Although still house-bound I am at least no longer primarily bed-bound. The swelling in the left side of my throat has gone down and although swallowing is still pretty uncomfortable, it only feels like I'm being stabbed in the throat about 1 in every 10 breaths now as opposed to all of them. I spent a lot of today preparing for my journey to revisit the land of the living, and hope to be back out of the house by the weekend, assuming I'm recovered tomorrow. Because this has been such a long-winded illness, whatever day I feel fine on, I'm going to stay at home an additional day after just to rest and make sure my stamina is full recovered. Assuming I feel fine today, I should be ready to roll on Saturday)))
At least sitting up and typing aren't as exhausting as they were, so I think I'll be able to make at least a few observations before I lose wind and pass out =P First, is height. By American standards, I'd say that at 179cm (just over 5'10"), I'm of pretty average height for ... well, everyone. Now, maybe my powers of observation in America were a bit remiss, and maybe I am inaccurate at saying this, but it seems to me like most people, both men and women alike, range from about 167cm (5'6") to about 182cm (6'). Here, it seems very much different. Most men are my height, which isn't strange. But most women are closer to 152cm (5') to 160cm (5'3"). This of course isn't always the case, and of the small group of people I actually hang out with, one of the girls is about 10cm (~4in) taller than me, but this seems to be a very rare exception. It's just so interesting to see such a drastic difference in height, and why I didn't make this observation on day 1 I have no clue.
Next is clothing. The climate in Russia is really unique. Most people seem to be under the impression that there is nothing but snow here year round and that's just plain ludicrous. While I admit I didn't arrive until the end of April and it was snowing the day I arrive, even then it was a very interesting sensation that I will do my best to describe. It's not really hot or cold or comfortable... it's kind of a humid cold everywhere all the time. It's not cold enough to wear a jacket, and it's too cold not to. Typically it's so muggy that it's better to just be a bit chilly and not wear a jacket because otherwise you'll find yourself sweating like a puppy outside Michael Vick's house... too soon? How about sweating like a cat outside a China Buffet? ... that was terrible. We'll settle on sweating like Teen Miss South Carolina trying to form a coherent sentence... fair enough?
Take in mind that this is my American clothing standards, which I am still wearing. I've started really looking around and have noticed that Russian clothing is much thinner and tighter. While I had noticed this about women's attire... I of course don't really spend lots of time staring at guys pants. Guys do the same thing though it seems. Thinner, tighter clothing, and for the large part I think it's ridiculous to think that Russians would want to imitate American style, because the clothing here is unbelievably more fashionable. So I began my conversion to Russian clothing.
I went with Natasha and Lena to the mall while I was in Saratov, and they helped me pick out a new coat and shoes (mine were stupidly old, and should have been thrown away years ago.. my jacket too really). The coat is thin (you can darn near see through it when you hold it up to the light) but is just right, and keeps me warm without roasting me alive. The shoes (and socks) I purchased here are much thinner, and although I had never really had a problem with the thickness of American socks, I feel like I'm walking on clouds now with unicorns and rainbows and cherubim flying by playing me lullabies as I drift off to sleep... maybe a slight exaggeration, but I definitely like Russian style more is my point. Of course my heavy American shirts and jeans will have to go soon too, pretty much only being useful during the coldest of the winter months, but that'll have to wait for next month.
Also... and I know this is incredibly random, and I wouldn't have ever expected for this to be different ... but the toilets are dramatically different. I think most people are aware that in the better part of Europe, what is known in American as a bathroom is divided into 2 rooms: the toilet, and the bathroom. The only thing in the room with the toilet is the toilet... tiny little room. To wash your hands, you leave, go to the other room, wash your hands. The room with the sink also houses the shower/bath and typically houses the washing machine as well as far as I've seen. That's all fine and dandy, and I already knew about the differences with the wash closets (when looking for a toilet, you usually look for a blue sign that says "W.C." although some places do just say туалет (toilet)), which is awesome; the toilets I wasn't expecting to be different.
First, most toilets here don't just have a flusher. The toilets in homes have buttons on top. The button is circular, and has a 2nd button that is cut out of the circle in a crescent shape. You press the larger portion for a quick flush, or depress the entire circle to keep flushing until you let go. These seem to only be the newer toilets though. In some restaurants I've been to there has actually been a giant pad on the wall that had a start button and a stop button, and although I suspect there's an automatic cutoff after probably a few seconds, I think it's handy to just be able to hold it for a minute so you don't have to keep flushing if the water pressure isn't great enough. In the older toilets I've seen sometimes there is a knob on top that you have to pull up and then release to stop flushing as well.
Also, there's not a full bowl of water like in America... there's a small hold in the front (opposite side from the tank) that appears to hold no more than a liter of water at most, and the rest is a sort of dish almost and when you flush the water sweeps anything in the dish across into the hole... really strange to see. Great for nervous pee-ers that don't like people to hear them go though I guess =P Additionally, I think I had pointed out already that most public restrooms you have to pay 20-30 rubles to use ($.60-$1.00), but what I failed to mention is that if you go to any kind of park or outdoor establishment, although the bathrooms are situated in large buildings that you wouldn't suspect of housing toilets... there aren't really toilets, so much as holes in the ground... no more than the average height of a girl's heels off of the ground. I would ask if I'm really supposed to sit on a hole in the ground after paying to use the bathroom, but I think I'll just refrain and make sure to go before I leave the house in the morning... no thanks.
I've also become keenly aware during my time being bed-ridden that Americans have no idea what's going on in the world. We are woefully uneducated about the way the world works, and it seems to me that well more than 90% of the population is only vaguely aware of anyone's existence but their own. The fact there are countries other than America is of little or no consequence, and it amazes me how detached we are from the affairs of the world. It's no wonder we're always getting into trouble and pissing people off, because someone tells Obama there's some stuff going down in Libya and he sends an army... completely unaware that this has been going on for hundreds of years (thousands if you want to get really technical). It's no wonder to me, even after 3 weeks why so many people hate America. We think we're the international super-cops and it's our job to enforce peace and democracy around the world before we've even got our own affairs in order.
I really don't want to turn this into something political, so I'll digress. But my point is that I'd put money on the fact that less than 5-10% of Americans have any idea how many wars are going on in the world right now, where they're going on, how many people are buried in unmarked mass graves each day, and if you told them, they sure as hell couldn't point the countries out on a map. I just think it's a real pity how detached we've gotten and how despite that we think somehow we have the right to tell other people how to live. It's childish, and I totally understand the frustration people feel towards us as a country.
Getting away from that .... I hope that I get back into Moscow soon, because I've read all the books I bought the other day. I'm to my last book, and I'm 1/3 of the way through now! If I finish this before I'm better and have to wait to find out what happens now I will seriously cry bitter black emo tears of acid. Again, being a bit melodramatic... sorry. Hoping my day today is my last I will have to suffer through breathing during! Wish me luck so that maybe tonight my body can finally kick this abomination's behind and get me healthy again! Take care all, hope you had an awesome day!
At least sitting up and typing aren't as exhausting as they were, so I think I'll be able to make at least a few observations before I lose wind and pass out =P First, is height. By American standards, I'd say that at 179cm (just over 5'10"), I'm of pretty average height for ... well, everyone. Now, maybe my powers of observation in America were a bit remiss, and maybe I am inaccurate at saying this, but it seems to me like most people, both men and women alike, range from about 167cm (5'6") to about 182cm (6'). Here, it seems very much different. Most men are my height, which isn't strange. But most women are closer to 152cm (5') to 160cm (5'3"). This of course isn't always the case, and of the small group of people I actually hang out with, one of the girls is about 10cm (~4in) taller than me, but this seems to be a very rare exception. It's just so interesting to see such a drastic difference in height, and why I didn't make this observation on day 1 I have no clue.
Next is clothing. The climate in Russia is really unique. Most people seem to be under the impression that there is nothing but snow here year round and that's just plain ludicrous. While I admit I didn't arrive until the end of April and it was snowing the day I arrive, even then it was a very interesting sensation that I will do my best to describe. It's not really hot or cold or comfortable... it's kind of a humid cold everywhere all the time. It's not cold enough to wear a jacket, and it's too cold not to. Typically it's so muggy that it's better to just be a bit chilly and not wear a jacket because otherwise you'll find yourself sweating like a puppy outside Michael Vick's house... too soon? How about sweating like a cat outside a China Buffet? ... that was terrible. We'll settle on sweating like Teen Miss South Carolina trying to form a coherent sentence... fair enough?
Take in mind that this is my American clothing standards, which I am still wearing. I've started really looking around and have noticed that Russian clothing is much thinner and tighter. While I had noticed this about women's attire... I of course don't really spend lots of time staring at guys pants. Guys do the same thing though it seems. Thinner, tighter clothing, and for the large part I think it's ridiculous to think that Russians would want to imitate American style, because the clothing here is unbelievably more fashionable. So I began my conversion to Russian clothing.
I went with Natasha and Lena to the mall while I was in Saratov, and they helped me pick out a new coat and shoes (mine were stupidly old, and should have been thrown away years ago.. my jacket too really). The coat is thin (you can darn near see through it when you hold it up to the light) but is just right, and keeps me warm without roasting me alive. The shoes (and socks) I purchased here are much thinner, and although I had never really had a problem with the thickness of American socks, I feel like I'm walking on clouds now with unicorns and rainbows and cherubim flying by playing me lullabies as I drift off to sleep... maybe a slight exaggeration, but I definitely like Russian style more is my point. Of course my heavy American shirts and jeans will have to go soon too, pretty much only being useful during the coldest of the winter months, but that'll have to wait for next month.
Also... and I know this is incredibly random, and I wouldn't have ever expected for this to be different ... but the toilets are dramatically different. I think most people are aware that in the better part of Europe, what is known in American as a bathroom is divided into 2 rooms: the toilet, and the bathroom. The only thing in the room with the toilet is the toilet... tiny little room. To wash your hands, you leave, go to the other room, wash your hands. The room with the sink also houses the shower/bath and typically houses the washing machine as well as far as I've seen. That's all fine and dandy, and I already knew about the differences with the wash closets (when looking for a toilet, you usually look for a blue sign that says "W.C." although some places do just say туалет (toilet)), which is awesome; the toilets I wasn't expecting to be different.
First, most toilets here don't just have a flusher. The toilets in homes have buttons on top. The button is circular, and has a 2nd button that is cut out of the circle in a crescent shape. You press the larger portion for a quick flush, or depress the entire circle to keep flushing until you let go. These seem to only be the newer toilets though. In some restaurants I've been to there has actually been a giant pad on the wall that had a start button and a stop button, and although I suspect there's an automatic cutoff after probably a few seconds, I think it's handy to just be able to hold it for a minute so you don't have to keep flushing if the water pressure isn't great enough. In the older toilets I've seen sometimes there is a knob on top that you have to pull up and then release to stop flushing as well.
Also, there's not a full bowl of water like in America... there's a small hold in the front (opposite side from the tank) that appears to hold no more than a liter of water at most, and the rest is a sort of dish almost and when you flush the water sweeps anything in the dish across into the hole... really strange to see. Great for nervous pee-ers that don't like people to hear them go though I guess =P Additionally, I think I had pointed out already that most public restrooms you have to pay 20-30 rubles to use ($.60-$1.00), but what I failed to mention is that if you go to any kind of park or outdoor establishment, although the bathrooms are situated in large buildings that you wouldn't suspect of housing toilets... there aren't really toilets, so much as holes in the ground... no more than the average height of a girl's heels off of the ground. I would ask if I'm really supposed to sit on a hole in the ground after paying to use the bathroom, but I think I'll just refrain and make sure to go before I leave the house in the morning... no thanks.
I've also become keenly aware during my time being bed-ridden that Americans have no idea what's going on in the world. We are woefully uneducated about the way the world works, and it seems to me that well more than 90% of the population is only vaguely aware of anyone's existence but their own. The fact there are countries other than America is of little or no consequence, and it amazes me how detached we are from the affairs of the world. It's no wonder we're always getting into trouble and pissing people off, because someone tells Obama there's some stuff going down in Libya and he sends an army... completely unaware that this has been going on for hundreds of years (thousands if you want to get really technical). It's no wonder to me, even after 3 weeks why so many people hate America. We think we're the international super-cops and it's our job to enforce peace and democracy around the world before we've even got our own affairs in order.
I really don't want to turn this into something political, so I'll digress. But my point is that I'd put money on the fact that less than 5-10% of Americans have any idea how many wars are going on in the world right now, where they're going on, how many people are buried in unmarked mass graves each day, and if you told them, they sure as hell couldn't point the countries out on a map. I just think it's a real pity how detached we've gotten and how despite that we think somehow we have the right to tell other people how to live. It's childish, and I totally understand the frustration people feel towards us as a country.
Getting away from that .... I hope that I get back into Moscow soon, because I've read all the books I bought the other day. I'm to my last book, and I'm 1/3 of the way through now! If I finish this before I'm better and have to wait to find out what happens now I will seriously cry bitter black emo tears of acid. Again, being a bit melodramatic... sorry. Hoping my day today is my last I will have to suffer through breathing during! Wish me luck so that maybe tonight my body can finally kick this abomination's behind and get me healthy again! Take care all, hope you had an awesome day!
No comments:
Post a Comment