numbers

Half an hour in transit to my university. Three hours of Russian class. One chocolate bar consumed. One hour of walking and praying through the city. Two hours of business meeting. 2 pieces of pizza enjoyed – complete with red pepper, pepperoni, mystery green sauce, and eggs as toppings. One hour editing English grammar for a friend. One letter written to the dean of my university, entirely in Russian. Night sky already out by 4:50pm. Another half hour in transit back to my apartment. 37,210 roubles spent at the grocery store. 40 minutes chopping cabbage, pepper, onion for a new salad recipe. One sinkful of dishes washed. One massive spider squashed. One wet bathroom floor mopped. A third of a bag of pelmini consumed (a yummy Belarussian food). One cup of vanilla green chai being drunk slowly. An hour navigating through my Russian homework – I’ve taken 37 pages of notes since January 3rd. Four SMS messages received, three SMS messages written. One great smell permeating my apartment: white chocolate mint (yankee candle). Listening to the Dixie Chicks, Dar Williams, and the Cure. At least 30 minutes on the internet, and a guaranteed two or three more hours until my head hits the pillow. All in a good day’s work. And now only 3 days until I drive to Lithuania for 10 days.

For one of the first times I can remember, I encountered a friendly grocery store worker.

I miss being able to buy a head of lettuce. I’m having to learn to like cabbage. Sigh.

I miss wi-fi. Dial-up is not my cup of tea.

I say “oy!” a lot, and can’t for the life of me think of what I used to say instead of “oy!” Oops? Shoot? Dang? Whoops? UGH? But I like the “oy.”

egypt details...

Some people have been asking about Egypt, so I’ll give a little more info about all the fun experiences I had…

I won’t lie, I was pretty depressed in December! I just saw the departure of many wonderful American friends shortly after Thanksgiving, and I was feeling their absence, and the impending reality of a very windy and cold winter was all the more saddening… So getting away to a more southern, sunny, and warm locale was the goal. One of my friends was also a willing companion for a travel, and thanks to a generous donation from generous and loving people, the possibility of Egypt was soon a reality… Why Egypt, per se, you may ask?? Well, there is this “little” problem that all my Belarussian friends have with obtaining visas…. And Egypt is one of the few countries that does not present this big obstacle…

I generally am not a huge fan of beaches. I would prefer hiking or more active sight-seeing. But this trip afforded the best of both worlds for me. Vegging beachside and touring. We went to Sharm-El-Sheikh, which is on the shore of the Red Sea, on the east side that faces Saudia Arabia. It is a famous snorkeling spot for all the fish and corals. I had the opportunity to snorkel in about 3 or 4 different locations, and the variety of corals and fish I saw was simply spectacular. But after a few days of lounging on the beach, suntanning and what-not, we took the first of three excursions to Mt. Sinai. We took a bus about 2 hours to the mountain base, and arrived around 1:30am. We began hiking in this pitch blackness, having only flashlights and the breathtaking starlit sky above as our guides. We would stop for breaks every 30-60 minutes, and finally arrived near the summit around 5am. We had to wait until 6am for the sun to rise, and we enjoyed the spectacular view. Hiking up Mt. Sinai gave me a lot of opportunity to think about Moses and what it must have been like for him and the Israelites in this wilderness of Egypt… It is a wilderness that is simultaneously breaktaking and frightening… frightening because you have to wonder, what did they eat? How did they manage wandering in such a place for so many years?? It is secluded, barren, rocky, dry, dusty. It is lonely. After the hike up, we took a rocky stair climb down to the base again, and visited the monastery where supposedly THE Burning Bush has been transplanted and thriving since Biblical times. Who knows. But the monastery was the oldest Orthodox monastery in the world. I think. It was quite lovely.

The second excursion we enjoyed was to Cairo. Cairo is a city of 21 million people. Pretty amazing. It is huge, hazy, old, dirty. You can see people driving cars, riding bicycles, riding horses, or driving carts pulled by donkeys in the city streets. On the street where their President lives there are hordes of military personnel on guard at all times. They tended to stand at attention in clusters of three. In Cairo, we visited the over 100 year old Egyptian Museum. The highlight for me was seeing up close and in person all the gold, jewelry, and ornate coffins (sarcophaguses?) that were excavated from King Tut’s tomb. I had seen pictures and read so much in elementary and middle school about King Tut, and then suddenly, the things I had only seen in books from childhood were within sight, only a foot away behind glass. Everything was truly impressive. After the museum, we sampled scents of perfumes made locally. Then we headed to a papyrus museum and learned how they made papyrus paper. Of course, we also drove out to Giza and enjoyed time walking around, taking in, and photographing the pyramids and the sphinx. And yes, they are massive. They were as large as I expected them to be, and were not a disappointment. The amazing thing is to see the Bedouins dwelling in a complete desert on the other side of the pyramids. On the one side, a big growing city of Giza, and on the opposite side, nothing but desert wilderness and camels and their Bedouin owners…

The third excursion we went on was an off-roading adventure through the desert of the Sinai peninsula. We went north, stopped in the middle of nowhere – literally it seemed – to have tea with some of the Bedouin desert dwellers. They were constantly trying to sell you something and the children would look for an easy handout from the tourists. Our off-roading eventually led us to the shores of the Red Sea again, where we enjoyed lunch in a Beduoin hut on the beach, snorkeled in the beautiful waters, and then continued on our way by camel. Yes, for nearly an hour, I rode a tall, slow moving camel (and no, I never spotted a spitting camel…), ambling among the water’s shore within sight of Saudia Arabia, and navigating through small rocky overpasses. The camel ride gave me a lot of time to photograph some awesome views of sea and sky and local kids helping us lead our camels along on our way. After an hour, I also realized that riding camels can be a very uncomfortable experience and my realization was enforced all the more when large bruises showed up on my legs from the uncomfortable “saddle” I had to sit on for the entire ride. Eventually, we got back into jeeps and headed to the city of Dahab. There we snorkeled in the one of the more famous spots, the Blue Hole. It was a spot where the corals were the height of two story buildings at least, and surrounded you on all sides, leaving you a pillar of water in the middle to swim in while soaking in the beauty and peacefulness of the marine world.

Of course, our trip could not have been complete without many interesting Egyptian men eager to befriend foreign women. Every Egyptian man I talked to was simply shocked I was American. I would speak half Russian, half English with them, because most people I was in contact with spoke Russian and not English. My tour guide up Mt. Sinai heard me speaking English all of a sudden, and asked me, where did I learn to have such good English? I said, you know, I lived in the States for 24 years… He was shocked. Did I study there? What did I do there? And I replied, well, you know, I’m an American citizen… I was born there and lived there nearly my whole life… (hahaha.) It was a funny little joke.

music and virtue

I’m savoring some limited edition Ghirardelli peppermint bark chocolate right now… oy! So delectable.

As I am away from the States right now, I’m coming to see why there are a lot of people who find us… really irritating. I thought I knew why before coming to Belarus, but… I’m getting a different perspective just by the sheer fact of having my dwelling place geographically located somewhere else… I’ve had to think about the things I value and why I value them… and where to make the distinction before a standard of goodness and personal preference or even inculcated or acculturated predispositions. Ah, yes, I find myself dancing around the timeless question, what is virtue?...

I hung out with a few girls last night. I was sharing some of my music with them. I was shocked… They had never heard of bands that I thought would be well known by now in most parts of the world, including Eastern Europe… like Dave Matthews Band. Counting Crows. Smashing Pumpkins. Barenaked Ladies. Moby. Simon and Garfunkel. Lauryn Hill. The Cure. Dashboard Confessional. B.B. King. Switchfoot. Frank Sinatra. Nope. Never heard of them. Granted, I wouldn’t have been shocked if 2 or 3 of those I just listed they didn’t know… I am sure many people in the States don’t know some of those groups. But to not know ANY of those 12 groups/singers was the bit that really astounded me. (I guess by now I should know that I shouldn’t have been shocked about such things in Belarus…)

They had heard, however, of U2 and the Cranberries, probably because they are European bands and not American bands… Though to their credit, they did know a few American singers and groups… namely, Lifehouse, Norah Jones,…

january 5

I have a building cat. He kind of reminds me of a tabby cat, but then if I were to try to define what I tabby cat is off the top of my head, I'd be stumped. Today I talked to the building cat in Russian. I've discovered that several residents in my part of the building feed this cat. My neighbor across the hall likes to leave whole fish and fish heads on the floor outside his door for the cat to eat. Oh-so-lovely.

2007 is predicted to be one of the warmest years Minsk has ever seen. Lucky me! Though, I wish there were snow. It makes things so much more beautiful and peaceful, and then I forget about the cold and the harsh, blowing wind.

I went shopping on December 30th at the largest grocery store near my house with a friend. When I say largest, think small. MAYBE a FIFTH of the size of a Kroger… and only the grocery section of a Kroger… still, with five or six aisles, it's impressive. It was like Black Friday at the market; in summation, it was insane. New Years is the biggest holiday for Belarussians, so everyone in the neighborhood was shopping the same time I was. While there, I even ran into another friend, shopping the same time, and thereby keeping my theory alive that there really was the WHOLE neighborhood there. And by neighborhood, don't go thinking about a "subdivision of houses" in the U.S. Think of about 5 square blocks that are packed with 5-15 story apartment buildings… Maybe you can imagine… To top it off, the power in the grocery store went off FOUR times in a span of 10 minutes. And of course, without power, there are no cash registers. So the lines were doubly insane. Where else could I have such wonderful and interesting experiences??

I'm planning a Star Wars movie marathon with some of my friends. I have Belarussian friends who have never seen Star Wars, which is a travesty that should be remedied immediately... I haven't had a Star Wars movie marathon since… 2001... I think... As I remember, only 2 other brave souls besides myself stayed the whole time, watching 4 of the movies, which was all we had then. Even then, I was the only one who remained awake to the last minute… What can I say?... That makes me… stupid or hard core. ;)

happy new year

Let’s see, where did I leave off?...

Life brought me to the Ukraine, then Egypt, and then back to eastern europe in time for 2007.

Belarussians are blunt people. It is a long standing observation of mine, but I don’t think I have ever commented on it. It makes me think about communication in general, and what can be "standards" of, say, polite, good, or gentle speech, if there can be. At first I thought the bluntness, sometimes which even feels harsh or rude to my american self, was just a result of the language barrier, politeness being lost in translation,... but I have since realized this is just how they are, or just how Russian language itself is built. It has been an adjustment, whether conscious or not, since I’ve arrived. So when I do encounter belarussians who seem very polite or kind, I find myself really struck by it, and really appreciative, when perhaps I would have taken it for granted otherwise, elsewhere...

So the new year… {long babbling play-by-play follows…}
I had an awesome celebration in true Belarussian fashion. Ten of us gathered at my friend’s apartment at around 7:30pm new year’s eve. I had prepared cracker-coated baked chicken and brownies. We enjoyed a huge meal, which meant I tried traditional Belarussian new year’s food, like mushrooms and fish salads, in addition to more American fare, like my chicken and BBQ ribs, with Tony Roma’s sauce even! After stuffing ourselves, we played a few games which resulted in so much laughter that I swear I had to have lost all the weight I had just gained from dinner by the end of the fun. Around 11:30pm, we all turned off the lights, except for their little “yoluchka tree” (new year’s tree), and prayed about the past year with many praises and much thanksgiving together. Then, at about five minutes before midnight, we turned on the TV to hear the president give his “new year” greetings. After midnight passed you could hear fireworks being set off in the streets and parking lots in the middle of the apartment buildings. But we went back to praying, this time for the upcoming year. By now, it was close to 12:45, and we all rushed to throw our coats on and run down outside, while carrying sparklers, to catch the metro out to the completely opposite side of the city by 1:30am to watch the city-wide fireworks display. We got on at the second metro stop of maybe 10, and it was already packed with people. The crowd was so bad and insane that we felt nothing but sheer hilarity about it. Getting gum out of my purse became a real challenge… and soon, even standing up was painful. Of course, you couldn’t move (or fall) anywhere, because everyone was nearly suffocating by everyone else packed around them! The police had to keep people from getting on the metro cars at the following stops. By the 4th stop, everyone inside the metro was shouting to those on the platform to take a taxi, or they would reassure the bystanders that there would be a New Year next year, so they could just wait until then to see the fireworks…. I was squished in between my friends, and halfway falling on or jabbing with my elbow the people sitting down. When we reached our final destination, the mass of people exiting the metro was astounding. I would have grabbed my camera to capture it, but I think I would have been trampled in the effort and/or would not have even been able to GET my camera out of my bag to even take the shot. Maybe next year… Around a quarter of a million people were there to watch the fireworks, which lasted 20 minutes. Then we had to try to catch a bus back to our apartment, which took about an hour given the traffic jams. So by 3:15am, I was back at my friend’s apartment in time for dessert. I successfully converted several Belarussians to loving Reese’s pieces. We had cakes and torts and brownies and chai, and by 4:30am, everyone was simply exhausted, and the conversation was dying down. I headed “home” with my friend Krista, and finally went to sleep at 6am, just one hour before midnight EST. But New Year’s day proved to be just as fun as New Year’s eve. I made muffins at noon, and took them over on my “wake up call” errand at 1pm. I ended up hanging out with my 8 Belarussian friends again until 8pm, having leftovers, playing cards, watching some crazy Russian cartoons on TV, and having some good conversations in English and Russian.

So here I am… it is nearing January 2nd, 2007, and I’m looking forward to more relaxation before going back to class on Wednesday… and still brimming over with joy from the fun in the past 48 hours. 2007 is going to be a great year, I’ve decided…

Hope your new year’s was as merry and wonderful as mine! Any resolutions for the year? Share if you dare. :) (‘Cuz I’ll make sure to ask you about them next year!! ;))