Russians have a word (“trevoga”) for the spiritual qualms that you experience before traveling until you’re safely seated on your train/plane seat. I call it stress. Whatever it is, I feel it. The day of our departure, I went straight from classes to my internship, and then straight to choir rehearsal, leaving early around 8 [...]
Posts Tagged ‘WiFi’
Spring Break (Day 1): ‘Trevoga’ redeemed in U.U.
Posted: March 28, 2010 in Far East (Spring)Tags: Buryatia, cold, datsan, friends, guide book, hotel, Irish, jungle animal, Lenin, Lenin head, museum, тревога, трудность, Russian MTV, Snow, Sovietism, train, WiFi
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Berlin: Prices, spirits, and thumbs–up, up & up (Jan 7-9)
Posted: January 17, 2010 in Germany, Winter TravelTags: "complimentary", AirBerlin, Berlin, Berlin Wall, Brandenburg Gate, breakfast, Checkpoint Charlie, currywurst mit ketchup, free press, gypsies, Holocaust Memorial, hostel, Jewish Museum, Meininger Hostel, museum, passport control, Reichstag, spankings, WiFi
Bottom line: I love Berlin. Or maybe it’s just Europe. Or maybe it’s just not-Russia. Even though spending in the Euro zone is excruciating painful when a simple bottled water at 1,50 EUR really means 2+ American buckeroo’s, I’ve come back to the (more) capitalist system with a new (and happy) acceptance of inflated prices [...]
Moscow: Dictators, authors & theatre critics (Jan 5-7)
Posted: January 17, 2010 in Russia, Winter TravelTags: big bell, big cannon, Bulgakov, departure, fooling the Kremlin, Gogol, holiday, house museum, Inspector General, Kremlin, Lenin, Moscow, museum, Novodevichy Cemetery, Russian Christmas, theatre, Tolstoy, waxy figures, WiFi
Jan 5. State power day. Woo! Filled with a late breakfast (usually the broiled potatoes Ryan had made, long-overdue Honey Nut Cheerios with milk and OJ–simple delights I hadn’t had in months), I arrived at Kremlin walls just after 12 noon, where the line to see Lenin’s Mausoleum (free) was being told that they probably [...]
Holiday: Christmas and Y2K+10
Posted: January 9, 2010 in Иркутск, Holidays & Tradition, Winter TravelTags: 5 minutes, Christmas, cold, friends, holiday, impromptu decorations, Kazanskaya station, Midnight mass, Moscow, New Years, Red Square, The London Pub, tradition, Trans-Siberian, WiFi
Wrapping up the end of a semester, year, and decade in Russia came with a few idiosyncrasies, challenges, and definite high points. Hardest of all was being away from family and friends in the comfort of my grandparents’ living rooms, wishing that my Christmas and New Year’s could be white. But, the trade-off turned out [...]
