Bacc on Tracc

I don’t know what I’m doing back on here.  It’s 2017.  Nobody really blogs anymore. Nobody follows me on here.

Good.

I can write what I want. It’s embarrassing to go back and look at what you wrote in the past, but it’s real, and that’s saying something. I’ve got like 8 past blogs to look back on redfaced, so I had to choose which one suited me best at this point in my life.  I *do* teach now, part time, so I guess this is the best one for me.

What’s the point?  I hate the feeling of ‘where did the time go’?  What even happened then/What was it like?  So, documentation.

First dental cleaning in a couple of years today at lunchtime. Grumpy week. Starting to wonder if I should come off the meds – no emotion is pretty shitty. Pretty basic day here. Actually cleaned the pan I used to make eggs this morning – just an hour after I used it.  Small successes. Blooming obsession with routine.  Loving our new rental house. Loving the boyfriend, but worrying that I make life hard for him. Want to be kind, and interesting – wondering if I’m just moody and boring.

 

Home again Home again

Yes, that’s right, I am home, finally.  It only took 10 days to get there, but I did it.  And, it was amazing.  I couldn’t have asked for a more interesting or exciting journey home.  I would like to post pictures here for posterity, but currently I only have access to the internet at the library, and the good-ol laptop is in the shop, finally.  Looks like that will only cost me about $100 to fix.  Deal!

Now it’s just about searching for jobs, getting things done and visiting people for a while.  Tomorrow (already!) I have an interview for a job in Madison.  Pretty exciting!

So.  Now that I am no longer actually a teacher, I think this website shouldn’t progress any further.  BUT!  Do not fear!  I am just moving the place of my postings to http://frenchrangoon.wordpress.com

It’s sad to see it go, but, everything must end.  (unless…. Unless I am hired as a preschool teacher, then this blog is back on!  But let’s not jump to conclusions)

So long!  Fare Well!  I will see you on the other side!

 

Finland!

Today has been a long long day so far.  Started at 5.  Went off with only one, minor, tiny, insignificant hitch, which will later be described in it’s own, long post.

Leaving was really quite hard, mostly because I was emotional about that microscopic problem mentioned earlier and because Elen saw us off… I will miss her SO much.  I am almost convinced I wouldn’t have survived if it weren’t for her.  I hope we can stay in touch.

Ok, I should go to bed.  It’s only 8pm, but we are dead on our feet and we want to be awake to see the city tomorrow.  We only have about 24 hours in Helsinki, and it looks pretty amazing.

Hope to keep you updated!

 

Last Day.

Tomorrow Jane and I will get up at the crack of dawn, haul our butts to the train station (where we will be met by the wonderful Elen) and point ourselves away from Russia.  Strange.

Currently teaching my last class.  LAST LAST CLASS.  Why am I sad?!  If you’re lucky, you’ll see me in a week.  A WEEK!!!! I thought I would never make it here. 🙂

 

Madonna, etc.

Sunday was muggy and quite warm, it had rained twice already but Steph and I were hoping for the best when we met on Nevsky at 6pm.  At the end of the street we were funneled between two malitsia  trucks and ‘searched’.  I put searched in quotes because, in fact, I was missed.  Apparently I don’t look very susupicious.   After entering palace square and not being missed in the search process, we began looking for the best standing place.  Now… I learned in this process that the WORST place to be is directly in the middle (distance from the stage). As you back up, the stage gets shorter, right?  Well, where we were was the perfect distance for the tall people’s heads to be directly at stage level.  We didn’t recognise this at first, for some reason, so most of the time in the square was spent at the front of the cheaper back section (i.e. directly in the middle).

Anyway, the square started to get a little crowded, then a little more crowded, and then, finally, it required caps: CROWDED.  As crowded as I have ever been on the metro…. and let me tell you, that’s a lot of  people in a small space.   Like, I think I was touching six separate people without trying.   Sardines come to mind, disappointingly. During the opening number, Steph tried desperately to dance, but none of our neighbors are having any of it.  So it was challenging, like dancing in jello, or molassas.   Then, as we are all getting friendly and catalogueing each other’s breath scent, it begins to rain.  A little.  And people open their umbrellas.  How they even GOT to their umbrellas to open them is beyond me, but they managed.  And I knew it, I predicted it openly to a number of people.  Umbrellas in this situation just don’t work.  When the corner of someone else’s umbrella is under yours, and you are under that corner… you will get wet dispite your planning ahead skills.  They are pointless.  This is why I wore a water proof jacket.  Thank you, thank you.  You don’t have to mention the word ‘genious’.  🙂  Regardless,  the umbrellas remained open and as far as I know, nobody lost an eye, in spite of many close calls.   So it’s raining, then… it begins to pour.  I find this somewhat amusing because, at least 3/5ths of my body is still dry.  It rained for about 15 min and quit, then started again, then quit for good.  We waited in this scrunched space for an hour and a half between the opening act and Madonna.  It wasn’t pleasant.  There was a rousing game of ‘I spy with my little eye’ though.  It wasn’t entirely challenging because of the lack of objects our limited vision and immobility provided.

When Madonna came on and began singing ‘Vouge’ and I realized that no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t see, I began to panic.  I know this seems a little dramatic, but really, that’s what it was.  I couldn’t see the stage, Madonna in person (albeit small) or either of the two screens to the sides of the stage because of these large white tents that were set up between the two zones of ticket prices.  Looking back on it now, it would have totally been worth it to pay the extra 1500 Rubles ($50) to be so much closer and generally more appreciated.  Soon, Steph and I wised up and moved back about 20 yards and then!  Then we could see Madonna!  She was…. THAT speck, that one right there!!!  I saw her, ohmygod!

It was a good performance, I think.  Steph enjoyed herself after finding more breathing room in the back AND two random girls who wanted to dance too!  When I finally layed down to go to sleep, it felt like I was still in that sardine can, leaning side to side, being pushed around.  It reminded me of when you get home from spending the day in a wave pool at a water park, you get the feeling that you are still going over and over the waves.

 

The Day.

Today’s the day, folks!  MADONNA.  Of course, you won’t really get any photos from me unless I attempt to put them online from work… but this would mean braving the ‘Russian Roulette’ that is the USB ports in our extremely crap computer.  If you choose the wrong port…. time is up for your flash drive.  We’ll see.  For now, I have to get out of this cafe and into a sushi place for a presuperstar concert lunch!  I will give you the scoop tomorrow – promise!

 

Right.

I came on here with the fullest intent to write about how I was getting sad about leaving, but, it just isn’t the right time.  Not after falling UP the stairs to the internet cafe.  Not while there is a really crazy Brit who is paying over $3 an hour to watch a soccar match online, and is actually performing cheers and chants and talking to the screen right next to me.  At first, I thought it was cute.

In other news: Sushi Wednesday!  Night off!  And of course, 15 days until the lovely Jane of Madison comes.  She’s the dutchess.

 

Learning to be Creative!

That’s an optimistic title, right?  Good, thought so.  This post is mainly about me trying to fill my weekend with…. nothing.  But this nothing should feel like something!  Yesterday I woke up feeling sick, which is the best way to wake up, really.  Then I went grocery shopping at the usual place 1.5 miles away explored new routes of nutrient gathering and discovered avacados!  Then I met up with Elen and we walked  (how do I make walk sound more exciting?!) to the Peter and Paul Fortress where we sat on some rocks bathed in sunlight while resting on the bank of the Neva.  After this, we were nearly hit by a railcarbus thing, then I tried tounge, which really really made me queasy.  It was sliced really thin, but the edge was a little bit harder and chewier, and…you could discern where there was a black spot ON THE TOUNGE OF A COW.  I can’t think about it any more.

Today I walked back to the fortress to start souvineer shopping!  The fortress has a printing press where they make limited editions of different scenes of the city that are relatively cheap, so I bought three today, and I am really happy about what I got.  What do you people want upon my return?!  Deciding what to get everyone will be most challenging.  I walked home, hot, weak from illness and headachey.  Bought some cherries, bananas, a soda, butter and other random things.  Made lunch, talked to Dad – he is on his way BACK to Iraq again – and took a nap.  When I woke up and saw that it was 7pm, I was thoroughly convinced that I had slept from 2am – 7pm.  Alas, I hadn’t.  But I was pretty out of it.  

Only two more weekends in St. Pete.  Next weekend I hope to go to Pushkin… because I must get out there sometime before I leave, it’s just rediculous not to.   There will be other things to do, I just need to think about it.  If only I could pull myself away from the distractions in my apartment.  The radio is just engrossing.

 

My Awesome New FAB Pad

So, my last two or so posts weren’t overly optimistic.  Let’s face it, I was struggling to sound even remotely sane, much less bubbly.  In my exhausted, frustrated and emotionally confused state I somehow forgot to tell you about how freaking AWESOME my new apartment is.

Picture this (you’d better, cause you aren’t getting real pictures anytime soon): A spacious bedroom.  Nearly one whole wall is windows (currently covered in aluminum foil to keep out the midnight sun, but still, windows).  There’s a small wooden table in the corner, where I can eat breakfast and study Russian and for the GRE (that’s right, who wants to go back to school?!).  In the opposite corner is my bed, double or full, a perfect size.  I’ve got a dresser (haven’t had one of those for 8 months) and a off-white antique wardrobe with a huge mirror on the front (novelty!).  At the foot of my bed sits a  small fridge that rattles only a little in the night.  Above my bed, near the ceiling are a handful of rectangular windows that overlook the kitchen and bathroom.  They’re high enough that you can’t see anything in the bordering rooms but they add such a cute touch to the room and allow some of the rediculous sunlight to filter into the interior rooms.

The kitchen is about as small as you can imagine.  I can take about one full step forward  and travel the entire length of the room.  There’s an ancient, possibly cast iron stove that needs to be lit using a match after you turn the gas on, a little sink to do dishes (and all the other uses you can think of for a sink, as it’s the only one), the smallest washing machine known to man, a little radio and a microwave in the kitchen.  Crossing the kitchen, you enter the ‘shower room’.  The shower is about a foot off the ground, and probably 2.5ft x 2.5ft.  Read: tiny.  The curtain is the wrap around kind that makes me think of old cartoon showers and full of…. dolphins, I think?  Anyway.  To get to the ‘toilet room’ you have to climb through the shower (yes, really).  The door to the room opens into the shower, so a good sized notch has been cut out of it to allow for more swinging room.  Well, that’s harder to explain than I thought it would be.  But, maybe you can picture it.  I tried.

In any case, I love my cute little apartment.  I think I love it cause it’s mine.  Sigh.  OH!  I have a little tv and VCR too.  It didn’t have the right cords before today, but Jen is SO going to watch her a little Johnny Depp as a pirate tonight!  First English entertainment in a month!  Woo Hoo!

 

Speaking Too Soon

Last week I decided that not having a computer wasn’t all that bad, it actually felt a little liberating.  Two minutes later, someone was offering to fix it.  Did I jump at the suggestion? Of course.  Unfortunately, I became optimistic  *shudder* and thought I would have a working computer in no time.  No such luck.  Apparently windows just completely died, but that is easily fixable.  BUT, I guess my computer is heating up way too much, so the tech said I should get it fixed at a sony service center.  First, I should buy a hard drive or use someone else’s to save all of my stuff, and give my computer BACK to mr. tech man.  It’s starting to sound like too much work.  We’ll see how crazy I am after a week of little to no entertainment.  I know I have a plan, and I know it’s only 25 days until Jane gets her butt here, but…

I found my Madonna ticket!  Palace Square, August 2nd!

I seem to have lost a lot of things between moving three times.  Like, a frying pan and peanut butter.  How does that happen?  I have my own paranoid suspions.

Experienced a Russian movie theater today, to watch ‘Ice Age 3’.  It didn’t matter that I barely speak Russian or that I hadn’t seen the two movies that come before this one, I understood the film and it was good.  It might have had something to do with my current lack of entertainment when I laughed harder than the kids in the theater.

Time surely doesn’t seem to be passing quickly.  I blame everyone who told me it would, and myself for believing them.  Oh well.  Concentrate on the future, so on.  Hopefully I will be online again soon!