Aus Welcomes the Month of March

March is basically spring for me. I feel like flowers are already starting to bloom in Knoxville. And though it’s snowing as I type this outside my window here in Vladivostok, I know that green grass is going to get here…one day soon.

My brother Austin has been having a grand time at college, besides the whole trauma of having mono your freshmen year. And in honor of him and this photo he sent me from his weekend adventures, I’m dedicating this post to him.

It's a bit blurry, which I'm taking as a sign that it was taken on a camera phone, but I think it conveys a lot about Aus's character all the same.

Although I hope he’ll be clothed in substantially more when I finally see him, this same boy is flying across the Atlantic and through Moscow to see me in less than a month.

It’s safe to say that we’re both pretty excited about that prospect, especially because he’s been brushing up on his yoga, in preparation for my world here.

Anyways, here to you, Austy! Good luck on your History of Africa test on Wednesday!

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Liza Runs out of Blog Topics

It’s been a slow week, guys. I started teaching a new English class for my fellow yoga-goers, but didn’t take pictures. I got sick with some distant relative of food poisoning, obviously no pictures necessary on that front. And we celebrated the Day of the Defenders of the Fatherland! If there was a parade, I didn’t go, and thus no pictures.

I did get a day off work though, which I used to bake yet another cake (Apple Crumble) from Imke’s German cookbook. A second variant (Peach Crumble) of which just came out of the oven not two minutes ago – Yura’s, the grandfather I share an apartment with, birthday is the 28th; we’re celebrating Sunday.

So what will I tell you about today? I decided that dissecting my bedroom here on Prospekt Krasnovo Znameni (which I just yesterday learned means “Red Flag Street”) would provide a wealth of, most likely, needless information for everyone.

I like my bedroom.

It’s really the only place that is mine here in Vladivostok. The couple I live with, rightfully, dominate the rest of our small, three-room apartment. And quite honestly, a lot of their things dominate the very bedroom I see as my own. Allow me to demonstrate.

 

One half of my lovely abode, Bear and my five-years-and-counting MacBook holding down the fort.

First of all, I want to point out the blanket I toted back from Germany. I hated my bed before this blanket and now I love it. Besides the purple boots, obviously the next best Germany buy.

Next, I’m guessing you won’t help but notice the assortment of slightly scary-looking stuffed dolls and figurines sitting on the shelves next to my closet. Til December, I was somehow able to ignore the naked doll that had been staring at me for months.

Now we’ve come to a truce of sorts…just like the cockroaches.

You’ll also notice that the majority of my closet is also the linen closet. Two of those shelves are mine and most of the right side as well. Good thing I packed light back in September. My very pink snowboard lies along the right wall. Why it’s now freezing cold with no snow, I can not tell you, but I have not gone snowboarding since January 2nd. (Read: disappointment with this state of affairs).

 

A recently-cleaned bedside table.

This table is basically my world. You’ll see from left to right: a Buddha statue that Yulya brought me back from China in the fall; a birthday hat from my students; cards from family; my journal; Orbit gum Mom sent me for Christmas in December; Season 3 of the West Wing (I’m finally starting to watch TV again after a six-or-so year hiatus); Burt’s Bees chapstick Linda sent me at Thanksgiving; a cool little rectangular gadget Dad gave me that tells the temperature in my room; the owl mug Imke gave me back in DC October 2009; my abnormally blank Tufts planner; a month pass to Sasha’s yoga classes; a watch; and a small notebook Cristine from the ISH gave me for Christmas a year ago.

This table gets messy and dusty, but in a way it also kinda tells about my past I think. I don’t think I’ve nested too much here, but I have lived in this room for over six months now. I also want to draw your attention to the flowering plant in the right corner of my room. Six months without a blossom and now it’s beautiful. Honestly, that more than anything else inspired this post.

Now that I’ve described my room a bit, this post is feeling a tad boring. So I’m adding a few photos of what is to come in the month of March.

 

Mama and me drinking tea in Georgetown, February 2009.

Mom and I will be drinking a lot of tea. Together. In Vladivostok. She’s making a rare trip abroad, not so much to see Russia, but to see me! One week and counting.

 

Austy, Glenn, Mama and me, on my birthday, Kendall Rd, Knoxville 2010.

Then, lo and behold, Aus is making the trek as well for his freshmen spring break from college. I didn’t even have to promise to bake him a cake as a bribe!

March will be a month of family visitation for me, and I’m pretty excited about that, naturally.

 

Birthday dinner 2010, with Aus, Kristen, Glenn and Mama.

So on that note, I want to bid farewell to my favorite month of the year, after reminding myself how many wonderful Februaries I’ve already spent with friends and family in lots of very different places.

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A List

Some time before Christmas, I began writing a list in the back of the notebook in which I write all new-to-me Russian vocabulary words. I titled it simply “Russian lessons” and then promptly forgot that I had started it.

Today I added to it a bit and decided to share it with the “masses” – of you, that is, who read this blog regularly.

1) Dried milk. A story I still can’t get over. Russian milk has long baffled me since my first stay in Petersburg. It not only does not need to be refrigerated, but the vast majority of packaged milk has ridiculous dates of expiration. American milk is good for five days tops, right? Anyways, my quandary was solved by a friend of mine, who one day asked me why I was buying poor quality milk at the grocery store we were at. I replied that I was not aware that milk of any other quality existed. At which point he directed my attention to the list of ingredients on the milk package…I had been buying re-hydrated milk, basically the same as the packets of dried milk we’ve got in the States. It was the beginning of December. Four months of dried milk…

2) Walking on ice and greater balance. I am now an expert at picking the least slippery patch of ice/snow to walk on. It’s a worthwhile skill and one I’m very proud of.

3) Cheating will happen/students will always answer their phones in class. This one took me a couple of months. Now it’s pretty routine. At least twice per class, I’ll have a) a student get up suddenly to answer her phone in the hallway or b) a student actually answer their phone while I’m giving a lesson. No lie.

4) The foreigner excuse always works. This one I’m actually trying to rid myself of. It’s just too easy of a way out. Quite frequently in Russia, I’m approached by strangers; most of the time people ask for directions – rarely I’m able to help them. But sometimes people want other things, like to proselytize me or asking for money. I know I shouldn’t, but it’s just so easy to say “I don’t know how to speak Russian” in Russian and, well, problem solved. I know, I know, shame on Lizzy.

5) Baking is possible. As any dedicated reader of this blog knows well, I bake wherever I am. Vladivostok deterred me, but not for long. In addition to whipping up sundry German desserts as of late, I’ve at this very moment got a pot of black bean butternut squash soup on the stove!

6) The temperature always rises before a blizzard. Or snow of any sort, for that matter. One thing I could have never learned in Tennessee, the land of no blizzards.

7) Hot water is a luxury, not a necessity. I’ll refer you back to this post, in case you missed that saga.

8) Tea can solve any problem. I am a compulsive tea drinker now. As if I wasn’t already, now I’m even more of a snob about it. Loose-leaf only. At least four cups a day.

9) Cockroaches in the kitchen are only a problem if you decide they are. Yes, we have cockroaches in the kitchen. Honestly, from the very first day they haven’t bothered me a bit. I wake up in the morning and routinely find one or two of them stuck in the sink (it’s too slippery for them to crawl out). Somehow it seems we’ve had a truce since day one. They don’t bother my food and I don’t intentionally drown them.

10) Strangers scolding other strangers for not wearing a hat/scarf/properly-insulated winter coat is completely socially acceptable. Of course in this instance, I am the stranger being scolded, as happens pretty much every day. Especially since I now have hair and love feeling the wind blow it around (which a hat completely ruins). The funniest part is that I’ve actually started scolding others for not wearing enough clothing. I hope you guys still recognize me when I finally make it back to the States…

11) And finally, nothing will happen as you expect and yet everything will be as it should. If I can sum up anything I’ve learned here, it’s in this aphorism. My half-year-ish here has had an incredibly significant impact on me and I couldn’t be more content with this.

Happy African-American History month to you!

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Лиза, ты поправилась!

As I’m writing this post, I still can’t believe I’m sharing this with the world – my tiny part of the world that is. Take it as another sign of my personal evolution, I suppose.

This is because the title translated from Russian is “Liz, you’ve gained weight!” Although I like the literal translation a bit better, it would be more like, “Liz you corrected yourself or became more true!” Euphemisms are the best.

Blame it on the German cookbook of desserts that Imke gave me in Berlin or the fact that German bread is world-renowned. Honestly it’s those two mixed with a huge number of other factors, but whatever the cause is, it’s true. I’m gaining weight and I’d venture to say that pretty much anyone reading this blog would agree that it’s about time.

I’ve been pretty skinny for quite a few number of years and I guess, for a number of reasons, I no longer will be to that same extent. To adapt to this reality is easier said than done, of course. But fortunately for me, Russians aren’t the shyest people in the world, and I’ve had no fewer than three separate occasions in which acquaintances, but mostly friends, have uttered the exact phrase I have as my title.

That’s one thing I can’t imagine Americans saying to one another, at least without a drastic decline in friendly relations.

I really do love this country.

Now that that’s out of the way, I’d like to share with you what my English department gave me for my birthday, besides a really nice traditional Russian clock.

Happy Birthday Liz!

The above was hanging on the wall of the department last Friday. You see, the English department staff has this really interesting tradition of taking teachers’ faces and inserting them somehow into other pictures of other people. Below you’ll see what I mean exactly.

One of the more tame of the nine or so options I was given.

A beauty queen, my childhood dream!

Probably my personal favorite, because I've always wanted to fly.

All this to say, there’s not so much to write a blog post about this week.

Life is continuing about like normal. Classes, yoga, warmer weather. Today, spring actually seems like it might just get to us one of these days!

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Liza Turns 24

This was my second birthday in Russia. My first was in 2008 in St Petersburg and, well, the two really can’t be compared. Perhaps because I’m getting older, or perhaps as a result of the semi-process of self-discovery I’m going through, I actually forgot that Friday was my birthday when I woke up. I can assure you, that has never happened to me before.

In many ways it was just like any other day, with a few exceptions to the ordinariness of my life here. I went to my 8:30am class, and was greeted by this.

That's Lena, Katya, Dima, Nastya, Natasha and Artyom singing "Happy Birthday" to me.

They gave me an apron, plate warmers and oven mitts in honor of all the German baking I’ve been doing lately. A most appropriate gift, I must say.

Later on that day, I found this waiting for me in the English department where I work.

Sveta, one of our secretaries, is demonstrating how the balloons are just that much prettier when they are moved about by a gentle breeze.

All of the English department staff had put their heads together and organized a celebration for me. They decorated everything and ordered a mass of savory and sweet pies from the only English bakery in town. Yes, you will note the two bottles of champagne sitting in front of all those delicious pies.

There were plenty of toasts and plenty of cake-eating, just as I predicted!

And that was just the university portion of my birthday-celebrating. Honestly, I was more than a little puzzled by the extent to which people celebrated my birthday. I received more presents than I could practically carry home, although, as I wrote before, this is certainly not the Russian tradition for birthdays. I appreciated everything that everyone did for me though!

Vasilisa, her mom Yulya, and dad Kolya in the background - also integral parts of my birthday.

The week before, I had taken my German dessert cookbook over to Yulya’s to find out which dessert she and her daughter Masha would most enjoy. Fittingly enough, they chose a cheesecake. I say ‘fittingly enough’ because historically I have developed a strong dislike of cheesecake and thus, had never baked one before. This week though, I set out to find a springform pan and Philadelphia cream cheese (the latter much easier said than done, but certainly possible!). And on Thursday, my baking adventure began. All and all, it went fine.

Enjoying the fruits of my labor.

Masha especially took a liking to cheesecake of the homemade variety. And even more surprisingly, I did too. Pictured, you’ll see my second piece already!

As a result of an interesting dilemma involving transporting frozen (but still delicious) pineapples, I ended up babysitting the girls for awhile that evening and then spending the night.

Vasilisa has personally decided that every member (or friend) of the family can and should be her horse, at any given moment.

We enjoyed using the camera, as per usual.

Masha's self-portrait, my favorite of the five or so I later found on my camera.

In the morning, I woke up; Yulya introduced me to a new kind of Russian porridge that apparently all Russian children hate because it’s all they are fed in daycare; and I set off for Saturday morning meditation, like usual.

To sum up, I’m back in Russia; I’m 24 years old; and both of these are a pretty great place to be.

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A Little about Russian Birthdays

Birthdays here are an interesting point of comparison from the American variety.

I didn’t know anything about this though, until my arrival in Vladivostok. I guess it’s one of those things that you only get an intimate view of once you’re more immersed.

The first clue I had was when one of my Russian teachers celebrated her birthday. I noticed that she came to the university that day carrying a massive bag filled with fruit, candy, cakes and drinks. At the time I thought it was odd, but dismissed it simply as one of the many things I don’t understand on a daily basis here.

As the fall wore on though, I saw more and more birthdays being celebrated, and the same thing kept happening. The birthday celebrant would bring either a cake or some pies or even some champagne and share with all their colleagues in the department. I even got some candy one day from a librarian whose birthday it was.

Now that I’ve talked about this in depth with a lot of Russians, I get the general idea. On one’s birthday it is necessary to show appreciation to all the people you love and interact with in daily life. Thus, it is your personal responsibility to either cook or through some other means, feed basically everyone you see that day. Especially for girls, it’s a tall order. My Russian teachers for example recounted to me the years in which they’ve spent long hours in the kitchen cooking a huge meal for all their various family members. Though most, by now, have just settled on taking their friends and family out to a restaurant, where the birthday girl pays for everyone’s meal!

I guess I’m still a little shocked by this state of affairs, mostly because in America, when it’s your birthday you get whatever you want. I personally have used my birthday as a reason to get my own way during the entire month leading up to February 11th. And usually it works, especially when Austin was younger…

Anyways, all this to say, this year I thought I had decided to keep my birthday date a secret. Except for my American friends and family back home, how would anyone know?

Well, probably subconsciously, I didn’t actually want to hide my birthday from the masses, and now everyone, even my students, know that tomorrow’s my 24th. For better or worse, I think that tomorrow I will be eating cake and learning whether or not there’s an equivalent to the “Happy Birthday” song in Russian. Wish me luck!

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On Going Home

My month of travel is over. I can’t say I’m too disappointed about that either.

I miss speaking Russian. And snowboarding.

It’s been wonderful to see new places and old friends, but for some reason or another I really want to go back to Vladivostok.

Classes start next week, and I’m excited about the things my students and I will discuss this semester.

There’s no snow on the ground in Germany, which bothers me. I think I’ve become more accustomed to the Russian winter than I had thought. In the Far East, there will be no doubt that winter has not yet ended.

In short, I feel as though I’ve started to build the foundation of a life in Vlad. It doesn’t come close to resembling any life I have led in the past, and maybe that’s why I like it so much.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my wandering posts from around Europe. I hope to do some more travelling in the spring, but for the next few months, I think it’s the travellers’ turn to come to me!

 

The one picture I took from the bathroom window of Camphill Svetlana. This particular morning the temperature was -28 degrees Celsius!

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The Naked Ice-Hole Swimming Post

I can honestly say that I have not had a single bad day of this travelling month. However, I can honestly say that some days have been better than others. And that this past Sunday was the best of all the days. Times two.

Here’s why:

Please note, the tasty Key Lime Pie Anu baked, as well as the sundry plants giving her apartment a greenhouse-like feel.

Anu’s parents bought a summerhouse last July.

My favorite Finnish summerhouse, pictured here in the dead of winter.

Similar to the Russian dacha, Finns renovate and repair these houses themselves, and Anu’s father quite enthusiastically agreed to take us there for the day.

Anu's dad Aki, drilling holes into the 50cm deep ice, maybe 2 ft deep in our system?

The summerhouse is located literally about five feet from the shore of the Baltic Sea. And there happens to be a sauna, for which the Finns are world-famous, inside the main house. Both Russians and Finns traditionally alternate extremely hot and cold temperatures in their banya/sauna traditions. It’s pretty fair to say I jumped at the opportunity to jump into an ice hole in the Baltic Sea. I mean how many opportunities like that come up in life?

The hill seemed a bit bigger in real life.

The sauna needed several hours to reach 50 degrees Celsius  (about 120 in Fahrenheit), so Anu and I amused ourselves by sledding! Tennessee isn’t exactly blessed with plentiful snowfall very often, so this was a childhood dream of mine.

I think I look sad because I just fell off the sled.

We also took a ‘walk’ in the woods where with each step, the snow came up to my thigh.

You can't really tell here, but it takes quite a bit of effort to walk in this stuff.

This is about the point in time where I began to wish I had been brought up Finnish...

This picture caught her mid-air, though I guess the physics of snow didn't really let her sink that far down.

Right before taking this picture my camera fell in the snow. That's why there will be a blurry ice ring in all subsequent photos. Really it just adds to the authenticity though.

I have to note here that the weather was actually sunny most of the day and the air temperature was a balmy 1 degree Celsius even!

The outdoor oven that toasted our cheese sandwiches for lunch!

While we sledded and buried ourselves in snowpiles, Anu’s father worked without pause on that ice hole. After drilling the holes he used a handsaw to carve out a bigger hole.

The hard-fought for ice hole. Thanks Aki!

Then it was sauna time! We waited til we were good and sweaty, then took off along the snowy path for the ice.

Everyone knows that saunas and banyas are simply not done with any clothing still on!

Anu is a faithful reader of my blog and made sure that I had adequate documentation of this very important event. Thanks Anu!

Of course I returned the favor when it was her turn to take a freezing cold dip.

It sure doesn't look like she's having fun, but really she is.

Perhaps this is hard to imagine, but this whole swimming in the ice thing is really quite enjoyable. Your body is so hot and steamy from the sauna that unless you stay in the water for more than 30 seconds, you actually don’t feel the cold that badly. And even when you do, like when I decided to take a second dip (!), you know the toasty sauna is just waiting for your return.

We timed our bathing adventure for around 4pm, right when the sun was setting over the icy Baltic Sea. It could not have been more beautiful.

The ending shot of a perfect Finnish day.

I enjoyed basically everything about Finland and Anu’s city of Turku, but some things in nature simply can’t compare to life in cities. This day at the summerhouse was the cherry on top of a perfect first (but not last!) visit to Finland. Thanks Anu!

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Introducing Turku, Finland

Here’s the reason I came to Finland!

Anu, me and Kyle at the Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, December 2009.

Nope, not Kyle or the stuffed elephant, it’s Anu, the one on the left.

She and I met over a year ago in, you guessed it, the Int’l Student House. Anu’s a scientist, like a real one. Two days before I came to Turku, her hometown in southwest Finland, she got back from a three-week trip to Ecuador and Peru. She studies wasps and knows an insane amount about pretty much every species of tree, insect, animal and biosphere you could name…in English, Finnish, Swedish or Spanish!

Right now she’s continuing research for her PhD, though sadly I can’t say I know many details about that because mostly we don’t talk about insects.

I borrowed Anu's hot pink bike from the 1980s that would perfectly match my hot pink snowboard back in Vlad.

Mostly we talk about what we should (and do) cook/bake together. And girlie things like our feelings too. As per usual, I also tend to ask about a million questions about the country I find myself in.

At an adorabe cafe where you simply point to what you want on the table next to me, laden with delicious baked goods.

Q: Why is literally everything in Finland labeled in both Finnish and Swedish?

A: Sweden and Finland were one country until Russia ruined that in 1809. Apparently, the Swedish Empire was pretty hot stuff in the 17th century.

I think I'm ecstatic because I just took my first shower in five days...one drawback of my Estonian couchsurf was that he had no bathroom.

Q: Why is Turku’s public library probably the best one in the entire world?

A: According to Wikipedia, Finns’ income is taxed at around 30%. A sizeable amount, but it comes with a ton of benefits…like that library.

The German baking book Imke gave me in Berlin. Sitting next to it, you'll notice a still-warm loaf of Carrot-Hazelnut-Walnut Rye bread. Thanks Imke!

Q:  Which upcoming Finnish holiday did I benefit from knowing about?

A: On February 5th, Finland celebrates the birthday of its national poet, Johan Runeberg. In celebration of this holiday, this amazing little cake is sold throughout the country only from the beginning of January until his birthday. Anu bought me one and I kind of fell in love with the idea of a cake that you can’t buy whenever you want it. Plus it was pretty delicious too.

A view of Turku from above, also located next to where Anu went to high school.

Q: Why does Finland produce and consume an insane amount of dairy products?

A: It’s unclear, but here’s some evidence. I thought the Russians had a monopoly on reverence for dairy products in mass quantities. They’ve got nothing on the Finns though!

What may very well be my first glass of beer ever. And honestly, it wasn't half-bad.

Q: Why did I come to Finland in the dead of winter with seven hours of sunlight and temperatures hovering around -3  degrees Celsius?

A: My reasons for this, besides Anu obviously, will become clear in the next post! But honestly, Finland is pretty awesome in the winter too. Several feet of snow don’t stop anyone from riding bikes and running outdoors for exercise. I also discovered that I should have been wearing mittens on top of my gloves this whole winter. Better to know late than never!

Two happy girls, eating lentil stew on a windy winter night.

In case it’s not abundantly clear, I’m pretty much done with being a tourist. I arrived on Thursday night from a two-hour ferry ride across the Baltic Sea from Tallinn and all I wanted to do was bake some bread. I’m in a nesting mood I think. Fortunately, Anu was still jetlagged from her South American Amazonian adventures, so our inclination to do absolutely nothing was a perfect match. We’ve done a lot of sleeping, reading, talking, cooking and eating.

Until Sunday that is, but our Sunday adventures will receive a dedicated post, as all the best adventures do!

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