The first full week of classes is starting to wind down. I've gotten 100% on both of my quizes so far so all is well. The past two nights have been pretty laid back, me just living. I did laundry by hand for the first time the other night. My roommate and I engineered a sweet setup for a clothes line for maximum dryness. It worked sweet.
Being in a hotel full of engineers is a lot of fun. The other night, I was in the third floor lobby just hanging out, doing some hw (not really), with a friend of mine from class. People kept walking by and talking to us and by the end of the night, there were atleast 15 of us in the lobby. Everyone was drinking except for my friend and I and it what we saw was hilarious. Only engineers would sit around getting excited about math problems while they were drunk. One of the guys is in calc 1, we call it baby calc, and had some questions. Right away, everyone started doing the problem, and this kept going for atleast 2 hours. Thats the technological future of America for ya. Honestly though, if these are the future inventers of the world, I think we will be in good hands. The people here are so nice and so much fun. I can't get over how many good, new friends I've made in such a short amount of time.
Of course I miss everyone back home though, even Missy. I haven't had a chance to buy postcards yet, keep meaning to but never have the time, so sorry if it takes a while. I buy phone cards every weekend and make calls late at night, so in the afternoon time back home. The number comes up as "restricted" so answer it. Keep the emails coming, I love reading them and hearing about how everyone is doing. What the heck is up with the Pistons?
This morning I heard tires screeching and then a crash. Somehow, the ambulance was right there. Which reminds me, a few posts back, I mentioned an accident. Well, that one, there was a ambulance right there seconds after it happened too. We have a theory for all this but I might be in danger if I share it here.
It was 80 degrees today and I put on a jacket, I'm screwed when I get home. Look up the weaher in Volgograd and you'll see that its 110+ degrees consistantly.
I have girls pants and underwear hanging up in my room to dry. It's kind of funny.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Settling Down
Every weekday, I have a class from 10:30 to 12:20, eat lunch, then another class at 1:30 to 2:40. It's pretty boring to sit through such long class periods but I gotta admit, I'm learning a lot. There are 8 people in each of my classes and its amazing how much I learn when I pay attention and do homework. I withdraw my previous notions of homework being over-rated. This will be the first full week of class and things are finally starting to settle down (but still don't make sense). Between the two classes, the majority of my time is spent doing homework. The free time I have is spent watching episodes of The Office or talking to the friends.
I bought 25 packs of Ramen Noodles yesterday at the market for 50 rubles, 2 US dollars. Its about the same as it would be back home but this is dorm life all over again.
Yesterday, a black cat crossed in front of me and now I have bad luck. I missed the bus to go to the concert, and had to walk, my yogurt packet broke in my backpack and spilled all over my iPod, and I've just been embarrassing myself in the worst ways possible and a friend of mine got rushed to the hospital last night with kidney stones. On a good note, I discovered Choco-Pies at the market.
Calling home makes me homesick.
I bought 25 packs of Ramen Noodles yesterday at the market for 50 rubles, 2 US dollars. Its about the same as it would be back home but this is dorm life all over again.
Yesterday, a black cat crossed in front of me and now I have bad luck. I missed the bus to go to the concert, and had to walk, my yogurt packet broke in my backpack and spilled all over my iPod, and I've just been embarrassing myself in the worst ways possible and a friend of mine got rushed to the hospital last night with kidney stones. On a good note, I discovered Choco-Pies at the market.
Calling home makes me homesick.
Backwards
The day I get used to this place, is the day I need to leave. Everything is so backwards here. The term efficiency must be an unknown concept to them.
Sitting down on anything other than a chair in public is looked down upon, but half the people you see are drunk, were drunk or will be drunk within a a span of 24 hours. Alcohol is like their water. If you didn't know, alcohol dehydrates you, meaning it makes you more thirsty. When they get thirsty, they drink more alcohol. I guess it works, because after awhile, they forget that they're thirsty. They must also forget about the whole liver thing too. Its amazing because they walk around everywhere, in blistering temperatures, and don't drink water.
I hear random car screeches every now and then. Probably from people trying to avoid an accident because of the lack of traffic laws. Every now and then, it doesn't work. Like the guy on a motercycle that got owned by a car the other day. Our guide made us keep walking, like it was no big deal. It must be a common occurance here.
Everyone is really skinny. Poverty is the best diet. You see more homeless dogs than homeless people, because people feed the homeless dogs, but not the homeless people, so they just die.
There are 4 rubles in 100 dollars, .04 rubles in every dollar, and 100 kopecks (cents) in every ruble. It costs more money to make the kopecks than the actual kopecks are worth. Kinda like the situation with the penny, in a much more exaggerated fashion.
Their days end around noon, assuming its started already. Afterwards, they go swimming in the Volga river, drink, walk around town, drink, get together with some friends, and drink some more. I don't know how the economoy works.
I pray to God that I don't get used to this anytime soon.
Sitting down on anything other than a chair in public is looked down upon, but half the people you see are drunk, were drunk or will be drunk within a a span of 24 hours. Alcohol is like their water. If you didn't know, alcohol dehydrates you, meaning it makes you more thirsty. When they get thirsty, they drink more alcohol. I guess it works, because after awhile, they forget that they're thirsty. They must also forget about the whole liver thing too. Its amazing because they walk around everywhere, in blistering temperatures, and don't drink water.
I hear random car screeches every now and then. Probably from people trying to avoid an accident because of the lack of traffic laws. Every now and then, it doesn't work. Like the guy on a motercycle that got owned by a car the other day. Our guide made us keep walking, like it was no big deal. It must be a common occurance here.
Everyone is really skinny. Poverty is the best diet. You see more homeless dogs than homeless people, because people feed the homeless dogs, but not the homeless people, so they just die.
There are 4 rubles in 100 dollars, .04 rubles in every dollar, and 100 kopecks (cents) in every ruble. It costs more money to make the kopecks than the actual kopecks are worth. Kinda like the situation with the penny, in a much more exaggerated fashion.
Their days end around noon, assuming its started already. Afterwards, they go swimming in the Volga river, drink, walk around town, drink, get together with some friends, and drink some more. I don't know how the economoy works.
I pray to God that I don't get used to this anytime soon.
The People
I was talking to Bethany on the phone today and she asked me what my favorite part of Russia has been. The answer was easy. For me, its definately been the people. Not only the Russians who live here, but all the people I've met, and the friends I've made have been awesome. Aside from the engineering majors on the trip, there are Russian Language majors. They live with some host families while us engineers live in the hotel. Every now and then, they come out to the hotel to visit us.
Hearing about the host families and the way they do things have been both hilarious and amazingly interesting. Two of them live with pretty normal families. But the others I've heard about sound ridiculous. One of the guys lives with just a Baboshka. He can never hang out with us late at night because he has a curfew and needs to be home by 9 every night. You don't argue with the Baboshka's here. Another one of the guys lives with a family with another boy around his age, parents, and of course, a Baboshka. He tells me that everyone works or goes to school, but he's never seen them do either of these things. At night, they just disappear aparently. Baboshka works too, but no one knows where. He got yelled at for wearing an undershirt, because they said its too hot. Its not unusaul for it to be 110+ degrees. Another guy, lives with two dads, both of which are married, but he hasn't seen neither of their wives. They took him on a camping trip today, he thought they were just going fishing. On the way back, they decided to stop at another fishing spot, but he said he was tired and slept in the car. Then two prostitutes came by and wanted to do prostitute stuff. 1 in 6 people have HIV here. He made the right decision. One of the girls lives with an 18 year old volleyball player/model. So basically, her host mom is her host sister, who is younger than her (she just turned 21).
The other night, about 7 or 8 of us Americans walked around Volgograd. We met up with one of the guys' host brother's friends, about 10+ of them. So there were about 20 of us just walking around Volgograd at night. There were fireworks and stuff because highschool graduation was the same night. We sat down in an outside resturaunt and talked for about an hour. We put 3 tables together, and as I looked around, I realized how amazing it was. There we were, Americans and Russians alike sitting down together just talking, laughing and having a good time. The Russian majors translated, but some things just didn't need to be. We're not all that different after all.
Hearing about the host families and the way they do things have been both hilarious and amazingly interesting. Two of them live with pretty normal families. But the others I've heard about sound ridiculous. One of the guys lives with just a Baboshka. He can never hang out with us late at night because he has a curfew and needs to be home by 9 every night. You don't argue with the Baboshka's here. Another one of the guys lives with a family with another boy around his age, parents, and of course, a Baboshka. He tells me that everyone works or goes to school, but he's never seen them do either of these things. At night, they just disappear aparently. Baboshka works too, but no one knows where. He got yelled at for wearing an undershirt, because they said its too hot. Its not unusaul for it to be 110+ degrees. Another guy, lives with two dads, both of which are married, but he hasn't seen neither of their wives. They took him on a camping trip today, he thought they were just going fishing. On the way back, they decided to stop at another fishing spot, but he said he was tired and slept in the car. Then two prostitutes came by and wanted to do prostitute stuff. 1 in 6 people have HIV here. He made the right decision. One of the girls lives with an 18 year old volleyball player/model. So basically, her host mom is her host sister, who is younger than her (she just turned 21).
The other night, about 7 or 8 of us Americans walked around Volgograd. We met up with one of the guys' host brother's friends, about 10+ of them. So there were about 20 of us just walking around Volgograd at night. There were fireworks and stuff because highschool graduation was the same night. We sat down in an outside resturaunt and talked for about an hour. We put 3 tables together, and as I looked around, I realized how amazing it was. There we were, Americans and Russians alike sitting down together just talking, laughing and having a good time. The Russian majors translated, but some things just didn't need to be. We're not all that different after all.
You gotta be kidding me!
"You gotta be kidding me" has got to be a theme on this trip, along with mullets. Everything just seems kind of shady to me, but we've kind of made it into a joke. We got off the eight hour train ride in Moscow, where we only stayed for a few hours. In this time frame, one of the girls in our group twisted her ankle walking walking down a curb. I tried to help out by taping it up, but wasn't too sure I was doing it right. Isn't it a couple dimes around the ankle, then down to the foot, then around the heel, connecting the ankle to the foot so that the foot can't move too much in an direction? All she was trying to do was study abroad, now she's twisted her ankle. Bad timing.
Once that was taken care of, we took our bus to the hotel, to pick up another group that was already there, group 2. I got the idea to dare one of the guys in my group to walk up, hug one of the other guys in group 2 to introduce himself. The catch was that he couldn't break off the hug, and had to hug him as long as he could. He did it. You gotta be kidding me.
After a short meal at McDonalds, all 40+ of us got back on a train for Volgograd, where the University is. Back in the same small room, rock hard beds, and same four sweaty guys, for 20 hours. You gotta be kidding me.
Best train ride ever. I'm not even going to try to go into too much detail about it. Let's just say we met two Russian guys and their ladies. One a kickboxer and the other a wrestler. We talked in the restaraunt on the train with them for 4 hours. You know it wouldn't have lasted 4 hours without the help of a special type of liquid that boosts your friendliness. They were extra friendly. Oh, and don't try to out friendly a Russian. Russia rule #1.
We were greated into Volgograd by the "Mother of the Motherland" statue. It is the tallest statue in the world, words can't describe how amazing it was. Neither could my camera, nor its battery for that matter. You gotta be kidding me.
The University is right across the street from our hotel, which is pretty nice by the way. The rooms are very dormy, and theres a gigantic fish in a fish tank not nearly large enough to hold it. 90+ temperatures are normal here, and everyone is in pants.Baboshkas are at full force, but mullets are getting rarer by the day. Aside from the stare downs by the natives, sizing up our physical capabilities, it seems like a nice place. I can already tell I'm going to miss this place a lot when I go home.
Once that was taken care of, we took our bus to the hotel, to pick up another group that was already there, group 2. I got the idea to dare one of the guys in my group to walk up, hug one of the other guys in group 2 to introduce himself. The catch was that he couldn't break off the hug, and had to hug him as long as he could. He did it. You gotta be kidding me.
After a short meal at McDonalds, all 40+ of us got back on a train for Volgograd, where the University is. Back in the same small room, rock hard beds, and same four sweaty guys, for 20 hours. You gotta be kidding me.
Best train ride ever. I'm not even going to try to go into too much detail about it. Let's just say we met two Russian guys and their ladies. One a kickboxer and the other a wrestler. We talked in the restaraunt on the train with them for 4 hours. You know it wouldn't have lasted 4 hours without the help of a special type of liquid that boosts your friendliness. They were extra friendly. Oh, and don't try to out friendly a Russian. Russia rule #1.
We were greated into Volgograd by the "Mother of the Motherland" statue. It is the tallest statue in the world, words can't describe how amazing it was. Neither could my camera, nor its battery for that matter. You gotta be kidding me.
The University is right across the street from our hotel, which is pretty nice by the way. The rooms are very dormy, and theres a gigantic fish in a fish tank not nearly large enough to hold it. 90+ temperatures are normal here, and everyone is in pants.Baboshkas are at full force, but mullets are getting rarer by the day. Aside from the stare downs by the natives, sizing up our physical capabilities, it seems like a nice place. I can already tell I'm going to miss this place a lot when I go home.
My trip and early Russia
Everyone was told to meet at the Detroit Metro Airport at 1pm on Friday the 19th; I got there at 11am. My parents who know everything about traffic suggested, no, demanded, that we leave the house at 9:30. Turns out, they don't know anything about traffic.
My flight to Russia was pretty good considering how I'm terrified of flying. I was lucky enough to get a seat next to someone in our group, Hailey, though. I felt less embarrassed screaming next to someone I know than next to a total stranger. The inflight movie was Freedom Writers, I've seen that movie 3 times but that part where the one dude reads a thing he wrote to the class when they got back from their summer still chokes me up. Hailey didn't see.
From the moment we left the airport, I realized that just getting around the city would be an impressive feat. I complain about traffic in Lansing at rush hour, but here, Russians would consider that "cruisin." There are pretty much no traffic laws besides the traffic lights. That's right, no speed limits (none that I saw). You'd think that would be great, go as fast as you want, but no. You see cars staying put or weaving through and around other cars more often than "cruisin." Made no sense to me at all.
Neither did the hotel actually. I mean, they were a lot nicer than I first expected, but everything was so disproportaionate. The room itself is huge, but the beds are probably 3 feet wide. Get a ruler and see how wide that is, do it. The TV sits on a mini fridge, facing away from the beds, in front on nothing you can sit on. The bathroom was huge as well, but the shower, sink, and toilet were tiny.
Once we all got settled in, we were off to dinner and an opera. We ate in this buffet outside. I didn't care too much for the food and was a little bit dissapointed. The opera isn't what you think. It was actually pretty cool. Ok, the experience isn't as funny without a little background story. When I said that we got time to get settled in after the airport, yeah that was about an hour long. To put that into perspective, we had been traveling for almost a day, and we got one hour to prepare for a whole night, not considering the major jetlag, 8 hour time difference from home. So obviously we were all pretty tired. Ok, back to the opera. The small group I was with, four of us, found seats in the front row. I knew it was bad news when I fell asleep after sitting down for 2 minutes. Luckily, I woke up intime to see a man play a saw, a boot, and some of the smallest acordians I have ever seen; random but rythmatic yelping (loud) from the women performers, and a grown man fight with himself, and win.
I should also suggest not sitting in the back of a bus when driving on Russian roads, I have bruises.
Baboshka's are starting to rival puppies on the cutness scale. There are so many of them just walking around town, by their little lonesomes. You can't help but wonder where they're going or what they think they're doing.
Finally got back to the hotel, around 11. Russia has these things called "White Nights." They're pretty cool actually. This time of year, the sun doesn't set, and it's always light out. America should really look into something like that.
Day two
We woke up, ate breakfast, and met in the lobby at 10am, and weren't planning on getting back until dinner time. We went to St. Peters Palace. That guy is ridiculous. I can't begin to describe that place. Just think of Lebron James' house, now picture it with Russian archetecture, endless fountains, gigantic garden, Gold everywehre, the Gulf of Finland, and a lot bigger...It seriously took us 5 hours to tour that place. The highlight of the trip however, was the start of a mullet watch. I guess mullets are a big thing here in Russia? There were these two gorgeous girls at the garden, and this dude with the craziest mullet I've ever seen comes and takes them both away hand in hand in hand. From then on, some of the guys in the group and I decided itd be fun to take as many pictures of mullets as we can and document them later.
Ate at the same place again for dinner, then off to the ballet.
I don't think ballet is my thing. But I paid attention because it was about this crazy guy named Don Keyoti, and one of the girls in our group decided that would make a good nickname for me. It's stuck. There was another nickname that came up during the play too, involving a certain lovable antarctic bird. Don got into a fight with a windmill, but I guess it was asking for it and Don just let it know what's up. On the way out, me and two other guys, JD and Adam, were bombarded by baboskas. We were about to get out through the door, but they had a different agenda for us. We were humiliated, I don't want to talk about it.
I should also leave a note to myself to try on clothes before I buy them. the dress shirt I bought was way too small, and the shoes were too big.
Our last night at the hotel was a lot of fun.
Day three
Day three involved a lot of walking, almost 10 hours of nonestop walking. It was by far my most favorite day, though. It really hit me that I was in Russia when we were walking down the street, and I look ahead and see giant cathedrals. Turn the corner, another one. They are unbelieavable. Some of the most amazing, gorgeous sights I've ever seen. There's just a certain aura about them, and the fact that they were constructed so long ago is staggering to me. I'm still in awe as I'm typing this.
We ate dinner at one of the nicest resteraunts I've been to to celebrate our last day in St. Petersburg. The city treated us well. Aside from the cathedrals, we got to see statues of horses, in all their naked galloping glory, a man get hit by a car, wandering baboshkas, and of course, mullets.
I am writing this in a train on notepad to put online later. The room is probably 6" x 7" and somehow four of us are going to sleep in here, including our luggage. Its probably the most fun night I've had though, my group is great.
I'm looking at the clock on my computer and its 5:51 pm, I haven't changed the time yet. Here, its 1:51am. I wonder what everyone back home is doing? Prolly being lame somewhere.
I miss you guys.
My flight to Russia was pretty good considering how I'm terrified of flying. I was lucky enough to get a seat next to someone in our group, Hailey, though. I felt less embarrassed screaming next to someone I know than next to a total stranger. The inflight movie was Freedom Writers, I've seen that movie 3 times but that part where the one dude reads a thing he wrote to the class when they got back from their summer still chokes me up. Hailey didn't see.
From the moment we left the airport, I realized that just getting around the city would be an impressive feat. I complain about traffic in Lansing at rush hour, but here, Russians would consider that "cruisin." There are pretty much no traffic laws besides the traffic lights. That's right, no speed limits (none that I saw). You'd think that would be great, go as fast as you want, but no. You see cars staying put or weaving through and around other cars more often than "cruisin." Made no sense to me at all.
Neither did the hotel actually. I mean, they were a lot nicer than I first expected, but everything was so disproportaionate. The room itself is huge, but the beds are probably 3 feet wide. Get a ruler and see how wide that is, do it. The TV sits on a mini fridge, facing away from the beds, in front on nothing you can sit on. The bathroom was huge as well, but the shower, sink, and toilet were tiny.
Once we all got settled in, we were off to dinner and an opera. We ate in this buffet outside. I didn't care too much for the food and was a little bit dissapointed. The opera isn't what you think. It was actually pretty cool. Ok, the experience isn't as funny without a little background story. When I said that we got time to get settled in after the airport, yeah that was about an hour long. To put that into perspective, we had been traveling for almost a day, and we got one hour to prepare for a whole night, not considering the major jetlag, 8 hour time difference from home. So obviously we were all pretty tired. Ok, back to the opera. The small group I was with, four of us, found seats in the front row. I knew it was bad news when I fell asleep after sitting down for 2 minutes. Luckily, I woke up intime to see a man play a saw, a boot, and some of the smallest acordians I have ever seen; random but rythmatic yelping (loud) from the women performers, and a grown man fight with himself, and win.
I should also suggest not sitting in the back of a bus when driving on Russian roads, I have bruises.
Baboshka's are starting to rival puppies on the cutness scale. There are so many of them just walking around town, by their little lonesomes. You can't help but wonder where they're going or what they think they're doing.
Finally got back to the hotel, around 11. Russia has these things called "White Nights." They're pretty cool actually. This time of year, the sun doesn't set, and it's always light out. America should really look into something like that.
Day two
We woke up, ate breakfast, and met in the lobby at 10am, and weren't planning on getting back until dinner time. We went to St. Peters Palace. That guy is ridiculous. I can't begin to describe that place. Just think of Lebron James' house, now picture it with Russian archetecture, endless fountains, gigantic garden, Gold everywehre, the Gulf of Finland, and a lot bigger...It seriously took us 5 hours to tour that place. The highlight of the trip however, was the start of a mullet watch. I guess mullets are a big thing here in Russia? There were these two gorgeous girls at the garden, and this dude with the craziest mullet I've ever seen comes and takes them both away hand in hand in hand. From then on, some of the guys in the group and I decided itd be fun to take as many pictures of mullets as we can and document them later.
Ate at the same place again for dinner, then off to the ballet.
I don't think ballet is my thing. But I paid attention because it was about this crazy guy named Don Keyoti, and one of the girls in our group decided that would make a good nickname for me. It's stuck. There was another nickname that came up during the play too, involving a certain lovable antarctic bird. Don got into a fight with a windmill, but I guess it was asking for it and Don just let it know what's up. On the way out, me and two other guys, JD and Adam, were bombarded by baboskas. We were about to get out through the door, but they had a different agenda for us. We were humiliated, I don't want to talk about it.
I should also leave a note to myself to try on clothes before I buy them. the dress shirt I bought was way too small, and the shoes were too big.
Our last night at the hotel was a lot of fun.
Day three
Day three involved a lot of walking, almost 10 hours of nonestop walking. It was by far my most favorite day, though. It really hit me that I was in Russia when we were walking down the street, and I look ahead and see giant cathedrals. Turn the corner, another one. They are unbelieavable. Some of the most amazing, gorgeous sights I've ever seen. There's just a certain aura about them, and the fact that they were constructed so long ago is staggering to me. I'm still in awe as I'm typing this.
We ate dinner at one of the nicest resteraunts I've been to to celebrate our last day in St. Petersburg. The city treated us well. Aside from the cathedrals, we got to see statues of horses, in all their naked galloping glory, a man get hit by a car, wandering baboshkas, and of course, mullets.
I am writing this in a train on notepad to put online later. The room is probably 6" x 7" and somehow four of us are going to sleep in here, including our luggage. Its probably the most fun night I've had though, my group is great.
I'm looking at the clock on my computer and its 5:51 pm, I haven't changed the time yet. Here, its 1:51am. I wonder what everyone back home is doing? Prolly being lame somewhere.
I miss you guys.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
no internet!
Well I haven't had internet until now and I think I have about 5 mins left anyway. I've been writting on my laptop when I've had time though, so I'll upload those once I get the wireless internet set up. So sorry for the wait guys. I miss home, but I'm having too much fun here to be too upset, no offense :) Hope everyone is well!
Email me your addresses if you want a postcard.
Email me your addresses if you want a postcard.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
First
I'm suppose to keep a travel blog in Russia so I'm just starting this thingy. Hopefully it's not real lame.
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