An American Catholic in Russia

The End

2006-06-08T04:54:00.000+04:00

Well, I've decided to close the blog. What can I say I'm not in Russia anymore, which means the title is all wrong. Plus, not being in Russia I seem run out of material real fast. But that's not the real reason. The blog will end as it started. It started in July as the beginning of a new era in my life. That era has come to a close, and so will this blog. One year later and one year better. It's been really fun keeping this thing up, and I'll be honest I didn't really think I could do it. Thinking back on this past year I'm surprised in how different I am (although as much as I've changed I really have stayed the same). I'm also surprised in the amount of Russian I've learned, studying abroad really works you know. Anyways, I've got another year of school left (hooray for super seniors). But first I have a whole summer of working all the time (ya real summer vacations left the day I got my first job, not that I'm complaining money is fun). Don't worry about me, I'm not leaving the blog scene altogether. I'll be back real soon, but for now so long, farewell, and thanks for reading.

(P.S. I WILL be posting the name and address of my new blog soon right here, so check back every once and a while)

Movies

2006-05-27T22:24:00.000+04:00

Last night I went to see X-men 3. As far as the movie goes I guess I was disappointed. I don't really know. I did enjoy the movie, well until the end. I won't give you any spoilers, but let's just say the ended destroyed many of my hopes and dreams. What happened to Rogue angered me the most, she was always one of my favorites and well ... Anyways, sitting in the theater I was reminded of something.

During my year abroad I discovered that Russians applaud really um odd. After every play, concert, or even the occasional movie, they would applaud. Nothing too weird right? Well, unlike most, the clapping ALWAYS ended up synchronized, always. They clap at the same time, like to a beat that wasn't there. I don't really like clapping in synch, I find it annoying. But, I find this interesting, in my experience audiences don't usually do this.

America

2006-05-22T19:53:00.000+04:00

Well 10 months, 2 semesters, over 4300 hits, and 160 posts later I've returned home. It's quite a feeling. I'm so glad to be back. My own room, my family and friends, I just can't complain! So what's next? Well, I've still got a few things to go over, and a few stories that haven't made the blog yet. I guess I'll still be around for a couple more months. Who knows, perhaps there's yet another blog in the future. Anyways thanks to everyone for following me through this year and all my ups and downs.

End of the Semester

2006-05-17T17:40:00.000+04:00

Yes today officallt ended my year abroad with my last day of class. Man I am so glad to be done for the summer. I can't wait to get home and do nothing for a change. This week has been pretty wired. I 've been running around here and there more times than I can count. We had our big banquet last night and today will be my last meeting with my tutor. After that I'll pretty much be packing until I leave.

As far as packing goes, I'm sure I'll be leaving plenty behind. I simply have to much stuff collected over 2 semesters and not enough strength points or item slots to hold it all.

I do belive I might fit a post in tomorrow, but if I don't until Amercia everybody! I hope to see many of you when I get home too!

Dogs

2006-05-15T17:07:00.000+04:00

Here is probably my best Sochi adventure. Myself and 4 friends were walking back to our hotel after a walk on the beach on our first day in Sochi. On the way we come across an ad for a Mexican restaurant. Of course we can’t pass up the opportunity for Mexican, so we make a pledge right there to find this place. (This pledge will actually start to consume us later on, but that’s a different story). Anyways, the ad had no address, so we pick a path and go. Now Sochi is pretty built up, but the path we chose somehow lead us into what was almost a little hidden valley town within Sochi. The road was small and bordered houses, each with a fence up to the road. Basically it was like walking down a deserted corridor, we really had now choice but to follow the one path. After about en minutes we realize that we can’t really get back to the main roads from where we are. We can either turn back or keep going. Seeing no reason to turn back we push on. After a few minutes we come to a separation of the path. One direction continues in our current direction. The other takes a winding way up the one side of this valley. We choose to continue our chosen path. This eventually leads us across the small stream at the center of the valley and up a short path.

Here is where we found a problem. Walking up this path, we start to worry a little bit, it seems to be leading to a dead in. We come into a clearing with a house and large garage. Looking around we see about 3 dogs laying in the grass, two in one spot, one in another. We seem to lock eyes and suddenly they realize they’re not alone. It begins with backing, then other dog joins in the noise making from an unseen area. We stop in the middle of the clearing. That is when we notice the dogs have come pretty close to surrounding us and are starting to cut off our exit. We start to back out and the dogs hold their ground. No more than a few feet from us, they are barking like crazy. Their leader seems the most eager, and as I walk past him his eyes are wide open, like big marbles, completely round and completely white. I never seen a dog look like that before, the dead eyes.

We continued to back out and the dogs continued to follow. After a couple more meters they finally retreat. The whole group is very aware as to how close that came to getting rather ugly. Although we all agreed we could’ve taken those uppity dogs, we thought it was best we didn’t have to try. We made our way back to the fork in the road and took the other path, which did turn out to be the correct road and we finally made it back to the hotel. But I wasn’t the only one to notice that dog’s dead eyes and upon further recollection they were pretty creepy.

Recap and stuff

2006-05-15T17:05:00.000+04:00

So when I last left you guys I was on my way to Sochi. I had classes, exams, and at least 3 weeks of Russia ahead of me. Well, things have changed a bit. Due to the continuation of time, those 3 weeks have all but vanished, leaving a mere 4 days and change left of my time in Russia. So what happened in those 3 weeks? Well al lot to be honest. I won’t, that is, I don’t want to go into everything right now (at least not in this post). Basically Sochi was a nice 10 days away from school and responsibility. The weather was colder than I would have like (colder than Vladimir in fact). There was a lot of rain, which really cuts down on what you can do in a beach town. Despite that I had a great time, there was good food, a lot of free time, a beach, tons of waterfalls, and a relaxing atmosphere. Sochi’s landscape really reminded me of Maryland, specifically the Appalachian region around where I live. There are rolling hills and mountains, the Black Sea, and even palm trees (although those are thanks to Stalin). The train ride in general was ok, I guess as good as 36 hours on a train can be. I have some good stories, but I’ll save them for another post.

Ok so that was only ten days right? Right, after we got back our schedules kind of exploded. We only had 6 days of class left, about ten days in total, and a ton of test to get through. We had meetings with ACTR bigwigs and about 3 hours of testing. Actually, Saturday I took my OPI (oral proficiency test). My tester told me she saw a lot of improvement from December, so I hope that means I might get at least an intermediate high rating, which would put me where I need to be. Exams are almost finished now, Monday, today I guess, is/was my last (I’m typing this on Sunday).

Right, so what’s left? Monday is my final exam. Tuesday we have our end of the year banquet. Wednesday will be my last day of class (yes we do still have class after our finals!). Thursday I’ll be packing all day and at Midnight we leave Vladimir forever and drove to Moscow for our 7 am flight. Just over 4 days!

Gosh it's been a while

2006-05-12T17:55:00.000+04:00

I think it's actually been two weeks since my last post. Wow, how the time flys. To be honest, this week has been rather busy. Apparently I received one too many important emails during my little vacation and it took some time getting through it all. But here I am I suppose. Unfortunetly I'm low on time right now. Most of my new posts will have to wait until tomorrow or the next day or the next. I only have a week left in this country and things are getting insanly busy. BUT, I do have some interesting stories to tell, so do look forward to them.

Back Again! Hope you are all still there!

Easter and Sochi

2006-04-27T15:01:00.000+04:00

So it's the end of the week and in about 24 hours I'll be off to Sochi for 10 days. Man have I been waiting for this! The last two weeks have been pretty grueling, lots of work with school and stuff. This will certainly be a nice little vacation. The train ride there will take about 36 hours, plus will be going down 3rd class, which means everyone hasa bed, but no walls. It's all open to the whole train. I will be hot and long and possible smelly by the end, there are no showers on this trains. But it's all worth it, cause the weather in Sochi is supposed to be excellent and there is the Black Sea and tons of waterfalls and beaches and a Mcdonalds I believe. This also means I'll be pretty silent until about May 9th or 10th. I might send off a quick post if I find a Internet cafe in Sochi, but don't count on it. Well, don't worry, I'll have plenty of posts prepared upon my return, so look forward to it.

I also wanted to mention that I did succesfully attend the Orthodox Easter services last Sat/Sun. Yep all 6 hours of it. Man, I didn't realize just how long that Mass was going to be. I also didn't realize I had the stamina to stand for 6 hours (no seats in Orthodox churhes). But it was worht the experience. The Mass was held in the Asuumption Cathedral here in Vladimir, which is very beautiful and covered in frescos and many other things. Un fortunetely I haven't had the time to sit down and really write a good post on how the Mass went, but don't worry I will! (Here's a hint it's pretty much the same as a Catholic Easter Vigil, but twice as long).

Anyways till Sochi or after Sochi or whenever, don't worry I'll return!

The Big 4000

2006-04-24T15:43:00.000+04:00

Looking at my hit counter (as I so often do) I noticed that I'd surpassed the milestone of 4000 hits. So of course this required a post to mark this momentous occasion. This number comes almost 7 months of being in Russia and around 9 months of actual blogging. Ah the memories. Hey you guys remember when I did that post on Moscow? Ya that was great.

Well thanks to all for continuing to check me out, and I do hope you continue to do so. This weekend I'm off to Sochi and you can certianly except some good post after that little vacation.

4000 Yay!

Last Trip to Moscow

2006-04-19T15:11:00.000+04:00

So this weekend will be the last time I'll be in Moscow. With just about 4 and 1/2 weeks left, I'm running out of time. My last time to experience the big city, food, fun, and pirated merchandise, hooray! Not to mention that exams are also creepy up. Basically, I have 3 weeks of classes left. The last to weeks are filled with tons of end of semester duties and events, so exams get spread out over about 3 weeks, although we still have classes after we take the exams (lame). Still in a week and 2 days I'll be on the train to Sochi and my pre-summer vacation.

Can't Wait!

Happy Easter

2006-04-17T16:24:00.000+04:00

Well well well, I've returned. The big news being that Masstime.org has finally failed me. No, I did not find a Church (Only got to go to Holy Thursday). Here is what happened. The address I got off of Mass times was wrong, no Church there. I asked around, but no Church in the area. Back at the hotel our tour guide mentioned that the Catholic Church was closed, more bad news. However, this meant that there was a Catholic community here, they must be going to Mass somewhere right? Well, upon finding the location of this Church, I walked around for another hour and still found nothing. So as far as I know Yaraslavl has no Catholic Church, at least at this time.

But, I guess it wasn't all bad, the weekend was fun (Yaraslavl is about double the size of Vladimir, with many more things to do). Plus the hotel was full of nothing but singles, so I had my own room, that was awesome. Anyways I think I'll be attending the Orthodox service this coming Sat/Sun. Should be interesting, it will be my first time at an Orthodox Mass.

Well, I hope everyone else had a wonderful Easter, with lots of good will and eggs and celebrating!

Yaraslavl

2006-04-13T15:32:00.000+04:00

Hey everyone,

Tomorrow, very early (like 8 in the morning), I leave for 3 days to Yaraslavl. Yaraslavl is actually twice the size of Vladimir, I guessing it will be much like the other weekend trips we take around here. Fun, old museums, and 3 days of much needed vacation. Man, this week has been hard, at least 4 hours of homework a night (5 last night), but it's all over now. It's relaxation time, as well Holy Week. I do hope I find this church in Yaraslavl, I don't really want to break my streak of consecutive Easter Masses (or consecutive Russian Masses). But things are looking good, I have the address and even a few of my friends have expressed interest in going with me! So I'll be out till Monday.

Happy Easter Everyone!

(How about a prayer for my Easter church hunt success?)

Saint Sebastian

2006-04-13T15:17:00.000+04:00

Check this picture out, a while back we had a meeting with a Russian lacquer master, after a little presentation we got to try it out for ourselves. This little baby is my own personal creation. I even added the Russian in there for your viewing pleasure (although I'm not really certain on the correctness of the name Sebastian in Russian).

Winter Recap

2006-04-13T14:59:00.000+04:00

As the winter comes to a close here in Russia I thought I would share a bit on just what a Russian winter is considering most of you have never seen one.

So I heard from somewhere that this particular winter was one of the worst in recent history. A fact I am inclined to believe after that one week in January with the 30 below temperatures. Ya, that was cold. Ok so in general we got our first snow in Vladimir around November, as I recall I think it had snowed in Maryland, back in the good old US, before I saw snow here. Snow was sparse until mid December. What I mean by sparse is that it would snow and then melt before it snowed again. By the time I left the temperature was hovering around -10 C, I think, I don’t actually recall it being extremely cold in December. Of course I then returned home and was a bit surprised when I got back to Russia.

When I left we had had a lot of snow, enough that it had stopped melting. Now, mid January, there was at least 3 feet piled up around every road and sidewalk, plus a good bit on the roads and sidewalks as well. The temperature, as I said was about -30 C. Going outside, you first notice this temperature by the freezing of your nose. The first breath you take just kind of ices everything. If your dressed properly, you can be outside for a bit with out to much discomfort, but anything long, like a half hour and your legs really start to freeze. Anyways, it didn’t snow too much in January, but the temperature remained about -20 C. February brought a lot of snow, it snow almost constantly, and this snow never melted, it was just too cold to do so. March brought warmer temperatures, around -10 to 0 C. I can’t tell you how nice 0 degrees was after that winter. I mean you walk outside and you really feel the difference, you feel it’s actually warm outside, which is weird when you think about how cold it still is, but no one cared. By April things were starting to melt and by now, April 12th, the snow is almost gone, the temperature is usually around 10 C and we get sun at least 50% of the time, as opposed to 0% in February.

So the snow last from mid November to about April, it does get very cold, but only for about a month and a half. Although by mid April, I really can’t wait for summer. Winter is pretty much over, but it certainly managed to kill almost every plant around here and there is dirt everywhere, it reminds me of disaster clean up. Yet, this happens every year, amazing ( I will also say that the winter is exponential worse the further from Moscow you get, My host family said something about 5 feet of snow around the dacha, village home).

Weird Surprise

2006-04-11T16:01:00.000+04:00

I was walking around town the other day and to my surprise I see an orange Nissan 350Z (hardtop). I found this not only surprising in the fact that it was an expensive Japanese car in Vladimir, but that it happens to be my current favorite. I tend to be a big fan of any car that comes in orange, I especially like the metallic finish. But, The 350Z is also one of my dream cars, one I haven't seen in about 7 months. So it was a nice little surprise, and a little weird. I think that has been the only Nissan I've ever seen in Russia.

On another front, has anyone ever heard of "Nochni Dozor"? In the States it'd be called "Night Watch". I believe there is an American remake running around somewhere, but it's actually a Russian movie, along with it's sequel "Day Watch", which has been getting a lot of advertising lately. I saw the first half of "Night Watch" today and it was pretty interesting, vampires and all. If you get a chance check it out.

Weekly update

2006-04-07T18:42:00.000+04:00

Pardon my recent absenence everyone, I've been busy registering for the upcoming fall semester and that has really sucked up all of my time.

So I've got 6 weeks left in Russia. The more I think about it, the more it seems like such a short amount of time. In a week it will be Easter, then in 2 more weeks I'll be vacationing in Sochi (Ocean City of Russia), and 2 weeks after I return from Sochi I fly home. Time is really gonna fly!

This Sunday we'll be having our semester feast at our Resident Directors apartment. Last semester this was Thanksgiving, for spring we're doing Easter. We'll be having ham and many other wonderful things. I really can't wait, this will be so good. A week after that I'll be in Yaraslavl. I've managed to find a Catholic Church there so all should be well, assuming I find it. Easter being as important as it gets for Mass I really hope I do, but it should be fine.

So what have I been upto recently. Let's see, I actually saw a really good horror movie, it was English or American, but it was great. I highly recommend it, "The Dark" (which in Russia they translated it to Dark Powers for some reason). It's set in Wales and deals with a lot of the local lore there and some really scary sheep. The tag line read "One of the living for one of the dead" this translates to "You will love this movie!" School has been good for anyone whos wants to know and the weather has been great. It got upto 50 degrees today. I've shedded my winter coat and can't wait to lose the jacket altogether! Tonight I'll be heading to a cafe to celebrat another birthday, always fun.

So you all real soon.

Canals

2006-04-03T16:08:00.000+04:00

If you have ever been to St. Petersburg, then you should know that that city is full of canals. In case you haven’t, I’ll just tell you that that city is full of canals. They pretty much all resemble this one in the picture. A funny little piece of history is that this were built by Peter the Great. However, when they were completed they turned out to be too small to allow the major shipping traffic that Peter had hoped to get. Apparently it was a big regret for Peter that he could never have the canals he had wanted. Of course they are still here and are very pretty. The neat thing is that during the winter, with the almost constant freezing temperatures all the canals in the city, as well as much of the Neva (river that runs through Peter), and some of the Gulf of Finland too. As you walk around the city you can see tons of paths that people have made walking across these frozen canals. It’s really cool, I even saw one guy doing jumping jacks in the middle of the Neva (it’s a big river my friends). So of course I had to try this for myself. I mean how many people can say they’ve walked across a river? Not many. We also had a snowball fight on the Gulf of Finland. (Peterhof, next to the Gulf of Finland)

Weird

2006-04-03T15:58:00.000+04:00

I'm looking over my college transcript right now (As I'll be registering for classes tomorrow) and I've noticed a little irregularity. I seem to only receive Academic Honors (GPA above 3.5) during the spring semesters. Every spring semester, academic honors, but every fall semester I seem to be just below the line. I wonder what that means. Do I simply take easier courses in the spring? Or, does it actually take me a whole semester to get back into school after 3 months off? Oddly enough I feel this year will be much of the same ... Shall history repeat?

Assisi

2006-04-01T15:34:00.000+04:00

So we got to Rome yesterday, but classes don't start again until Monday so I can relax a bit. Assisi was great. I really enjoyed spending a few days in my favorite Italian city. I went with a couple friends during our "Spring Break" (It's really just an extra day and a half off but, good none the less). We spent the whole time just walking around the city, it's very beautiful. Of course I was decked out in my patented yellow, which everyone around here seems to know me for wearing. What can I say, it is my favorite color. I think that after a few months my language skills are definitely improving, but I guess that's easy to say I am here to learn Italian right? I think my favorite part of the 2 days we spent there (Thursday and Friday) was the night life. If you've never been to Assisi, you should go. Every Friday night they flood the all the streets and basically the whole city becomes a huge water slide, it was pretty fun. (In the winter it's a huge skate rink. The bars were fun to, they actually soak you in beer the moment you walk in the door, then you have 5 minutes to dry off or they throw you out, always a blast. Of course the zombies are always a problem, but you get a free 12 gauge when you stay at our hotel, so everyone was fine. The Cathedral there is also extremely beautiful, I went to hourly Mass the whole I was there, it was great.

Well, that's it for now have fun and Happy April 1st!

MLB one week away!

2006-03-27T15:30:00.000+04:00

I'm not sure if you guys know or not, but I happen to be a pretty big baseball fan. In fact, I watch just about every Baltimore Orioles game that appears on TV. Last season I believe I hit 90% in that catogory. (I would have gone to a game but, well things happen, and tickets get sold out after a 2 hour drive and I don't really want to talk about it). Yes in just one week Baltimore Orioles Baseball will be back in action. Gees, just one more sport I will be missing while in Russia. Well, I'll only miss a month and a half, BUT that just happened to be the most winningest time for the Orioles last season. Hmm, maybe this season we'll actually win when it counts and not die after the all-star break. Well, I believe and I always will.

Orioles World Champs in 06 Baby!

P.S. be sure to watch opening day for me (April 3rd!)

Music

2006-03-22T16:48:00.000+03:00

This will be quick, the computer is working strangely today.

Last week in Petersburg, I managed to make a return trip to the Money Honey club. I really like this place. It's rock your typical "American West" looking bar with a great Rockabily band and plenty of swing dancers (that's only the first floor). This is followed by a second floor with a discoteka, billards, air hockey, shooting gallery, and another stage for what is usually a rock/punk/whatever band. This week was no expecption. I really liked the band that played. I guess I would call them punk, but they played everything from ska to indie, plus they even covered some traditional Russian songs, which was really cool. The best part is the cover is only 5 bucks for the whole night and this place it open till 6 in the morning (and one my friends was actually there to see the sunrise).

Good times had by all.

Gliches

2006-03-22T16:33:00.000+03:00

There seems to have been a slight glitch in my last few posts, all posting under the same date. I don't really know why, but I seem to have fixed it, I haven't been that inactive.

Back From Peter

2006-03-21T15:35:00.000+03:00

Well it's been a week and I've return from my little vacation to Petersburg. What can I say it was great. I managed to hit all of my planned sites too (that would be the Mexican resturant, Sushi bar, and blini (pancake) stand). The best way to describe the trip would definitely be delicious. I'll have a couple post coming on this one. I managed to do quite a few things in Peter, don't want to bore ou all with a huge post.

I also returned with quite a few pictures. I noticed that I haven't been posting many pictures lately. Well I've certain;y replenished my supply of choices so you should except a few in the next few days or weeks as well.

The big news today would be Spring. Happy spring everybody, as today is the first offical day. I see that back home it is well underway too. Here we got a snow storm. Well, it's not that bad, the snow is melting very rapidly, I'm actually surprised. But I can say that we are almost averaging above freezing temperatures, should only be a few more weeks, can't wait. Yesterday was also my name day (That would be St. Joseph), of course it was also Sunday, so perhaps you forgot, I know it happens.

Anyways Happy Spring, Happy St. Joseph Day, Happy Lent, etc, etc, etc.

Off to Peter

2006-03-13T15:35:00.000+03:00

Let's see, tonight I'll be on an overnight train to St. Petes. My teachers have graciously opted not to assign any homework, so I've got a very nice vacation ahead of me. I'll be in Petersburg till Sunday, so I most likely won't be posting. (There is an of chance that the big beautiful Petersburg internet cafes will be to nice to past up, but we'll see)

Winter is finally starting to thaw out. Right now I believe it is above freezing, somewhere around -1 to +1 C. It's great, I don't think I've ever enjoyed 0 degrees weather so much. I don't need my heavy coat, I'm wearing light gloves and everything. But I can already see that the next few weeks will not be all that fun. There is a lot of snow around here, and when it gets warm snow tends to melt. This means there will be a lot of water and slush real soon. Well, actually there already is a lot of slush. Plus you have to be careful where you walk. Stay away from buildings, because the snow falls off of roofs pretty frequently.

One more thing, in case you follow the show, "American Idol" has finally hit Russia. I've seen plenty of clones here before but now the actual copyrighted show has premiered, same music and everything.

Sometimes watching TV here is like going back in time, I see shows that I used to watch 5 years ago, but have already died in the US. Strange.

Week here week there

2006-03-07T15:35:00.000+03:00

I'm going to complain about the internet one more time. I find it very inconvenient here! There I said it.

Moving on, I was in Moscow last weekend for a birthday. Fun was had all around and I had an excellent Thai dinner, Moscow has the best food ever! Actually I will be back in Moscow next weekend too. Why? Well, I' ve got another birthday to attend. Hopefully that will be the last Moscow trip in a while, as fun as it is, Moscow can be expensive. The big thing is I'll be going to Petersburg in 1 week exactly. I can't wait. Not only will it be 5 days of no class, but Petersburg also happens to have some of my favorite restaurants and bars. I plan to eat very well there, sushi, Mexican, sbarros, it will be great.

P.S. I finally saw Underworld 2 the other night and I must say that felt none of the disappointment I expected to feel like after I saw the first one. There was general improvement all around and I actually enjoyed the movie (plus Kate B. even say a few words in Russian!).

More on Lent

2006-03-02T15:54:00.000+03:00

So with Ash Wednesday already yesterday I thought I would expand a little on Lent here in Russia. I was surprised last night at Mass to see that here we receive ashes sprinkled on the top of the head, not on the forehead. It was weird, but ashes are ashes I guess. Does anyone else know of it being done like this elsewhere, or is it just a Russian thing?

I've found a few interesting things on the Orthodox Lent that I also thought I'd share. First off in Russian Lent is called "Velikii Post" (basically the great fast). In America we have Mardi Gras of "Fat Tuesday", I think in Brazil they have the Carnival, or maybe I'm wrong in that, but here in Russia we have Maslinitsa, or the Last day of Blini (pancakes). It's your standard pre-lent food celebration. Since Orthodox lent begins next Monday, this will be celebrated on Sunday, which should mean a lot of blini for me to eat.

Lent

2006-02-26T13:47:00.000+03:00

With Febuary coming to a close and Lent fast approaching, Wednesday to be precise. I thought I'd let you guys know what I'll be doing.

Actually it's not that interesting. Of course I'll me going to Ash Wednesday Mass this Wednesday. There I will recieve ashes and then go home.

Anyways slightly more interesting than that is the fact that I went to the new chinese food restruant that recently opened up and it was basically the best food I've ever eaten. The food was excellent and to add to that it was incredable cheap, like any meal would be under 5 bucks. It also served the best green tea I have ever had. Overall it was an excellent meal and I can't believe a restruant like that exisits in Vladimir. So I'm quite happy.

Let's see we also had another birthday last week and there will be another this week. Birthday parties are always fun.

Other than that, not much has happened. I'm still 2 weeks away from our St. Pete's trip. Can't wait. I guess it's been about 5 weeks into the last semester? Really it feels like time is going to fly. After Petersburg we have a week an then 4 days of independent travel, then a week, then it's Easter and another excursion, then a week, then I'm off to Sochi for 2 weeks, then it's exams and I come home. Well, I guess its about 11 weeks no matter how you look at it, whatever.

Back Online

2006-02-21T14:58:00.000+03:00

I'm starting to lose faith in my current internet cafe. I came in yesterday to finally get back online after a weekend away and I find that the power is out, again. That was the second time the power has gone out in this place. Oh well, not much I can do, this is just about the only game in town, I really don't like the other place.

Ok so, last weekend I was in Suzdal again. I really like that little town. The food was excellent, they have this really good pork fired in egg and covered with cheese, and the best blini (like a pancake) desert I've ever had. Plus we went back to the hotel we stayed at last semester for a little pool/sauna fun. They have a really great pool. So Suzdal was fun.

Coming up this Thursday is a Russian holiday, Men's Day. It's actually not that big of a holiday, but we do get the day off from school. The big day is Women's Day on March 8th, I hear that is a huge holiday. But this Men's Day is also my friends birthday, which of course we will be celebrating.

In other news, I've offically passed the 1st month mark for this semester, only 3 more months in which to live in Russia. I'am sure I'll miss it when the time comes, but I'm itching to get back to UMD and America in general (when I say get back I mean get back and stay back). I'm pretty tried of lugging my life around in suitcases. It will be nice to feel at home again. Still, I've got a lot to look forward to here. in 2 and 1/2 weeks I get my Petersburg trip, can't wait!

Batman

2006-02-16T16:14:00.000+03:00

Some of you may know that I have a certain affinity for the Dark Knight. Well, I stumbled onto this story and thought I'd post it for your reading pleasure. (By the way, I'm also a Frank Miller fan).

Holy Terror, Batman!

Silence

2006-02-16T16:13:00.000+03:00

I notice that I’ve been pretty quite for a couple days. I do apologize, but let me explain. Lately I have found myself unusually busy. For some reason This whole week has been filled with at least 3 hours of homework a night, plus various other projects I’ve had to work on. Well it is summer job season and as always I’m a bit worried about my prospects, although this year looks promising. So basically my time at the internet café has been filled with many emails to various people and a bit of researching as well, with much more still to go. Do you guys realize that I actually have to register for classes soon!? Exactly how that will go done with me being in Russia and rather restricted when it comes to internet access, I don’t know, not to mention I’m not entirely sure how this years worth of credits will pan out. Aside from that online job applications take a long time when you only have an hour a day in which to do them. Plus I also have the little things like school, home life, and my various appointments. Example? Well today was basketball. That probably took up 2 hours of my time after school. But I had to keep up my dominance on the court (man I had this sweet 3 pointer in one game).

So long story short, or whatever, My blogging access has been severely restricted. However, I have been keeping up a few posts at home and if you scroll down you will be sure to see them.

Russian Hospitals

2006-02-16T16:11:00.000+03:00

So I promised a Russian hospital story right? Well over Christmas break my friend flew down to Turkey to visit some friends. While he was there he happened to be bitten by a cat. Weird right? Well by the time he got back to Russia the bite had turned into an infection and he had to go to the hospital to fix it.

First let me describe the American procedure to this problem. Walk in, talk to the doctor, receive quick treatment and antibiotics, then live. Form what I understand from my friend this was not an overnight problem.

Ok so here is what really happened. He went to the hospital and was treated. This involved slicing open the wound and draining it, then applying some antibiotics (this doesn’t really affect the story but in case you wanted to know …). As it turns out, a blood infection earns you a two week stay at the hospital, that’s right two weeks, no less. So my friend found himself in a ward with a couple other Russian men, all in for various things, although I believe they were related. My friend spent 9 days here until our teachers finally convinced the hospital to let him leave. It actually took the doctor ordering the hospital to let him leave, they were really bent on the 2 weeks.

During those two weeks my friend received daily injections of something (he wasn’t quite sure), two shots right in the butt, which is apparently pretty painful. Other than that his stay was pretty boring. Every week the nurses would “sterilize the room.” This involved them wheeling in a big ultra violet projector and basically irradiating the room clean. Whether or not this actually works, I don’t know. What I do know is that the en in the room are simply asked to cover their eyes for the ten or so minutes they are doing this. Needless to say my friend was conveniently absent from the room the next time they did this.

Something I found pretty interesting from the whole story was the room dynamics between all the guys. They really get to know each other and become good friends. My friend said that they would frequently raid the hospital store and cook up some home made “spirits”(i.e. rubbing alcohol). They also managed to smuggle in some vodka often enough.

My friend got out of the hospital a few days before classes started, and was plenty thankful to be out. Of course it’s funny to talk about it now, but he would definitely never want to go through that again. This brings me to another funny point in that a few weeks later he got another infection, this time a staff infection, in his arm, possibly from the Russian hospital? We may never know, but this time he happen to be in Moscow when the infection got bad again and got to use the Western hospitals available there.

Pretty crazy right? Basically I try not to think about the hospitals here, it’s just easier that way.

Something ...

2006-02-16T16:03:00.000+03:00

It’s been pretty warm around here lately, like -10s or something. I’ve been enjoying it. It’s pretty weird that I will walk out into below freezing weather, but still feel thankful for the warm weather. Things have certainly been going over here. This weekend I’ll be in Suzdal again. I like that little town. However were staying at a new hotel, the last one had a bowling ally, billiards room, sauna, pool, and like 5 bars. I can’t say if this new place will live up to my expectations, probably not though. Still it should be fun. Of course after this weekend I have 3 straight weeks and no trips (I know! No traveling for free for 3 weeks, you guys must feel so bad for me). I learned today that Vladimir has no decent video store. My friend and I were looking for various DVD’s to buy and found none, oh well that’s what Moscow is for I guess.

The one thing I have been doing is watching the Olympics. Were only 2 hours ahead here, which is pretty nice. Actually I’m really looking forward to the Men’s hockey which starts today! We don’t get many mainstream sports on TV here, so it will be a treat to watch. By the way, if any of you bothered to watch the women’s hockey you might also know that Russians women’s team is pretty bad, they lost 7 goals to Canada in just the first period of the one game I saw. Surprising, it really just adds to my suspicions that hockey is not has big here as everyone (or at least me) thinks. Actually I’m pretty curious how is the Olympic coverage in the US? Here, unless you watch the sports channel, you only see little updates on the News. I get the feeling it’s not as popular here, but I could be wrong, my observation area is pretty small. Don’t worry through I’m still rooting for the USA.

3 Weeks .. or maybe 4

2006-02-09T16:11:00.000+03:00

Well the time has slipped my mind for the moment, but I'm somewhere around week 4. Things are good, I gotta says this semester has been so much easier then the last in terms of just about everything. But I still have lots of work to do, so don't worry about me, I keep busy. I've been working on a rather interesting post about the Russian hospital experince (not mine). Look forward to it.

Letters

2006-02-06T15:37:00.001+03:00

I thought I would let you guys know what you could send me this semester if you so decided again. I know last semester I aked for swedish fish (and that offer is still open, yes I will accept and eat any swedish fish sent to me for FREE). But I'll be honest you don't have to send to bucks to ship those out here unless you really want to. What would be great to get are letters. Letters are cheap and fun to get, Nothing special just a hello, maybe a picture, who knows maybe I'll return a reply (well, you'll at least get a thank you email).

Anyways my address is

600000 Vladimir, Tsentr Russistiki KORA,
ul. Vorovskogo, d.14, Joseph Tercero, Russia

(Ya, there's my real name, oh well I suppose)

By the way, If you would like to use my courier services go ahead and send me and email, space is limited, so first come first serve. I can bring back anything really, just let me know. Delivery date: May

So I'm Back

2006-02-06T15:37:00.000+03:00

Yup, back from Moscow again and back into another week of school. Moscow was fun, as usual. We were able to see the armory museum in the Kremlin, which was cool, and the World War 2 museum, also neat. The Armory is full of tons of things owned by the Tsars. Thrones and carriages, dresses, dinnerware, personal items, and an awesome weapons section. It was well worth seeing, but how much can you say about a museum. The same goes for the World War 2 museum. It had some neat guns and stuff, as well as several battlefield dioramas (those were particularly awesome). Aside from the museums I also went to Gorbushka, Moscow giant indoor music and video market (that is pirated music and video), plus it has a whole bunch of electronics and related things. I picked up some DVDs and a CD by a band called "Naive" (great russian punk band). This CD I had wanted for a year or two, but for some reason I could never find a place online to sell it to me, don't really know why. That was cool. Other than that there were a few bars and meetings up with Moscow friends. Not much to say of the bars, it's still hard to find a dark beer in Russia.

Moscow

2006-02-01T15:04:00.000+03:00

This weekend I'll be in Moscow. Yeah for that! So of course you probably won't see a post until I get back on Monday. I know, you can hang in there.

So tomorrow marks the week point and I can say with confidence that I am settled in again. (Much faster than last semester). Classes are in full swing and have actually been fun so far (we got to do a little political debating about Yeltsin in class today, it was hard in Russian but fun none the less). It seems this semester we have picked a new place to be "Our Cafe" and this one has a movie theater too (no dark beer though). Speaking of which, last Friday I saw "Cry Wolf", Of course it was in Russian but moving pictures aren't that hard to understand in any language, especially horror flicks. The movie was well ... I liked the idea, but not so much the presentation, plus the last five mintues were stupid.

I don't think my sleep schedule has caught up with me yet, I still wake up a couple times a night. Last semester this didn't go away for like a month or two. Oh well I guess.

See you in a few days!

Skating

2006-01-30T15:58:00.001+03:00

I went skating with my tutor on Sunday. It was really cold. I mean really like about -19 C or something around there. The really weird thing was that skating while it was that cold felt different then when it is still above freezing. I don't mean that it felt colder, I mean the actual feeling of skating was different. The ice was, I don't know, more frozen (if that's possibly). Still it was fun, skating is fun. Well, ok that ice rink had some problems. I don't really know how the ice got so many deep holes in it but they were a little dangerous, especailly when you are skating backwards (no I did not fall).

Snow

2006-01-30T15:58:00.000+03:00

I think I should point out the large amount of snow here in Vladimir. I mean I know it's Russia and you might say to me, "Joey of course there's a lot of snow in Russia!" Well, you didn't and now you've lost your chance. There is a lot of snow in Russia. Every sidewalk and street in this entire town is bordered by at least 3 feet of piled snow. I think back to my winters in Maryland where we might get a big snow here or there but after 2 weeks you forget all about it. The thing with snow is that if it stays below zero, it's not going away. So do a little math, it's been snowing here almost everyday since mid December. All that snow is still here, buried as it may be. Good for skiing, not for snowballs (too cold for snowballs). Anyways, this is something I've never really experienced before, constant snow and a lot of it). It's interesting to say the least.

All things considered

2006-01-24T15:21:00.000+03:00

Hey Everyone,

So yeah, I made it back to Vladimir and so far things are going pretty good. My flight into Russia was fine, no problems. Getting through the Moscow airport was actually easy, which was not expected. I ended up taking a taxi home to Vladimir, that is a taxi from Moscow to Vladimir (3 hours). Clearly not the cheapest solution, but definitely the quickest and easiest. Still it was expensive. I got into Vladimir around 2pm Russia time and almost instantly fell asleep. My host mother wasn't home so it was a bit of a shock to her to find me there when she got back. Apparently, despite me telling her when I would get back several times, she thought I wasn't going to be home until Friday, not Thursday. No harm done, just kinda funny now.

I spent the next few days getting resettled and unpacking. Basically everything came nicely together, I kinda feel like I never left, which is weird, good but, weird. Of course my new computer is performing admirably and it is nice to have a little library of American movies to enjoy on those long winter nights.

Which brings me to the subject of winter. I do recall complaining last semester about the Russian winter's lack-luster performance. Well I guess I was wrong. Apparently this thing doesn't get going until January, but when it does, oh man. The day I got in it was about -30 C currently it is hovering around -20 C, this is very cold. I mean I really never imagined how cold this actually is. Basically my legs start to freeze if I am outside for more than 5 minutes, hello long johns. I must say that my winter wear is well prepared. My big coat, hats, gloves, scraffs, and boots, all very good and all very warm. So in other words I love this, it's sooo! cold it's great. I've never been this cold before and it's kinda fun to experience (of course I say this with the knowledge that when I do get cold I have a nice warm apartment to retreat to).

Well, classes have begun again and I'm doing my best to start out on the right foot (you know paying attention even when it's really really really boring) and it's seems to be working. 2 days into classes and I'm doing good, no problems, I really like my new group too. The classes were switched around a bit and I think the one I am now in will be fun. Of courses 2 days doesn't give me a huge perspective, but I've got good feelings about this.

So everything is back to the same old same old. I'm only 2 days out of vacation and I already want it to be summer. But in two weeks we'll be heading to Moscow for 3 days, which will be much fun. I've got a real good travel schedule lined up this semester. Moscow, Yaraslavl, Suzdal (yeah!), Petersburg, and Sochi (which is on the black sea and supposedly has palm trees!). Sochi is our big 10 day trip (although that's 35 hours on a train) and it's in May (nice and warm), something to look forward to.

Well that's it for now, I'm back to blogging so stay tuned.

Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried.

2006-01-18T07:34:00.000+03:00

I couldn't resist posting this, The Chuck Norris Random Fact Generator. I found it hilarious.

Beards

2006-01-18T06:35:00.000+03:00

So I've decided to make an attempt at a "chin strap" beard. This is basically just a line a hair following your chin. So far I have discovered two things. One, growing a beard with blond hair takes a long long long time. Two, apparently different sections of my face grow hair at different speeds (and I don't mean like 1 or 2, I mean like 3 or 4, it's annoying!) I don't plan to give up, but this may be the only time I've actually regreted having blond hair (well maybe for a second).

Back to Russia

2006-01-18T06:22:00.000+03:00

Hmm, well yes so I didn't post much over the break. Sorry. I'd like to say there were many factors in this lack of posting, but to be honest I was just lazy. Well okay technically I had a week of holidays and being back in the States days, then about 2 weeks of some very annoying computer problems, including one with my new computer. But even with that there is still a week unaccounted for, so oh well, no posting.

Well that really is about to change. Tomorrow I head back to Russia to finish up this year abroad. That means I will be looking forward to many things (but not everything, it wasn't all smiles ). It does mean that I'll be posting regularly again. So if you have stuck with me over these past few weeks, then congrates I reward you with new posts! If you haven't, well you wouldn't be reading this so who cares about you!

A whole new semester of stories and pictures and who knows what, stick with me people!

Why I've been silent for weeks

2006-01-04T05:28:00.000+03:00

Right now I am typing up my first post on my new computer. It's a nice computer, good deal too, but that's not important. The important thing is that I now have a computer again. You see a few weeks ago my old computer decided that it just wasn't fun to work anymore and it died. I should mention that I was able to get all my pictures and various other things off before it finally stoped working for good. Anyways everything is better now, this new computer is very nice and I finally seem to have some time on my hands, which means I can post. Hurray!

My first few hours back

2005-12-23T21:49:00.000+03:00

Maybe some of you are asking so what do you do when you return to America after 4 months. Well I can tell you not much. Why? Mainly because by the time I actually got home I had been awake for about 2 days and traveling for almost 24 hours straight. Yes, it was only a 10 hour plan ride, but add in the 3 hours to drive to the airport, the 2 hours to fly from New York to DC, and the 1 and 1/2 hours to drive home and that's like well 16 and 1/2 hours. But also add in the 9 hours in the Moscow airport and the rest of the waiting and lay-overs and you got a lot of time with very little sleep. So basically all I did was enjoy being with my family for a few hours, then I went to bed.

But if you still want to know the first thing I did, well I guess that would be play Xbox, that is the first thing I did when I woke up. It was glorious.

I should also say that it surprised me how little I actually talked about Russia with my family and friends. It's not that we did not say anything, in fact there were many questions and conversations. I really just pictured hours of conversation based on my many wacky adventures in Russia. No doesn't really go down that way.

2005-12-23T21:37:00.000+03:00

Hey Everyone,

Well I've been enjoying America for a few days, but now I feel it's time to get back to bloging. I've got about 800 pictures of my time in Russia and although I don't plan to show them all ... well will see. Anyways I thought I would pick out a couple of my favorites to start this thing off.

This would be from left to right Shawn, Tim, and Tom (my resident director). At the time I was playing around with my camera's options, but I think this one came out really neat.

This one is a cool picture of the sqaure by the Hermitage in Petersurg with the column and the sun and everything, well I like it.

Here we have all the guys in my group and we are standing on top a fort in Pskov.

Lastly, this one I really like, and I think the big cloud makes the whole picture, but either way I enjoy staring at it.

Ah Sweet America!

2005-12-20T07:44:00.000+03:00

Well, I've been awake for around 48 hours, with very little sleep in between, I've traveled for atleast 24 hours straight and I'm pretty tired, but I am back in America. The Internet here is amazing, I've just done in 10 minutes what used to take me an hour in Russia! I'm watching American television and eating American food. I've even got to see my family again. Well, I am pretty tired, so I'll be going to bed now.

Talk to you later!

Going Home

2005-12-16T14:22:00.000+03:00

Hey Everyone,

This will be my last post until I return to America. Actually this kinda reminds me of my post very similar to this one back in August. Thinking about back then and all the things going on and all the thoughts running through my head, I really am amazed to be sitting here. In so many ways I just can't believe I've been in Russia for 4 months, nor that I am actually coming home. It's been quite an experience and oddly enough I still have another semester in front of me. But no time to think of that now, I've got 5 weeks of vaction in America and I have a lot I cannot wait to do. Thanks to everyone for sticking with me this semester, but don't go away there's plenty more to come.

See you on the other side, bye for now!

I'm still around

2005-12-14T15:45:00.000+03:00

This is just a quick post to let everyone out there know that I am still here! The internet has been down for about 3 years at this point and I have not been able to get anything out. Anyways I'll be posting much more real soon, seeing as I will be home in 5 days, and I've got some intertesting things stored up.

Anyways, till then.

Winter Finally Arrived!

2005-12-09T14:26:00.000+03:00

Yes it took until mid December but I finally get a glimpse of the Russian winter. Yesterday we had flurries all day and I woke up today to about 6 inches of snow, although we already had about 2 on the ground. It was great I put on my boots and my heavy coat and walked outside. Snow was everywhere, especailly on the roads. I don't really know why but Russia does not seem to be all that good at keeping there roads clear of snow. I hardly ever see plows and even less than that dirt to cover the ice. There is a lot of ice on the sidewalks whenever it snows. Plus they don't use salt at all. On the other, they don't really seem to care. I mean traffic is a little slower and the busses a little more crowded, but the city is as active as ever. You definitely don't see the kind of city wide shutdown that you do in the states, at least in Maryland, and certainly is enough snow to merit that.

Anyways, I've been waiting a long while for this and I love it!

More to go

2005-12-08T16:04:00.000+03:00

Well lets see Happy Immaculate Conception everyone! Today marks the end of my second to last week of classes, 2 more exams to go! This weekend will be filled with studying and preparations for coming back to America. But not much, next week is the big week. Besides the two remaining exams I also some exams for my study abroad program. This will be one written and one OPI (Oral Proficiency/Over-the-Phone interview). For those who don't know an OPI is basically an oral test. Its actually what the government uses to rate its language specialist. Of course I won't be taken this one over the phone, as they usually do, but its basically the same thing. Luckily these tests have no effect on my grades or anything like that, but it would be nice to show some improvement. Oddly enough it will be conducted by one of my college professors (ya!).

Besides the exams I have a few good-bye dinners to attend and of courses some packing. Hmm, week and a half to go. I should let you guys know that you can look forward to a lot of posts (with a lot of pictures) when I get back. I really hope I don't go internet crazy, going from hardly any access back to 24/7, oh and how fast it will be ... well anyways, it will be interesting.

I'll be in touch ...

Exams

2005-12-06T13:59:00.000+03:00

I just thoght I would let you all know that my first exam is over and I did very well in my opinion. As far as the rest of my exams go I have one or two every day this week (until Thursday, no class Fridays remember?) and then 2 next week. Then for some reason I still have a few classes. I don't know why we don't have exams on the last day of class, but whatever by the end of next week I'll be looking at 5 nice weeks of vaction (I'll be vactioning in America this year)!

A few things on last weekend

2005-12-05T15:45:00.000+03:00

Today I thought I would go over a few interesting things I did over the weekend.

First off do you guys remember that final scene in Romeo and Juliet, you know the one where Romeo and Juliet are dancing around heaven with Mercutio? Well that is at least how the quite non-traditional version of Romeo and Juliet that I saw on Sunday ended. Actually it was really horrible, it seemed like they tried to turn the play into some kind of comedy, but the joke seemed to be how funny I can make myself be while saying my lines. Plus it had some weird modern dances scenes scattered through out. Well, that's what I did Sunday.

Saturday was a productive meeting with my tutor, we finally found a book on fencing in Russian, Ya! (I fence for those who don;t already know), that was good.

Friday was of course another excursion around our litle town. We went to the two famous cathedrals here, it was pretty interesting, but not much to say.

Thursday we celebrated another birthday, which means we headed to our favorite bar/cafe, the Red Stallion, and stayed till closing, which is only 1 o'clock. Not too late, but the bus stop running at 11:30 here, so it does mean a long walk home.

Ya so 2 weeks. My first exam is actually tomorrow, wish me luck.

Week 14 Gone

2005-12-01T14:53:00.000+03:00

Well today finished off week 14, which means I have 2 more weeks left in Russia (not counting next semester of course, to the 3rd decimal place of course). This week has been an interesting one for me. I can't say I did too much, but classes were good and there were some fun nights at the cafes. Actually it was only one night, but it was still fun. As I may have said before, every Wednesday we have a round table with some Russian students studying english. Every night after the round table we go out to a cafe. Anyways, its a nice break in the middle of the week. It's actually kinda funny because cafes in Russia usual aren't suited for large crowds so last night we walked around looking for a cafe for about an hour before deciding to give up and go to our usual place. I actually like the usual place, but whatever.

As for this weekend, not too much is going on either, we have a little excursion in Vladimir to some Cathedrals and then a bunch of free time. The real fun begins next week. Why? Because we start all the finishing up things you do every semester, thank-you dinners, final meetings, exam preps, you know stuff like that.

I'll soon be back in America, that will be sweet, 2 weeks is such a short amount of time.

7 Days

2005-11-28T16:11:00.000+03:00

I can't believe it's been a week since I posted last. Sorry, unfortunate internet happenings and a long weekend away. Anyways I am back now and have a couple posts for you guys. Read the one at the bottom first, as they go in order. I don't really have much more to say right now except Happy Advent!

Mead

2005-11-28T16:10:00.000+03:00

As it happens Suzdal is rather famous for its “medovukha” which you can simple call mead. It is basically a beer made out of honey and it is incredible delicious. I’m not really the biggest fan of honey, but this mead really surprised me, it was so good! Why I bring this up is because we kind of had a mead party after the sauna and Friday night.

From the beginning, we had about 4 hours of free time after we got to the hotel and had lunch. We actually planned to go bowling (yes the hotel had a bowling ally), but it did not open for about 2 hours after lunch. So which ended up watching a horrible movie called “one point o” It wasn’t Russian (although of course it was dubbed), we think it was Australian, but anyways it was bad. It had to do with nanobots and evil controlling corporations and brain stealing and milk. I don’t really want to go too much into it, but the real reason I hate it is that by watching it we missed to cheap hours to bowl and would’ve had to pay double the price to play when we got there. That was stupid! Still, we decided to go play some pool instead and had a very fun time, despite our disappointment.

After billiards was dinner, this was then followed by the sauna. Saunas are fun. This one was particularly hot, but the heated pool definitely made up for an overly hot sauna. I guess I can’t really say much more than that, the pool was fun and big, we played sharks and minnows.

Here is where we get to the mead party. It started slowly; my friend bought a bottle, than I bought a bottle, than another friend, suddenly everyone was buying some medovukha. It was really good and more alcoholic than you think, as a few friends could attest to that J. Well we ended the night with some more billiards and a discotecka (which I declined).

The next day was a quick tour around the kremlin and then we got to ride horses to our restaurant for lunch. Original we thought we would each get our own horse. I guess if we had though about that, it would seem unlikely, but needless to say, the disappointment was still there. But man, there are a lot of horses just walking around the streets in Suzdal (they had riders obviously). Most we people selling horse rides, but it’s just weird to see so many horses walking down the street. So we went to our restaurant in some horse drawn carriages, it was fun. After lunch we drove home, short and sweet this trip was.

Suzdal

2005-11-28T16:09:00.000+03:00

Following Thanksgiving, we traveled to Suzdal for 2 days. This was a very fun but very quick trip. Suzdal is only about 40 minutes from Vladimir, and it is a very small town, around 40,000 compared to 350,000 in Vladimir. There is not much to say about Suzdal itself. We went to a Monastery and the Kremlin, but spent half our time in our hotel. Now there is a lot to say about the hotel, it was great. Our hotel had billiards, a pool, a sauna, a couple bars, and it just a nice hotel, but I’ll get to that later. For now, I’ll talk about the Monastery. The one thing about that place that sticks out in my mind was the bell tower and the bell player. Just about every monastery in Russia was a bell tower, which contains many bells of various sizes. With every bell tower, there are also monks who play the bells, or maybe I should say monk, because all the bells are played by only one monk. This is really cool. All the bells are connected by ropes. The monk stands at one end and holds all the ropes (or planks that hold several ropes), and there are at least 15 bells. The cool thing is that it is not just slowly ringing Church bells; these monks are really good. The music is fast and very beautiful. I have a 60 sec clip of the monk playing and if I can figure how to put it up I will, it sounds so awesome.

So that was really neat. The monastery itself was the same as many that we have seen, a couple big beautiful churches and some museums. These particular museums focused on Suzdal’s role in World War 2 and the monastery under communist rule.

We were there about 3 hours or so and then we went to the hotel to eat lunch and to check in.

Stuff and 3 more weeks

2005-11-28T16:06:00.000+03:00

Hey Everyone! I apologize for not posting in a couple days, at least not on Thursday, but sleeping in was just too tempting. I had a rough week and I enjoyed the break. A lot has happened last week like Suzdal, Thanksgiving, and now it’s finally Advent season!

So, let’s see, I guess I will start with Thanksgiving. We were able to pull some strings and get off from school that day. It was great, I like three day weeks. Not only were we off from school, but we also put together a Thanksgiving Day dinner! Somehow, our resident director got a hold of a turkey. Not only that but we have some very good cooks in our little group. I’ll give you a quick run down of our feast; turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, scalloped potatoes, green beans, garlic bread, jello, chocolate chip cookies, 2 pumpkin pies, 2 cakes, apple fritters, and some wine (red and white). It was a feast! Pretty much everyone misses American food (or at least that food that is not fried). The turkey was especially delicious, so were the scallop potatoes, oh and the jello, actually everything was delicious! After we managed to stuff ourselves (by the way, you know that feeling you get after eating a thanksgiving meal, that is almost every dinner for me, although this time it was actually desired), we busted out the laptop and some good old American television. We watched a few various shows and then settled in for a movie (Dodgeball). Man, those pumpkin pies were good. Anyways, it was a great Thanksgiving, much more so than I had expected, and to be honest when I heard we were making pumpkin pie I expected a lot.

After I left, I got home in time for a call from home to top off the evening. So after sleeping in, eating turkey, and talking to home I went to bed very happy.

100 posts

2005-11-21T15:43:00.000+03:00

So this is definitely the most posts I have ever posted in a single sitting, although it is more like 5 days worth anyways because I haven’t been able to post in a while. Still with this group, I have surpassed 100 posts. Hurrah! And Huzzas all around, another milestone done and gone. I also see that I have almost 2500 hits at this point, also a milestone. Once again, thanks to all for staying interested, always nice when someone listens to you. Actually, if I can add one more milestone, it’s been about 6 months since I’ve started this blog, how interesting indeed. Well I guess I’ll keep going then!

November Birthdays

2005-11-21T15:42:00.000+03:00

I’m sure I don’t have to say this, everyone must know and agree, but I will mention it anyways, November birthdays are the best birthdays in existence. I know what you are going to say, “Hey wait a minute, you have a November birthday, you’re just being biased!” Although that is true I assure you that this fact is an absolute truth, but I lost all my proof so you will just have to believe me. Besides ask anyone with a November birthday, I’m sure they will agree. There is just something about November; it really is a great month.

So why bring this up? Well besides it being just a good topic, today, the 20th, is the birthday of a good friend of mine here. He also happens to be on the same scholarship I am, which makes him doubly awesome. Anyways, this weekend we all celebrated. It was pretty fun too. In the morning we opted for a little ice skating. The best part was there was hardly anyone at the rink; it’s always more fun to skate when you have room to do it. Once it gets cold enough here they are supposed to flood a couple natural rinks around the city. That means ice hockey! (Can’t wait for that) Of course, Saturday night we went to one of the bars we tend to frequent, The Red Stallion. Well actually, it’s more of a café/bar type place and not too big, but bigger than most cafes around here. Even though it was his birthday, Tim bought all the guys a shot of absinth and the girls a glass of wine; of course, we all pitched in and got him a new cell phone to replace the one he lost. It was fun and a late night too. After the Red Stallion closed at midnight, we decided on a cup of coffee at one of the few late night cafes in Vladimir.

Russian Lit

2005-11-21T15:41:00.000+03:00

Have any of you guys out there read much Russian Literature? What about Dostoyevsky? Ok so of the people who have read Dostoyevsky, how many liked him? I ask the question because apparently Russians really don’t care for him. Last Wednesday (the 16th) at our weekly round table with some Russian English students, the topic was American and Russian opinions on Dostoyevsky. It was a surprisingly interesting discussion, but every single Russian student there admitted to disliking Dostoyevsky. I find this interesting because I actually really like him, as do many Americans (I was told), and this was obviously what we talked about. The other interesting thing was that the only book that the Russians had read was “Crime and Punishment”. This is odd because most people claim “The Brothers Karamazov” as Dostoyevsky’s greatest work and usually if they’ve read Dostoyevsky, they’ve read that (of course that may not be true, most people I’ve talked to have read Crime and Punishment as well). Unfortunately, I can really recall the specifics of the conversation, but it doesn’t really matter. I was just found it interesting.

Giving Blood

2005-11-21T15:38:00.000+03:00

I’ve been meaning to post on this for some time, I’ve just haven’t gotten around to it. Anyways, because we needed to renew our visas for another semester we had to have another AIDs test done. Obviously, this required us to go to the hospital and have our blood drawn. All I can say is wow that was an experience. Of course, nothing bad happened but it didn’t exactly raise my opinion of Russian health services.

When we arrived at the place, we entered to building and found our way up to the place we all thought we would be giving blood. I stress the word “thought” because our group was rather surprised when our resident director came back with several empty test tubes and told us to head back outside. Let me explain how this works. When you need to give blood, you must first go to the building where the do the actually testing. There you receive a test tube which you have to take outside and across the road to another building. In this second building, you have to buy a pair of booties to put over your shoes. Then you walk down to the room where they draw blood. After waiting in line, you put on your booties, grab your test tube, and head in. Once inside you seat down, get poked, and your done. The nurse fills up your test tube and this you yourself take back to the room in which you got it across the street in the other building. Ok so who and spot the major problem with this little system? Anyone? Don’t be afraid just shout it out.

If you said that it was having to buy the booties in order to get your blood drawn, no I’m sorry that is incorrect. Don’t worry this is a tough answer; it’s actually the fact that you yourself take your blood outside to the other building. Hmm, what could possibly be wrong with that? Not to mention that this is a blood test to find out if you have AIDs and whether you should be given a visa.

Ya so, that was interesting, it definitely was an experience, a pretty amusing one too.

The Russian Winter

2005-11-21T15:36:00.000+03:00

As I start to write this post, I really hope I don’t end up eating my words, but here we go anyways. I am really disappointed with the Russian winter. I mean from everything everyone is always assuming and everything everyone (including Russians) has told me Russia is supposed to be a giant icicle for like 6 months out of the year. Let me use today as an example. Today is November 18th, I was comfortable walking outside in a sweater and a windbreaker, I also had a hat scarf. I mean it rained today, and we’ve had only one snow since I’ve been here. My friends even went up to Archangel (if you don’t now that is a town right around the artic circle) and there wasn’t even snow there. It’s just like where is the snow! I have this very nice boots gathering dust and a nice big warm down jacket I’ve needed maybe once. It’s barely been below zero at all. Now I’m not one that likes to be cold, but when you are dressed warmly, it is pretty enjoyable to walk around the snow in sub-zero weather. I really want some snow; I only have four more weeks till I come home, how much snow could we get in that small amount of time, not much. What am I supposed to tell people when they ask me how I survived the “Harsh Russian Winter”? “Oh ya! The winter, it was horrible, it was snowing sheets and we had to dig tunnels 12 miles through the snow just to get to school!” “Yes, there were dog sleds instead of cars and people skied everywhere, we couldn’t see the sun for weeks and our breath turned into snow when we breathed!” Somehow, I don’t think so. Man I want some snow!

An odd end to an odd occurrence

2005-11-21T15:32:00.000+03:00

Well, my window has been repaired; actually, it was repair before I got home the day it happened. This was pretty fast, and it surprised me because Russia and fast are usually not associated in my mind. Yup, all repaired and the incident pretty much forgotten. My host mother told me she filed a report with the militsya (police) and that’s that. She said it was most likely just some young kid. Not much more to say on that subject, so I’ll move on.

As today is Friday, I have officially been in Russia for 13 weeks. Amazing. This Sunday is of course is Our Lord Jesus Christ the King and with it the closing of Ordinary Time. Cause come the 27th it’s Advent baby! I like Advent, always a blast right? Hmm, so four more weeks. I guess I won’t get reflective just yet. I’ll save that for when I’m home and finally connected to my internet 24/7 again. Actually, I should confess that aside from wanting to see my family and friends again I really just can’t wait to play some Xbox live. Oh so many new games I haven’t touched yet, and the new Xbox 360 and, well you get the idea.

So let’s see, next weekend we have Thanksgiving. For this, we get the day off and we are planning a big feast, our resident director has even found a turkey (apparently, turkeys are really small when they don’t get fat and steroids all day, I hope the tiny one we found will be enough). But everyone is trying to bring something; it should be fun. The very next day (that’s the 25th) we are gone for 2 days to Suzdal. This town is actually really small, but like every other Russian town has some sort of historical significance. Then when we get back we may or may not be going to a party at a Russian’s friends house that we meet (we were promised blini and Russian pastries). Sounds like a fun weekend to kick off the Advent season. Of course, I can’t wait to see oh my Church does Advent. I’ve liked everything else so far, so it should be good.

An odd night

2005-11-17T14:58:00.000+03:00

Here is an interesting (although short story for you).

Last night I happened to be sleeping at 3 am, as I usually do, when I was suddenly awaken by a rather loud bang. This bang was followed by another in quick succession and than a very loud crash. What happened? Well apparently someone decided it would be a good idea to break my window. Yes, the window in my room now has a very large whole in it. Don't worry too much, the window is double paned, so I won't get cold, but really what the heck! I should mention that this has happened before. I mean that about 11 pm that same night I was startled again by someone banging on my window. I can also think of a couple other days when this occurred to. Now whether this person was actually trying to break the window or whether he finally got a surprise of his own (and maybe some glass in his hand) I really can't say. All I really know is that he is a big jerk who just made a sweet old lady have to buy a new window. Man, if I ever find out who this is ... well anyways it really sucked. I don't really like people who screw with people they don't know just for there own perverse pleasure. I mean a joke is nice around friends, but a friend would pay for a broken window.

Birthday Blast

2005-11-17T14:48:00.000+03:00

Greetings everyone! Yes, I have returned once again from Moscow. I don’t think I’ve ever celebrated a birthday like this, in fact, I’m sure of it, but it was very fun. Moscow, as well, was very fun. And on top of all that, I have only 5 weeks left in the semester. Welcome to week 12. That’s ¾ of the way through, thanks to everyone for keeping up with me, it’s been fun, but it’s not over yet. (I should apologize though, I took absolutely no pictures this weekend, mainly cause I kept forgetting my camera, guess you’ll all have to take my word for it).

So, what did I do for my Birthday? The actually day (the 9th) started with birthday wishes (and presents) in class. I received a couple candy bars and the like from teachers and friends. The actually celebration took place that night in one of the cafes we frequent here. We went directly from our weekly round table with some Russian students to the café so of course they were all invited along. So I had some American friends some Russians and of course my tutor, it was a fun evening. My tutor, Ivan, even got me a gift, which was so cool. Of the actually evening, there is not much to tell, we all had a great time, but it was a short night. Most of us had early trains the next morning and needed some sleep (our train left at 7:25am). Besides, this was only half of the party; the other half was to be in Moscow.

We trained to Moscow early the next morning and arrived at the dorms we were staying at a little bit before lunch. After we dropped our stuff off, we decided to check out the Moscow zoo. Lunch was at a Mongolian place, which was delicious, and the zoo was strange. I haven’t been to the zoo in a while, but are most animals crazy at the zoo? Specifically, the seals? We must have watched this one seal for ten minutes doing nothing but swimming back and forth between a ten foot section of the pool, we walked by again like 2 hours later and it was still doing that. Another seal we think was blind. We watch it try to eat a fish for ten minutes, it was really sad actually, and it nearly jumped out of the cage after it finally got it. Actually, they have many seals at the Moscow zoo. Anyways we were there till the place closed. Later the night we were meeting up with everyone else who went to Moscow for dinner. So to kill some time we stop at a café. I found out that what is cold “hot chocolate” in Russia is not what you think; it’s actually a small cup of hot fudge, which was an odd surprise (I did eventually find a cup of hot chocolate; it was called “kakau”. Eventually, we meet up with everyone and headed out to find a Mexican restaurant. The one we wanted apparently does not exist, but the one we found was great. Not only did it have live music (another great rockabilly band), but it had the best enchilada I have ever eaten. With being in Russia for 3 months and my lack of taste for 3 months before that, I can honestly say that this was the best meal I have eaten in 6 months. It was great!

So that was my birthday. The rest of Moscow was great. It was highlighted by excellent meals at an Italian restaurant and an American 50’s diner. We really didn’t do anything touristy; mainly just walking around the city checking out cafes and restaurants and having a great time in Moscow (The Italian place even had lemonchello! That was great!)

I'm Back

2005-11-14T15:23:00.000+03:00

Hey everyone,

I'm back and to tell you the truth I had a real nice post ready for you guys, but I saved the wrong one onto my flash drive so it will have to wait. Since the said post goes into the weekend and other stuff I won't do that now. For now I'll just say that with 35 days to go (hmm I'm counting, is that bad?) I'm looking forward to coming home. It's not really like homesickness. I'm having a great time here, it's more like ok this was fun and I still have a year ahead of me, maybe a break would be nice. Anyways, Moscow was great I can't wait to till you guys about it.

Birthday Wishes

2005-11-09T15:26:00.000+03:00

It's my Birthday!

Thanks to everyone who posted or emailed me a birthday hello, you guys are great.

I thought I would post once more before I'm off to Moscow. So what has my birthday been like so far? Breakfast was good, my host Mom got me a card and a copy of Doctor Zhivago (Russian of course, I hope I can read it soon). That was great and unexpected, she is so nice. I also got a big candy bar from my teachers and some various things from friends like candy and an orange shoe horn (seems everywhere I go my reputation follows). What's next? Well there'll be some cafeing and the like, than its off to bed (my train to Moscow is at 7:25am). Should be fun.

As you might have noticed I added a new section to the blog, a nice little book list. I figured you can't just read War and Peace and not tell everyone! Aside from the bragging rights that come with having read it, it was one of the best books I have ever read. It took 6 months but it was worth it. Certain people may also notice that I finally read Orthodoxy (only took me like a year and a half, what?), but it was also very good.

Lastly, as I've said I'm off to Moscow this weekend, which means no posting again till most likely Monday, but come Monday I will have plenty, see ya soon!

And it was down to 6

2005-11-08T16:20:00.000+03:00

You guys, you realize that I have only 6 weeks, well less than 6 weeks, left in my first semester abroad. This is crazy just crazy. So many things are in motion. For example, I have already bought my plane ticket home. (Actually never bought a ticket by myself before, it was fun, hope I make it home). Not to mention that it is November, that's the orange month, or am I the only one who thinks of orange when I think of November? And because it is November Advent is almost upon us. I get to see the Christmas season in Russia upclose and ... (hmm that's a bit cliche), nevermind. True I will be home for Christmas and New Years, which is too bad. Russians celebrate 2 New Years, Dec. 31 and Jan. 13 I think. I was told there will be much partying. Oh well, guess I'll just have to make do with America (and I think I will, ya America!).

Another interesting fact is our group here has found out who our new spring semester additions will be. This means we get to break in the newbies, always fun.

I should also mention that tomorrow shall be my Birthday, or the day of my birth if you will. Yes, it will be the big 22, drinking and the like will be so last year, on to more important things (No, I guess I don't believe that either). Actually I will be celebrating in Moscow, never said that before. Don't worry I'm sure I'll have pictures.

Petersburg, End

2005-11-05T13:23:00.000+03:00

Time to finish this chronicle. Day 7, we got up early again and bused for another 3 hours or so to Novgorod. Once there we pretty much went straight to the Kremlin. Like Pskov, Novgorod is over 1000 years old and at one time was the biggest principality, until Moscow cam along. What can I say about yet another Kremlin? This one was bigger than most, maybe even Moscow’s, and had some restaurants and stores in addition to the churches. We toured around there a bit and then went into the old part of Novgorod.

This next place was a little interesting. You walk out of the Kremlin on the river side and have to walk across the windiest coldest bridge I have ever been on to reach the old section. Once there you literally see 5 churches well about as close as you can build 5 churches together without connecting them. It’s really just odd, but pretty amazing if there was ever a time when they were all active churches.

Hm, ya, so that was Novgorod, we were only there for about 5 or 6 hours, but lunch was pretty good. After we left we headed back to St. Petes and our train home. The train ride home was in 3rd class (we went up in 2nd). They are pretty much the same except for the lack of walls. No cars just a lot of beds, but as always our group was all together and we managed to make it an enjoyable experience. 12 hours later, we arrived in Vladimir and got to walk home in the rain.

That was Petersburg and then some, it was great.

Petersburg Part 7

2005-11-05T12:58:00.000+03:00

Continuing on with the chronicles of Petersburg, I arose early the next morn and we were off to Pskov. If you have never heard of this town, don’t feel bad, neither had I. However, you should know that it is one of the oldest cities in Russia, somewhere around the 1000 year mark. So that’s almost interesting. Anyways I was there for 2 two days, and it was actually really fun. Although it was a 4 hour bus ride, just to get to our hotel. The good news was the hotel was right across the river from the Pskov Kremlin, so we had a nice view.

We had a quick lunch at the hotel and then we meet our tour guide, who was really cool for once, and went to tour the Kremlin. The Kremlin was about the same as every other Kremlin I’ve had the pleasure of touring in Russia, which is about 6 or so. This one was different in that it actually had a death trap at the entrance (long corridor with many archer windows, which was cool), but it only had one church, so we were like whatever (Moscow’s Kremlin has 4, Novgorod had 3 I think, Ryazan had maybe 3). Still, this particular church had the remains of Alexander Nevsky, if I heard the tour guide correctly. Either way it was very beautiful.

We then headed back to the hotel for dinner; I think it was chicken again. Russians really seem to like chicken, at least that’s all we ever get on these excursions. After dinner, a few of us went to a café. I had green tea and ice cream, cost me like 2 dollars and it was delicious, I love Russia. I think we closed of the night with some uno and “hanging out” at the hotel.

Day 2 in Pskov started with another hour on the bus. This time we ended up at an old fort near Pskov, I can’t say I was listening to hard to what our tour guide was saying so I don’t really know anything about the place or the name or where it was or why we were there, oh well. It was really beautiful, I mean like Russian countryside at its best.
There were hills and a lake and trees and a dog .That dog was cool followed us around and everything. There was also a little mountain side waterfall and like 7 swans. After the fort, we went to a monastery in another small town. (Although this small stand had a blini (pancake) stand, that was so good) The monastery was also pretty neat, but every time wee go to one of these religious sights it’s a little weird. You know large group of loud Americans in what is a place largely full of monks and pilgrims.

Next, it was back to the hotel for dinner or lunch, I think we only had two meals that day. I think it was chicken again; no maybe it was cow this time, whatever. That night we went to a sauna. This was fun. The place was great, it had a nice hot sauna room which was adjacent a larger room with a pool, plus it we had the whole place to ourselves. I was surprised at how good it felt to sweat for 15 minutes and then jump in a freezing cold pool; you really do feel good afterwards. The sauna was also a bar so you could order say a beer or ice cream, which I did, right in your own private room.

This ends our time in Pskov it was short and sweet, tomorrow we were off to Novgorod and then back home.

So long week ten

2005-11-03T16:56:00.000+03:00

So I've been in Russia for like ten weeks. It's been pretty cool, actually you guys should know this since you have been reading thus far. Well where I'm? At this exact moment I am in my usual internet cafe typing a blog post and kicking myself for bothering to look at the 9:30 Club's website to see that two of my favorite bands will be in town while I am not (Dropkick Murphys and Pennywise). Overall? Well I'm doing just great (aside from classes). Hmm, ya classes are not ... very ... um ... fun. Oh well I guess, can't have everything right? I think the real questions is how's my language doing. That I am afraid I can not answer, in fact I've been wondering that myself lately. Honestly I don' know. I can tell you that I have grown leaps and bounds since I got here, but I am where I should be after 2 months? Who knows, I seem to be doing just fine with classwork, and I am talking more with the few Russian's I know, but well, who knows.

With all the posting on Peter I haven't mentioned much on what I have been doing in the past few weeks (oh don't worry you guys will here it) Needless to say I have "obtained" (bought) some skates and plan to christen them tomorrow (I love hockey).

Either way, my first semester here is coming to an end, I'm home in a month and a half (how weird is that?). And in a week I'll be 22 years old (also weird). I'll be posting some more on all of this soon, keep watching!

A night of absinth

2005-10-31T16:40:00.000+03:00

After the sushi bar, we meet up with pretty much the rest of our group at and ex-pat (ex-patriot) place called the “Red Lion”. This brings me to the reason for the title of this post. One of my friends was determined to try some Absinth, a very interesting liquor not sold in US bars (although it is legal to purchase and own it). So we decided to give it a shot and I must say the presentation was awesome. The first shot we ordered was brought to us with two glasses, a spoon, packet of sugar, a plate, a straw, and a napkin. Since we knew nothing of how to use all of these, we took the waiter up on his offer to mix it for us. This is how it went. The sugar was poured onto the spoon and than melted with a lighter. The sugar went into the absinthe, which was promptly lit on fire. After rolling the sugar around the glass a bit, this glass was poured into the second glass and covered to put out the fire. The top glass was then put on the napkin with the straw sticking out. At this point, the shot was ready so I downed it. I think my throat was on fire for about 5 to 10 seconds and as I tried to hold back several coughs, I was confused as to why the waiter was still holding the first glass upside down on the napkin with the straw sticking out. After staring at it for a few seconds, I realized what the purpose was. Well I tired. I don’t really think I inhaled anything seeing as taking deep breathes was not the easiest thing in the world to do after a shot of absinth.

By the end of the night, my friend and I had done three shots of absinth (another friend 2 and another 1). Overall, we ordered a lot of absinth. The result for me was a very strong buzz (I’m not very versed in this subject), but not much else, which was surprising when compared to my friend, who much worse than I (these are not my own words). Apparently, I handle my alcohol well (no hangover either). Anyways, it was an experience, and if you don’t know what absinth is, well you are already online. That’s how Petersburg ended, the next day we were off to Pskov and Novgorod (about which I will post soon and conclude this story, till then).

Petersburg Part 3

2005-10-31T16:17:00.000+03:00

Day 4, last day in Petersburg. Our plan for today was the Hermitage and than nothing but free time. Hmm, what can I say about the Hermitage? It’s very big, very ornate, and full of very old things from various times and various cultures.
I am really not the best to describe museums, and after walking around this huge palace for 3 hours my memory mainly consists of being very tired and bored of looking at pictures. I will say that I saw some neat stuff there, some Trojan artifacts, some Picassos, and some pretty amazing rooms. My favorite thing was the big medieval and renaissance weapons hall. They had some cool rapiers and stuff (what can I say; I’m a fencer). Other than that, the biggest thing I take out of it is simple being able to say I was at the Hermitage. Actually, there is a Russian film called “Russian Ark”.
It’s pretty good if you ever want to check it out. It’s shot entirely in one scene, no cuts, and takes place all through out the Hermitage, during different time periods. Basically, it was cool to have seen what various rooms I walked through were actually used for by the Tsars.

So after the Hermitage, we went to Lunch at a nice little place about 5 minutes away. The best part of this meal was the fact that we had desert (we never get desert!) and the best part of desert was that it was caramel flavored ice cream (my personal favorite). It was good.

Following lunch and some walking around Peter, I ended up at a sushi bar with two friends. I can honestly say that I spent a several hundred rubles on this meal and would have spent more, it was the best sushi based meal I have ever had. (And don’t take my word for it, the parents of one of my two friends joining me for dinner own a sushi bar and she agreed that it was an excellent meal. We began the feast with sushi and sake. I had my favorite, octopus. Actually, this was the first time I have ever tried sake, turns out I really like it, one of the few alcohols I feel tastes good. We than moved on to the main course, I had a very good rice dish of some kind. After this, we decided to get some more sushi, and another round of sake. That last sushi platter was very good, had some octopus and unagi (eel, right? Well it was eel, but I believe its called unagi). Overall, the meal was excellent, although I had always thought sake was supposed to be really strong, whatever we had was definitely not, but this leads me to another tale …

Petersburg Part 2

2005-10-29T11:59:00.000+04:00

Ok so continuing on with part 2 of that which was Petersburg, this would be the second day. It was Sunday so I trekked out early and went to Mass on Nevsky Prospekt. Mass was as good as always. The Main Church in Petersburg is pretty big, although do to renovations the actually area in use is small.

There is not much to say about the Mass itself. It was pretty much the same as in Vladimir, although I do like the Church in Vladimir much better. Actually, they had a history of the Church displayed in English, which was neat to read. The Soviets used it as a storage room and than as a theater after the persecutions began, the Catholic Church only got it back in 1993, which is after a fire in the 80’s.

After Mass, I went back to the hotel for some lunch at Sbarros. Did I mention a Sbarros was directly beneath the hotel, oh man talk about heaven, actual American pizza; it was great, and only 30 rubles, sweet. Anyways, lunch was good and then it was off to a few more churches. We went to Kazan Cathedral and the Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood. Kazan Cathedral is clearly modeled after St. Peters in Rome
(Although I must say that having been to both it really fails in comparison). Still it is very pretty and houses the famous Kazan (I think) Icon.

The Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood is built on the spot of the assignation of Alexander II. The preserved the spot where he fell (but he actually died a few weeks later), that was really cool to see, and the entire church is covered in mosaics and is built in old style Russian architecture. It was raining almost all day, so after these two churches we didn’t really feel like walking anymore. For dinner, we found a KFC (I know, some much American food, but it’s so good!). Oddly enough, KFC’s in Russia do not sell biscuits, nor could I find sweet and sour sauce, unfortunate. That night we went to the ballet. We saw Don Quixote (I have a feeling that both the musical and book and any movies are more entertaining then this was) Ok, so it really was as bad as I would want to make it out to be, but did you guys know that there is no talking in a ballet, only dancing, just people dancing over and over again, ya … 3 hours, ya. I actually like the Nutcracker, but this was just not as interesting. I didn’t hate it as much as I thought I would, but I don’t think I will be going to many ballets anytime soon. I think the biggest beef I had with the only thing was the fact that they don’t finish the story, it stops before you get to the part where Don Quixote’s friend fights him. After the ballet, the night was pretty much over. We went back to the hotel and hung out for a bit, than off to bed.

Day 3 was our excursion to Pushkin (Tsarsky Selo), which is one of the giant palaces of the Tsar’s. It was very big and very blue. Actually, I think I want to decorate one of the rooms in my future home like half the rooms at this palace, ornately decorated walls covered in gold and a tasteful painting on the ceiling, with some ten feet tall blue porcelain fireplaces.

I think that would be a nice room to have. Basically, Tsarsky Selo makes you wish you were a Tsar, even Nicky the 2nd. Not only was the palace beautiful, but the grounds around it were equally amazing. Gardens, lakes, and islands, the kind of place you think you ought to touring on a horse. After this little excursion, we came back to Petersburg for lunch (I don’t remember where). Then we went to a hockey game. This was very fun. I miss hockey (haven’t seen it for a year people!) Hockey is so fun to watch and our team (Petersburg) even won 3 to 0 I think, no fights though. After the hockey game we stood around outside (its cold in Peter) talking to some Russians for a while, that was interesting. Next I decided to have a nice cup of tea at a café and then I hit up Sbarros again before they closed (I love their pizza!). Although it was late, I still decided to walk down Nevsky to Dvortsovaya Square (the place by the Hermitage). It was really cool. There was no one there except for this one Sax man, reminded me of the Simpsons. So I sat there and listened for a bit, he was really good. So that was day 3. I think I will stop there for now, day 4 is pretty interesting and I don’t have time to do it justice right now, but it will give you guys something to which you can look forward.

More on Peter, but first ...

2005-10-26T14:44:00.000+04:00

I have more on my trip to Petersburg coming, but I wanted to take a quite break to mention a few things that had happened today.

First, I want to thank everyone who has sent me a package thus far. When I got back from Petersburg I had 3 packages waiting for me at school, than I got another the next day. This was awesome. I've never had som much mail before (even at home). Everyone was quite jealous too, mail is a big event around here. Aside from the packages themselves I now have several bags of swedish fish and have already eaten many of them. Its great, I think I might even have enough to last till December (although this is not confirmed since I have been known to consume a few thousand in just two weeks). I also got my personal favorites in Halloween candy (mmm candy corn). I'm not going to go to far into this, I'll just say it was a very nice surprise.

Snow is the next topic. Yesterday and again today it snowed for the first time since I've been here. Today the snow is even starting to stick to the ground a little bit. I can't say that it is all that cold though, no more than Maryland in November or December. Although I can only assume what snow in October will mean for the weather down the road.

Lastly,this morning I had a very stressful spider attack. I really hate spiders. Today as I was about to get into the shower, the spider living in the bathroom corner decided it would be a good idea to walk all around the ceiling. Oh, that was fun. This was right after I had seen another spider in my room on the way to the bathroom. So I was already freaked and now I had to keep checking where the spider was before I closed my eyes. I mean I don't want to open my eyes to a spider in the face. To think that I let that stupid spider live and this is how it thanks me. As far as me and spiders go, I don't seek them out and I don't kill them as long as I can't see them. But if I find one in my room or one seems a little to "active" its dead. Sorry but I'm not taking the chance that one could crawl on me when I'm not looking. Anyways, I couldn't fid the spider that was in my room before I left, that will be a comforting thought before I go to bed tonight.

Well, thats it for now, I should have another Peter post tomorrow or the next day. Keep reading!

Petersburg Part 1

2005-10-24T15:27:00.000+04:00

Come with me to St. Pete's

We arrived in Petersburg at about 10:30am on Saturday (that’s Oct. 15th). From the train station to the hotel to our first excursion, to come back to the hotel, we had a lot to do. During our first day, we bused all around the city center and stopped about a million times to take pictures of various things (I took over 350 pictures). Most of the day was spent in St. Peter and Paul’s Fortress. Actually, the coolest part was we saw all the tombs of all the Tsars. From Peter the Great to Nicholas the 2nd. What can I say, we had lunch and some more bus touring, then back to the hotel.

The day was very interesting, but my favorite part starts with dinner. Most of the people in our group went to dinner at “The Idiot” (which is apparently pretty famous). It was a nice a place. It was very casually decorated, like a house might be. They had a small library, chess sets, places to lounge, and a bar in addition to the restaurant, and nothing was really separated. The food was excellent, and I say that with surprise myself because the place is completely vegetarian. I’m actually a big fan of meat and usually like to have it with my meals, but I really didn’t miss it this time. I had some rice noodles with vegetable and a very good sauce (I love rice noodles).

So dinner was good, after that it was time to hit the St. Peters nightlife. The first place we went to was basically like every other bar I have ever been to, full of people, smoke, and loud music. Not really my kind of place. A few us opted to find a better place, and that we did. After walking and talking for a while, we decided on a place called “The Money Honey.” This place was decorated in a western (that’s cowboys people) theme and featured some live Rockabilly. Although not my favorite music, rockabilly is pretty good (especially live). Still, the band took “frequent” breaks, so I needed more. Upstairs I found what I was looking for; in one room, they had your typical discoteka, hip hop, rap, and a ton of bad dancers. But in the other room, I stumbled into a live Russian ska band. That was fun. I definitely spent most of my time in there. The band was really good and put on a good show (I was skanking a bit, which apparently Russians don’t know how to do cause no one else was).

We stayed late and had a great time, and that was just my first day in Peter, more to come.

Overnight Trains

2005-10-24T15:25:00.000+04:00

My trip to Petersburg began with a 12 hour train ride. We left at 10:40pm. This was the first time I had ever been on an overnight train before. It was also the first time I had ever been in a “Harry Potter” car. I don’t know the English word, but you know those enclosed rooms on the train we have all seen in the Harry Potter movies. It has 4 beds and a little table (a bit crapped too). I was in a car with one of my friends and two Russians, who barely spoke to each other. But the whole group was in the same train car, so I can’t say I spent too much time in my room.

It was pretty fun, plus it was the first time I was able to play Euchre in way too many months. Two of my friends actually know how to play, so we grabbed a fourth and jumped right in. I should mention that I was pair with the newbie and we managed to win 2 out of 3, she was a fast learner. We must have played for about 2 hours (Although I should ask, is it a general rule that you never lead with trump? Do most people play the way and I just never noticed? Well whatever). Actually, while I am on the subject of Euchre I find it interesting that the friends I have taught to play are now teaching others to play and so on and so on. It really seems to be spreading through my group of friends back home. I glad everyone likes it so much, and I think I should give credit to my teachers. To Busha and Grandpa and basically my Mom’s whole side of the family for letting me play when I come up and for teaching me the tricks of the trade.

Anyways, the train was not the best place to sleep for me, I must have woken up every time we stopped (at least 5 times), but my pillow was very comfortable. I was pretty neat to wake up in St. Pete’s, but word of advice if you every do an overnight train, slippers work much better in the bathroom than socks.

Back from Peter

2005-10-22T11:11:00.000+04:00

Hey everyone,

Woo! what a week that was. I have some pretty interesting stories to tell you. I'll do my best to get it all out soon. For now I will just say that Petersburg is one fun town, and hockey games are still only 100 rubles (I'll let you do the math on that one). So everyone can start reading again, I should have my first few post up by Monday.

Wow, that will be 9 weeks too, oh interesting.

See you soon (By the way I took like over 300 pictures, so I'll see if I can't geta few up here)

Gone till next Saturday

2005-10-14T12:43:00.000+04:00

Well, I'm giving all you guys premission to actually not check my blog over the next few days. Why? Because I will not be posting. Why? Because I will not be in Vladimir. Why? Because I will be in St. Petersburg until next Saturday, 8 days from now. Ya, pretty cool. As my schedule goes, I will do four days in St. Pete's, 2 in Pskov, and 1 in Novgorod, plus the overnight train, which is fun in itself. Of course everyone is welcome to post a few comments while I am away, I just won't be reading them anytime soon.

Anyways, Пока and Goodbye! (for now) До суббота!

Stuff and thoughts

2005-10-13T17:16:00.000+04:00

Unfortunately for all of you out there I have some good posts I'd like to put up right now, but since blogspot doesn't let you upload directly from your brain to your computer, they will have to wait.

None the less, I thought I would do a quick post today just in case I don't get a chance tomorrow. Why is that a problem, well for those of you who don't know, tomorrow night I am off to St. Petersburg, via the red-eye train from Vladimir. Yes 8 glorious days of no class in St. Pete's, Pskov, and Novgorod. For all of you who do have class next week, I laugh at you, ha Ha! But do not worry I shall tell you how much fun I had when I get back.

Anyways, tonight I am headed to a cafe for some no classes fun. Keep watching, I'll be back!

Food

2005-10-10T15:45:00.000+04:00

With some inspiration from home, I thought I would do a quick post on what I have been eating here so far. I think the best way to describe Russian food is take any regular meal, say steak and potatoes, fry it, and add a lot of butter and you’ll have a typical Russian meal. That is not as much of an exaggeration as you may think. A good example would be the nice lump of butter I get in my oatmeal every morning. But all this does seem to be balanced by the fact that Russians work a lot. The second thing about the Russian diet is that you eat a lot, and I mean really a lot! I remember one morning, waking up to the biggest fried egg I had ever seen. It was bigger than the frying pan, and we have a big frying pan. I really don’t think I can describe this well enough, oh well, the point is most days I barely finish my plate, not to mention all the side dishes. Needless to say, I am eating well.

Ok so what do I eat? Well, the usual breakfast dish is oatmeal, well its actually called каща, which is porridge in general. This can be an oatmeal type, or a cream of wheat mixture, or a rice and milk mixture (my favorite), or milk and this brown grain type thing. All of this is pretty good. Of course, there are also eggs and these little fried dumpling things filled with cream cheese, oh man those are so good! I can’t leave breakfast with out mentioning Blini, Блыни. These are like pancakes, only thinner and more delicious. You can eat them with just about anything, jams, cheese, meats, anything.

Lunch is mainly soups, either Щи, “Shii,” or Borsch. I love borsch, it’s made from beets and its delicious, especially with Сметана, “smetana.” Ok I think here I should try to explain smetana. Basically, it’s like sour cream and Russian’s put it on everything. Seriously everything, in soups, on blini, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Not my favorite thing, but still good with certain foods. By the way the kalbaca, sausage, sandwiches are really good here; I eat them a lot.

Dinner can be many things. Usually it is meat, with a side dish and salad. The side dish can be various rice dishes or potato dishes, or brown casha. The salads here have no lettuce. Actually, I’m not even sure it exists in Russia. They don’t use lettuce for anything here. I miss lettuce. It was always my favorite part of a salad. This one time I order a sandwich and it actually came with a piece of lettuce on it, oh man I was so happy! Well, anyways, that’s what I have been eating, along with a lot of tea, really a lot of tea, every meal and then some. But that’s ok, cause I like tea, tea is good.

Hanging with the Russians

2005-10-10T15:42:00.000+04:00

Ya so I finally went to the Friday night thing after daily Mass. I must admit I was a little freaked at meeting so many new people and whether or not I would be able to talk to them, or what would happen. My fears were pretty much baseless and pointless. If I need to learn anything, it is that when you say Universal Church that is exactly what it means. It doesn’t matter where you go. Catholics are everywhere and they are all the same. They are all ready to welcome new comers into their homes and make them feel like a part of the community. I mean you simply can’t regularly attend daily Mass, maybe even Sunday Mass, without getting to know the Priest and every single active member of the Parish. It’s great, it’s amazing, and it’s a good thing for me.

Here is how it went down. After Mass I was asked my at least 4 people if I was coming to the get together. I knew none of these people. So of course, I said yes and I was lead into the Parish center sat down and given some tea. I honestly think I have drunk more tea in 6 weeks than in my entire life, every meal and then some. Everyone got tea, snacks were served, and I meet several people. Everyone was very nice, very eager to meet me and speak to me in Russian. Many of them evening spoke some English (I am constantly amazed by the number of people here who speak English, German too). Anyways, we talked for a while and then we sang a few praise and worship songs. There happened to be some Sisters there and they quickly grabbed the guitar and got the rest of us going (Nuns rock!). After a few songs, everyone settled in for some faith talking. Ok so, I didn’t really understand anything that was said, but at least its good language practice and to be honest I still had a lot of fun. This all took about 2 hours and after it was all over of course, everyone stayed around for a while and talked. All and all, it was a great evening and I can’t wait for next week. I am also pretty happy that I can now say hi to several people at Mass.

Week 6 in Review

2005-10-10T15:40:00.000+04:00

I suppose I should title this post Thursday and Friday in review, since I really didn’t do much Sunday thru Wednesday. There was Sunday Mass, than 4 days of class. Hmm how interesting. Ok, but Thursday, we (our American group) went to the local planetarium. All I can really say is it was a planetarium, I think they are pretty much the same anywhere you go, although it was in Russian. It was interesting to see what they could do with some pretty old technology. I mean it was only lights and projections, run by an operator flicking switches. Still it looked a lot better than you (I) would have expected. Was it fun? Well it was something to do and really, anything can be fun when you are with friends. After the planetarium, I stopped home real quick and then it was off to daily Mass. This time I was actually able to follow the evening prayer and the Mass, so I enjoyed it as usually. The cool thing is that after Mass the Priest, Father Serge, gave me a book with the Mass parts in Russian to help me follow along. That was great. The book is also in German, Polish, and I think Swedish or Finnish. It also has a Latin part in the back. I likes it a lot. He also gave me a personal invitation to come to the Friday night prayer group, which I did and will post on next. So Thursday was a very good day.

Friday, our group went to a Kindergarten (Детский Сад, in Russian, Detsky means children and sad means garden). This was pretty fun. Little kids are always cute and they even put on a little show for us. The have a nice place to, every room was beds in it for naptime and they get little tables for meals, and plenty of toys, a music room, and a big playground outside. They said there are 180 kindergartens in Vladimir, that’s pretty amazing. After this, I bummed around one of the local markets for a while and took a walk in the big park we have here. Then I was off to the Soccer Match. The Torps played a good game but … Actually no they played a lousy game and despite having possession most of the game they blew several chances to score and the game ended in a 0-0 tie. It was disappointed, but I had no time to ponder this cause I had to get to daily Mass. Friday’s Mass was a special one because it was Our Lady of the Rosary, and the Mass was being offered for a sick member of the Parish. After Mass, we had a quick half hour of adoration, which was great. I had not been to adoration in like 4 months and I missed it. Then I went to the prayer group, which I will comment on next.

So this leads me up to now, 6 weeks into my first semester aboard and in a very good mood. I do hope that my Russia keeps improving, its gotten a lot better, but I still have trouble hearing what is said to me and my conversation skills are not where I want them to be, we’ll see I suppose.

To be sick or not to be sick

2005-10-10T15:36:00.000+04:00

A little advice if you ever go to Russia, don’t get sick, or at least don’t tell any Russian’s about it. Seriously, Russian’s can be pretty crazy when it comes to illness and being sick. They really go for the “home remedies” but they have some the weirdest ways to go about it. For instance, did you know that you should never take a shower while you are sick? Of course, not it will only make things worse! Also, if you have a cold, you can’t drink anything that is cold, silly that will only make you colder (although ice cream is ok for some reason). One of my friends also enjoyed some iodine on the feet to help cure a cold. To top it off, when another friend went to a doctor for the flu, he was giving some nice water mixed with coal to drink (I think he refused that one). These are only the ones that come to mind. My point is that I’m doing everything I can to stay healthy here. (The shower thing is annoying, but the coal thing really weird). What really gets me is how most of these remedies are based off such far off logic (more so than most home remedies), i.e. a shower could make you hot (give you a fever) and than being wet afterwards will worsen your cold. It’s just strange.

Basketball

2005-10-05T17:00:00.000+04:00

Just a quick post today.

After classes today, I played basketball for the first itme in like 2 months. It was great. There were 4 of us Americans and of course a bunch of Russians. In case you were wondering, basketball is the same, pretty much anywhere you go. I should mention that I am pretty tried right now. I guess my skills have slipped ever so slightly. Either way, I hope this becomes a weekly thing, it was fun.

Packages

2005-10-03T15:56:00.000+04:00

I know, a lot of posts today, I had a long weekend to write.

I got my first package yesterday, Sat. Oct. 1st. It was from my Mommy. She sent me some a few things I asked for, but it was great just to get a package. I think the funniest part was the nicely squished top, despite the fragile stamps all over the box. (Hmm, “fra’ji’la” must be French for package) I have a sinking suspicion that it happen somewhere in the Vladimir postal service, they don’t seem to be the most caring people in the world. Nevertheless, everything was fine and the occasion was joyous none the less. It only took about 2 weeks to get here too, that’s not bad. I mention this on the off chance that some of you out there my want to send me a package in the near future and I thought I would list a few things people could send me if they felt so inclined.

Well number one would have to be a bag of Swedish fish, I love those things and you can’t get them here, so I do miss them. I think number 2 would be another bag of Swedish fish, maybe not as big a bag as number one, but still a small bag of Swedish fish would be nice. For number 3 I’m going with a bag a Swedish fish, I love those things and you can’t get them here. Number 4, well I guess I bag a Swedish fish would be nice. Lastly, number 5 would have to a big bag of Swedish fish (only the original Swedish fish will do), I love those things, and you can’t get them here, in Russia.

All joking aside, I had been told that some people were asking what they could send me, now you know (but you’ll have to email me if you want my address) ((is anyone else constantly amazed as to how email is not only like a 10 year old word, but its already a common verb?))

Anyways, mail is kinda funny around here. The people at the post office seem to take offense when you ask them to do their job, like selling stamps or mailing letters. The mail systems is also painfully slow here, it took like a week and a few days for a letter my friend mailed to himself to reach his house, which is like half a mile from the post office. I’m to worried about it, as I hardly ever use the place, but I do feel that it I ever needed to overnight something, anywhere, they would just laugh at me.

Television

2005-10-03T15:54:00.000+04:00

I swear, half of Russian television is just dubbed American shows and movies. Actually, some of the Russian shows look as if they rerecorded the soundtrack and dub it over the show, you can tell it’s a little of sync. It’s just so weird how much American culture has made it to Russia, especially the music. You can’t listen to the radio for 5 minutes without hearing an American song. They like a lot of 80’s music in Russia. In the grocery stores, I can find most American brands and products. Book stores have a ton of translated American, or English (Harry Potter), books. I’m not complaining, I really just find it humorous. Actually, if you want to know something interesting, German is a pretty popular language around here. Many Russians seem to be learning it and it’s definitely a common subject at the various universities and institutes. For instance, my tutor is a German language major. I can’t say it’s as popular as English, so many people in Moscow speak English, but its popularity has surprised me.

Happenings in America

2005-10-03T15:42:00.000+04:00

As I believe I have said in previous posts, I stay on the up and up with the news back home. I thought that I would post on a few things that I have found interesting or what not, although most of this is probably old news to all of you.

First off, what’s with all the Hurricanes? I’ve been reading all I can about them, and I check the death toll, maybe too often. It’s just so inconceivable; I can’t believe that so many have lost there lives from this.

Next would be John Robert’s appointment to Chief Justice, that’s awesome. Actually, I was unaware that there are now 4 Catholics on the Supreme court, how weird is that? And now we have a new nomination to go through, must be interesting.

Hmm, actually, that seems to be all I can think of, oh well, moving on to sports …

I see that the Washington Nationals will not be going to the play-offs. That makes me happy, it makes me very happy, and in fact, I think I will do a little happy dance write now. That was fun. I really, really dislike the Nationals (should’ve been called the Senators anyway). Why? Because they move into town and all the sudden, it’s the “Nats” and “Oh we love our baseball team, hooray, Washington finally has a baseball team.” Um hello, Orioles? Ya and thanks to the Nationals, the Orioles games are no longer on network channels (like FOX) and no one seemed to notice, or care, when the O’s (a nickname they actually earned) were on top for like 2 months. Ya well, now the Nationals are just as bad as the O’s and collapsed at the end, just like the O’s, so there.

The Redskins beat Dallas, in Dallas, in 3 minutes. Do you understand how much I wish I could have watched that game? I and so jealous of everyone that did, I had to read about it. Oh man, that is so awesome; this makes the whole season for me. Oh and the win was so sweet, ahh why did I have to miss it! If anyone taped those last 3 minutes, please save it for me! I also see we beat Seattle, that's three in a row. Plus Nick Novak is now a Redskin (former Terp people!) that's awesome. I miss football.

Hockey season is also about to start, or maybe it has depending on when I post this. I was deprived of my hockey last year and now I am in Russia. That’s two years without the Washington Capitals.

Hmm, most of this has been about a sport, that’s a little weird, guess I know where my priorities are. I honestly don’t think about sports that much.

Five Weeks

2005-10-03T15:37:00.000+04:00

Today, Friday, Sept. 30, marks five weeks of living in Russia. Wow, that’s pretty cool. I really can’t believe that I have been here for five weeks. Thinking back, it seems like I’ve done so much, but I have really only just begun. In two weeks, I will be in St. Petersburg for a good 8 days. That will be amazing. It’s not only Petersburg, I also get to do a day in Novgorod and one other provincial town, plus it’s a week off from classes.

I have been to Ryazan, Moscow, and all over Vladimir and the surrounding country side. I think I’ve been to like 20 museums and a lot of churches. I seem to have gotten the schedule down for the Catholic Church here in Vladimir, and I got 2 days in a row of daily Mass going (hooray!). Things are going pretty well with the Church here. Mass is interesting in Russia, and I can at least sing along with the music now. I’ve also meet a couple of Germans living here. They’re not Catholic (yet), but they go to Mass and are active in the Catholic community. Anyways, the girl, Liza, let me know about a weekly get together every Friday after daily Mass. I would have gone today, but I couldn’t find her after Mass, and didn’t really know where I was supposed to go or what I was supposed to do. Oh well, there is always next week. By the way, Thursday we did a kind of Mass and evening prayer combo, which was a little hard to follow, but I was very excited about saying evening prayer in Russian, it was cool.

My home life is really great. I talk with my Babushka a lot, although ever since we got the TV for the kitchen, meal conversations have been a bit less. Either way, I finally fell comfortable here. I also definitely feel at home ion Vladimir. It was so weird coming back from Moscow and getting to Vladimir and being like “yup there’s the movie theater, there’s the Golden Gates, and oh they finally finished paving that sidewalk.” You know. Basically, Moscow was all new and unknown, and Vladimir was … I don’t know. And the buses and trolleys, no problem.

Classes are well “eh”. I don’t know, it’s kinda like being back in high school. I am at school from 9 to 2:30, lunch at twelve, and my classes are all chosen for me. I got used to looking forward to my classes in college, because I chose them, I wanted to go to them, and most of the time I enjoyed them. Here, it’s hard, asking complex questions in Russian is not easy, and the classes are boring and a bit slow (although I really do need the practice). Nevertheless, I suppose I am learning, so I can’t complain too much.

I am curious as to where I will be in another month. I can only hope that I will start thinking in Russian soon, which will be so cool. I think I can guess that my language skills have probably double in my time here so far. They weren’t very good to begin with, so don’t think that that is too impressive, Wait, actually you should think that that is extremely impressive, Yes assume that I am awesome. Anyways, if they double again in another month, I’d be pretty happy.

Well, that’s a long post on where I am at after 5 weeks.

Updates and pictures

2005-09-29T14:47:00.000+04:00

I am starting to hate loading pictures, it takes so long, but for you guys, I do it. I pick out a couple pictures of Moscow to share. I also wanted to give an update post, which I will do now, since I can't seem to get my pictures up.

Ok so its been 5 weeks, I have been to Moscow and Ryazan, and in 2 weeks I will be going to Petersburg for 8 days. That will be awesome. I can't wait. This week actaully went by really fast. The heat has finally been turned on in my apartment, but it is still very warm around here, like 60's (16-19 in celsius), so that really isn't a good thing. I haven't really done much since I got back from Moscow and home life has been normal. My babushka and I have gotten into a routine of watching this Russian serial everynight, its actually ok, and she loves it.

Tomorrow, we go to the house of some famous Russian avator, which really isn't all that thrilling. Ah! but Ivan showed me the fencing club here in Vladimir on Tuesday. That was great. I haven't seen fencing in like 4 months and I was happy! I don't know if I'll be going there yet or not. They did have equipment I could use, but the only teacher there was foil, not epee, so if they have a Epee instructer, that will be great, if not, who knows, yes, I like commas, a lot.

Classes I still pretty boring, but what can you do about that, at least I'm learning a bit. My language skills have definietly improved. I'm curious to see where I will be in another month. That's it so far, hopefully the pictures will work better tomorrow or something.

Moscow

2005-09-29T14:44:00.000+04:00

Sorry about the lateness of this post, I’ve been busy the last few days, more homework than usual (Plus I’ve fallen asleep several times, oh well). However, here I am and I have much to tell of my journey to Moscow.

First off, yes I would love to live here (maybe next semester). I love the big city and the city life. In addition, all the churches and historical sites reminded me of Rome. Rome is the kind of place where are can’t walk two steps without tripping over a relic or Church or ancient Roman thing, and Moscow is more like 5 steps, which is still pretty good.

To get there, we had a 4 hour bus ride; there is always some much traffic on the road to Moscow. But when we got there, we drove right to the Moscow River to take some pictures of the Kremlin. Actually, my first impression was how small St. Basil’s Cathedral was. I guess the hype suggested to me something like St. Peter’s in Rome. Honestly, it’s smaller than the Basilica in D.C. But I should say that after I got up close, I was pretty amazed, the colors, the architecture, it was extraordinary! Definitely worth seeing. Anyways, the hotel we stayed at was the one built for the 1980’s Olympics, very big and very Soviet, which was pretty cool. The rooms were nice and the came with bidets (Don’t know how to use them, but they’re so weird!!). From the hotel, we went straight to Red Square. That place is amazing. It’s enclosed by the Kremlin, Lenin’s Tomb, St. Basil’s, and the GUM (huge expensive mall). I must have 30 pictures of Red Square alone. That was pretty much what I did last Friday. Moscow is great, and more western than I would have thought. There are ads everywhere and tons of expensive places to shop. Although many of the stores keep a distinct Russian feel. I doubt it looked like this 15 years ago. And gees in the GUM, one store was selling T-shirts for about $100.

Ok so, that night I stayed in talking with my tutor, Ivan, and a few others (and a beer, Baltika #3). Saturday I got to ride the Moscow Metro for the first time. That was fun. Now, I have ridden the Metro in D.C. and New York. Moscow impressed me. The feel of the Metro was a cross between NY and D.C., The trains looked and felt like the NY subway, but the station was more like D.C., not as clean, but a whole heck of a lot more architecture. Everyone says the Moscow Metro is so beautiful, I didn’t really notice. There is a lot of faded marble and a lot of statues, but nothing to impressive. That being said, I only saw like 5 or 6 stations, so don’t take my word for it. Still what it was very nice, it was pretty. On nice thing is that once ride costs about 15 rubles no matter where you go and you can save money by buying more rides. That was much nicer than D.C. ever was, plus there really is a train like every 2 minutes, also much better than D.C.

The Metro took us to an art museum. We walked around there for about and hour and a half. The art was very good, but it was an art gallery, not my thing. So by the end I was pretty tired. But after the museum, I got to eat at McDonald’s! Now before you judge me and say, “Oh gees who goes to Russia and eats at McDonald’s?” you ought to live in Vladimir for a month. Fast food does not exist in Vladimir, save for the Mister Gamburger, which is a far cry below McDonald’s. I’m sorry but I wanted a Milkshake so bad. I hardly ever eat McDonald’s, even in the States, but oh man was it delicious! I can still taste my milkshake! Prices were about the same as in America for anyone who cares. After McD’s, we had some free time so we hit the Arbat (market place) It all down one street, which is closed for cars. Lots of souvenir stands, not much to say, but it was fun.

After all of this, we headed back to the hotel for diner, a friend and I stopped at another large souvenir market behind are hotel. We had some interesting discussions about prices there; bartering is fun. Next, we were off to the Moscow Circus. This was a great circus. I have not been to a circus in like 10 years and now I don’t know why I waited so long. This circus had everything, Elephants, bears, horses, cats, dogs, and a juggling monkey. Oh man, I even got to see a bear ride a motorcycle. And that clown, oh man, ya. That night I traveled back to Moscow center and had a late dinner at TGI Friday’s. I know, another American joint, but the girls I was with were apparently dying for a good margarita. It was so weird, you’d of thought they would put Russian stuff all over the walls, but no, it was very American.

Sunday, was Lenin and the Kremlin. Yes, I saw Lenin, and for 80 years dead, he looked pretty good. It’s pretty amazing to say that I have seen the body of the Father of the USSR and Communism, as we know it today. I still can’t believe it, it was weird. It is also a very serious business, no cameras, no bags, nothing that could possibly be a weapon, very solemn. When you see Lenin, you also walk by the graves of revolutionaries and famous Soviets. I also saw the grave of Stalin. That was interesting, pretty freaky. After this, we headed into the Kremlin. This was also awesome. Inside there are several big Cathedrals, a giant bell, and the huge Emperor’s Cannon. The Assumption Cathedral is entirely covered in fresco on the inside, which was pretty neat. Oh! I also saw the Bolshoi Theater, of course. It was closed for renovations, but man it was very, um well bolshoi (which means big).

Ya so that was Moscow for me. It was great and I highly recommend a visit to the city to anyone, interesting or not. Don’t worry about the language, too many people spoke English there (I’m trying to learn Russian!)

Back from Moscow

2005-09-26T16:04:00.000+04:00

Hey Everybody!

Well, I've returned from my weekend in Moscow. It was awesome! I want to live there! I have a lot to tell you guys about the trip and all that good stuff, look for that post soon (I plan to write a few tonight) I think I was going to say something else, but I just blanked ... so, till tomorrow!

До Завтра!

Pictures

2005-09-21T14:49:00.000+04:00

Here are some more pictures for you guys,

This would be me sporting my new soccer scarf in my favorite orange hoodie(which I recently broke off the zipper, this makes me very sad)

This is the countryside around Ryazan, also very beautiful. This was Russia at its best. I could have honestly stared at this scene all day.

This is the Kremlin in Ryazan. It was very beautiful, see one of my earlier posts about that trip.

I ihave a ton of pictures, let me know if anyone wants to see something specific.

History Lesson

2005-09-21T14:47:00.000+04:00

Recently I finished reading a book (pretty cool right?). I just have to recommend it to every single person I know (and my blog makes this easy).

“The Catholic Church Through the Ages: A History” by John Vidmar, OP. I love this book. Don’t be put off buy the title, it is seriously one of the most interesting books I have ever read. It is about 340 pages long and takes the entire history of the Catholic Church and puts it into a short but easily expandable format, which is easy to read and enjoyable.

I got the book because I was looking for a history of the Church that I could read in a few weeks and not fall asleep. What makes it great is it gives enough information about everything to satisfy curiosity and sparks an interest to read more. The author did a very good job of touching on everything, but keeping it short. Plus, not only does it trace history it also traces the theology of the Church. To make this short, the reason you need to at least check out this book is because at the end of every chapter (divided into 6 ages of the Church) the author provides a list of 10 or so books , rated for difficulty, that expand on everything that was talked about in the chapter. For example if you just read about the Crusades or the Reformation you could go to this reading list and pick out 3 books that go into more detail on the subject. This was very cool. And I just want to mention again that the author did a very good job making everything interesting (well, Church history is pretty fascinating anyways). If you have any interest at all about the Churches past or want to learn about the Church in general, read this book. I know for a fact that they sell it at the National Shrine at CUA, but it’s cheaper on Amazon.

Stuff to do

2005-09-21T14:37:00.000+04:00

Hello America,

Today, or tonight rather, I am starting my pre-typing of all my post. Don’t worry; I think I can still swing some randomness into my posts. I thought I would make this post a general update. To begin, Today marks the 4 week anniversary of my leaving home. 4 weeks ago tonight I was in a hotel in D.C. preparing for my trip to Russia. I don’t think I need to tell you that it has felt like ages since then. I really feel like I’ve been here forever, which is a good thing and a bad thing. Good, because it means I am finally adjusting to living here and bad, because I have a whole year a head of me. If I don’t pay attention, it will pass me by. I should say that culture chock and homesickness really *expletive deleted* suck, but once you get over it, living in another country is pretty fun. Last weekend was especially fun. I celebrated two birthdays, went to a rock concert, and a football (that’s soccer people!) match.

Two of my new friends had birthdays over the weekend. So of course we celebrated, with eating, drinking, and dancing (I didn’t dance). One of the cafés we went to was Arab themed and we even ordered one of those big smoking things, with the long tube and the water at the bottom. I don’t know what it was called. Everyone told me it was strawberry flavored. No, I still can’t taste, although I didn’t smoke it anyways, something about smoke and allergies that just doesn’t mix (plus smokers are jokers).

That was Thursday, Friday, went journeyed to another café for some live music. The café was great (very good kalbaca sandwiches) and the band was excellent. I can only describe theme as a kind of Funk/Blues Rock (I say blues mainly cause a few songs used a blues chord). It was Russian, of course, and I the guys really knew there stuff, some great solos.

The Football match was also fun. I an now a proud fan of the Vladimir Torpedos (number 3 in the league, ya!). I even got myself a Torpedo’s scarf and everything. The Match itself only cost 30 rubles, which is roughly a dollar, that was awesome. To top it off the Torps won 4 to 1 (would have been 5 but the ref just had to call off-sides).

So that’s basically what I’ve been up to. Weekdays are filled with homework and some interesting home life. My Babushka got a new microwave yesterday, although Russia is far behind the microwavable pizza industry.

Quick Post

2005-09-19T15:44:00.000+04:00

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to post real quick since I like to post often and its been a few days since my last post. Couple things I wanted to say.

1.) The internet cafes are just not working for me with writing longer post. So basically I've decided to begin typing up my posts at home and then uploading them here. Hopefully this will mean an increase in posts. Right now I'm have so much to say and so little time to say it!

2.) Its just 4 days until Moscow! Man, I've been reading about the Red Square, this place looks amazing. Don't worry I'll have lots of pics and posts for you guys.

3.) If you take a look at the statcounter, you'll see that we've surpassed 1000 hits on my little blog. I just wanted to thank everyone who has been visiting my blog over the past few weeks and months. (Especially those from the beginning, Julie D. from HC, the CSC gang, and anyone else) So Thanks!

P.S. Anyone from the CSC reading this, could you guys give a big hug and fond farewell the Fr. G, since I can't do it myself. I see he is saying his last Mass, sorry I'll miss it.

Thanks everyone !

Lacour Muesuem

2005-09-16T15:20:00.000+04:00

Today, Friday, our little American group went to a lacour and crystal museum. The museum itself is actually right in the middle of Vladimir next to the Golden Gates. It looks like a Church and for the longest time I had wondered what was inside. Well now I know. Its full of lacour painted art and many cyrstal glasses. When I say lacour I am mainly refering to the way most icons are painted. I'm sure you've seen Russian icon art and all those little jewlrey boxes with the smooth polished look to them. Maybe that's a bad way to describe them, but thery pretty cool none the less. So we saw many little boxes with very detailed and very beautiful pictures on them. Then we saw some of the most amazing glass art I have ever seen. It cost money to take pictures in museums here, so I can't show you, at least not know, but I was blown away. The way these artists are able to bend and warp the crystal and glass is pretty cool. They had this huge sculpture of colorful glass flowers. Anyways it was neat.

After the museum we headed back to school for lunch and a little lacour painting of our own. We got to paint some brouches. The artist showed us how to first rub this dust on the brouch (it was just a round pin), which was made of paper mache. Then you put on a base coat of white and from there paint your wildest dreams. Now, I really can't paint worth anything, but some of the people in our group are pretty good artists.

Anyways that was my day. It was something to do on a Friday afternoon. Tonight I will be going to a Russian rock concert. I'll have to let you guys know how that goes.

Musings on America

2005-09-14T16:18:00.000+04:00

I've been checking the news every so often and I must say its really weird to be so far away from it. Like the death of the Chief Justice, Hurricane Katrina, plus a ton of little stuff. Its like I read it and say wow that's interesting, or amazing, or horrible, and then I leave and pretty much forget about it. At the same time I know that if I was home I all this stuff would be of much more interest to me. Especially the Supreme Court such (being pro-life and all). Basically it like how I used to think when I read some international news, it would be like wow interesting and then I'd go about with my day. I also didn't even realize it was 9/11 a few days ago until I watched the Russian news do a quick segment about the anniversary. It was weird, that's all I can say.

I guess its kind of shown me how very locally minded people are. I mean yes many people like to follow international news, its more like a hobby to them. Where as to those experiencing it, its very really and very important. I can only say that gaining in international perspective of the world is very hard and you don't really know if you have one until go leave your own country and live out in the international world.

(P.S. For anyone's information, I am disappointed in the Orioles poor season ending, I am happy the Redskins won, and worried about my Terps, losing the Clemson again!)

Pictures!

2005-09-14T15:50:00.000+04:00

Well hello all. Guess what? I finally got some pictures up on my blog. The internet cafe here has been very slow in uploading images, but it finally worked today so here are two quick pics.

Here is a picture of my new Church. As you can see its pretty nice. Its small but very beautiful, and it is right in the center of town.

This is a picture of my room. The apartment is small, but I do have a very big room and it is all to myself. So I can't complain about anything there. The bed is a pullout sofa, but its comfortable enough.

As far as general updates go, my classes are as boring as ever, I really hope that improves soon, cause it is annoying. In a week and 2 days I am off to Moscow for the weekend. That promises to be a fun trip. We even get to see Lenin, which will be interesting. I can't wait! Culture Shock is slowly starting to decrease. I'm getting more used to everything and all that stuff. I've still got a bit to go before I feel at home, but it'll happen (thanks for all your thoughts and prayers). My Russian has definitely improved a lot so far. I am definitely better then I was at the end of last semester, although that is still not all that good. I do have a good time talking with my host Mom, she is great. I'm still not into a routine yet, and everyday gets a bit crazy at times, but that too is getting better.

So I hope to get some pictures of Ryazan up here soon, that was a fun weekend.

Back again!

2005-09-12T16:17:00.000+04:00

Hello everyone,

Well, I'm back from my trip to Ryazan. I really needed that weekend away and I feel much more relaxed back in Vladimir.

The trip itself was very fun. We left early Friday morning and drove 4 hours by bus to our hotel in Ryazan. That was long, but our little group made it fun. The hotel was great, it had a shower with hot water and everything. The hot water has not yet been turned on in my apartment yet and although my Russian Babushka and I expect it everyday, we are still waiting. From the hotel we went straight to the military special forces museum (special forces as in paratroopers). Although I understood only a little of what the tour guide said, what I did catch was very interesting. Tour guides in Russia are a very serious profession. These people know an unbelievable amount of information and are really respected. So that was interesting. That night we stayed in the hotel. After the long bus ride and long tour most of us were tried. We just hung out in one hotel room, and the hotel provided the "beverages." Before you get any ideas I don't get drunk, but I did have a very good Russian beer, Baltika #9. (On a side note, Russian beers tend to have more alcohol then American, except Baltika #0 that's non-alcoholic, as one of my friends can now tell you :).

Anyways, Saturday had another 3 museums, all very interesting, but all very long and all in Russian. So I got what I could from them. But the Ryazan Kremlin was very impressive and very beautiful, I hope to post pics soon. We saw Pavlov's house, an art museum, and a Russian poet's, whose name I've forgotten, house. That night we took a boat ride along the Oka river. The boat had a discoteka and bar on board. I stayed away from the dance floor, but several friends gave it a good run. It was also pretty entraining to see some new friends drunk for the first time. It was fun. Then Sunday, we came home, another 4 hour bus ride and then we walked home in the rain.

So that's what I did this weekend and now I am only 2 weeks away from a weekend in Moscow. I promise to get some pictures up soon, but till then, Пока!