Saturday, July 01, 2006

From Russia to America

My last full day in Russia was, in many ways, a normal day. I went to the AH, spent some quality time on the internet, and hung out with B, Y, K, M, L and Asya. We ate leftovers from the previous day’s party and (for the most part) just sat around listening to music, talking and enjoying each other's company. At the end of the day (after K and L had gone home) the rest of us took one final walk together down Bolshaya Moscovskaya to Pushkin Park, around the cathedrals and then back to the AH, at which point it was time to say goodbye. The others were going off in a different direction from me, so I waved them goodbye from the sidewalk as their marshrutka drove away. While I know that I *will* see these people again, it is so unfathomably strange to think about not seeing them on a daily basis and no knowing when I will actually see them again in the flesh.


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M, me, Y, B

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B, Y, M me

My last evening at home with Nina M was no different than normal – other than the fact that all of my possessions were packed into two giant suitcases and one large carry-on. And I set my alarm for 3:00am instead of my usual 10:00am. Luckily for me, Nina M. set her alarm as well, as I managed to turn mine off in my sleep without waking up. I was awakened at 4:00am by Nina M. The AH had arranged for my ride to the airport to pick me up at 4:30am. I was already feeling stressed about my lack of time to make my final preparations when my ride arrived at 4:10! Ahh well – I made it out of there alright, and I don’t *think* I forgot anything. K rode with me to the airport, as her sister was flying into Sheremetyevo about an hour after I took off. Unlike my last trip to the airport (which took something like six hours and had me checking in while my plane was boarding...) this trip was uneventful and we made it to the airport in record time. Of course, this meant that I got to stand around for two and a half hours before they let me check in, but better early than late!

I flew from Moscow to Paris on an Air France flight operated by Aeroflot. I was a little leery of traveling with them again after the last time, but what could I do? It turned out that the plane from Moscow to Paris was a much nicer plane than the one I flew in from Poland to Moscow back in August. Definitely newer, cleaner and classier. The French influence, perhaps? Anyhow, I’d heard some horror stories about transfers in the Charles du Galle airport in Paris, and I was glad that I had a three hour layover. While I do admit that the airport was confusing to navigate (I’m sure it’s impossible to do so quickly, although supposedly they’re installing a new transit-train which should improve things) I actually enjoyed my time in the airport. All of the staff were incredibly friendly. It wasn’t just that I’d come from eleven months in surly Russia. These people were far more outgoing, friendly and helpful than pretty much anyone I’ve ever encountered in a service industry. And it didn’t hurt that a lot of these friendly and outgoing people were also hot, flirty French fellows with sexy French accents.

By the time I got on the plane I was feeling pretty exhausted, and as soon as we boarded I passed out. As such, I didn’t realize until we were approaching Atlanta that we had taken off from Paris an hour late (which is kind of odd, considering that we boarded on time). Every one around me seemed to be feeling frantic, worrying about whether or not they’d be able to make their connecting flights in Atlanta. Meanwhile, I felt calm and relaxed, and took a bunch of pictures of clouds. (I would just like to mention that the food on Air France was DELICIOUS. I usually tolerate airplane food just fine, but I’ve never in my life considered any of it to be delicious. Well, this stuff certainly was a tasty treat – two incredibly yummy meals.)

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This was my view.
The splotchy discolorations are from ice crystals on the window.

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Again, my view.

When the plane landed in Atlanta, before they let us off, there was an announcement. “Passenger Annie Nimity, please see a Delta Ground Staff representative for a message.” Great. (Delta is partners with Air France, BTW) As soon as I stepped off the plane, there was a man waiting at the gate with a sign bearing my name and my message: “Your mother is going to be late. Please wait for her.” Um, okay. Where would I go, anyway? I went through passport control and then to baggage claim. My big ass green suitcase arrived promptly... and then I stood and waited and waited and waited for my black one. You know, the one that didn’t make it to Moscow on my way *to* Russia. Just as I was getting ready to go look for someone for some assistance, there was another announcement. “Annie Nimity, please see a Delta Ground Staff representative for a message.” Of course, my thought was yes, yes, I know; my mother is going to be late. But it turned out that this message was, “You black suitcase is still in Paris.” WTF?! I had a three hour layover! How did the bag not make it on the plane? But, they told me exactly where to go and what to do in order to get the bag tracked down and shipped to me. (Yes, unlike LOT Polish / Aeroflot, Air France / Delta delivers.) Anyway, I emerged from the pit of the airport and found my mother, who had actually arrived before me anyway due to the delay of my flight. Then we stood in an interminably long line at the lost luggage counter so I could file my claim. Supposedly my suitcase will be delivered tomorrow. I hope!

At that point it was after 9:30pm Atlanta time (5:00am Vladimir time!) and both my mom and I were feeling pretty wiped out, although we began our trek home nonetheless. We drove for about an hour and a half, and stopped to eat at the one thing in south Georgia that’s open at 11:00pm: Waffle House! Our first attempt to eat at a Waffle House was thwarted by the fact that the first one we stopped at was closed. WTF? Waffle Houses never close! But apparently something was being done to the floor, and it was closed for the next two hours. But never fear, there was a Waffle House at the next exit. Thus, my first meal upon returning to the States was an incredibly greasy grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl of grits with cheese. No wonder so many Americans are obese. Even though it was pretty late, the restaurant was packed, probably due to the fact that the other one was closed. As a result we were in there for an hour. So, two cups of coffee and way too much grease later, we got back on the road and drove for something like three more hours; it was shortly after 3:00am when we pulled into my mom’s driveway. I dragged myself inside and promptly collapsed into bed. That’s 31 hours after I was awakened in Vladimir by Nina Mikhailovna, folks. And with that, my Russian adventure ends.

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

My last post from Russia

Wow. This is really hard to comprehend. It's not really sinking in that tomorrow I'll be in the US. Weird. I will continue to blog over at my other blog, and I hope that those of you who have followed my adventures across Russia will continue to follow me through the American swamplands and across the Pacific to the Land of the Morning Calm (that being South Korea). I figured it up, and between the fact that I'll be leaving Vladimir tomorrow at 4:30 in the morning and the fact that it takes about four hours to get from Atlanta to home, I'm going to be traveling for approximately 26 hours or so. That means I'm going to be essentially unconscious for several days upon my arrival. I will blog as soon as I can, although I can't promise exactly *when* that's going to be. In the meanwhile, here are some pictures from yesterday's final party with all of the AH teachers and staff.
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The party was held in the backyard under red, white and blue umbrellas.
(Keep in mind, these are the colors of the Russian flag, too.
The US doesn't have a monopoly on the red, white and blue.)

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There were lots of toasts.

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Galya gives a speech while Vanya and Tatiana laugh.

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No, there's nothing wrong with your monitor...
the salad really was this color.

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It was delicious though. I'm going to miss Russian salads.

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G, me and M
We always sat together at AH parties.

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B, Alyona and Male B

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Misha the Dog

(I realized that while I have *tons* of Gosha the Cat pics, I had no shots of Misha the Dog. Misha's a stray to whom the AH feeds generous portions of scraps on a daily basis. He did quite well at yesterday's party, as he got the bulk of the leftovers.)

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Male B and Alyona brought their young son, Alex.
While we had all seen photos of Alex,
this was the first time we saw him in the flesh :-)

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

My last day of class at the AH

It's strange to think that my teaching days at the AH are finally over. Yesterday was the final day of class, which normally consists of returning final exams, discussing common exam mistakes and having a party. Yesterday was no different. My first class brought cake, candy, two bottles of champagne, a box of Georgian wine (as in the country, not the state), and a bottle of vodka. They also gave me a lovely set of crystal shot glasses from the town of Gus Khrustalny, renowned for its crystal. We spent the bulk of the class having wonderful Ruslish conversations, and it was really a lovely way to end the semester.
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Me, with my 4:00pm class

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They taught me the proper way to make a Bloody Mary:
You have to make sure the vodka and tomato juice don't mix
That way you shoot the vodka and have a built in chaser.

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Gus Khrustalny crystal shot glasses.

My second class brought less booze (luckily for me!), and we spent the class time sipping champagne, eating chocolate and chatting. They gave me a traditional Russian cutting board set, which will look nice in my kitchen, once I get the place painted. After class, two of my students invited me to a cafe where we split a bottle of wine amongst the three of us, nibbled salads and chatted some more. The whole evening was really wonderful.
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Me with my 7:00pm class

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My Russian cutting board

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Masha and Lily at the cafe

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This is what my memory of last night is like!

Of course, when I returned home I was completely trashed, and Nina M got a great laugh out of it. I went straight to bed and expected to sleep straight through until morning. Sadly, that was not to be. Now, being from the swamplands of the Southeastern US, I'm accustomed to mosquitoes. I don't like them, but they rarely disturb my slumber. Let me just say that the mosquitoes here in Vladimir are of an entirely worse variety. Once I get stung by one of these creatures, I immediately awaken and spend the next hour or so rubbing hydrocortisone cream on the itchy and enflamed areas. These guys are potent, and I swear their one goal in life is to bite my hands and feet as I sleep. Sadly, I didn't sleep as well as I would have liked....

Today we're having a big going away party here at the AH. All of the Russian staff is currently in the midst of some sort of cooking marathon, and soon we shall have a feast.... I will try to post pics of said event, assuming I don't pass out from lack of sleep or from further consumption of alcohol (which is destined to happen, I'm sure!)

Sunday, June 25, 2006

A Great American Home Tradition

Today was hot. Now, I know there are a lot of uninformed people out there who think that all of Russia is covered by many feet of snow all year round... In case you're one of them, let me just go ahead and kill off that myth. Granted, only a few short months ago the streets were covered in mountains of snow, and the temperature dropped to -40. But it's June folks, almost July... and today it was in the 90s. None of us really had any plans (except for B, who is off on an adventure with her host mom this weekend), so as per usual we all gravitated towards the American Home. And, as the AH is one of the few air conditioned places in the city, we stayed here for the remainder of the day. Around 4:00 the sky suddenly grew dark and the wind began to blow... We scurried to Grossmart for provisions and raced back to the AH. Of course once we returned, we realized that we should have gotten the goods to make garlic bread. M and Y raced off to the store, but almost as soon as they left a whopping thunderstorm (of the sort frequently seen in the southeastern US) whipped up and poured out. K, Asya and I were glad to have stayed inside the AH. M and Ye got drenched, but it was worth it as we roasted a baguette stuffed with butter and garlic to accompany the fresh veggies we stir-fried up to top off some pasta. Yes the Great American Home Tradition is that of eating well.
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M did most of the cooking

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Doesn't it look scrumptious?

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Before popping it into the oven,
K stuffed the cracks with butter and pressed garlic.

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Gosha the carnivore had his own feast.

Saturday, June 24, 2006

Randomness

Last night after administering final exams (always somewhat frustrating, given the blatant and rampant cheating attempts of our students) we went to one of the many beer tents that have sprung up across the city with the arrival of summer, where we consumed yummy shashlik and even yummier beer. I'm going to miss the land of the beer tent.
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Y, L, me, Asya

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M, G, B, Vova

I would just like to mention that this new haircut of mine rocks. See, my hair is notoriously uncooperative. After most nice (or not so nice...) haircuts, the hairdresser fixes my hair and it looks great, but then when I try and fix it myself, it takes a lot of effort not to look like absolute crap. I must say that this is the first short haircut I've had that requires almost no work whatsoever. I get up and I brush it and it does what it's supposed to do. I'm quite impressed. (For anyone who might be interested in such a magical haircut, it was done by Sveta who works at the Vasilisa hair salon on Bolshaya Moscovskaya, Vladimir)


For those of you who enjoy reading mysteries and/or for those of you who are interested in Tibet, I have a book recommendation for you. As you may or may not know, I've been slowly working my way through the rather large collection of paperback mysteries in the AH library. There's one that's been sitting there for a while that I'd been ignoring due to its horribly cheezy title. I finally picked it up the other day and read the back of the book and decided to give it a try. The book is The Skull Mantra by Eliot Pattison. It's too bad that it has such a cheezy name (although after reading it, I discovered that there's a legitimate reason for this absurd title) because the book is fabulous. Not only is it a well written and engaging mystery, but it gives a clear and fascinating look into life in Tibet, life in the Tibetan prison systems, and Tibetan Buddhism. Now granted, I know remarkably little about Tibet or Tibetan Buddhism, so I have no way of knowing whether or not Pattison's depictions are accurate; however, while reading it I felt such a strong sense of place - so beautiful and magical - that I now find myself wanting to learn more about both Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism. The description on the back of the book says that it "will change the way you think about Tibet - and freedom - forever." I read that and thought what a crock of shit... but whaddyaknow. You should all definitely check it out.

Friday, June 23, 2006

Vladimir: 1912 and today

(Thanks to M for sharing this with me!) In the early 1900's, photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii developed a new and cutting edge technique for shooting color photographs. You can read about his work by clicking here, and you can see many of his color photos of turn of the century Tsarist Russia by clicking here. However, I want to point out the contrast (or lack there of) between his pictures, taken almost a century ago, and my photos, taken on June 22, 2006:
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Cathedral of St. Dmitry
Photo by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, 1912

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Cathedral of St. Dmitry
Photo by me, June 22, 2006

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Uspensky (Assumption) Cathedral
Photo by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, 1912

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Uspensky (Assumption) Cathedral
Photo by me, June 22, 2006
(Although the lighting wasn't as good
as I would have liked when I took this)


On one hand, I realize that these cathedrals were built in 1194 and 1158, respectively... and if something's been around that long, you shouldn't really expect it to change much over the space of 94 years, but just looking at the photos made me feel like I was living inside some sort of strange time warp. Hope you enjoy them. Anyway, I had decided to run down to Cathedral Square to snap some recent pics of the cathedrals, and I caught a glimpse of the Bogoroditse-Pozhdestvensky monastery, and it occurred to me that in my eleven months in Vladimir I hadn't been inside it. So, I popped on in. To be honest, it wasn't really all that interesting, although there were some intricately carved bells which I photographed...

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Bogoroditse-Pozhdestvensky monastery

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Bell close-up #1

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Bell close-up #2

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Of Solstices and Short Hair

Yesterday was essentially my last class at the American Home! Yes, I do officially have two more days of classes (Friday and Monday), but Friday we administer final exams and Monday we have our end of the semester parties... so for all intents and purposes I'm done!! Woohoo! Yesterday after classes, we all arrived at this realization and decided that since we were essentially finished (and since it was the Summer Solstice after all) we should break out some beer, salty beer-cheese and vodka. This may have turned into a rather insane dance party in our office, during which B and I may or may not have demonstrated some scandalous belly-dancing moves to our compatriots. Sorry, I don't have any pics of this to share (we did however make a lot of absurd short videos... but out of respect for all included - myself foremost - I'm not posting any of them!) I did however go home and play around with making self-portraits of me and my new hair. I will share them with you. I can't believe I'll be home in a week. Weird.

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