I feel pretty...

Since none of you lovely kids are here to see me, and since this stuff isn't seasonal very often at Baylor, I feel the need to share that I look cute today (or at least I think so). I'm wearing a white tank under a cobalt blue v-neck with my brown linen skirt and my cowboy boots. At least one woman has actaully ogled my boots today (as in she stared at my feet with her jaw dropped when she walked by). It's actually kind of funny - at least one of my companions rolled her eyes at my boots initially, but it turns out that I'm the height of fashion here - cowboy boots are very "in" right now. Of course, most of theirs are metallic with about a four-inch heel, but that just makes mine that much cooler, right?

Fun facts about Russia:
-Russian door knobs don't turn. They're like cabinet handles or something - a flat disk on a stem.
-Russian women love love love high heels. (Ashley would fit right in) They are not detered by such minor hazards as lack of sidewalk, puddles resembling small lakes, and portions of the pavement that were probably nice and smooth when people still used the term "comrade".
-Don't drink the water. When buying bottled water, make sure it's still (that would be the light blue cap for my beloved Bon Aqua).
-You can buy American hot chocolate at street stands for under a buck, but it isn't available at the swanky places. What they call "hot chocolate" is actual, molten chocolate. What we call "hot chocolate" they designate as "hot chocolate milk" (which is actually kind of accuate, but whatever.)

I got stopped and asked for directions today. I understood most of the question, but I didn't actually know the answer, so I just told her I was sorry, but I didn't know. That was kind of cool, though. It probably helps that I do have Russian coloration, and today's get-up is kind of Russian (the usual jeans and a long sleeve t and sneakers is not so Russian).

I went to the gym again today, even though I didn't really want to. I got another correction in Russian-English. I understood him (plus I already knew what he was telling me - I shouldn't get lazy about my form when people are watching), but when I tried to fill in blanks in English (this trainer has been learning new English from us), he thought I didn't understand, so the explanation got longer and longer. Fun times. I also stopped at the chocolate factory and bought a 100 grams of a new kind of candy. I think I'm just going to work my way through in little bits, so I'll have an idea of what the really good stuff is, and I'll bring that back.

Can someone on campus tell me what happened that resulted in my getting an e-mail about not inviting political folks on campus? I checked the Lariat online, but it didn't have anything useful to offer.

A very happy birthday to Miss Hannah Madera today. Be sure and make her dance lots tonight. We're hoping to find somewhere to dance (at least one WP boy has agreed to it), but I'm not holding out a lot of hope. Then again, there was definitely a dance routine (jazz) to Big Bad Voodoo Daddy's "Big Time Operator" on Day of the City earlier this month.

Sometimes I can't believe I've already been here a month, and other times Christmas can't come fast enough. I miss you all, and I look forward to seeing you.

The Lazy Bum Rides Again

...So I was supposed to be leaving for Volgagrad (aka Stalingrad) on a bus at 10 tonight. However, it was not to be. This week, at least. Thanks to the beauty of the Russian way of doing business, the plans fell through at the last minute and the trip's been postponed indefinitely. If you want to know why anyone would go to Volgagrad, check out the Battle of Stalingrad during WWII. It's pretty awesome.

This week, I learned that a Russian T-80 tank can actually take flight under proper circumstances. Now that's cool. Today, I painted a picture and sang folk songs. Have I ever mentioned how much I love Fridays?

Over the course of the week, I have also: finished that cabled blue scarf (in under a week - I told you I was bored), walked out of class in tears, watched an animated Russian version of Snow White, bought more yarn, walked around in a t-shirt, walked around in two jackets, drank an expensive (but yummy) approximation of a frappucino, eaten pizza for breakfast, bought shots (for other people - I owed a guy), put quite a lot effort into my grammar book, finished Redeeming Love, and did a lot of other random stuff. Welcome to Russia.

I have a three-day weekend for the rest of the semester. They've moved my group's one Monday class to Fridays, so all I have is military history in the afternoons. And I'm taking that one voluntarily, so I'm not allowed to complain.

So course listings are up for spring. The one course that I've suffered through lots of ugly math courses for is not being offered. It is only offered in the spring. I don't know what's going on - I need to e-mail the Math Department and consider begging. As far as everything else goes, I don't really know what I'm taking. I'm supposed to take my exit interview, but I'm going to have to postpone until senior fall. I know I'm taking Russian, Harp, and an Economics course (there are a lot of them - I'm just filling in whatever works with my schedule). I'm considering taking: Fundamentals of International Politics, International Political Economics, Introduction to Slavic/Eastern European Studies, Intermediate German, Politics and Problems of Developing Countries, Politics and Problems of the Middle East, Diplomacy in Theory and Practice, War and Peace in the Middle East, and International Business. Thoughts and suggestions are always welcome.

My internet time is getting pricey, so I should probably go. Have a wonderful weekend!

La La La

Happy Saturday everyone!

So my first full week of proper classes is now complete (OK, sans Monday since I stayed home, but that's only one class). Grammar is boring (big surprise), even though it is mildly entertaining that the professor continually apologizes for the Russian language. Practical Speaking is mind-numbingly basic at the moment, but I'm holding out hope that it'll get better. Phonetics is aggravating more than anything, but we get to laugh at ourselves and each other, so whatever. I really like Russian Regional Culture so far - it's all in Russian, but it's understandable. The first class was really interesting, as we talked about the derivations of various names and how most names people think of as "Russian" are actually derived from other cultures. Russian Military History is cool, and I like the professor. I need to do my homework - a three-minute speech on Chechnya (in Russian). I kind of need to find a military dictionary to use - it's on today's shopping list. History of Voronezh is ok - we have it with the Estonian kids, and the teacher speaks more to their level than to ours, so part of it goes over our heads. And finally, Russian Folk Songs is great. The professor is entertaining and he has a great voice. It's actually really quite fun to sing together like that.

Props to everyone who just waded through that big block of text - it's good practice for the real world, right?

It's been raining all week, which really stinks if you don't have an umbrella or a rain jacket (namely, me). I did buy a pretty blue fleece yesterday to add another layer and keep warm, so that makes me happy. It's just chilly and windy here today, but it's really not bad at all without the rain.

Today, we're going to be doing some shopping and looking to see if we can find the Baptist church. Sasha the elder drew me a map, so we should be okay. For shopping, Voronezh is described by Russians as a "small city" (because 1 million people is definitely small). However, I think one of the WP boys was right on when he said it's really like living in a New York neighborhood. The shops are all along the fronts of the streets and apartments are either above them or set back off the street on an alleyway sort of set up.

There are lots of little boutique-type shops on the way to school, most of which have very few clothes that cost quite a lot of money. We've now found another yarn shop right around the corner from us, which is very nice. I've got the scarf I'm working on, and then probably another. After that, I think I'm going to try my hand at a sweater. Then I can wear said sweater and be slightly less cold.

There are also several open air markets within easy walking distance of us. At least one extends for several blocks - it's just row upon row of little stalls selling shoes, hose, shirts, purses - anything and everything. Everytime I've been, it's rained, so I'm hoping to get to go when I'm not primarily concerned with my falling body temperature.

Hopefully that's enough reading material for y'all. Enjoy the weekend!

That good ol' college try

First off, I think this link may work for pictures : www.russiantrip.snapfish.com/snapfish . If not, inform me again, and I'll give up and curl into a little ball under the desk at the Internet cafe.

I saw Chelsey's secret twin on the bus today. I was mildly spooked. Privet, Chelsey :-)
Obviously, I successfully rode the bus to school today. I'm still getting over my stomach bug or whatever, so I didn't really feel like making the walk.

I went to class on a proper schedule today for the first time this semester. (Everyone else did yesterday, but I was at home sleeping.) We had phonetics (yuck), grammar, a bit of history (to fill the time, we think), and speaking (for idiots). I also had History of the Russian Military (in Russian) this afternoon. I'm really excited about that one - the professor seems pretty cool, even though he doesn't speak any English at all. We had to take pictures by university (only 2 of the 4 Baylor girls are taking that class) and number ourselves in relation to the role.

After morning classes, my small group found a pizza place that actually makes fairly believable pizza. Ok, so one of them was an interesting shade of fluorescent yellow, but the rest seemed pretty normal. I'm still getting better, so I didn't eat any. They really like to douse everything in rosemary here, which kinda grosses me out.

Laura and I found the yarn shop today, so we have supplies to work on scarves and whatnot. I'm excited - I'll have something to do, finally. I'm rapidly running out of English-language literature to read (Lindsey's going to have to share her reading list, I think...). If you've ever noticed how busy I stay during the year, it's partially because I'm not very good at not doing anything...

It's getting chilly here, which means in another month or so, I'm going to be dying of cold. Excellent. I should probably get around to buying a coat, maybe, possibly, perhaps.

I <3 the lot of y'all. Be good!

And Sara doesn't know how to work the computer...

So, as has been pointed out, the link provided below is less than functional because Snapfish is dumb. Excellent. If you love me and want to see my pictures before I get around to straightening things out (which won't be today - I'm sickly), ask me for an invite and I'll happily toss one your way. Erica already gets one because she's cool and like her.

Pictures! (Kinda)

Just a quick note to let y'all know that a) I'm still breathing and b) I have, in fact, uploaded some pictures. They're viewable at http://www1.snapfish.com/home/t_=105169794 . Unfortunately, it's registration required, so I should probably move them to somewhere else. That's a later thing, though.

Have a wonderful weekend!

They Really Like the Word "Excursion"

Hope y'all had a happy Labor Day and enjoyed the day off school and whatnot.

While y'all were sleeping in and relaxing, the hardworking students of Voronezh State University were in class :-P Actually, the real VSU students started school on Saturday (along with the rest of Voronezh). Since we're spoiled Americans, we still get a Saturday-Sunday weekend. It's nice.

So, the first day of school. Several of us got together and walked to school around 9.00 - classes started at 10.00, and it's a pretty decent walk. There are 15 of us all together, since the AFA boys got here - we're one of the largest, if not the largest, contingient of American students in the country (we tend to get curious looks when we travel en masse). We study in a rather run-down building with all the other foreign students. For the first day, we just met all the professors and had to go around the table and do the whole introduce yourself (in Russian) bit. After that, we took a nice, relaxing grammar test, which made at least one of my fellow students wax nostalgic for O Chem. Then, we got back together and listened to Tatiana lecture at length about the mountain-thing we went to for today's excursion. I did a lot of smiling and nodding...

We were done before two, so most of us went and grabbed a bite to eat. (Note: Russians do have fried cheese, but it's not the same kind, etc, etc). And then it was time to go to the gym and get sore, because that's what you do in Voronezh if you're bored. (Or at least, that's what we do).

We had an excursion today (more on that later, hopefully with pictures), and tomorrow we get to find out how poorly we did on the grammar test. Fun times.

Be good!

Last Day of Freedom

In answer to the first of Erica's bajillion questions (:D), I start classes tomorrow. At least, I'm under the general impression that tomorrow is Monday. Between all the travel weirdness and the lack of defined schedule, I'm a little out of the loop as far as normal times of day are concerned. Russia runs on the 24-hour clock, so I'm constanly subtracting 12 from times, too.

The WP kids had an assignment to complete after Saturday's jaunt around the city. We (the Baylor girls) kinda think we might have one, too, but since Ben only grabbed enough for them, we're pretending we don't.

I really wanted to upload pictures from my trip and from yesterday, but I put them on my USB, only to discover that this internet cafe doesn't have accessible USB ports. I'll either burn them to CD and upload from there, or I'll have to go to the expensive gaming cafe and use their USB ports. (On the gaming cafe - the boys told us it was so much cheaper, etc, etc, and we went rather out of our way, only to discover that if you're on the Internet, it's actually rather pricey...)

Laura and I went to the gym today - it's only about $40/month for full time access and full classes and all that - it's pretty nice. I know I'm going to hurt tomorrow, though. The showers and all are nice, so I think we may just start showering there at least part-time, so we don't have to feel bad about using the water or anything. They didn't have a squat rack, though. Who runs a gym without a squat rack?

I had my first moment of major frustration today. My transformer wasn't working with my laptop (BestBuy lady lied!), and there was an adapter laying out, so I just used it. Turns out it was Sasha the elder's, and I thought he was mad at me. I don't think he really was, but I was upset, and I kept trying to ask where I could buy one, and he kept telling me over and over that he bought it in China. I understood, but he wouldn't answer my question. It really didn't help that apparently what we call an adapter is not what Russian call an adapter. Argh! I was so frustrated with not being able to communicate (on top of major difficulties trying to get directions to the Catholic Church for Laura) that I just needed to get out (and to eat), so I went down to the street vendor and bought a pita. After a little food and a little space, I felt better.

One of the little stands plays music, and for a moment I thought I'd found an affirmative answer to the title question. Alas, I think it was actually the William Tell Overture, so no luck yet.

Take care and have a good week of classes, guys!

Are you sure it's Saturday?

So today, I had school stuff. On a Saturday. Then again, we don't have classes on Saturdays - Russians do. We went on a tour around the city, which primarily consisted of Tatiana saying lots of things in Russian and me doing a lot of smiling and nodding.
Actually, I understood a lot of what she said. However, we stopped at WWII museum that I think I would have enjoyed if I'd understood any of it. Key word if. I did like the propaganda posters, though. Those use short words and I can read them. I managed to follow bits and pieces and fill in blanks with what I knew, though. I was explaining to one of the other girls that the guide kept pointing to two pictures from the Nuernburg trials because the American guard had slipped the convicted, bad German poison before he was hanged. She stared and asked how I'd managed to catch all that. My response? "I didn't. I took the History of Modern Germany." Thanks Dr Hendon.

I got a cell phone yesterday. Five or six of our group all got the same phone, so this should be fun, sorting out whose is whose. Mine keeps receiving random text message type things. I'm not getting charged or anything, so I think they're from the phone company. Some of them sound suspiciously like propositions, whereas others are just conversation-starter type questions. Weird.

A bunch of the other kids are going out dancing at a club called Flamingo tonight, but y'all know me. I hate crowds and noise and all that.

I need to run (not literally - Russia hasn't changed my fundamental values, don't worry :-D), so more later.