After buying an unsatisfying cheap Sangiovese that was a little hot, what could I do? It was so fruity I couldn't imagine drinking it...it was like juice with cruddy alcohol in it in the wrong proportions.
The solution: Buying a four pack of portobellos using the wine with olive oil and garlic as a sauce. Oh yeah! Plus topped with gorgonzola...oh yeah!
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Fireworks!
Woohoo! Outside the dvor they were launching fireworks over MGU...I can see from my window.
Weekend rundown
Today is Defenders of the Fatherland day, otherwise known as Men's Day...a completely arbitrary and artificial holiday originally intended to celebrate the Red Army...I haven't heard about any parades or protests so I've decided to stay in for the moment despite beautiful sunny -15 degree weather...a kakaya ona rossiya!
This weekend has been pleasant a tad boring, but such is often the case. Friday night...I must have stayed in...because I can't recall doing anything of note...Saturday was epic...and yesterday was...interesting. The only downside was that I couldn't get the motivation in to plan a menu and then a shopping list..so I'm still running low on products...an unintended consequence of this was eating at McDonalds a few times...and as disgusting as it is, it really can be kinda tasty...especially when you haven't eaten anything else all day...also managed to get to TGIF...where I had the worst burger ever...I need to stop making these stoopid choices.
But...Saturday night...I guess that makes it all right...tell me we what have I got to lose!
Originally we had intended to meet up with the Yaro students on Saturday, but their provincial ways left them unequipped to deal with the energetic demands of Moscow and they reneged on our date. Luckily, one of the students here invited me to a concert - it was kinda ska-like, a French band I think, which I managed to watch a bit of, took down a beer and some lamb stew, and met some of his buddies. After the show we decided to head out because one of the girls we had met didn't want to pay the cover charge for the club and so we set off wandering, but the guy who invited me left and so it became a night of meeting new folks. We went through a few bars, met up with some other journalism students and ended the night at a house party on the 16th floor of an apartment building right next to the Church of Chirst the Savior - ie. pretty damn close to the Kremlin and with a spectacular view. I met some rather friendly Russians, listened to them singing the well known standards, and got one of them to help me find a gypsy cab home...which was not nearly so bad as people try to get you to think. I got home at 3 and went to bed.
Yesterday I finally made it to the grocery store...but only picked up breakfast food (lots of eggs, cheese, tomatoes - they don't understand that you aren't supposed to refrigerate tomatoes!, omelet stuff), some chocolate and a bottle of wine that markets for 3 bucks in the us but 9 here...it's not bad but incredibly boring...it'll be good to cook with if I don't finish it. Anyhoo, I discovered the amazingness of the Charlie Rose Show (I never expected that I would be able to stream video in Russia - it's a miracle) and headed out to the Vanya where I dehydrated myself severely, but it's pleasant makes you feel nice. Lots of singing out of key...I noticed that I have a terrible time remembering words when I'm also trying to fit in the key of the guitar while it seems like the other voices are completely out of tune...it was unpleasant and made for a poor rendition of Lola. But it was funny...I do miss playing the guitar a wee bit, but if I were to start up again I need to take it seriously with a good teacher and frequent practice. But I have bigger fish to fry. So yeah...the banya was warm i didn't drink much other than a glass of wine before I left, but I was completely incapable of walking due to the temperature changes. And I couldn't get to sleep until 5am last night.
So now, I need to do my homework and right letters while clearing out my tabs.
Edit: The wine is actually a lot better than it was last night...I think I just didn't give an opportunity to breath and as such it was pretty flat, but now it's got the acidity and bite that makes me love syrah so much, but still it's pretty unremarkable...even with chocolate...eeee. Red wine chocolate and internship applications!
This weekend has been pleasant a tad boring, but such is often the case. Friday night...I must have stayed in...because I can't recall doing anything of note...Saturday was epic...and yesterday was...interesting. The only downside was that I couldn't get the motivation in to plan a menu and then a shopping list..so I'm still running low on products...an unintended consequence of this was eating at McDonalds a few times...and as disgusting as it is, it really can be kinda tasty...especially when you haven't eaten anything else all day...also managed to get to TGIF...where I had the worst burger ever...I need to stop making these stoopid choices.
But...Saturday night...I guess that makes it all right...tell me we what have I got to lose!
Originally we had intended to meet up with the Yaro students on Saturday, but their provincial ways left them unequipped to deal with the energetic demands of Moscow and they reneged on our date. Luckily, one of the students here invited me to a concert - it was kinda ska-like, a French band I think, which I managed to watch a bit of, took down a beer and some lamb stew, and met some of his buddies. After the show we decided to head out because one of the girls we had met didn't want to pay the cover charge for the club and so we set off wandering, but the guy who invited me left and so it became a night of meeting new folks. We went through a few bars, met up with some other journalism students and ended the night at a house party on the 16th floor of an apartment building right next to the Church of Chirst the Savior - ie. pretty damn close to the Kremlin and with a spectacular view. I met some rather friendly Russians, listened to them singing the well known standards, and got one of them to help me find a gypsy cab home...which was not nearly so bad as people try to get you to think. I got home at 3 and went to bed.
Yesterday I finally made it to the grocery store...but only picked up breakfast food (lots of eggs, cheese, tomatoes - they don't understand that you aren't supposed to refrigerate tomatoes!, omelet stuff), some chocolate and a bottle of wine that markets for 3 bucks in the us but 9 here...it's not bad but incredibly boring...it'll be good to cook with if I don't finish it. Anyhoo, I discovered the amazingness of the Charlie Rose Show (I never expected that I would be able to stream video in Russia - it's a miracle) and headed out to the Vanya where I dehydrated myself severely, but it's pleasant makes you feel nice. Lots of singing out of key...I noticed that I have a terrible time remembering words when I'm also trying to fit in the key of the guitar while it seems like the other voices are completely out of tune...it was unpleasant and made for a poor rendition of Lola. But it was funny...I do miss playing the guitar a wee bit, but if I were to start up again I need to take it seriously with a good teacher and frequent practice. But I have bigger fish to fry. So yeah...the banya was warm i didn't drink much other than a glass of wine before I left, but I was completely incapable of walking due to the temperature changes. And I couldn't get to sleep until 5am last night.
So now, I need to do my homework and right letters while clearing out my tabs.
Edit: The wine is actually a lot better than it was last night...I think I just didn't give an opportunity to breath and as such it was pretty flat, but now it's got the acidity and bite that makes me love syrah so much, but still it's pretty unremarkable...even with chocolate...eeee. Red wine chocolate and internship applications!
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Thoughts and Observations
Nothing really major has happened...I'm still not really settled - that would involve me getting off my tush and buying some cooking supplies, groceries, hangers, theater tickets, making it to rugby practice and finding some mainstreams (I'm also considering finding a Muay Thai or MMA club in place of a gym, which I have had no luck finding). So this post is just going to be a dump of silliness. Yay!
So in spite of not making it to a wild or exotic location (read: tropical) for study abroad - Russia is pretty wild...and kinda exotic...in a really trailer trash sort of way, but don't worry about that - the past few days have had their share of tropical delights. Most importantly the sun showed its lovely shining face again on Thursday and this morning. On Thursday I had set my alarm extra early to make it to a mainstream class at 8am (I woke up and went back to bed...that won't happen next week...honest), but when I woke up I noticed something special - the sky, normally glowing a rusty red was instead a dark blue...I knew that this could have but one meaning - hell had frozen over and Satan was too preoccupied to keep the clouds over Moscow. Today was different unfortunately, I woke up late and by the time I had gotten out of bed the haze returned, but I made up for it by finding the entrance (lord I hope so) to the rugby stadium where the Dragons practice and stopping by my favorite little coffee shop/bakery - Volkonsky not far off from the Mayakovskaya Metro station. On the other hand I didn't make it to the Dragons game today as I could not recall which bus to take from the metro station and was generally too disoriented to walk 1.5 miles to find it. In my wandering today I noticed something peculiar by my standards or at least curious - at all of the plazas from Red Square down Tverskaya there were regiments of militsioneriy, OMON, and some military...and nothing seemed to be going on. They weren't doing anything though...the were a few who formed a perimeter around the plazas (complete with metal detectors) but most were just idly sitting in trucks or old asian minibuses with the curtains drawn (I think this was only for OMON - largely considered the specops brute squad of the Kremlin). I wanted to ask an officer what was going on, but decided against it when I remembered that I hadn't renewed my spravka and still don't have my real passport yet...agh!
Yesterday, I had yet another tropical experience. I went to the Moscow Zoo in hopes of another hilariously depressing experience like Irkutsk's Nerpinariya (they have a delfinariya here David!) So, in my experience Zoo's are not typically open in the winter time...perhaps I'm a bit wrong, but I have very few memories of ever being at such a place during the winter, naturally many of the animals were not on display in the frozen landscape that is the incredible tacky Moscow Zoo, but enough were and were able to go indoors to see some others. Highlights include: Maxim magazine sponsorship of the wild boar exhibit, people throwing food to the animals in spite of signs insisting that they not feed them (right under signs that could be interpreted to mean that children are prohibited from dueling...or approaching the barriers...take it whichever way you want), tuskless walruses, interspecies relationships and the opportunity to feed and pet giraffes and tapirs (I have pictures - the tapir ones aren't so good though).
And now and ad hoc list of silliness:
1. Some little kid trying to emulate cartoon martial arts hit me pretty hard while walking to the metro...the rascal.
2. Yesterday the cold water in our apartment didn't work...the hot did, I can understand how this could happen, but it's very silly.
3. I bought a friend on Wednesday, he's kinda cool...I guess, he has decent taste in action movies if nothing else.
4. The internet has finally arrived for me now that I got some American-Russian power adapters and turned on the Beeline wifi. It works ok, but likes to boot me off whenever I start using lots of bandwidth...which is almost always.
Apart from all that not much else remains. Sunday we're going to the Banya. Monday is Day of the Defenders of the Fatherland...which from what I understand celebrates some sort of made up Soviet army stand near Pskov. I'll be celebrating by drinking myself silly and reading...or watching the telly. Next weekend is Maslenitsa or as the rest of the world that celebrates it on time calls it - Carnival, we're renting a cottage in the 'burbs and are going to barbecue and fight and make bliny and have a generally bizarre time. I'm still working on internship applications which I'm hoping to have completely finished by Tuesday...but I'll be happy if they're done by the weekend. Tuesday I have a meeting for my internship, which will force me to follow a normal sleep schedule.
Beyond that I just have to get my shopping done, get some theater tickets, and make some travel plans and I'll be set to go...oh and actually get my butt to rugby practice this week.
TTFN
I almost forgot, I have two theories:
1. Most males in Russia own PSP's based on the frequency I seem them on the Metro, but I have no idea why - seldom do I see a DS or some other such thing...is there one?
2. Women in Russia forget how to bend their knees after the age of thirty...why? I do not know, arthritis? All I know is that the majority of middle and old aged women shuffle and drag their feet, which is likely neither healthy nor efficient.
So in spite of not making it to a wild or exotic location (read: tropical) for study abroad - Russia is pretty wild...and kinda exotic...in a really trailer trash sort of way, but don't worry about that - the past few days have had their share of tropical delights. Most importantly the sun showed its lovely shining face again on Thursday and this morning. On Thursday I had set my alarm extra early to make it to a mainstream class at 8am (I woke up and went back to bed...that won't happen next week...honest), but when I woke up I noticed something special - the sky, normally glowing a rusty red was instead a dark blue...I knew that this could have but one meaning - hell had frozen over and Satan was too preoccupied to keep the clouds over Moscow. Today was different unfortunately, I woke up late and by the time I had gotten out of bed the haze returned, but I made up for it by finding the entrance (lord I hope so) to the rugby stadium where the Dragons practice and stopping by my favorite little coffee shop/bakery - Volkonsky not far off from the Mayakovskaya Metro station. On the other hand I didn't make it to the Dragons game today as I could not recall which bus to take from the metro station and was generally too disoriented to walk 1.5 miles to find it. In my wandering today I noticed something peculiar by my standards or at least curious - at all of the plazas from Red Square down Tverskaya there were regiments of militsioneriy, OMON, and some military...and nothing seemed to be going on. They weren't doing anything though...the were a few who formed a perimeter around the plazas (complete with metal detectors) but most were just idly sitting in trucks or old asian minibuses with the curtains drawn (I think this was only for OMON - largely considered the specops brute squad of the Kremlin). I wanted to ask an officer what was going on, but decided against it when I remembered that I hadn't renewed my spravka and still don't have my real passport yet...agh!
Yesterday, I had yet another tropical experience. I went to the Moscow Zoo in hopes of another hilariously depressing experience like Irkutsk's Nerpinariya (they have a delfinariya here David!) So, in my experience Zoo's are not typically open in the winter time...perhaps I'm a bit wrong, but I have very few memories of ever being at such a place during the winter, naturally many of the animals were not on display in the frozen landscape that is the incredible tacky Moscow Zoo, but enough were and were able to go indoors to see some others. Highlights include: Maxim magazine sponsorship of the wild boar exhibit, people throwing food to the animals in spite of signs insisting that they not feed them (right under signs that could be interpreted to mean that children are prohibited from dueling...or approaching the barriers...take it whichever way you want), tuskless walruses, interspecies relationships and the opportunity to feed and pet giraffes and tapirs (I have pictures - the tapir ones aren't so good though).
And now and ad hoc list of silliness:
1. Some little kid trying to emulate cartoon martial arts hit me pretty hard while walking to the metro...the rascal.
2. Yesterday the cold water in our apartment didn't work...the hot did, I can understand how this could happen, but it's very silly.
3. I bought a friend on Wednesday, he's kinda cool...I guess, he has decent taste in action movies if nothing else.
4. The internet has finally arrived for me now that I got some American-Russian power adapters and turned on the Beeline wifi. It works ok, but likes to boot me off whenever I start using lots of bandwidth...which is almost always.
Apart from all that not much else remains. Sunday we're going to the Banya. Monday is Day of the Defenders of the Fatherland...which from what I understand celebrates some sort of made up Soviet army stand near Pskov. I'll be celebrating by drinking myself silly and reading...or watching the telly. Next weekend is Maslenitsa or as the rest of the world that celebrates it on time calls it - Carnival, we're renting a cottage in the 'burbs and are going to barbecue and fight and make bliny and have a generally bizarre time. I'm still working on internship applications which I'm hoping to have completely finished by Tuesday...but I'll be happy if they're done by the weekend. Tuesday I have a meeting for my internship, which will force me to follow a normal sleep schedule.
Beyond that I just have to get my shopping done, get some theater tickets, and make some travel plans and I'll be set to go...oh and actually get my butt to rugby practice this week.
TTFN
I almost forgot, I have two theories:
1. Most males in Russia own PSP's based on the frequency I seem them on the Metro, but I have no idea why - seldom do I see a DS or some other such thing...is there one?
2. Women in Russia forget how to bend their knees after the age of thirty...why? I do not know, arthritis? All I know is that the majority of middle and old aged women shuffle and drag their feet, which is likely neither healthy nor efficient.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Recipe hour with Lil' Patty
Last week I was sitting around with a pot of cold cooked rice and knew that I wasn't going to finish it in that from at which point I decided to make rice pudding..weeeeee! Only thing is that I didn't really know how and had no measuring equipment. So after looking up a few recipes online I eyeballed the measurements and made up an egg beaten in honey and cinamon to replace vanilla...nothing that major. It came out well...it seems difficult to screw up, but it was a little sweet for my taste...so I bought some tvorog which is somewhere between cottage cheese and cream cheese...but at times reminds me of greek yogurt...and i mixed that in which gave it a nice sourish after taste and killed off the sickly sweetness.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
A week in Moscow...
I've been in Russia for about a week now...perhaps a bit more and life isn't that bad. Actually, I've been living alone for the past week and think that will continue until Sunday or maybe Monday. My host is a film journalist, currently at the Berlin International Film Festival...pretty cool stuff. But what's cooler is the relatively enormous apartment I've been living in by myself...it even has internet and cable TV! Who'd have thought it possible in Russia? I've also been busying myself culinarily...and not to much success...but it's not a failure either...I just need to make something flavorful that doesn't rely on mustard. Of course, it would help if I had frying pan...I'm planning this weekend to acquire some much needed cooking equipment to make life tastier. Good news is that I haven't started drinking soda again. Bad news I haven't been able to buy wine (the stores are so freaking incomprehensible).
Tonight I tried to go to rugby practice, but unfortunately got lost in the middle of a sketchy dark park in Moscow and called it quits after a half hour of searching and an hour long metro commute...the funny thing is that I could probably walk there in an hour...but such is life. In other news, even in Moscow people can get what they deserve - case in point: jackass decides to try and catch the try by sticking his hand in to keep the door open, hand gets caught...really funny I was about 10 inches away inside the train. Eaxmple 2: Annoying couples penetrating each other with their tounges on the escalator get jolted when the dejournik decides it's time to switch which escalators are moving - REALLY funny. I'll scope rugby out again before next week if we aren't leaving on Thursday night for Kazan. Oh yeah that's right XC ski trip and banya next week...oh yeahs! It also looks like I'll be getting an internship with an engineering firm...that may or may not have something to do with weapons manufacture...even better than Phillip Morris!
Classes are better than they were in Irkutsk and I'm having a much easier time finding mainstreams. Current schedule: Grammar, Writing, 20th Century History, 20th Century Lit, and some other lit/film course. I'm not all that excited about this stuff...but if I'm going to get that Russian mahor I should probably up the literature a bit more...I've let it slide a bit too much and I know next to nothing about Soviet History or lit. The turf wars our profs have are entertaining...they argue for about 10% of our class with other professors about who is actually scheduled in the room. A couple of our classes don't even have rooms to meet in yet.
The kids so far are pretty cool, but the new kids (exemting heritage speakers) don't speak all that well, which is to be expected. The older kids are a pretty interesting bunch - we're having a double party on Saturday night, one of the girls on the program got married and another guy is turning 21...should be a messy affair...I really didn't intend for a pun but it's so silly I'll just have to leave it. I don't know what else...I plan to get settled this weekend, get my internship apps done and a menu laid out and then start frequenting the theater...hopefully with other people...eek!
Tonight I tried to go to rugby practice, but unfortunately got lost in the middle of a sketchy dark park in Moscow and called it quits after a half hour of searching and an hour long metro commute...the funny thing is that I could probably walk there in an hour...but such is life. In other news, even in Moscow people can get what they deserve - case in point: jackass decides to try and catch the try by sticking his hand in to keep the door open, hand gets caught...really funny I was about 10 inches away inside the train. Eaxmple 2: Annoying couples penetrating each other with their tounges on the escalator get jolted when the dejournik decides it's time to switch which escalators are moving - REALLY funny. I'll scope rugby out again before next week if we aren't leaving on Thursday night for Kazan. Oh yeah that's right XC ski trip and banya next week...oh yeahs! It also looks like I'll be getting an internship with an engineering firm...that may or may not have something to do with weapons manufacture...even better than Phillip Morris!
Classes are better than they were in Irkutsk and I'm having a much easier time finding mainstreams. Current schedule: Grammar, Writing, 20th Century History, 20th Century Lit, and some other lit/film course. I'm not all that excited about this stuff...but if I'm going to get that Russian mahor I should probably up the literature a bit more...I've let it slide a bit too much and I know next to nothing about Soviet History or lit. The turf wars our profs have are entertaining...they argue for about 10% of our class with other professors about who is actually scheduled in the room. A couple of our classes don't even have rooms to meet in yet.
The kids so far are pretty cool, but the new kids (exemting heritage speakers) don't speak all that well, which is to be expected. The older kids are a pretty interesting bunch - we're having a double party on Saturday night, one of the girls on the program got married and another guy is turning 21...should be a messy affair...I really didn't intend for a pun but it's so silly I'll just have to leave it. I don't know what else...I plan to get settled this weekend, get my internship apps done and a menu laid out and then start frequenting the theater...hopefully with other people...eek!
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
On the road again...
So here I am again, sitting in the Atlanta airport with two hours until my flight to Moscow, and I don't really know how I'm feeling about it. I'm not terribly excited about going back, nor am I anxious. The thought of finding new mainstreams and friends is not exactly enjoyable, but I am enthusiastic about playing rugby again and starting and internships...and exploiting Moscow's assets. Oh and cooking for myself will be a good experiment.
Anyway, I'll keep updating this.
Anyway, I'll keep updating this.
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