back in the US

Home from Russia...going to take a break from blogging for a bit. I guess I'll write some from Mystic, the maritime studies program I'll be doing next semester. For the next few weeks I'll just be vegetating in Niskayuna, probably not much interesting will be happening.

parked cars

The thing to do in Russia seems to be sitting in your parked car with a friend, beer, cigarette, or any combination. For the first few weeks, I was alarmed and concerned whenever I walked by such parked cars. It seemed a bit like the sitters were lying in wait, about to do something unspeakable. But now I believe that they are just chilling.

I'm really not sure why this is a thing in Russia. Perhaps a parked car is the warmest option in the winter and they just do it year round? Sitting on benches or loitering on street corners are also popular activities, but less surprising to see.

The other thing is that the parked cars are often on the sidewalk. So there have been times when I've moved off the road to avoid the cars pointed at me with their brights only to find myself nose to nose with a car pointed at me with its brights. So I usually try to find a place on the sidewalk that would be difficult for a homicidal car to navigate.

We finished finals and classes today. So now we have all of tomorrow to loiter around the city, pack and etc. before flying off Sunday morning.

Museum of the Arctic and Antarctic

I finally got to the Museum of the Arctic and Antarctic. It was pretty nice...Arctic on the first floor, Antarctic on the second. Everything was in Russian, and while I've built a decent vocabulary in the fields of churches, wars, and old buildings, the polar expedition lingo was beyond me. But it was nice to have a walk around the city by myself. (No one else wanted to see the Museum of the Arctic and Antarctic.) I poked my head into some restaurants, walked by the Dostoevsky House again, through an outdoor market, and along the canal. I think I needed some alone time with the city so that I could move at my own arbitrary pace. A break from running ideas by the group.

I read a while back, I think in Time, that several countries have been bickering over rights to the North Pole as the ice cap melts and trade passages open. Walking around the museum, I started to get a feel for the Russian perspective of this issue. It seems that most of the Russian polar expeditions were during Soviet times and a real source of nationalistic pride. In fact, aside from stuffed polar bears and penguins, perhaps the most notable aspect of the museum was the proliferation of Soviet symbolism and propaganda (not that it can't be found elsewhere in the city). I know that the US claims a stake to the territory, I guess just because we bought Alaska. I just wonder if anyone in the US, politicians or anyone else, actually cares. Not that we should just give the North Pole to Russia. I just wonder if anyone cares. Hopefully whoever gets it doesn't use it as a nuclear testing site.

early Saturday

Found a place last night near home, an outdoor cafe by the waterfront. Featuring a two-man band and some tipsy dancing Russians. I went with the neighbors...by neighbors, I mean, people in our program who live nearby. On the island. It was a perfect solution, because I was feeling antsy and really wanted to get off the island, but no one else really did, and I didn't feel like venturing out by myself. But we found a new place! There's really not that much to do close to home aside from sitting on the beach or in the park, which is fun, but not something I want to fall back on every night. So now we have somewhere cheap to hang out if we want.

I'm up early because I'm going to the synagogue this morning. I'll probably play my fiddle for a while after that and then...I don't have a plan to hang around with anyone in the afternoon, so I think it will be a good point in the trip to visit the Museum of the Arctic and Antarctic. I haven't tried to convince anyone else to go and I think I'd rather not.

My host sister, Наташа Natasha, is back from her trip to Egypt. I'm really hoping she notices that I'm more coherent after ten more days of studying, if, in fact, I am.