HAMBURGER

For dinner last night Megan, Jordan, and I treated ourselves to a humongous delicious greasy real American burger at the Irish pub. I'm not sure if it's because I was starved for real food or just because it was an awesome burger, but it was one of the most delicious burgers I've ever eaten in my life! It had cheese as well as some magical sauce and some sort of bacon/ham hybrid too. Yummmmmm...

While we were waiting for our food three Russian men sat down at the table next to us. The noticed we were Americans so of course they wanted to chat. These particular Russians were really into Native Americans, and flipped out when Megan said she lived near reservations and knew about Jeronimo.

When our food came, we wolfed down our burgers like savages... and the Russian men asked why we were eating such horrible food! We were shocked. This was delicious food. We told them that it was like American food and we wanted food from our homeland. The guys were really excited for us to try Russian food (which we clearly already have) and enthusiastically bought us a plate of something that I forgot the name of. It was basically strips of raw but smokey-flavored salmon that we put lemon juice and pepper on and ate with black bread. Not going to lie, it was delicious. But we had already eaten a burger and had a beer......

I was SOOO FULLLLLLL. It was ridiculous. But worth it. This was probably the most satisfying meal I've had since being here. Often food in restaurants here comes in reasonable sized portions and I missed ordering something and having an impossibly huge plate of food delivered to me like always happens in America. The Russian admonished us that hamburgers are the reason Americans are fat... but we said they were delicious. And really, for the night, that was all that mattered!

Сок

While drinking my orange juice this morning I turned the carton around to be greeted by these two jokers....

This kid on the top... man. This wouldn't even fly as an acceptable school picture back in my day... and here he is on the back of a juice carton! It reminded me of in Tom & Jerry when the little girl's picture is on the back of the milk carton... except that instead of being lost these kids are talking about how much they love fruit.

And let me tell you, this guy ^^^ loves fruit!

The carton roughly translates to: Why do I love Fruit Garden?

Because delicous! (They don't really use articles in Russian).

The little girl's reason is something like: For beautiful fruits.

As you drink your juice this morning from a boring carton with no goofy children's pictures on it, ponder the many reasons that you love сок (pronounced sock). 

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In case you didn't figure it out from the contextual clues, COK = sock = juice.

Керамика

Ah, керамика... one of my favorite Russian words. Because it is the word for one of my favorite things in the world... ceramics!

Yesterday after all our regular classes, the American students met for a "Ceramics Master Class." I was SO EXCITED. For those hapless readers of my blog who do not know how fully obsessed with ceramics I am, I'm telling you now. I love it. Adore it. Dream of it.

Our adventure began with a descent into the bowels of the dormitory building, down to the basement floor where the laundry room is located. There, we opened an unmarked door and wonder of wonders, a tiny ceramics room was hidden inside! Who knew it had been hiding underneath my bedroom (a few stories below, but close) all along! It was wondrous! Anyways, we met with a ceramics master maker of traditional Russian toys/figures. She gave us a quick demo then we set to work making our own traditional Russian toys. I made a little horse, a little chicken, and a little fish.

Sadly, I took no pictures. Here's a picture I borrowed from the school website, though. Megan and Dylan, my LC pals, are hard at work. They each made a woman, like the one you can see in the foreground.

We made our figurines and left them there to be fired. Next week we'll go back and paint them all pretty traditional Russian-y. It felt so good to have my hands covered in clay again, and we all had a blast playing around with mud. Everyone's stuff turned out really good, too! I can't wait until my next journey back to this magical transient land hidden next to the laundry room and filled with strange figures. It's like a clay-dusty Russian Narnia. 

Выбор

Привет всем! -- Priviet vcem!

That means "hello all" in Russian. I'm going to try to incorporate more Russian phrases in my blogs so you can learn along with me! Feel free to practice at home with your friends. I guess I should give you the real Russian to look at and also the phonetic spellings... the title of this blog post is "Vibor." I won't tell you what it means... hopefully you'll be able to figure it out from the great story I'm about to tell.

So as you all (hopefully) know, yesterday was the election for the next president of the United States of America. You may have listened to it on the radio, watched the live election coverage from the comfort of your couch, or just heard the results on the morning news (depending on how invested you were). What do Americans stranded far from American news in Vladivostok, Russia do? Why, we get fancy invitations to watch the election at the consulate of course!

On Wednesday afternoon after our classes we donned our warm coats, gathered together and got on a bus to head to the consulate for the second time. It was COLD out, as it has been in Russia. But we didn't have to wait long (just long enough for a security check!) before we were in the nice warm consulate munching on snacks and watching the elections (live coverage!) on a big projector screen. It was extra fun because we kept switching between networks and the consulate people were coloring in their own map of how states voted. Interactive elections!

There were some Russian students there who we had met at a "round table discussion" in our RFE class. They'd held a mock election for non-US citizens at the consulate election party, and it seems Russians really love Obama. Of 53 voters 49 voted for Obama. Poor Romney. Anyways, it was nice to chitchat with new American friends and thoughtful English-speaking Russians. Even though I'm not super politically informed, it was neat to see people of all nationalities, ages, and occupations come together for an event.

It will probably be one of my fondest memories of an election. Partly because it was actually enjoyable, and partly because... well, how many people can say they watched the US presidential election from Vladivostok, Russia?

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Выбор = Vibor = Election. Literally means "choice."

Into the Woods

You might remember from my excursion to the Dacha that Russians love to go into the woods and make barbecue. So this Sunday, that's what we did once more! We found a lovely little piece of woods on the top of a hill. The view of the city (before we got into the dense woods) was spectacular. The woods, however, seemed a little dangerous to me as a place to build a fire. There were dry leaves galore and our fire pit was much too small. Also, our fire was built on a hill and all the embers kept rolling down. Smokey the bear would not have approved, but I tried really hard to safety-fy the area. I kicked leaves out of the way and even pulled up a couple of small trees (the Russians thought I was nuts). In the end though, we had a successful barbecue with no forest fires, delicious food, and fun friends!

Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner of Champions

So as you may remember, I often find food options in Russia slightly discouraging. Lately, my solution has been ramen. Ramen in the morning, ramen in the afternoon, ramen for a bedtime snack... so much ramen! As the winter weather has set in there's just something about a nice hot cup of soup that I can't get enough of. (Although they did turn the heat on in my room, so I no longer live in an icebox).

Now you may be thinking that I've become the classic destitute college student who eats ramen for every meal... but you're probably forgetting that I currently live in Asia, where even the dried comes-in-a-styrofoam-cup ramen is DELICIOUS. I even occasionally add vegetables like my mother taught me to.

Bon Appetit!

A Quick Note on Eyes

For those loyal followers out there, you might remember my post about my Korean friend Anton and our realization that Americans look at people more when they're talking with them. Well, if Anton was uncomfortable with how intently Americans look at him, he's doomed talking to Russians. I myself, being American, wouldn't really have noticed how intently Russians stare into your eyes when talking to you...

Except that, on literally more occasions than I can count on my fingers, I have been talking to a Russian and in the middle of a sentence he/she will interrupt me and ask, "Do you wear lenses?" I can't get over it. It cracks me up every time it happens. Here colored contacts are still pretty popular, though, and contacts are a little more novel, less everyday occurrence. But still. Never have I been talking with an American and been interrupted by the realization that I wear contacts. It's just one more of those quirky Russian things that I so greatly enjoy.

And Anton said I have eagle eyes.