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.
.
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!
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
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
TTFN
Sunday, September 14, 2008
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.
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.
Friday, September 12, 2008
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.
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.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
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.
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.
Friday, September 5, 2008
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 inRussia Moscow
I still have trouble comprehending the size and composition ofMoscow Phoenix Moscow
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
I still have trouble comprehending the size and composition of
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
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
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.
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.
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