In Which Russian Nationalism is Adopted

Oi, still ill, but getting better. I've sequestered myself to sitting inside and resting until I get better, since it's so cold outside. I wasn't going to complain about the weather, but even the Russians are all complaining about how cold it's getting, since apparently the weather we have right now isn't supposed to come until the end of October... It's gross and windy and I hate it. I would probably be fine if I weren't sick, but the sickness just magnifies everything.

In other news, I am for sure moving into a homestay, now. Spoke with Bryan and Elena, today, and they found a host family for me -- A working class single mother and her 25 year old son. Which seems like pretty much an ideal situation for me. Well... Minus the son. Apparently the last time she hosted a student was four years ago, and the son didn't really talk to the student, so, whatever. I move in on Tuesday, so I'm fairly excited. Won't be getting on the internet half as much, though, so entries might be 2-3 times a week instead of every day. We'll see. If anything it might force me to go out more... Of course, I go out fairly often, just, I've been sick for a few days so I haven't done much of anything.

I have a lot of homework to do, but zero desire to do any of it... So we'll see what happens. I think after I get off of here I'm going to nap then do work. Or something.

So, I'm taking a class on relations between Russia and the U.S.A, and it's really interesting because we're doing a quick survey of post-WWII and the Cold War before we delve into the contemporary scene, and I'm enjoying the Russian perspective of the history. And I agree with pretty much everything the professor says. Which isn't necessarily good or anything, but, of course, he's not a Russian nationalist or anything -- he's just a realist. And he makes fun of Socialist ideology a lot. Which is fantastic.

And, since coming to Russia, I may have adopted a somewhat Russian nationalist perspective on the Georgian conflict. Basically, I think the West just needs to stay out of this. From the start I knew that the Western media was entirely out of line, but after making a few more discoveries, at this point everyone is making a fool out of themselves. The current Georgian government is absurd, to say the least, and more prone to massive human rights violations than Russia is, at this point. In the 90's, the Georgian president threatened South Ossetians with extermination if they didn't cease separatist ... thought. Or whatever you would call it. Basically, dictatorship at that point. The fact of the matter is, Russia does have a right to interfere with Georgian politics. Full stop. Georgia's out of line. The Georgian PEOPLE are siding with Russia. This conflict has a much more complicated history than most people in the West even understand. And I formed a much better argument earlier in the day than what I just wrote... Augh, I'm tired.

Oh, and, a cultural note. I have noticed that many buildings here have many escalators, elevators, and doors.... But Russians seem to like turning off most of these escalators and elevators and locking most of the doors... I suppose this is so that people don't wear out ALL of them with constant use, but even when they break down, they don't turn on the escalators and elevators that are never in use. They just wait to fix them. Maybe it's a control thing. Either way, it's kind of annoying, especially in the entrance to the dorm building, because you have to go hrough this maze of unlocked and locked doors to get in to the damn building. Maybe they're controlling our movements. I don't know.

Note to self: Never get on the bus at rush hour again. Though, I'll be taking the metro every day once I move into the host family. Whoo!

I hope I'm bettter by this weekend. I don't want to waste a weekend being sick.

Слово Дня: воображение (voobrazheniye) - imagination.