The first half of the pictures

Ok, I have the first part of my picture collection uploaded to a web album. Still waiting on the other half to be sent to me.

http://community.webshots.com/user/zhenshanre

Back in the USA

Wow, after about 18 hours of being on a plane or in an airport, I finally got home around 1 am EST. It was definitely good to see my family! However to my Russianized self, that was 9am - I had been up since 8:30 am after going to bed at 4:30am before we left. Needless to say, I passed out when I finally got home.

When our international flight landed, half the people on the plane started cheering and clapping! Finally almost back home! Just required a lot more waiting in US airports and delays on planes there, lol. And haha, I went to dinner with 2 other people flying back United from JFK with me - but the only restuarant they had was McDonalds, damnit! That was a staple of my Russian diet, after all. But I beat the system, I ordered a Quarter Pounder With Cheese (PSHHHH to the metric system) and a Dr. Pepper (they don't have that in Russia), and I got ice in my drink! Giardia-free ice (I really wanted a glass of ice water from the tap, that would've been a double-whammy).

All I really have to say right now is that going to Russia was the best experience of my life so far. It was so amazing, and so much fun. The people on the trip with me were all just so cool and friendly, it was like a family of 30 or so people. It's sad to know that I'll never be able to repeat that same experience again. The company and just the general situation is what I'm going to miss the most. Luckily, I'll get to see some of those people this summer ( ; and some more next year in school.

Anyway, it is definitely good to be home, however weird it is. Driving back into our neighborhood, I thought it felt so weird being in a suburban area. I had been in two major world cities for the past 3 weeks, was starting to forget what the suburban life looked like.

So yeah, Russia was amazing and I'm still trying to just step back and assess all that we did and all that I learned... and just trying figure out where I'm going next.

Also, I'll post pictures here when I get a chance!

Wow, what an excellent birthday!

Ok, to be honest, I think this was easily one of the greatest birthdays ever.

The night before all of us got together and the Havighurst Center bought a ton of groceries, and "beverages" (I have a picture to show you all later). So we got together and made some food - sandwiches, caviar (eww), fruit, etc... and all just hung out in this one apartment style room (there were like 30 of us in there). And it was a lot of fun, all the people on this trip are really cool. And I ended up talking to Allyson for most of the time, and well, I got a birthday kiss when it was my birthday. ^-^

Ok, so the birthday definitely started out good. Then I went to bed and we had to be up in the morning for a Crime and Punishment walking tour. While that may sound sort of lame, it is my favorite book of all time. So we got to trace the steps of Raskolnikov through St. Petersburg and talked about some of the history of Dostoevsky. And well, the scenery is pretty much just what Dostoevsky depicts in the novel - they were pretty dirty, grimy parts of the city.

Then we had a break in the day, so I got some Pizza Hut for the third day in a row. John got really sick after eating the caviar the night before, and thought it was about the only thing he'd be able to hold down. So we got sweet Russian food ;0 and then took a nap before it was time to get ready for the tv show.

6:30 rolled around and we got dressed up and headed out to the studio. It was really sweet, I had never been in a tv studio like that before. And they totally surprised me by playing Happy Birthday to me on the air and the tv station gave me a present. It was pretty sweet - at least 2 million people knew it was my birthday! And the tv show itself was alright, but we had a bad translator so it was sort of difficult to communicate. Some questions and answers from both sides were sort of misconstrued I think, but it all turned out alright. I answered a couple questions, and everyone said I did a pretty good job of answering - so, whatever!

Then after the tv show, the bus we were in took us to the Tinkoff place I mentioned early. We couldn't all sit together since it was our whole group, plus some of the Russian students from the tv show who came out with us. But I got to sit with my closest friends on the trip like Allyson, John, Kelly, Ilya, Katy, and Witney. We all had a good time, and I did not consume too much vodka (4 (large?) shots). And haha, totally got a pina colada and definitely got made fun of. But John and I were joking about getting them earlier, so he ended up getting one too - but the only difference was that we got a picture of him sipping his pina colada with the pretty umbrella. And I got to try one of the beers they brewed in the place which was pretty decent (it was a dark, wheat beer).

Then we left Tinkoff and got to hang out some more. It was really just a good time all day long. And oh, we got our dinner covered again by the professors - so that was definitely a good deal.

And yeah, we're (a small group of us - the history and literature tracks) about to head out for some sushi so I've gotta run!

Thanks for hte birhtday wishes from everyone! And Dad, don't worry, I'm not going to bring home any Russian brides! Even though I've had to say, a lot of them may look like that... Haha, but they say in Russia that the women look good until they're 30, then they turn in to babooshaks (little old ladies). And that video is hilarious!

I will see you guys soon! One more day left here, and then we're flying home! It's bittersweet, but I'm ready to come home!

Kane's Russian Odyssey

Kane's Russian Odyssey

Happy Birthday 21st Birthday to You Kane Kayser!

On May 31,1984 you entered this world... it hasn't been the same yet



Everyone misses you here!

I hacked your username and password to post this on the main page

Remember -- NO RUSSIAN BRIDES unless of course they look like this

Otherwise ... This will be the results Click here


Love

Dad

Back in Petersburg

So, just wanted to let you guys know we just got back into Petersburg. We got in around 9:30 I guess, and we walked back from the train station to our hotel. I <3 Petersburg because it's so easy to tell where you are and where you need to go.

Yesterday was a pretty fun day - and the last day in Moscow. So last night I went out to this club called the "Hungry Duck". John had been telling me about it for a while, since he went there last year when he was living here (he lived in Novgorod, but went to Moscow and Petersburg). So a bunch of us went out after hte opera at the Bolshoi, and only like 3 of us ended up staying for any decent length of time. Haha, some of the Chechnians ended up showing up and one of the girls we were with got in some trouble - so we had to leave earlier than we intended on. Oh well, it was still fun, we all got to dance and stuff for a few hours.

Then haha, today we got checked out of the last Soviet institution in Russia - the Hotel Russia (which will not be there next year). I don't know if I told you guys, but it's this humongous, run-down hotel from the Kruschev era still owned by the city of Moscow. So since we had so many things go "Soviet" while staying there, we didn't bother to really check out. We just turned in all our keys to our key lady (which is a Soviet institution, in a way, itself) and left without telling a lobby or anything.

So we had 4 hours to waste before our train for Petersburg left. So we took our bus and chilled in this one little are of Moscow. I ended up going to the first McDonalds in Russia - holy shit, it was sweet. It was the greatest McDonald's I've ever seen in my entire life. It was incredibly clean and set up like, maybe, an avant garde office building or cafe or something. They had an internet access thing, and listening stations at some of the booths for certain cds. And they had their own cafe... and like 24 cash registers.

Then it was the train ride back here. Which was pretty nice. On a non-Russia note - Allyson and I sat together one the way back to Petersburg and I've been talking to her a lot lately. I think she's pretty cool, and in the very least, someone I hope to keep as a friend after this whole Russia thing is over. And pshhh, she's from mason, we can hang out over the summer!

But yeah, that's all the news for now. I think I'm about to head out here and see if I can maybe get some dinner. I didn't have a chance to do a cash exchange and the ATM I used to use in Petersburg is closed for the night - and I only have 200 rubles. That's not going to get me very far, except maybe another McDonalds dinner....or maybe I can eat ath the Okey Pokey - the Russian restuarant right by our hotel. We'll see...

And I'll catch you guys later. I got the syllabus for our group officially changed for my birthday, by they way. We're all going out after the our tv appearance to this place called Tinkoff (sushi/microbrewery).

Customs of Russia

Ok, so I was thinking about it lately. When I come back home, I'm going to be the worst person ever thanks to the things I've picked up in Russia.

First, in Soviet Russia, there are no lines. There are herds of people standing in front of several cash registers, trying to make their way to them. Only the strong survive. This is especially true in the food world. The other day at McDonalds, I did the Russian thing - cut into the middle part of the herd where the line to teh counter was the shortest, and then pushed through a bunch of people. I got to the cash register before practically everyone around me. And we've learned you send one person in at a time to order - so I was ordering for myself and for Allyson. The more people in the herd makes it harder for you to get through, people get left behind. So I got up the counter, I found I still have a shred of decency left in myself that Russia cannot take away - and let this old English lady order her food (she hadn't moved in the line since I got in it). She was short and had a walking cane, lol, so I told her to come up to the counter with me. Moral of the story is, I don't think I'll ever be able to twait in a traditional line ever again.

Then, another thing about Russia is that they really don't clean up after themselves. When you are done eating, you are expected to leave your food where it lies. You CANNOT bus your own table. I got yelled at the other day in the mall for trying to throw away the food I was done with. So I've learned to just leave anything and everything where it is, because pfft, I'm not supposed to care about taking care of things after I'm done.

I've also learned to never really say thank you. The Russians never do it. Since I've been here, I've said "spice-eebva" (thank you) at least 2093848945897 more times than I've said "pajhalstah" (you're welcome). I think I've just given up on using either of those now. People seem to give you a scowl if you tell them "spice-eebva".

And this has been especially true in Red Square. Traditionally, Russians don't seem to care if they walk in front of someone taking a picture. So I've adopted that same policy. Going through Red Square, I'll see a family getting ready for a group picture... and I walk right through the middle of our picture. One of the guys in our group today actually purposefully put himself in someone else's photo today when we were inside the Kremlin. I'm sure I've ruined countless tourist photographs in Red Square by now, I trek across it at least 4 times a day. I may even be unconsciously swerving towards groups of people who look like tourists, so I can delay their picture taking. After all, Russia is allll about waiting.

And on another note, today while visiting the Moscow Kremlin there was this guy who looked like Lenin (ленин) while we were waiting for some of our group members to show up. So we tried to nonchalantly take our photograph with him. I think he started to catch on after a while, because as our friends john went down the stairs and around to take our picture from the bottom, our buddy lenin slowly turned his head. We were really disappointed. )=

Also, if you go to any ballet in Russia - go to the Mariinsky over the Kremlin in Moscow. The ballet last night was pretty lame. I think one person danced in the entire first act. One person. All the ballet fans that I knew were like "Oh my god, this is the most horrible ballet we've ever seen." Then second act was a little better, but meh.

Tonight we're off to the Bolshoi to see an opera. I don't nkow what the opera is called, or what it's about, but I'll find out eventually.

And oh, then we're meeting with a famous Russian author tomorrow. She's won the equivalent of the Pulitzer in Russia, so she's like wildly famous for an intellectual. And then when we get back to St. Petersburg, we're doing a tour of another film studio... but this time a director is leading us... like a famous Russian director. My professor is really excited about meeting him since he's really in to Russian movies. And I don't know how we get to do some of the thigns we're doing here in Russia, some of the people who set up this trip have some ridiculous connections or something.

Oh yeah, to anyone reading this, would you guYs still be willing to go out on June 4th? I should be getting in around 11:45pm on the 3rd, so I think I'll pass out by then and sleep through the afternoon on the 4th. But maybe we can go out on the 4th? I'm gonna see if some people from the trip would want to go out then too, since a few of them are from Cincinnati.

And ok, I'm out probably until tomorrow evening (it's saturday afternoon here now). We're taking the day train from Moscow back to St. Petersburg tomorrow at 4:30 pm and we should get back in around 9.

Peace!

Power Outages and a Massive Heat Wave in Moscow

Haha, the past few days have been pretty interesting. I heard that some of the stuff going on here made CNN - the record setting heat and the power outage that affected 4 regions of the country. The heat has been pretty horrible, most of the places here don't have air and it's been getting up to like 31 or 32 celsius. I know we definitely set a record high for one of the days we've been here in Moscow. Add that to the fact that most places don't have air conditioning or any sort of fans or anything, it's been pretty HOT. )= Like sweating at nighttime with the windows open hot. So sleeping at night got even harder, thanks to the loud music from the club that's located 5 floors below us and the 84 degree weather in our rooms AT NIGHT.

But the power outage didn't really affect my group when it happened. We took a bus out of the city at 8 that morning to head towards a famous battle site from the War of 1812 in Russia (we went to the Battlefield of Borrodino). It was actually a pretty cool time, got to see some of the more scenic or rural parts of Russia and got to see a ton of statues dedicated to the Great Patriotic War. We actually had no idea that the power was out in Moscow until we got back and were told we couldn't ride the elevators up to our rooms. So we got upstairs and found everyone else (there were like 16 other people in political science and business at the hotel, my group is normally history and russian/literature). They didn't chance to do anything today because the metros were out, and some people had been stuck in an elevator for a while - so they were just playing Russian charades. This whole power outage thing is pretty interesting though - the head of the Russian Energy Commission or whatever its name is took the blame for the incident (an explosion at the main power plant). They day after the administration charged him with a criminal offense - so a lot of people here think it's an attempt to just get this guy out of office. He's a leftover from the Yeltsin regime, and just last month there was an assassination attempt on the same guy.

But actually later that night was pretty cool too. There are a group of Chechyian (I don't actually know how to spell that) students staying in our hotel who are practicing because they're going to be on this show that's the European equivalent to American Idol. So we all got together and talked to them for a while, and then we got to see the routine they were goign to do for when they're on tv. They were all pretty cool (they were all university students too). And at one point they were going to pull my roommate John up to dance, but he said, in Russian, "No, I don't dance. BUT THIS GUY, HE'S AN AWESOME DANCER" So I got pulled up and danced with them some, haha, definitely made a fool out of myself but it was all in fun.

Then yesterday I think we went on the best tour we have been on yet: we went to the Red October Chocolate Factory. I almost made myself Sick with all the chocolate I had. I probably had like 25 pieces of all sorts of random chocolates they make in their factory within 20 minutes. Then afterwards, they gave us a ton of chocolate as souvenirs - so hopefully I'll be bring some of that home assuming it doesn't melt first (the weather has cooled down after a day's rain, so there's a chance it might not melt). And earlier in the morning we had gone to a art museum that was pretty good, so after the chocolate factory we had a free day and decided to visit Christ the Savior Cathedral - the third biggest cathedral in the world. Holy shit, it was huge. It was intended to be the biggest cathedral in the world at the time it was built to honor those who died in the War of 1812, but resources were rare so it became the 3rd largest. Then in the Stalin years, it was knocked down and planned to be site for the biggest Lenin statue ever built. Those plans got squished too, and it was turned into the largest outdoor swimming pool in the world. Then after the Soviet Union collapsed, they reconstructed the church using the original plans from 1912.

Later that night we ended up going to this 50s style American diner with me, Allyson, Katy, and 3 professors (Steve, Ben, Bill). It was a pretty good time, and I got the first real milk shake I've had in a while here. Haha, and we actually ended up playing euchre afterwards. I was partners with Bill at first, and it was Katy and Allyson (cute girl from mason) and we ended up losing after going 9-9. Pfft, not bad considering I hadn't played euchre in like 4 years. So Bill and Katy decided to head to bed, so Allyson and I looked around for some people to play euchre with. We eventually found them in some of the grad students down the hall, who we DOMINATED at first, but ended up eventually losing to because I got stuck with a farmer's hand 3 times in a row (and we weren't playing farmer's hand). So whatever, then Allyson left because it was getting kind of late and she goes to bed early anyway and then my roommate John came back and we ended up playing again. Haha, John and I got off to the worst start ever... like I don't think either one of us had anything higher than a queen for 4 deals. So whatever, it was still fun. Haha you guys probably don't want to hear about the euchre though, it's not particularly Russian.

Earlier that night though, Judy, the assistant-provost, was leaving and she told me she was really impressed by me and that I showed an incredible amount of maturity and a positive attitude about everything. So that was pretty cool, considering she's really high up in the school adminstration (all the deans and all the offices in the school report to the provost - so as assistant provost, Judy has like 15 school offices reporting directly to her). And then I found out her husband was a formula one race car driver who's raced at Monte Carlo and other big races.

But oh yeah, today we got to take a tour of Mosfilms - a film studio based here in Moscow. It was pretty interesting, but pshhhh we had a tour of a chocolate factory where we just at the whole time the day before... so it wasn't that great. Besides, the lady kept telling us inane things about the sets they built. Like, "These building aren't really old. We actually have artists who come in and paint the sets to make them look like they're old" and "We use some tricks you don't notice in our movies. These sets aren't historically accurate, we normally use plastic instead of metal" - Oh sweet, I had no idea... I thought they bought an area of land in the early 1900s and preserved it until now. But some of the other stuff in the studio was pretty cool.

And yeah, that's pretty much it for now. I don't know when the next time I'll be able to check e-mail or this blog will be. Tonight we're going to a ballet in the Kremlin, and tomorrow is a busy day with a tour of the Kremlin and an opera at the Bolshoi theater. And then we're taking the train back to St. Petersburg - yay, I can live cheaply again. I might not be able to respond again until Sunday night or maybe sometime on Monday.

Anyway, I will talk to you guys later. Take care!