In Which Thanksgiving is Celebrated

27.11.2008

Today was actually fairly interesting. ДЕНЬ БЛАДОДАРЕНИЯ!! Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Today was the first day we've had a SMI class where everyone was in attendance. It's gotten to the point where I actually like all of my classes except for Grammar in Situations, and I hate that class mostly because of the professor. More on that later.

The teacher in SMI made a comment today about how they were taught in school that Thanksgiving wwas an important holiday to the Americans, and the main dish was turkey, etc etc. It kind of struck me that we... really ... Don't learn anything like that in school, about other cultures, and such. Even something as simple as that. Unless you're in a foreign language class, of course. Then again, the irony is that Thanksgiving doesn't seem to be THAT important in American culture, since we lump it in with Halloween as far as commercialism goes, and jump straight to Christmas before Thanksgiving has even happened. On the other hand, that might make it more integral to our CULTURE, since it DOES seem to be more important on a personal level. I know a lot of people hate to miss Thanksgiving, and families congregate and such. It was always a big day when I lived alone with my mom, because we very rarely sat at the table to eat, and she'd even fix a plate for Missy (our dog, for those who don't know) and let HER eat at the table ... Which is actually kind of odd now that I think about it, but it didn't seem odd at the time.

AND THEN, OF COURSE, I SPENT THE LAST THANKSGIVING WITH THE FABULOUS DAYGLO. Which was great.

And then tonight, I spent the Thanksgiving with 30+ Americans and Russians. I cooked green beans, which were FANTASTIC. But my host mother unfortunately SCOFFED at them. Which makes me feel much less guilty about hating on her food sometimes. Four cans of green beans, aalmost completely gone by the end of the dinner. Mmm.

And during said dinner, Emma and EB dared me to take shots of HONEY, which Claire had laid out for people to use with their bread and so forth. For some reason everyone was amazed that I could chug honey..? Diabetes, here I come. Photos on facebook, soon.

Something interesting in my grammar class, today. We were going over different phrases with the word "health" in them (Which, in Russian, makes for a pretty long list). Many of these were different greetings, wishes, or exclamations. One was a sort of "Long live (so and so)," in translation. Well, the example used was "Long live comrade Stalin." Now, think about this for a second. Can anyone even IMAGINE what would happen if someone used this sort of example in a German class, only, with Hitler? In America, in Germany, doesn't matter where. Completely and entirely unacceptable. But Stalin? Acceptable, and even encouraged by some.

It makes sense. There are many reasons, and many CLEAR reasons as to why this is more "acceptable." Not that I AGREE with these reasons. It's scary, is what it is. It SHOULD be horribly offensive, to Russians most of all. But it isn't. Quite the opposite, Russians are Stalin's biggest apologists. The only thing that doesn't make sense is this -- Russians are very ... "ethnically conscious," I guess one could say. I suppose this comes from decades of having your "nationality" on your mandatory domestic passport. Even in Russian language, there is a difference between Russian as a nationality (русский) and being a citizen of the Russian Federation (российский). Russians even rag on Khrushchev for being Ukrainian. But Stalin? As we all, including Russians, know, Stalin was Georgian. This ... doesn't seem to matter. I don't know. My head hurts and I'm tired, so I'm not making much sense right now.

Can I make a confession? I kind of wish I could stay, next semester. Actually, I take that back. Here's what I want: Three months break, adjustment, and preparation for return, in the US. Then, come back for a semester or longer. But that simply can't happen. So, alas.

Oh, and an interesting pop-culture reference to my "smiling" thing I posted a couple entries back:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCcPt7cbMJ0
(I hope that's the right video -- I can't view it on this computer.)

28.11.2008

Went to the Hermitage again, today. I think by this point I've seen everything I'm going to see, there. I stumbled across the 20th century gallery, today, and that was great. Also find an expansive exhibit of the ancient Slavic tribes and the Golden Horde, which was also great, ESPECIALLY when I stumbled across a preserved skeleton. All three were pretty much free of people. The bad thing is, I actually came out from the OPPOSITE side, so I didn't get to go to the gift shop like I had planned. I'll have to go one more time just for that if nothing else. It's free to get in, so it's not that big of a deal.

After that went to Bryan's to clean up from last night's festivities, but I didn't do much cleaning. Didn't seem like they needed me, anyway. Maneka contacted me and wanted to go to dinner after her byon lesson, so we went to a Chinese restaurant and it was delicious.

That was basically my day... Which isn't that much, but for some reason every time I go into the Hermitage I get lost and spend hours wandering in circles trying to find new exhibits. I waited in the golden peacock clock room today for like twenty minutes so I could see it go off, but it didn't seem to be working, today, so that was frustrating.

Tomorrow I am to go to Professor Vertkin's apartment for dinner. I'm meeting with Olga before then, so that we could go together and not get lost. Then, Sunday, I'm supposed to get together with Yura and “drink vine.” Hehe.

And all before Wednesday I am to be ready for a presentation that I haven't started yet. Damn it.

Here we go again.

30.11.2008

So yesterday was a mess. Spent the morning doing a bit of research for my presentation, then I had to get ready to meet Olga so we could head over to Professor Vertkin's. Well, I left, and got a text from her saying she wasn't going ... So I ended up being about 40 minutes early to metro Elektrosila, and just wandered around that area, which was boring as hell. Eventually I boarded the trolleybus to make my way to Vertkin's apartment building. And it was my first experience on a trolleybus!

I felt so environmentally conscious.

AND, the seats were nice and cushioned, the conductor was more amicable, it was less crowded and a smoother ride. However, it was slower, alas. But that didn't matter in this case, considering how early I was.

So, when I got to his door, I rang the bell... rang again... knocked ... After about 10 minutes a girl answers the door wearing nothing but a shirt and a towel. Which was quite embarassing. Especially since I thought I had the wrong apartment. But she invited me in and said that Dima will be in soon. That turned out to be his neice. So when Vertkin came in, he was somewhat surprised that I was already there. Theeen he offered me beer... which I declined... And forced me to drink wine. I chose white.

His apartment was SO nice. Brand brand new, and he had someone come in and design it... New wallpaper, matching furniture. Kind of empty, but that's to be expected. Very simple, huge kitchen. But anyway. We had dinner, fantastic dinner, fantastic conversation. Overall great time. Discussed POLITICS most of the time. It was good.

And then today I spent all day doing work, basically, but I feel like I haven't done much. Wrote 8 pages of notes (For my presentation) and my PEN ran out. AGAIN. And this was Tatyana's pen, so I guess I better buy her a new one when I go out to buy a pen for MYSELF tomorrow.