dinwe went out to eat today with olga kolodina (who went to beloit last spring), jenny zale (from beloit) and their friend sarah. beforehand we went to a presentation olga did at the american center about beloit...answered some questions, blah blah.
i'm almost certainly coming home on may 1...plan accordingly :-) i'm sad that the army is once again making me rearrange my life, but it will be 8 months since i've seen my boy in may so it's worth it. i'm just hoping it all works out.
sorry, not much to report! :)
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Sunday, February 25, 2007
cold!
so the other day it got down to -32 C here, which, we figured out, is -25 fahrenheit. i don't think i've ever been that cold in my life! and i'm from maine! haha. but seriously, it was pretty bad. going outside was extremely painful, literally.
thursday night we hung out with some other international students on the 7th floor after going out to eat at this really nice chinese restaurant. we met some italians, austrians, germans...it was very interesting. and my russian was really good, it was definitely a good russian day. one of the austrians told me that when i spoke russian i didn't have an american accent (not like i have a native one...i just don't speak like an american, which is good).
we went to the canadian embassy on friday with the quebecois...every friday evening there's a little party sort of thing for canadian citizens and their guests. apparently as americans, once we get our passports back from the school, we can get in even without a canadian to host us. it was a lot of fun...they had cheap food and drinks. i got hot chocolate with mint liquor in it for only 70 rubles, so that was pretty nice.
after that we went to korpus 4 to hang out with the quebecois some more. we met this british guy who was hilarious AND a professional chef. he made this pasta sauce that smelled SO good, it was insane. i didn't have any but stuart said it was amazing.
yesterday we went to a georgian restaurant, which was quite good. then we watched "v for vendetta" and chilled out.
tomorrow is back to classes :( and i've done no homework so i'll be busy today i believe.
thursday night we hung out with some other international students on the 7th floor after going out to eat at this really nice chinese restaurant. we met some italians, austrians, germans...it was very interesting. and my russian was really good, it was definitely a good russian day. one of the austrians told me that when i spoke russian i didn't have an american accent (not like i have a native one...i just don't speak like an american, which is good).
we went to the canadian embassy on friday with the quebecois...every friday evening there's a little party sort of thing for canadian citizens and their guests. apparently as americans, once we get our passports back from the school, we can get in even without a canadian to host us. it was a lot of fun...they had cheap food and drinks. i got hot chocolate with mint liquor in it for only 70 rubles, so that was pretty nice.
after that we went to korpus 4 to hang out with the quebecois some more. we met this british guy who was hilarious AND a professional chef. he made this pasta sauce that smelled SO good, it was insane. i didn't have any but stuart said it was amazing.
yesterday we went to a georgian restaurant, which was quite good. then we watched "v for vendetta" and chilled out.
tomorrow is back to classes :( and i've done no homework so i'll be busy today i believe.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
tuesday
so turns out the class wasn't cancelled--it was held on friday instead, haha. but nobody knew so i guess only one girl showed up, and she only came because the professor of the class is the coordinator of this girl's program. haha. not a big deal though.
grammar class is pretty rough...our teacher is one of those who you desperately want to please. she chastised us the other day for not knowing our prefixes better. i really like all my professors. they've all been really nice about me leaving early.
i'm adding some new pictures to picasa, so check the link on the last post to see them. we went to a bar last night with some other international students, mostly from quebec. two were from england and one from korea. at this bar, for an hour on monday (7-8 pm) you can get 4 drinks for the price of one haha. all i had was some orange juice, pineapple juice, and a milkshake. it was lots of fun though. before we left we went to the bathroom and some girl was lying on the floor of a stall, passed out, with a pool of vomit. we were a little freaked out because all we could see was her hair and thought it was a dog or something. anyway we told one of the club guys and they figured it out...our good deed for the day. then on the metro coming back some drunk guy was yelling at my friend nikki from nepal...she pretended not to speak russian haha. he called her "chornaya", which is sort of like "blackie." in a lot of ways russia is kind of racist.
there was a bombing at a mcdonald's in st petersburg. we talked about it today in my "news of the day" class...they're not sure what provoked it but only 10 people were hurt and nobody killed.
anyway i hope you're all doing well. keep emailing and commenting!
grammar class is pretty rough...our teacher is one of those who you desperately want to please. she chastised us the other day for not knowing our prefixes better. i really like all my professors. they've all been really nice about me leaving early.
i'm adding some new pictures to picasa, so check the link on the last post to see them. we went to a bar last night with some other international students, mostly from quebec. two were from england and one from korea. at this bar, for an hour on monday (7-8 pm) you can get 4 drinks for the price of one haha. all i had was some orange juice, pineapple juice, and a milkshake. it was lots of fun though. before we left we went to the bathroom and some girl was lying on the floor of a stall, passed out, with a pool of vomit. we were a little freaked out because all we could see was her hair and thought it was a dog or something. anyway we told one of the club guys and they figured it out...our good deed for the day. then on the metro coming back some drunk guy was yelling at my friend nikki from nepal...she pretended not to speak russian haha. he called her "chornaya", which is sort of like "blackie." in a lot of ways russia is kind of racist.
there was a bombing at a mcdonald's in st petersburg. we talked about it today in my "news of the day" class...they're not sure what provoked it but only 10 people were hurt and nobody killed.
anyway i hope you're all doing well. keep emailing and commenting!
Saturday, February 17, 2007
hello again
i was supposed to have a class on thursday but it got cancelled, woo hoo :) so it's been a long weekend. yesterday we went to this open-air market which was INSANE. some guys were yelling "devoshki" (girls) at us, and one guy grabbed my arm and called me "baby" trying to get us to buy stuff, haha.
we ended up finding a shop that sells english dvds, which we bought for pretty cheap. very nice :)
today we're going to a used bookstore to get some english books. i've already read "animal farm" and "fight club" and i'm working on "trainspotting" right now. after that i think it'll be "demons" by dostoyevsky. we shall see.
classes are going well, boring as all classes are. i can't believe i've been here for a little over two weeks, it's pretty insane.
not much else to report. i hope you're all doing well.
we ended up finding a shop that sells english dvds, which we bought for pretty cheap. very nice :)
today we're going to a used bookstore to get some english books. i've already read "animal farm" and "fight club" and i'm working on "trainspotting" right now. after that i think it'll be "demons" by dostoyevsky. we shall see.
classes are going well, boring as all classes are. i can't believe i've been here for a little over two weeks, it's pretty insane.
not much else to report. i hope you're all doing well.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
hello :)
i put up more pictures from red square and some more dorm ones...so check it out! PICASA.
i attached them to the previous Russia album so you'll have to find where the new ones start...if that's too confusing let me know.
yesterday stuart, jordana and i went to red square for the maslenitsa festival. as far as i can tell it's sort of a celebration of lent-easter-the eventual coming of spring. kind of hard to explain. we heard they were giving out free blini, haha. anyway it was wicked cold and windy, the snow was whipping into our faces. ugh. but it was very pretty. we only stayed for a bit and then ate in the sbarro in the mall on red square. we went onto the metro at around 6:15...HUGE mistake. people were EVERYWHERE. we got into the train car and got pushed against so many people. then when we tried to get off no one would move...we almost didn't get off at all until some russian girl got aggressive and pushed, haha. then we all tried to cram onto the escalator. it was seriously like we were cattle. we decided no more metro-riding on weekdays :)
but yes, the pictures are of red square, st. basil's, etc. very very pretty.
today we had more classes. my grammar class is pretty intense. as is my lit class. we read a story that we had in english AND russian, which is actually harder because you're so tempted to just read the english. classes are 90 minutes each...we begin every day except friday (no classes on friday!) at 10:30 and go straight (except for 30 minutes of lunch) until 3:30. except thursdays, when we only have the morning class! so we shall have long weekends :). i've only had to buy two books which is nice.
oh, and i found out i'll probably be coming home earlier than expected. rob can't get june and will have to have may, so i'll probably leave here on the fifth, assuming nothing changes with the army.
i miss you all!
i attached them to the previous Russia album so you'll have to find where the new ones start...if that's too confusing let me know.
yesterday stuart, jordana and i went to red square for the maslenitsa festival. as far as i can tell it's sort of a celebration of lent-easter-the eventual coming of spring. kind of hard to explain. we heard they were giving out free blini, haha. anyway it was wicked cold and windy, the snow was whipping into our faces. ugh. but it was very pretty. we only stayed for a bit and then ate in the sbarro in the mall on red square. we went onto the metro at around 6:15...HUGE mistake. people were EVERYWHERE. we got into the train car and got pushed against so many people. then when we tried to get off no one would move...we almost didn't get off at all until some russian girl got aggressive and pushed, haha. then we all tried to cram onto the escalator. it was seriously like we were cattle. we decided no more metro-riding on weekdays :)
but yes, the pictures are of red square, st. basil's, etc. very very pretty.
today we had more classes. my grammar class is pretty intense. as is my lit class. we read a story that we had in english AND russian, which is actually harder because you're so tempted to just read the english. classes are 90 minutes each...we begin every day except friday (no classes on friday!) at 10:30 and go straight (except for 30 minutes of lunch) until 3:30. except thursdays, when we only have the morning class! so we shall have long weekends :). i've only had to buy two books which is nice.
oh, and i found out i'll probably be coming home earlier than expected. rob can't get june and will have to have may, so i'll probably leave here on the fifth, assuming nothing changes with the army.
i miss you all!
Monday, February 12, 2007
classes, finally
hello...
we finally started classes. jordana and i are in group 3 (grouped by level). not as high as i'd hoped i'd be, but turns out it's pretty difficult. today we had our lit course, followed by phoenetics and grammar. i'll have my hands full, haha.
i got winked at by some guy on the metro the other day, so that boosted the old self-confidence that was destroyed by the housekeeper who thought i was a small boy, haha.
i'm so hungry. cafemax (where i am accessing the internet) has overpriced food or i'd get some. as i sit here there is kenny g. christmas music going on, no lie. pretty intense.
so on saturday night jordana, stuart and i went to a bar. those of you who know me know how much i drink, haha. this place was out of EVERYTHING we ordered. so finally i just ordered some random alcoholic drink...turned out to be the most intense thing in the world. it was some type of liquer with black jelly beans in it...the guy lit it on fire, then put another empty glass on top. then he took the empty glass and put it over a straw so you could inhale the fumes. so i inhaled, then drank. it was pretty effing intense...very very hot and tasting like black licorice. i still have no idea what it was.
yesterday we went with olga, a russian student who was at beloit last year, and sarah, a girl from illinois who is here on an internship, to see a movie. stuart, jordana and i watched "hannibal: the beginning" in the english theater. it wasn't too bad, not great.
well i guess i'm going to go use up the rest of my internet time, then head to the grocery store. :)
we finally started classes. jordana and i are in group 3 (grouped by level). not as high as i'd hoped i'd be, but turns out it's pretty difficult. today we had our lit course, followed by phoenetics and grammar. i'll have my hands full, haha.
i got winked at by some guy on the metro the other day, so that boosted the old self-confidence that was destroyed by the housekeeper who thought i was a small boy, haha.
i'm so hungry. cafemax (where i am accessing the internet) has overpriced food or i'd get some. as i sit here there is kenny g. christmas music going on, no lie. pretty intense.
so on saturday night jordana, stuart and i went to a bar. those of you who know me know how much i drink, haha. this place was out of EVERYTHING we ordered. so finally i just ordered some random alcoholic drink...turned out to be the most intense thing in the world. it was some type of liquer with black jelly beans in it...the guy lit it on fire, then put another empty glass on top. then he took the empty glass and put it over a straw so you could inhale the fumes. so i inhaled, then drank. it was pretty effing intense...very very hot and tasting like black licorice. i still have no idea what it was.
yesterday we went with olga, a russian student who was at beloit last year, and sarah, a girl from illinois who is here on an internship, to see a movie. stuart, jordana and i watched "hannibal: the beginning" in the english theater. it wasn't too bad, not great.
well i guess i'm going to go use up the rest of my internet time, then head to the grocery store. :)
Saturday, February 10, 2007
saturday
Hello everyone. Jordana and I are at cafe stereo, checking email and such. good times.
So yes, we visited the Novodiechy Convent which was extremely cool. Very ornate as you can see in the pictures. they had a poster saying "please don't take pictures of the nuns" in russian and english, haha. we went with these two other american students...then we went to this restaurant where i ordered lemon juice, thinking it was like lemonade...nope, it's pure citric acid haha. i put 5 packets of sugar in it but nothing helped. so i ordered a water (for 100 rubles...like $3). then i had these lamb kabob things (the restaurant had a combination middle-eastern/central-asian/european menu). it was good and really not that expensive.
the past few days we've just been chilling out. trying not to get too burned out on museums, since we're here until the end of may. i've watched a lot of mystery science theater, it's my little connection to home. :) i'm trying to get jordana and stuart into it as well haha.
i hope you're all surviving the cold!
So yes, we visited the Novodiechy Convent which was extremely cool. Very ornate as you can see in the pictures. they had a poster saying "please don't take pictures of the nuns" in russian and english, haha. we went with these two other american students...then we went to this restaurant where i ordered lemon juice, thinking it was like lemonade...nope, it's pure citric acid haha. i put 5 packets of sugar in it but nothing helped. so i ordered a water (for 100 rubles...like $3). then i had these lamb kabob things (the restaurant had a combination middle-eastern/central-asian/european menu). it was good and really not that expensive.
the past few days we've just been chilling out. trying not to get too burned out on museums, since we're here until the end of may. i've watched a lot of mystery science theater, it's my little connection to home. :) i'm trying to get jordana and stuart into it as well haha.
i hope you're all surviving the cold!
Thursday, February 8, 2007
pictures, finally :)
i'm sorry that i'm sending you to another site for pictures, it'll just take me FOREVER to load them all on here. so here's my picasa site. if you can't get onto it let me know, i'll figure something else out:
http://picasaweb.google.com/caitlinelectric
check out the "russia 2007" album.
i put captions at the bottom of all of them explaining what they are.
again, sorry!
we're at a cafe right now that has free wireless internet, so that's pretty sweet. i ordered blini (russian pancakes) with chocolate...pretty excited about that :)
anyway i hope you're all doing well, enjoy the pictures!
http://picasaweb.google.com/caitlinelectric
check out the "russia 2007" album.
i put captions at the bottom of all of them explaining what they are.
again, sorry!
we're at a cafe right now that has free wireless internet, so that's pretty sweet. i ordered blini (russian pancakes) with chocolate...pretty excited about that :)
anyway i hope you're all doing well, enjoy the pictures!
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
tuesday
hello everyone :) and thanks for continuing to read.
we took our placement test yesterday...it was actually quite difficult. but we met some other international students (americans, italians, and austrians) so that was nice. the floor they live on is SO much nicer than ours (the majority of our toilets lack toilet seats), but hey, it's part of the experience i suppose.
people keep staring at me on the metro. i assume it's because i have short hair and don't dress like a supermodel (most women in russia look like supermodels all the time). this morning the housekeeper barged into my room while i was asleep (to get my sheets and give me clean ones) and she looked at me and said "malchik?" (little boy) and then "nyet, devochka" (no, girl) lol. so that boosted the self-esteem haha.
the other day we went to the museum for contemporary russian history, which was absolutely fascinating. then today we went to a gallery with 57 rooms, it was insane. the art was quite nice though. i bought myself a smaller purse since my laptop bag was too big to take into the museum...i had to check it like my coat and it scares me not having everything i own on me at all times.
we've been watching a lot of movies on my laptop...mystery science theater 3000 is what keeps me sane, i think. when i'm freaking out i just sit down and watch it and all is good.
classes don't start until the 12th. we'll find out what classes we get placed in this coming friday or saturday. i'm not sure i did amazingly well on the exam but i'm sure it's a fairly adequate representation of my russian skills. we shall see i suppose.
for those of you who have asked, rob is able to call fairly often (about as often as he could when i was in the US). so that's nice. he may not get leave while i'm home so we may not see each other until september or october :(. please cross your fingers and/or pray he gets june leave.
well i suppose that's it. keep commenting and emailing, i'm sorry if i take a long time getting back to you.
we took our placement test yesterday...it was actually quite difficult. but we met some other international students (americans, italians, and austrians) so that was nice. the floor they live on is SO much nicer than ours (the majority of our toilets lack toilet seats), but hey, it's part of the experience i suppose.
people keep staring at me on the metro. i assume it's because i have short hair and don't dress like a supermodel (most women in russia look like supermodels all the time). this morning the housekeeper barged into my room while i was asleep (to get my sheets and give me clean ones) and she looked at me and said "malchik?" (little boy) and then "nyet, devochka" (no, girl) lol. so that boosted the self-esteem haha.
the other day we went to the museum for contemporary russian history, which was absolutely fascinating. then today we went to a gallery with 57 rooms, it was insane. the art was quite nice though. i bought myself a smaller purse since my laptop bag was too big to take into the museum...i had to check it like my coat and it scares me not having everything i own on me at all times.
we've been watching a lot of movies on my laptop...mystery science theater 3000 is what keeps me sane, i think. when i'm freaking out i just sit down and watch it and all is good.
classes don't start until the 12th. we'll find out what classes we get placed in this coming friday or saturday. i'm not sure i did amazingly well on the exam but i'm sure it's a fairly adequate representation of my russian skills. we shall see i suppose.
for those of you who have asked, rob is able to call fairly often (about as often as he could when i was in the US). so that's nice. he may not get leave while i'm home so we may not see each other until september or october :(. please cross your fingers and/or pray he gets june leave.
well i suppose that's it. keep commenting and emailing, i'm sorry if i take a long time getting back to you.
Saturday, February 3, 2007
hello again
you guys are ravenous so i figured i'd do another update :) i'm at the internet cafe. i paid for 30 minutes but they only gave me 26...hmm...i'd complain if i could think of what i wanted to say in russian.
yes, it is difficult to speak russian haha. there've definitely been some issues. for example, stores like you to give them as exact change as possible. so if you have to pay 450 rubles and you give them a 1000 ruble note, they get annoyed. and sometimes semi-refuse it or just get angry.
today we rode the metro and also saw the typical tourist-y things, like the kremlin, st. basil's, and red square. very, very pretty. i didn't take pics because my camera was dead but i'm sure we'll be back, so i'm not worried.
then jordana and i had our first adventure in cooking...we made potatoes and put some of my american cheese on them. it was actually quite good. stuart got to go out to a ukrainian restaurant :)
today at the mall by red square we ate at sbarro, haha. the pizza wasn't that good, but i figure russia's not really known for its pizza so it's alright.
i keep waking up around 3 or 4 and having problems going to sleep. it's nice though because i can call people back home, since it's only early evening for them. :) i am trying (in vain) to save money though. the calls are relatively cheap...to the US, only about 3.5 rubles a minute. really not a bad deal.
anyway i hope you're all doing well, i miss you of course.
yes, it is difficult to speak russian haha. there've definitely been some issues. for example, stores like you to give them as exact change as possible. so if you have to pay 450 rubles and you give them a 1000 ruble note, they get annoyed. and sometimes semi-refuse it or just get angry.
today we rode the metro and also saw the typical tourist-y things, like the kremlin, st. basil's, and red square. very, very pretty. i didn't take pics because my camera was dead but i'm sure we'll be back, so i'm not worried.
then jordana and i had our first adventure in cooking...we made potatoes and put some of my american cheese on them. it was actually quite good. stuart got to go out to a ukrainian restaurant :)
today at the mall by red square we ate at sbarro, haha. the pizza wasn't that good, but i figure russia's not really known for its pizza so it's alright.
i keep waking up around 3 or 4 and having problems going to sleep. it's nice though because i can call people back home, since it's only early evening for them. :) i am trying (in vain) to save money though. the calls are relatively cheap...to the US, only about 3.5 rubles a minute. really not a bad deal.
anyway i hope you're all doing well, i miss you of course.
Friday, February 2, 2007
an update finally.
Sorry for not updating sooner...yesterday was rough. i was feeling pretty homesick, but today is a lot better and i'm feeling well. thanks to my family for dealing with me yesterday :)
We got here around 10 am. two russian students (they went to beloit last semester) picked us up and showed us around. i thought the outlet in my room didn't work (i was pretty distressed)
but turns out i was using the wrong outlet, as the woman who barged into my room at 9 am this morning told me :)
i woke up shaking from dehydration and lack of food. so we went to the store near the school...i bought yogurt, bread, and jam. supposedly i need to watch out for the jam, another student got sick last semester. but so far i'm fine :) we then met up with stuart, got some more of our stuff figured out, and ventured out to do more shopping. i bought american cheese (i'm very picky about my dairy especially so went with what was safe), juice, grapes, chips, chocolate milk...hopefully none of it gets stolen in the communal fridge, but i believe my yogurt has already been taken so we shall see.
right now we're in cafe max, which is actually a decent deal...50 rubles for half an hour (which is about $2.50 or so) and you can keep the number if you don't use all your time. people here don't smile a lot...if you catch eyes with them they usually just nod or stare at you lol. this morning i came into the building with my yogurt and while struggling to get my card to show the guard (i had been eating the yogurt with my finger due to a lack of utensils, which i remedied later) i dropped the yogurt and the guard got pretty mad. he told me to look for paper but as i didn't see any, he sort of stormed off and got some, then handed it to me and told me to clean it up lol. i was sleepy so it didn't really bother me.
i think i'm getting sick...eating or drinking anything aside from water hurts my throat, in a sort of pain that is worse than i've experienced.
the toilets are gross haha. i never "hover" but i refuse NOT to. the showers don't have shower curtains but happily the doors have locks. the pressure and heat is very good.
anyway i miss you all...keep commenting!
We got here around 10 am. two russian students (they went to beloit last semester) picked us up and showed us around. i thought the outlet in my room didn't work (i was pretty distressed)
but turns out i was using the wrong outlet, as the woman who barged into my room at 9 am this morning told me :)
i woke up shaking from dehydration and lack of food. so we went to the store near the school...i bought yogurt, bread, and jam. supposedly i need to watch out for the jam, another student got sick last semester. but so far i'm fine :) we then met up with stuart, got some more of our stuff figured out, and ventured out to do more shopping. i bought american cheese (i'm very picky about my dairy especially so went with what was safe), juice, grapes, chips, chocolate milk...hopefully none of it gets stolen in the communal fridge, but i believe my yogurt has already been taken so we shall see.
right now we're in cafe max, which is actually a decent deal...50 rubles for half an hour (which is about $2.50 or so) and you can keep the number if you don't use all your time. people here don't smile a lot...if you catch eyes with them they usually just nod or stare at you lol. this morning i came into the building with my yogurt and while struggling to get my card to show the guard (i had been eating the yogurt with my finger due to a lack of utensils, which i remedied later) i dropped the yogurt and the guard got pretty mad. he told me to look for paper but as i didn't see any, he sort of stormed off and got some, then handed it to me and told me to clean it up lol. i was sleepy so it didn't really bother me.
i think i'm getting sick...eating or drinking anything aside from water hurts my throat, in a sort of pain that is worse than i've experienced.
the toilets are gross haha. i never "hover" but i refuse NOT to. the showers don't have shower curtains but happily the doors have locks. the pressure and heat is very good.
anyway i miss you all...keep commenting!
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