Wow -- writing in my journal right now feels more than a little bit messed up, thanks to the timing of the Super Bowl… I suppose I'll start with that, and work back through the last day or so.
Notes on 2-8-2010
I was surprised at how small our group was, in the end! I really thought that many people had wanted to go, when John (our RD) mentioned that we could watch the game over here. As it stood, only Andrysha (Andrew), Will, and I showed up from our group, and Tatiyana (one of the graduated Russian students) was there too. So, at least I wasn't the only girl! We went to an English Sports Pub named, "The John Donne," which was managed by Pete Cato -- an American, from the NY/DC area. He reminded me *incredibly* of Penn Jillette (From the Magician Duo -- Penn and Teller), and also very much of my friend Mark: knows all of the Gentlemanly rules, but can have a slightly rough personality. Another trio of guys showed up (Americans studying abroad), at least one of whom had some connections back to our program through it's Russian-American Club, and so we had a tight-knit group.
Just before the game started, we learned that all the guys wanted the Colts to win (Tatiana and I were grouped with them by extension.) and Pete was rooting for the Saints. It seemed that a bargain had been struck with Pete -- Before Will, Tatiana, and I had ever even met him! -- that said something to the following:
Colts Win - Pete buys a round for everybody.
Saints Win - The guys {i.e. - Colts supporters} take a lap around the block, shirtless.
Tatiana and I spent the brunt of the game explaining how there was no way we were going to take part in a bet we hadn't been there to be a part of; while the guys tried to somehow convince us that yes, we too must run shirtless if the Colts lost. Fat chance -- but boy did they try!!! In the end, as you all probably know, the Colts lost, but Tatiana and I had earned enough good graces that we just got to go take pictures of the madness.
While the game was going on, Tatiana and I had a few really interesting discussions, centering around The Internet, which led to the state of Housing in Russia, and also on How Men Address Women.
Somehow or other, Tatiana and I were talking about the internet -- I think we were exchanging Russian Facebook (and V Kontakte -- Russian Facebook) information, and I told her I had no picture, because my internet is too slow to upload any media on -- and Tatiana told me she was surprised at how hard it had been for so many of us Americans to get the Internet once we got here, or that we had had so many problems with it.
On the other hand, we both agreed that we remembered a time when there was no internet, and then when it was really expensive, or super super slow. Starkly contrasting us, was a 14-year-old student whom Tatiana tutored for English. One day, they were working on how to describe things, when you don't know their names, and one of the pictures Tatiana had was of an old modem box. The girl had no idea what it was, and when Tatiana described how the internet used to be slow, and very expensive (so no one used it for more than an hour or so), the girl was *SO* surprised, and just incredulous about the whole situation.
Tatiana put it best when she said, "How interesting, that within our lives right now, there is already a whole different generation who can't even think of the Internet any other way [than it is]. "
Following that, and related to the situation of, "[Fast] Internet is Hard to Get!" Tatiana and I were discussing some of the housing. She was asking me what my apartment was like, whether it was a Soviet one or not (I think we agreed that it is, but it's very nice.), and was saying how she's kind of ashamed/upset at the conditions in some of the apartments that kids in our program/American kids in general have lived in. She told me something to the effect of:
'We have kids who go over to America, and they say it's so wonderful, and great; but then Americans come here, and they get to the apartments, and they are old or broken down or not very nice -- and I just worry what they must think of us… It must make some kind of an [negative] impression…'
She had a very good point, I think. We do tend to look at the places people live as a marker for their standard of living. No doubt that the US has some nice houses (Although I find today's "cookie cutter" housing somewhat less than appealing…), and we have a very high standard of living, for the most part -- I can see where the difference between that, and a slightly more run down apartment/home would seem like a very big difference. On the other hand, I've been living in an older home for 14 years in the states; and my apartment here is old, but very nice -- so I suppose I'm fortunate in that regard.
Speaking of US-Russo differences, Tatiana told me how, instead of her Senior year of high school, she did some kind of Adventure-Backpacking-ish sort of thing! Way rugged, and definitely out-there: a big backpacking trip through Russia -- with no "defined campgrounds" or "trails" like here in the US!
It was pretty funny, she told me she went camping in the States at one point, and she was so surprised by it all! 'You pay to get into the park itself -- you have *parks* for this kind of thing; and then you have your *own* little area, and no one else can come there…' It was really amusing to hear.
She said she thought it would be cool if they could have US students come over to have the same experience, but we figured there'd be a few problems:
a. the US school system probably wouldn't accept a year/semester of adventure-backpacking for any kind of credit
b. many US students probably wouldn't find the idea all that appealing
and c. -- most importantly -- we figured that not too many US parents would agree -- even if their kids wanted to -- to send their 16-18 year olds off to Russia for Adventure-Backpacking-Roughing-It-In-The-Wild-ness!!!!!!
The last, big, topic we spoke on had to do with how men treat women in Russia -- in the context of how a man will speak to a woman, and the kinds of things he will say.
This is because, in the course of the evening, but more towards the beginning, Pete had some coarser things to say in my direction -- which left Tatiana absolutely floored. (The most important example being a "warning," to the effect of, "If you do/say that again, I'm going to punch you in the vagina!" -- Said with about the same deliverance as the comedian Dane Cook talking about punching a shark in the nose, or like someone saying to a guy, "If you do that again, I'm going to kick you in the groin." Etc.)
For me, I let it roll due to a mixture of recognizing it as: crazy, back-and-forth bantering (and the fact that he reminded me of Penn Jillette); a smattering of being used to Dane-Cook type humor; and having grown up being friends with mostly guys [and all the teasing, jabbing, putting-down that can come with it] as I've grown up. Tatiana, on the other hand, was visibly upset that he'd said such a thing to me, and told me, "In Russia… A man would *never* say such things to a woman! Maybe, among her really close friends -- but even then! And certainly not a man who is so much older than a girl…" I tried to explain the bar-speak/irreverent humor bit to her, but I don't think it worked. To tell the truth, I was a little taken aback by the comment myself, but I also knew there was no harm behind it. (There really wasn't; and everything is hunky-dory.)
Other Highlights of the night:
*Great time all around with everyone: Tatiana, Andrusha, Will, Scaleigh, and Pete
*Lots of laughter, jokes, and free hot dogs!!
*Learning that Pete is also an Anna Maria Island native!!!!
**No kidding, his family has a place on Gulf Drive! When I said that my Nana lived a mile from the stoplight over the bridge, his face got deadly serious, and he said, "Get out!" And I said, "No, really!! Why would I lie!?!" And we repeated that back-and-forth for a bit, before he smiled and told me about his family's place there.
**So, go figure, that in the US, where no one knows where Anna Maria Island is, halfway around the world, in Moscow, in an English-Expat Sports Bar, on Super Bowl Sunday (Or Monday Morning) -- I should not only meet someone who *knows* where it is, but I should meet another Native!!! How funny!
*Getting offered a bartending Job at the John Donne -- I will have to talk to John (RD) to see if it's possible, maybe as one of those "internship" kinds of things…
*First "shot" of Russian Vodka
*That deserves clarification: 1. Yes, I'd already had a bit of Russian vodka, in screwdrivers the night before. But it wasn't a "shot," by its definition.
* I say "shot" because I got 1 drink out of it (1/3?) and then Will took it from me and finished it, because I didn't do it in one go!! I definitely gave him a, "Hey!!!!!" but I wasn't *too* upset about it.
Not Highlights:
*Not leaving the bar until 6:00 AM ish, so that I didn't get home until basically 7, and had no time to sleep.
*Having a slightly more boring class first thing in the morning -- first time with that teacher, too!!!
*I had one of those periods of time I thought I was *finished* having, once I left Purdue:
**When you are so tired, your short term memory is effected to the point of it having *only* a 2-3 second span.
**When you are so tired that you look at a word, and try to write it and:
*A. Your hand doesn't write in a straight line.
*B. Your letters vary radically in size, within the same word.
*C. You forget the word, 2-3 letters into it -- EVEN IF YOU'RE STILL LOOKING AT IT.
*D. You realize what you've written isn't even a written language….
*E. A day later, you're still afraid to look at your notebook, because at the end of class, by a quick glance, you realized D.
(Well, maybe I can sell it to an art gallery.. = O_o = )
Classes went pretty well for the rest of the day, with just a bit of the sleepiness factor (I went to put my head down, during lunch.) but no more illegible notes; and in Dance, we added a Viennese Waltz type action to our Kadril (Cadrille) steps. At one point, the teacher and I got into a bit of a Cha Cha action!! It was pretty funny.
An action we were doing, in place, had the basic Cha Cha action (Step, Step, Step-Step-Step), and we were standing across from each other, in a small circle. I don't know when, or why, but at some point, we caught each others' eyes, held them -- and she moved into the basic pattern, and I followed!! The rest of the class was laughing, and were pretty amused, and the teacher and I had a bit of a ball at our own private "joke."
We also started some International Rumba -- cucarachas!!! Oh, man, it was so funny/interesting/good to do them again. I was a little downhearted though, because I'd heard her say "Jive," (C'mon, this is *me* we're talking about -- yay, Jive!!!) but she was saying that we wouldn't really get to the Ballroom dances (I *think* she said just the Latin-American ones…), and that we wouldn't be doing Jive, for certain. (But I'd die of laughter to see it taught to newcomers, in Russian… =^_~= ) So, it was Rumba.
It seems that we'll be doing some kind of "performance" in a few weeks (Maybe two?), so she told us that the Rumba would be a secret. --- Fast forward to today, and John asks us how dance was, and I said great, 'cause we started Rumba -- oh *geeze* did everyone jump on me!!!! I actually felt really bad about it -- but I thought John knew, at least!!! Ha ha ha, oh well. Bigger things to be worried about than that -- not like I told any teachers or anything. I figured John would know anyway, before the performance.
(2-20-2010 Note: Yes, he in fact would have found out anyway -- he sat in on another class where we were working on it. So I was right. XD)
Speaking of ballroom, it seems that the Tournament will be this weekend! Irina Fyodorovna (our teacher) said it will be this Saturday and Sunday, but I don't know if she is taking me to both days or not…. I will learn the prices and everything tomorrow, during class. But how exciting!!! I hope (I'm sure) I will see some great dancing -- but more than that, I hope to find coaches, so I can start dancing and finding a partner myself!!!!
I was hoping to get straight home after dance -- but I'd realized that I needed a few more notebooks and folders. I mentioned I was going back to the shop at Tretyakovskaya Station to one of the guys who said he needed some things too -- but he said he wasn't going to go. As it turns out, a whole bunch of us wound up going -- because some of the group was hanging out with two of the Russian girls from our dance class -- and they invited me to hang with them. I think they were just going to go walking or something, so they came to the store with me. Instead of getting to go straight home, however, a friend of one of the girls came along, and we walked around Moscow (Around the edges of the Kremlin, etc.) for an hour!!!!!
We did see some pretty things -- the most extraordinary being a bridge that had a bunch of "trees" on it -- they are all metal, and the shape of the tree tops is created by the large number of locks that people have placed on the metallurgy! They are from people who are married/dating/etc -- and it's very neat! Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera out at the time, so I'm going to go back later to get pictures!!! Also unfortunately: it was quite cold, and I still had all of my school things on, and carrying the new things that I bought -- so it wasn't quite as enjoyable as it would have been if I'd intended to go out, and wasn't carting things around. We wound up at a department store, in the end, where Juan, Andrusha and myself (and Tanya - one of the Russian girls) called it quits and went home.
(2-20-2010 Note: As it turns out, we went by the bridge with the Lock Trees on our City Bus Tour of Moscow today, and I did get pictures of the aforementioned "Trees" when we got out near it!)
I wound up chatting online for a few hours (bad Caitlan, I know), had dinner with Igor and Polina, and by 10:30 I was too tired to do ANYTHING -- I went to bed!!! I don't REMEMBER the last time I went to bed at 10:30!!!! And I slept all the way until 6:45!! (But I didn't get up until 7:15, he he he…) I was impressed. It did put a damper on any studying though… = @_@ =
And of course, this afternoon, here I am doing all of this journal work right now…. Granted, I've been a little productive: when I got home from school today (at 5:00) Polina showed me some of her pictures, and pictures of her friends, and then she asked me to help her with some of her English Homework again (I did last night, too) -- which was just fine! So, that took an hour, and here I am.
Back to 2-9-2010
I have a meeting in about 45 minutes with Pete (so I will be leaving in 15-20 minutes for that) -- he offered me a job (as I mentioned before), but I really can't work here… And John added a bit more about that too (more on that later) -- so it really may not be so productive. But, at the very least, I like the place, and I will probably pop in to visit, regardless of whether or not I do any kind of "work" there.
Time to go get ready -- I'll talk about today later -- AFTER I DO SOME HOMEWORK!!!!
Love,
Moscow Kitty; 7:20 PM
=^__^=
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