Petergoff

I managed to get some of my pictures from petergoff up on facebook but there are still more to come:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2024645809687.2112549.1050240242

i am alive, for those of you out there still wondering. it is just hard to keep up. i had an interesting experience the other day. i wont use anyone's name to try and keep it anonymous but those who are super privy to my whereabouts both here and in l.a. will know who i am talking about:

before i came to russia someone told me, warned me (a russian, born and raised) that i didnt exactly know what i should expect in russia. this person told me that i had had the privilege, this far, of only meeting good, nice, kind hearted, russians in the united states. all my teachers, my tutors, and even the people who work in the stores and restaurants in west hollywood i have met and talked to, according to this person, are all nice and... rare in the russian culture. this person warned me that, upon coming to russia and meeting real russians, i was not going to like what i found and was going to be, atleast somewhat, disappointed and sad. i didnt exactly know what to think of the warning at the time and dismissed it pretty thoroughly because i knew it held no bearing on whether or not i was going to come or not.

i did come and i have met a pretty decent amount of russians so far and up until the other day i dont think i could prove or disprove my friend's premonition. over this past weekend I met two people, both males. one of them left an incredibly pleasant impression on me. he was so social and funny and nice and caring and awesome, we had so much fun together and will be seeing each other again soon. the other guy i met i think fit the description perfectly of what my friend in the u.s. warned me out. this guy didnt do anything mean per say, he didnt say anything directly mean and wasnt rude in my presence but i could tell by looking in his eyes that he was a not a nice, a good person. its weird and hard to explain and perhaps a little hard to explain but when i met him, the way he interacted with me was not interest, nor was it apathy. he did not ignore me and he did not pay attention to me but it was obvious that my presence there irritated him and he changed his behavior because of it. whether you are friendly or not or nice or not, it is in my culture and certainly in the russian culture i know that a friend of a friend is a friend of yours, atleast at first and certainly if they have never done anything to wrong you. before meeting this young man it seemed as if i had done something horrible to him and, when i tried to talk to him or even listen to him talk to others, his speak became unintelligibly fast and so over packed with swearwords and slang that i could not understand basically anything he said, which is what he wanted. like i said before, it was not what he said necessarily but how he said it. how he looked at me and smiled and i sat there with a puzzled look on my face because i couldnt understand him and he knew it.

what is the point of meeting someone from a foreign country who is trying to learn your native language and intentionally misleading them, using vocabulary that they most likely do not know, or straight up making up words to try and confuse them and then laughing with your friend about it a second later??

all in all, it was not a great experience but it was also a short lived one and the three of us quickly left the bar and the first guy i met was awesome at cheering me up. lol, unfortunately, i think this experience is yet another one that just furthers my earlier stated thesis. better? no. worse? no. our two cultures are simply different and simply the same simultaneously.

other than that, nothing too interesting has been going down. i just got a text from a friend that i should close my window because some chemical plant exploaded somewhere and the toxic gas is all over the city, lol SWEET! tomorrow i am going with my family to their dacha (summer home) which i am sososoosososososososo excited about. Dacha's are a huge part of the russian culture and history and tradition and i am super duper excited to see one. i have eaten a good amount of food from my host family's dacha and it has been very very pleasantly surprising.

for breakfast everyday i eat what my host mom cooks me, usually kasha (like a mix between cream of wheat and porrage -- although no one like actually knows what porrage is, hell, i dont even know how to spell it) or sandwiches with ham and cheese or mayonnaise. for dinner my host mom usually makes either meat and rice, meat and pasta, classic russian meat patties, some type of soup. and, of course, with every meal and with every dish comes about 4 servings of dill (which is AMAZING) and a truck load of tea, even when its 85 degrees outside. for lunch i usually eat in this mall called the gallery because i dont have time to go anywhere else and so far i can say, the macdonalds ('mac dac' here) and burger king are WAY better than in the us and i love love love Teremok.

ok my battery is dying and I have to go, i will write again soon i promise! errrrr relatively soon :)

Pictures and the apology

Sorry I have not been able to keep my blog super updated.... at all, but I have been super busy. Plus I need some time to think of more semi-funny things to say.

I managed to get some pictures up on facebook, although there are some more, way prettier ones, coming from Petergov. These ones were taken while me Luiza and Tolya wandered around St. Petersburg. They were almost all taken by Tolya and yes he is European, and yes you can tell by the fact that he loves to do that take a picture of yourself with your own arm stretched out thing:
Around the city (Facebook Album) 

Tomorrow I am going on a tour of what I believe is the biggest beer factory in all of europe... Baltika! and I am super excited.

Almost died on the metro today because there was just an absolutely insane amount of people in a very very small space. I'll try and write soon I promise (to try).

Later

VIDEO: Stephen's First Impressions

Here is the first of the stories videos i am trying to make

As of yet undiscovered and unkown Secret Russian Technology

Hey so I am going to make this post short cuz i have to study and eat and sleep and go out and speak russian instead of sitting here typing english. Although I do have russian music blasting (your song tina... Каралева). Ima say a few things that i rushed home to jot down before I forget and ima try and do it in a little bit of a funny way. my fake thesis in this post are the technologies that the russian government has that they have not shared with the west, lemme break it down for you: (disclaimer - there are all slightly going to be hyperboles - lol a 'slight' hyperbole :P and i do not mean to talk down or offend any part of the russian culture. i LOVE it here)

1) The Dual Action Eye Dilator and Sedative - this drug, most likely found hidden in the insanely delicious Blinyi stands throughout the city, serves a dual purpose as it seems to both severely dilate peoples eyes as well as cuz ridiculous amount of desensitization to the environment but... how is this all manifested? at first, before i learned of this miracle drug, it was incredible to me how all the people on the street and in the metro acted. every person seemed to have this skill of looking right, and i mean RIGHT at you but still through you, centered maybe 2 cm behind the back of your head. everyone does it and they do it always. I dont think I have looked a single person i dont know actually in the eyes since i got here, except the police and that was moments before I hid in an alcove hoping they were coming after me.  the sedation comes into play when something happens in the environment. for all americans out there imagine yourself in this situation: you are standing on a bus, which is just going down a main street. suddenly, immediately behind you, like within 3 feet, a women drops something large and heavy, heavy enough that it makes a sound when it impacts the ground, simultaneously she screams AT THE TOP of her lungs... because the thing she dropped was her baby. What do you do, at every point in that scenario? Well, for starters, you turn around when you hear the baby fall and definitely turn around when you hear the woman scream, let alone any kind of help you offer the woman. Well this exact situation happened on a bus i was on today and, luckily, i standing in a place where i could see the woman and didnt have to turn, but i definitely would have it would have certainly immediately pinned me as a foreigner because no one, and i mean no one, including the man right in front of her, moved a single inch.

2) The world's most advanced drivers training program -
I dont know how the rest of russia is but i can speak for petersburg pretty well at this point... the drivers here are unprecedentedly skilled. i cannot begin to describe the fear in the hearts of the pedestrians or even people sitting on the patio of a restaurant but the drivers are utterly masterful.  Crosswalks here are interestingly timed, allowing about 15 seconds to cross a 6 to 8 lane street which.  Cars often travel, at cruising speed, into crosswalks loaded with people walking, and somehow manage not to hit a single one of them, it is awesome to watch.  furthermore, on half the streets, esp the circle parts, there are no lanes and traffic can move freely into any lane basically. I am not sure if this is the worlds most advanced drivers training school or some kind of telepathic communication that all people in st petersburg have but it is just breathtaking.

3) Weather control... yes, its here people!
So this is only really for the people who arent studying or know that much about russia, so basically everyone, but I have the honor of being in St Petersburg for the so called White Nights, which basically means that it is light, like daytime light, until about 2 am and then its dark till like 5 am, yeah..... 3 hours. and what that means is that there are a large, large number of people out in the city, the main parts of the city atleast, until extremely late and if i wasnt studying, i would be freaking AWESOME. children, adults, families are all walking around and talking and partying and eating and it is light outside and you look at the clock and youre like "1:30.... WTF!?" its really cool.

ok I have to go study for class tomorrow. see you guys later 

Another Couple Thoughts and a New Idea

So today we took a nice little written test, which I can self diagnose of missing two questions on, one because I did not know the verb for "to settle" (as in like how pilgrims settle) and two because I just had absolutely 0 idea what a certain phrase meant. All the other questions were pretty chill. We also had an oral part, which lasted about 40 seconds. The teacher (of course a really young.... fit.... blonde.... hot.... woman) interviewed me and asked like two questions and said that "everything is clear, we are done."  I kinda wanted to continue talking to her though so i was like... "can we keep going?" and she smiled and was basically like "yeah, naw :/ " Upon reflecting on the oral test, I am not sure if her saying that everything was clear was supposed to indicate that it was immediately clear how good i was or how bad i was lol, which makes the whole test experience not as fruitful or exciting. 

Something kind of funny happened to be for the few days when we lived in the dorms when I was forced, against my will, to live with 4 girls because the russian people who divided up the rooms assumed I was a girl because of my name "Sydney" :( :( and then at the picnic we had, none of the russian tutors could like understand what my name was when our program director was said "his name is Syd" and a chorus of "Чего" (WHAT!?) echoed throughout the crowd. It was sad. Everyone had a different name to call me because they couldnt pronounce it for some reason: "Saichok... Sik... Sergei..." so thats when I really formally (before it was more informal) adopted my russian name "Серёжа" (Seryozha -- the 'zh' is pronounced like the 'g' in 'manage' and the stress is in on the 'yo' syllable.)

ok one last thing and then i am going back out into the russian speaking world to practice practice practice.  So i know i gave all that shpeal about how russians and americans arent that different but of course there are some pretty big differences and sometimes those differences can lead to rather... interesting situations and i decided, every time one of those situations happens to someone, i am going to try and have them tell the story and record. ill try to attach one or two of the ones i have so far in the next couple of days

The first days with the host family

So, after I write this post, it will be the second full day of living with my host family and I have realized two things, which I feel the need to urgently tell you guys. For starters, if things continue like they have been, I am going to be SO busy for the next two months. That being said, I want to apologize to everyone already and in advance for not having written yall emails sooner and what not and, although everything I say on here is so general and impersonal, if I would try and sit down and write an email to all that I love, I think it would be such a time-consuming task that I would try and forgo it. I hope no one is too upset or mad or offended, I just really am hella busy and want to get out and speak and see things. That was a main reason I started a blog. I promise to tell every single one of you every story I have (already in the hundreds) when I get back.

The second thing is - Russian Home Life is... the greatest thing thats ever happened to mankind. My family is absolutely wonderful, they are all so nice and so helpful and so kind and I really think the russian culture has it right.  No one spends any time in their rooms. We all sit in the kitchen and talk, and talk, drink tea and talk. Yesterday, my first day, I ate probably around 7000 calories in one meal, and I say one meal because each "meal" lasted basically until the next one was done cooking. Constantly eating and talking and it feels so homely, so cozy, so nice and hospitable. Yeah, I cannot communicate particularly well or fluently but I can understand a lot of it so just sitting and listening to everyone and the various guests that come over like every 5 minutes is pretty cool.

My classes havent even started yet but I wanted to get a post in about the various things I have learned and thought about. There is no possible way and will never be any way for me to capture everything I think of and see and do so I am going to write as much as I can but so much of it will be inevitably lost. For starters, my main thesis about Russia thus far I think is it is different. Not better and not worse in any explicit way, but different. At the same time, it is different but not different. Lemme try and explain.

Before we can, of course, countless people spent countless time telling us about how dangerous it is here and how different it is here but, in so many respects, its really not that different.  Yeah, there are dangerous situations and dangerous people on the street, but there are in any big city in the united states. One thing I have realized, which now seems obvious to me but no one seemed to mention it to be before, is that it is simply a different culture and I am scared not because there is something concrete to be scared of but because I am not used to it.  I have never set foot in any of the places I go each day, I have never seen any of the people on the street, and I do not know how to behave in this culture.  Every man on the street does not want to kill me, I simply am not used to people looking and acting like they do here! A Russian in Los Angeles would feel the exact same way. I walk down the street here and if I am walking next to someone or I pass someone, I feel like they start following me, I can just feel it and I get a little scared. Most of the time, they arent following me. There are equally as dangerous and shady places in the u.s., its just, in america i know, by intrinsic knowledge as well as signs which I grew up reading, where to go and where not to go. Here, I have no idea. So, I think one thing I would tell someone when coming here is that is NOT a lawless chaotic hellhole that we are all just gonna make jokes about being so crappy but, rather, it is merely a different culture and you have to be careful here... just as careful as you have to be in any big city in any country around the world.

One of the biggest differences in culture is the prioritization, which is also just different. If shown a specific few pictures, you would get the impression that russia is all just incredibly poor and rundown and pathetic and barely functioning. For instance, when I got inside the elevator in our building (our apt is on the 9th floor), it was terrifying.  Me and my most mom barely fit with my 3 bags, the lights were all out except for one which was barely BARELY giving off light, you could hear the motor fighting for its life, and I really wasnt sure if the elevator was going to make it or if we were gonna fall down the shaft to our deaths. When we got to the 9th floor, the hallway was equally as depressing, looking all to much soviet-like, with the wall paper peeling off the way and water stains everywhere, with huge, tawdry, iron doors on each apartment. When my host mother opened the door to the apartment, I saw an impeccably clean, hardwood floor, well light, shiny, apartment. Honestly, it looked like an apartment that wasnt real and pictures would be taken of for an advertisement, and that is how it always it. It is SO SO nice. It is their priority to have the apartments nice and not the hallways and the elevators. Another example... the coffee houses... oh MAN are they nice. Every single "Coffee House" or "Coffeehouse Company" is like up up upper class, modern furnishing, glass floors, stainless steel everywhere, Beverly Hill, paris hilton looking, its crazy. All with inexpensive food too. Well... the coffee and the smoothies are really expensive but the "pourage," which is what I usually get there, is really cheap.

The people are different, of course, and all waiters in every restaurant everywhere are just ridiculously gorgeous women, and some stereotypes of russia are true but all in all it really doesnt feel that much different. Of course, it is impossible to forget i am not at home anymore when everyone and every sign is in russian but it was not as drastic as i was expecting from what everyone said. that being said, esp while observing my program-mates, if my comfort with the language was not was it is (not that its that high... at all) i would certainly be much less comfortable. granted, i cant understand basically a single syllable anyone says here so i dont know what comfort i am really talking about lol :P

there is so much i want to say and cant say to those around me because i cant explain most of it in russian but i am such an... active social observer and scientist, as you all know, and i love looking at how people move and talk and act and interact with each other that I am formulating so many good thesisisisisisisisi (whatever the plural is) about the russian culture in general as well as comparing it to american culture. although life here is insanely exhausting for me and i have already felt discouraged a few times, at the end of the day, I am here to learn russian and to better my understanding of russian. What that means, to me, is that - i dont care what level anyone else is in my program, i dont care how defeated or helpless i feel sometimes or whether or not i get on the metro (which is INSANELY efficient by the way) on time or not because I am only worried about my progress and growth as a human being, not anyone elses. Of course, I am still myself and do my absolutely best to please those around me and be nice and courteous and friendly to everyone but in terms of how much or small any of the students vocabs are, i dont care, i want to speak and to practice and to hear russian and thats exactly what i am going to do.

tomorrow our classes start and I have to get interviewed to determine my level, which should be fun. there are some heritage speakers in my program as well as two people, a guy and a girl, who have already been here for like 4 months and speak beautifully so I do have plenty of people to talk to and learn from. I got assigned my tutor today, who I spoke with for a long time and is really cool, she actually teaches english to russians here, which is pretty tight. 

im pretty tired and am not sure what else to say right now, i had such good stuff while walking along the gulf of finland today but now i cant remember anything, damnit

How I got here

Hey everyone, so I finally got there and had an... interesting time doing it. I am writing this in Word and am going to copy and paste it into Blogger later because there is no internet in the dorms, where we have to stay for a few days because they are still working out some details with some of the host families and want us to go all together. I am just going to give a couple stories about how I, barely in some cases, got here and some quick impressions of Russia. Of course, there will be more to come, but I cannot promise the frequency or consistency of posts because I am going to be so busy while I am here.

We got to Dulles Airport like 6 hours before the flight was, which is not the usual way I travel, as most of you know and all the different lines we had to stand in moved incredibly slowly but we did eventually get on the plane, which was delayed on the tarmac for about 1.5-2 hours. Then, the plane flight to Munich was long and I got pretty bad cabin fever but I sat next to two awesome girls, who I talked to the entire way. It was definitely a long flight, United, but we eventually made it to Munich safe and sound. In Munich, which was from about 9 a.m. to 10 a.m., I bought a croissant which cost me like 6 euros (i know!) and wasnt even that good and then got on my next plane.


On this plane, which was Lufthansa, I had an incredibly horrible experience. So.... I got on the plane, I was sitting almost in the furthest back row, and a man came in a while after me and sat next to me. I was in the window seat and he sat in the aisle seat, leaving the middle seat open. They then announced that someone had checked in but now wasnt going to make it and they had to remove his luggage, as per their policy.  The flight attendant made a joke about Murphy's Law and said that "of course" that passenger's luggage was behind everyone elses so they had to remove all the luggage to get out his bags.  I wondered what the chances were of the one person who did not make the flight being the guy who was sitting in the same row as me, probably pretty low. Whatever though, it was a little shady, but I didnt care because I was so tired.


Then, I noticed who incredibly shady the guy sitting next to me was. He was twitching a lot and looking constantly at the flight attendants and fidgeting. Then, at the last minute, when the flight attendents were no where to be found, he took his bag out the over-head compartment and placed in on the seat in between us.  He took out his cellphone and turned and it on and, looking around, put it into his pocket.  This, I thought, was pretty shady. To make matters worse, he then took off his shoes, constantly looking around and at the flight attendants and towards the front of the plane.  At this point I got a little worried and when he looked at me, I closed my eyes almost all the way, so he would think I was asleep.  The plane took off and, in the air, he used misdirection to get the one flight attendant in the back to go to the front. No... this was not paranoia because he at first asked for a newspaper and then, when the attendant turned around to just grab one off the shelf, because there were plenty of newspapers back there, the man asked for a magazine... in FRENCH... on a german flight to Petersburg. The attendant had to go to the front of the plane to find such a magazine, leaving the back unstaffed.  I carefully watched the man as he twitched and bit his finger nails and so forth but he didnt work up the courage to do anything.  finally... he got up to go to the bathroom, without his shoes, and I called the flight attendant over and told him how shady that man was being and to keep an eye on him because he was suspicious. He said thanks and that he would.  I spent the entire multi-hour flight pretending to be asleep and watching him extremely closely. My eye lids got so tired.


I just got invited to dinner though so I have to go but I figured I will atleast go into the lobby and try and find internet to post this one message. There will be more to come when I have slightly more time.


I will leave on a happy note too... that when we got to Russia and were going through Passport Control, there were a lot of foreigners and my Resident Director made a bet that if you could get the person who checks your passport to smile, he would give you 100 rubles. Well.... mine was a woman and I am... me, so I took the bet. I walked up to the woman (who was actually pretty cute) and handed her my passport.  The girl looked at my passport and then looked up at me, raised her eyebrow, and put her hand on her chin (rubbing it) - she was asking about the facial hair I had when I had my passport photo taken. I asked her "Вам нравися моя борада?" (do you like my beard?) and she shook her head and SMILED said "Нет, лучше так" (no, it's better this way -- but saying it in a funny and flirty way) and almost laughed, I swear to god, she almost laughed. I smiled and said "thank you" and turned to my RD, who was still in line, and gave him a huge thumbs up.  It was a good first experience with a Russian on Russian soil and it definitely set a good tone for me.


All in all, I have having an awesome time and am so so happy and will write more when I have more time and stuff. Sorry, I have to bounce now.

In Washington DC at Dan's

So we finally, after traveling constantly from 5:00 am PST to now (about 2:43 am PST), we finally got to Washington DC and met up with Derek's friend Dan, who is really nice and cool and is letting us crash the night at his house tonight. 

I got an email today about my host family, which I am going to post excerpts from below:

"You will be staying with Nina Petrovna Kondrashova.  Nina (50s) lives with her husband Gennady Petrovich (50s) and their son Denis (20s).  They also have a dog.  Their daughter Yulia (20s) lives separately.  Nina works in sales while Gennady is a mechanic.  They enjoy fishing and being in the country.  Denis is a student and enjoys playing the guitar and biking.  They are all very excited about meeting you.  Their home is close to the metro station "Akademicheskaya" from where you will board each day to commute to the university."

It sounds cool and I am glad for the assignment.  I am thinking now about what kind of presents I can get for them and am trying to brainstorm a little in my head.  I was thinking for the son, either a cool guitar pick (which might be kind of a cheap present) or a classic American Rock album or something. I am not sure if I can assume he likes rock from knowing he plays the guitar though.  For the dad, I was thinking some type of cool book about American old cars or Hot Rods or something because he is a mechanic.  For the mom, I have no idea... "sales" it says but I have no idea what that really means lol. 

I am excited that they like being in the country because I definitely want to spend time in the country and that means they for sure have a dacha.  I am also excited about them having a dog because it will be cool to see how Russians speak to animals, might sound minimal but it could be weird for a foreigner. A boy my age sounds cool too, will be easier to relate to than a girl and could teach me all the internet and chat lingo like "lol" and "tyvm" and things, which I have been DYING to find out. Most importantly, he will be able to tell me if there is a shorthand way to type "Спасибо" ("spasiba" == thank you) over the internet, similar to typing "ty" instead of "thank you" because it would be way faster. 


I think we are going to take it pretty easy today, hang out here, there was mention of going to an Irish or English Pub tonight in Bethesda (that's for you Seabolt and Elinor!) and then Derek and I are going to try and check out some sights tomorrow before we check-in for orientation at 4 pm. 


Thanks for reading everyone, I'll try and keep the posts coming.


I haven't decided about how often I'm going to post pictures and what not but I think I will leave out the few I took today, cuz there was nothing that interesting. 

San Diego/Intro

Hey everyone,

So... I'm in San Diego right now waiting for Derek to shower to go out to Target, the AT&T Store and what not for random, last-day errands before we leave tomorrow morning at 6:40.

Although I have never blogged before, I figured it would be the best option to stay in contact with everyone at home and I will do my best to regularly update and post to it about all the stuff I am doing and everything that is happening as well as pictures of me and stuff and possibly video.

Ok, now to clear up a few things for those of you who do not know the... modern me, particularly well, my username and screen name for most of my online accounts is "blubberbo" so that's gonna be my name here too, just so you know you are in the right place :P.  Also, for those of you who do know me really well you might be surprised by the lack of vulgarity but I am going to try and be pretty G-Rated on here so I don't offend anyone who might be reading.

As of right now, my itinerary looks like the following:

Monday morning - Flight to Washington DC
Thursday night - Flight to Munich and then to St. Petersburg

After that, who knows! But I will start posting here as soon as I get going. I am unfamiliar with blogging so I am not sure the easiest way to follow me or check for updates or whatever but I did add a link to email subscribe over on the right I think. 

Thanks everyone for caring and paying attention and please, throughout the trip, feel free to comment and talk to me and what not! :)

Love you all