Best part of the story: a few other students went to a different station and had no problems whatsoever.
It was a very Russian experience.
(Cue The Beatles singing Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da)
Story number two:
After classes one day some students and I were sitting in a cafe. A few guys were sitting at a table near us. I was closest to them. They had a bright yellow umbrella and kept opening it and I looked over and I guess the look on my face said "I want that umbrella" because they gave it to me. Then they started speaking to us in German, but we had been speaking English so maybe they thought it sounded like German? I don't know.
Moral of the story, I now have an awesome bright yellow umbrella.
I hope life is treating everyone well!
Until next time,
gooooooooodnight.
Tomorrow we're going to a few towns outside of Moscow and I have to leave my apartment around 7 in the morning, so this post will only contain two short stories:
First, a story of an unfortunate event:
The other day a few students and I tried to turn in the paperwork to get our student metro cards. Our program director said we could turn it in at the station by our university, so we went there only to be told "No no no, look at this list of stations and go to one of those." We looked at the list and went to the next station over because it was on the list. However, once we got to that station, we were again told "No no no, look at the list of stations and go to one of the ones which are highlighted in green." We finally made it to an acceptable station and stood in line for about an hour. The ticket counter closes at 7, and we were finally at the front of the line around 6:40.
This is where it gets fun.
We tried giving the lady our paperwork which the university had already filled out for us so that it would all be OK, but she said we needed to write more things on the papers. She then said we needed to make a copy of our passport, but make it in Russian. I don't know about you, but I never learned how to magically transform a passport into another language when copying said passport. Meanwhile, the line behind us was full of angry Russians who I'm pretty sure wanted to kill us because we were stupid foreigners taking up more time than they would have. It was about 6:59 by the time we gave up, and the line of angry Russians grew angrier as we walked away and the ticket counter closed behind us.
Best part of the story: a few other students went to a different station and had no problems whatsoever.
It was a very Russian experience.
(Cue The Beatles singing Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da)
Story number two:
After classes one day some students and I were sitting in a cafe. A few guys were sitting at a table near us. I was closest to them. They had a bright yellow umbrella and kept opening it and I looked over and I guess the look on my face said "I want that umbrella" because they gave it to me. Then they started speaking to us in German, but we had been speaking English so maybe they thought it sounded like German? I don't know.
Moral of the story, I now have an awesome bright yellow umbrella.
I hope life is treating everyone well!
Until next time,
gooooooooodnight.
13 September 2009
8000 words
Pictures!
Musicians in the metro. So pretty.
This is in a park about a ten minute walk from my apartment; it was all decorated for День Города (Moscow's Birthday).
A little sample of Moscow driving, insane style.
...and a tour bus named Sputnik. How clever.
This is a cool fountain tunnel thing at a park near Red Square.
Last Sunday one of the girls from Dickinson and I cooked (we also decided it is going to be a weekly tradition of yummy Russian food making). This is баклажаная икра ("baklazhanaya ikra"), or eggplant caviar. Worry not, there is no caviar to be found in this dish -- just eggplant, onions, tomatoes, carrots, sunflower seed oil, and water all cooked together into a delicious mush which is then spread on bread. ..or if you're as obsessed with this stuff as I am, you can eat it with basically everything.
When my host mom makes баклажаная икра, she adds this mystery vegetable which she called капуста, but that translates to cabbage. This is definitely not cabbage.
*edit: after many people saying "Um, it's zucchini" I looked up the word for zucchini which, when said by my host mom, sounds remarkably like the word for cabbage. So this is zucchini/marrow, a bigger version of zucchini. Who knew.
This is where Gogol is buried. Gogol is one of my favorite authors; he's so clever and witty and sarcastic. I've read Dead Souls in English and bought it in Russian. So far I'm about three pages in. A good start, I'd say.
Musicians in the metro. So pretty.
This is in a park about a ten minute walk from my apartment; it was all decorated for День Города (Moscow's Birthday).
A little sample of Moscow driving, insane style.
...and a tour bus named Sputnik. How clever.
This is a cool fountain tunnel thing at a park near Red Square.
Last Sunday one of the girls from Dickinson and I cooked (we also decided it is going to be a weekly tradition of yummy Russian food making). This is баклажаная икра ("baklazhanaya ikra"), or eggplant caviar. Worry not, there is no caviar to be found in this dish -- just eggplant, onions, tomatoes, carrots, sunflower seed oil, and water all cooked together into a delicious mush which is then spread on bread. ..or if you're as obsessed with this stuff as I am, you can eat it with basically everything.
When my host mom makes баклажаная икра, she adds this mystery vegetable which she called капуста, but that translates to cabbage. This is definitely not cabbage.
*edit: after many people saying "Um, it's zucchini" I looked up the word for zucchini which, when said by my host mom, sounds remarkably like the word for cabbage. So this is zucchini/marrow, a bigger version of zucchini. Who knew.
This is where Gogol is buried. Gogol is one of my favorite authors; he's so clever and witty and sarcastic. I've read Dead Souls in English and bought it in Russian. So far I'm about three pages in. A good start, I'd say.
10 September 2009
класс
Today was my quintessential Moscow day, a day which I've imagined for so long but never thought would actually happen.
I took the metro to the university and had a few classes, as per usual. After classes finished for the day, a few students and I had lunch with a new Russian friend, Vladimir. We ate at ТГИ Фрайдес (TGI Fridays. hah), then after lunch Vladimir drove us to a WWII memorial and park. It was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for driving. As I mentioned before, Moscow drivers are insane. So there we were, zipping through the streets of Moscow, windows down, hair blowing in the wind, listening to remixed Mozart songs. IT WAS SO COOL. After walking around the memorial, we went to the little museum by the memorial and then went on to the park to just walk around. We eventually parted ways and now here I am, sitting at my little desk in my little Moscow apartment, doing homework with the sounds of a bustling city in the background.
'Twas a lovely, lovely day.
Monday was the first day of classes. I was pretty nervous at first, but they really weren't too scary. There are two other students from the Dickinson program in my class, another American, a Korean, and some French people. The thing that made me most nervous was the fact that I'd be learning Russian from professors who would also be teaching us in Russian. That's a lot of Russian! The professors are really nice, though, and they want us to learn so it's not a problem to ask questions or ask for an explanation.
I'm taking four classes taught in Russian: grammar, modern text (basically just reading and learning vocab through reading), phonetics, and a class about Russian mass media. For these classes all the foreign students were split up according to their Russian level. The Dickinson students also have a three-hour lecture class on Tuesdays called Russia Today. Luckily this class is in English, except for a few times when visiting lecturers only speak Russian, which should make for an interesting, fun-filled three hours. Шутка.
I like all my professors, some more than others. The phonetics professor is the most energetic and I think I'll have the most fun in that class; whenever she could tell we were getting tired, she has us stand up and do little counting or speaking exercises while also stretching or jumping. Fun stuff. The most difficult class will probably be Mass Media, which coincidentally also features the most serious professor. She informed us that she is a "conservative, structured person" and that she won't be smiling or act all cheerful in class because we'll be talking about serious topics. Awesome. The topics all sound very, very interesting, though, and I think I'm most excited about this class.
By far the funniest part of this week was yesterday: I returned home and the toilet was gone. Seriously, just gone. My host mom said something along the lines of "the man came and took the toilet and he's bringing another one tomorrow." She then proceeded to give me a pot to use in the meantime.
(pause for laughter)
Luckily today, as promised, "the man" returned and installed a new toilet. Hooray!
I have more to say and more pictures to post, but I need to finish homework and will leave you with this one little tid-bit:
Russia can control the weather. Really. They have these special airplanes, or something like that, which move the clouds and postpone the rain. Apparently this is done for most major holidays, such as Moscow's birthday last Saturday. The weather was indeed very pleasant and sunny, with not a cloud in the sky.
I took the metro to the university and had a few classes, as per usual. After classes finished for the day, a few students and I had lunch with a new Russian friend, Vladimir. We ate at ТГИ Фрайдес (TGI Fridays. hah), then after lunch Vladimir drove us to a WWII memorial and park. It was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for driving. As I mentioned before, Moscow drivers are insane. So there we were, zipping through the streets of Moscow, windows down, hair blowing in the wind, listening to remixed Mozart songs. IT WAS SO COOL. After walking around the memorial, we went to the little museum by the memorial and then went on to the park to just walk around. We eventually parted ways and now here I am, sitting at my little desk in my little Moscow apartment, doing homework with the sounds of a bustling city in the background.
'Twas a lovely, lovely day.
Monday was the first day of classes. I was pretty nervous at first, but they really weren't too scary. There are two other students from the Dickinson program in my class, another American, a Korean, and some French people. The thing that made me most nervous was the fact that I'd be learning Russian from professors who would also be teaching us in Russian. That's a lot of Russian! The professors are really nice, though, and they want us to learn so it's not a problem to ask questions or ask for an explanation.
I'm taking four classes taught in Russian: grammar, modern text (basically just reading and learning vocab through reading), phonetics, and a class about Russian mass media. For these classes all the foreign students were split up according to their Russian level. The Dickinson students also have a three-hour lecture class on Tuesdays called Russia Today. Luckily this class is in English, except for a few times when visiting lecturers only speak Russian, which should make for an interesting, fun-filled three hours. Шутка.
I like all my professors, some more than others. The phonetics professor is the most energetic and I think I'll have the most fun in that class; whenever she could tell we were getting tired, she has us stand up and do little counting or speaking exercises while also stretching or jumping. Fun stuff. The most difficult class will probably be Mass Media, which coincidentally also features the most serious professor. She informed us that she is a "conservative, structured person" and that she won't be smiling or act all cheerful in class because we'll be talking about serious topics. Awesome. The topics all sound very, very interesting, though, and I think I'm most excited about this class.
By far the funniest part of this week was yesterday: I returned home and the toilet was gone. Seriously, just gone. My host mom said something along the lines of "the man came and took the toilet and he's bringing another one tomorrow." She then proceeded to give me a pot to use in the meantime.
(pause for laughter)
Luckily today, as promised, "the man" returned and installed a new toilet. Hooray!
I have more to say and more pictures to post, but I need to finish homework and will leave you with this one little tid-bit:
Russia can control the weather. Really. They have these special airplanes, or something like that, which move the clouds and postpone the rain. Apparently this is done for most major holidays, such as Moscow's birthday last Saturday. The weather was indeed very pleasant and sunny, with not a cloud in the sky.
06 September 2009
glossary of terms
I've started integrating a few Russian words into my every day English vocabulary, so for your convenience here is a glossary of terms I will most often be using in future posts. I will first list the words in Russian, then how they're pronounced, then what they mean.
чуть-чуть ("choot choot") - a little bit
здорово! ("zdore-uh-vuh")- great!, excellent!, wonderful!
Я забыла. ("ya zah-bwee-luh") - I forgot.
Всё равно. ("vsyo rahv-no") - It doesn't matter./It makes no difference.
Всё будет хорошо. ("vsyo boo-dyet khorosho") - Everything will be OK.
хозяйка ("khah-zyeye-kuh") - host mom
шутка ("shootkuh") - joke
класс ("clahss") - cool, classy
давай! ("duh-vie") - let's!/let's do it!/let's go!
Voila!
I'm sure I'll add more later, too.
This is only the beginning!
чуть-чуть ("choot choot") - a little bit
здорово! ("zdore-uh-vuh")- great!, excellent!, wonderful!
Я забыла. ("ya zah-bwee-luh") - I forgot.
Всё равно. ("vsyo rahv-no") - It doesn't matter./It makes no difference.
Всё будет хорошо. ("vsyo boo-dyet khorosho") - Everything will be OK.
хозяйка ("khah-zyeye-kuh") - host mom
шутка ("shootkuh") - joke
класс ("clahss") - cool, classy
давай! ("duh-vie") - let's!/let's do it!/let's go!
Voila!
I'm sure I'll add more later, too.
This is only the beginning!
lala how the life goes on
So. My initial shock-filled realization that yes, I actually am here for an entire year, has worn off. Now I'm excited to be here a year! (I'm basically a roller coaster of emotions right now. Oh well, these things happen.)
Today was День Города (pronounced "Dyane Goroda"), aka Day of the City, aka the day Moscow celebrates its birthday, aka an all around awesomefest with many, many happy Russians. ...and also many police. eek. Anyways, us students met up with a Russian student from РГГУ (the university I'm at here) who will be a TA at Dickinson next semester. He brought along some of his friends who also go to РГГУ, and they were all very nice and cool. If I can find people at РГГУ who are as nice as them, everything will be just wonderful. After we walked around a bit/ate at a cafe, the Russians left us and we went to a special День Города concert called Спасская Башня on Red Square.
The concert was sweeeeet. There were military bands and dancers and/or singers from different countries: Kazakhstan, Israel, Britain, Finland, Italy, India, France, and of course lots from Russia. There were also Chinese students from a Shaolin monastery, who had probably the coolest display of dancing/drum beating/martial arts performance I've ever seen. Everything was also ninety times cooler because, well, it was on Red Square. They set up stands to seat all the people, and from our seats the Kremlin was to our right and St. Basil's cathedral to the left.
So. Cool.
The concert was kind of as I expected with military bands playing military-esque music, but there were a few unexpected twists:
The Israeli band played a Fiddler on the Roof medley. No joke. It seemed a little odd to me, just because in Fiddler on the Roof the Russian Jews were forced to leave Russia, and the Russians were pretty much the bad guys. I tried to see if any of the Russians at the concert recognized the music, but I really couldn't tell.
The Britain band had bagpipes and it was aaaawesome.
The many different Russian ensembles included ballet and a children's dancing group (they did the traditional Russian dancing! SO COOL).
There was some famous French singer, I don't remember her name. Everyone loved her.
At the end of the concert, all the bands came together and played, among other songs, Hey Jude, Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da, and Yellow Submarine. 'Tis true, The Beatles are very much alive in Moscow.
By far the coolest moment of the concert was the finale. (Duh.) The bands played a bit of Tchaikovsky's 1812, and tons of fireworks went off at the end where it sounds like cannons.
Tchaikovsky performed by international military bands on Red Square with fireworks going off behind The Kremlin and St. Basil's makes for a pretty awesome experience.
You know, if you're into that kind of thing.
Sigh.
Today was День Города (pronounced "Dyane Goroda"), aka Day of the City, aka the day Moscow celebrates its birthday, aka an all around awesomefest with many, many happy Russians. ...and also many police. eek. Anyways, us students met up with a Russian student from РГГУ (the university I'm at here) who will be a TA at Dickinson next semester. He brought along some of his friends who also go to РГГУ, and they were all very nice and cool. If I can find people at РГГУ who are as nice as them, everything will be just wonderful. After we walked around a bit/ate at a cafe, the Russians left us and we went to a special День Города concert called Спасская Башня on Red Square.
The concert was sweeeeet. There were military bands and dancers and/or singers from different countries: Kazakhstan, Israel, Britain, Finland, Italy, India, France, and of course lots from Russia. There were also Chinese students from a Shaolin monastery, who had probably the coolest display of dancing/drum beating/martial arts performance I've ever seen. Everything was also ninety times cooler because, well, it was on Red Square. They set up stands to seat all the people, and from our seats the Kremlin was to our right and St. Basil's cathedral to the left.
So. Cool.
The concert was kind of as I expected with military bands playing military-esque music, but there were a few unexpected twists:
The Israeli band played a Fiddler on the Roof medley. No joke. It seemed a little odd to me, just because in Fiddler on the Roof the Russian Jews were forced to leave Russia, and the Russians were pretty much the bad guys. I tried to see if any of the Russians at the concert recognized the music, but I really couldn't tell.
The Britain band had bagpipes and it was aaaawesome.
The many different Russian ensembles included ballet and a children's dancing group (they did the traditional Russian dancing! SO COOL).
There was some famous French singer, I don't remember her name. Everyone loved her.
At the end of the concert, all the bands came together and played, among other songs, Hey Jude, Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da, and Yellow Submarine. 'Tis true, The Beatles are very much alive in Moscow.
By far the coolest moment of the concert was the finale. (Duh.) The bands played a bit of Tchaikovsky's 1812, and tons of fireworks went off at the end where it sounds like cannons.
Tchaikovsky performed by international military bands on Red Square with fireworks going off behind The Kremlin and St. Basil's makes for a pretty awesome experience.
You know, if you're into that kind of thing.
Sigh.
03 September 2009
rollercoaster
It's finally becoming clear to me that a year is a long, long time. In the grand scheme of things, a year is nothing; when you're only in college for four years, a year is an eternity.
I'm still getting used to Russia. I like it, but sometimes the differences startle me and make me second guess myself.
We still don't know our class schedules, and classes start on Monday. For normal Russian students classes started 1 September, and for us foreigners they were going to start today (Thursday) but then ended up starting tomorrow, and then changing yet again to start Monday.
I usually like doing whatever and going with the flow, but since I'm in a completely different environment I need a schedule so I don't go insane. I keep going back and forth from being really excited to start classes to really scared, from loving Moscow to wondering what I've gotten myself into. I know once I get used to it I'll be fine, but right now is the beginning of the roller coaster: the tall climb to the top before you plummet down around the twisty curves. I HATE the tall climb; all that anticipation building up makes me so nervous. Once I get to the top and can look down at what's ahead, I'll feel better.
I'm still getting used to Russia. I like it, but sometimes the differences startle me and make me second guess myself.
We still don't know our class schedules, and classes start on Monday. For normal Russian students classes started 1 September, and for us foreigners they were going to start today (Thursday) but then ended up starting tomorrow, and then changing yet again to start Monday.
I usually like doing whatever and going with the flow, but since I'm in a completely different environment I need a schedule so I don't go insane. I keep going back and forth from being really excited to start classes to really scared, from loving Moscow to wondering what I've gotten myself into. I know once I get used to it I'll be fine, but right now is the beginning of the roller coaster: the tall climb to the top before you plummet down around the twisty curves. I HATE the tall climb; all that anticipation building up makes me so nervous. Once I get to the top and can look down at what's ahead, I'll feel better.
02 September 2009
observations and BFFLs
In an episode of Sex and the City, Carrie's boyfriend at the time writes a book in which the main character traipses around New York City wearing a scrunchy. A scrunchy! Obviously, a real New Yorker would not dare commit such a crime to fashion.
Before coming to Moscow, I wondered how it would compare to other big cities in terms of fashions. I've only been to New York twice but for the most part I'd categorize the people as fashionable. Here in Moscow, I've seen three women (so far...) wearing scrunchies. I don't know if they were actually Muscovites, but they didn't seem to be tourists. There are also so many different classes of people in one spot so it's hard to generalize the fashion. For example, in Luxembourg pretty much all the people are very rich and ergo very fashionable. The rest of Europe also seems (to me at least) to be more fashionable than the States (you don't usually see people out in sweat pants, etc.). I haven't seen people out in sweat pants here, either, but the styles range from nice and new to used-to-be-nice and worn out. Also heads up America, mullets are coming back in style. Ew.
Another observation about fashion: Every woman and their babushka wear fishnet stockings. It seems like in the States fishnet stockings are more...you know...prostitute-ish. Here women wear them to work, to school, to wherever! I even bought a pair of them in sock form. I must try my best to blend in, after all.
Cell phone etiquette is also different than in the States. A few days ago we learned how to talk on the phone, take messages, and all that fun stuff. I'm still terrified of talking on the phone though, and when the phone rings and my host mom isn't here I just let it ring. Anyway, we also discussed Russian mobile phone etiquette: Russians tend to not care who hears what they're saying and talk about all their personal business (which could make for a fun time once I understand what they say, heh heh). They also don't turn their phones off or on silent in movie theaters. Last Friday we saw Inglorious Bastards (in Russian, eek) and three different phones went off during the movie but no one seemed to get mad at them. Strange strange strange. Also, the professor for our one class which is in English has his phone on vibrate but he always stops mid-lecture to answer the phone. I almost want to leave my phone on during class in hopes that someone will call just to see the professor's reaction; maybe once I get them to like me...no sense in giving a bad first impression.
My host mom and I are pretty much BFFLs. Even though I have plenty a stupid moment, it's all good. All we can really talk about is what I want to eat, if I thought what I ate was tasty, and what time I'll be leaving and coming home. We're not so big on the deep, meaningful discussions. I am patiently (well, kind of patiently) awaiting the day my vocabulary allows me to ask about politics etc. Since she's older, she'll have so much to say -- she lived through the USSR, she's seen all the changes. She's packed full of first hand information and I can't ask about it! It's driving me crazy.
One thing I absolutely positively love: She has an Obama calendar hanging on the wall. Every month is a different picture of Obama with a different quote. I got all excited when I saw it and asked her about it, and she started explaining where she got it...but then I didn't understand.
Someday my friends, someday.
I'm still loving the food. Last night she made borsh (yessssss) and this morning I tried buckwheat kasha, a very traditional Russian breakfast food. Kasha is just porridge, but there are many many different kinds. This kind tasted pretty much like warmed up soft Kashi cereal (they totally stole the name). She also makes yummy pelmeni (little meat-filled dumplings). I told her I had pelmeni when I was in Lithuania, and she said pelmeni are a Russian food. The Lithuanians, however, said it was a Lithuanian food. hmm...
Russians also put sour cream on EVERYTHING. It's like their ketchup. We go through a little tub of sour cream about every two days, and it's just the two of us.
One more observation: The no-smiling rule is very important. When we were off at some tourist place I accidentally smiled at some people who were sitting on their car (they looked so cute and comfortable, how could I not smile?) and they said "Welcome!" because they knew I was American. Rarr. However, the no-smiling rule doesn't apply to neighbors. With neighbors you must be friendly, say hello, and all the nice cordial stuff. There's this older man who is always sitting on the bench next to my apartment entrance, and now he recognizes me and we always say hello. See? Russians are friendly, it just depends on the situation.
Before coming to Moscow, I wondered how it would compare to other big cities in terms of fashions. I've only been to New York twice but for the most part I'd categorize the people as fashionable. Here in Moscow, I've seen three women (so far...) wearing scrunchies. I don't know if they were actually Muscovites, but they didn't seem to be tourists. There are also so many different classes of people in one spot so it's hard to generalize the fashion. For example, in Luxembourg pretty much all the people are very rich and ergo very fashionable. The rest of Europe also seems (to me at least) to be more fashionable than the States (you don't usually see people out in sweat pants, etc.). I haven't seen people out in sweat pants here, either, but the styles range from nice and new to used-to-be-nice and worn out. Also heads up America, mullets are coming back in style. Ew.
Another observation about fashion: Every woman and their babushka wear fishnet stockings. It seems like in the States fishnet stockings are more...you know...prostitute-ish. Here women wear them to work, to school, to wherever! I even bought a pair of them in sock form. I must try my best to blend in, after all.
Cell phone etiquette is also different than in the States. A few days ago we learned how to talk on the phone, take messages, and all that fun stuff. I'm still terrified of talking on the phone though, and when the phone rings and my host mom isn't here I just let it ring. Anyway, we also discussed Russian mobile phone etiquette: Russians tend to not care who hears what they're saying and talk about all their personal business (which could make for a fun time once I understand what they say, heh heh). They also don't turn their phones off or on silent in movie theaters. Last Friday we saw Inglorious Bastards (in Russian, eek) and three different phones went off during the movie but no one seemed to get mad at them. Strange strange strange. Also, the professor for our one class which is in English has his phone on vibrate but he always stops mid-lecture to answer the phone. I almost want to leave my phone on during class in hopes that someone will call just to see the professor's reaction; maybe once I get them to like me...no sense in giving a bad first impression.
My host mom and I are pretty much BFFLs. Even though I have plenty a stupid moment, it's all good. All we can really talk about is what I want to eat, if I thought what I ate was tasty, and what time I'll be leaving and coming home. We're not so big on the deep, meaningful discussions. I am patiently (well, kind of patiently) awaiting the day my vocabulary allows me to ask about politics etc. Since she's older, she'll have so much to say -- she lived through the USSR, she's seen all the changes. She's packed full of first hand information and I can't ask about it! It's driving me crazy.
One thing I absolutely positively love: She has an Obama calendar hanging on the wall. Every month is a different picture of Obama with a different quote. I got all excited when I saw it and asked her about it, and she started explaining where she got it...but then I didn't understand.
Someday my friends, someday.
I'm still loving the food. Last night she made borsh (yessssss) and this morning I tried buckwheat kasha, a very traditional Russian breakfast food. Kasha is just porridge, but there are many many different kinds. This kind tasted pretty much like warmed up soft Kashi cereal (they totally stole the name). She also makes yummy pelmeni (little meat-filled dumplings). I told her I had pelmeni when I was in Lithuania, and she said pelmeni are a Russian food. The Lithuanians, however, said it was a Lithuanian food. hmm...
Russians also put sour cream on EVERYTHING. It's like their ketchup. We go through a little tub of sour cream about every two days, and it's just the two of us.
One more observation: The no-smiling rule is very important. When we were off at some tourist place I accidentally smiled at some people who were sitting on their car (they looked so cute and comfortable, how could I not smile?) and they said "Welcome!" because they knew I was American. Rarr. However, the no-smiling rule doesn't apply to neighbors. With neighbors you must be friendly, say hello, and all the nice cordial stuff. There's this older man who is always sitting on the bench next to my apartment entrance, and now he recognizes me and we always say hello. See? Russians are friendly, it just depends on the situation.
01 September 2009
Little girl, big city
HUZZAH I finally have official internet in my apartment. No more using suspicious free networks for me. One of my host mom’s daughters came over last to hook my computer up to a modem. She also speaks English, so that was a nice change. When we were eating dinner, my host mom told her daughter that I don’t eat very much because I want to watch my figure, and I tried to explain that I think I eat a normal amount, but I’m pretty sure it got lost in translation because they just shook their heads. She did say that I’m not like a normal American, though, because I’m not fat. Hahaha.
Well, week one in Moscow has ended. My thoughts so far? I love it here.
I love that I’m in a big city. There’s so many people, so many distractions, so much to look at, so much to do; I don’t have time to think. It’s awesome.
This weekend we were free from the Russian survival courses and sightseeing and could do whatever we wanted. It was a nice little break. Saturday the whole group met up with our TA from last semester (the university here sends a Russian student to Dickinson each semester to take classes and to teach us once/week). It was so awesome to see her again! We walked around a park called Tsarista Park. It’s HUGE. Fitting for the city, I suppose. It was a beautiful day, too - not too hot and not too cold.
Saturday was also one of the girl’s birthday, so after gallivanting around the park we went to her host mother’s for a big birthday dinner. The food here is so good. So so so so so good. I was actually scared that instead of the Freshmen 15, I would gain the Russian 15. Thankfully we walk around so much that I really don’t need to worry.
I’m hesitant to mention this next part because I don’t want people to read this and think “Aha, I knew it, Russia is a bad evil place.” (Also to any relatives reading this, don't freak out, k?) So, as you read this, please don’t let your opinion become too skewed.
There are exactly two things I am afraid of here. One: that I’ll burn the apartment building down with my hair straightener or computer being plugged in, and two: the police. If they stop you and ask for your documents, chances are they’ll say “These are not in order” and then say you have to pay a fine or go to the police station with them. The “fine” they ask for is actually a bribe. Apparently, the only police who are to be avoided are the older ones who carry guns; the younger ones who walk around in groups are basically there to make everything seem safer. And really, unless you’re doing something to attract attention, i.e. breaking a law, the police shouldn’t stop you. …unless you’re speaking English around the older ones, then they might stop you since they know they can scare you into bribing them.
I really don’t like that. Police are supposed to make you feel safe; instead I’m super paranoid when they’re around.
On the other hand, I don’t particularly like police in any country. It’s not like American police are always of the best character, and corruption is everywhere. Being scared of the police is definitely not unique to Russia.
I think I’m going to learn a lot about Russian culture and learn many new words from watching TV with my host mom. We’re so cute; I’ll finish studying and go sit down to watch TV, and she’ll try to explain what’s going on. We usually watch soap operas and dubbed films, most of which are American. The other day she was watching the news and she called me into the room saying “Kara! Look! Michael Jackson!” There’s also a superawesome channel called the Culture channel; the other night one of Chekov’s plays was on, and they’ve also had documentaries and stuff like that.
My host mom and I get along really well which is a big relief. The only thing is… I’m pretty sure she thinks I’m a moron. I don’t understand everything she says so I’m forced to smile and nod (which I’m the master at so it seeeeeems like I understand, but um…I don’t). Smiling and nodding actually works wonderfully, most of the time. Sometimes she’ll say something which requires a response, though, and I’ll just be sitting there smiling and nodding while she waits for an answer. It also took me a freakishly long time to figure out how to open the door from the inside, and I constantly stumble over my Russian and probably sound stupid when I try to explain something to her. Like I said, moron. A nice and likeable moron, but a moron nonetheless.
Today we have our only class in English, called Russia Today. It's a three hour long lecture and we already had an introduction to the course/super fast review of Russian history last Tuesday. I like the professor, he's funny and speaks English well. Our Russian classes don't start until Thursday (or maybe Friday), when more foreigners get here. I'm pretty nervous about the Russian classes. They'll all be in Russian and our group will be split up according to the level of our Russian. Scary much? At least we'll be with other foreigners; they're not just throwing us into class with Russians who obviously speak Russian fluently.
That's all for now, time to walk to the metro!
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