If they made shirts that said “I <3 Chita,” I would buy one and wear it all the time. ‘NICE’ & ‘TRAIN’. Two words that up to now I hadn’t considered being utterable in the same sentence. Nevertheless. The train was nice (that is, from Ulan-Ude to Chita). Relatively speaking, of course. Yes, the Russian [...]
Posts Tagged ‘food’
Spring Break (Days 2-3): Chita rocks
Posted: March 31, 2010 in Far East (Spring), Out of TownTags: Assumption Cathedral, Baskin Robbins, Chita, daylight savings time, Decembrists, food, huge green tube, Jerusalem, Lenin, museum, Siberian culture, Sovietism, Subway, train, Ukranian cuisine
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Where bananas are cold and green
Posted: February 5, 2010 in ИркутскTags: babushki, bananas, cold, food, host family, mayonnaise, Sovietism
The somatic triggers of late-winter rain’s smell and the gymnastics of skipping over the slush-puddles of Prague got spring on my mind a few weeks ago. The disappointing irony of the fact is that I’ve returned to the hard freeze of winter in Irkutsk. Night temps are comfortably below -30 deg. C. and not going [...]
Moscow: 10 million plus one in 2010 (Jan 1-4)
Posted: January 16, 2010 in Russia, Winter TravelTags: bad omens, Brad Pitt in Russian, Catholic church shopping, Church of Christ the Savior, food, friends, garish monuments, Georgian food, House on the Embankment, Izmailovskii market, Mondays, Moscow, museum, Peter the Great, phones, police, Russian champagne, shopping, Silent Night, Tretyakov, Tsereteli
Moskva. Bottom line: my feet hurt. Yes, great metro and bus system, but stepping out of every metro station and glancing around would hardly give a traveller the right idea of the city. Thus, walking can’t be done without, and so, walk I did. Jan 1. And the decade begins. Streets quiet (except for the [...]
Tradition: ‘It’s Happy Thanksgiving’
Posted: November 26, 2009 in Иркутск, Holidays & TraditionTags: Buryatian hymn, cold, culture shock, food, friends, poultry, Prelutsky, Russian pumpkins, Thanksgiving, tradition, Waldorf salad
“. . . Thanksgiving, hooray! / We’re going to dinner / at Grandma’s today,” is the little stanza from Jack Prelutsky’s collection of Thanksgiving-related children’s poetry that I end up recalling every year about this time. Obviously, I’m in Russia, and obviously, in Russia, American national holidays are not observed. So this year was a [...]
Week 8: Mongolia, Home-stay 1
Posted: November 7, 2009 in Mongolia (Fall)Tags: Bulgan Province, cold, culture shock, dairy products, food, horses, jumping-jacks, matches, Mongolian language, motorcycles, nomads
Day 4-5 (Tues.-Wed., Oct. 27-28): Out on the Mongolian steppe Nomad hospitality. A mentally tumultuous hour after our arrival in Sansar, Bulgan Province, we were received into our first ger. Climbing out of the jeep with our stuff, the mother and daughter, having come out to greet us, helped us get our stuff inside the [...]
Week 8: Mongolia, Day 2
Posted: November 3, 2009 in Mongolia (Fall)Tags: datsan, food, German Opera, monastery, Mongolia, museum, pizza & coke, survival, The English, train
Day 2 (Sun., Oct. 25): 22 steps to a [pick-your-adjective] day in UB City 1. Know that UB City is the somewhat gangsta’ name for Ulaan Baator so that you can feel hip and cool in conversations about the capital of Mongolia. Facts: 1.5 million people of Mongolia’s 2.5 million population live in UB. UB [...]
Week 8: Mongolia, Night 0.5 and Day 1
Posted: November 2, 2009 in Mongolia (Fall)Tags: 350.org, Canadians, fellow foreigners, food, Mongolia, museum, Naushki, packing, passport control, rest, sugar, train
The saga of my trip with Romany to not-Russia, almost-Far-East Asia begins. To sum it up, and in honor of Asia, I’ll even compose a little haiku (with full knowledge that the haiku is, in fact, not a Mongolian poetry form). Train across the steppe. UB. Camels. Really far. Russia seems better. Publishable almost, right? [...]
English town (Russian lessons included)
Posted: October 20, 2009 in Иркутск, Student LifeTags: culture shock, English, food, friends, Russian lessons, taxi rides, translation
Speaking English in Russia is weird. I don’t do it often, namely, talking on the phone or Skype with people back home, and writing emails/blog updates. But being in the whole “immersion” experience for so long, when asked/required to switch to English, you’re really pushed off balance. A few places to watch out for. . [...]
ALERT: Ice cream stands of Irkutsk discovered
Posted: October 8, 2009 in ИркутскTags: cold, dairy products, food, frozen goods, happy luck
Wow. On my quick run to a kiosk for a notebook, I purchased, for the great price of 10 rubles (33 cents), about an 8 oz. cup made out of ice cream cone stuff, filled with the best tasting cookies and cream ice cream I’ve ever had. Maybe not ever. But wow. Amazing stuff. Unfortunately [...]
