Do svidaniya

Should have found and posted this the day I left Russia. So fitting.

до свидания

via

Home again, home again

For those who haven't heard, the Kiev trip was less than stellar. The best way I can sum it up is in one particular experience: the electrichna, or electric train. It had plush seats, so we figured its overnight ride wouldn't be that bad. But the seats were back to back, and didn't recline. The frost on the windows extended to really being just lots of frost on the seats. That we were sitting on. And we were sitting by the doors, which couldn't lock and slid open and closed all night so we had snow hitting us in the face. And I didn't even get to sit with Seve. Instead I sat the whole ride next an old man who farted the whole time.

Le sigh.

But Kiev really was a beautiful, amazing city. And we were able to visit Lutsk, which I liked even better. I even made some pen pals.

Also, I started my job this week! To put my duties plainly: write scripts for ads, create flyers, design brochures, write customer case studies, look up 100 trade shows to attend this year, create a Big Idea for our sponsored baseball event in June, create PR buzz for our official release of . . . shh! It's a secret. On a funnier note, I also update the Twitter, our official Blog, and maintain the Facebook.

Coming back to America has been a big whirlwind, though.

TOP 15 OF 2009.

Did you know that I wrote this post on December 13? That's right, I'm using Blogger's scheduled post feature. Since I'll be traveling to Kiev then flying back to America during the time I would have been able to publish this post, I wrote it now and scheduled it to be published later. You know, to make the topic more relevant since it's a New Year's Eve-y post and all.

So, as the title suggests, here is my summation of my top 15 favorite/best/life changing things/moments/stuffs of 2009! (in no particular order) Happy New Year!

1. Russia

Duh! I only spent 4 months of the year here teaching English to some awesome kids with my awesome husband having the most awesome time of my awesome life!

2. St. Vincent's "Actor"

Particularly "Laughing with a Mouth of Blood;" the song is much more lighthearted than the title suggests.

3. This Blog

Prior to starting this thing, I wasn't even writing in my journal anymore because all my writing juices were going towards school and/or career aspirations. It's good to have an outlet. Ironically, one of my school and/or career aspirations sucking my writing juices away was Outlet.

4. Marrying Seve

This actually happened on Dec 27, 2008, but I didn't get to post it in my "TOP 15 OF 2008!" because such a list was never written because this blog didn't exist yet (see #3). Also, it's in the "TOP 15 OF MY LIFE!" so why not include it in this list since the happy event occurred a mere five days before 2009?

5. Graduating

Finally! Anyone else feel like school never ends? Because I'm here to tell you that it does. I should also note here: working as a copy editor for the Scroll was an excellent part of 2009.

6. Getting a Job

The whole point of my school existence. Dreams! Fulfilled! (It's actually a paid internship with the potential to be a full-time job once my four months end) Dreams! Nearly! Fulfilled!

7. Spokane, WA

More specifically, the advertising competition I attended there with my team for the American Advertising Federation. We got third! Yeah!

8. Bad Haircut

No, really. Taught me a lot about having confidence in who I am on the inside.

9. My Apartment

Though I wish I could put "getting a dog" here, my apartment won't allow pets. But honestly, I think we have the coolest place in Rexburg. It's a 100 year old building and we live in what used to be the presidential suite (Eleanor Roosevelt once stayed there). It has a rock wall and the last tenant gave it an excellent paint job so it's all artsy, and it has a balcony. Oh, and we can afford it.

10. Idaho

This place seriously goes underappreciated.

11. Animal Collective's "Merriweather Post Pavilion"

Such a romantic album. No, really, I mean that. First Animal Collective album where the lyrics actually speak to me.

12. Book Arts

Did I ever tell you I took a class on how to make books?

13. Bat For Lashes "Two Suns"

By the end of the day, this is always what I'm listening to.

14. Longboarding

Anyone who knows me knows I was born without an athletic bone in my body. Thanks to Seve, I now have at least five athletic bones in my body, i.e., he taught me how to longboard (and slide!) and I ain't so bad at it.

15. Celia & Joe

You know who you are.

I just realized how awesome it is that I wrote this Dec 13 and it will be published Dec 31. It's a number switcheroo! Ha!

Coming to America

Flight leaves from Kiev on Dec 22 at 5:35 a.m.

Flight arrives in Chicago on Dec 22 at 10:25 a.m.

This flight is not five hours long, people! I'm crossing the Atlantic!

I'm traveling backwards in time.

Sad and happy at the same time.

Volunteers fly out tomorrow in the early a.m. I miss them already. Feels empty and lonely here without their laughter filling my apartment. I don't care how cheesy that sounds.

Taking a break from packing. We leave tomorrow for our romantic trip to Kiev! With like, two massive suitcases each. It'll be pretty sexy lugging those around everywhere we go. But worth it? Yes.

Today.

Today it's -6˚ Fahrenheit. My daily Russian routine calls for a lot of outdoor walking. My body was so numb I felt like I was on fire.

Today was also the second to last day of school. I'm going to miss these kids so much! Fedya was too nervous to say his line in the Christmas skit (called the "Spectacle" in Russia) and got this red pouty face while Liza, next to him, kept repeating the line for him so he'd finally say it. They're both four; so cute!

Cuz' it's an American holiday, that's why!

Totally cool poster by totally cool St. Petersburg artist for some totally cool shopping.

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving!

From Russia.

Now, now

In the list of my top five fav musical acts, St. Vincent definitely has a firm place.



Our new volunteer arrived Friday! Now the whirlwind that has been Head Teaching and taking the place of a regular teacher will hopefully die down.

We only have one month left here . . . that's sad, yet exciting, to think about. Sad because I'll miss Russia of course; exciting because it's a new chapter of my life with Seve. The "married for whole year already" chapter, the "finally graduated and getting a real job to put Seve through school and food on the table" chapter. But then again, I'm really loving the "party in Russia!" chapter. Alright, no more book metaphor.

What Kind of Blog Are You?

Having such a late teaching schedule, coming home each night Seve and I are exhausted with not much incentive to go out. Not as much as we used to, anyway. A lack of funds in the bank also keeps us in more often since Moscow is on a comparable scale of expensivness to Tokyo. And we just spent a pretty penny going out each night in St. Petersburg . . .

What I'm trying to say is: I've had a lot of time to read lately.

In the previous entry I stated I'm more into reading "what's going on now?" mediums than curling up with a Bronte classic. Aside from my usual news outlets, recently I've been into the blogging world. Discovering my friends' blogs has been like finding their diaries left open in their rooms, only not as peeping Tom-ish since they're holding the bedroom door wide open and offering me to take a peek.

Here are some types of blogs I've come across, without reference to any of the actual friends' blogs I've been reading:

1. The Mormon-Mommy Blog, seen at its best here and at its most satirized here. These things have picked up in popularity and almost seem like a requisite process for young LDS newlywed females everywhere after the honeymoon has ended. Posts about crafts, cooking, summer fun, IKEA, moving in, and "loving life" are frequent. Side-bar baby tickers, scripture/general authority quotes, Etsy shops and layouts that look like scrapbooking pages help to distinguish these blogs right away. Being Mormon myself, these blogs make me feel at home and alienated at the same time. Maybe because I grew up nowhere near Utah?
2. The Fashionista Blog, explored here, here, and here. These things either have a "OMG looky!" tone or an artistic might-as-well-be-speaking-in-whispers tone. Or they're just written in mimics of the editorials the writers themselves read in their "glossies." Some have clean, white layouts (another "glossy" mimic) while others have antique wallpaper backgrounds. The layouts reflect the style of the authors themselves, which range from avant-garde to 1940's pining with various Forever21 looks in between. Either way, be prepared for 3-10 photographs per entry of the author in various modelesqe poses and descriptions of what they're wearing/where they bought it. And lots of references to designers only the Milan elite, and, well, they care about.
3. The Job Blog, seen here and here. These are the kind that come to mind when one says "blog". Authors write about their day to day lives, including anecdotes here and there and photos where appropriate. Namely these showcase the projects they're working on, and inspiration for those projects via a playlist or another artist's work. These are blogs owned by businesses, individual artists, musicians, or novelists, etc. These are the blog norm, and are true to the idea that blogs are in fact public and do not need to include any deeply personal details about the author. In fact, they never get any deeper than the kind of content one would use in basic conversation. Just enough information to satisfy a fan, usually.
4. The Suicide Blog, which I won't provide a reference for because I'd dread an author ever finding out I named it this. These were more popular in my teen years, because all my teen friends had one, including me. These are teen angsty, include a lot of song lyrics, poorly written poetry, and aspirations for NaNoWriMo. They are bipolar in that the authors jump from overly happy posts of mall purchases to overly dramatic posts of break-ups and bad grades. The sadness of these blogs is that the authors have grown up, and are still blogging. Entries that once dealt with a bad day at school now confide to readers tales of bad marriages, debt, and depression that oftentimes carries suicidal undertones. These blogs are treated like real diaries, with entries that make the audience uncomfortable with the details offered, or open up the author to mockery by less kind readers.
5. The Editorial Blog, here and here. If you really think about it, there are two kinds of blogs out there: those that reveal the author, and those that don't. Either you're writing about yourself or you're writing about something else, as in you're writing as if the blog is a column. These blogs are informative, sometimes written by multiple authors and focus on one topic such as music, art, video games or baking with squash. More exciting are the witty, mysterious, one-liner and/or mini-story blogs. Personality is found only in the writing style itself, gender/age/location is a tossup, and no profile pages or about-me sections exist so your computer may as well have generated the posts. But when these blogs pick up in popularity, book deals usually bring these authors into the public eye.

Did you notice my use of Blogspot's handy numbered-bulleting feature? Mm hmm.

Of course, these are only a few, and don't include the whopping majority of the blogosphere: the "My name is Ed and I just did a buttload-o-laundry today!" blog; the blogging style 11 out of 10 bloggers normally use. Something similar to Blog #3 only written by the average Joe, the you and the me. Sometimes accompanied by a "currently listening to/reading/craving/watching/grinding" status. Personally, I'd like to be more like Blog #3, and worry that I've become too much like Blog #5 while looking like Blog #2. I didn't even mention the blogs out there written by celebrities pretending to be someone else, which is how some writers got their celebrity start to begin with (see: Diablo Cody).

I grew up blogging. I've had all kinds of blogs, and thanks to the great storage closet that is the Internet, they are all still out there somewhere to be read by anyone desperate enough to find them. Where I'm trying to steer this post is to the fact that the blog I currently, well, blog in, doesn't reveal a lot of me aside from my quirky thoughts and big-A pictures. Because no one ever did read those other blogs I wrote, and for the first time in my blogging life, I want to be read.

Anyone who knows me personally knows I already have an upfront "here I be in Moscow" blog for family that borderlines Blog #1. But I don't feel like it's me writing in it so much as it's me explaining life in Russia to my Grandmas.

So, what I'm trying to say is, I'd like to reveal more of the real me in this blog. And until any of the photos I snap of me and my husband reach a good, desirable lomo quality, that just might happen.

Everyone's got sweet shoes here

My husband and I are visiting St. Petersburg this week. While on our way to the Russian Museum and St. Isaac's Cathedral (ha, yeah!) we exited the wrong end of our metro stop and found neither. No worries, we ventured and explored and found a hipster junk-made-into-stuff store. They sold clocks made out of bicycle parts, knitted dolls, earrings made out of single kopecks (that, ironically, cost 7000 kopecks) and a computer-keyboard guitar.

Think of a regular keytar, only instead of a musical keyboard it's the kind you're currently typing on. All the employees had asymmetrical haircuts and some not-quite-techno, not-quite-folk music was playing. I tell ya, this is the Russia that tugs on my heartstrings. More on that later. Also, we saw that awesome new Michael Jackson film. Also, I'm excited to see Whip It when I get back to the States. Catch the tie-in? Oh, so witty.

$34?

Sometimes I wake up in the night and think "Holy smokes! Where am I?" and have to remind myself I'm in Russia and all my peeps are in America wide awake doing American things. Sometimes I'm wide awake at noon and think "Holy smokes! This place is expensive," and have to remind myself I'm in Russia and all my peeps are in America where leggings cost $4.50 like they should.

Maybe Frankenstien? Or a Mime? Zombie? Minnie Mouse?

I needs a Halloween costume.

Ghouls

My little Russian children are so funny. This is a fact I sometimes don't grasp until after teaching. Not as in, "teaching is so NUTS I just can't laugh whilst teaching" but as in I'm so absorbed with keeping the lesson on track I sometimes forget the funnyhahaness that comes with a language barrier.

Today during class Dasha accidentally spilled her water all over the October calendar I made for the month. I spent a long time on that thing, so my spirits dampened right along with the newly droopy drippy ghosts that graced that thing. Before I could let my disappointment show, the rest of the kids beat me to it. After a moment of shock, Elina uttered "No . . . the October . . ." and Senya whispered "Halloween . . . " as if the accident erased the holiday itself. Dasha started this very dramatic-for-a-7-yr-old silent and teary cry, face glowing red and head in her hands, so I gathered everyone in to give her a group hug while we mourned the loss of our favorite month.

Only now do I realize how funny that was. Ha! "The October . . ."

More cute news: world's most stylish bunny

A Matter of Taste

I have a deep, passionate, disemboweling appreciation for Animal Collective. And by that I just mean they're pretty cool and I like to play their tunes every once in a while, especially their latest album.

I love living in Moscow but sometimes I feel like I'm in the Great & Spacious Building. Stuff is a top priority out here. The scent of materialism is thick and foggy. This gloomy, glittery city echoes high heel clacks off of St. Basil's. I feel sorry for the rest of the Russian Federation.


Article for some lite reading: Keeping up with the Joneskis.


am I really all the things that are outside of me?
would I complete myself without the things I like around?