Мне нужно cookie! (I need a cookie, just thought I would put my most current and pressing concern right up top)
Here I am, sitting in St Petersburg in September and it has already been in the 40s all day for the last 3 days. Now I knew that it would be cold in Russia (really) but I was not mentally prepared for this. Not only has it been fall for only a week, it’s not even October yet and they are anticipating our first below 0 (Celsius) night this weekend!
Needless to say it’s time for the SoCal boy to break out the layers, heavy clothes and learn how to use them. My friends here are all from much colder climates and have immensely enjoyed taunting me, teaching me how to use a scarf (I did in fact need lessons), helping me find a good pair of gloves and other assorted things that are good to know when we get into this cold weather. I guess the worst part is, they don't think it’s that cold out yet, saying oh this is just chilly wait a month. Oh well, I can and will adapt to it!
In other news....
Last Monday we visited the Baltika Beer Brewery. It was quite an interesting tour of one of the largest breweries in the world. They produce 1.1 billion liters of beer there every year and everything was on such a massive scale that you could not help but marvel at the shear vastness of the operation. Beer making is quite a science and it was also interesting to learn about the differences between the many different kinds of beer and how the production process makes them come out very differently. And they gave us free mugs on the way out!
Today myself and my partner in crime Emily ventured to the mythical land of the fifth floor of the academic building to find the library that allegedly exists in the building. [For those of you who do not know, our building is called IMOP and it is for the international students studying at the University. It has two wings and nine stories, and is in every sense what you would think of when you think older official Russian building! We live on one side and our classrooms and university offices are on the other side.] After getting into the elevator, which is quite an experience in and of itself, and slowly grinding our way to the fifth floor we arrived to a very nondescript hallway. Proceeding with all due caution, we came to a door which we believed was the library but we lacked the courage to enter. Either it was we did not want to spend the next few hours working on Russian and history, or we were in fact not sure that it was the library and did not want to be yelled at by a mad Russian for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
After a solid 5 minutes of dithering, I decided to take one for the team and threw open the door, only to find a second door right behind it. Not stopped by this additional barrier to our education, we entered the tiny library…and to our bewilderment....
It was a normal looking, if small and older one room library full of tables and chair for studying and not many books. Here we stayed and heroically fought off distraction, hunger and shiny objects outside to actually accomplish a good review of the Russian we have learned here so far and that we have a rather large and important test on in 2 weeks.
This brings me to one of the things I have been pondering in my head over the course of the past week and a half or so. Namely it is the differences between living in the dorms here in Russia and the dorms back at UCI. I am not of course referring to the differences between living and Irvine and St. Petersburg, that list would be far too long and serve no real constructive purpose. Instead it is the people and the social structure we have formed here. Right off the bat I would like to say to Stephanie, Sarah, Blake and Ali from UCI that I love you guys and I am very glad to be your friend and that we where brought together 2 years ago in Valimar. But here all of the students in the program have similar courses of study, similar interests, the same classes and we are therefore drawn much closer together much faster. That is also ignoring the fact that we band together to venture out into the streets of the city and for assistance in communicating in Russian with the locals.
What I am referring to is the common interest in learning Russian language, culture and history that we all share. When I wanted to go to the Russian Artillery Museum, there was a group of people who wanted to go just as much as I did. Every night it seems we hang out in one of the rooms and do Russian homework together. While most of us are a different levels, from very new to very proficient we all still can help one another and have quite a bit of fun in the process. Often our homework sessions will also involve milk and cookies, making dinner, sharing music, random sorties. Additionally there is plenty of sparing back and forth about regional differences between people from the Midwest, west and east, and my personal favorite accents of the students who are from all corners of the US, but it has been quite an learning experience for me at the same time. (As an aside, we really need to have a distinct Californian accent, we are losing out to the rest of the US in this regard and I can’t stand losing!) Never thought I would learn so much about the US by going to St. Petersburg. This is the kind of social interaction that makes living in the dorms fun and I am glad that I have been able to experience it to the fullest and make some good friends in the process.
Russia is a very very foreign place but every day I am feeling more and more at home here with them. My Russian continues to improve, I have figured out the transport system, layout of the city, local foods, restaurants and stores. This “fall” and “weather” thing still confounds me but if that’s all I have problems with I will be a happy man.
Tomorrow I am going to go shopping for a new cold weather hat and hopefully an additional scarf of a different type to fight off the cold. Until next time.
Here I am, sitting in St Petersburg in September and it has already been in the 40s all day for the last 3 days. Now I knew that it would be cold in Russia (really) but I was not mentally prepared for this. Not only has it been fall for only a week, it’s not even October yet and they are anticipating our first below 0 (Celsius) night this weekend!
Needless to say it’s time for the SoCal boy to break out the layers, heavy clothes and learn how to use them. My friends here are all from much colder climates and have immensely enjoyed taunting me, teaching me how to use a scarf (I did in fact need lessons), helping me find a good pair of gloves and other assorted things that are good to know when we get into this cold weather. I guess the worst part is, they don't think it’s that cold out yet, saying oh this is just chilly wait a month. Oh well, I can and will adapt to it!
In other news....
Last Monday we visited the Baltika Beer Brewery. It was quite an interesting tour of one of the largest breweries in the world. They produce 1.1 billion liters of beer there every year and everything was on such a massive scale that you could not help but marvel at the shear vastness of the operation. Beer making is quite a science and it was also interesting to learn about the differences between the many different kinds of beer and how the production process makes them come out very differently. And they gave us free mugs on the way out!
Today myself and my partner in crime Emily ventured to the mythical land of the fifth floor of the academic building to find the library that allegedly exists in the building. [For those of you who do not know, our building is called IMOP and it is for the international students studying at the University. It has two wings and nine stories, and is in every sense what you would think of when you think older official Russian building! We live on one side and our classrooms and university offices are on the other side.] After getting into the elevator, which is quite an experience in and of itself, and slowly grinding our way to the fifth floor we arrived to a very nondescript hallway. Proceeding with all due caution, we came to a door which we believed was the library but we lacked the courage to enter. Either it was we did not want to spend the next few hours working on Russian and history, or we were in fact not sure that it was the library and did not want to be yelled at by a mad Russian for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
After a solid 5 minutes of dithering, I decided to take one for the team and threw open the door, only to find a second door right behind it. Not stopped by this additional barrier to our education, we entered the tiny library…and to our bewilderment....
It was a normal looking, if small and older one room library full of tables and chair for studying and not many books. Here we stayed and heroically fought off distraction, hunger and shiny objects outside to actually accomplish a good review of the Russian we have learned here so far and that we have a rather large and important test on in 2 weeks.
This brings me to one of the things I have been pondering in my head over the course of the past week and a half or so. Namely it is the differences between living in the dorms here in Russia and the dorms back at UCI. I am not of course referring to the differences between living and Irvine and St. Petersburg, that list would be far too long and serve no real constructive purpose. Instead it is the people and the social structure we have formed here. Right off the bat I would like to say to Stephanie, Sarah, Blake and Ali from UCI that I love you guys and I am very glad to be your friend and that we where brought together 2 years ago in Valimar. But here all of the students in the program have similar courses of study, similar interests, the same classes and we are therefore drawn much closer together much faster. That is also ignoring the fact that we band together to venture out into the streets of the city and for assistance in communicating in Russian with the locals.
What I am referring to is the common interest in learning Russian language, culture and history that we all share. When I wanted to go to the Russian Artillery Museum, there was a group of people who wanted to go just as much as I did. Every night it seems we hang out in one of the rooms and do Russian homework together. While most of us are a different levels, from very new to very proficient we all still can help one another and have quite a bit of fun in the process. Often our homework sessions will also involve milk and cookies, making dinner, sharing music, random sorties. Additionally there is plenty of sparing back and forth about regional differences between people from the Midwest, west and east, and my personal favorite accents of the students who are from all corners of the US, but it has been quite an learning experience for me at the same time. (As an aside, we really need to have a distinct Californian accent, we are losing out to the rest of the US in this regard and I can’t stand losing!) Never thought I would learn so much about the US by going to St. Petersburg. This is the kind of social interaction that makes living in the dorms fun and I am glad that I have been able to experience it to the fullest and make some good friends in the process.
Russia is a very very foreign place but every day I am feeling more and more at home here with them. My Russian continues to improve, I have figured out the transport system, layout of the city, local foods, restaurants and stores. This “fall” and “weather” thing still confounds me but if that’s all I have problems with I will be a happy man.
Tomorrow I am going to go shopping for a new cold weather hat and hopefully an additional scarf of a different type to fight off the cold. Until next time.
That sounds like a lot of fun I am glad you are enjoying yourself.
ReplyDeleteps. Yay i got mentioned!