Apparently I was VERY mistaken and I have had a fair number of Russian women correct statements I've previously made about Russian men. Nearly every other store you see here is a flower shop ... and everywhere you go you see men caring huge bouquets. I have previously stated that Russian women still act like women because the Russian men still act like men. Apparently I was wrong. Of course opinions differ depending on the personal experiences of the people giving the testimonials... however. it seems a fair number of women, including those older and wiser that I have spoken to, have made it abundantly clear that Russian men ARE in fact very romantic... until such time as you get pregnant, at which point they disappear. The ones that stick around are admittedly the better of the lot, but I have been told that most of these men are still pretty lazy. Many of them are raised with the idea that cooking and cleaning are the woman's job, and they come home and sit on the couch to watch tv while their wife prepares the meals, cleans, and raises the children.
Now, all the Russian guys I've met have been really awesome, and I can't imagine any of them doing anything like that, so I'm tempted to believe that it's basically the same as it is in America... yeah, sure, there are a lot of bad apples, but there are plenty of good ones still... you just have to look for them. I'm rather of the mindset that if you're not willing to put in the extra effort to find the good one in the lot then you didn't deserve them in the first place, and they probably deserved better than you anyways. That being said, I have been advised that those Russian women whom my friends know who have married American guys have reportedly had a much better time of things and their husbands are very helpful and loving, and the overall opinion I've received is that ... well, my personal take on the matter seems to be that Russian men tend to take for granted that which is right in front of them, while American men realize how strong these women are.
That being said, I'm inclined to say that I'm even more impressed by Russian women ... to continue to behave the way women should even though the men frequently (allegedly) don't do their part. It would seem to me that the general consensus for the whole world is that men need to step up to the plate. I don't care how good of a mother a woman is, she can never teach a boy to become a man. Only a man can do that, and if you don't then boys grow up seeing women do all the work; they accept it as how things should be and the cycle will keep going forever. Okay ... sorry, I went on a bit of a tangent there. My apologies.
Yesterday started off pretty slow again ... since it's taking so long to get adjusted to this time zone I'm still sleeping through most of the mornings. I've finally stopped waking up at 5.00 at least, but I'm still having to sleep nearly 12 hours a day in order to not be exhausted.. hoping after this week I can return to my normal 7 hour cycle. *fingers crossed* At least my ankle no longer wants to explode every time I put it on the ground. It occurred to me about 19.00 last night that my ankle hadn't bothered me all day .. so either it's adjusted or this is the calm before the storm ... I"m praying it's the former.
Because we were going to the sport bar to watch the Real Madrid vs. Barcelona game in the evening, I put off lessons until the evening and met with Sasha at about 19.00. We finished up at 20.30 or so when Petr called to tell us that him and Лёша were on the train in from Leninskiy and would be there shortly. We got to the bar just 3-4 minutes before they did and long story short, this place was awesome. I will say that it's strange seeing people sitting in restaurants smoking, hookahs on half the tables, and lots of smoke .. reminds me of the early 90's. Anyways, this place was awesome! There were huge projectors and televisions everywhere, and in true European style, every TV was tuned to the game. Not a single soul in Europe wasn't watching this game.
Because the game was Spain vs. Spain we just picked sides at the beginning, Лёша and I got set with Barcelona, Sasha and Petr with Real Madrid. I have some experience playing soccer, but I've never seen anything like this before. I kind of have a notion in the back of my mind that most Americans think soccer is girly... if you think that, you've never seen a real game. This stuff was intense. I have never seen more screaming and cursing in my entire life. American sports fans... you don't know what team spirit is.
Ordering individual glasses of beer is for limp-wristed daffodils, and so we ordered a 3.5 liter tap for our table. First we had Siberian Corona... I wasn't impressed, but everyone knows you never leave beer behind in Russia, so we drank it anyways. Everyone agreed it wasn't fantastic. We got another 3.5 liter tap with a German beer I can't recall the name of... better. I'll try to get the name of it for you later. By the third tap we got... I didn't much care what kind of beer we had, but I dropped out shortly after we started it. I'm not a big drinker, and it's been a long time ... sorry. I did manage to keep up with Sasha most of the night though, and he's the big guy in the bunch. He seemed impressed, "He is real Scottish!" hahaha =P
Because I only understood half the menu and most of it was pork (which I'm allergic to), I went with Chick Sashlik... similar to a shish kabob... I tried one the other day if you'll recall. I thought it was good the other day, and from my past experiences with sports bars in America, the primary goal is to get you drunk, and the food is typically sub-par. Not so here. This was at least 10 times better than what I had the other day, and I didn't even think it was possible. Barcelona won the match 2-0, with no points being scored at all until 76 minutes in, half way through the second half. Don't think that means this entire game wasn't intense though. You should have heard the crowd with each goal. You'd have thought someone just found the cure for cancer and to celebrate the guy who discovered the cure was handing out a million dollars to everyone in the world.
With the beer, they served a kind of breadstick similar to biscotti, but very sweet and served fresh from the oven. No idea what these things were, but they tasted fantastic! Just make sure to eat them before they cool.. they get pretty hard. Then they brought out a bowl of ... well they were like chips, but very thin, tiny things that were kind of spicy, and again served very warm... then a pyramid of fish. I really don't know how else to describe it. They literally brought out a small plate with fish stacked like a log cabin. Not being the type to turn anything down, I tried it out. Actually pretty good. Whereas Americans like to have something sweet at the end of dinner, apparently Russians prefer something salty. We only got through 1/3 of the 3rd tap, and so the manager brought us a bottle and we filled it to take it with us... also unusual.
When we left Sahsa put the bottle under his arm and headed down the street. What's the big deal? It's just beer! Lots of guys were walking up and down the street with open bottles, probably just as drunk as we were, yelling BARCELONA! BARCELONA! When the taxi arrived I climbed in and was unconscious inside of 3 or 4 minutes. I woke up as we were pulling up to the flat and I only managed to stay awake just long enough to send last night's apology to you all =P
The food here is obviously very different from America, but like I said yesterday, I'm loving just about all of it! I'm planning to spend most of my day today trying to keep my head from exploding, and I definitely don't envy Petr and the guys having to work today. I've only got one meeting today and it's not until 19.00 again, so I'm going to relax for a few more hours before I have to go. Planning my trip to Saratov either next week or the week after.. the sooner, the better, and I'll be booking my tickets this afternoon as well. Really really really looking forward to this trip))))))
Now, all the Russian guys I've met have been really awesome, and I can't imagine any of them doing anything like that, so I'm tempted to believe that it's basically the same as it is in America... yeah, sure, there are a lot of bad apples, but there are plenty of good ones still... you just have to look for them. I'm rather of the mindset that if you're not willing to put in the extra effort to find the good one in the lot then you didn't deserve them in the first place, and they probably deserved better than you anyways. That being said, I have been advised that those Russian women whom my friends know who have married American guys have reportedly had a much better time of things and their husbands are very helpful and loving, and the overall opinion I've received is that ... well, my personal take on the matter seems to be that Russian men tend to take for granted that which is right in front of them, while American men realize how strong these women are.
That being said, I'm inclined to say that I'm even more impressed by Russian women ... to continue to behave the way women should even though the men frequently (allegedly) don't do their part. It would seem to me that the general consensus for the whole world is that men need to step up to the plate. I don't care how good of a mother a woman is, she can never teach a boy to become a man. Only a man can do that, and if you don't then boys grow up seeing women do all the work; they accept it as how things should be and the cycle will keep going forever. Okay ... sorry, I went on a bit of a tangent there. My apologies.
Yesterday started off pretty slow again ... since it's taking so long to get adjusted to this time zone I'm still sleeping through most of the mornings. I've finally stopped waking up at 5.00 at least, but I'm still having to sleep nearly 12 hours a day in order to not be exhausted.. hoping after this week I can return to my normal 7 hour cycle. *fingers crossed* At least my ankle no longer wants to explode every time I put it on the ground. It occurred to me about 19.00 last night that my ankle hadn't bothered me all day .. so either it's adjusted or this is the calm before the storm ... I"m praying it's the former.
Because we were going to the sport bar to watch the Real Madrid vs. Barcelona game in the evening, I put off lessons until the evening and met with Sasha at about 19.00. We finished up at 20.30 or so when Petr called to tell us that him and Лёша were on the train in from Leninskiy and would be there shortly. We got to the bar just 3-4 minutes before they did and long story short, this place was awesome. I will say that it's strange seeing people sitting in restaurants smoking, hookahs on half the tables, and lots of smoke .. reminds me of the early 90's. Anyways, this place was awesome! There were huge projectors and televisions everywhere, and in true European style, every TV was tuned to the game. Not a single soul in Europe wasn't watching this game.
Because the game was Spain vs. Spain we just picked sides at the beginning, Лёша and I got set with Barcelona, Sasha and Petr with Real Madrid. I have some experience playing soccer, but I've never seen anything like this before. I kind of have a notion in the back of my mind that most Americans think soccer is girly... if you think that, you've never seen a real game. This stuff was intense. I have never seen more screaming and cursing in my entire life. American sports fans... you don't know what team spirit is.
Ordering individual glasses of beer is for limp-wristed daffodils, and so we ordered a 3.5 liter tap for our table. First we had Siberian Corona... I wasn't impressed, but everyone knows you never leave beer behind in Russia, so we drank it anyways. Everyone agreed it wasn't fantastic. We got another 3.5 liter tap with a German beer I can't recall the name of... better. I'll try to get the name of it for you later. By the third tap we got... I didn't much care what kind of beer we had, but I dropped out shortly after we started it. I'm not a big drinker, and it's been a long time ... sorry. I did manage to keep up with Sasha most of the night though, and he's the big guy in the bunch. He seemed impressed, "He is real Scottish!" hahaha =P
Because I only understood half the menu and most of it was pork (which I'm allergic to), I went with Chick Sashlik... similar to a shish kabob... I tried one the other day if you'll recall. I thought it was good the other day, and from my past experiences with sports bars in America, the primary goal is to get you drunk, and the food is typically sub-par. Not so here. This was at least 10 times better than what I had the other day, and I didn't even think it was possible. Barcelona won the match 2-0, with no points being scored at all until 76 minutes in, half way through the second half. Don't think that means this entire game wasn't intense though. You should have heard the crowd with each goal. You'd have thought someone just found the cure for cancer and to celebrate the guy who discovered the cure was handing out a million dollars to everyone in the world.
With the beer, they served a kind of breadstick similar to biscotti, but very sweet and served fresh from the oven. No idea what these things were, but they tasted fantastic! Just make sure to eat them before they cool.. they get pretty hard. Then they brought out a bowl of ... well they were like chips, but very thin, tiny things that were kind of spicy, and again served very warm... then a pyramid of fish. I really don't know how else to describe it. They literally brought out a small plate with fish stacked like a log cabin. Not being the type to turn anything down, I tried it out. Actually pretty good. Whereas Americans like to have something sweet at the end of dinner, apparently Russians prefer something salty. We only got through 1/3 of the 3rd tap, and so the manager brought us a bottle and we filled it to take it with us... also unusual.
When we left Sahsa put the bottle under his arm and headed down the street. What's the big deal? It's just beer! Lots of guys were walking up and down the street with open bottles, probably just as drunk as we were, yelling BARCELONA! BARCELONA! When the taxi arrived I climbed in and was unconscious inside of 3 or 4 minutes. I woke up as we were pulling up to the flat and I only managed to stay awake just long enough to send last night's apology to you all =P
The food here is obviously very different from America, but like I said yesterday, I'm loving just about all of it! I'm planning to spend most of my day today trying to keep my head from exploding, and I definitely don't envy Petr and the guys having to work today. I've only got one meeting today and it's not until 19.00 again, so I'm going to relax for a few more hours before I have to go. Planning my trip to Saratov either next week or the week after.. the sooner, the better, and I'll be booking my tickets this afternoon as well. Really really really looking forward to this trip))))))
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