Ocelots and Cheeseburgers!

Quick Daily Chronicle

Saturday, Sept. 18

Today we went to Novgorod, one of the oldest cities is Russia. Aside from the 3.5 hour bus ride, it was a pretty spiffy trip. We arrived and were given a tour of the Novgorod Kremlin (a kremlin is actually a complex of buildings and churches… not just the Kremlin in Moscow). It wasn’t a huge complex, but it was really interesting. Then we crossed over to the other side of the river where there were about 9 churches located in the area of about 4 city blocks. Church hopping on Sundays would be a really easy past time! Then we went to the outdoor museum of wooden architecture, which was really an outdoor complex of old wooden Russian peasant churches and buildings. But it was really interesting to see buildings like this completely made of wood while still being ornate. A number of people from our group also thought that it would be a good idea to climb into an apple tree on the complex and just start chomping on the apples. The police walked by and simply shook their heads… Overall, it was a good, but very long trip.

Sunday, Sept. 19

The one and only day of the week that I get to sleep in! So of course I slept in until I woke up naturally which is always a nice break from the constant go go goof the everyday life of a Russian exchange student. Some friends and myself then had an adventure to the massive grocery store one metro stop away from the university… in the pouring rain. But it was worth it because it seems to be nearly a Russian equivalent of a Wal*mart. When we returned, I teamed up with a friend and made a pretty kickin’ beef stew. I am definitely becoming a fan of teaming up with people on my floor to make huge dinners and share them. And through a turn of events in the evening, I discovered that my new life goal is to grow up to be a Finnish ocelot! Yes, you really can have too much fun with a dictionary, especially a foreign language dictionary.

Monday, Sept. 20

Art class was held in the State Russian Museum rather than the lecture hall which was a nice change. However, class ended up taking 3 hours and 36 minutes of my day as opposed to the 1 hour and 30 minutes that it should have taken in the lecture hall. The metro really extends trips significantly. And to top it off, the metro station was closed for no apparent reason on our way back so we had to wander Nevsky Prospect to find a different station in order to find another station to get home. Aside from the metro though, it was interesting to see the ancient Russian icons that we were discussing. And by the way, taking notes while standing in a museum is quite a task that definitely takes some skill.  I did end up topping my day off with roommate bonding time over bacon cheeseburgers! Good times.

Question of the day: Why are the Russians always cold?! They live here 365 days of the year and I have yet to see a Russian without a winter coat on… and its only in the 60s. Some days I can’t even stand to wear a coat and the Russian children can’t even toddle or put their arms down for the amount of clothes that they are wearing! If someone could answer this for me, that would be much appreciated.

Tuesday, Sept. 21

Class didn’t make me want to hide in a hole today and I think that our conversation teacher is actually starting to take a liking to us, so that’s a nice change. I had a nice lunch with some friends at the local Pizza Bar. Gotta love the lunch menu! I also ordered a really tasty fruit tea, and when I got the tea, the tag said “Fruit of the Loom” which only made the tea that much more enjoyable! We then decided to explore the old bookstore on the corner. It was in fact a bookstore filled with old books and a pawn shop on one end. The rest of the day was basically spent hanging out, doing homework, and swapping music/book/video files with people. My poor Millie (my computer) got a run for her money.

Wednesday, Sept. 22

I am still under the impression that our conversation teacher is warming up to us because she is getting more patient listening to us bumble our way through speaking Russian. We even spend a good amount of our class time laughing and joking. I finally got around to doing my laundry today… sometimes the washing machines worry me. Towards the end of the cycle they begin to spin at a ridiculous rate and get really loud, so it sounds like the washing machines are about to spew your clothing all over the room, or blast off to the moon. Which, I must admit, would be pretty exciting. Dinner was an impromptu plan that was put together on the way back from the grocery store… chicken, carrots, tomato and olives with pita bread and hummus. Yumm. The remainder of my evening was spent cleaning up Millie’s hard drive (after 2 years…) and chilling with Megan (roomie) and Matty J (newly adopted brother because Megan decided we bicker back and forth like siblings).

And this is my life in Russia thus far :D

**I’m sorry that this isn’t really as much of my thoughts as I would have liked because I’m really bad about just writing out the daily stuff that goes on. I try it integrate some of my thoughts into the Daily Chronicles though! Let me know if you have specific questions or topics you would like discussed in the blog. I’m always up for ideas!