GRIFFIN WILSON

There are moments when I love Russia; moments when I crawl out of bed to an empty house, take a long shower and then turn on the Bob Dylan and sit on the balcony all day. Then there are the days when I wake up at 7AM, take a 10 second shower, spend the day at a jousting tournament and in the hot sun of a crowded beach, and return home to liver for dinner. But together, the days are forging a new chapter in my adventures.

And while those days are the introductory notes, the novelty period wears off, regardless of where life brings me. To be exact, the last smidgen of it ended last night, sitting on the playground with some Russian high-school students and ignoring the urge for things to occasionally be explained. The flow of life finally felt relaxed again. And today’s the first day that I’ve gone without seeing another American. The feeling is so incredibly freshing: to blend in, to walk to the grocery store, read the newspaper…

While it is “wonderful” to have excursions to jousting tournaments or to the beach, listening to 20 Americans speak Anglicized Russian can get frustrating. And things I once considered frustrating: delightful. When opening the refrigerator today and thinking “I have no clue what I am going to eat.”: all that came to mind was “HECK YES I CAN GO TO THE GROCERY STORE”. Yes, the end result was Ramen with ketchup for dinner finished off with a delicious beer, but it was definitely a good Russian day. (Also, do not be alarmed. This is only because my host parents are gone for the day. I am eating healthy mom I promise)

And now for a good Russian night….

Griff

So, yesterday marked the three week anniversary of my arrival in Kaliningrad, and of course I miss you. And by you, I am speaking directly to my bottle of Tylenol. Because (as my mother may have informed you) there were some hair splitting moments this week.

You have to wear little booties at the dentist to keep the floor clean.

Rather than going into gruesome details about things that I barely understand, language barrier or not, I think I had a root canal today, as far as I could tell. To be perfectly honest maybe it is better to not to understand, but ‘Experiments in Dentistry: Day 2′ left me slightly more sore, with more metal pins and gutta percha in my mouth than I started that day. The saga shall continue with dentist visit #3, Tuesday morning.

I still have teeth. The three on the left in the back are the problematic ones.

These are the real moments where ‘Russia’ is: the dentists office, the taxicab, the back of the cramped bus next to an old man recollecting while I nod every few minutes. Don’t get me wrong:

The program is fun and functioning quite well (even when I’m not there!!). The material is finally getting into unfamiliar territory, and the teachers are pretty good; admittedly teaching Russian to non-native adults looks a lot harder than teaching English in Bosnia to 5 year-olds. The concepts I was covering were things I could easily draw pictures of: family, body parts, aeroplanes… Even when I was teaching to middle schoolers, the material we were covering (fairy tales) was easily clarified by watching Shrek (in English, of course).

Until bigger adventures come along, we’ve got tomorrow’s… jousting tournament. Yes, jousting is our weekend excursion. If even vaguely like what we saw at Carcassone then it shall at least be interesting, and if it is anything like the Heath Ledger movie ‘A Knight’s Tale’ then it will be awesome. Will report back with my thoughts, hopefully soon.

Sometimes, despite my extensive knowledge of the Russian language, I’m not sure what the heck someone is saying to me, or what I’m eating. Take, for example, my Russian host father, Sergei, who, on the first day, said to me “My wife says I talk a lot- she thinks I’m pretty annoying. Don’t you agree?” And of course, I’m like “yes yes yes” without knowledge of this specific word for annoying. While it now definitely exists as a crucial part of my vocabulary, there are some words I’m never gonna master.

This is no concern to me, of course, when I get to the CANDY AISLE of the grocery store. I ended up there actually because I was looking for dental floss (if you know me, you know this is as key to me as anything) and, I got ‘misdirected’ and ended up in the candy aisle.

I stayed a little longer than expected. EVERY VARIETY OF FLAVORS I EVER IMAGINED was right before me, a la Willy Wonka. Deciding to do some advance Christmas shopping, I thought, “I’ll try something every now and then, to discover whats good to take home for gifts before I leave.”

So far, it’s worked out to great success. But rather than just remember the names, I have started a new habit: I take a picture of me with the box! Smile on my face, good candy. Frown, dissapointing. Disgust… well, you get it.

Delicious Pineapple & Mango Truffles

 I suffered through HORRIBLE marzipan for my mother’s sake. THANKS MOM! (It was German marzipan too, how is that possible???)

Awesome, right?? Don’t worry, there will be lots more coming soon.

To be honest, nothing really interesting has happened recently, other than surviving and discovering that the really big bags of M&Ms only cost $1.00 here. They have a different taste, to be sure, but it’s a good start.

Thus, I thought I might explain some of my daily life.

7:15 Alarm Goes Off
7:30 Wake Up, Shower, Eat Breakfast, Wake Up the Whole Neighborhood with my Hairdryer
8:30 Meet neighbor (Also an American student in this program) to walk to school
8:55 Make it to school
9:00 til1:15: 2 classes (45 mins each) of Conversation, 1 class of Phoenetics, 2 classes of Grammar
1:15 Lunch. Same restraunt, same menu with 4 choices every day, and enough carbs to put a potato farmer to shame.
2:15 Activity! Mondays: Local Guest Speaker, Tuesdays: Excursion, Wednesday: Free Thursday: Film Friday: Meeting with our group (our one hour of English per week!)

As you may have concluded, yesterday was a ‘Excursion’ day. We went to the museum, which really could never fit under one traditional category of museum. Part history, part art, part literature and zoo, it was the yard-sale of museums.

The building was pretty awesome, though, and you could tell how the architecture had been ‘improved’ over time. Wikipedia says: “Museum is situated near Nizhneye lake (former Scholssteich) in the building of former Schtadtshalle, that was built in 1912.” Also, the same place I found that information also has other cool pictures of Kaliningrad!

The museum had things from the 1300s through current time, the coolest of which being some of the Cosmonaut uniforms and artifacts. Quite a few cosmonauts grew up in Kaliningrad, and many of the streets are named after them: yesterday we drove down Yuri Gagarin street. There’s also a really cool memorial tot he Cosmoanuts in town, I’ll hopefully get a picture of it later. A little out of the way, but worth the trip! As for now, my schedule should inform you: it’s lunchtime!

You should really read the emails my Mom sends me, desperate for a new post: I’ll spare you the gory details, but suffice to say this will be the highlight of her week. Hi Mom! I’m alive. I don’t have the wireless that I was stealing from across the road, I dunno if the people moved out or went on vacation or what, but I don’t have Internet. So, I go several days without checking my mail (it’s torture to have a laptop and to want to write a new tale, but to not be able to), and then get to school, work all day (9AM to 330PM today) and then to write, to catch up on life, etc.

Well, to be honest, it’s been a boring week. Monday through Thursday: school, all day. Friday: holiday! I caught up on sleep and read a book all day. Saturday: We went to a town called Svetlogorsk, where I dipped my feet into the Baltic Sea a bit, then, of course, it rained. Today is the first day (and there is still 8 hours left of it) when it has not rained. It’s amazing, really, because I was so prepared with my umbrella and jacket that you’re almost sad when it doesn’t rain.

The town we went to on Saturday had a parade, because a lot of cities have their ‘day’. It’d be like ‘Middlesboro day’ or ‘Kaliningrad day’, and you have parades and … I think that’s about it. Russians really like old cars so we saw lots of those in the parade, and they had a marching band. But maybe parade isn’t the right word, because it’s a very straggered parade. More of like: one act, break, another act, break. A three hour parade where people take breaks and such. I have a few more pictures, but I don’t have them uploaded yet: maybe tomorrow or the next day. Sooner, if the wireless reappears.

But today it’s back to school and back to… fun! I’m still exhausted every day, it’s as if my body knows that it is not supposed to be going to school every day in the Summertime. I wake up at 7:15 every day, I don’t even wake up that early in the regular year at school. I’m left with this odd sentiment: I’m EXCITED to go back to Cornell!

One may notice some discrepancies between the most recent blog titles, for good reason- Saturday was the first day after the honeymoon period, in which my life resumed to a somewhat normal standard, complete with shopping experiences, of course.

Although my mother retrieved my shoe from the Renaissance M Street Hotel, it does not have the pleasure of traveling to Russia with me, and thus, my first mission: Buy new shoes. Despite the fact that I have brown sandals, black shiny sandals, tennis shoes and flats, none of these are the plateau of comfort AND style. So I (unfortunately?) had to acquire a new pair. Poor Griffin. Having no doubt that 4 ’shopping centers’ with 30+ shoe stores would have something, off I went (with my host mother).

An important distinction: The main difference between my host mother and I so far, is that she is an In-And-Out shopper; I am a ‘imagine this shoe with 20 outfits’ shopper. In spite of it all, our adventure was surprisingly easy. 8 shoe stores and 10 minutes in, I found them.

And, despite my suggesting that we part ways (none should endure the torture that is SHOPPING WITH GRIFFIN), I was never so thankful to have my host mother at my side. Because I have NO CLUE what shoe size I wear in Russia. Nor how to ask “Is this real leather or man-made?”. Just wait. I will write this manual eventually, because I know it could be useful. Because, as I will soon mention, my next “New Word of The Day” was nail-polish remover.

This is because, of course, this mall had a SEPHORA and, having new shoes, of course new nail polish was required. Annnd I found my eyeliner from the French company that went out of business a year ago. (Mom, if I come back with $100 in eyeliner now you will understand.) But because I did not know this word in Russian, I made odd gestures until understood, after which the saleswoman asked me if I would teach her English this summer. I think she did, anyways. I’m not a mastress of the Russian language; that of course, comes at the end of this program. (Also, apparently mastress is not a real word: my spell-check suggested mattress or mistress neither of which I am.)

Having found the necessary ingredients for temporary happiness, I went home. It poured rain. I got a bit confused as to where I lived. Here is where I live: It looks just like Sarajevo but without holes in the sides of all the buildings. This is a plus.

Despite all the similarities, I got lost. Maybe because all these buildings are that similar. I got soaking wet and used my brand new Cosmo magazine as an umbrella. BUT I successfully asked for directions. I made it home. My nail polish remover smelled like blackberries and vanilla! A successful day all in all. My reward: time to sleep!!

From Russia with Love,

Griffin

PS I have a feeling only my mom will care but here are my new shoes.

First I must apologize for the length delay between my posts- as you may well know, I was traveling between continents and this is not the 21^st century a la The Jetsons. A journey from Washington, DC, starting at 3PM, puts you in Kaliningrad at 8PM the next day., via Frankfurt and St. Petersburg, and leaves one somewhat less comfortable and sleep deprived.

Although beginning to overcome these things already, my body has certainly tried its best to work against me, by forgetting my most comfortable shoes at the hotel in Washington, napping at 2PM,

and refusing to go to sleep at even 2AM. Not helping would be the large amounts of sour cream I now have in my system: imagine ANY food, and then sour cream on top. Vegetable soup, chicken, spaghetti, latkas (und ich dachte dass Latkas mit Apfelmuss schon komisch ware!?!).

While to many it may seem surprising, that is my hardest adjustment. Obviously I’ve been plenty of places before without any knowledge of the language, but the setback is no minor one considering the language structure is a bit more complicated than others, but similar enough to Polish and Serbo-Croatian to be tricky. Nonetheless the pictures below would indicate I have indeed survived and conquered the city, courtesy of our tour guide Andre Anatolievich. While the tour consumed an entire afternoon, only the Cathedral struck me as especially share-worthy (remember, my Internet access is lacking at best):

The side and front views of the Cathedral, a bridge in front of it on which recently-wed couples place a ‘lock’ for good luck, grave of Immanuel Kant.

Hope that’s enough for now- my bed is calling me despite it being still bright outside.

From Russia with Love,

Griffin

Due to the fact I may be Internet-less for at least a few days, this is my first ‘Real’ Russia post, and I’ve enabled some friends to make updates to this blog to alert you to my status in absentia, in case Lufthansa goes on strike or anything crazy. Even if that is to happen, I just bought three new books to hold me over (at least for a day):

Zombies

-Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (Austen and Graham-Smith)
-Sputnik Sweetheart (Haruki Murakami)
-Mere Christianity (CS Lewis)

All others I have enjoyed before, and titles I have wanted to read but either delayed or never been able to find in stores before. Yay! The one bad thing about buying books with an already overweight suitcase is that I’m definitely not going to leave them behind. I would probably even leave SHOES behind before I would books, and you know how attached to those I am.

Anyways, as to my big DC adventure- what a short strange trip it’s been. Being in a hotel the majority of time leads to the loss of any sense of time or space- ANYTHING could be outside those glass doors. Including:

Washington Monument

Air and Space Museum

But, inside them is IKEA-land: The Renaissance M Street Hotel,

Renaissance M Street

which feels just like being in the Scandinavian Supermarket. It’s a decent hotel and the staff is very friendly, but it’s a bit too much of a forced-modernity for the hotel, especially considering the surroundings. Hey, I can’t complain when the State Department is footing the bill!

Star Trek

So, on Wednesday night I finally made it to see Star Trek, courtesy of Kevin who was in town from Richmond, and what a pleasant surprise it was! While I had expected a good show, it went beyond that- the actors and the visuals especially. While the star-studded cast certainly helped (I even think Zachary Quinto is kinda cute!), the guy playing Pavel Chekov was adorable- although he’s probably still in high school! He also stars in Charlie Bartlett, which I had seen this past year- but I didn’t even recognize him at first. Even I have to admit, Sci-Fi shows have surprisingly cute casts: Battlestar Galactica, Fringe, Doctor Who and Star Trek: I’m addicted to them all now!

On another more wordly note: I’m finally getting around to watching Planet Earth, courtesy of the 500-Gig External Hard drive I found in the D&R pile in Risley- It had all the episodes in HD! Sigourney Weaver is no match for the deep British voice of Richard Attenborough, so I had always avoided watching the American ‘adaption’ on TV, until now- just for comparison. His voice was even named the ‘most trusted’ by Britain- I wonder who Americans would pick. I don’t think it would be Sigourney Weaver, but maybe thats just me.

Air and Space Museum

Unfortunately, I don’t have time to finish the series, because on Monday- it’s off to Washington, DC, for a brief stint before Russia on Wednesday! For me it was no easy choice to narrow down the huge list of monuments and museums- but a little bit of help came from Will, who suggested the Museum of Natural History, and then from some research- which pointed out that the ORIGINAL USS Enterprise was on display in the Air and Space Museum. Not to mention rockets, mars rovers, and airplanes- so you can probably guess where I’m going. It was 10 years ago this summer that I went to Space Camp, coincidentally on the 30th Anniversary of the Apollo Moon Landing! Have any of you been to the Smithsonians, and which would you recommend? I have a good 8 hours to kill- so I might be able to fit in a lot!

My New Camera

With less than two weeks and counting, it’s no surprise I’ve been outfitting for the journey ahead. Thank goodness I had a birthday rolling around and Dave was wonderful about sending my present early- I’ve now got a shiny new camera to take on the adventure! Casio Exilim seemed like the logical choice, as our family has had such good luck with them for the longest time- it was my 2nd digital camera after my ancient Polaroid, then Morgan got one, then Mom… My old one lasted forever, too! I remember taking pictures sophomore year of high school with that thing. Many thanks for the gorgeous new one, Dave!

Roses!

On Monday I was greated with another bright red (and pink) surprise- beautiful flowers from Josh! I think it made the rest of the family a little jealous- but hey, I certainly deserve them. =D Flowers work wonders towards apologies, hint hint!

Chrome Citizen

And one more new pink and red item to grace my presence this summer- the Chrome Citizen messenger bag! What a great bag it’s been so far- I have no doubt it will last a lifetime, it’s the sturdiest thing I’ve ever put on my back, that’s for sure. Holds my netbook and lots of real books nicely too, I might add.

If you’ve got more ideas on red or pink things to add to my collection- my birthday is right around the corner!