Collective Occurrences

This is the front of the Russian Museum. With all the paintings and Russian art inside. Really nice.

Happy Birthday Miss Melissa Logan! С Днем Рождения! And Happy Juneteenth!

I've been writing sporadically on here. Cause my wireless comes and goes and I have a lot of work. But let's not get into work. Let's talk about more entertaining, interesting, and impressive aspects of this week/trip.

We had another trip to the art museum yesterday. After another 2 and a half hours of boring lecture time with our tour guide that still speaks incredibly slow in English and will lecture on one painting for 30 minutes I rushed to find the Soviet avant-garde art and I couldn't find it. I was slightly upset. There was a really scary moment when this kid in our group passed out in the museum. The guy was talking very slowly and dully and all of a sudden I hear a loud BANG! And I'm like, "I hope no one saw me touch that statue earlier..." But it turns out it was this Asian kid in our group that I guess had been standing for too long and didn't have enough blood circulating to his head. He had to leave the group but he was okay when I saw him at school today. In a way I sort of envy him. He's lucky for not having to suffer through the rest of the tour.

On the metro. This is a huge city. And there's apparently a huge military academy here so there are a lot of Russians my age that walk around in uniform. I see at least 20 everyday. And a group of 3 of them helped this guy in a wheelchair get up some steps. They had moved on when the guy in the wheel chair came to the next set. I got the attention of this other guy that I was walking with in the program. (from Dallas, Texas. goes to Stanford) We picked up the wheel chair and moved the guy down the steps. I've seen a lot of amputees here. Mostly people missing one or both legs. I don't go to New York much but I don't remember seeing this many people with missing limbs there.

People here stink too. It's gross. Europeans and baths apparently don't mix. I would say 1 in every 20 people have body odor. Maybe the hot water in their part of the city has been shut of for maintenance... Every house has their hot water shut off for two weeks in the city for maintenance during the summer.

We went to this delicious Georgian (the country not the state) restaurant today and it was so incredible! The food was really Mediterranean and I enjoyed it a lot. I'm going to tell my Russian tutor Ana back home all about it. Fun fact! Georgia hasn't really been "together" as a country since medieval times.

Sif told me that learning Russian is difficult but one morning I am going to wake up and say, "Oh. My goodness. I can speak Russian!" and that it will be one of the best feelings in the world. Very much so looking forward to that day.

The dog here still hates and wants to attack me. The cat still tries to get into my room. I bought some oust and I spray it in here frequently so the smell in my room is not so bad anymore. I also did laundry for the first time. Having to hang dry clothes indoors takes 2 days! So annoying!

The days are getting longer and longer. It's 12:53 at night and the sun is still out.

Last Friday was Russian Independence Day. I talked to my host mom about it and she seemed confused about the Holiday because she said that Russia has never been under control of any other country (true). So I suggested that maybe independence day is the celebration of self independence and being an individual. And she busted out laughing... Reason number 267 no one should ever complain about America.

Seriously. Imagine transitioning from the Soviet Union to just a normal state again. Just imagine that. The more and more I find out about the Bolsheviks take over the less I like it. People are always talking about overthrowing a government and "power to the people" blah blah blah! Empower yourself. Even people living under the most repressive governments can read, pray, and exercise mind and body in their home.

I don't have class tomorrow! I was considering celebrating thirsty Thursday with my comrades but decided to stay here and work on my homework. Plus I've got all weekend to wild out!

My Russian is still improving. Playing basketball with Russians helps. Apparently it's perfectly acceptable to throw elbows in the Europe. And no one dribbles. We just spread the floor and pass.

I'm rambling so I'll conclude here.

Stay Tuned.

Sunshine All Day and Night

The sun here practically never sets. Honestly! It's daylight outside for about 23 hours. It's not bad though. I still get plenty of sleep and I think the city looks really pretty at night when the sun is just starting to set. The entire sky is peach colored with blue beautiful shades of blue between 10pm and 3am. It gets dark at 4 and the sun comes back up at 5.

I joined a gym here in Russia. And it is incredible! The facilities are really nice and I've got a Russian coach (тренер). The basketball court there is so sick too! It's European style so the lines are a little different. I paid a lot to join this gym for just a month so my goal is to to go there every morning before class and workout.

I've been doing homework a lot today. Nothing too crazy or exciting. Last night I kicked it with the Harvard students again. These Russian girls came up to me and started bombarding me with questions about their English grammar and different nouns. And then they wanted to know all about me and what I was doing here. The same thing would happen constantly throughout the night with other Russians...

The alcohol policy here is absolutely absurd. It can be bought 24 hours a day 7 days a week and it's available on every corner. When I first got here my host mom told me that alcohol was a major problem in this country. And I agree. It can be consumed openly on the streets like a bottle of water and public drunkenness is not a rarity.

random. It was about 3:30am last night and there was a girl and a horse. she wanted me to pay her 200 rubles to ride it. I explained to her (in Russian) that in Texas my family has several horses and that I did not want to pay to ride her horse in the middle of the city at 3:30 in the morning.

I am not sure what the other Brown students have been up too. They like to speak in English entirely too much. Most of the Harvard students have had at least 2 or 3 years of Russian. So that's my reason for hanging out with them. It's not a very good idea to be with a lot of people that are speaking English loudly in public.

I'm thinking about submitting this blog as my final project for my culture class. Which I KILL everyday. Partly because I took Russian/Eastern European History for an entire year this year but it's also really interesting and I love doing the readings. After readings Pushkin's "Autumn" I have now selected Fall as my favorite season.

Oh yeah we went to the Russian Art Museum yesterday! I saw some very beautiful Medieval Russian Icons! I Prayed in front of one. Our tour guide was really smart and very informative. But he talked SO SLOW and his accent made his English so difficult to listen to. Wish he would have just lectured in Russian.

And I saw some of the other places that students were living yesterday... Let's just say I got played... But I like to think I'm getting the authentic Soviet Russian experience living here. My house is not as westernized as the others. And the combined smell of the cat and dog and cigaret smoke in here is more than one can bear. It takes me like an hour to eat dinner every night cause I'm trying to breath through my mouth and eat at the same time.

The best smelling place and most amazing place is the metro! It's like a mile underground but it's so nice! Everything is marble and I feel like I'm a king in a palace when I'm on my way to school! The metro stations here are by far one of the most impressive wonders of the world. They don't smell bad and they're not grimy like the ones in New York. I haven't seen any rats and the rails are not littered with trash and there are no bums or homeless people living and/or urinating there.

There other picture is from one of the metro stations and it's one of the less fancy ones! It's not great picture but the mosaic is huge and it's really magnificent.

That's all for now. Back to the homework grind.

Stay Tuned.