St. Petersburg

Last week we went to St. Petersburg. It was a really nice break from classes; they are so hard! Anyway, there was much sight-seeing during the day and drunken debauchery (more drunk than debauchery) at night. We took an overnight train to and from the city, which was one of my most favorite parts, actually. It's really cool to be in a compartment and drink tea and just hang out. It's a very old world experience. St. Petersburg is beautiful, very European. Peter the Great was basically a badass and he is now one of my personal heroes. He designed the city, kept it safe, established it as a capital etc. etc. etc. Did you know he was 6'7" though? That's pretty insane!

Classes in general have been tough and I feel like there is so much more Russian to learn before I become even close to being conversational in the language. I am going to try and be more active in the community, which hopefully will help my exposure. We'll see though; the darkness and the cold is very conducive to laziness. I want to check out a yoga studio this week that is a couple of metro stops away. It would be nice if I could do that, even if just occasionally.

All in all, I am getting used to Russia. It's very different from my beloved Arizona, but Russia and I are learning to live together. I do miss the sunshine though. People are pretty cheerful in Arizona, I think. But the weather isn't terrible yet as far as coldness; it's mostly the gray that's depressing. However, on an unrelated note, I am getting more into cooking. I really hated having to cook at first (hand washing dishes is a pain), but now I am kind of getting into it. And another piece of culinary good news: I found soy milk at the local grocery store!! Now I can have cereal! I just can't do the real milk. Yuck. Plus, it hurts my stomach. The longer I am here, the more convinced I am that I'm lactose intolerant. Because they say that yogurt and cheese have the least lactose and those are the dairy products that I can eat.

Last but not least: If you'd like a postcard, send me your address! quechuanilliterate@gmail.com I'd be happy to send them, but I only have a few of your addresses. :D

Russian Folk Dancing

Above is a picture of the concert hall at which we saw a Russian folk dancing performance. The blogger is awfully fickle about layout, so I got stuck with one picture at the top.

Thursday night was another excursion; this time to a folk dancing show. The hall was really pretty and our seating on the top floor was interesting: one chair in front of another in a ring around the building (see below). I liked it. It meant that there wasn't really anyone directly blocking my view of the stage, which was nice.

The performance can be summed up in one word: amazing. As a former "dancer", I know how hard it can be to get about 30 people to do the same move at the same time. Not only did they master this with the utmost precision, they had crazy formations where you were sure that any second they were all going to run into each other and crash to the floor. Except they didn't, of course. All of the dances were bright and festive and really gave color and life to the Russian culture. It was cool to see the stereotypical Russian folk dance; the one where the men have their arms folded in front of them and they kick their legs out in front of them. The men and women were crazy talented and it made me really miss dancing. It was full of social commentary as well. All the village men were basically drunk the whole time and the women were constantly avoiding their advances and chastising them for their public drunkenness. Which, I think, is pretty accurate. People drink beer here all the time (pretty much exclusively men though), no matter the time of day. The earliest I've seen so far is noon, although we watched a Russian movie in class where they had vodka with breakfast, so who knows. The life expectancy for men and women is vastly different (women live almost 15 years longer on average!), which is why you see so many babushkas and very seldom old men. The problem is, they basically drink and smoke themselves to an early death. And on top of that, Russian food isn't the healthiest (very heavy on the saturated fats). Women smoke as well, but it doesn't seem to be to the extent that men do. Essentially, the liklihood that you'll end up a widow is 100%, which is kind of sad, although I'm sure some remarry.

In the second half of the show, one of the drunk men passes out in the street at night and has a drunken dream where he goes to hell. This was definitely the coolest part of the show. This whole dance in hell (the men were these devily-looking rat things and the women were like evil nymphs) was absolutely AMAZING. They were doing things that constantly had my jaw dropping. The whole performance was full of such energy, I kept marvelling at how they could keep it up for so long, especially because the dancing was so intense (they were doing flips and jumps etc.). I wish I could have taken video. Karina did and I kinda wish I had them so I could show you all. I especially wish that Derek could have been there since some of the costumes reminded me of Kyrgyzstan. All in all, it's one of my favorite excursions yet.

On Tuesday, we went to the Tretyakov Gallery, but I missed the second floor, so I am going back with Theo today. We are also going to the sculpture garden at the modern Tretyakov. After that, we are going to an Azerbaijani restaurant. I hope it's good! Theo is notoriously slow at museums, so I am bringing my sudoku in case I end up retreating to the museum cafe (which is super cosy by the way).

One more exciting piece of news, which probaby only my fellow language nerd friends will appreciate: I am learning so much vocab constantly, it's hard to keep up. Andrew has been really dilligent in making lists and I started to feel bad. I went to a book store down the street (called Книги haha) and I found a notebook specifically for vocabulary learning! The pages are divided down the middle, so it's easy to make lists with their definitions. It has the word Слова on the front in cool font as well. And... now for perhaps the best part... it cost ONLY 1 ruble and 50 kopeks!!! 25 rubles are in a dollar, so you can image how cheap that is!! I bought two. :) Now I can be even more Type A! haha

The Injury

On Sunday, after a long and fruitless search for a Kofe Hauz, I returned home only to be bombarded with requests to play soccer. I was super tired, but I had promised earlier that I would so I reluctantly went. We met some of The Homestays (what we dorm people call the home stayers) and picked teams. It turned out to be so much fun!!!! Once I got into it and past the fact that I suck, I started really having fun. I forgot how much I love to play soccer. In addition to being fun, it's a great work out, which I sorely need! We played for a couple of hours and afterwards I felt happy, but exhausted.

However, once, when Theo kicked the ball to me, I tripped over it. When I did, my ankle twisted and I went down on it. It hurt a lot, but I just shook it off and kept playing. However, after I got home, I could feel it start to swell and bruise. Basically, I sprained it and it hurts. It's all bruised and swollen... even the bottom of my foot is puffy! My ankle bones have disappeared and I really hope to see them soon. It hurts a lot and I really need to be able to walk to get anywhere in Moscow. I also want to play soccer again because it was so much fun!! It blows.

On the plus side, we had blini for breakfast. Blini are basically a crepe, pancake type thing, which they serve with (surprise, surprise) smetana (sour cream). They are more crepe than pancake but they are slightly thicker than the ones Shiree used to make. AND we have hot water again. Yay! No more avoiding arctic showers!

The Cat Man and the Kitten

Among the staff at MosGU (Moskovski gumanitarny universitet), I have found a kindred spirit in one of the old guards who monitor who comes in and out of the university (the university is only accesible by electronic pass, so not just anyone can get on campus). There are a lot of stray animals that live on campus. There are three regular dogs (although I have seen a 4th before) and some stray cats. The guard feeds and looks after a family of three black cats. He was so cute; he was telling me who the mom was and that the other two black cats were her sons. They meowed at us and I almost pet one, but then he realized I didn't have any food in my hand and thus was no longer interested in my pets. I have since tried to get pictures of said cats, but they haven't been around, but I will post some when I see them again. The guard was so friendly! I very much enjoy getting to practice Russian. Just the other day two old men helped me pick out a good bottle of vodka.

My second animal story isn't a very interesting one, but it yielded very cute results. One morning when I was walking back to the dorms from breakfast in the stolovaya (cafeteria) I saw this little black kitten who was out walking by himself. He was so small! I stopped and called him over to me and he bounded over. He was so cute! He let me pet him and I held him and the pictures are below. Then, he proceeded to follow us back to the dorms only to be distracted by a babushka (he then started following her). I haven't seen him/her since, so I hope someone took him home!




ps. I have no idea why my text is a link, but it wouldn't let me undo it. :(