Ещё Неделя

Another week gone by, not too much has happened this week. Birthday was good, Tim came over with a cake from Jennifer and candles from Jennifer, so nice of her! Tim got me two DVDs: 300 (in russian of course) and a russian film that I don't remember off the top of my head. My host family bought me a Russian Dictionary, and as they said, "so you can stop asking us what a word means!" I didn't think I asked them that often, haha. I thought that was a very nice of them and also a very useful gift. Dinner was full of toasts with vodka that incidentally shares the same name as Putin's Political Party, Единая Россия or United Russia. The elections for the Duma is Dec. 2nd so naturally I asked my family who they're voting for. My host mom, Nina, told me that she and Sasha will be voting for the Communist Party because they grew up under communism and life was better for them under communism. Free education, free healthcare, free daycare, free apartments, food was very cheap, travel and transportation was also very cheap. Life since perestroika began has been harder for them. But she did say in the last two years it has gotten a little bit better. Ksenya (Ксеня) my host sister didn't tell me who she is voting for I think Nina said that she's voting for Единая Россия. This week I met some more students, this time from Jordan and Syria. They'll be here for 6 years.

Мой День Рождения!

И День Благодарение (Thanksgiving) but that was Thursday. Well today is my birthday, big 22. Today so far I've cleaned my room a bit, did a little bit of homework and caught up on my hand written journal. Thanksgiving, was the first time I went to class and the first time I wasn't with my family for Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, Russians aren't thankful for the Mayflower or the Pilgrims or the Native Americans that helped them. Remember that the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in the New World and not in Russia. So Tim and I decided to go to an Asian restaurant for Thanksgiving. He got soup, sushi and some ice cream desert with an apple. I got soup, plov (an Uzbek dish with rice and mutton, it was okay) and green tea ice cream. We also had a little bit of sake, it was warm too! Later we played some pool at Карамболь (Karambol') and finally we watched Диверсант. My host dad told me that Russia's soccer team is the champion of Europe or maybe of their bracket because Russia beat Andorra but England lost to Croatia! haha! earlier this year Russia beat England. Friday we went on an excursion to the art museum, it was interesting. I've found that I'm becoming a big fan of landscape paintings. Saturday I went to the central market, didn't buy anything. I just wanted to look around. I've always wondered where people buy racing jackets b/c I see them all the time, answer: at the market. I think thats where most of the people of Russia buy things. Not so much at stores such as Addidas or Nike, but at the market where things are dirt cheap. I've also noticed that a lot of people here where clothing that advertises a company, not clothing companies like Ralph Lauren, but other companies such as: HP, Marlboro, BMW. I've seen these on jackets, sweatshirts, and hats. Anyways Saturday night, Tim and I went to a club but this was an exclusive club. We were at a car dealership! ah yeah! It was for battle of the DJ, I don't know who won b/c Tim and I left at 2am and it went on till 6am. But it was a lot of fun.

Почти 22 года

Last weekend Tim and I visited St. Petersburg where we visited the Russian Museum (an art museum) it was lovely and we also saw Peter the Great's house. He had a a small house, only three rooms while St. Petersburg was in the process of being built. We, of course, bought some souvenirs from Tim's dealer. He's got a hookup and he gave us the friend discount. Sunday we visited the ballet back in Novgorod and saw "The Nutcracker" I enjoyed it very much. But then I was wondering to myself, all this for a nutcracker...hmm interesting. I mean why not a G.I. Joe or something cool. haha! Time to eat.

Баня

We have more snow! The Norwegian returned back to Norway. Yesterday, Tim and I ventured into the Баня (banya), which is similiar to a sauna except we beat each other with branches. Unfortunately, Tim and I didn't have branches but we saw other people beating each other with branches. It was a pretty fun time, although I had more fun in the sauna when I was in Finland with a bunch of Finnish students. Anyways it was enjoyable, during breaks from the banya Tim and I would run outside onto the beach and roll around in the snow. I made some snow angels. Then we would run back into the banya giggling like little girls as the бабушки (grandmothers) would shake their heads at us. After the experience, we bought some beers to replenish ourselves and watched Диверсант (Saboteur). A great TV series about three Soviet soldiers during the Great Patriotic War (World War II) who are special forces, but for sabotage. Its very good. Tonight I'm going with Tim to the theatre to see a comedy and then on Sunday I'm going with him to the ballet. Yesterday I bought Монгол (Mongol) and Black Sheep. Mongol is a Russian, German, Kazakh film about Ghengis Khan from his childhood up until he unified all the tribes of Mongolia. Very good film unfortunately no subtitles, but I understood a lot of it. Black Sheep I have yet to see, it is a New Zealand comedy about sheep zombies.

I apologize, I need to be writing these more often (Keith, tu es content? C'est une blague!) This past week has been full of new things. First off classes are different, instead of taking primarily language classes we are now taking subject classes. Before I was taking Лекция (Lecture) or a class on some hardships of the Russian language and learning slang. Lexicon is what we might say in English. Разговорная Практика (conversation practice), Аудирование (Listening), Культура (Culture), Грамматика (Grammar), and Литература (Literature). Now I have Литература, Культура, Грамматика, Дискусия (Discussion), and История (History). What was surprising is my history teacher is Tim's host mom. He didn't even know that until class started. I have met some more foreigners, one from Ghana and another from Norway. Norwegian is 44 years old, his name is Hauken. He is in the Norwegian military and was accepted to be the military atache to Moscow starting next year. He's only taken 4 months of Russian and he's pretty good at it. We eat lunch with him everyday, he is also the only other foreigner that has lunch the same time we do. This is probably going to be long again.....anyways...The weekend was fun, Tim and I went clubbing at Night Ocean, a popular club in Novgorod. We arrived around 11PM and no one was dancing, I felt like I was in middle school again! I learned that the place doesn't get bumpin' until 1ish, which is when we left. Saturday we went out with Hauken to some bars. One used to be the Comsomal for the town. At one of the bars, they were playing the Macarina so naturally Tim and I had to do the dance. There were already people dancing but no one there knew the Macarina. As Tim and I were dancing it, everyone was staring at us like "WOW, what an amazing dance." By the end of the song some people were trying to steal our moves. Oh we got an applause at the end. The result of that, for the rest of the night women in their upper 40s/50s were asking Tim to dance. Oh time for my show Дизертант I'll write more later.

Я Ещё Живу

Forgive me, I haven't written in awhile, I've had a lot going on. I've been to many places. The past two weeks I was on vacation, I spent about a week in Moscow with my friend Christian and with my parents. My parents and I toured Moscow we saw the Kremlin, Red Square, Lenin's Masouleum (very weird), the convent where Peter the Great sent his wife b/c he became bored with her, State Museum, and the American embassy with the golden arches also known as Don's or McDonald's or Макдоналдс. Christian and I had a fun time we found a cool wine place that just opened and we were invited to the opening by our new Italian friend, who also cut up a 40kg piece of bologna. We sang "Strangers in the Night" with musicians at a German restaurant and afterwards they recruited Christian to join them, don't know if he's going to do it though. Had the best hot dog ever, Star Dogs. A hot dog wrapped in bacon with ketchup, mustard, onions and pickles. soooo tasty! also had shaurma or in novgorod called shaverma also really tasty. Had Uzbek food which is also tasty and had Georgian food with Christian and my parents. Also very tasty if not more tasty!! After Moscow my parents and I travelled by overnight train to Novgorod for a day and saw the sights and had dinner with my host parents. I was the translator and by the end of the night my head hurt and was making silly mistakes such as saying "tomorrow" instead of "yesterday." Just from mental exhaustion. Slept very well that night. Next day we travelled by train to St. Petersburg where we saw Peterhoff, Catherine's Palace, Paul's Palace, and the Hermitage. I left them and went to Великий Устюг (Velikyi Ustyug). We also went to an ice bar which was way cool, everything was made of ice even the glasses! Velikyi Ustyug was an interesting place. 30,000 people and kind of difficult to get too. Took a 24 hour train ride to Kotlas and from there an 1.5 hr bus ride to the bus station followed by a ten minute cab ride into the middle of the city. Only thing there is Дед Мороз or Father Frost (their equivalent of Santa Claus) I happened to run into him at the post office where I was buying some souvenirs. So naturally I got a picture with him. I saw him the next day when I travelled to his estate, a 20 minute cab ride from the city. He recognized me, he even said, "Welcome guests! and the guest from America I recognize, yesterday we had a picture taken together." He has a very deep booming voice. I had a tour of his residence and must say he is more stylish than Santa Claus. He has fifteen different outfits all different colors while Santa Claus only has the red suit. Santa you gotta get with it. I even asked Father Frost what happens to the bad children, he responded with, "they get the worst presents you can imagine." Kinda creepy. His estate was also a little creepy. Set in the forest in the middle of nowhere, he has a trail you can walk around that has background noises of howling wolfs and hooting owls. Eerie. I'll post some pictures later. I even got a picture with his reindeer, he only has one. Father Frost is up with the 21st Century, he moves around be motorized vehicle. I think he even has his own helicopter. Though I would never want to fly in his, nothing against his piloting skills. I just don't trust Russian made helicopters. Anyways I left Velikiy Ustyug two days early and thankfully the railway ticket agent had the patience to help me change my tickets. I left Yadrikha which is in the middle of nowhere on the way to Kotlas, and went to Vologda. 12 hours. And to save money I went third class where 54 people fit into one train wagon, not bad but not too comfortable. Don't fit on the beds, luckily it was an all day ride. Arrived into Vologda with 3 hours to kill. Tried to negotiate with the head provodnitsa or nachal'nik on another train going to Petersburg if I could change my ticket. She said I was too late. But there was another provodnitsa (female carriage attendant) who tried to help me and was very nice. But it didn't work out, had to wait the three hours. Waited and caught the 12 hour train to Petersburg, thank goodness I went second class. I slept the entire train ride. Spent the day in Petersburg and saw the Blockade Museum. Very interesting, I wish it had more but it didn't seem like it had a lot of testaments from the civilian population. Took the train back to Novgorod last night. Today tried to buy some running shoes that caught my eye but unfortunately not in my size, uber lame. Went to the opening of a supermarket. Never have I seen soo many people standing in line to go to a supermarket! In front of the supermarket there were tents with games. One was arm wrestling, called arm wrestling in Russian. I played and won, after a grueling 5 minutes. I won a can of plov, uzbek food that I've wanted to try. I wanted the supermarket t-shirt but I got canned food instead. At least I won something. I saw a 12 yr old boy go up against a babushka (grandmother) and she took him down easily. It was hilarious.