You knew it was coming

In fact many of you have been waiting for it. Oh sure, it’s nice a fun to hear about the sight-seeing and the adjustment to Russian culture, etc. But when the shit starts hitting the fan, now that’s when everyone starts tuning in.

Some of the kids in the group have come up with a phrase: TIR. This is Russia. It explains anything from why the internet café in Smolny (my campus) closed an hour and half early to the fact that you may want to buy something, and the person may want to sell it you, but they absolutely refuse to give you change for that big of a bill (which is generally worth about 20 bucks). Here’s another thing, if the entire country has this odd fanaticism about not breaking big bills, what is the point of having a 1000 ruble bill? It’s worth 40 bucks, and no one wants them. Literally, the only place you find them are atms. But this is Russia.

Another reason for my grumpiness at this particular moment is my health. I have a cold, which I’ve unfortunately passed to several people in the group. This is not your normal head cold either. This is a Russian, I-will-never-die, cold. My sinuses were in such pain on Thursday night that my host mom hard boiled two eggs and made me put the hot eggs on my cheeks to get my sinuses to open up. On Friday night, the eggs became an empty vodka bottle filled with hot water. I also had to put some sort of Vietnamese balm on my face and sit in front of a heat lamp for ten minutes. I have honestly no idea if any of it worked.

My host mom does seem to have turned a corner though. She’s now much more protective of me. She won’t let me out of the house without being assured that I am wearing enough layers. I wasn’t expecting this and so got into a little bit of an argument of the necessity of an extra wool sweater on Saturday morning before leaving for Novgorod. Tip guys: when trying to leave the house to catch the metro, take the sweater. Arguing with an old Russian woman in a language in which she definitely has the upper hand is so not the way to make up for lost time. As it turned out, I was actually glad I had the sweater later, but I’ll be damned if Natalia ever finds that one out. I have to live with her for a year; my pride won’t be broken that easily.

Oh, more Russian complaints. The food. Everything is fried, or if not fried, has some large amount of grease or butter or sour cream on it. Why are these people surprised that all their men die by 60 from heart attacks? I’m worried I’m going to have one before I get out of this country. Natalia and I are also going nine rounds over what an American salad is. Russian salads are julienned veggies in a vinaigrette or mayo-ish sauce. The word for lettuce is Russian is also the same as the word for just a general salad, so that took a little effort to get across. Plus they don’t usually put the same things in salads, and I’m not usually that big a fan of dill and eat the tomatoes sparingly. The big hurdle however, has been the salad dressing. I’ve finally managed to get across the idea of oil and vinegar on lettuce, (only after having lived through eating a soy sauce, olive and pickle combo) but the vinegar isn’t quite right, so the epic continues.

I suppose ya’ll want to know what I’ve been up to now? Causing trouble, as usual. No really. I wish I’d been causing trouble, my life is surprising boring considering that I now live in Russia (and look at how weird that sentence was to type). I didn’t even go out Friday night because colds and host moms will do that to you. We did have our trip to Novgorod this weekend, which was fun. It’s about four hour drive from St. Leninsburg to Novgorod, and its good little weekend trip. Novgorod is the oldest town in Russian, and the former capital of Kievan Rus. We did our site-seeing (don’t you love how I can’t decide how I want to spell that?) when we got there on Saturday, despite the cold and drizzle. We saw the oldest church in Russia (though not really because it got pretty well trashed during WWII and has been restored, so restoration has renewed some it?), a monument to the Russian millennium from 1861, which has statues of all the great Russians on it. Sunday, we went to a bunch of churches/monasteries outside of town of varying degrees of prettiness and historical significance. I am beginning to understand more about Russian orthodoxy, which helps me understand more about the people, but 70 years with religion is long time.

Anyway, I wrote this on Sunday with the full intention of posting on Monday, but then it took me four days to find an internet cafe with a usb outlet for my flash drive, so that'll have to be part of the rant and the metro deserve an entire entry all to themselves. That said, life is getting more interesting...

As always,
From Russia With Love

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