Updates from the last...day and a half?

Did I mention how impossible it is to cross the streets in Ulaan-Baatar? It’s terrifying. Far worse than Irkutsk. This main road didn’t really have stoplights (or maybe they did somewhere far, far away) so there was always constant traffic, and even though they’re supposed to stop when there’s someone in the crosswalk, I’m fairly sure that there were a number of drivers who had no intentions of letting me live (is that English? I don’t think so. But is it understood? Hopefully). There were six lanes total, and you had to cross the first three lanes, wait in the middle, and then go when there was a space. I, no joke, thought I was going to die. It was ridiculous. Most of the time I just waited for other Mongolians to cross the street. They know best, I guess.

This morning we arrived in Irkutsk at like 7:30. I didn’t think my Russian had gotten that bad after just one week, but it seems as if I actually can’t speak Russian. Both our speech practice teacher and my host mother said that we definitely forgot how to speak. Who would have thought?

Got my power cord today. Computer and I have been enjoying our reunion. In fact, right now I’m typing this blog entry instead of writing about American/Soviet relations during WW2. Whenever I’m on the internet I always forget what I have to do, and then immediately after it’s gone I remember. For example, I researched the wrong movie for my homework assignment for film class. I also wanted to email like 8 million people, but also forgot. I have information for a different movie though, unfortunately all in Russian. I can deal, I guess. I mean, the point of my being here is, after all, to learn Russian.

My host mother said I lost weight in Mongolia. I fear this means she will be feeding me twice as much in order to get me back to where I was. I didn’t actually lost weight, I have no idea what she’s talking about.

We spent 12 hours at the border and they didn’t even look at any of our stuff. I have no idea what they were doing. Also people kept trying to get us to keep their stuff in our compartment (what were they trying to smuggle?) and we had to refuse multiple times.

Also, I’m still trying to figure out my travel plans. There are two goals: a) spend as little money as possible and b) not waste a whole lot of time, in order to (MAN I wish people in English understood чтобы phrases, it’s just so much easier) get home faster. There are a bunch of places I want to go, but I’ll end up traveling in a giant circle, which is fine, I guess, but I’d prefer something a bit more economical. At the same time, however, I don’t want to just hang out in Irkutsk with nothing to do for two and a half weeks. Also I might end up riding the Trans-Siberian from Moscow all the way to Vladivostok (not all in one trip, however).

Places I want to go in Western Russia: St. Petersburg, Moscow, Yaroslavl, maybe Stavropol. I think I’d do that for awhile, then take the train to Ulaan-Baatar where I will hang out, get a visa to China, and then go meet Jenna there. After that I could either just fly back to Irkutsk, or I could go to Vladivostok and take the train back. And then home. It would be so much easier, though, if I could do the whole Ulaan-Baatar-China-Vladivostok-Irkutsk thing first, THEN fly to Moscow and hang out there, and then go home. But that would mean I’d have to hang out in Irkutsk for 2 ½ weeks with nothing to do, and we don’t want that. Those 2 ½ weeks could be better spend at home, recreating the not worthless person I once was. Russia will do that.

Update: I have come to the conclusion that in order to do this assignment I need to have watched the movie, which I didn’t, because I missed our last class due to illness. I guess I’ll just talk to Vladimir Constantinovich tomorrow and see if I can turn it in later. That would be pretty much great. In the meantime, I think I’ll do other homework, and then go to bed early so I can get up early and…well…I dunno, do things.

I need more mental stimulation. I could probably find quite a bit if I were to do my homework, but I’m really busy being in love with my computer right now. That’s a total lie, I’m not busy with anything at all. I think I’m getting frustrated with the restrictions Russia puts on my ability to be a productive and worthwhile human being. Of course, this is not completely Russia’s fault. I could be productive if I put more effort into it. But Russia also kills any and all motivation to be productive. Where as at home or at school there are an infinite number of things I could do to be healthy and productive, in Russia, I have to first seek these things out (they are very hard to find. I’m having trouble coming up with an example), then I actually have to work with Russia itself and other Russians in order to complete said project. And in most cases the working with other Russians part is the one that makes everything pretty much impossible. For example, something as simple as going to the gym. I know this trainer dude is only trying to help, but I keep politely refusing it and he still insists on helping. I just want to be left alone on the elliptical, do some lifting, space out for awhile, etc. But he insists that I use this machine, and then this one, and then this one, and then I should do this, etc.
Next example: swimming. That I could do without an actual person, since I can’t really hear them when I’m underwater (unless it’s Jerry. I could always hear Jerry when swimming). However, this too is an incredibly hard task, since I think I have to go to like 18 different doctors to make sure I’m in good enough health and have decent skin in order to swim in the pool (what am I going to do, spread around some sort of weird skin disease? I don’t even know). I hope the pool isn’t full of STDs. (Kidding). (Maybe).

The children’s home we already know has been sort of a slow moving disaster.

I’m just going to sum this up and make a list of restrictions that are found in Russia:
1. Ridiculous time restrictions (you can only go to the gym between 9 and 5…who is free between 9 and 5?)
2. Ridiculous health restrictions (pool).
3. Other people bothering you (which is SO ironic, considering that Russians in general don’t talk to each other the way Americans do, they tend to keep to themselves more).
4. Host family.
5. Host family.
6. Drunks on the street.
7. Host family.

Also the other day we were talking about something, and got onto the subject of how American kids play “House”. Then Sonya (I think it was Sonya. Maybe it was someone else? I don’t really know) says, “So, what do they play in Russia? Ugly Soviet Block? As in, like, who wants to play the drunk in the stairwell?”

I should stop ripping on Russia. It’s not really that bad. I want to go back to Café Fiesta and start making travel plans on the internet. I could, in fact, because it’s open 24 hours, but I’m not allowed out after dark (this is an exaggeration. I have been out after dark. I just haven’t asked to leave the apartment after dinner on a school night because then I’ll have to face the Grand Inquisition and I just don’t have the energy for that. It’s only on Friday or Saturday nights, when I actually do leave the apartment for good reason, that I have to be back by like 11:30 so as not to be killed by the dangers lurking in the streets of Irkutsk). I want to distract myself with travel plans.

AGH! I need to work on my schedule for next semester too. Oh my gosh this is going to be so fun! Something I can organize! WOO!!!! I should have downloaded the course catalog today. It’s okay, I’ll do it tomorrow.

Oh, did I mention that Mongolia is one giant farmland? It was actually amazing, there would be these herds of horses and sheep and goats and cows and camels (sometimes together, sometimes not…and once a herd of yaks) and they would just roam the steppe. In fact, I wonder how they know which herd belongs to which ger-dweller, and what they do if their herds decide to mesh together. The first night we slept in a ger we woke up the next morning to find like 200 sheep in the yard. Just chillin. Actually at first they were all in a pen, but the pen door was open, so within 15 mins half of them were out of the pen, but still just hanging around together.

Also I’ve reread some of my past entries and realized that I do have a tendency to recount everything that happens in extreme detail. I thought Sonya and Ivan were making fun of me and exaggerating saying that I tend to include the exact time of events and entire conversations, but turns out that I actually do that. For example, the note about dinner our first night in Mongolia. Did any of you really want to know about the various types of meat we ate? Probably not. My bad. Feel free to skip over those. I will probably continue to write with that much detail though, so be warned. When I’m writing I have a tendency to think that all of these things are important.

We went to the Baskin-Robbins today and I was SORELY disappointed. Although they have whipped cream, which is a plus, they have not such a great selection of flavors. And they also don’t have the important flavors, such as chocolate chip cookie dough, mint chocolate chip, and rocky road. Like, what kind of Baskin-Robbins is this? They also had $7 milkshakes. Who’s going to pay $7 for a milkshake?

My lack of motivation has reached an all-time high. I don’t really have that much to do. It’s only 8:00, and I don’t have class until 11:30 tomorrow. I could very easily get a lot done. I just don’t want to. And it’s not even that I don’t want to, if I were in an environment where I felt like I could work, I would. I just don’t like working in the apartment. And then since I can’t escape anywhere to work after dinner, I get more bitter about doing work in the apartment. Then I don’t do it. I really like working in Café Fiesta. I haven’t tried working in other coffee shops because I’m afraid they’re too Russian. I’ve never seen Russians just sit and work in a café before. I asked Anya about it, and she said it rarely happens. But all of the foreigners flock to Café Fiesta, so I don’t feel so weird about it.

So, do the employees at Café Fiesta think there are way more foreigners in Irkutsk than there actually are? Because if all the foreigners go to Café Fiesta all the time, but the employees think they just go there as often as they go anywhere else, do they think there is this way huge number of foreigners in Irkutsk? Even if they did it wouldn’t really make much of a difference. I’m just curious.

Today I ran into like EVERYONE in the street. I ran into 2 people from my SPO Phoenix group and then Tanya right outside of Café Fiesta. She invited me over to her house on Saturday (I think this is like, a big deal). Should be good.