The Russian Family Robinson

The Trip:

Alright... As you may have heard, last weekend Dylan, Megan, and I went on a wonderful trip with real Russians! (Thanks to Megan for hooking us up). It was a weekend of many mini-adventures, which I will cluster artfully into this one comprehensive post. Enjoy!

        The car ride to the dacha (Russian weekend vacation home) was about three hours. We stopped along the way at an area of the road where the trees were covered in scraps of cloth. It was a Russian tradition that you made a wish and then tied a scrap of cloth onto these trees, and your wish would come true. So, we all did!

Here's an action shot, and here's my wish blowing in the wind:

         
We also stopped at a very rustic roadside toilet. It was too beautiful to resist.

The Dacha:

Dachas are a wonderful tradition Russians have. They're rustic little weekend/summer cottages where the city dwellers go to escape. We rented one for 1100 rubles/night per person, or about $35. We got really lost finding the place, and had to drive through some rough terrain to get there...

But it was so worth it! The dacha was adorable. There were baby goats there, and some pretty spectacular decor...

(This is quite possibly the greatest sign I've ever seen. What does it mean? No dumping in the forest? Do your morning squats and/or double-pole ski practice in non-wooded areas? Make sure to shield your ass from dangerously pointy trees? We may never know...)

The Hike: 

We arrived, ate lunch, then the Russians told us it was time to hike to a cave about 5K from the dacha. The hike was quite long, and hilly, and rocky, and even after the dacha owner woman made us a three page map we got a little bit lost. But it was fun! 

As we were hiking along, all of the sudden one of the girls gasped and raced to the side of the trail. We'd found mushrooms! Russians are really big on mushrooms, and she was an expert. We made a collection, marked the trail, and picked them up for the next day's lunch on our way back home. They were delicious!

The caves weren't huge but they were still cool. We had fun clambering about, tiring though it was.

The Shashlik:

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned shashlik before, but it's basically Russian shishkebabs. We cooked some yummy chicken over an outside fire and made up quite a feast!

Dylan had decided he wanted to buy peanut butter when we came across it at the supermarket, and the Russians went crazy for it. We taught them to eat it with apples, and they figured out themselves that it's also good if you just eat it with a spoon.

I finally had a real Russian meal: A big hunk of barbecued meat, cucumber/tomato/mayonaise salad, and a shot of vodka (okay, maybe more than one shot of vodka) to wash it down!

We spent forEVER trying to get good pictures of us writing in the air with smoldering sticks. Dylan kind of succeeded (in Cyrillic and backwards). We probably would have done it a lot longer, except all of a sudden it was time for...

The Banya:

A banya is basically a really hot Russian sauna, except it also involves whipping yourself (or having a friend do the whipping for you) with wet leafy alder branches. Also, you're supposed to wear these funny hats.

I could only really handle the banya in small doses. Then we'd sit around, snack on our leftovers, and chat! (In both Russian and English).

It was a great weekend and we made some good new friends. This has definitely been my most prominently "Russian" experience so far, and I absolutely loved it, even if my legs were a little bit sore the next day... Russian sure do walk a lot.

A Few Words

Hello again my wonderful blog followers,

Looking back on my posts of late, I feel you may be overwhelmed with photos and perhaps wondering more about what I actually think of the city, not just how things (and how I) look here.

So, here is a post of solely words to clear up some of the things you may be wondering about. Or perhaps to introduce ideas you've never even really considered. These organic thoughts may lack organization, but should overflow with entertainment value.

First off, I would like to remark on how terrifying Russian drivers are. This weekend Megan, Dylan, and I went on a road trip to the country with our new Russian friends (TEASER ALERT! A post about this with many pictures to follow). Anyways, the road trip really cemented my thoughts on Russian drivers. Bus drivers, taxi drivers, and regular people with cars all drive like escaped convicts running from the law. I think I've already mentioned that in Russia there's no standard of which side steering wheels are on in the cars. Also, Russian drivers pay little attention to lines on the roads. Wherever they see a space their vehicle might fit through, they race through it. Instead of keeping a moderate speed, Russian drivers are very jerky. They stop and start and honk their horns and go a million miles an hour over bumps and train tracks and all manner of obstacles. If I die in Russia, it will most likely be from riding in a vehicle. That or drinking the water (which I of course don't do).

So there was a nice little rant.

Next I will tell you about Russian food. So yesterday I was in the kitchen cooking dinner (chicken and potatoes). Our good Russian friend Liana was with Danielle (another American) cooking their dinner. They're on a diet together, so Liana was cooking them healthy Russian food. First she fried some little hotdog-like chunks in a pan. Then she added cabbage and let it steam. There was a lot more cabbage than hot dog... healthy, right? Then when it was almost done she added a cup of Russian sour cream (called smetana). Healthiness = out the door. That's pretty much the story of Russian food. There's so much mayonaise and sour cream and whatever in it that it kind of loses its health value. Russian food involves a lot of dill, which I love. There's a lot of fish here because Vladivostok is a coastal city. A lot of the time it's easy to get good seafood here and not too expensive. Good meat is harder to come by. Random things are really hard to find like tortilla chips or salsa. Other things have become staple parts of my diet like spreadable cheese. Good Russian cooking is delicious, but the cafeteria on campus has a fairly small collection of mediocre food. I am excited to start cooking my own food and went downtown to buy a pan today but the store was sadly closed. I'll go again tomorrow. Also, the dorm kitchens are strangely devoid of ovens and microwaves, which further complicates things. But a lot of kids in the dorms cook and in the evenings the halls always smell delicious.

It's finally starting to cool down here - highs in the mid-sixties and last night it got down to freezing (but just barely). I'm ready for it to feel like fall, which is my favorite season. The leaves are falling, but that crisp cool fall air hasn't quite arrived yet.

My classes are ok - I don't love them but I also don't hate them. Sometimes they're horribly hard and sometimes they're pretty easy. The subject matter itself isn't difficult to grasp; I just have an awful vocabulary and it's sometimes hard for me to understand directions or questions as I hear them without pausing to look up words in my pocket dictionary (which I take with me everywhere). That book is probably the single most useful thing I brought with me.

Alright... that's a lot of writing for right now and I'm feeling sleep creep into the corners of my eyes (that works the same in Russia as it does in America. I hope you enjoyed this piece of my mind. If you, my lovely blog readers, have any comments or things you would like to know about Vladivostok feel free to comment here or on facebook (since I don't think you can comment without a google account). Also, sometime when my internet connection is working a little better I'll upload pictures and tell some stories from this lovely past weekend at a Russian vacation home.

I hope this post finds each and every one of you happy and well and enjoying the beauty of fall. Goodnight.

Excursion

Today was a holiday in Russian elementary schools: Teacher's Day! To celebrate, the Russian language professors decided to take their students on a big field trip instead of having classes.

It was very exciting, but as usual we didn't really know where we were going when we got on the bus that morning.

To my pleasant surprise, we ended up at a funny little park about 45 min away from the school. We Americans had a field day exploring!

Megan and Dylan drove an airplane!

I got to hang out with the Russian Winnie Pooh and Piglet!

In case you haven't gotten the idea yet, it was kind of a kids' themed park. But you're never too old for fun!

Watch out behind you! Teehee.

This was the coolest thing: an actual maze! We were tall enough to see over the walls (Even me! That never happens!) so it wasn't as crazy... but it would have been scary if I was  little kid!

I went fishing with Masha and Medved, characters from a popular kids' show.

The teachers broke us into two groups and we had a competition for who could make the prettiest sandwich. Which one do you think was my group's? (Answer at end of post).

Megan climbed up in this tree house, and the teachers got so jealous they climbed up too! That's our "Listening" professor in the middle.

In the woods I came across these great natural (but embellished) burl faces.

We also had a competition to see who could find the most beautiful leaves. The teachers picked a bouquet of fall colors.

I had a wonderful time getting out of the city and wandering about the Russian woods. Didn't stumble upon any tigers yet though!

(Answer: The Americans/Koreans made the sandwich on the left.)

Wahoo!

... What could possibly make me this excited after my Boxing Day slump, you ask?

Why, a computer charger of course! Danielle's roommate Aliana took my downtown today and helped me buy one. It put me out 3500 rubles (about $120) but I really needed one, so it is what it is. The good news is, the US-shaped prongs from my old dead charger are removable and will work with this new one when I get back to the US!

(Ah, such a beautiful sight)

Dylan came with us downtown and Aliana showed us a good inexpensive sushi place. Then we did some grocery shopping at the supermarket downtown (which is located in the basement of the mall, odd) and I bout real cheese! (Among other things). Since I've been here I've only eaten spreadable cheese. It's not bad, but I'm really excited to snack on hard cheese and crackers. Yum.

Also on my list of exciting things, tomorrow instead of having classes the international students and teachers are going on an "excursion" to picnic the day away. I'm not sure of the location but I know we're getting on a bus at 10 tomorrow! I'm getting pretty used to following instructions and never quite knowing where they'll take me.

Do zaftra! (That's "until tomorrow" in Russian)

Boxing Day

Hello readers,

The last few days have been quite average. The newness of the city is wearing off, my classes are starting to feel routine, and I've reached what I like to think of as the "Boxing Day Let-Down" of being in Russia. You know, that time when you realize that the excitement of Christmas is over, the anticipation has been cast aside with the wrapping paper, and New Years still feels a long ways in the future. Ah, the woes of Boxing Day.

I miss little things like popcorn and a soft mattress. I miss big things, like being able to sound intelligent in a conversation or knowing what the food I'm purchasing is made of. I miss random things, like knowing where to buy yarn or where the ceramics studio is. I miss throwing on jeans and a sweatshirt and knowing everyone else is dressed like a slob too. I miss fresh vegetables.

Today, however, things are looking alright because I FINALLY got internet in the dorms. It's not particularly fast, but it's enough to write this post! At least that's something.

Despite the Boxing Day Let-Down, I'm still really liking being here. Although my Russian has not markedly improved yet, I can tell that by the time I head back I will have learned a lot. Even though I don't have any close Russian friends yet, there are lots of people who say "priviet" as we pass in the hallways. This is just a time all travelers and holiday-revelers must face: the dreaded inbetween. But there's a light at the other end of the dark Siberian forest; I can see it.

Museum

While we were waiting for the Tiger day concert to begin (see previous post!) we went to a local history museum dowtown.

(This is what REAL Russian wilderness is like.)

(For all of you at Islands and Ocean... I found an albatross!)

(Oh hey there...)

(Ah, Russian grammar... the bane of my existence. And it's been around for so long...)

Day of the Tiger

It's a festival I've been looking forward to since my arrival in Vladivostok - День Тигрa!

Tiger day is a new holiday in Vladivostok - it's only been around since 2000 or so. It is a day created to raise awareness about the Amur tiger, the coolest cat around. The Amur tiger is the biggest tiger in the world. Unfortunately, only about 450 Amur tigers remain in the world, and 90% of them live in the Vladivostok region. Hence, a festival was born!

(The Amur tiger is basically awesome. If an Amur tiger and a bear were to engage in a fight to the death, this is what it would look like.)

Tiger day began with a parade of people wearing black and orange and some very cute children in tiger costumes. There were tiger balloons and face painting and all kinds of fair-y junk food. It was very merry. The tiger day festivities lasted late into the night with a concert at the end of the day! I of course spent all day downtown taking in the tigeryness. Save the forests, save the tigers! Yrah! 

(How many tigers can you see in this photo?)

(The announcer man had a great tiger day outfit. And mustache.)

(Look! I'm home!)

(As happy as a kid with cotton candy.)