Riding the bus to and from work takes up about an hour of my day, and most of the time I don't really think about it and just look out the window or people watch or just zone out and listen to music. But sometimes it is very obvious that I'm riding a bus in a small, provincial Russian city. Tonight, I had one of the those experiences.

After a long and hectic day at work (journal and quiz grading, placement testing, a line of students coming to my office hours with all sorts of tricky questions) I walked out into the snowy night and caught the #25 bus back to lovely Dobroe (my not-so-pretty neighborhood). Even at 10pm the bus was pretty crowded, and I got one of the last--and least desirable--seats: a seat facing backwards and directly across from some seats facing forward. When there aren't many people on the bus, this group of four seats facing each other is a good choice for a tall guy like me because there is more leg room--as long as nobody sits in the seat across from me, that is. So tonight I plopped down in this uncomfortable seat, and at the next stop, two guys carrying a take-out bag from McDonalds and passing a canned gin and tonic among themselves sat across from me. My legs were jammed right up into the other guy's lap. Russians have a much less demanding concept of personal space than Americans, and even that understanding disappears when you're on a bus or a train.

So here I am with my legs intertwined with some guy's legs, getting whiffs of canned G&T, eavesdropping on other people's conversations, and looking aimlessly out the window when I notice that the bus hasn't moved in a while. We were sitting at a stoplight, but the light had probably gone through two or three cycles by that point. Then, the bus engine turned off, and that got everyone's attention. Apparently some lady couldn't produce her bus ticket for the conductor to check that she had paid her fare, and the conductor decided to take a stand and insist that the bus wasn't going anywhere until the woman paid her 14 rubles. Well, let me tell you, that got the whole rest of the packed bus pretty riled up. The two guys sipping on the G&T started coming up with all sorts of great names for the woman who wouldn't pay, and two drunks in the back of the bus started yelling at the driver, reminding him that Russian law prohibits parking near a traffic light and calling him insulting names for barnyard animals and female dogs. Other passengers shook their heads, told off the name callers, and told the woman to cough up her 45 cents. Someone else sardonically commented, "And this is Russia;" I'm assuming he didn't have any clue that there was an American on the bus.

After about two minutes of this, the cheap woman paid her fare, and we got back on our way. The two guys polished off their G&T and got off a few stops later, and I moved to a better seat when one opened up (my stop is at the end of the line). That was quite a bus ride. Oh, and I got a lucky ticket this morning; I haven't eaten it yet though....

Yesterday we finally had a good snow that covered the ground. It's about time: It's been cold and dreary for a while, and winter is so much better with a nice blanket of snow. The weather forecast is for more snow and temperatures in the 20s, so it seems like winter has really set in. Time to break out the boots! Here are two pictures from my walk to work yesterday morning. The first picture shows the landmark Golden Gates, which were built in 1146 (or something like that) and used to be the entrance to the city. The second picture is of the road leading up an old earth mound toward a water tower near the American Home.

We had a unique Thanksgiving celebration at the American Home on Saturday. We couldn't do any observation of the holiday last Thursday; it was a regular working day for us, and I made sure to jokingly remind my classes that I had never before worked on Thanksgiving. We celebrated instead on Saturday, and we did it big. We teachers made a Thanksgiving feast for 25, and it turned out amazing well, especially considering that none of us had ever cooked any Thanksgiving meal before. 

Some of the dishes were already prepared, and we had already done most of our shopping by the time Saturday rolled around. Speaking of shopping, we had to make some interesting improvisations because certain ingredients just don't exist here. It was impossible to find corn on the cob, and there is no such thing as cream of mushroom soup here in Russia. I looked long and hard for pimentos for my poor imitation of my mom's famous cream-cheese stuffed bread, and the closest thing I could find was a can of pretty hot pickled peppers. Also, boxed stuffing and canned pumpkin pie filling also don't exist here, so we had to make everything from scratch. 

Cooking began before 9:00am on Saturday, and we were working non-stop until the start of dinner at 4:30pm. It was worth it though; the meal was excellent. Our turkeys turned out perfectly--not tough and not undercooked. It must have been beginners' luck. Here are some pictures from our hectic day of cooking: 

Happy Thanksgiving! I have never worked on Thanksgiving before (and I guess I have never been anywhere besides northwest Ohio on this day either), but I'm thankful to have the opportunity to work here in Russia. I told my students today about the three Fs of Thanksgiving--food, family, and football. To commemorate the last F and to celebrate Michigan Week, I told my students about the big OSU-Michigan rivalry, and, to top it all off, they sang "We don't give a damn for the whole state of Michigan." It was a good way to mark the holiday, but, of course, I miss home a lot today. Eat an extra helping of turkey and cranberries for me! 

Peanut butter! I can't sum up in words how much I miss it; I will try anyway. One of the other teachers expressed to her students her dissatisfaction with the fact that you simply can't buy decent (or really any) peanut butter in Russia. This student happened to go to America a few weeks ago and remembered our frustration with the unavailability of this byproduct of George Washington Carver's best invention. We cracked into one of the jars today, and my mouth started watering uncontrollably when I smelled that fabulously peanuty aroma. There just isn't peanut butter or really any other peanut products in Russia, and, for someone who plowed through about a jar a week of PB in college (if I ever need triple bypass surgery you will know why), that is a huge problem. So, if anyone out there wants to pick me up a jar, I love the Simply Jiff crunchy peanut butter (little bit less far, one gram more protein per serving--ya I know that off the top of my head). Let me know, and I'll send you my mailing address. Maybe I'll send you back a jar of pickles; that's one thing where Russia has the US beat.  

The big dark is setting in. Vladimir is pretty far north; its latitude is 56N, whereas Cleveland, Ohio, is at 41N.  This means that we get a lot less daylight during the winter, and the sun is always at a strange slanting angle; even high noon isn't very bright. According to the weather forecast, right now sunrise is at 9:04am, and sunset is at 5:04pm. I got up today at 8:15, and it was still pitch black outside. The scary thing is that we still have over a month of decreasing daylight hours before we start heading toward spring. It doesn't help that it has been cloudy and grey and rainy for the past few weeks, and there is no sun in the forecast for the next week. Temperatures are hovering around freezing. 

It could be much worse though. I looked at the weather forecast for Norilsk, Russia, which is located far above the Arctic Circle in central Siberia. The high temperatures for the next week are around -5F, and the sun rises at noon and sets at 3:15pm. And the city looks like this: 

For more pictures of this far-northern city, check out this website (it's in Russian, but a picture is worth a thousand words). 

We teachers were invited today to give a talk (in English) at the Regional Library in Vladimir about the American college and university system. Three of us went, and we represented three very different universities (Ohio State University, Bates College, and the University of South Alabama). We gave an overview of each institution and talked about student life, athletics, cost (a big surprise to Russians was that state universities cost money--they're basically free in Russia), and what it is generally like to be a student at an American university. About 20 people showed up for this talk, and I think most of them understood most of what we said. There were a few people who know English very well, and they asked some good questions. 

Russian universities generally don't allow students to choose their own classes, so our listeners were interested to know that we basically have the freedom to take whatever courses interest us. I can't imagine myself enjoying being told what courses I had to take, and perusing the course catalog and scheduling classes was one of my favorite parts of college. If I had been told that I had to take this class, this class, and that class, I would never have stumbled across city and regional planning--which became my major--,and I most certainly wouldn't have had time to take all the Russian classes that I did. Academics and armchair quarterbacks can argue about the merits and pitfalls of our system of higher education, but the freedom it gives students to indulge in weird classes (boxing is without a doubt in my top five favorite classes I took in college) and to follow their interests is certainly one of its best features. 

One thing that I find fascinating from a city planning and sociology standpoint is the Russian attitude toward sidewalks. Russians--like most Europeans--are much more inclined to walk than Americans, and a 15 or 20 minute walk to get to work or school is considered perfectly normal. By contrast, American urban planning considers 1/4 mile--about a five-minute walk--the maximum distance people can be expected to walk to get from place to place. Russians also love to gulat (walk without a destination, stroll), and a real progulka can last an hour or two.

But, by US standards, the pedestrian infrastructure in many places in Russia is awful. My neighborhood has very few sidewalks, and the sidewalks that do exist frequently dead end or are built in such a way that they flood when it rains. So, there are many "unofficial" paths that have been cut into the grass, and these are fine when the ground is dry or frozen. But when it rains, these paths turn into giant mud mires. These paths are clearly very well worn, and they are used by thousands of people of day, but they remain unpaved and unimproved year after year. Now I understand why everyone stressed how important a good pair of sturdy shoes is in Russia--everything gets filthy and wet and muddy very quickly just from the walk to the bus stop.

Here is a song that I have been listening to lately. It's by the Russian singer Zemfira, and it's called "Spasibo," which means "thanks."

Here is the text (in Russian and English)

За песни и за то,что я не сплю 
спасибо...
За меня и за мою семью 
спасибо...

Этот голос улетает в небо...
В небо...

За эти слезы чистые,как снег 
спасибо...
За миллиарды человек 
спасибо...

Этот голос улетает в небо...
в небо...

Сегодня был неважный день,
завтра будет хороший...
спасибо...
спасибо...
спасибо...

For songs and for the fact that I'm not sleeping
Thank you
For me and for my family
Thank you

This voice will fly up to heaven 
to heaven

For those tears, clean as snow
Thank you
For billions of people
Thank you

This voice will fly up to heaven
to heaven 

Today was an inconsequential day
Tomorrow will be great
Thank you
Thank you
Thank you 

Wow I had a great, and very busy, weekend. I was all tired out from my trip to Moscow and Zaraisk, and so the two working days this past week were tough. After that little break, it was hard to get back into the rhythm of teaching again. But I had a big responsibility: teach the past simple tense (yes! now my students can talk about more than just habits and what is going on right now!).

On Friday, one of the other teachers and I made dinner for still another of the teachers and her host. The joke was that it was time for the men to cook and the women to watch. Dinner turned out really well--fish with onions and mushrooms cooked in a red wine reduction over pasta. In Russian tradition, we stayed up until the wee hours of the night talking in the kitchen. Then, on Saturday, after sleeping in until almost noon and putting in an hour and a half at the gym, I went with all the teachers and staff of the American Home to a concert by a folk dancing ensemble. It was really great, and it is hard to imagine the athleticism it takes to do some of those dances.

Today a guy I know from the gym invited me play rugby with a group of guys that gets together and plays every Sunday at a field in my neighborhood. I've never played rugby, and the temperature was somewhere in the 20s (Fahrenheit), but I decided it would make a good story at the very least. So I went, and actually I had a great time. Rugby is a rough game, but fortunately most of the time we did drills and practiced plays. This group is actually some sort of club, and the trainer who was overseeing the whole thing normally trains the championship team for Moscow Region, so he is quite good. I was the biggest guy there, so, despite my cluelessness (something that I could at least attribute to being a foreigner), everyone wanted me on their team. I, therefore, was part of second line in the scrums, which means that my head was shoved between two guys' legs, and my shoulders were pushing against their butts, moving the whole group forward into the opposing team. It's kind of strange when you think about it. But the whole thing was a lot of fun, and I'm sure I'll go play again.

When I got home, my host family had guests over, and so I immediately sat down, had a big bowl of steaming meaty soup (solyanka), some stuffed peppers, cheese, sausage, and--of course--vodka. That was a pleasant time, and it was fun to talk to their family's friends. After the party broke up (around 5pm), I headed to downtown Vladimir to get something from the American Home, and, once I got downtown, I called up one of my students to see what he was up to. It turns out he was only about a block away, so we quickly stopped by the AH and then went to play pool for a little bit. What a day! Now it's time to plan my lesson for tomorrow, do my Russian homework, and go to sleep. I'm beat! 

I just realized that it is now 11-11-12, which means that it is veterans' day in the USA. Today was militsia day here in Russia, which was a decently big holiday. My host dad is retired from the militsia (police), so people were calling him all day wishing him a good holiday. The relationship between the police and the people here in Russia differs considerably from the situation in the US. I wouldn't say that Americans love police, but we generally respect them and trust them to handle our problems. If someone stole my car or if I had a problem with someone, I wouldn't hesitate to call the police. Here in Russia, people often consider police to be mean or bad people, and they don't trust them to take care of their problems.

People, therefore, don't have much respect for the police. Maybe that lack of respect is warranted -there certainly is corruption and abuse of power among the police--but a lot of it is rooted in a long history of repression and the use of the police by the government to keep the people from exercising their will. And don't think that that is just a Soviet tradition--the police in tsarist Russia were the model for the Soviet police. Because of this long history, the police here aren't viewed as law enforcers but rather as oppressors who try to make life tough for regular people. Is this preconception accurate? Are the police in Russia worse than the police in America? That is hard to say, and there certainly are a lot of good people who serve in the Russian police. Regardless, I try to stay out of their way.

So here are some pictures of my trip this weekend. It was a great trip, but I didn't actually take that many pictures. The weather was pretty lousy--rainy, grey, and muddy--so we didn't do much walking around outside. The first few pictures of are Izmailovskii Park in Moscow, which is not far from where I lived in the Summer of 2011. I walked around in the park while I waited for the other Americans on Sunday. The green bottle is tarkhun, which is a Georgian drink made from licorice. I love the stuff. The next picture is the Elektrozavodskaya metro station--my favorite metro station in Moscow. The next two pictures are of my time in Zaraisk. In the first, I'm doing the Soviet pioneer salute, and the second is the view from the balcony of my friend's apartment. The next pictures are of Moscow. The last series of pictures are some of the pieces of art I saw at the New Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. Enjoy. 

What a great break! I traveled to visit some of my Russian friends in the little town of Zaraisk, which is located in Moscow Oblast about 160km away from Moscow and 60km from Ryazan. I was last there a year and a half ago, and so it was good to see my friends. Unfortunately it rained the whole time, so we didn't get outside and do much, but we had a good time nevertheless. On the way to and from Zaraisk, I stopped in Moscow. 

On the way there, I met up with a group of Americans who work in the embassy. I have a mutual Facebook friend with one of the girls in the group, and that is how we knew about each other. We visited a main souvenir market and then went to a really good Georgian restaurant that I remembered from when I was in Moscow in the spring of 2010. The Americans were very, well, American, and most of them spoke absolutely no Russian, so it was challenging to get them to try the "weird" food in the restaurant.   

On the way back, I had two options. There was a train to Vladimir at 14:23 and another at 18:06. I was at the train station about ten minutes before that first train left, but I decided to take the opportunity to just be in Moscow for a few hours and bought a ticket for the later train. I got a delicious lunch of borshch, a pork chop, and grechka at a cafe on the Arbat, got a coffee at Starbucks (Starbucks has exactly the same smell in Moscow as it does in Chagrin Falls, Ohio), and set off for the New Tretyakov Gallery--one of Russia's foremost museums of modern art. My dirty self (going on 72 hours without a shower or a shave) slogged through the pouring rain and stumbled into the museum exactly as the grand opening of a festival commemorating the museum's 80th anniversary was beginning. I was suddenly a part of the sophisticated, educated, artistic intelligentsia, who were sipping champagne as they wandered through the galleries, meeting a greeting old friends and discussing art. Maybe they thought my scruffiness was part of my artistic personality. Regardless, it was a perfect way to spend an hour and half waiting for a train in Moscow. 

And, to top it all off, I got up this morning and turned on the TV just in time to see Mitt Romney's concession speech. I'll keep my political allegiances under wraps, but I can say that the vast majority of Russians are happy to hear that Obama will remain president. I'll post some pictures of my trip soon! 

    

Vacation! I love my job, but every once in a while, everyone needs a little break, if just to step back and get some fresh air (and in Russia, where deodorant isn't all that strong of a cultural norm, fresh air is never a bad thing). I didn't think I needed this break, but I was looking forward to this break all last week. We have the weekend and then Monday through Wednesday of next week off.

I am going to spend part of break in the little town of Zaraisk, where some of my Russian friends live. I am leaving Vladimir tomorrow morning on the 7:26 express train to Moscow, meeting up briefly with some other acquaintances in Moscow, and then taking a bus to Zaraisk. A cool thing about Russia is that the public transportation system is actually usable; Zaraisk  is a town of about 20,000 people, and it is connected to Moscow by an express bus that runs every hour, which is pretty impressive considering that it takes three to four hours to travel between the two cities.

I'll be sure to take lots of pictures of my trip!