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.