Thursday, October 28, 2004

Wicked witch of the west

Wow, I can't believe it's been over a week since I've posted last. You know what they say.. When in Rome.. oh wait no.. that's not what they say at all. I'm not sure what I do with my time, but I seem to have very little free time. If I'm not out manouvering aroud on the muddy streets, I'm desperately trying to learn Russian or having Nikita terrorizing me by pulling my hair and throwing all my things around. It's cute you say?
Also, the internet in this country is complicating. You need an internet card.. and to get one you have to buy one.. and to buy one you have to talk to the person at the store.. you get the idea. Complications, complications and more complications.. but today, I went and bought an internet card. I'm sure there's some lame saying.. "complications are only opportunities in disguise" whatever.

I've had a bit of a cold/flu/culture shock/some strange type of Russian illness lately, which is quite annoying. I ate some liver and spinach for lunch today, and I figure that will cure me OR kill me. Time will tell I suppose.

Work is going okay. Not good. Just Ok. My "supervisor" who is actually another guy from our group.. and kind of took the role of supervisor just for the sake of it.. well he's kind of annoying. He thinks about everything for a long time, and he's kind of old fashioned.. he's very chivalrious.. (is that a word? polite to women..opens doors and stuff ya know) yet treats them like they're half retarded. Granted, sometimes I have acted half retarded, but I he doesn't know that. I'd rather open the door myself and be treated with some respect. I have to wait for him to tell me what to do.. so while I wait, I sit and try to teach another co-worker french. I think it's important.. for her to learn french.. and then I know from the way he looks at me that he secretly wants me to die. Also, he has the key to the office, and he comes 15 minutes late. If I come on time, which for some reason I have been, I have to wait outside. The only reason he got a key is because he's a boy. And therefore manly and responsible.

So I talked to Cheslav, our russian group supervisor, whose really cool and understanding. He reminds me of Frau McAllister (high school german teacher) and he told me that it'll be hard, but I have to deal with this right away or it'll turn into something much worse than it needs to be. He said that all kinds of people need feedback, because sometimes their attitudes (towards work, punctuality, oposite sex, etc) are just habitual and they don't understand why they might hurt other people. Feedback. Give him feedback. No problem. Next week, focus will be on Feedbacking.

A few days ago, Axana (Nikita's mom) came into my room while I was asleep. She woke me up by sitting on my bed and trying to kiss my cheek. She had drank some vodka and wanted me to go to the disco with her. I was not really in the mood for a disco, so I tried to decline.. I was a bit annoyed, not cause i wanted to be, but because it's just natural instinct to be kind of pissed off when Mrs. Vodkabreath is sitting on me while I'm trying to sleep. So she asks me to teach her some english swear words. It was funny, cause I seemed to have an abundance at the tip of my tongue.
"screw off and get the F*ck out of my f*cking room you stupid idiot" I saw it as a good way to express emotion, she saw it as a learning experience. She said she'd leave me alone if I would smoke a cigarette with her. So I did it. And then went to sleep. This was also another bonding experience I think. Seeing people when they are most vulnerable, they can't really hide as much as they normally do. She's pretty cool.

In the mean time, I've been learning alot from Val, my bro (check out the pic) He taught me that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. He said this while wearing slippers with playboy bunnies on them and drinking out of his super cool coffee mug (let me describe it. So on the cup there's a fisherman standing by a river fishing. And when you put something hot in the cup, a mermaid appears in the river and is giving the fisherman a blow job. It's called Angler's Glueck or Fisherman's luck. Good way to start the day off.. with some hot tea or hot coffee. I don't really find it that funny. i guess I don't have a sense of humor.)

On the topic of "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach," this place is a bit behind the times in terms of.. attitudes..towards..cough..women.. Men never shake hands with women. If there's a group of people, men and women, the men will say hi and shake hands only with the men. Handshaking is just a guy thing.. like fishing I guess.. I dunno..
Regardless of who the woman is or what she does or how much money she has or who she's married to or how well she cooks.. no hand shaking. end of story. That was a bit of a shocker for me. It's not necessarily a disrespectful thing, just a thing. different attitude.. we had the same thing in Canada awhile back.. 1954..some of you might remember. (sorry I don't mean to be venting here or offending any Russians, I just have to get this "culture shock" issue off my chest)

One other cultural difference I'll bore you with. duh duh duh.. TIME is NOT IMPORTANT here. Earlier, I noted that my supervisor comes late.. it's not a problem. Others come to work an hour late and it's not a problem. I'm not saying that everybody is lazy and unproductive. They just don't place the same value on time as we do. Cheslav told me a saying.."an american will come 10min. early, a german bang on time, japanese 10 minutes late, Italian an hour late a bit tipsy and a russian won't come at all and won't call to cancel. Yeah, this is a stereotype for sure, but stereotypes are based on truths. You're supposed to meet somebody at a certain time and they show up an hour late. No apologies, no lame excuses (like we make in Canada) they just sit and act like nothing happened. I found this a bit annoying, cause it's like they have no respect for your time. But in a way, it's cool.. cause I've been late in the past, in Canada for example. Turns out I was never late, I was just in the wrong country. Once you catch on, you learn to be late for things. When in Rome...

I've signed up to be a witch in a Russian children's halloween play, so I'm pretty excited about that. I get to carry an umbrella and dance like a witch. Should be a nice balance of fun and humiliating. I'm excited for the weekend and for my flu disappear.. when in Rome..!!??




Wednesday, October 20, 2004

CHECK OUT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE (WITCH)

OKay, I figured out how to make links, but unfortunately I only know how to put them at the very bottom of the page. so check them out already. way at the bottom. keep going. by the way these people are some of my very favourites and they very cool and you can learn alot from them.

peace and love

Sunday, October 17, 2004

Greenwitch time

HA! I just finished my first weekend at my new house. Entirely enjoyable. (just thought I'd throw in some alliteration there to keep you all on your toes) Saturday we hosted a party at our house. My brother wanted to meet the crew and compare our group to his group last year. We all drank way too much vodka and cheap beer and by 8:30pm, we were a little "piani" as the Russians would say. I guess maybe next time we should start later or drink slower or drink less or find vodka that isn't $5 a bottle so we'll have a reason to slow down or drink less. We did some quality dancing, as the party took place in our garage. Even Nikita (my one and a half year old brother)was dancing. So cute. He was cute the whole night, except when he spit up chocolate cake into his cup.. i think that's a russian thing. or a baby thing. whatever.

Before the party, I was having a conversation with my "sister" who is also Nikita's mom. She's about 23 I think. When I say having a conversation, I mean she was talking and laughing and I was smiling and noding and throwing random russian words that I can remember. regardless of whether or not they make any sense in that context. or in any context for that matter.
So before I knew it, I was in her bedroom with a brush and bobby pins, mascara and hairspray and I was doing her hair and make-up. Without any words, I managed to inadvertently convince her that I could do her hair and make-up. She wanted it done up, cause she was heading out on the town. I learned that day that hair styling and make-up defy all culture barriers. Later she told me (via a translator) that we could be friends even though she never understands anything I say. Then she asked me if I wanted to smoke opium with her. She was joking, but this tells me that she has a sense of humor, and that the russian word for opium is the same as the english word for opium. Which I think is good to know.

I have to say I enjoyed this bonding moment with her, and it makes me want to learn some more russian words so I can surprise her with something really smart like "nice weather we're having, don't you think?" "are you up for some more opium smoking?"

Today the whole crew went out for a bbq to the Baltic Sea. It was so windy on the beach you could hardly stand up. And you couldn't hear what anybody was saying because the waves were too loud. good fun. We made a fire in the forest area and ate some russian meat. and all in all, it felt really good to get some fresh air. Max(a participant from quebec) tried to teach me Chinese on the way back, so now I've reached my weekend academic quota too. hen ho ma. Shanghai. Beijing. (He's a terrible teacher btw.)

Tomorrow I start my new job. 9:30am. Should be fun. I don't think fun is the word I'm looking for. Those of you who have or have had jobs I think can relate to whatever the word is that I might be thinking of. Not necessarily a negative word, just something other than "fun."

The only thing I'm not enjoying very much is that people drive like lunatics here. Pedestrian signs don't really mean anything and there's no lanes drawn on the roads so the cars just weave in and out wherever they see fit. Add in some trams and trolley busses and you've got traffic terror (yet another alliteration i should really be a poet) So whenever I cross the street, I start singing "die young stay pretty" It helps me cope.

I talked to JENN and my mom and Dad and brother today (for the first time), and that felt really good. Thanks for being home, guys.

My address here is
TELMANA 44a
20036008
KALININGRAD, Russia

no bombs please, unless it's lip balm.

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

BLACK MAGIC BLACK MAGIC

Today I get to go to meet my work placement people. I'm working in the BIDA office, and BIDA happens to be the organization that also organizes (to sound especially repetitive cause organizations organize organizational organizing organs) this program. Baltic International Development Association. Acronyms are gay.
The founder (IGOR) copied CIDA (Canadian International Development Association) except one is like a thousand people and this one is six people. I'm supposed to build them a webpage, which is pretty awesome cause I have alot of experience doing that. OH WAIT I'M THINKING OF SOMEBODY ELSE. I HAVE NO CLUE WHAT I'M DOING.

My luggage finally arrived. I went to the airport with my boss (IGOR) who is also the supervisor of the program.. and we picked it up. The guy working there tried to convince me that it wasn't my luggage and I wanted to kick him in the face. Eventually he let me take it. Who else tries to duct tape their bag so it won't burst open and then runs out of duct tape 3/4 of the way around??

Igor told me some great stories.. He was in Toronto once on Jonge street and he decided he wanted to find big black drug dealers so they could teach him slang.. so he asked around for the "ghetto" and was eventually pointed to some guys standing around a fire and he went up to them and said, "Yo wuzzup bro?" Not, "what's up", but "wuzzup". So these guys just starting laughing hystirically. Igor explained his attemps at learning slang. They cut him some slack, probably cause Igor was dressed in a suit and had a Russian accent. People always tell him that this is the stupidest thing he's ever done, but I think it's kinda cool. Hilarious. and cool.

My "brother" Val the other evening took us out to 2 bars and then to smoke a water bong and then to smoke some Lotus leaves. He seems very eager to keep us entertained. Works for me. And Galya.

The honeymoon phase of culture shock seems to be slowly dying.. and I'm getting into the "I hate not understanding anything and feeling scared and lost and out of place and missing home phase" which is painful, but seems to be inevitable and hopefully short.





Sunday, October 10, 2004

Witches

You'll never believe this, but I am still alive and well..

The flight over was pretty painless, except for that I tried to bring barber scissors on the plane with me cause I didn't realize they were in my bag and.. the lady working there just about had a heart attack. She glared at me and said, "did you know you have a pair of barber scissors in your carry on?" I actually brought them on purpose just to spice up her day.

So we get to the airport in Lithuania.. and I waited and waited but my luggage just never came. Everybody elses did.. but mine somehow got lost. Both of them. At the time, I didn't really care. Stressing out about it wouldn't solve anything. And they said they would deliver it in a day. But as of today it's been a week and I'm starting to get pissed off. Apparantly that airline doesn't fly to Kaliningrad, so it'll have to go on a different airline.. and I want to call and yell, but they wouldn't understand me cause they don't speak no english. If I don't get it soon I'm going to cry.

On the drive from the airport to the camp, there's trees on both side of the highway, and there's no shoulders. Apparantly, the nazi's thought this one up. It's a little bit dangerous, because if you aren't paying very close to the road, you'll ram into a tree and probably die. So the drew white stripes on all the trees, and the headlights kind of light up the stripes. and it looks really crazy at night with all these white stripes everywhere. Kind of "alice and wonderlandish". They should name a band after these stripes or something.

We had to cross the Lithuanian border into Russia which was pretty freaky. It took 2 hours, cause apparantly we had all the wrong papers. But in my Visa, they wrote my name in Russian , which is AMN TEPEZA MNRP. Which is pretty fucking cool. This makes up for the army clothes and the not understanding what the hell was going on for 2 hours.

I have been at Orientation camp for the past week which was in a Zldaviningrask or some other name that I cant even try to spell. No internet access, but there was a place where you could use the phone and send telegrams. Which was handy, cause I like to send alot of telegrams. No sorry that was a mean thing to say. I was tempted to wake up my parents at 3 am, but I decided against it. We're ten hours ahead of you guys. Advanced, if you will.
This town was secluded, but beautiful. Right on the coast of the Baltic Sea.

We stayed at this hotel, but I use the term hotel very loosely. There was occasionally no water at all, and rarely hot water. And the water we did have we couldn't drink because of an Hepatitis A problem. So that was a little shocking to hear that water can make you sick in so many ways..i thought we had it bad..
there was a kitchen, but they had 2 dishes in the whole thing. And the tiles were all off on floor and the bathroms smelled so rank..ew. There were some old guys living there. They were drunk .. often, and one spoke english, so he latched on the one of guys in the group who did vodka shots with him. This guy made the equivalent of $5 a month on a pension. It's kind of a slap in the face to see this country and how people deal with the cards they've been given.. so to speak. What's funny is despite how poor people are, they still wear amazing clothes. They walk to the store and they look like they're going for a job interview. We're such slobs.. ;)

Our group is pretty cool. This one guy, Max, decided that I am witch and he keeps trying to light me on fire, cause apparantly he doesn't like witches. Yesterday he thought we should make a campfire on the beach.. and he was measuring me to see how big my casket should be.. fun times.. unless you're a witch..

We got our Russian counterparts finally. I got the one I wanted, so that's cool. Her name is Galya, and she seems like quite a gal. She's from the Ural mountains and her english is pretty good. From what I can tell, she likes history, fashion, boys, singing and dancing. Seems like a good combo..

We got into our families today, which I was a little nervous about. (little = alot)

Galya and I are the only ones from the group living in a house, one of the only ones with a car and internet access, and a dishwasher and a washing machine. We even have a sauna, dusch and a urinal in the bathroom. there's 9 people in total that live in the house. 4 generations. Babooshka, 2 parents, 2 kids who are grown up, one's wife, their baby, one Russian girl named Galya and some wacky CAnadian chick. One of my "brothers" did the program last year. I've been warned he thinks he's a Casanova. key word = thinks. It should be a good family all in all.

Well there's so many things I want to tell you all about. I will post my adress once i figure it out. I miss you all a ton. Like actually one metric ton.

well, I gotta go explore the city now, and meet the rest of my massive family.








Sunday, October 03, 2004

We fly out tomorrow. I'm getting butterflies. But these butterflies are mean.
I feel like I have tons of things to do, when really I don't, it's just 2 big things that I'm paranoid about forgetting.

Did anybody know that grocery stores aren't open on Sundays in Halifax? Why didn't you tell me?
I went swimming oh what a great time that was.. I had the whole pool to myself I guess nobody in this city swims?! I guess they are all crazy. So after my swimming adventure I feel much more confident as embark on my journey to save the world.

We had an awesome session yesterday afternoon with 2 people who have done the program. (one of the ladies is "best friends" with the Russian organization head and she's been there like 5 times so she knew her stuff like it was nobodys business)
So my fears are pretty much calmed and I'm ready to get the show on the road. I'm debating whether I need more cd's before I go.. for example.. I lost my Garden State Soundtrack (apparantly I left it at the library in Edmonton!?) so if anybody wants a Garden State Soundtrack they can just go to the library and say they're me and they'll get one oh what a great time that would be. I hope you enjoy it!


Saturday, October 02, 2004

Lunch Break Down

I'm so impressed. Lena told me 2 yrs. ago while we were in Halifax about the library and how it offers free internet and such. Turns out I still have a membership at this library! hip hop hooray!

I've been learning some interesting things in the last hour:

- It was the Germans that started the first youth hostel. I love the Germans. (the part about loving them I knew already)

- The legal drinking age in Russia is 22. Turns out I'm the only one in the group who is under 22. I'll just sit at home with my homemade absynth I guess...

The other 6 people in our group seem like an interesting bunch. I'll be forced to hang out with them ALL THE TIME so that's kind of a relief.

We went out for some Alexander Keith's last night because those who like it like it alot. (we were at a pub that was 2 blocks away from the brewery. Nobody was as excited as me about this)

Apparantly the bus ride from the airport in Vilnius, Lithuania to Kaliningrad is 11 hrs. I'm assuming the bus will be top quality with four lane freshly paved spacious highways...
I'm glad I brought 60 cds and have brought 3 more since I've gotten to Halifax. I had a nightmare last night that my discman broke. Maybe I'll buy an extra one just in case.

I'm gonna grab some Halgonian foods and header on back.