In Which A MASSIVE UPDATE Is Made

19.11.2008

It snowed today. That was pretty for about three seconds, until the day actually started and all the snow turned into black and brown slush. Except for that snow on the sidewalk which was trampled into ice by the throngs of pedestrians, left for me to SLIP ON at least FIVE TIMES throughout the day.

So, I actually woke up at 8 this morning, and realised I never set my alarm. That was convenient. Then, when I woke up for the day, I wasn't that terribly tired. I felt quite refreshed and good. You'd think that'd be the start to a good day, right? WRONG.

I got on the bus, and the conductor said something to me that I didn't understand. Well, halfway through the ride they stopped letting people on, so I had a terrible image flashed through my mind that they were going to kick me off at some stop I didn't know and I was going to be stuck in the snow in the middle of the city and not know how to get to school. SO, I got off at a stop I was familiar with, and took a different bus. Which was mildly obnoxious because I was already running late, plus that killed 16 more rubles.


And then my Central Asian class ended on a heated debate over Kyrgyz bride kidnapping.

20.11.2008

This cat won't leave me alone. I came in here and sat on my bed to write an entry, and she jumped up and sat in my lap. I postponed the journal writing for about 20 minutes, then decided enough was enough, and picked her up and set her on the floor. She didn't get the hint, and just jumped right back up on the bed and walked into my lap. So I guess I'll just have to write over her.

...Oh ew, Brittany Spears is still making music? Her video "Womanizer" just came on TV. This is awful. Amusingly, her hair changes colour, shape, and length about four times throughout the entire course of the video.

I'm in an annoying cycle, right now. When I'm out and about, with people, or even just at school, I feel "fine," I guess. "Fine" in the sense that I don't really have much of a sense of homesickness while I'm out. But while I'm at home, sitting around, I just want to go BACK. I guess my most defining symptoms are strong desires to do things that I just can't do here. Other than that, I just feel TIRED all the time, and I don't want to do ANYTHING. ANYTHING, as in, I don't even really want to go out. I just want to sit in bed and stare at the walls all day. Which is basically what I do when I get back from classes, anymore. It's possible that the weather is having more of an effect than I thought it originally would... It's just barely light out when I go to classes, and it's almost always dark by the time I get out of them. Plus it's cold.

Speaking of coldness, I'm seeing the fur hats emerging. An old woman and an old man on the bus today were wearing ushanki, and this other old woman wearing a different kind of fur hat. I haven't worn mine, yet, though. But I don't think it's so cold that I need one ... I never really wear a fur hat for warmth in the U.S., even as cold as it gets in Maryland, and it's just barely under freezing, here. Sooo I'm going to wait a bit, I suppose, and continue to just wrap my head with my scarf.

Also, on the way to the metro from class today there was a Russian man singing and playing on the side of the pedestrian street (as there usually are). This one, however, was singing "Stairway to Heaven." I thought it was mildly amusing, but I think others might appreciate it more.

I've recently come upon a word that I think sounds stupid. Yes. This word is " девчонка." (devchonka... I guess the translation would be 'gal' or something - the female version of 'guy'). DevCHONKa? Ew. Well, I suppose 'gal' is kind of gross, too. Whatever.

I think what I really need to do is just FIND SOMETHING TO DO. Something new, and interesting. Or just something simple that I haven't done, yet. I've been to the Hermitage more times than I can count. I've been to ballets, to operas (not to mention they're all SO DAMNED EXPENSIVE this month for some reason). I'm going to the Russian museum in a group on Sunday. I don't know what to do? It's getting too cold to just go out and around, and everything here is just so damned expensive, so I don't know.

At the same time, I just want to sleep away the next two months. I don't want to go out. I don't want to work. I don't want to do any damned thing. But clearly that's not going to happen. But in a way it is, since I just sit in my room and do the bare minimum to get by in classes, after returning from the university every day. I don't know what the hell to do to get out of this slump. Forcing myself to do work or read or anything isn't going to do it -- Something else needs to change. Something to change my attitude, my mood. I don't know.

I also think my research habits have just gone down the drain since I've been here. I have three different research projects going on right now (two of them rather small, but still) and I tried to work on two of them, today. Basically I just sat staring at the computer because I didn't know what to do. I've just completely forgotten HOW to research. I think mostly in terms of contemporary issues, though, since I did just fine on my research for the Hungarian war... But that in itself was an easier topic to research. Today I was trying to research on whether or not Russia was a plural or consocial (?) society in the 90's or today. I went about it by first trying to figure out specifically what the conditions for the above two concepts were, and then looking at brief descriptions of the 90's and contemporary Russia... and basically the brief descriptions did me no good. Mostly because the 90's were such a crazy ass fucking time that descriptions of that particular decade in Russia do not focus on the topics I need. So I'm stuck. I don't know.


22.11.2008

Alright, so, the past couple of days have changed my mood, for now. I hope it's not an entirely temporary change. BUT, first off:

My hair always looks awesome right after I dry/straighten it after a shower. But, as soon as I:

-Sleep
-Step outside
-Try to style it

it immediately looks like SHIT. I don't know why. Actually, all in all, I feel like I have zero skill in controlling my hair or making it look half-decent. I don't know -- Maybe I'm just too lazy, or I just don't know how to do it. It wouldn't be half as bad except for some reason every guy here seems to be able to keep their hair PERFECTLY ABSOLUTELY STRAIGHT AND STYLED in RAINSTORMS AND BLIZZARDS. Women, I expect this. But men? Not so much. Don't know what the hell that's about. BUT IN ANY CASE.

Yesterday was Friday, so I spent most of the day DOING RESEARCH, OF COURSE. I had planned on going to the Hermitage or something, but then decided I should do RESEARCH. Because I am an INTELLIGENT INDIVIDUAL, OF COURSE. After that I went out to eat with Emma, EB and her three friends who are visiting from Moscow (Americans). We spent forever and a day deliberating on where to go (We were originally going to go to a Georgian restaurant, but one of the friends vetoed it), and finally chose a not-too-fantastic Italian restaurant on Nevsky, which wasn't too terribly priced. So I can't really complain. After that we went out for icecream. (And, no offence to EB, but these three girls were just about the most boring people I have ever met) Eventually, Emma and I departed to go home, when we noticed that Dom Knigi (bookstore) was open. We went inside, and it was a HELL of a lot more pleasant than it is during the day -- Real quiet, not busy at all. I found a book on Russian folk belief, plus Emma showed me these SOVIET POLITICAL POSTER BOOKS that are ULTRA CHEAP for what they are. They have a bunch of different poster books, each with a different theme (Political posters, Cold War posters, revolutionary posters, anti-vice, etc), each with 20 posters at about maybe 24x12 or some other quite large size for less than 20 dollars a book. And she said they have them at the Political Museum, even CHEAPER. So I plan on going there, sometime. I hope they don't randomly disappear.

Today we went on a shopping spree (We being EB, Emma, Bryan). Bryan said there was a clothing store near his apartment that had stuff he said "I might like." We went there and everything was like hundreds of dollars. I found a nice belt I thought about buying, because I thought it said 360 rubles... which is even cheap in America... but then I looked again and it was 7360 rubles. Which is well over 200 dollars. For a very simple belt. Then I saw a really neat jacket I really wanted... but it was 63,000 rubles. which according to my calculator is over 2000 dollars. I MIGHT HAVE bought it for 150 dollars. MIGHT. HAVE. Because it was really neat, and 150 dollars is a lot. But ... 2000 dollars? No thank you. Bryan said their dressing room had a stocked bar. That place was kind of ridiculous. I don't know how they stay open. I guess every time they sell one thing it's like selling... ten things. I don't know. Who the fuck shops at those places? Absurd.

To top it all off, as we left the store, I heard an "Excuse me" behind me, and one of the salespeople came out of the store and handed me ... a button. That had fallen off my coat. So, yes, THE BUTTON FELL OFF MY COAT in this ultra flashy store. How embarassing. Remind me to return to them in ten years when I'm a multi billionaire, and buy them out. Kthx.

After that we went to a few other overpriced stores, and then I discovered where most Russians probably buy their clothes. We went to a hole-in-the-wall packed clothing store that had pants for like 20 dollars and such, and fake Armani shirts. But I didn't see anything that I liked.

We went to another store called 'Interactive' which sold Russian-designed stuff, and was decently priced. But unfortunately had very loud music with the bass turned up absurdly high, so I had a headache after sitting in there for a while and literally couldn't hear what the salesperson was saying to me. I was determined to buy something, but none of the men's pants appealed to me, and I found a couple other things I might've bought had they been cheaper... THEN! Emma pointed out a pair of BRIGHT YELLOW PANTS to me. Of course, I was immediately drawn to them, and had to try them on ... These are. The TIGHTEST pants I have ever worn. And I'm sure many of you can't understand how that is even possible. They are bright bright yellow, with bright lime and hot pink stitching on the back pockets. When I tried them on, just about everyone in the store was staring at me. On top of that, I was wearing a deep purple button-up shirt, which, strangely, complemented the pants perfectly. And so, they were bought. I may return to this store. I was half tempted to buy a HIPSTER scarf because a lot of Russians wear them, but Russians seem to wear them better than Americans. However, I did not.

Then we went to dinner at a Chinese restaurant, and I just realised this is the first time I've eaten Chinese food in Russia. This was a pretty neat place, with its decorations and such. Each booth was actually in its own little room, with a bead curtain and wooden latticework and such. And the food was fantastic. I ordered something that I couldn't translate... all that I could tell was that it was chicken something. And it, ws aactually... Fantastic. It was a really spicy chicken dish with carrots, cucumbers (gross), hot peppers and some nut that I couldn't identify. I've actually been trying to order spicy spicy dishes every time I go out anymore, because the Russian idea of "spice" is ... salt and pepper. and sometimes, MAYBE, if you're lucky, garlic.

... And now it's already time to go to sleep. And I haven't done a damn thing that was productive, today. Good Christ, my work ethic has gone out the damned window.

23.11.2008

So, in spite of what I said yesterday, I woke up today and my hair actually looked perfect for the first time since I came to this country. Then... I looked out the window... And it was a SNOW BLIZZARD. Yarghle.

But it actually wasn't that cold. THANK GOD. Otherwise the day would've been even more miserable than it was. I went outside and had to walk all the way to the metro AGAINST the wind, so I couldn't see the entire time, and I kept stumbling off the sidewalk into two feet of snow. I tried to use my umbrella, but that busted COMPLETELY as SOON as I opened it, so, so much for that. Now I need a new one. I saw some poor guy walking through the piled up black mud-slush on the side of the crosswalk in WHITE sneakers. That would be awful.

When I got to Ploshchad' Iskusstv (Square of the Arts), the weather was actually a lot more pleasant. Not as much wind, since it was in the centre of the city, and that square is a park with a big statue of Pushkin in the centre, so it was really pretty and white. I waited with Elena for a while, then others showed up. While waiting, a busload of children was let loose in the park and they all started a snowball fight. At some point they started to just throw snowballs at Pushkin. Which was amusing. Then after about ten minutes they all piled back onto the bus. Shortly after, we went into the Russian museum.

Nothing terribly exciting in the museum. OH, except, when I went to the bathroom, I heard some old woman yelling “Мужской, мужской! Men!” When I came out, Maneka said she was yelling at me because she thought I was a girl. This seems to happen to me a lot.

I wish I had more time in the museum, though – I broke away from the tour to explore on my own. Good art, and that was about it. I wanted to search through the gift shops a bit more but didn't get the chance. I stumbled upon the portrait of NONE OTHER THAN PRINCE FELIKS YUSUPOV, HOWEVER. Which was BETTER THAN I COULD HAVE IMAGINED. Strangely it was entitled “Count Feliks Samarkov-El'ston,” however (YES, RYAN, YOUR LAST NAME). I guess that was before he became prince or somesuch.

After that we went to some sort of cafe and ate 'lunch.' The trip home was an awful trudging through sludge-slush and snow, which was even deeper than before. The worst was trying to cross through the crosswalks, because where there are normally visible LAKES of water during rain, there were TRAPS of nasty black slush-water surrounded by other slush, and I slipped into a few of these. I'm sure I looked like an idiot trying to hop from shallow spot to shallow spot, but I don't care.

Oh, on the metro I witnessed something that could have turned into ... horror, basically. I saw a flash out of the corner of my eye, and some guy had flicked his lighter... I looked over, and these two guys were gesturing with the lighter at this other guy who had his back turned to them, about ten feet away, and he had fairly long really puffy hair (probably from the moisture). Well, one of the guys walks up behind the third guy, and it seems like he's going to SET THIS GUY'S HAIR ON FIRE. The other guy motions like, 'Nah, don't do it.” The guy with the lighter is clearly like “Come on! It'll be funny!” but doesn't do it, and walks back to his friend... I think I'm the only one who noticed this exchange, and I honestly didn't know what the hell I would do if they had ACTUALLY set this guy's hair on fire. I was pretty horrified that anyone would even THINK about doing that. What the fuck is wrong with people? This is why I always try to avoid groups of younger guys on the metro.

I hate to end the entry on that note, but there you have it.

Basically, I didn't do a damned bit of work this weekend. I'm going to do that tonight, + talk with parents as per every Sunday. So, there we go.