Awesomeness...

I am loving Russia right now...and I think is mostly because we found the best tea/coffeehouse in the entire world. (and the blini aren't bad, either...) It's called the Sharlau, and it is in downtown Astrakhan', 2 blocks from the Kreml' and Bratski Sad.

I spent most of my stipend at the рынок (market?) on Saturday. Laura, Sara, and I met early to go to the large ярмок (farmer's market?) that occurs by the school on Fridays and Saturdays. We ended up going to three markets before noon. Then we went back to the Sharlau for lunch and tea. I've been to the Sharlau 3 times in 3 days. It is awesome.

Since nothing of real importance occured over the weekend...I have compiled a list of Russian things (mostly cultural) that are very different from the US. If I have time, I'll try to expand on some of them.

1) the bluntness/non-PC nature of the Russian language. Imagine American culture of the 50s and 60s, only with 24-hour club clothing. In Russia, a special-needs child is a "defective" and his teacher is a "pedalog-defective"--literally a teacher of defectives. There are many other examples of this in Russian speech. In this catagory I will also place being told to my face how bad my Russian is.

2) The fact that it has taken me 3 days to write this post. The internet does not exist in Russia (or at least, it is not important).

3)My favorite, marshrutkas and the crazy things that regularly happen while riding them.

4) Hating to make or give change. I don't know how Russia will ever develop a flourishing capitalistic economy if the cashiers refuse to make change. C'mon, we all have thousand-ruble notes (it's what the ATMS give out), there's nothing we can do about it. I know you have an entire drawer full of change..."NO, I do not have exact change." "No, I do not have a smaller bill" (generally a lie).

5) Russian female clothing. Really...I know the clubs aren't open 24 hours a day. There is no reason to dress like your destination is a club at 8:30 in the morning. Also, there seems to be no societal ban on being able to view underwear (male and female). I have no idea how many thongs I have seen through white pants... White, skin-tight pants, seriously.

6) Dubbing and over-dubbing. This is more a European phenomenon than a uniquely Russian one. I cannot stand over-dubbing. Because someone feels the need to make my life as a non-native speaker just that much more difficult. Plus, it's annoying. Dubbing isn't too terrible anymore, but I am still 100% in support of subtitles. What's the point of watching a dubbed movie? Russians also hate subtitles in general...and almost never include them on any DVD. ugh.

7) The rarity of street signs, and when they do exist, the horrendous quality of them. Its hard enough to navigate Russia, but the country seems to assume its citizens and visitors possess a psychic ability to identify streets. Even in Petersburg this is difficult. As a result, independent movement about a city is curtailed and made far more difficult. I will also include here the fact that public transportation pretty much shuts down at 9 PM. --private transportation almost doesn't exist.

8) Homeless cats and dogs. So many mangy dogs (and puppies).

9) Whiny Americans. This isn't America. Get over it. Suck it up or go home (and please, never leave the country again).

I will continue this list soon.