I feel this picture truly embodies the love/hate relationship I have with Russia.
Siberia is so white
Taken along the bank of the river Томь.
Video from the BBC in which a correspondent travels to Tomsk and sees the inside of one of the old wooden houses here.
from BBC show Russia: A Journey with Jonathan Dimbleby
Link: The Improbable Story of a Sweatshirt
Recently I ran into a girl here in Tomsk who was wearing a sweatshirt from Hatfield, a small neighboring town to my hometown. I wrote a post about it on (Rub Paw Press)
Link: Apparently Tomsk is the Russia capital of hacking, maybe I should get lessons
“In the snow-coated Siberian city of Tomsk, one in every five residents is a student. Information security is what they excel in. But in college corridors here, students talk of hacking with respect, even reverence.”
Funny that they talk about “Tomsk University”, because there are six universities here, all with the words “Tomsk” and “University” in them. NICE RESEARCH BBC!!!! (read here)
Activist Punches Tomsk Governor In the Face
all the good stuff happens when I’m not in town.
An actual conversation with a cab driver/an accidental change in joke meaning
- Tomsk is not a very large city. Tomsk is not a very complicated city (it's a grid). I live at the intersection of two major streets. As a result, my friends and I (one korean, one russian) found it slightly silly when we got into a cab this friday and the driver was sporting a brand-spanking new GPS device. We found it even sillier when after I told him my address (the tomsk equivalent of saying 'broad and pine') he attempted to put it into his GPS. Sillier yet was the fact that my address was not in the GPS, but the next address on the street (54 instead of 52) was. Upon pulling up next to my house, the following exchange resulted between myself and the cab driver
- Me: You can let us out here, this is good
- Cabbie: but this isn't where the GPS said it is, Gagarina 54
- Me: Yes, I know, but my house is there, I can see it next to us. I know better than 'Sputnik'.
- (laughter, departure from vehicle, utterances of well wishing etc.)
- You see, the reason why I used the word 'Sputnik' was in reference to the now famous first satellite in space, I thought the reason why everyone found my joke funny was because I had referenced this specific moment and history, and that reference plus my being a foreigner made the joke funny. Moments later I found out that the word 'sputnik' in Russian really is literally the word for 'satellite', but the joke was still funny due to my claim of better geographical knowledge of the immediate area than the man-made celestial objects orbiting above us.
- Think in general it's really interesting in situations like this when things most certainly get lost in the translation but somehow retain their general meaning, or acquire a new one.
Thoughts on Caffeine Induced Insomnia/A Pretty Waitress in a Cafe
Right now I am awake„ probably because I drank two cups of coffee and I usually drink zero cups.
I am also hungry, and sort of want to walk to the grocery store to get something to eat but it’s about fifteen minutes away which is not too far but not close enough, so I keep being unsure if I want to commit half an hour to walking when I could be sleeping, but I’m not sleeping anyway, so it doesn’t make any difference. But then I think it could make a difference because I’d probably be awake anyway.
I also keep thinking about the pretty waitress at the cafe who probably spent minutes mustering up her courage/english skills to tell me about how she went to Virginia beach.
I think her name is Olga, but I could be wrong, because there are a lot of Olgas in Russia.
I am a regular at this cafe, but not because of her.
I hope she doesn’t think I go there because of her, I go there because that’s where some friends of mine go and it’s close to my apartment and has decent coffee and has a nice atmosphere.
Sometimes I think she gives me looks but I don’t want her looks, I just want to drink coffee/speak Russian.
I don’t want to deal with pretty waitresses because it could ruin the dynamic of this cafe for me. If anything happened, whether positive or negative, I could never enter this cafe again and have it feel the way it feels now. I feel as if I would have to act in one way or the other. Would have to kiss/avoid her (depending on circumstances). Would have to learn her work schedule to not feel awkward. Would feel like a stalker because I knew her work schedule. Would probably get in arguments with her if I went on nights she didn’t work (if positive). Can’t believe I’m thinking about this so much. Silly how pretty waitresses can do that.
This cafe is funny because the owner just got an old piano for aesthetic reasons only and I sat next to it and watched him show it to all of his regulars/friends. He’s very proud of this piano. It’s from 1841, I know this because he said it about 14 times.
There is an American smooth jazz musician coming to this cafe on December second. I was thinking about going so I could talk to an American, but then I remember that smooth jazz is essentially like the Five for Fighting of jazz. I’d probably feel like the club is a big elevator.
I also couldn’t tell him that I liked his music/that he is talented because I wouldn’t be thinking either of these things. Maybe the latter, if he was an EXCEPTIONAL smooth jazz musician. Are there those?
I probably won’t go, or if I do, I’ll probably stay on the other side where you don’t have to pay for the concert. Maybe the pretty waitress will bring me my coffee. Maybe she’ll have a new English thing to say.
this is what one moment looks like when I’m walking home from work at the university
I think I found the prettiest church in Tomsk. It’s up on a hill farther north in the city than where I live. I found a path that led around to the back of it with a view over Tomsk (I have that bad picture somewhere). A stray dog followed me back there, (there are a lot of those here) I thought “damn, this is how I die, killed by a rabid stray dog on what seemingly is the highest point in Tomsk behind a church.” The dog was really friendly and just sort of watched me and let me walk by without a peep, I didn’t die. I think I’m a bigger fan of stray dogs now.
I want a huge VCR attached to my house too. Kinda wish my suitcase was big enough to bring this bad boy home.
Russian + Nicktoons = Pretty Awesome
Like my apartment in America, my apartment in Russia has a TV. Unlike my apartment in America, this Russian TV actually gets channels that I can watch with relative clarity. Being that I’ve been here three days and have zero friends and have little idea what to do with myself most of the time, I’ve watched more network TV in the past three days than I have in the last two years.
Although I get thirteen channels (according to the TV) only about six are watchable. Of those six channels that are watchable, three of them are too fuzzy to watch eighty percent of the time. So basically I can only rely on four channels to never let me down. The sports channel, one called TNT (although I do not thing it has anything to do with the American TNT), MTV (which is as terrible here as it is in the US) and this channel called Russia.
What have I been watching? Mostly whatever seems to be the most interesting thing on at the time, usually sports, just because it comes in the clearest and it is easy for me to understand what is going on (there is only one way to play hockey, volleyball, etc.), but every now and then (especially in the early afternoon) I turn on TNT, because I get to see what is perhaps my favorite thing in any country regardless of language: Nicktoons dubbed into other languages.
Actually, I made this Nicktoon discovery quite early. Shortly after I arrived at my apartment on Saturday morning, I turned on the TV just in time to watch Hey Arnold! in Russian. It was an episode I’ve seen (the Chinese checkers one, if anyone’s curious) so I made a conscious attempt to actually understand what was going on. I failed miserably, but it is funny to listen to the various voices assigned to the characters (grandpa sounds like the German spongebob) and watch these old semi precious gems in a foreign country. Today I was delighted with the company of Catdog and As Told By Ginger (a later toon that I am only aware of via my younger sister).
Its things like these that make the transition to other countries easier. Of course I’m speaking about the familiarity of these cartoons, but on a deeper level, these cartoons are most likely the medium through which I will learn the most Russian at this point in time. Because I am aware of the stories/characters/setting, there’s less of a focus on me figuring out what the heck is going on and a greater emphasis placed purely on trying to understand the words coming out of the characters’ mouths. Lower stress = better language learning. Hopefully as a result of my stay here I’ll be able to sing the Spongebob theme song in Russian. We’ll see.
