So sorry to all of you dedicated readers (hi Noelle!), but there hasn't been too many exciting things going on lately. Last weekend we had a going away party for our friend Dominic from Poland. Our friend Andrew spent the entire day slaving away in the kitchen so that we could have fajita night (strangely enough Dominic had been studying Spanish here, so it seemed appropriate), and we invited all of our Russian friends that went to Baikalsk with us. Olegue brought his guitar, so there were plenty of sing-alongs in both Russian and English (it seems as though the Russians are pretty well-versed in all of the American classics—they knew all of the lyrics to songs I've never even heard of!). I ended up talking to Olegue into the late hours of the night (I was actually trying to get a Russian perspective on a few of my thesis ideas), but by around 7 am his English was getting pretty bad and I could barely form Russian words. As expected, Saturday was a lazy day—I don't even remember the last time I woke up at 2pm!
On Sunday I went to the movies with Alison, Gosha, and Gosha's Russian friend. Evidently you have to call ahead to make a "reservation" because the seats fill up quickly. It was really strange to be in a movie theater because all of the sudden I felt like I was back in the US—overpriced popcorn, cheesy flourescent lighting, middle-school-aged kids on dates, etc. I guess movie theaters are pretty universal, except for the fact that you could purchase beer or vodka to go along with your popcorn (I was quickly reminded that I was in fact not in the US). We saw a comedy called "O chome govoryat myjchini" ("What Men Talk About"), and I actually got almost all of the jokes.
On Monday Alison, Raya, and I went to Vsyo Budyet OK (Everything Will Be OK), which is basicially Irkutsk's version of Wal-Mart (it's even open 24 hours). It wasn't our first trip there, and I didn't even need anything—it just felt nice to bask in capitalism and consumerism. It's refreshing have a choice between multiple brands of the same product and to be able to buy food, toiletries, clothing (limited choices here), and almost anything else you need all in the same store! Just like a trip to Wal-Mart, we spent a ridiculous amount of money on random things. Between Alison and I we spent about $60, which is an immense amount of money to spend here considering that you can buy a week's worth of vegetables from the vegetable stand for about $2.
Compared to the excitement of OK the week was pretty boring. On Saturday Ana and I went to a demonstration against the re-opening of a paper factory on Lake Baikal. The factory had been closed years ago in response to widespread protest against pollution of the lake. Recently, and most likely in response to difficult economic times, Putin sanctioned the re-opening of the factory. The demonstration was pretty tame but it attracted about 1000 people. The speeches (or what I could understand of them) were very interesting, and it was generally a positive atmosphere in which people of all different age groups had gathered together for an important cause. After the demonstration Ana showed me a burger place that her and Andrew had discovered—a McDonald's-style fast-food restaurant with decent food and cheap coffee. This may not sound so exciting to everyone back home, but every "find" here is such an accomplishment, and I'd never really enjoyed a burger, fries, and a Coke so much in my life. To burn off the extra calories we finally took a much-delayed trip to the ice skating rink that's only 4 bus stops from our dorm. I had always considered myself a fairly decent ice-skater—maybe even slightly better than the average person, but with 20-year-old rental skates with no ankle support and bumpy ice (there's no zamboni machince) I could barely make it around without falling down. I left with both bruises and a lot more humility with regard to my ice skating skills.
Later that evening we went "out" for the first time with a group of Russian and non-Russian friends. Our dorm curfew is 11pm, so every weekend we've just been hosting our own parties in the dorm. Luckily our Russian friend Djenya was able to coax the key lady to let us in at midnight. We went to a jean-themed bar (strange, I know) that played B-list 90s music and had translated two of it's menu items into English as "neck cancer salad" and "crap chocolate dessert" (no one ordered either of these). Afterwards we brought everyone back to the dorm to hang out, but pretty soon our dedjournaya (the key lady) came up and said, "Ladies, why are you drinking beer? It's almost 1 'o clock! You should be in bed!" (it was not a mistake that she only address the girls; evidently it's ok for boys to stay up late and drink beer). Considering that I haven't had an 11 'o clock cerfew since junior year of high school and that most of the students staying the dorm are in their mid-late twenties, it seemed kind of unreasonable that she was demanding that we go to bed, especially since we weren't being loud or disruptive at all. In high-school fashion, we went back to our rooms and waited for her to go downstairs and then tip-toed back into the kitchen to hang out.
On Sunday Alison, Andrew, Sara, and I had another excursion with our tour guide Natalie. Of course, the museum was located in a part of the city that we had not yet been to and was hidden behind several other buildings. By the time we finally got there we were half an hour late and extremely frustrated with Irkutsk's transportation system and with Russia in general. I also forgot to mention that this is the third museum that we've been to, and that Irkutsk is certainly not known for its museums. Our tour guide likes to spend approximately 20 minutes at each exhibit, describing every item in intimate detail. To say the least, we couldn't wait to get out of there and get back to the dorm catch up on some much-needed sleep.
So there it is. Halfway done, and the icicles are almost completely melted. It's so hard to believe that I'll be going home in two months; I almost can't even imagine what it will be like to leave!
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