Holy Updates, Batman!

So despite yesterday's marathon post, I feel the need to write still more. So consider it a gift for procrastination, or roll your eyes, pretend you read it, and go back to studying. Whatever floats your boat.

Part of this constant updating is probably partially my way of dealing with my lack of roommate these days - I have one-sided conversations with the great unknown Internet. I can't wait until I can go back to having two-sided conversations with y'all.

Other news from the Russian front: we went to the puppet theater on Friday to see a show. The theater itself is very pretty - it's in the Voronezh album (the clock with flying figures and the dog and all). The show we saw was "The King's Striptease", roughly. Of course, when our teacher was telling us about it, all we caught was "striptease", "Hans Christen Anderson", and "puppets", which left us with some interesting ideas, of course. It was a political satire with the rough framework of "The Emperor's New Clothes", but we didn't figure that out until the second act. It was done as a mix of live-action and puppetry - ie, you could see the puppeteers at all times. Overall, it was pretty interesting, but it would've helped if I understood more of the political references and such.

Life at the apartment has been interesting today. The hozhaika didn't get up until I was leaving for church this morning (technically, the dog woke her up, since he didn't approve of my leaving...). She paniced that I hadn't eaten, but I reassured her that I'd cut a piece of the apple pirog on the table, and then I bought a cinnamon roll on the street, too.

When I got home from church, after another round of bus-related fun (riding the bus is not difficult. I don't know what my problem is of late), I'd already bought two rolls for lunch, and I was only in the kitchen because I wanted to locate the butter and toast them, right? She instead informs me that she and Sasha had leftover fish from last night for breakfast (at this point I became very thankful that I'd missed breakfast), and that now I was going to eat some, too. It was not a "would you like some fish?", it was a "You are going to eat some fish" as she put it on a plate. This is, in fact, very common with the hozhaikas here - they are all determined to make all of us very fat. Refusing food or asking for a smaller portion requires a great deal of patience and determination - it's actually kind of funny.

I started Christmas shopping in earnest yesterday. The lady from whom I am purchasing most of y'alls presents already loves me, and I haven't bought everything yet. It's the beginning of a beautiful thing. The hozhaika probably thinks I'm crazier than usual, though, since I have all this random stuff stacked around my room (I'm going to try and put a box in the mail home tomorrow, so I don't have to make everything fit in my suitcase).

Russia's not far behind the US in commercialization, so everything's either decorated or in the process of becoming so. Since they decorate trees for New Year's, I've taken to referring to any decorate pine tree I see as a "Tree of Indeterminate Holiday", since I don't know whether they're for Christmas (in January) or New Year's. There are lots of Ded Moroz (Grandfather Frost) figures up to, all of which are basically Santa Claus. Actually, I think a lot of them are Western Santas that have just been renamed...

And that's all for now, folks. Much love!

Of Gyms and Drugstores

So I went to the gym today. As I do many days. Because there's really not that much to do here, and since chocolate is one of the other major things to do here, I have to make things balance out. I'm going to pay for it tomorrow, I think, especially since today was weight-increase day for me, so I upped the amount I was lifting on most things. Maybe if I just keep telling myself I was a good girl for going, it'll be okay. At least the showers were fixed today - I went yesterday, only to be met with broken showers. I then had to run home post-workout and take a cold shower (hot water is hard to get during the day) so I wouldn't smell funny for church.

Church was fun - yesterday was a "club" for older kids in the local orphanage and for kids who've aged out of the orphanage. I still didn't understand most of what was going on, but the people are nice and the fellowship is good. Zhenya, who's about 13, I think, seems to have decided that I'm at least mildly entertaining in my attempts to follow what's going on, was kind enough to make sure I understood what I was supposed to be doing in the games and such. He's the self-declared paparazzi, so he's got a lovely shot of me sticking my tongue out. I shudder to think what's going to happen to that when he's done with the Photoshop.

Post-gym, I had to walk all the way to Frederich Engels* to buy a banana, so I stopped at the drugstore to buy some shampoo and conditioner. You know how you can stand on the hair products aisle for about an hour, considering all the various options, weighing the promises and the murky distinctions between brands and subtypes? (Ok, at least I can do that for a long time.) Now imagine trying to do that with an aisle full of products labelled in a language you have to concentrate to read. Fun times. What's up with the not actually labelling the contents of the bottle? It's great that's a new scent or for color treated hair, but what is it? Who at the advertising agency decided that the consumer didn't need to know if it was shampoo, conditioner, or some random concoction (and Russians love those) in that colorful plastic bottle? Seriously. On a random note, Palmolive (whom I mostly associate with dishwashing liquid) is a big name in beauty brands here, it seems. Then again, the company that makes my hairspray (or hair lacquer, as the can translates to) - Wella - also has a storefront on our street that sells paint products. Weird.

All of my pictures from the Volgagrad weekend are now up. Captions and translations to come. They're publicly viewable via Facebook at http://baylor.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2131471&l=0482c&id=9214311 and http://baylor.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2132166&l=ccb6a&id=9214311 I'm planning to blog about the weekend, too, but that's going to have to wait until I have a lot of time and concentration, as I want to do all the war memorials justice.

Have a wonderful rest of the week!

*Yes, we have a Frederich Engels street - it's one of the main streets in the area. We also have a "Revolution", "9th January", "Karl Marx", and who knows what else. Oh yeah, and a huge statue of Stalin...