Journal 10
9-5-10
Whew!
I'm all moved into the new place now!! (Hooray!!!) But, it was a tough move! I had so much stuff, I'd really like not to think about it… Though I have to say, it's a really good thing I have as many smaller bags as I do… 4 Suitcases (2 big, 2 carry-ons), 5 mid-sized messenger bags, and a few other plastic bags later (and my clarinet!), I was loaded into the taxi, and saying goodbye to my host family.
I had one last, good laugh before I left though, learning one more piece of Russian culture. Once the taxi had called to say it was there, I told my host mum and sister, and I started to head out the door. They grabbed me, and said, "No, no, sit down!" while bringing me to the couch. Then they explained, "It's a Russian custom, whenever a taxi comes for someone, you always make them wait on the street for a bit!" Having said this, we sat for, I kid you not, 5 seconds more, and then they said, "Okay! Let's go!" Ha ha ha -- oh, culture and customs!
*****
I arrived at the new place alright -- it wound up being a bit difficult to find, because the Apartment is not really on the street that it says it is on. It's… Behind it. So in order to get to the place, by car, you have to turn off onto a side street, then turn onto ANOTHER side street, and then navigate a bit of a loop around road -- and THEN you finally get to the entrance for the apartment.
I called my new host mum, to say I was there, and she came down to greet me. She's a lovely, very friendly woman, named Elena. She was actually a bit apprehensive at first, about her place, saying, "I know that you were living in a place on Kutuzovskaya**, and that this is not as nice…" She trailed off, and I told her not to worry about a thing -- I was sure this would be just as lovely.
[**Where I lived before is, in fact, regarded as a very prestigious area of Moscow to live in.]
*****
I have to say, contrary to Elena's worries, I absolutely LOVE my new place! (Well, except for fact that there is no elevator, and she lives on the 4th floor… So, I was carrying all my heavy luggage up 4 flights of stairs… [Thankfully, she took some of the lighter things, and had a neighbor do the same -- so I didn't have to move it all, all by my self.])
I also quite adore Elena. She has such a great energy, and she reminds me quite a bit of of Mum [<-- One of my "Spare Parents" -- love you!]. I think we are going to get along fantastically. =^__^=
Best of all… THERE IS INTERNET!!!!! Internet, good, solid internet!!! In honor of that, I'm including in this journal my first online posts about the Move, and the going-ons of the day:
"HOORAY!!! I'm all moved in, safe and sound -- moving everything up four flights of stairs by hand -- and even better... ... THERE'S INTERNET HERE!!! *GOOD* INTERNET!!!! No more having to move around, no more having to be frustrated by intermittent signal, no more worries!!!! =^___^=
AND my host mum is *super* nice. AND I can shower at night after dance! AND I think my bed is going to be amazingly comfortable. AND there are shelves for all of my books and knickknacks! **AND** I don't have to worry about the floor anymore!!! There is a rug! Over the whole thing! Hooray!!!!!!
No knowledge yet on the distance to the Metro. I think she said 5-10 minutes... I'll be working to make that 5 every day... Don't want to be too much delayed.
Further Update: I'm basically in love with this place. =^___^=
The food is also amazing. I am stuffed full of a Chocolate-Banana milkshake from a new, "Beverly Hills Diner," and then came home to homemade cabbage soup (shi / щи) and a lovely stew over rice!! Yummy!!! Leftovers for lunch tomorrow!!!
And all this AFTER getting to go see "The Expendables," with some amazing friends (Including the ever-fantastic Pete!) -- this has been a truly awesome day. *purrs*"
***********
As you can tell from the above posting, I *did* get to go see the movie with Pete! I was *super* excited about that! It was, "The Expendables;" essentially, a throwback to the Golden Age of 80s action films -- with about every 80s Action hero that was worshipped at the time. So, of course, I was all geared up for a super-nostalgic, explosion-and-violence-filled, testosterone-pumped film. *laughs* It's a guilty pleasure.
But the film brings up my rhetorical question again: Why is it that my generation has so failed to produce any, "manly men" / "action hero" types, that we are still relying on our stars, who were young in the *80s*, to fill these roles for us?
… Kinda sad, isn't it?
All that aside, however, before I went to the movie, and after I'd started putting things away, I decided to take a bit of a break, and watch another nostalgia-inducing film that I had been dying to watch for weeks now: Jurassic Park. =^______^=
Some of the best lines:
"God creates dinosaurs, God destroys dinosaurs, God creates man, man destroys God, man creates dinosaurs."
"Dinosaurs.... Eat man... *Woman* inherits the earth."
"What's gonna happen to the goat?? He's gonna *eat* the goat??"
"Excellent."
"What's the matter kid? You've never had lamb chops?"
"Clever girl…"
-- Jurassic Park
God, I love this movie!!
Watching it also reminds me of the time when I was visiting my best friend Yitian, with another friend, and I dubbed over the scariest scene in the movie (the Velociraptors in the Kitchen), turning it into an exposé, on how the whole thing was really just a misunderstanding between the kids and the velociraptors. The Raptors were upset to discover that the people were getting food that was so much better than their own; and one just wanted to make a soufflé! But, without opposable thumbs, that cooking thing is just a little difficult, so they wanted the kids to help!
I will never forget the looks on their faces, when I broke out the "stereotypical French accent" for the Velociraptors.
[Those looks probably stemmed from the fact that I love French, and normally frown on any mockery of it; as well as the fact that they'd never dreamed, in a million years, of a Velociraptor having that kind of accent. … Which, for my part, was exactly why I thought it would make it so comical to do. I was right. Ha ha ha!]
**********
Before long, it was time to get to the movie! I met up with Pete in the Metro, and then we headed out to find the theatre it was being shown in.
Along the way, we stopped and bought some Ponchiki** (for old times' sakes) -- and Pete laughed about how I started a conversation going with the Ponchiki Lady, and how she basically gave me a discount on the price, because I didn't have change. "You just talk to everybody, don't you?" He said.
[** Ponchiki are kind of like doughnuts. Think, funnel cake batter, but in a mini-doughnut shape. Dusted in powdered sugar. Delicious. There was a place just down the street from where Pete used to work, that made AMAZING ponchiki, and I used to stop in and get some for us to share, while I was visiting.]
We also stopped and got M&Ms. Hooray! (As I would learn later, as Pete was sharing them with me during the movie, Russian M&Ms are different from American ones! They are slightly bigger, and the texture of the chocolate is also different. Randomly, they also don't have blue M&Ms. The shock!!!)
*****
A gypsy cab ride later, we met up with our friends Ksusha and Andrew, and we went in to watch the movie. As we sat down, Pete and I were like little kids, excited for our 80s-Action-Movie-Throwback, and he declared, "I want to see someone get stabbed in the face!"
[It's hard to communicate the feeling of that conversation only in type -- because that sentence looks absolutely *awful.* But it was said with all the facetiousness of knowing that this was going to be an over-the-top, action flick -- and given Sylvester Stalone's antics in the Rambo films, it really wasn't a stretch to expect that that kind of thing was going to befall some poor Bad-Guy-Minion in this film.]
That said, the, "Stabbed in the face," conversation led to Pete and I keeping a veritable tally of all the times some bad guy was killed or maimed through trauma to the face/head. It was macabre humor, to be sure -- but we were practically giggling the whole time.
All in all, "The Expendables," was every bit as amazing, if not more so, than I had hoped it would be -- and I was SO, SO happy that I got to go see it with my friends.
One last interesting fact about the experience: the theatre we were watching the film in was showing the film in English -- and yet, all of the subtitles for the Spanish lines in the movie, were done in Russian!! Funny. I wound up being caught between trying to understand the spoken Spanish and trying to read the printed Russian. Consequently, neither worked out too well. *laughs*
*****
After we got out of the Movie, Pete and I had talked about hitting up a new, American-Style diner that had just opened recently (The "Beverly Hills Diner") -- so we invited Ksusha and Andrew, and away we went!
If you'll recall the internet post I included earlier, this is where I got the chocolate/banana milkshake from. It was quite amazing. It was also 300-ish rubles. Which makes it an almost $10 milkshake. Upon seeing the price, I said, "This had better blow that Pulp Fiction milkshake right outta the water." [For anyone who hasn't seen "Pulp Fiction," one of the characters orders a "Five Dollar Mlikshake," to the chagrin of her "date" for the evening. Adjusting for inflation, maybe we were paying about the same, after all. … And yes, I did just make a serious reference to "adjusting for inflation." What are you gonna do about it? =^_~=]
Continuing the Movie-Related trend we appeared to have going, Pete and I got into a discussion about then movie, "The Sandlot," which brought us the following:
1. The agreement that "Baseball" type shirts are amazing.
2. That we should have a "S'mores and Sandlot" party -- i.e. We should watch, "The Sandlot," and make S'mores while so doing.
And most epic of all:
2. The, "S'mores and Bike Race" story….
Pete had once been part of a bike race with some family and friends. It seems to have been a multi-day/multi-member event, somewhere out in a mountainous/good for camping area.
As Pete was working on his leg of the race, he passed a group of campers, who were making S'mores. They invited him to come have a few, and Pete, happily obliged! -- In the middle of his race, remember.
Some time, and many S'mores later, someone asked Pete suddenly, "Weren't you racing?!"
"Oh S*&t!!! How long have I been here?!!?!?"
Pete jumped back on his bike and finished his leg. As he returned to his team's "camp," Pete's brother came running up to him, asking, "Where have you been?! The paramedics are out looking for you!!!!" His brother stopped suddenly, looking at Pete's face. "… Is that… *Chocolate*?!?!?!"
Upon the delivery of the "punchline," I fell to squeaking, [It was funny!!!!!] and Pete sai, "Oh… We got her squeaking again!!" -- And, as it usually happens when someone says something like that [as My Boys can all attest], I generally squeak more.
*****
A little while later, another of Pete's friends showed up, and somehow or other, the topic of how he met Tyler (one of My Boys) was brought up. Except that Pete wouldn't tell me where. When we had a moment to ourselves (i.e. when his female friend who'd just shown up wasn't paying attention), I teased Pete, "Aww, you don't want to tell me where you met Tyler! That's sweet…" Although, I knew it wasn't for my benefit that he wouldn't say, but for the other girl's. *laughs* It was funny.
**********
Eventually, we split ways, Pete going with his friend, and Ksusha and Andrew offering to give me a ride home. Being that I'd only just moved there, it was a little tough for me (because remember, the apartment's address is not physically where it seems to be) -- but thankfully, my visual memory carried the day -- and even Ksusha and Andrew were impressed with me.
Even better, while in-transit, Ksusha said that I was, "like Sunshine." =^__^= This is amazing, because while there is a joke that I am, "Moscow's Little Ray of Sunshine," -- she has never heard anyone say that about me. So she is yet another person who has decided to call me some variant of "Sunshine," all on her own!
See the following conversational excerpt (I was relating the story to a friend):
MK: It was pretty awesome
MK: No impetus from me
MK: But she and her boyfriend gave me a lift home (a group of us went to go see the movie, and they live near me)
MK: And they were asking me how I like Moscow, do I like the people, etc.
MK: And when I mentioned people act differently towards me, she said, "it is because you are like sunshine!"
MK: It was sweet
Friend: Right on.
MK: I really am Moscow's Little Ray of Sunshine!
*****
Once I got home, as you'll remember from the beginning of this post, I had an AMAZING dinner.
Also, Jon finally got back to me about class. (I had contacted him earlier, asking about when things were starting up, etc.)
All in all, it was a busy, but WONDERFUL day!!!!
Love,
Moscow Kitty
=^__^=
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