Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in kisa777's LiveJournal:

Thursday, December 15th, 2005
12:52 pm	Breaking the rules!!! So, as you all well know, this is a journal for my adventures abroad. Nothing more, nothing less. If you care to know the actual details of my daily life there are things like phones, carrier pigeons, email, Alice's suitcases, aim, owls, and God help us all... snail mail. That being said, apparently I'm the most likely to respond this thinger, and I hate to disappoint. So it seems that the rules have to be ammended, but only temporarily. And just so the rules aren't completely trashed here's an update of my plans to return to the mother country. I'm working on a proposal for the NSEP grant. The process is going miserably slowly because I've been too busy to really throw myself into it. I need to get to the library to do some research and we all know how much fun that is to do over break. I realize the library is a whole 2 el stops away but fuck that's just so far in all the snow. Especially when home is warm and there are apples here. But I'm going to kick myself in the ass and go to library early next week. I'm in pilates training all weekend so somehow I think that's not so conducive to any part of me being fuctional at the end of the day. Ok here goes: 40 things you might not know about me. 1. What color underwear are you wearing right now? Black satin 2. What are you listening to right now? "I'll Damage You" Razed in Black (purrrrrr) 3. what are the last 2 digits in your phone number? 88 4. What was the last thing you ate? granola bar, and a rather disappointing one at that. I need an apple. 5. If you were a crayon what color would you be? Purple. I'm royal. *smirk* 6. How is the weather right now? I haven't actually been outside yet today, but it appears that the snow has stopped. 7. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone? Andrea 8. The first thing you notice about the opposite sex? Eyes are generally the first thing I notice about either sex. 10. Do you drink? White Russians and hard liquor. None of the froo froo shit here, please. 11. Do you smoke? No, I quit a few years ago. 12. Ever get so drunk you dont remember? Maybe once or twice in high school I was in and out of remembering things, but no. It's not safe, for multiple reasons. 13. Hair color? Dark brown, but apparently people think it looks black??? 14. Eye color? Brownish amber. "Honey" according to Alex in high school who thought I was wearing contacts because eyes the color of mine just can't be natural. 15. Do you wear contacts? Nope. 20/20 vision, baby. 16. Single? *insert evil grin here* 17. Favorite Month? I have TWO! August- I love summer. It's not too hot in August, perfect for sitting around at Nantasket Beach and there's my bday too. And October- HALLOWEEN! My favorite holiday. Plus the leaves in Boston in October are a million blinding colors. 18. Have you ever cried for no reason? There's always a reason, even if I can't figure it out exactly at the moment. 19. Last Movie you Watched? Fight Club last night with Aris. I am Jack's raging bile duct. 20. Favorite Day of the week? I don't really have one. One that involves cuddling. 21. Are you too shy to ask someone out? Am I shy? 22. Hugs or Kisses? Yes. 23. Chocolate or Vanilla? Chocolate. 24. Do you want your friends to take this survey? Meh. 25. Who is most likely to respond? no one. 26. Who is least likely to respond? I hiss at you. 27. What books are you reading? Still working on Wicked.. 28. Piercings? 5. 2 are still healing. RAWR. 29. Fav. Movie? Shit, waaaay too many. Fight Club is actually at the top of the charts, along with Love Actually. That should tell you enough about my personality right there. 30. Fav. famous person? Don't really have one. I don't pay attention to their lives. They give me agada. 31. Any pets? Ophelia aka Zupa aka the President, my pretty little kitty. 32. AIM? Far too frequently 33. Butter, Plain or salted popcorn? I don't really eat popcorn. 34. dogs or cats? KOSHKI!!! 35. Favorite Flower? Roses. 36. Have you ever fired a gun? water gun? 37. Do you like to travel by plane as opposed to car? Yea, actually. 38. Right handed or left handed? Righty. 39. How many pillows do you sleep with? Umm just 1 feather one generally. 40. Are you missing someone? *sigh* Perhaps more than is healthy. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 28th, 2004
2:05 pm	wow i havent been online in a looong time greetings and salutations all. Russia is such a crazy whirl of fun and naked men in hotel windows that i havent had the chance to get to the computer. my stomach somewhat hates me this week. touchy little bastard. ugh. i havent written in so long i forget what i havent said. hmmm...i was a delinquent this week. i hung around outside with a few bottles of vodka and a few cartons of juice and some friends. ppl never have to look for a place to hang out. just go outside and claim a bench. the white nights are over and it starts getting dark around 10:30 and its creeping me out. it's going to be so weird to go back to the states and have it dark at like 7. i dont like it. i went amber shopping yesterday. oh so much fun. did i mention i saw dead lenin in moscow? i've been downtown just about every day this week. and did imention about the dead babies? hmm well i went to kunstkamera (Peter I's museum of oddities) and they have many jars of real dead children or heads of children or random odd body parts not just infants though... 2 headed chickens and cats whose legs arent separated... babies with multiple heads... all real. i've seen janus if i havent already mentioned this. janus is a real baby with one head on teh front and one on the back. creepy little bugger. my host mom got me a present. she's soo sweet and she made honey cake today for me. i got 5's on my exams... im done with tests fuck yea! i had to sing for one of my tests... phonetics.. ugh. i sang a song called papa bought an automobile and the car's all busted and just once they passed a bicyclist.. oh those russians are funny. i'm a pro at j-walking here which is a feat let me tell you! at any given point in russia you may say to yourself wow! i havent gotten run over... yet! i saw "kill the bill: second part" last night at the dorm with some ppl. in english too!!! tonight i'm going on a boat tour of the city and then we're busting out the vodka to celebrate... so my stomach better stop being pissed off. oh i have a tan! a visable one!!! holy shit! ok so im still pale as fuck but im not completely see through now! this past weekedn i went to pavlovsk and peterhoff. peterhoff is the home of teh first art gallery in russia- peter I had a palace that he covered with paintings. its very pretty and right on the gulf of finland. look out your window onto the beach. there are 144 fountains at peterhoff some of which are trick fountains. peter was a bastard and would have his guests intheir fancy clothes come sit on a beautiful bench in teh garden... which would activate a fountain which would get his guests soaked!!!! hahaha there's another one thats in a sort of gazebo... the fountain comes from around the roof of the gazebo. sitting down inside activates the fountains so you're trapped inside unless you're willing to get wet or have an umbrella... i told you you ALWAYS need a zontik (umbrella) in russia! i ran through the trick fountains... it was so hot that day that i dried off in about 5 min... but it felt great. Pavlovsk was the palace of paul 1. the grounds are beautiful. there's trails through the woods. i went walking with my friend victoria from spain. im visting her on spring break in spain hopefully! gotta run time up! much love (Comment on this)
Friday, July 23rd, 2004
7:00 pm	quick 3 min on the comp left! I own mink. yes i bought a mink coat today and compared to the US it was DIRT CHEAP. which is still a chunk of money but considering im coming back to russia in a year hopefully and chicago is cold i feel its a good investment... besides, i look hot. moscow was super cool. i was a real russian and drank a gin and tonic in a can on the street. there was a man posing naked in his hotel room when we got out of the tour bus for a pee break first thing when we got there... right from teh night train we hopped on a tour bus for a FOUR hr tour. and there in teh midst of teh tour... naked man. strange man penis that early?? oy. i saw dead lenin. it was an interesting experience. the night train is an experience... more on that later. home in just over a week. to boston that is. soooo much to tell i love you all and maybe i'll have derek write more soon. i feel bad spending any more $ after buying a mink coat... gotta save money now. poka! (bye in russian) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, July 15th, 2004
8:06 pm	yay for more time! i cant help it! i'm an internet junky! back for more! yesssss. anywho, i got a big tour of the baltika brewery. their fermenting machines ferment i think it was 100 tons each machine or in any case enough to make 700,000 bottles of beer.. from just one machine! (yes, they were large.) Did i mention baltika has 129 of those machines in their brewery? we walked in and you could smell the beer. they make 10 different types of beer and their numbered from 0-9. 0 is non alcoholic and 9 is the most alcoholic... dont you like their system? 1,3,5,7 and 9 are lighter beers (as in color not calories). 2,4,6 are dark beer special blends and 8 is wheat beer. after the huge tour they took us to a room full of tables with platters of open face sandwiches of salami, ham and cheese on them and of course one of each of baltika's beers. and a couple of the other brands taht baltika has deals with and produces at their brewery. so yea... lisa got a little tipsy. well i had to try tehm all!!! and then 3 and 7 were pretty good so uhh i had to try... some more. hehe it was fun. well at least i wasnt drunk like erin ok??? Today i have NO HOMEWORK! this is unprecidented in the history of my experience in st petes. we watched a movie today in class that was like 60 years old and russian... oh there's a combination for you! i cant even explain over the net. just take my word that it was funny. our teacher has also started to torture us by not only making us recite poems into a tape recorder to listen for mistakes in pronunciation but also making us SING IN CLASS. we got the lyrics to a song called "Papa Kupeel Avtomobile"= papa bought an automobile. that song is so fucking funny! horns are honking in the background and everything. and it rhymes in russia... oh the torture continues. tomorrow night i'm going to moscow on teh night train for the weekend. hehehehehe its going to be fun. and i'm bringing my damn umbrella! maybe i'll pick up some souveniers for you! i got derek a little something from Baltika and from novgorod. ok that's all for now. much love (1 Comment |Comment on this)
7:46 pm	Rainy days at any given point in russia it could rain. it rains approx 200 days/ yr here. yes that's quite a few. and this summer has definitely not caused me to doubt that statistic. Tues night i went to the opera. it was amazing! I saw the Queen of Spades. There were so many people speaking english in the audience it was shocking. it was at the Maryinsky theater which is stunning in and of itself. The production was great. the setting included lots of curtains moving around to provide different sets for various scenes. There was alittle ballet in teh 2nd act too. During the 2nd intermission i bought a glass of champagne and an open face smoked salmon sandwich. oh did i mention that the theater is a 20 min walk from the metro stop... and we were all decked out... heels skirts, the works. we figured if the russians can do it so can we dammit! and we did. that's right i'm hard core. I walked for probably over an hour in heels and only 1 tiny blister from it... HARD CORE I FUCKING TELL YOU! The theater had a light up sign at the top that displayed the libretto of the opera in English. yay for being to understand something you attend for 4 hrs! but it was just beautiful. we;re going to teh ballet next week. i cant wait! its swan lake too... only my favorite ballet of ALL TIME! yay! it's going to be great! chris was nice enough to take me home after the opera which is awesome because it was really late and i have to go through dark alley type tree covered areas to get to the house and that's not so fun when you're in heels (making it kinda hard to run if any freak should bother you.. or throw their teeth at you... or offer you lozhki- spoons). Oh but i forgot the best part! so we're walking that 20 min walk to the opera and guess what? it starts to be st. Pete's aka it starts to RAIN. well that's fine i mean slightly damp is ok right? (and i was totally going to bring an umbrella but my host mom said i probably wouldn't need it... note to self: you're living in St Petersburg you ALWAYS need an umbrella) so after a bit of drizzle it rains a little harder, ok fine. well a few mins away from teh Maryinsky the heavens burst open and it all out POURS!!!!! We ran across the st... again that's FUN in heels and arrived at teh opera somewhat resembling drowned rats (which i happen to feel is a VERY good look for me ok? dont you agree??? hey if kirsten dunst can pull it off so can i!) it stopped raining when we were in teh theater but just as we were leaving guess what? that;s right folks... rain! but not pouring so i guess its ok. Yesterday we had an excursion to a brewery! The Baltika beer brewery is the top selling brand of beer in Russia. I'll brb need to get more time on computer! (Comment on this)
12:51 am	Hey people, This is derek. Lisa hasn't been able to get online for a few days but she told me to tell you that's she's doing wonderful and that noone has been incessantly offering her spoons lately. She should be online soon and she'll give you the full scoop. Anyways, I'm off. Derek (Comment on this)
Monday, July 12th, 2004
5:40 pm	soo sleepy! What a weekend- I'm so tired. After the club I passed out until after 2pm yesterday. Then I ate (of course because when aren't people shoving food down your throat in Russia???) and went to the Peter Paul Fortress on Rabbit Island. I saw the Peter Paul Cathedral and the prison museum. I saw Maksim Gorky's prison cell- and i took a picture in one. I also saw teh solitary confinment cells... ok yea definitely dont want to be a russian prisoner... eeeekkk. hey there goes a dude in a red sox shirt... cool. Anywho, I went with Maksim the son of the lady i live with and damn is he getting on my nerves!!! He is forever coming into my room without knocking and he'll dig thru the stuff on my desk and he isn't clear about what he's saying... not even in Russian! I can understand plenty of what they say in Russian and it takes him like 5 min to spit it out. I'm impatient esp when im this tired and he gets food all over himself when he eats oy! Speaking of food, lunch at IMOP today was really disappointing. However, they were playing Roxette during lunch haha. i got some ice cream downtown. We had art class in teh russian museum downtown today which would have been cool if we could hear our teacher and if she didn't go on forever about each icon. Man it was hot in there. People were busting out fans... i've never seen taht before. Tehy sell pretty fans at souvenier shops here but I thought they were jsut cute stuff for little girls or something... but without a.c. people actually still use them. It's a flashback to old movies. People have been buying shrek 2 and spiderman 2 on dvd... yes i know they both JUST got into the theater... oh man i love russia... so i think im gonna watch spiderman 2 on dvd tonight at the dorms and then make chris walk me home. his newest nickname is rat bastard pig muffin. i think its endearing dont you???? I got to talk to mom yesterday for about an hr and it was great. i miss her. my mom is so awesome. Much love to my Einstein-on-acid who'll be pushing up little black roses with me some 50 years from now because he's WONDERFUL! Current Music: cd from Derek- I love having a bf with great taste in music! (Comment on this)
Sunday, July 11th, 2004
5:18 am	Another dawn in St. Pete's Dobre Ytrom! (Good Morning) I just got out of another discoteque called Revolutsiya (Revolution). Tonight was absinth night... oy! So to prepare absinth they light it on fire and then pour it into another glass to extinguish the fire then you shoot and they put the glass that used to contain it face down with a straw coming out so you can inhale the fumes after. its intense. it burns all the way down. i think the back of my throat is uhh... burned. it feels so weird. and then it hits... hard. but it was fun. plus a guy one of my friends (who's married) happened to be flirting with decided to buy us drinks. grand idea! So, add some vodka to the mix. After a while sitting in the movie room seemed like a better idea than dancing anymore so i just hung out there with ppl. Tonight was apparently movie night at teh club. they had ppl dress up like neo and morticia adams, etc and dance on stage while clips of these characters from their respective movies played on the screen. This was in teh main dance room. A few hrs later we left and this time we caught the bridges as tehy were just coming down. it was so beautiful. the walk there was amazing. We walked thru the courtyard of the winter palace and it was raining (as usual) and someone was playing a saxophone as dawn was just beginning. it was breathtaking. We spent all today in Novgorod- the oldest city in Russia (or so our tourguide said). Its full of churches. there's one church that is supposed to bring women good husbands and good marriages if they run around it 3 times. So of course it just started raining before we get to this church but a lot of us still did it and amazingly i was leading the band around the church. me the fastest runner????? i have no lungs! but it was fun. chris took pictures of the spectacle. see huney i run around churches in the rain for you! now that's love! =P I bought lots of souveniers in novgorod! yay! I got a surprise for derek hehehe. ok im going to check my 50 emails now. much love to you all! (Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 7th, 2004
4:59 pm	at any given time in russia a man could remove his teeth and throw them on the floor in front of you for you to walk over. also at any point said person throwing teeth may be drunk or perhaps just insane. at any given point your RD may say "Bloody Americans do my head in!"i love her she's hilarious. she may also say that someone is ""getting on my tits" apparently it means annoying her. kind of like get off my balls.,, except not so patriarchal. gotta run! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 6th, 2004
5:36 pm	RE: Absinthe and "At any given point of time in Russia..." So yes, absinthe, my friends, is legal here! This weekend we're going discotequing again... yessss. Chris and i have been compiling a list of "At any given time in Russia..." things... here goes At any given time in Russia: ~You could get run over... never assume you're safe just because you're walking on the side walk. I mean what kind of idiot would do a thing like that?! Because worry not cars will drive right up on teh sidewalk. Also never assume you're safe on the crosswalk. Cars will speed up upon seeing you crossing the street. ~You could fall into a hole in the sidewalk. side walks are really not safe places. one mintute there's a place to walk and the next a gaping hole. sometimes you see these 4 foot long 4 foot deep holes ahead of time. sometimes they're smaller and you're jsut not so lucky. there's more but im almost out of time on the computer. my homestay is awesome! and yes the food is awesome there too... oh food how i love thee so! but not as much as derek. =P Maksim, the 19 yr old son, i live with is really cool. he wants to borrow a lot of my music. My russian is improving sooo quickly. i understand almost everything they say to me. maksim is soo funny he asked if i want to see "kill the bill second part" hehehehe he cracks me up. gotta run. love you all esp poopy magoo (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, July 4th, 2004
5:15 am	P.S, did i mention that it still doesnt start to get dark until after midnight and then its light again by 4am????? wooo hoooo (1 Comment |Comment on this)
5:06 am	discoteques so we went clubbing tonight at The Metro. Three floor club. service in russia is terrible and it took almost 1/2 hr to get a drink. but the dancing is great. with all the lights flashing you can barely see but its great. victoria and i danced on a platform in the middle of a room on 2nd floor. its 5am here and we''re waiting for the metro (the train not the club) to open again. russia is a blast!!! we found some american students from northwestern at teh club. some guy tried to dance with me but it told him to get lost. then kaylee and i were trying to get a drink and 2 dudes kept offering us spoons.. weird and trying to talk or put their arm around us. definitely like 40 yrs old but we got rid of them too and our guy friends helped. but other than that the russians are so cold that no one bothers you or comes near you. also, almost all clubs are strip clubs so the 3rd floor had a room where guys were dancing on balconies. there were guys in gladiator outfits but after a bit they were replaced with guys in thongs. man most of them were butt ugly! haha even if they did have six packs- blech!!! faces like horses most of them. =P and thats being nice! forgive the typing- slightly tipsy at the moment. i move in with the family at 3 pm tomorrow yay!!!! and i think we shall celebrate the 4th of july at KFC tongiht. there was also a porn room at the club on the 3rd floor. girls in thongs and lots of boobs etc. but it was all on tv not live action like the dancers. and man if you thought american guys were bad dancers... they got NOTHIN on teh russians =) but the cool thing is that russians dont grind they just dance so you dont have weird guys trying to grind on you. yay for some propriety!!! russia is jsut amazing. come here if you get the chance its teh most beautiful place. much love Current Music: ears ringing from the club (Comment on this)
Saturday, July 3rd, 2004
12:40 pm	St. Isaac's Cathedral This morning we left bright and early at 9:45 for St Isaac's Cathedral. Its absolutely beautiful. It's a museum now not a functioning church anymore. They used 14 types of marble in its construction as well as malachite (sp?) and lapis. Its exquisite! There are mosaics and paintings and you can even go up to the tower. Yes, we climbed 300 stairs this morning if not more. No wonder they fed us such a large breakfast! in addition to the usual kasha, yogurt, morning pastery and this morning we had 2 clementines, which were out of htis world (which we swiped tons of since many ppl stayed out all last night and didn't come to breakfast), we had chicken and rice w/ corn. sooo much food. then they also packed us a lunch for today but im so not hungry after all that. The view from the top of the cathedral was just incredible. It's a dome on teh top of the building and since its circular we walked all around it and could view the city from every angle. I took tons of pictures so you'll get to see it and wish you were there. =P We're going to a club tonight. So we're going home soon to sleep for the rest of the day, get up around 10:30-11 to get dressed, leave around 11:30 and dance til 6ish. The bridges here go up around 1-1:30 and we live on the other side of teh bridges so we'll literally be stranded downtown. yay! Plus the metro stops and if that wasn't enough the dorm curfew is 12 so we have no choice but to be out until 6. My RD, who also took ppl out last night (and then got up for St Isaacs this morning) has decided to be hard core and come with us. Apparently the club we're going to The Metro is at least 2 floors and has rooms wiht all sorts of music and all sorts of strippers. I dont know what to wear because i dont think i want to be dancing in cute heels all night. blech! I dont know how all these girls do it. they walk for miles in VERY pointed toe shoes with tiny high heels and they just march along. no thank you, i would like my feet to still be attached to my body by the time im 40. They are also all rather anorexic looking. some of them are jsut thin and really pretty but a lot of girls here look like they're on the water diet. you can see all their bones and they have no boobs. speaking of seeing... you can see everything. the clothes are rather see through and they wear lacey underwear so you can see the lace of their thongs through their pants and you can see their lacey bras and you can see their panty and or thong lines. they told us to try to fit in with the way we dress but you see its just so hard. i'd have to wear a purple shirt and red pants with blue pointy toe shoes and very lacey undies or zebra print. we stick out like sore thumbs in our sneakers and loose fitting shirts. oh well. well wish me luck tonight. more to come... Current Music: thrill kill kult- Confessions of a Knife (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, July 2nd, 2004
2:53 pm	RE: foody goodness and families Today has been an excellent day for food. best pastery ever! its was like fudge with coconut on top. yum! I met the family im staying with and its not just one lady woo hoo! its a lady and her son. she's a music teacher for kindergarden hehe. how cute! her son is 19 and studying to become an orthodontist and trying to stay out of the army (which is mandatory for boys) because the officers beat the younger ranks really badly and the kids cant fight back because they can't hit their officers. its horrible! so they have to bribe the dr's to give them notes to excuse them. The apt is nice. And Rita (the mom) fed me well- of course, she is after all a russian mom. My room is big and had red curtains and a balcony!!!! We watched russian tv during dinner. i watched Friends in Russian ("Dryzhya"). And Charmed was in Russian too... but you can still hear the english behind the russian so its interesting to be able to hear them both. The neighborhood is pretty nice. its 2 stops away from campus on the metro or i can take the bus or the trolley bus. not bad at all. or i can even walk its 30-40 min. The phone number there is 812.552.6482 and you have to use the same international prefix as before the other number i gave you i think. HOWEVER, please mind that this is a residence and we are 8 hours ahead of EST and 9 hrs ahead of Central time so please do not call too late at night. I dont move in there until sunday afternoon anyway. Tonight Chris (who we now call Pops or Papapher or Papa Bear etc cause a) we all know too many chris's that suck and b) he acts like a big bro to us all) and Kaylee and i are going downtown for dinner and shopping yay. til later much love lis (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, July 1st, 2004
4:35 pm	new info! So i just found out i can use Instant Messanger on aohell here. just fyi in case anyone cares. so you can actually talk to me with paying for a phone card which is nice because you fuckers aren't in Russia where phone cards are like $7 for about 22-25 min. oh rubles are great! But its kinda funny because the cashier rings you up and will say "four hundred rubles" for example and my first reaction is shit!!! $400 is so much! And then I have to realize that here thats on like 15 or 16 bucks. But I'm so used to high numbers actually meaning things cost a lot... silly me. ok I'm going to hang out for a bit before dinner. much love and nightmares Current Music: TKK again yummy goodness (Comment on this)
2:00 pm	Back for more... with contact info! So, i realized i forgot to give all of you my phone number here just in case anyone has a calling card or an emergency or anything. My number is 011-7-812-321-6100 The lady who answers only knows Russian so you have to say "tretii etazh" That means third floor. When you get to the third floor you say Liza (pronounce Leeza) Rot (that's how they say my name here) then "tree nul tree" (three zero three) that's my room number. I'm here til the weekend then ill post a new number at my host person's house. so i just found out i live with a host lady not a whole family. its kinda dissappointing. I thought there would be more people to talk to. Maybe kids or something. Plus we're all settled in here and comfy. We have our set hang outs in the building. Everyone congregates in Kaylee and I's room for "studytime" but its usually more talking than studying- oops. But the problem is we mostly talk in english. so i guess it'll be more educational at this person's home even though it'll also be more lonely. We started our poli sci class today "contemporary life in russia" but so far it was just a quick history lesson. the prof is cool and really funny. he conducts class in english but will only write on the board in Russian. haha. but its cool cause im learning more cool stuff in russian. I have a different russian language teacher tomorrow who'll switch up the curriculum a little. the pair of them will switch off days which i think is cool. So have I mentioned the extent of the drinking and smoking here? Little kids who look like tough asses (seriously they're so hard by the time they're like 8 at least the boys are) stand outside puffing away. And sometimes they have a beer in their hand too. Christ! Christopher just scared the shit out of me... and just got punched for it. He's part of my core trio here. He, Kaylee and i are kinda connected at the hip and conveniently enough kaylee and i are roomies and chris is next door. But since we're all going to host families soon i don't know how far we'll be... sad! Anywho... oh yea, so did i mention the water is contaminated here and we even have to brush our teeth with bottled water? its a really FUN process...ugh. oh and the city is in the midst of its no hot water weeks. fortunately, the dorm has some kind of generator so that we still have hot water. woo hoo! but when i move in with this lady (who i'll meet tongiht eeeeek) i wont. ok so im a masochist! ok ok! we've all known that since i was 15 lets try to get over it. we've all come really close to ingesting the water out of habit a lot but we've caught each other fortunately. my RD lindsay brushes her teeth with the water but she's probably built up a tolerance over the 7 months she's been here. email me kids! I have the entire afternoon to myself until 6 (its 4:10 here and 8hrs earlier in boston and 9 in Chi) for the FIRST TIME THIS ENITRE TIME IN RUSSIA!!! And i dont even have hw because i have a different teacher tomorrow who i've never met. score! much love! Current Music: Thrill Kill Kult compliments of Mer (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 30th, 2004
8:18 pm	Re: metro So this computer gives me livejournal.com in english- sweeeet. Unfortunately its being slow as fuck. As you can probably guess, i've had my first experience with the Russian subway system called the Metro. A bunch of us went downtown last night. St. Pete's is built on a marsh so the subway is built, that's right, BELOW the water. So its a looong way down. Fortunately there are escalators but its at least a 2 min escalator ride to the bottom- which is quite a long way and its really steep too. Escalators are a common make out spot for couples, or on the street, or really anywhere. For a people who are generally VERY cold on the street (they dont look at you much and practically walk over you and of course dont say excuse me- its basically the same in their cars they're worse than boston drivers if that's imaginable. they beep even more and they speed up when ppl are crossing the street. we nearly get hit at least 1x a day) they're huge on PDA with friends and with lovers. Girls hold hands and cuddle all the time. Fortunately, people downtown have a bit more style. it's helping to keep me from going blind. The inner city is sooo beautiful. the buildings are very colorful- pinks and greens, etc. There's gold everywhere and even downtown is cheap! We went cd shopping and for 80 rubles you can buy a cd (that's a bit over $2!!!). Plus they have cd's that you can't find in the states. i found a Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids cd (his band before just plain Marilyn Manson), and yea about $2.50. i bought 5 cds. its so great. Right now its costing me $1 to use the internet on this computer for an hour. Man, i could just move here! I saw my first Russian goths. Everyone in my group feels that we stick out in russia like sore thumbs but the nice thing about sub-culture styles are they're pretty international- so throw on a bunch of black and some eyeliner and too can be a freak in any country... but at least you'll blend in with the local freaks! After my excursion last night i finally started my hw. yes, hw- but its cool and not hard just russian. But I had a little time to think... and to miss people. But today I was busy again- horribly busy. i'm exhausted at the moment and i still need to go write my autobiography- and did i mention i have to write an entire autobiography IN RUSSIAN. I had breakfast then 4 hrs of russian class this morning then lunch. So, did i mention that russia is carnivor's heaven??? there is meat with EVERY meal and usually more than one meat dish per meal. Plus they always have great pastery for dessert and that's with every meal too. Lunch is the big meal of the day with at least 3-4 courses (salad soup main course dessert and not to mention bread, etc.). Hell, even breakfast is a multi-course meal and yet i think im losing weight because i run around so much. this computer lab is on the 5th floor on the opposite side of the building from my dorm on the 3rd floor. so i have to go down 2 flights of stairs just to go up another 4 to get here (did i mention the 2 sides of the floors arent connected??) and classes are on the 4th floor... so yea tons of stairs. Plus i walk at least a couple mi a day here so far. After a huge lunch of chicken potatoes (yea they're on teh menu usually twice a day too) pastery with meat and onions inside, salad (which is dressed with a sauce called smentana which is kind of a cross between sour cream and mayo but REALLY GOOD) and some amazing vege soup (which you also add smentana to) we had an excursion to the hermitage museum which is located in teh Winter Palace downtown. It's just the most amazing building (well actually its 5 bldg's connected by hallways). It's more grand than buckingham palace. There's gold everywhere and HUGE chandaliers everywhere. There's art in there dating back to the 13th century. I've seen two original da vinci paintings up close and personal, a sculpture by Michaelangello, a painting by el greco and they have an entire room (well "hall") devoted to Rembrant who loved his wife so much that he used her as the basis for many of his paintings. how romantic! There were huge throne rooms which were just magnificent. The floors mirrored the ceilings perfectly except where the ceilings had the russian coat of arms the floors did not (because you cant walk on the coat of arms). There was the most amazing gift to Catherine the Great from one of her favorite counts (errrm, Catherine had quite a few "favorite" counts). It was made in london and its a giant gold cage containing a gold peacock and a a gold rooster and a gold owl in a smaller cage. The entire thing was a clock whose face is at teh feet of the peacock who spreads its wings at certain times of the day and the rooster crows and the owl bats its eyes. neat huh? its so beautiful! dont worry i got pictures. Also, Catherine commissioned a beautiful hall to be built and decorated like one in rome and she had the same artist come and paint it and its utterly grotesque (the images he painted that is). its great!!! there's creepy wind guys and just bizarre images. totally disturbing and awesome! There was a sculpture of a dead child on a dolphin and that was way cool too. the story that goes with it is quite sweet but i'll tell you later im getting kicked out of here in 10 min. Oh and did i mention that the opening hallway of the museum contains the most dick i've ever seen?? and all in great detail too- now that's an example of fine artistry and excellence in sculpture, and not a bad welcome either. =P much love to you all esp to poopy magoo. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 29th, 2004
3:42 pm	holy shit all the directions are in Russian! hey all you're favorite me is in Russia- and I just opened this page and all the stuff on the page is written in Russia. i mean everything! the place to type your name and password all of it... RUSSIAN. It's a good thing i already vaguely know my way around this site because i cant understand all that quite yet. so the trip has been awesome so far. London was great- but expensive and aside from a little food poisoning from some chinese food the first night all was awesome. we had beer and fish and chips. i made a few insta-friends, went to the british museum, saw pieces of the parthenon and the rosetta stone, and did some shopping. We also went on a bus tour of London all expenses paid by our program and ran around the Tower of London for FREE. woo hoo. I saw hanging sites and wall scratchings made by prisoners and sir walter raleigh's "cell" which was more luxurious than my home in boston and did i mention torture devices???? heeheeehee. there is nothing wrong with getting a happy on the inside from torture devices!!!! Germany has lovely airport facilities and the cleanest bathrooms i've ever seen! They give you sanitizer to clean off the seat before you sit down. Russia is... well... Russian. We got here and the first thing our british Resident Hall Director told us as we were preparing to get off the bus was "So you have to take the lift up to the 4th floor and drag your bags down a flight because the stop at the third floor is broken" and i thought "oh man i'm so in russia." But its loads of fun here. People drink on the street at all hours of the day and you can smoke everywhere- even in the airport. The fashion is a DISASTER!!! I've never seen so many panty and thong lines in my life! And dont even get me started about hte guys in tucked in shirts and athletic pants and dress shoes!! no i'm not kidding!!! you have to pay for a bag when you buy stuff from the store but i'm cheap and i only bought a towel so i just carried it to the dorm. And that's another thing!!! we were supposed to be in the dorm 3 days before moving in with a family- not its five and they didn't have towels here for us so the ppl who didn't bring towels like my friend kaylee and i have been using a t-shirt to dry off.. hey it could stand to be cleaned anyway! fortunately, our towel rack is a pipe and the hot water one at that so it acts as a drying rack!!! neat huh? We went on a bus tour of St Pete's yesterday and the tourguide kept saying "errm... uhhh" every other word and never ceased talking so it was uhh... interesting. i fell asleep on the way down there. did i mention we're not in the middle of the city as well all thought we would be??? we're not in teh best of neighborhoods but not the worst either but its a bit of a ride on the train to get downtown. We're going tonight. So wish me luck! ok i'm out i still have to check some more email! P.S. i got 3 As and an A- spring quarter hell yea! Current Music: some spanish dudes talking next to me (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, June 21st, 2004
10:38 pm	So, Derek leaves Boston tomorrow. It sucks. We're going to have lots of wine and ice cream tonight- yay for consumption of comfort food and beverage! (but uhh not at the same time... tried that once and i discovered, oddly enough, that wine and ice cream don't go well together... at all). Derek made me a bear today to bring to Russia at the Build-a-Bear store. He made a personalized recording for it too that I can listen to by pushing my bear's paw, but I'm not allowed to listen to it until later tonight. My kitten Ruby has been really sick this week and derek and I have had to take her to the hospital twice (the tests x-rays and emergency fees costing about $500- and I'm leaving for Russia in a couple of days ahhhh). She's doing ok now but I tried to give her some medicine that the doctor was trying out and she started foaming at the mouth and drooling-- and I flipped and started crying thinking I'd killed the cat. I haven't, apparently cats do that when they hate the taste of things... good to know. So, that's the basic scoop. Sorry gotta run. Trying to make this quick cause i'm on my dad's computer and we know how i love being here... poor derek has been stuck talking to bob while i'm on the computer. he must really love me to go through talking to my dad for me. Current Mood: distressed Current Music: the sounds of bob and derek (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, June 12th, 2004
5:15 pm	Greetings and Salutations So, uhh, I have a live journal. This is... kinda weird. I usually hate these things, but I, being soo altruistic, decided that I should get one so that you kids back home don't fret about little old me while I'm off in the mother country. (Gushing about all the fun I'm having while you're back in Chicago has NOTHING to do with it, I swear.) Besides, at least it has a cute name, right? kisa means kitten in Russian... and seeing as I'm going to be in Russia it somehow seemed appropriate. So, I hope you all enjoy. Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: Lisa-In-Russia Mix CD I just created for a certain Mr. Derek (2 Comments |Comment on this)