Last final announced :(

15-10 pages research paper...yay!

What's new?

Crunch time! Two research papers to write by Monday/ideally Friday, but that rarely works out. Went to a hockey game...it was an interesting experience between the smoke, the cursing, and the numerous police officers with breastplates, clubs, and helmets. :) I can't wait to catch a football match! No worries there weren't any incidents at our match but a few days later there was on.

Thanksging was celebrated in a good manner...we got together and ate something resembling a thanksgiving dinner...but I'm jonesing for some mexican food. Umm what else...maybe I have travel plans...maybe not...I learned today that my study abroad office forgot about me...luckily the Russian office didn't really forget me. So that brings new processes on board.

I'm giddy I just got DDT albums, a new leningrad set, and a few decent movies woot!

One of the nice things...

I sort of enjoy the snowflakes here, which are frequently of a rather large size and very noticeable. Things seem to be winding down with exams and reports coming dues...and I have to make a part of a meal for Thursday. Apart from all that madness life is pretty good, I finsihed reading the Count of Monte Cristo and the Picture of Dorian Gray, and about half of The Tempest last night. Yay!

In other news, I pretty much hate bureaucracy and bureaucrats...there has got to be a better way to get a Visa. If only I knew who and how to bribe...or maybe if I had Irish citizzenship my life would be easier in this circumstance.

I found a rugby team or two in Moscow, which ought to provide for much excitement, now I suppose I just need to find an appropriate internship there and a few relatively easy classes and it'll be a blast.

Happy Thanksgiving All!

Quick update, we went to Listvyanka this weekend. It wasn’t awful, but it was pretty boring and horrendously cold. I suppose we managed to drink two liters of vodka between the five of us, but that sort of shit is getting old (generally, I don’t really drink that frequently hereabouts – maybe a few beers a week). I didn’t have a bad hangover, but it wasn’t worth it the next day. It wasn’t at all like choir, which I heard may or may not have occurred recently (besides, beer is so much more pleasant than vodka). I’m hoping to come home with a decent Russian drinking song or two, but no luck so far. The thing that’s getting me about travel is all the awful food you have to eat – I’m not saying I don’t eat good food while I’m traveling, it’s just that so much of the food is greasy pre-prepared food.
I dig the seals, though. The Baikal seals have these terrifyingly awkward flat faces like flounder....and they are incredibly tubby. Russians themselves have really silly reactions to animals, “Ookh ty! Nerpochki!” “Mama, kupi mne nerpu!” “A gde budet zhit?” And so on. Quick translations – the first is something like in between, “Oh boy!” and “Oh my god!” “Sealies!” The second two are just parts of a silly conversation between a mother and daughter that was extraordinarily nonsensical involving a seal living in the banya or bath tub or some such thing. However the general sentiment of excitement regarding seals and other cute animals just gets ridiculous, especially when you understand that the Russian idea of leisurely interaction with nature tends to be along the lines of a picnic...or maybe even a trip to a well developed hot springs camp. Maybe I’m unfair.
I’m still waiting to start my internship...with Irkutskenergo, at this rate I might work there for two weeks before I leave. Ugh.
Seems like winter break plans are almost set, I’m planning to spend New Year’s in Moscow and then jet off to Norway for a new visa and if that works out head off to the Kola Peninsula for a ski trip. Hopefully, I’ll have a multi entry visa because I’d like to head out of Russia before orientation.
This week we’ve got a full schedule and projects are starting to come up, I think I have about two weeks to research the economic history of the Baikal region and the economic crisis of ’98. Apart from that we’re planning on bowling tomorrow, the theater on Wednesday, and a hockey match on Thursday now that the basketball season seems over. The last game we saw was pretty awful...I’m pretty sure Saguaro’s team would be capable of beating the Irkutsk team...they couldn’t penetrate on offense, frequently missed free throws and lay-ups gave them much trouble...and their defense was unacceptable, the other team ought to have won by much more than they did.
What more? Well, babushka and Liza seem to have the chicken pox and I’m praying that I’m immune to it...they have these really weird green marks on their bodies...anyone know what this really is? I’ve never heard of chicken pox like that, it would really suck to get sick.
This week should be good.
TTFN

Bond, Booze, and Basketball

Saw the new bond movie on Sunday, I enjoyed it. It was delightful break from teaching myself to play chess well. On the other hanв it disappointed me. I believe that the movie had the potential to be as good as Casino Royale (if it had tried - instead of being a Bond movie - to be a psychological profile), but the characted development and motivations of the villains was week and Bond's obsession with Vesper insufficient to drive the plot satisfactorily. That said, I watched the movie in Russian, I may have missed a few things, but on the whole I think I'm right...and the movie was short, too. I couldn't believe that it was over soo quick, maybe I'm just used to 2.5 hour epics now.

The past two days we've gotten together after class to snack, booze a bit, watch movies, listen to music, and go to basketball matches, which cost all of two dollars to attend...YAY. It's not bad quality basketball, inasmuch as I'm capable of recognizing quality and it's a nice break from traditionally Russian things.

Beyond that, the internship that I had given up hopу on apparently decided that it was ok to take an American, so I might have 5 weeks working at a former state enterprise. Kinda cool. The alleged option if that didn't work out was Phillip Morris...I don't honestly think I could have said no to such a silly option...and tobacco is legit business here. But morally it's sketchy.

This weekend we're heading to Listvyanko to see the seals and drink a little bit...maybe hit a banya. TTFN!

Oh...and the government needs to learn to use the internet.

4 Weeks in 5000 Words (a long awaited update)

So...sitting at home on Friday and Saturday nights is starting to get to me. Back home I wouldn’t I caroused often on the weekends (though I can’t really recall how I spent them during pledge it’s sort of a blur now) and I’m certain that I spent my fair share of nights at doing nothing or just sitting about, but there are people back home. Here it’s a bit like there’s know one. I mean there’s the Midd kids, but getting them to do anything is like pulling teeth and Russians seem to be a wholly different story. I mean Anya and her buddies are quite nice, but rather boring; it was as though the invited me out to practice English and were to afraid to try and practice, rather we merely sat about doing nothing. It’s almost a Russian theme. In other news, I’m getting marginally better at playing guitar and significantly better at chess, while my Russian language skills deteriorate and I procrastinate my studying.

By now I think I made a critical error at the beginning of the semester or perhaps it’s merely my personality, but I really ought to have been more active in seeking out an activity like basketball, a choir, or even an internship, but an internship would have been a pain here. Everything is just too damn far away and there really is little here worthwhile in terms of industry. Oh well, I ought to be able to make the best of the situation until Moscow and there I get some sense of a new beginning. Ideally I’ll be playing rugby again and be working at something.

On our trip to Mongolia I met two fairly friendly Russians Kostya, who seemed rather kind and moderately interesting if a bit obtuse and Pasha, who struck me as a sort of sleazeball from the get-go grew on me and then just went completely insane. The thing with Kostya was that in passing he mentioned that he had two wives – one in Irkutsk and one in Omsk, which seems to indicate that such practice is hardly remarkable, but still kinda unnerves me. I mean apart from that he seemed a pretty admirable guy construction engineer and site manager studying to climb the corporate ladder, but that one little fact just stuck out. Pasha on the other hand, we met on our return from Mongolia to Irkutsk and he invited four of us to the dining car to partake of the hoary Russian tradition of drinking on the train, as such we ordered our vodka, an apple juice chaser, and some bowls of salyanka (a soup, which he derided as rubbish). There he behaved amicably and as host would, but he began to rag on the waiter a bit more than I’m used to. Anyway having already discussed how little he drank generally (seems a universal refrain Russian males in denial about alcoholism...that’s not entirely fair, but I’ll let it stand...perhaps Russian women would too) he proceeded to drink until belligerence at which point he verbally assaulted the waiter for no reason and not much later began to get a little overly friendly with the girl in our group – I should note here that this sort of behavior is not really remarkable in my experience thus far in Russia, women are more inclined to put up with creeps here...likely because of supply and demand. Perhaps that last comment was uncalled for. Continuing onwards there is little to say Pasha drank more, started getting patently aggressive (he punched me in the kidney and cursed at the waiter) and continued his advances. Generally, I just have a negative impression of Russian men, I’ve met a few who seem relatively good guys, but I’ve had so little interaction with them that it’s a non-issue. There were two at the MezhFak who gave me a weird vibe, but were alright and there are a couple in our history class who aren’t half bad...actually it’d be worth it to invite them out for a drink or bowling or some such thing...it’s getting too cold to wander about, though today was remarkably warm (I was walking about without my coat this evening and barely noticed its absence).

Enough negativity, I still have two trips to recount, no?

I guess I’ll start four weeks ago when our group headed out to Severobaikalsk and recount it and my impressions in as much as I remember:

After sitting down on the wrong marshrutka for the umpteenth time, I somehow arrived at Liza’s (our program director) on the eve of our departure. Everyone inside was watching a dubbed version of the Humphrey Bogart classic The African Queen (at least that’s what I believe it’s called), which they were thoroughly mocking and didn’t recognize Bogart (how is it possible!). Anyway I tried to convince them of the movie’s worthiness, but it was largely in vain as we soon had to depart for the train station to begin our first and wonderful 32 hour train ride. Railway is an interesting means of transportation in many ways it’s more efficient and convenient than automobile travel (sometimes even more comfortable), but here it was an experience. To me it was almost as (if not more) unpleasant as the Mongolian train we took to Ulan-Bataar (more on that later). We had tickets in platzkart, third-class barracks style arrangements with beds/seats that are not particularly soft and sheets that are not particularly clean. The air alone in the wagon made me feel dirty...and no I’m not trying to be elitist, but objectively I was dirtier after that train ride than I am in a week with moderate exercise and without showering. Apart from the filth (in no part diminished by the horrendously unhealthy food we were eating...thank God for boiled eggs) there was a family of two young boys, a toddler girl, a babushka and a mother. This was a first revelation for me regarding Russian standards of parenting. (As an aside, I do live in a family with a 4yo daughter and largely the parenting at home is what I might expect apart from the girls amount of self determination and the considerable amount of candy she is permitted to eat) The children were essentially permitted to do as they would so long as they didn’t kill themselves or hurt their fellow passengers.

Examples of their offenses:
1.Little girl driving up and down the corridor in a squeaky plastic toy car
2.Boy and girl playing catch with sing-a-long teddy bear
3.Portable baby toilet that they placed in the middle of one of our group’s coupes rather than with their (admittedly it was not my coupe, but come on...really!?)

Anyway, it wasn’t really so bad, they turned out to be friendly enough and wanted to play at cards with us...Russian cards. As of yet I only know of three Russian card games: durak – literally translated idiot, to be fair there are three variants of this game I played and it is mostly a mindless dream, the height of strategy is getting your competitors drunk that you might cheat; pyanitsa – lit. drunkard (I think drunken woman), a variant of war with trump...which means that the winner is the player with ace of trump, but the 6 of trump can take the ace...nonetheless if you wanted to use your head you would have to memorize your opponents hands and place your cards to beat theirs...a fruitless endeavor; and durachka – basically are variant of Uno. For a culture that respects/respected chess so highly it is very surprising that people don’t play intelligent card games...but I suppose the stereotype of the Russian spirit is that of a gambler. Speaking of cards, I managed to try and learn to play Whist, Hearts and Spades again, sadly Kevin is much more attentive than me, which means I tend to lose because it’s not really sporting to play together against the others, who have little conception of strategy...especially when they learned the game in Russian. The only trouble with the train was the fact that alcohol was not allowed on group trips, a foolish rule if you ask me, but no one ever does.

Socializing with the Russians on this train wasn’t awful once I got past the fact that they love to discuss things about which they nothing as though they were experts (Americans abroad love this too). Economics is the big culprit because often elder Russians will bring up how much better life was under Soviet Union and that they should try to reform the old system. This is moderately laughable because they don’t understand and can’t be made to understand that the inflated standard of living that was enjoyed under the Soviet Union was supported by debts and sale of natural resources and not actual economic development (say nothing of corruption and repression), i.e. the Soviet Union’s fall was inevitable. Sadly, this seems similar to what is being realized back in the states now – increased consumption funded by debt issued on collateral with volatile (and inflated) prices...I suppose at least we still have the world’s reserve currency and a fall of the dollar would destroy most of the global financial system based on foreign holdings of American debt and dollars. I’ve been meaning to think about how the dollar might be edged out of its special status and how a new global financial system might function, but haven’t had the time to research it.

Well, that was an interesting tangent. After we reached Severobaikalsk and dropped our things at the bed and breakfast we set off on two short hikes. The first lead us round the coast of Baikal to a pteroglyph(?). On the whole it was a pleasant and pretty hike along the cliffs covered in autumnal leaves (a rather uniform gold). The day was perfectly clear. Afterwards we began our route back towards the bed and breakfast and stopped off at a small trailhead leading up a steepish mountain. This was the site of a Soviet labor camp that mined mica for export to Europe. The rest of the group found it rather more emotionally powerful than I did, either for their greater familiarity with Soviet history or my initial rational (rather than emotional) reaction to it. The mica there was pretty, though Liza claimed it dangerous (although I’m certain that in small quantities it’s harmless) and the view spectacular. The signs describing the significance of the spot were disappointing – poorly translated and in poor repair. Upon our return we ate a quick dinner, caught up on the sleep that we thought we had gotten on the train, and were promptly provided with a TV in our room. Oh...and I showered....never felt cleaner in my life...well, maybe after Philmont.

The next day we were scheduled to sail across Baikal to a tourist camp with hot springs, but for various reasons it was impossible (inspections, weather, etc.) so the trip was delayed twice and instead we hit up the hot springs in a “resort” hamlet in Goudjikit, which was pleasant. We followed that up with and excursion to Kholodnoye where we attempted to fund a second Gulag and learned about the native peoples at a small museum in the schoolhouse. That day ended much as the day before it, although we watched a serialization of Heavy Sand, a chronicle of a Jewish family in Soviet Russia.

On Tuesday we actually made it across the lake to the other hot springs...I honestly can’t remember what they are caller now, but they were fine – although generally too hot or too cold. The camp itself reminded me of a Boys and Girls Club summer camp – it was a really kitschy place and completely abandoned...the season was over. The captain of the boat and his crew decided to join us...they didn’t wear swimsuits – but I guess that’s the Russian way. I would like to hit the banya again...oh well, maybe in Listvyanka. The boat was pleasant...I generally like boats and when I had had enough of taking repetitive photos and being cold it was a great opportunity to read Master and Margarita...in Russian, which I finished. I feel as though I understood the better part of it, but not necessarily the allegory, simply because of the simple strangeness of the novel and my weak knowledge of Soviet history. We returned and finished the day much as the others.

Wednesday was special. It was to be our overnight trip to the Pereval, which was a sort of high valley where geologists formerly searched for ores and indigenous peoples farm deer. For the beginning of our trip we returned to Kholodnoye and met our driver and his mashina. I’m certain you are all familiar with old military trucks with benches in the back covered by a tarp? That was this truck. Our driver was a professional hunter and trapper, an interesting guy who asked us an interesting question about the musical groups we listen to, “What do they sing about?” I suppose that’s the same psychology that governs Christian rock and perhaps governed blues. Nonetheless it’s not something I’ve recently thought about. So we set off on a four hour journey across rivers and on the worst of roads...it was just an experience...I loved it, but it was a hell of a pain on my back and butt. We stopped at a shamanistic holy site and paid our respects to the spirits much the dismay of certain people present.

We arrived and there were no deer to see, they had dispersed because of the snow. We lunched and wandered about the abandoned settlements. I took many a picturesque photograph. It was quite beautiful in its decay; it would have been a great place to wander about as a young boy. Back at the cabin we played cards and talked a bit until dinner; there I learned to play durachka and pyanitsa when the owner had no interest in learning Spades...I’m not sure he could have handled it. We also met one of the deer herders, he asked one question and gotyelled at by our tour guide and remained quiet after that, a shame. Dinner was tasty – fresh rabbit! I do love game. The old man owner was perhaps a very sad lonely man, but he was an extraordinarily unpleasant one fitting the already described stereotypes of Russian men – drank too much and flirted inappropriately. Additionally, he spoke matom (Russian slang/cursing) and was rather offended when we did not understand him. When we retired for the evening we somehow crammed 10 people into the small room...I’m still not entirely certain how, but it was quite a feat. The next morning we set off to try and find the deer ourselves as it had snowed again, but we succeeded only in seeing quite a beautiful countryside and playing with snow. Then we returned to Severobaikalsk and my stomach was quite upset. We flew out the next day and ended up in Irkutsk not long after.

Irkutsk between out trips was rather unremarkable. My birthday came and went; we met the German students and planned for Mongolia. Not much else happened. I suppose I got flabbier...that’s unfortunate. Oh yeah, we also had dinner with the program director, which was at a rather tasty Uzbek restaurant and watched a typical substandard Russian blockbuster drama romanticizing the life of Kolchak.

After two weeks we set out again on the train, this time for only 16-18 hours it’s not terribly important. Anyway we set off for Naushki, a border town between Mongolia and Russia. The fun thing here is that we had tickets only to the border and had to figure out the crossing ourselves (tickets through to Ulan-Bataar were approximately 90 dollars). I don’t rightly remember the details of the train, merely that we had a bottle of wine at night and I drank three beers for breakfast. It was a pretty easy train ride, I didn’t feel as dirty, but I was damn hot because of the heating. At Naushki we exited the station and found a few cabs to take us to Sukh-Bataar, the Mongolian border town, where we wanted to catch our next train – to Ulan-Bataar. The price wasn’t awful – about $23 per car, but we didn’t get to our destination. The cars dropped us at the border, where we were obliged to sit on border taxis. The problem here wasn’t really the money (we should have paid less) the problem was that our group traveling in the other car didn’t sit down with us in the van, rather they sat in another car at the behest of a loud and grabby Asian woman. This lead to problems. Crossing the border was pretty simple...actually, if I wanted to illegally export something out of Russia that’s probably where I’d do it. The problems we first noticed when the car our companions were in had to pushed through the border. Later we learned their driver was not only drunk, but also largely illiterate. What fun! Having made it through the border, we found ourselves in need of a third car, but before we successfully managed that we had to deal with our companions’ driver who kept changing terms on them and was largely incompetent. We paid the asshole off...heck we were still ahead by a couple hundred roubles a piece over the full train fare. After stopping by our third driver’s home so tha the could chat with his wife and try to convince us to stay the night with them and drive down in the morning, we wound up in Sukh-Bataar at the train station.

Part II of the Journey. At the train station none of the clocks appeared to be accurate and we had trouble learning when the ticket office would open. As such we sat there and began to speak our first words of English to each other after a few long months of Russian. We waited probably four hours, ate a little bit and just tensely lounged about. When the ticket booth opened and we were up to buy tickets we learned the only tickets available were general tickets – i.e. fight for your seats. So we confusedly wandered about, looking for our wagon, asked some Australians for help, but they didn’t know anything. When we found our wagon, we fought our way on and occupied as much space as possible. In the end we got lucky on two accounts: we got our own coupe and got to sit on our things. We were fairly comfortable until some young hooligan Mongols came and started invading our personal space – falling asleep on me and other such unpleasantries. In the end, I drove him off with a skillful combination of sleeplike motion and elbow jabs. I don’t know everyone else seemed to dislike that train more than me, but I slept less than they did and had someone fall asleep on me, it just wasn’t that awful. I suppose the other Mongols just talked all night which was indeed a nuisance. Eh! So what?

Anyway we arrived and couldn’t find our ride to the bed and breakfast so we walked. Turns out she was waiting on the Russian side of the train, while we were on the Mongolian side like bad tourists. Anyway we had some tea and bread wandered about Ulan-Bataar...I don’t remember eating lunch, which is possible...no wait, we finished off the train food and stopped by museum of Buddhist art, which was cool, but I was exhausted and in no mood to note the symbolic subtleties of the paintings and statues, nor the techniques. Even in my most energetic of moods it’s a draining task for me. So we returned to the hostel and went out for dinner at a Mongolian barbeque (which aren’t supposed to exist in Mongolia) and I had the great honor of eating so much that I was banned from the all-you-can-eat buffet (additionally, I tried the horse...it was – I want to say gamey, but that’s not quite right – I’d eat it again, but no rush). Ah! How I loved YC’s back when I ran cross country. We returned and I went to sleep, David and Chris decided to be social.

In the morning we left for the countryside, where each day we travelled and had one activity or another (occasionally maybe a short rest stop at a point of interest). The first day we drove 4-5 hours to a rather pretty spot at the base of some mountains. On the way we stopped for a lunch of stir-fry with a fried egg on top and Mongolian tea. Mongolian tea is probably a love it or hate it sort of thing; it’s not really tea it’s more like salty warm milk, but I really enjoyed it. To prepare it – as I observed it – you heat water, toss in some tea leaves, salt the tea, add milk (any fatty milk, I believe that I liked yak milk best), and allegedly they add sheep fat to the tea. However, I never observed them add it, nor tasted anything to make me think that the might have. Strangely, I found it really quite tasty and I probably try making it back home sometime...though yak milk and sheep fat (maybe just the milkfat??) might be hard to find. Mongolian dairy products are really just something else entirely. They make rather tasty cottage cheese (more similar to tvorog than ours), butter cream, and allegedly they yogurt is great, but we didn’t have the opportunity to try it. Additionally, kumiz was an interesting taste, especially in that we drank it by the bowlful. Kumiz is fermented mare’s milk, it reminded me of sourdough bread – Liza (when we came back) said it reminded her of alcoholic cheese, but I’m not sure that’s accurate. Strangely, it seemed more popular amongst our group than the tea since it was such a strange taste...or perhaps not strangely, being that it was moderately alcoholic (akin to beer). Apparently nomads drink it all day long in the summer and take great delight in their children drinking until drunk and passing out...or that was what our guide seemed to be telling us (she spoke English quite well for only two years of study, but she had the wonderful habit of placing “the” in front of every noun). As long as we’re talking about Mongolian food, they make essentially Indian fry bread and simple noodles, though I’m not certain of the origin of the wheat (both currently and historically), and they served us a curious sort of omelet...it was a bread omelet. Simply a piece of bread inside of an omelet; I don’t really know how I feel about that, but at the time I was thankfully for the protein. I don’t eat enough eggs here (at home I’d eat up to 4 every morning).

At our first camp, we were welcomed with fresh tea and told to wander about the hills whilst we waited the arrival of the camels. Yeah, camels. I guess I dig camels, but they are rather ornery. On the positive side, these didn’t smell bad like the vast majority in the states. The Mongolian camels are of the Bactrian (two hump) sort, which is apparently suited to cold climates, but each time I tried to ask our guide a follow up question about anything she always misunderstood or just didn’t know the answer. So currently, I have know idea what the humps are for or why they are so aptly suited to the climate. David was extremely excited and nervous about the camels...it almost seemed an obsession, but it was one of the more entertaining themes of our trip. He kept quoting a postcard he had received that read, “Camels are living dinosaurs because they are large and slow moving,” or some such thing, but you certainly can’t fault that logic. Despite David’s excitement, Kevin and I were selected to take the evening ride while Aubrey, Kris, and David would take the morning ride. We went riding for what seemed about two hours rather close to sundown and we rode on the steppe until we reached a tourist camp abandoned in the off-season, which our host joked, ”Ulan-Bataar!” and Kevin jabbed back, “New York!” He didn’t speak English or Russian – he understood a bit of Russian. He had an entertaining habit of turning back to us and inquiring about what we presumed to be our well being...he seemed reassured when we flashed him the thumbs up. Apart from that he whistled and sang a few tunes, but rare continued them very long. Unfortunately we had ridden out to the West and so when we returned and the sun was setting we, rather than riding into it rode away from it...at the same time, I suppose we didn’t have to deal with the glare. It got cold as we rode back, Mongolia gets very cold at night, but we made it back without freezing to death. Our group had continued their wandering and drank a bit of tea. We dined and went to sleep. There is an interesting trait that we recognized about our hosts; almost universally they felt obligated to stuff or ovens full of coal/wood that not freeze. Unfortunately, this made the yurt unbearably hot...I believe that it was at least 95 degrees in there at some point.

On the second day we breakfasted (and got butter cream!) and the other group went out on the camels in the other direction. Kevin and I wandered about a pretty cool looking rock formation that reminded me of the Boulders in North Scottsdale. We climbed about and sat about and found a dead hedgehog. The others returned and we set off for our second destination. We lunched near a river and explored the semi-desert. More interestingly we took a rest stop on top of a cliff overlooking another river, where the Communists had executed many a Buddhist monk – a solemn place indeed and it got to me a bit more than the work camp. We arrived at our camp rather late in the day, still light, but the sun was starting edge behind the mountains. We were in a valley whose surrounding mountains were wooded. A river flowed not far from our yurt and one of the mountains was an inactive volcano, which was responsible for the black rock that littered the valley floor and made our approach rather bumpy, but no where near so as towards Pereval. We again were greeted with tea dined and went to sleep in great heat...we may have played cards.

The next morning were to ride horses, but the horses and horse guide were late, so we passed the morning throwing rocks onto the frozen river and playing soccer with a toddler who made up interesting rule variants as we played. When the horses finally arrived after lunch, we saddled up and headed off. Mongolian horses are significantly smaller than European horses, which resulted in us appearing as though we were twice the size of the horses. They were pretty horses, mine I called James and he was rather well behaved and intelligent. Most of the other horses had some sort of issue or another. Aubrey’s horse was not to be trusted, Kevin’s lagged behind, David’s wanted to go home and play with the other horses and Chris’s just didn’t want to go anywhere. For some reason, my horse along with Aubrey’s was lead a the beginning, but soon enough I was riding on my own (Aubrey unfortunately wasn’t so lucky). In general the horses were more comfortable than the camels, but trotting and the extended ride got to my loins eventually. I’m not entirely certain whether I managed to gallop or not, the others certainly did after we returned, but I surrendered my horse to rest a bit. Anyway we rode to two different waterfalls one small, one large and then journeyed to the other end of the valley and outran the sun back to the yurt. The first waterfall was unremarkable, but would have been a wonderful place to swim in warmer weather (it was a bit like Bristol falls without the green), but the second waterfall was beautiful. It was partially frozen and produced a marvelous aura of white and blue. The evening was as the previous with a bit of stargazing to escape the oven.

Our last official day of touring took us to Kharkhorum – the capital of the Mongol Empire and, in effect, the world some 1000 years ago (a bit less, but whose counting). It’s a typical Mongolian city (not Ulan-Bataar) of wooden houses and yurts with no obvious commercial buildings and a surplus of abandoned industrial buildings. In addition, there is a monument to the Mongol Empire – a traditional shamanistic/Buddhist rock pile with three panels depicting the expanse of the empire at different points and Mongol warriors. The real gem of the city is the Buddhist temple, which was somewhat destroyed by the Communists and recently refurbished. It contained colorful statues and paintings and reminded me that, though I kind of understand the basic precepts of Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism is a strange beast unto itself. It has a very complicated mythology that seems outside the scope of what I understood Buddhism to be...it’s far more like a Western religion...I think. The highlight of the day was the dust storm that blew over us from our arrival in Kharkhorum, a characteristic feature of the Mongolian landscape and quite pleasant. We yurted it again and played cards into the wee hours of the morning.

This last day was boring, it was a long drive back to Ulan-Bataar and within an hour of the city our driver forgot to fill up the tank, so we sat for a few extra hours while he went for gas. Back in the city the last day passed quickly we ate some interesting, but not great foods (though we did find almost real pizza) and saw dinosaur bones at the museum. The exciting point was out excursion to the market where ushanki – the stereotypical Russian fur hats were the order of the day...Kevin and I restrained ourselves, but it was a rather interesting place. The bus to Ulan-Ude was much more comfortable than our previous train excursions and because we failed to get tickets for the train immediately to Irkutsk we passed a night and morning in Ulan-Ude where we saw the world’s largest head of Lenin...that day he wore a yamaka (or however you spell it) of snow; I giggled. The city seemed cleaner than and newer than Irkutsk, but there was little else of interest there. When we passed the night in the train station we somehow had to take a luxury room and a normal room, but the luxury room, though heinously more expensive was convenient for us to play cards and drink some malt liquor (we even tried it with cola, pretty nasty). Unfortunately, I lost again.

The train back was comfortable (because were in 2nd class – coupe) and we met some friendly Russians and Chinese. I’ve already talked about Pasha. In our compartment there was a crazy Chinese woman and her sons or relations of some sort...I think they were going to Moscow to sell imported cigarettes (they had a backpack full of them), but the boys showed us some good magic tricks, which helped to pass the time and after a peaceful alcoholic nap we arrive in Irkutsk, hustled off the train and hurried home.

This last week was rather unremarkable...delightfully short and pleasant. I am suspect that our wi-fi spot is actively trying to block us from using their internet...(internet in Mongolia was better and cheaper! I may just have to by a wireless modem if it will work in Moscow). My babushka got sick and so we’re fending for ourselves now and I’m entertaining the little girl. My house mother started bringing her boyfriend home, who reminds me of certain people back in the states, but he doesn’t seem quite so off as the bad examples I’ve met. He has a car import-export business....which seems very...sketchy, but Russian. That’s all for now folks tomorrow to the swimming pool.

I lied

No update til Wednesday after next...leaving for Mongolia tonight...any requests for souvenirs?

Severobaikalsk

Well, I'm goign talk about a few of the things that are becoming rather unpleasant to me right now.

1. My teachers: they are quite possibly the most naive, pseudo-intellectuals on the face of the planet. (I deleted some expletives from this) They don't seem to understand anything about the US, they have policies designed for fourth graders, and can't even come up with justification when asked. What's more is that either because they are too idiotic or because we pay their paychecks, when you argue with them they don't know how to respond...at all, because for every example they produce we with our inferior american education can produce 10-15 more and provide the reasoning.

Exhibit A: When questioned about why we needed to bring 2+ books to class everyday that we never use her reply was "because..." and quickly left the room.

Exhibit B: The case of the green pen. A professor expected us to have a green pen to record Russian expressions, I responded that I did not intend to purchase one as I had already made changes in my note taking style to account for expressions and switching between pens was a wasteful activity. Hey I know who she reminds me of! Miss MCKay Cox, one of thpse teachers who tries to implement new teaching techniques qithout actually understanding them. Coincidentally a lifelong conservative...blarg.


2. In the US kids don't even have cap guns anymore. Here they have fireworks, airsoft guns, and blank guns...well, something in between a hollywood prop and a cap gun...Jesus.

3. The sound of breaking bottles outside my window

4. The parking lot disco outside my window

5. Parents don't take responsibility for their children...and don't realize what an inconvenience they can be on the rest of society

6. "I kissed a girl" song is played everywhere

7. Rampant proud inefficiency

Severobaikalsk...well, it is a young, but dying city. Unless tourism gets up there pretty quick it'll be almost a ghost town in 20 years. Maybe I'll write about it tonight and post tomorrow...theres just too much and I wanna go home for now

Long time no see

My mom reminded me I hadn't updated in a while, my battery is a little low right now and I'm trying to final get and RSS reader working on my computer, so this will be one of my shorter more poorly written entries...as opposed to the the very long and obnoxious ones.

Life is alright, we're launching an interestingly planned expedition to Mongolia next Saturday where we don't exactly have transportation across the border yet...hopefully that will soon change.

Additionally, bandwidth at the cafe is now being limited. The fascists! No facebook for now.

My birthday on the other hand was enjoyable, but rather quiet - 1.5 liters of beer and a half bottle of wine. Got some chocolates and a nice plate. We mostly sat in a bar and talked for a few hours. David got ripped off by the cabbie, on the other hand we paid 10 bucks for three stops and about 40 min of driving. No vodka interestingly enough, but mayhaps that will change. We're thinking about hitting a club tonight with some German students, but that remains to be planned.

Still waiting to hear about the internships, apparently Irkutskenergo (a utility) is still play...maybe I;ll find out next week. What else...I'll prep a real post about our trip to severobaikalsk soon...in other news photos are on facebook (~300)

So a quick update...

I've been pretty bad about updating this recently, just trying to get life together between physical activity, internships, making friends, and trying to actually improve my Russian. THe next week looks to be quiet too because we're headed off on our group trip with what is likely to be limited internet and even more limited computer battery...so that's likely a no go. The good news is that I'll have new pictures and hopefully one appropriate for a christmas card photo.

So, let's recap. I've been trying to get internship/something to do in Russian and it looks like I may get one with DeWalt...the powertool company. If nothing else it's an opportunity to better the Russian and I need that. Classes are rather boring, but I did finally get my mainstream - History of Siberia...what a theme! Beyond that I've been working on financial/econ education, summer/Moscow internship apps and following that wonderful disaster back home...what fun you all must be having.

I'm really missing books in english...there's so much I want to know, but the quality of Russian books excluding literature is very difficult to determine and they take about three times a s long to read.

End mind dump...have fun!

Ahh so little to do

So I caroused with some acquaintences yesterday, munched on ice cream, sat on benches, and trudged through one quarter of Master and Margerita...roughly half of which I don't understand...in particular whatever is subtle. I've spent close to $10 on the internet in the past three days...mostly trying to upload those goddam photos...but be uploaded they will. At this poin I only have 30 unuploaded photos...yay PAT! Additionally I had been hoping to start doing some online test prep for grad school, but unfortunately my seriall number is allegedly invalid. Woe is me...still it's a wonderful opportunity to update the blog again...especially having carefully examined the Tavern Dirty/Naughty pics...congrats to anyone who managed to avoid being depicted.

So what interesting cultural observations can be made? Well, pigeons here are not considered rats with wings much as squirrels are not considered pests. Rather people strive to woo the foul creatures into their hands with little nuts or otherwise delectable snack. Not two days ago, Kevin,David and I were enjoying a lovely (does anyone else get confused as heck about the Harvard comma in lists??? I still don't know which style I like better) time eating ice cream on the shore of the Angara when some twenty-something with a handful of nuts decided that she wanted to feed the lovely pigeons, which - noticing the woman's nuts - immediately flew through us in a disgusting cloud of dust feathers and plague. Oh well...today Liza (the little one) was crying for a minute or two because the bad weather made it undesirable to go feed the squirrels...anyway these are among the most interesting things I've been up to.
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I'm hoping to start hitting gym tomorrow because I'm getting fat, flabby and weak. Aghh! The photos didn't upload...well I guess it's time to kill someone. Maybe I'll try the Wi-Fi place...bah!

Baikal...pics on facebook

Baikal was cool, I enjoyed the banya more, but so it goes. Nasty case of food poisoning from our camp food., but we cancelled the hike back which I had been looking forward to. I dunno maybe it'll impress me in the winter or when we head to severobaikalsk in a few weeks. Planning a Mongolia trip and trying to figure out my end of semester travel plans. What else...I dunno hopefully I'll be either at the dacha or clubbing this weekend.

TTFN

Baikal will follow...and maybe pics...

This is what I actually intended to write whilst David and Kevin were hustling me out of the internet cafe. In reflection upon the past week, my time here has been pretty enjoyable, but I haven’t quite got the routine of getting to the gym, doing my homework properly, prepping research, collection Russian friends, and visiting the local sights. On the other hand I ought to be able take care of most of that on Monday.

So despite the fact that the day when I post this will indeed be Monday, it’s Saturday morning right now. The weather has forecast rain for today and tomorrow, but so far that doesn’t seem to be the case, which is fortunate because hiking 15km (though little more than a long run) isn’t pleasant in the rain nor are boatrides. However, we collectively are pumped to finally visit Baikal. The name is derived from the Buryat Bai Gul or Sacred Fire, and other similar names from across the Asian continent (with curiously disparate meanings). Traditionally, it is referred not as a lake, but as a sea due its size and revered status and remains the largest body of freshwater on the planet. At its deepest it is believed to be over 60km deep and has a visibility of 40m according a US Navy white plate test. And though there are many, many more interesting little tidbits that I’ve picked up in my Baikal Studies class I won’t plague you all with them. Although, allegedly those that bathe in Baikal will be fated to marry Irkutsk natives or some such thing that I didn’t wholly understand when Alina was giving me her tour yesterday.

Apparently, my program has differing opinions from my own in relation to my host family; namely, in that my host mother хозяйка is a Professor of English at the Linguistic College. The proud and strong Middlebury Language Pledge views this as a threat to its authority. I agree that speaking solely in the target language is indeed helpful to language acquisition, but Middlebury seems to have forgotten some basic principles of statistics when they cite the effectiveness of the Language Pledge: 1. Students who have taken the Language Pledge do not necessarily follow it. Therefore they aren’t necessarily measuring what they hope to. 2. Those who perform successfully under the Language Pledge (perhaps save the novices) are those most capable of learning languages; moreover, those who choose to take the Language Pledge already have a stronger than average desire to learn the target language. Now on the whole, the Language Pledge makes sense in the US where the target language is generally in deficit, but in the native country it becomes fairly obligatory to speak the almost the entire time in the target language, when interacting with natives. Anyway, my хозяйка brought me to her class on Wednesday and her students were not much interested in speaking up in front of the entire class, but a few brave souls managed to and I hope that the call me soon to hang out. They invited me to a picnic this weekend, but our Baikal trip had already been scheduled.

(for some reason there is a discoteka outside the apartment at 8:30 AM on Saturday....what a place)

Two of Oleysa’s studentki have already called and tried to make plans to show me about the city – Alina and Nika. Alina, I met up with yesterday and she pointed out some of the larger sites – a Polish church, Irkutsk’s older churches, the government buildings – and we chatted about many things. The best thing was showing me the way out of the congestion of downtown and toward the Angara, where everything is much prettier. They attribute much of the city’s preserved beauty to its distant location from Moscow, much as they attribute the fact that Baikal’s oil is unexploited to Stalin’s boredom. Nika, I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting, but I’m under the impression that she was one of those who was not terribly willing to speak in front of the class, anyway we’ll probably try and meet up on Monday. I have to note that it’s remarkable how Russians can be simultaneously materialistic and incredibly cultured.

There’s also this really silly and almost offensively uncomfortable program Middlebury set up...I would liken it to buying friends in the most literal sense. We have been allocated money to pay for a personal Russian tutor of our choosing; I think the logic is to avoid the language exchanges that theoretically violate Middlebury’s policy. I don’t know it’s a freaking goofy system. Much as, setting aside 1200 rubles for cultural immersion is. I mean really guys, if we’re interested in drama and music and museums we’ll go and pay our own way.

I really ought to better get to know the family better, Liza – the little one – is moderately entertaining, but sometimes a bit bratty her mother and grandmother can be a bit soft on her. Tamara – the babushka – is the resident cook and general domestic servant, who though less pushy about food and proper clothing than some of the other хозяйки, encouraged me to purchase slippers and does try to feed me too much, but I think that will change once I start to train regularly and not sleep from 8PM to 8AM (crazy, I know). Oleysa as I’ve already said teaches English and seems an eternal optimist though she works 6 days a week with 2-4 classes a day.

Food is indeed an interesting experience. I have been served a beet, fish and mayo salad, fish soup with the skin on the fish (the day I walked through the fish section of the central market, a smell like you’d never encounter down south), some cheese pastries and lots of silly things...I suppose I really ought to keep a food journal, but that would be a large investment of time. Well, at least I’ll eventually try to convince Tamara to teach me to make a few things, the non-fishy salads are great.

Transport and class are the two things I really want to write about, but they’re always at the end when I’m sort of sick of writing. Anyway, I had my first two awful transport experiences. The first on a cold rainy day when I climbed into the bus home and must have ridden in 130 degree heat for 30 minutes without the ability to see out the windows. Yesterday, I don’t know whether it was the driver or it was the bus but every time we broke it was a body jarring experience. Class is class. Grammar is unpleasant and everything else is ok. I’m trying to get my mainstream started soon and considering internships. I sorta think it might be cool to intern with Edinaya Rossiya...but that’s probably impossible. Still, I’ll ask.

In Russia the police cars are Fords....

So, I just had a nice walk about the city with a fine young lady to whom my khozyaika introduced me (she also introduced me to the rest of her class so, hopefully I'll soon be hanging with them, unfortunately that comes with a notable lack of guys in the class). It's a pretty city, prettier when you manage to get away from the mercantile part and towards the river. I'll describe it better later when I have pictures and decide to post them. :-P

Transport is crazy and mom would certainly not approve of the preparation of the food though it is tasty...although I have had to eliminate some of my heuristics tyhat I normally use to decide whether it's worth the risk of getting sick to eat - stinky cheeses, meat, dishes that you can't decode the component ingredients of etc. Anywho, more to follow, tomorrow baikal. Maybe Monday I'll have a full post and start with the pictures somewhere.

Settling in...

Well, I suppose we arrived yesterday and despite the stress of meeting the people I’ll be living with for the next three months it’s been an enjoyable first few days. My sister ought to take pride in the fact that for the first time in my life I bought a phone that looks cool and has a few features (still, no camera – but I think I can get internet on my computer through it if I buy a USB and cell plan, which is huge here in Irkutsk – broadband just got here last year).

Let’s start with the city. Irkutsk is a delightful town of about 700,000 along the banks of the river Angara. The river leads into/from Lake Baikal, the largest freshwater body on the Earth holding appox. 1/3 the world’s freshwater supply. It is largely Lake Baikal and its location along the Trans-Siberian railroad that makes Irkutsk significant, but I still have yet to find the city’s defining industry – though the big hydroelectric dam may be a hint. The architecture is a delightful and depressing mix of ancient (200+ yr. old) wooden houses, brightly colored imperial buildings and bleak Soviet architecture. Admitted there appear to be a few newer developments, but even they at best preserve the bleak pre-fad Soviet styling with touches of the imperial colors. That said, the interiors of the buildings are something else entirely and inside character manifests. Transportation is a curious matter; there are several options: walking (simple and free, but slow, occasionally dangerous, and seemingly stigmatized), the bus (a popular, though not altogether speedy option), marshrutnoye taxi (like a bus, but smaller and quicker), tramvai and trolleybus (slower than buses), and normal taxi. I still don’t have a very clear sense of the city’s proportions, but it seems perhaps as large a Scottsdale...or at the very least South Scottsdale, but it takes about 40 minutes to get downtown by bus from where I live and 20 minutes on foot to the university.
Like a mentioned earlier, I am living in an apartment with a grandmother (babushka), mother – a linguistics and advertising professor (less glamorous than it sounds), and her four year old daughter, who made a few attempts today at pronouncing that most confounding of American sounds “th”. Yesterday, Tamara Dimitrievna (baba) and Liza (the young ‘un) picked me up at the airport and brought me to their lovely apartment. The building itself is one of those Soviet remnants I previously referred to, but on the inside it is rather large with an entry hall of fair size, 3 9x14 rooms, and a balcony. The kitchen and bathroom are the only areas lacking in size, but so little time is spent in those rooms that it hardly matters. Anyway, I have far more space and privacy than I had expected and the family is wonderful, they have apparently lived here for about 30 years. Perhaps the most remarkable thing is the food, which I very much enjoy despite the high carbs and friedness of it. So far I’ve eaten pelmezhki (sort of like potstickers) soup, kotlety (a hamburger patty with mushrooms in it), a few salads, and lots of tea. Yesterday I was overfed twice once before and once after my post-flight nap. By far the best foods so far have been the bliny (a variant on blintzes or crepes depending on your perspective) and kasha (it appeared to be rice pudding), which composed this morning’s breakfast. However, I haven’t particularly enjoyed the Russian iterations of salad and cheese. The cheese is of the “strong smelling American-type cheese variety” and salad...well, mayonnaise is basic component of the salads here...and yesterday’s was a beet mayonnaise and fish salad...interesting, but it didn’t make my tongue happy. They say we shouldn’t drink the tap water here, but I have started doing so to no ill effects and successfully had my first bowel movement (YAY!).

Orientation happened again today and was moderately more informative than that of Friday, but largely frightening and boring. Unfortunately our tour of the city was cut short by waiting to get B&W matte photos taken for our student ID’s and cell phone shopping. You’ll probably not be surprised to know this, but doing almost anything in Russia requires that you present your papers and endure enormously inefficient and bureaucratic processes. Another bad experience with Russian cheese...dammit mosquito in my room. Additionally, I got some internets for like 10 minutes today which is why some of you got short emails.

This week is mostly getting stuff together, tomorrow testing and we get our passports back after our director registers them with the city (and shopping for me! Gots to get some slippers!). Classes start on Tuesday, next week we might start checking out mainstream classes, volunteer work, and internships – I’d really like something in finance or energy but that may not be in the cards. This weekend we head out on our first Baikal trip – a 15 km day hike from a place called bolshie koty or the big cats.

We’re a funny bunch out here not really a single identity, but we’ll get along. I just hope I can meet some Russians and not become and alcoholic or contract herpes.

First day (by a somewhat arbitrary definition) in Russia

Right now I’m listening to The Cure and The Cranberries...and now Tom Waits

Already I find myself swaying between enthusiasm and despair about this coming year, but for the most part I’m tired. The reason for this tiredness may have something to do with jetlag, but I don’t wholly agree with that premise. Rather my exhaustion better relates to the fact that instead of sleeping on the 11-13 hour plane flight (I don’t really know because time has no meaning for me right now) I watched the little monitor stowed in my armrest – Curb Your Enthusiasm, Entourage, Deadwood, Dr. Who, The Office, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Ironman, In Bruges, and probably a few other shows, it was my nice little way of saying goodbye to English and procrastinating the reading of the two or three books I brought along. When all was said in done I got two hours of sleep and when I awoke I was disappointed to find the freaking windows still closed from roughly 2 hours after take off...I don’t know, it just seems depressing to reinforce the idea that you’re trapped inside a hollow metal tube for half a day. Actually, that plus my MP3’s fickleness were the only negative points regarding the flight as somehow I had finagled an upgrade to first class where the food was tasty and wine was prevalent. As far as the MP3 player goes it’s not giving me any problems currently, but sometimes it just doesn’t want to feed music into the headphones and generates this wonderful skipping habit.

Orientation has been pleasant save the fear-mongering and greasy food, but on the other hand I christened my stay in Russia with 1.5 L of beer last night. Last night we arrived and made each other’s acquaintance and a few of us wandered about before dinner – checking out a moderately sketchy street market that had some impressive wares ranging from Soviet paraphernalia and coins to bootleg movies and music; needless to say, I didn’t indulge myself. Dinner was a simple affair with a wide range of choices most of which were salty and fried – dumplings of chicken, what resembled stir fry steak, fatty pork, stewed cabbage...if this shit keeps up I’m going to have some trouble with the food. After dinner we bumbled our way through the metro towards Red Square and the Kremlin, where we witnessed something akin to a changing of the guard and were discouraged by the square’s apparent closure. We then proceeded to stumble into an underground pub exhibiting a bit more affected character than necessary and presenting an open mike night...suffice to say there was much inebriation and dancing pervading the atmosphere. Our party on the other hand was more tame, merely drinking a middling beer or two of varying sizes. We returned to the hotel around 11 or so. Additionally, Moscow’s birthday is tomorrow.

I still have trouble comprehending the size and composition of Moscow. Right now, I’m thinking that it’s similar to the Phoenix metro area in size, but punctuated by architecturally unpleasant skyscrapers and visually offensive billboards. Nothing sells like sex. I’ll have more time for Moscow after New Years’ Eve. In addition, I tried to take a few interesting photographs, but largely failed due to poor technique and judgment; subjects included – nuclear reactor cooling stacks visible over the horizon, silly traffic patterns, red stars atop Kremlin towers and marching troops.

On the real today, Nana – the program director, delivered a lecture regarding a few of the more bureaucratic and less fun aspects of the program. Immediately following we broke up into our respective city groups and learned the identities of our host families – mine consists of a youngish mother/language professor, her mother, and her 4-year old daughter...it was unclear if she has a husband. I’ll meet them tomorrow and hopefully they’ll be friendly. A few more lectures went by detailing how prevent violence and deal with culture shock, but for the most part that were mundane. Tonight we depart at 1AM to arrive Irkutsk at 11:30. And we;ve got a hiking trip planned for next weekend. Anyway, I hope to post some impressions and pictures soon, perhaps commenting on the end of the summer.

Sitting in an airport - unfortunately not in the early morning rain

I enjoy airports...I also enjoy last minute packing...and more than both of those I truly enjoy not sleeping before epic flights. Currently lugging 90lbs of luggage around the world.

Perhaps whilst on the plane I'll figure out how to properly and prettily express the mixture of nervousness and excitement I feel about this excursion.