Russian food and other noms

That thing kinda looks like canned kraken......

For those of you who are wondering, no, my food doesn't look like this.  I haven't even run across it yet.  And no, I'm not eating fancy caviar (or any, for that matter).  Nor am I drinking copious amounts of vodka.  However, despite what Yulia Georgievna thinks of my eating habits, I do eat food here.  And it's good.

For the most part.

Scary canned kraken aside......

A while ago Kevin posted a Buzzfeed article on my Facebook wall about odd Russian foods the natives grew up with.  Coming to Russia, a little part of me was freaking out that my food here was gonna be this list and ONLY this list.  Yikes!  This is not the case, though I have actually eaten/drunk some of what's on that list.  Here's a look at what I actually eat here in Russia.

WARNING - if the canned kraken didn't kill your appetite, the following foods might make you hungry.  You should probably grab a snack and keep it handy while you read.  I just ate dinner and this is making me hungry.  You have been warned.

First off, the food......

Пирожки

Dinner roll + filling + Russia = AMAZING

One of my favorites here is pirozhki.  Think rolls or pastry dough stuffed with whatever.  Common pirozhki fillings are cabbage and mushrooms (с капустой и грибами), meat (с мясом), and fruits such as apples (с яблоками).  Yulia Georgievna has made them once, and they were wrapped in filo dough.  It was great, except she made meat ones and cabbage ones and insisted I try each both hot and cold.  Too much food, but so good.


Also pirozhki roughly translates as "mini pies".


Блини

Mmmmmmm om nom nom

Blini are somewhere inbetween a pancake and a crepe.  Like pirozhki, you can wrap any kind of filling in them, or eat them plain.  Yulia Georgievna cooks like Paula Deen, so the blini here at my homestay tend to be very buttery.  They can be thicker - closer to pancakes - and are often filled with what tastes kinda like cream cheese.  Or they can be thin - like crepes - and super light and easy to wrap around things.  Always, blini is served with a side of Russian sour cream.  I hate sour cream in the States - I think it's revolting on its own - but the sour cream here is sweeter and I don't mind it as much if it's in small quantities.  

In my opinion, the crepe-like blini taste best less buttery and with a little bit of honey drizzled on it.  Mmmm.

This week is Maslenitsa (yay!!), so EVERYONE is eating blini.  Yulia made meat-stuffed blini on Monday and today made the wicked thin crepe-like blini.  It was served with some sort of pickled fish, which I didn't like, so I ate mine with a little bit of the sour cream and wrapped them around some fresh cucumbers and red peppers.  It was pretty good, though again with the Paula Deen cooking and my hands covered in butter.

Side note: Maslenitsa (Масленица) is a festival the week before Lent starts, celebrating the end of winter and the return of the sun.  Kinda like the Russian equivalent of Mardi Gras (but not quite).  There is copious amounts of blini to be eaten, visiting relatives spontaneously, playing in the snow (that winter thing that St. Petersburg doesn't have because it's 40 degrees out right now), supposedly a day where the guys go out on the frozen river and pummel each other, and just generally celebrating the inevitable end of winter.

So yeah.  Blini and Maslenitsa.  Fun times in Russia.


Mayo on EVERYTHING

Dun dun duuuuuuuuuun

This seems to be a staple of Russian cooking, and for the life of me, I can't understand WHY.  90% of the food here comes with mayo on it, in it, or on the side.  I've been here for almost a month and it still kinda grosses me out how much mayo sneaks into the food.

Take, for example, this terrifying salad.

Frightening, no??

According to Yulia Georgievna, yes, this is a salad.  I watched her make it and it wasn't the worst thing I've eaten in my life, but I probably won't willingly eat it again.  In Yulia Georgievna's recipe, the bottom layer is shredded potatoes.  Followed by some mayo, spread around.  Next comes some pickled herring, sliced in small chunks and fairly well drained.  Then some shredded carrots and more mayo.  After the carrots come the minced onions, and even more mayo.  And then some shredded beets.  With more mayo.  I swear, she emptied half the bag of mayo making one of these in a 4 x 4 square container (the condiments all come in pouch bags here, not jars or bottles).  Half the regular salads here are smothered in mayo, not just the herring salad.  I just can't.  Mayo is definitely not my thing.


Бутерброд

Just look at that sandwich......so tasty.  Очень вкусно

Yes, there are sandwiches here.  Where do you think I live, Siberia??  We here in St. Petersburg are civilized folk.

......at the very least, sandwiches are still a thing here.  But not for lunch.  In Russia, booterbrote/sandwiches are frequently open-faced and have cheese or butter on them with some sort of meat and often some lettuce on them.  Every morning, Yulia Georgievna sets out a small bowl of cornflake-like cereal and the fixings for a sandwich.  Usually it's cheese, ham or kielbasa, and lettuce.  She tried to exert the Paula Deen cooking, but having both cheese AND butter on my sandwich is a bit much.  Especially for breakfast, where I don't eat much anyway - mornings are too early, regardless of whether I got up at 6:30am or 10am.


Котлеты

Every time I hear someone say this word, I hear a "k" in there.  So I always thought it was "kotletki".  Ah well..

Kotleti is kinda like a meatball, except it can stand on its own and doesn't need all those noodles and sauce to go with it.  Unlike meatballs in America, these are big and don't have that same almost bready texture to them.  They're more like a homemade burger ball, though they're definitely easier to cut through, and most of the kotleti I've had has been ground chicken, not ground beef.  They make those too, and kotleti made of ground fish as well.

At Smolney, a typical lunch ends up as kotleti and macaroni.  Sadly, the school kotleti is more of a meat blob than a tasty meatball, and it's practically inedible if I don't get it warm.  Frequently, the kotleti is lukewarm and the macaroni is stone cold.  Hooray for waiting in 20+ minutes in line for subpar cafeteria food.  Although from what I remember, cafeteria is usually pretty bad, so I shouldn't complain.

In addition to all this Russian food, my host mother found out that I like oranges.  Thus, Yulia Georgievna keeps the house stocked with them for desserts.  And speaking of dessert-y things, there is a lot of chocolate and chocolate-based things as dessert here.  Yes, I do count the hot chocolate I get at the cafe as dessert.  I have a soft spot for this snack that has a chocolate and honey filling in a cake-y/bread-y brick (it tastes kinda like the chocolate poptarts but looks kinda sketchy, so I just go around saying I eat the sketchy poptarts from the vending machine).  And you can all be jealous - if I get a craving for chocolate here, a Super Size candy bar (which has 2 FULL SIZE CANDY BARS in it) is $1.  Thank you, Russia.

Now for the drinks.....


Чай

It's pronounced chai, but it's actually tea.

Allow me to digress for a moment on an awesome linguistic note.  Tea originated in China.  That seems quite obvious, right??  The interesting thing is where the name came from in Russian and in English.  The British did most of their trade with Hong Kong and the southern part of China.  It was a primarily Cantonese-speaking region, and the word for this drink was pronounced tai - thus, we know this drink as tea.  The Russians traded with northern China, which was primarily a Mandarin-speaking region, and the word for this drink was pronounced chai.  Thus is tea called chai here.

Anyway, back to the point.  Russians drink a lot of tea.  And by a lot, I mean ALL THE TIME.  They drink more tea than the English do.

Such a proper spittake

It's true!!  I get home from school and I'm offered tea.  It's dinner - Caitie should be offered some tea.  Doing homework??  Clearly I need some tea.  My host mom has even tried to have a midnight tea party with me here, and while I love Yulia Georgievna, having black tea at midnight is not conducive to getting up for classes in the morning.  However, having tea with breakfast keeps me from completely dozing off in class.  Too bad I kinda look like this during breakfast......

It's morning.  You're saying words.  Stop that

Granted, I don't look much different than this when I get to school.  My brain is functioning, thanks to the tea, but at times I still look like the world confuses me greatly and every flat surface seems like a decent enough bed.

Сок

Sohk is essentially juice.  Not too hard, right??  I can't drink the tap water here, so I end up drinking an incredible amount of juice.  Bonus - most of the juices taste more fresh squeezed than their American counterparts.  It is delicious.  I think Yulia Georgievna makes some juice by hand, since there are labels that mark a specific year on the bottles around the house that don't match the juice that's inside them.  And then I go and buy vast quantities of juice at the store because hey! juice is cheap.  For $2.50 I can get 2.5 liters of juice (generally it's a 1.5 liter carton of multifruit cocktail and a 1 liter carton of another juice).  At the rate I'm drinking juice here, I'm going through 3-4 liters of juice a week.  It is that good.  And since the juice is sold in cartons and not fridged I keep it in my room (also not fridged).  If I want cold juice, I open my window and leave the carton on the windowsill for a bit.  Seems legit.


MISCELLANEOUS

I had no idea where to put this one, but it's very tasty.  My host mom makes it for breakfast sometimes and it's got pears and cream cheese and some sort of pseudo-marshmallow thing and egg yolks in it, with the egg whites poured over the top before it's put in the oven.  Kinda like a cross between a cheesecake and a quiche, but it tastes pretty good.  It is awesome and I haven't the faintest idea what it's called, so voila!!  Mystery Russian breakfast.

Clearly I'm not starving here in Russia.  There's plenty of food, plenty of drinks, and I haven't died from trying things yet!!  I make a point of trying everything I can, even if it looks gross or smells weird.  That's all that's asked of me here at my homestay - it's ok if I don't like something, as long as I try it first before deciding to never again touch such a thing.  So we'll see how things go from here.

Hopefully I didn't make you too hungry.  Also I must end this post because there is a cat on me and she displaced the laptop on my lap and it's kinda hard to type.  Also OWW claws.  Must go.

Love me??

Adventure Time!!

So yeah.  Russia.  It's not so bad, and it gets better by the day.  The weather's pretty constant with its grayness and lack of sunshine.  I'm not freezing to death here.  And I no longer look like the Michelin Man when I try to go out places from all the layers I need to wear.

5 layers?? No problem!!

I feel like a pro.  I'm on my study abroad, and I'm actually speaking the language and doing cool things.  And I feel like a success.  It's kinda awesome, to be honest.

So it turns out I have a ridiculous amount of free time here.  On the days I don't have class at 10am (and need to do battle in the metro to get to school alive) I can sleep in.  It's only an extra hour or two, but it feels SO GOOD to wake up later and not have to fear for my life as I go through the metro during rush hour as a human sardine.  Half the time, I get outta class sometime between 1pm and 3:30pm.  Generally, Yulia Georgievna has dinner ready within a half an hour of coming home or by 6:30pm, whichever comes first.  Thus I try to be home before 8pm.  Obviously.  I let her know what I'm up to so she isn't sitting in the kitchen stewing because she made a fabulous dinner and her ungrateful host child is off having shenanigans and waltzes in whenever she pleases.  The irony is that half the time I beat her husband home.  And he doesn't tell her what he's up to.  Thus, I CLEARLY love her more.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it

Oh.  Sorry.  Got sidetracked.  Yes, free time.  So I have a lot of it, between classes and things.  Also, if there are no excursions planned for the weekends I have absolutely nothing to do.  I could stay home and internet and watch Russian TV all day long.  I could sleep in and spend the day chatting with my host mom as she goes about her household chores and cooking.  I could dip into my stash of emergency chocolate, pour myself some of my awesome multifruit juice and watch a movie.

Or I could spend my weekends on awesome adventures!!  This is St. Petersburg, the cultural capitol of Russia.  Of course there are fun things to do during my free time.  Here are a few of the cool things I've done so far.

Church of the Savior on the Spilled Blood

Also known as Spas na krovi (Спас на крови).  No, the name does not actually refer to Jesus Christ.  Or any other religious figure, for that matter.  This church was built in honor of Tsar Alexander II.  He was a huge reformer here in Russia and had had many attempts on his life by extremist groups during his time as tsar.  He was mortally wounded by one of the canals here in St. Petersburg, and thus did a great man pass away.  His successor and son, Alexander III, had the church built on the spot where his father was assassinated.  Inside the church is a little wooden shrine with a plaque where Alexander II was wounded.

Alexander II's shrine

It looks really tiny compared with the rest of the cathedral.  But then again, orthodox cathedrals are built without pews (everyone stands during services, with the exception of the sick and the elderly, who have benches provided for them along the walls).  They seem giant to begin with.

Cool thing about Spas na krovi - everything is done in mosaic tile.  The decorative detailing on the outside is all mosaic.

All that detailing done in little colored tiles

Every inch of the walls and ceilings inside is covered in mosaic tiles, too. 

Yeah, the pics aren't great. But look at that art

Every important moment in Christianity is documented on the walls of Spas na krovi.  Just being in there is super overwhelming.  Such beautiful art.

St. Isaac's Cathedral

At St. Isaac's, there are two things you can do.  The main part of the cathedral is a museum.  Of what, I'm not quite sure.  I didn't go for the museum.  No, I went to St. Isaac's with my friends to climb to the top of the cathedral and see the breathtaking views of St. Petersburg from one of the tallest cathedrals in Europe.

The city just stretches on as far as the eye can see, in all directions

And the views are gorgeous.  It was quite a trek to get up to the top.  My ticket let me in a side door that immediately became a set of stone spiral stairs.  Not so bad.  I climbed the Arc de Triomphe's stairs years ago and that was no problem.  Surely this would be the same.

The climb wasn't that bad.  Whoever thought it was a good idea to spraypaint the number of stairs to go before you reach the top - kudos to you.  It made me laugh, even as I puffed up the stairs.  It's a tall cathedral.

200 steps total. 180 to go

While at the top of St. Isaac's, my friends and I wanted a picture of us all.  Thinking as Russian students, we asked someone on the landing if they would take our picture.  Turns out the guy we asked was from England.  Well then.  In retrospect, we probably should've seen that coming - St. Isaac's is a tourist destination.  There's a better chance we'd run into an English speaker than a Russian speaker, especially on a weekend.


Also some idiot tried to jump the railing to take a picture on the actual roof.  The railing comes up to the bottom of my rib cage, and I am pretty short (fun sized, really).  For a normal guy, that's below the waist, which makes it a cinch to hop the railing.  He was braced against it facing back onto the platform for his friend to take the picture.


And then the loudspeaker erupted in a string of angry Russian.


Like all tourist spots in buildings, the Russians have St. Isaac's under close watch.  Usually there is a monotonous recording about the view, the building, the museum in the main cathedral, please buy all our useless gift shop stuff.  When the guy hopped the railing, the recording became background noise as another guy came on and yelled at the tourist to get back on the railing.  Too bad the tourist himself didn't speak Russian and had no idea all that shouting was aimed at him.  My friends and I, trying to be good people and wave him back onto the landing, had to translate the message for him.


I'm not entirely sure why he needed to jump the railing to get a picture.  I mean, c'mon.  The view's great just standing on the landing

The entire mainland, stretched out behind me

And see??  Totally don't look like the Michelin Man anymore.

Piano Cafes

"Please play"

Yes, this is a thing here.  And it is awesome.  Some of the bars and cafes have upright pianos in a corner so that musicians can serenade the patrons as they smoke their cigarettes and drink copious amounts of tea.  The cafes and bars are not too expensive, though the only thing I have for comparison is tea and hot chocolate - which, the hot chocolate is actual melted bars of chocolate (and it is FABULOUS).

The first one I went to was a bar called The Music Roof (Музыка крыш).  It's not too far from the metro station where I switch lines, though it took my friend and I an age and a half of walking in circles around the block to find it.  This bar had a stage with a piano and a guitar or two leaning against the wall.  We were so awkward, trying to ask the bartender if we could play.  I completely forgot the beginning of my piece, and I have none of my sheet music here with me in St. Petersburg, so I started in the middle and played one of my favorite songs.

To my absolute shock, the bar started applauding when the last notes faded away.  Some lady in the back even yelled "YOU PLAY BEAUTIFULLY" ("Вы играете красивая!"), which made me grin.  My friend and I ordered tea to drink so we weren't mooching off the bar for their musical equipment, but the owner liked our playing so much that he gave us our tea for free.

Chuck Norris approves

The second place I went to was a cafe called Coffee in the Kitchen (Кофе на кухня).  It's marketed as a vegetarian friendly cafe, this tiny little place a couple metro stops from mine.  But their upright was even better than The Music Roof, despite the alarming lack of room in the cafe.  And their hot chocolate was amazing.  I watched them pull out two 2 in. x 2 in. bars of dark chocolate and melt them right before my eyes.  I was desperately trying not to drool.  Definitely coming back here again.  Piano and hot chocolate??  Yes please!!

Playing music in a Russian cafe. I feel fancy

Bit by bit, I'm exploring the city more.  More adventures to come!!

That St. Petersburg Life

Now you know a little bit about my host family.  They're still feeding me well - Yulia Georgievna calls me her little bird because I don't eat enough, in her opinion (she thinks I should eat like a 17 year old boy).  Last night was very American, with chicken nuggets and mashed potatoes that Ben would die for (yes, they were that good).  But beyond my host family, how much do you know about Russia and the daily routine of living here in St. Petersburg??


Probably not much.  Almost definitely not much.


Let me share with you my life as a St. Petersburg resident.

More stories!!!

So again, I live on Vasilievsky Island.  It's waaaaaaaaaay away from my school - across the mainland, over the bridge, and across almost the entire island, to be exact.  Obviously, walking's out.  There's no way I'm walking for an age and a half to get to my destination, only to realize upon arrival that it's time to leave again to make it home for dinner.  The buses and marshrutkas (the communal taxi service) go places, but they're dependent on the traffic.  Think New York City in rush hour, but with Boston drivers and no pedestrian laws.  You take life into your own hands trying to cross the street - I'm not gonna trust my life to street transportation when the cars act like the metro during rush hour, jockeying for position and barely scraping by just to be an inch or two ahead.  Thus, I take the metro everywhere.

It doesn't look so bad, right??

My apartment complex is built like a fortress.  To get out, I don my multiple layers of clothes, coats, gloves, hats, and my ski jacket and unbolt the door, relocking it behind me.  Now in the hallway, there's a big door about 30ft in front of me.  Turn the knob a couple times to unbolt it and push it open.  This thing looks like it should be the door to a bunker or something, all dark metal and incredibly heavy.  Make sure it clangs shut and turn a second key a couple times to make sure it bolts again.  Take the elevator down to the ground floor and exit through another repurposed bunker door.  But wait, then I'm just on a street in the apartment complex.  It takes another key at a gate to get free and walk out onto the street.  Such an ordeal.

Once again, this is my building.  I took it from the street on my way to the metro one of the days I don't have to wake up ridiculously early for class.  And really, the entire street looks kinda like this building.  Tall, gray, kinda featureless.  Yeah.

Nothing too fancy.  There are some oddities here that I have yet to see in the States.


I mentioned Russian drivers earlier.  They have the most interesting parking policy here in St. Petersburg, and it is a great source of confusion and amusement as my friends and I walk places.


It's called "No parking?? No problem".

Amaze.  Such parking.  Wow.

I have seen soooooooo many cars here in my wanderings propped up on the curb, one wheel, two wheels, the entire car.  Today I went to hang out with a friend and we passed by a parking lot.  The spaces were all taken, so people just starting double and triple parking, literally wherever their car would fit.  Unfortunately, some poor guy was trying to get his car out back onto the street through gaps that barely let me through.  There's no pedestrian laws here, so some of the cars will drive on the sidewalk before finding that perfect place to park and forcing us walkers to tempt fate and oncoming traffic as we try to walk around.


Second thing St. Petersburg has, which is also on my way to the metro.  We have 24 hour flower shops here.

Yes.  Flower shops.  24 hour everything is pretty big here in St. Petersburg - I'm not entirely sure if it's because once the river thaws the bridges go up at night and stranded people need a place to go or because Russians are complete night owls - but I still don't understand why a flower shop needs to be open 24 hours a day.  I asked Mihail, my conversation professor, and he said "Well, what if it's 3am and you need flowers??  You run down to the flower shop and say I NEED FLOWERS and you will get some and bring them home."  But but but Mihail, what the hell do you need flowers for at 3am?!!  And why can't it wait until morning??  This confuses me.


Anyway, I get around here by metro.  Plain and simple.  And you know what??  The St. Petersburg metro system puts the DC metro and the Boston T to shame.  Absolute shame.  Trains here run every 2-3 minutes constantly from open to close, and there's a clock on each side to tell you how much time has passed since the last train left the station.  And the metro is PRETTY.

It is clean.  It is efficient.  A lot of them have plaques and statues and stained glass and things adorning the walls.  What does DC and Boston have??  A lot of grime and a lingering smell of latrines.


Also, my metro stop is one of the LEAST decorated metro stops I've seen here in St. Petersburg so far.  Many of the others are much more ornate, with bright tiled walls and chandeliers and bronze carvings ranging from a simple fence of what looks like spears (at Ploshad Vosstaniya) to giant scenes of glory (like Alexander Nevsky's victory towering over metro riders at the Ploshad Alexander Nevskovo station).


So this is my route to school, essentially.  Every morning, in darkness ranging from pitch black to dull and dreary, I walk from my apartment to the metro.  Depending on the time of day (or the level of darkness, whichever scale you prefer), I may or may not be sardined by a teeming mass of snappily dressed people.  The closest metro stop to my school is a 20 minute walk away from Smolney, so I have two choices.  I can wake up early and feel like I'm in a daze as I try to fight my way to the right metro stop and catch the program van to school.  Or, if I don't have early morning classes (and yes, 10am is "early morning" here, since it means my alarm goes off at 6:45am), I can walk down some streets and through a lovely park to get to school.


At some point I'll post about Smolney and the St. Petersburg State University and such.  There will be gorgeous pictures, perhaps the dour looking ladies who man the coat check, and just a general rant/gushing about my school here.  For now, it's midnight.  Time to catch some zzz's.

'Night everyone!!

My host family

Yes!  The post everyone's been waiting for.  The answer to the most burning questions, the ones I keep getting nagged to answer.


Where the hell do you live here in Russia??  Who are these people that are feeding you and giving you a place to stay??  How cold is it there??  This is Russia, how come your pictures don't have more snow in them??  Why aren't you wearing more layers, you're in RUSSIA for heaven's sake, you'll catch pneumonia if you don't bundle up.


Sheesh.


Let's see.....well, let me start with the most basic of things.  I live in St. Petersburg, the former capital of Russia.  It's waaaaaaay up north on the Baltic Sea, practically sitting on the border with Finland.

Just think of the big black dot as a You-Are-Here star

And indeed, according to Mihail, some St. Petersburg natives go grocery shopping across the border.  Cool yet crazy, right??  It was founded by Peter the Great, one of Russia's most fantastic rulers who pushed many good reforms through the government, lived in Amsterdam for a little over a year just to see what it was like to work as a commoner, used that knowledge to create Russia's first naval fleet, and brought Russia onto the global stage as a world power in her own right.

He also thought it was an ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT IDEA to build a castle in a swamp.

Seems legit

Yeah.  Everything here is on special pilings to make sure it doesn't get reclaimed by the marshland.  It does help the weather stay a bit warmer here (though everything is muddy and slushy all the time).  The winds blow west to east, and being a coastal city as well, not a whole lot of freezing cold comes our way here.  One of the Russians I talked to yesterday told me that I came at the wrong time and that we Americans know nothing of cold - don't we know it should be -22 here??  Thanks, we get it.  You're not big on us foreigners.  The weather now is not so bad, and it's been in the 30s for over a week, so shush.


So St. Petersburg, being built on the Neva River delta, is made up of a network of islands and a bit of the Russian mainland.  Here's a general overview of my new city.

Notice the little blue castle on the mainland by the river on the right??  That's Smolney - that's my school.


In the bottom left corner is a little dot labeled PULKOVO.  That is the airport I flew into.  Technically there are 3 airports here named Pulkovo (aptly named Pulkovo 1, 2, and 3).  Unfortunately for travelers, none of these terminals are anywhere near each other.  Pulkovo 1 and Pulkovo 2 are 6 kilometers away from each other.  I hope you're not connecting through St. Petersburg on your travels.....


Anyway, the big river that snakes along the right is the Neva River.  Currently it is frozen solid, and the water is a gross muddy brown color.  But hey, we can't drink the water anyway here.  It can be purple for all I care.  On the map towards the middle top there is an island connected by two bridges to the mainland.

This is Vasilievsky Island.  I live on the northwestern part of the island, right on the corner of one of those main roads.  It's a bit of a hike to get from here to school in the mornings, especially during rush hour, but it's not impossible.  And it's quite pretty, even in winter when everything's slushy and mucky and there's black ice everywhere.

We've even got kick-ass lighthouses

.......all I've got of the pretty parts of the island is the lighthouse.  There's more to it, and I saw it all on the bus tour the first few days I was here, but sadly my camera died before I could get more photographic proof.  You'll just have to take my word for it that my island can be pretty.

This is my home.  All residential buildings here in St. Petersburg are high rise apartment complexes.  From what I've heard, my family has quite a large apartment.  There are 3 rooms, a kitchen, a room for the toilet, and a room for the shower and sink and washing machine.  Yes, my bathroom is, in fact, TWO ROOMS.  Very European.  As for the other rooms, my host parents have a weird dynamic.  My host father has his own room right by the hallway door.  Most of the time he's in there with the light off either watching TV or coughing his way through sleep.  I swear that man is trying to drag his lungs out through his mouth.


Moving on.  My host mother has her own set of rooms, which are down the short hallway and across from my own room.  She has a combination living room and sitting room right off the hall.  I've only been in there twice, as it really isn't a common room for the apartment, but it's got a couch and some bookshelves and a couple photographs of her daughters and grandchildren.  Through that room is her bedroom.  From what I can see from my own doorway, it's got a bed somewhere out of sight, a TV, and a really comfy leather chair.

By the way, this is my host mother.  The wonderful Yulia Georgievna.

Юлия Георгиевна

Yulia is also completely in charge of the kitchen.  Unless she specifically tells you that things can be touched, hands off!!  Breakfast every morning is cereal and an open faced sandwich (bread, cheese, meat, lettuce) with tea.  Dinner is whatever she feels like making.  Usually I come home from school and dinner's ready within 45 minutes of when I walk in.  Every single time, I'm caught up doing something when dinner's ready, and when Yulia Georgievna says it's time for dinner, she means "drop whatever you're doing and come eat now".  All the host mothers seem to be that way, so ok then.  As long as I try each dish she makes, Yulia is happy.  And she's still trying to figure out what I can and can't eat (or more accurately, what I will and won't touch).  I keep some brick-like poptart things in my room for school snacks and in case I don't eat much for dinner, but that hasn't really been a problem yet.  Also she found out that I like oranges, so they magically appear - sliced! - right after dinner.

And then there's my room.  It's got a small TV, a little twin bed, a desk, two desk chairs, and an arm chair.  There's also a small corner closet that's surprisingly roomy (or maybe that's 'cause I didn't bring a whole lot of stuff with me) and a low bookshelf by the windows with a multi-volume set of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina in Russian (obviously).  Currently one of the desk chairs is moonlighting as a night stand.  Unfortunately, pictures are super frustrating here.  I cannot get a good shot of the place from any angle.  You'll just have to take my word for it that it's decent sized and comfy.

This is the best shot.  Behind is the closet and arm chair, on the right is the desk

With the poptart bricks I keep a stash of emergency chocolate and juice cartons in my closet.  Literally every time I find myself in a grocery store, I pick up another thing of juice.  Mostly multi-fruit cocktails, since those are like drinking the nectar of the gods, but anything besides plain water is nice.  And all the juices taste fresh squeezed - except for the orange juice.  That tastes like Sunny D.

This confuses me greatly

Also, just a note - none of these rooms are big by American standards.  Each room is smaller than the average dorm room at college, which is perfectly sized for a single person.


Also also note - the cat is trying to get in again.  She keeps kicking me off my furniture if she gets in the room.  Risi is VERY affectionate, but she has the most massive claws.  And her way of getting people's attention if they ignore her is to use those talons to bat at them.  If I am sitting on a chair or my bed and she manages to find her way in, inevitably Risi tries to jump on me.  Most of the time I can stand up and out of the way before she jumps, but then she's on my chair.  At perfect batting height.  And she complains loudly.  It's kinda funny - at least once a day, everyone in this apartment gives the cat a look and asks "What do you want??" ("Что ты хочишь?")

She is cute, though.

So yeah.  This is my host family.




Note: In an earlier post, I accidentally misspelled my host mother's patronymic.  All of the patronymics were blurring together the first few days, and saying Yulia Georgievna is still a mouthful at times, but yes.  It's Georgievna, not Grigorievna.  My apologies.