Australia, here I come. After a great month at home, during which time I got to go to not one, but TWO Laker games, see the inauguration of #44 while still on American soil, and relax with family and friends, I’m off for the second half of the gap year. And there’s been a few changes. The first big change is there will be no Jaime sightings on this page until China. He’ll be staying back to spend some more time with his family for a little longer. So I’ll be traveling most of this second half alone.
And the second biggest change, I present to you the addition of a brand new country into the gap year, drumroll please……. India! With Jaime and I going our separate ways for a time, I decided to shuffle the schedule around. So without further ado, here is the schedule for the second half.
Australia January 25th- February 18th
I’m spending the first six days in Melbourne, staying with a friend my parents made when they were Down Under a few years ago. I’m going to try to check out the Australian Open and explore Melbourne for a few days.
Then since Australia’s supposed to be about organic farming through WWOOF (Worldwide Workers On Organic Farms), I’ll be heading to an island off the coast of Melbourne for 10 days.
The farm in Melbourne: McLeod Eco Farm
I quote from the WWOOF Aus book: “This ‘lost island’ (70% of which is National Park) offers rare & beautiful flora & fauna, including the world’s largest koala population, the Eastern Australian Potoroo, 230 bird species, 600 plant varieties, 100 native orchids, mangrove & wetlands. You can learn all about and help develop our natural, self-sufficient certified Bio-dynamic system during daily work on our 222 ha organic farm. Work includes; harvesting, weeding, mowing, H/H duties, plus other accommodation and farm related jobs. Afterwards you can cycle, play golf, swim in our lake or stroll along our secluded beach, accommodation for up to 10 in clean, private rooms. Work best suited to hard working and cheerful adventurers and those would like to help make a difference.”
What they don’t mention about the “lost island” also known as the French Island are two interesting tidbits I picked up from Wikipedia. One, the population of the French Island as of a 2006 census- 89 people. Number two, uh, Wikipedia why don’t you take it from here? “Most koala populations on the mainland of Australia are affected by the Chlamydia disease. French Island provides the world's most dense and disease free population of koalas, with regular transfer of excess koalas to repopulate diseased areas on the mainland.”
Forget the national park on French Island. New tourist marketing angle: "89 people! Chlamydia-free koalas! Could it get any better?"
After I leave the farm, I’ll have six days to get to and explore Sydney. I plan on either taking the 12 hour Greyhound bus, or the 3 day backpacker’s bus called the Oz Experience to get to Sydney. The Greyhound is about a fifth the price of the backpacker’s bus, but I figure I’ll meet more people and see more interesting things on the Oz Experience. In Sydney, I think I’ll be staying with a friend I met on a one week Switzerland program the summer after my junior year. Then from Sydney’ I’ll head off to…
New Zealand Feb 18th- Feb 28th
I was supposed to be spending five weeks in New Zealand. Now I’ll only be spending 10 days there. I put all that extra time into India. I plan to spend about a week at what sounds like a really cool vineyard. And I’ll spend the other two or three days, touring Auckland, either staying at a hostel or with a family friend.
The vineyard in Auckland: Te Marama Estates
I quote from the WWOOF NZ book. “Te Marama Estates are two small vineyards located 40 minutes south of Auckland in the beautiful Mangatawhiri Valley. Work offered is vine training, summer pruning, winter pruning, harvesting and occasional winemaking. Guaranteed NO WEEDING. We are 30 minutes from beaches on either coast, waterfalls and bushwalks. Accommodation is a separate guest wing, private and comfortable with great views over the vineyard. Fine food, including the best pizza in the world! Nine “hole” Frisbee golf course around the extensive gardens.”
I love Frisbee and think I might want to play Ultimate in college. And how can you go wrong with the “best pizza in the world?”
A little note about organic farming: I always looked at WWOOFing as a cheap way to travel, (free room and board in exchange for long hours of toiling in the field). Don’t get me wrong. I’ve been known to say in the past that I like the accomplished feeling after a day of mindless, manual labor, and I’m open to new experiences. But I don’t really have any real long-term interest beyond this gap year in farming, organic or otherwise.
If you say anything enough times, it’ll start to sound normal. And I’ve gotten so used to rattling off organic farming in the list with volunteering and journalism internship when talking about the gap year, I’ve forgotten how different and offbeat it really is. I’m reminded though (and amused) when people misunderstand my interest in farming and take it for more than it is.
After a quick 10 days in Auckland, I’ll head off to…
India March 1st- March 31st
I’ll be spending the entire month of March in India with the travel group Rustic Pathways. They have a full gap year of different modules and programs in different countries, and a gapper can sign up for anywhere from one module (a la India) to the full year. As of now, I’ll be with four other kids on gap years, traveling through India. We’ll have a one week home-stay in a village near Tibet where we’ll teach English. We’ll trek through the Himalayas for six days at an altitude of up to 10,000 feet and temperatures down in the 20s. We’ll spend some time at a more temperate coastal town, and head to Agra to see the Taj Mahal.
And after spending my birthday in the land of Bollywood, I’ll be off to…
China April 1st- May 18th
In China, I’ll be reuniting with Jaime. We’ll be living in an apartment in Shanghai with other people from Projects-Abroad while working on our respective internships (journalism for me, business for Jaime). I decided to sign up for just a month, during which time my whole family will hopefully be coming to visit. The last 18 days after my program and internship wrap up and I’m kicked out of my apartment are still up in the air.
And that will conclude my gap year. I’ll head back to Encino for three months and get ready for William & Mary in August!
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Pictures from the safari and Table Mountain hike
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| Safari |
The safari wasn't all that impressive in terms of animals, but it was still a nice day. We drove about 2 or 3 hours out of Cape Town to this reserve, and had tea before the safari and lunch after it. The safari itself was comparable to San Diego Wild Animal Park, but I had to see some of the traditional animals while in Africa. The album is a little bit boring, a ton of repetitive shots of animals that I didn't feel like weeding through. But enjoy anyway!
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| Table Mountain |
Jaime and I went one afternoon to hike the easiest path up Table Mountain. We went with Angelique, an older volunteer from Detroit, and Katie, who has since hiked Mount Kilimanjaro. Jaime and I were pretty slow going up, stopping every ten minutes to admire the view and take pictures of the City Bowl. (Driving at night the view of the City Bowl reminds me of the view of the San Fernando Valley from Mulholland Drive or the 405 North on steroids). So there's a ton of repetitive scenery shots in this album, but I just couldn't resist taking out my camera. We finally made it to the top after about 2 hours. I rejuvenated myself with some water and a bag of pretzels and bought a Table Mountain beanie as a souvenir. And then we hiked back down it at dusk racing the Sun all the way.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Russian cultural excursions (old pictures)
Here are some old pictures and quick descriptions of different cultural trips we took in Russia. Because in the past I've had trouble linking to every specific album, this time I'm just going to link to my Picasa page and I trust that you'll be able to find the corresponding album. http://picasaweb.google.com/alpert.david
As part of the cultural component of the three-pronged program (culture, volunteering and independent free time) CCS took us on weekly Wednesday trips. The village trips typically consisted of us driving an hour away, eating a nice home-cooked lunch at the home of some local and then touring whatever churches and museums were in the area.
Banya:
While the trip to the banya (Russian bathhouse) wasn’t technically a cultural excursion (we went on a Thursday night and we had to pay around $12), it was still with the CCS staff and fit enough that I thought I’d include it here. We drove somewhere out in the middle of nowhere, the roads were even less paved than usual and we were surrounded by forest and no city lights, and found our little banya cabin.
Unfortunately, the almost frozen pool outside of the banya was out of commission so instead, between trips into the steam room we dumped cold buckets of water on each other. It’s also customary to rub a mixture of honey and salt all over your skin to help exfoliate. Finally, there’s the strangest part of the banya- the thicket of leaves that you beat each other with. (Insert your own crude joke here).
One person lies down on the hot wood benches with a sheet or towel to protect themselves, and another takes the leaves that have been pre-soaked in water, sprinkles a little water on the victim’s back and proceeds to hit them all over with the leaves, first harder and then softer. Combined with the overwhelming heat, being beaten was one of the more intense feelings I’ve ever had. And it was so hot that standing up and moving around to assist in beating Jaime was too much for me.
Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman to enter space, completing her mission a full 20 years before (
Gavrilov Yam:
This small village is located an hour outside of
Felt boot factory and
These were our last two cultural excursions and our worst two by far. The felt boot (valinki in Russian) factory reeked so strongly of sheep and wool, it became hard to breathe. And there just wasn’t much to see there. It was a factory, and there were women operating assembly line machinery. And that was it. We left pretty quickly.
The
We did get the honor of meeting egocentric Mr. John Gregoryich himself, and it was one of the more awkward conversations I’ve had in
This was our first cultural excursion to the nearby Golden Ring city better known to Russians as
Big Salt:
At Big Salt, so named because of the salty river it was built next to, we had a fascinating lunch with a family of artists. They had rooms full of art all made by one of the four family members. Lunch, among other tastier options, involved a pickled apple. I tried it out of a sort of morbid curiosity and never plan to again. Apples are meant to be sweet. If you want to preserve them, try making a sweet apple jam. Pickling them defeats the purpose of enjoying a nice, crunchy and sweet apple in the first place.
Pyotrpavelskaya (The Russian village I wrote “Village of sweetness” about):
This was our second Wednesday trip and it really touched me deeply as you can read about in my 3 part post in October called village of sweetness.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Summertime and the livin's easy
With just over a week to go, I thought I’d write a little about the CCS Home Base and what living in Cape Town has been like.
Our house is located on a small side street named Hermitage Ave. (reminds me of the world famous museum in St. Petes, Russia) in a neighborhood called Rosebank, right by the University of Cape Town. And I’m not sure what CCS’ deal is about being near trains, but like the Russian Home Base, we can hear and see a train rumbling right on the other side of the fence in our backyard.
I sleep in the top bunk, above Jaime, due to my childhood reasoning of the top being the safer choice in the event the bunk bed collapsed. But I’m getting rather sick of having to climb up and down a staircase to get into bed, and not having a place to sit in the room when I’m not sleeping. We have two other roommates, who share another bunk set, but the room’s gotten a little crowded and messy of late, so Jaime and I are going to move to an empty room upstairs.
One of the house’s many bathrooms is right next door to our current room, and we’re also right across from the kitchen and dining room. I’m always running in and out of the dining room grabbing a snack- either a granny smith apple, a pb& j sandwich, or a bowl of corn flakes cereal with warm milk. (They have this long-lasting milk here that is left out of the fridge. Takes a little getting used to, but it works fine).
Our house is located a quick ten minute’s walk from a commercial district named Rondebosch that has lots of shops and restaurants. There’s my personal favorite, Nando’s the Portuguese chicken place, our gym, Zone Fitness which I frequent a few times a week, and a fast-food burger joint named Steer’s which has incredible Dairy Queen-esque chocolate or caramel-dipped ice cream cones.
We call CCS’ recommended cab company, Excite!, to get around anywhere. We’ve heard from some South Africans that their prices are a little steep, but we also know they’re safe. The rand, (South African unit of currency) is pretty weak against the dollar. The current exchange rate is about 10 rand to 1 dollar. A movie here costs around 30+ Rand ($3), an half chicken, drink and side order meal from Nando’s is only about 50 Rand, and a 15 minute cab ride won’t be more than 60 Rand.
And of course, living in Cape Town there’s the security issue to contend with. Our house has 24 hour unarmed security guards whose job is to intimidate would-be thieves and if that fails, call the police in an emergency. Our house is also surrounded by electric fencing. We have to sign in and out of the Home Base and we have a curfew that isn’t really observed by anyone.
Outside of the safety of the Home Base, I’ve heard a few shudder-worthy stories. When we got here, we were told that the nearest underpass on the walk to Rondebosch is not safe. We were later told that this was because two former female volunteers who used that underpass alone at night were once held up at gunpoint. But it’s not like the city of Cape Town isn’t trying to make itself more secure. Check out this sign from outside the underpass.
Clockwise from the top left: No automatic weapons, no axes, no knives and finally no bringing along the equally creative and lethal combo of spear and spoon. To me the sign is both really funny and scary. I wonder which city official approved it thinking it might do anything.
I’m a little unclear about the details, but a volunteer who just left and was Jaime’s and my roommate when we first got here was also apparently held up at gunpoint recently. But supposedly it was right after he had spent almost all he had on souvenirs, so he had no money on him. The muggers thankfully were not interested in Cape Town trinkets, so they let him go.
Jaime and I also had one pretty close call, although we didn’t find out about it until a few days later. We were in a near-by neighborhood named Obz, short for Observatory, and we had just finished shooting a couple games of pool at Stone’s, one of our favorite bars. We called a cab and were just milling about the well-lit, decently busy for a Sunday night area, when we saw another bar called Rooster or something like that. We peered inside but decided to stay outside and wait for our cab. Later that night there was apparently an armed robbery at the bar that left two people shot and one dead. Spooky stuff.
But don’t worry about me. Just one more week here, (so excited to come home!), and I plan on keeping safe. I’m working on typing up my log of our amazing five day trip to the Eastern Cape and our hike into the African wilderness, so I’ll try to get that up soon.
It should be a pretty fun last week. Tonight we plan on going to the gay pride parade, which is supposed to be one of Cape Town’s best parties. Tomorrow night we’re going to Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden for its weekly concert in the park, followed by dinner at an amazing set-menu, all-you-can-eat restaurant named Africa Café. No real plans yet for the week, except Jaime and I have two tickets for a comedy show called Three Wise Men (featuring Christian, Jewish and Muslim comedians). And for Christmas I think we’re cooking for ourselves like Thanksgiving. Jaime and I plan on the afternoon of Christmas Day on the beach, lounging around and throwing a Frisbee.
Bonus! How to speak South African
Considering South Africa’s British roots, South Africans generally speak the Queen’s English. You have your fair dose of “bloody,” “mate” and other British words and phrases. But South Africans have also developed their own uniquely South African phrases. Here’s a random sampling of stuff I’ve picked up:
Robot- Traffic stoplight (Nobody’s been able to tell me how this one got its name)
Howzit?- How are you? (Answering “how’s what?” makes you look like an idiot. Trust me).
Izit- Oh, really/ You don’t say
Okes- Blokes/ guys
That’s all for now!
DA
Our house is located on a small side street named Hermitage Ave. (reminds me of the world famous museum in St. Petes, Russia) in a neighborhood called Rosebank, right by the University of Cape Town. And I’m not sure what CCS’ deal is about being near trains, but like the Russian Home Base, we can hear and see a train rumbling right on the other side of the fence in our backyard.
I sleep in the top bunk, above Jaime, due to my childhood reasoning of the top being the safer choice in the event the bunk bed collapsed. But I’m getting rather sick of having to climb up and down a staircase to get into bed, and not having a place to sit in the room when I’m not sleeping. We have two other roommates, who share another bunk set, but the room’s gotten a little crowded and messy of late, so Jaime and I are going to move to an empty room upstairs.
One of the house’s many bathrooms is right next door to our current room, and we’re also right across from the kitchen and dining room. I’m always running in and out of the dining room grabbing a snack- either a granny smith apple, a pb& j sandwich, or a bowl of corn flakes cereal with warm milk. (They have this long-lasting milk here that is left out of the fridge. Takes a little getting used to, but it works fine).
Our house is located a quick ten minute’s walk from a commercial district named Rondebosch that has lots of shops and restaurants. There’s my personal favorite, Nando’s the Portuguese chicken place, our gym, Zone Fitness which I frequent a few times a week, and a fast-food burger joint named Steer’s which has incredible Dairy Queen-esque chocolate or caramel-dipped ice cream cones.
We call CCS’ recommended cab company, Excite!, to get around anywhere. We’ve heard from some South Africans that their prices are a little steep, but we also know they’re safe. The rand, (South African unit of currency) is pretty weak against the dollar. The current exchange rate is about 10 rand to 1 dollar. A movie here costs around 30+ Rand ($3), an half chicken, drink and side order meal from Nando’s is only about 50 Rand, and a 15 minute cab ride won’t be more than 60 Rand.
And of course, living in Cape Town there’s the security issue to contend with. Our house has 24 hour unarmed security guards whose job is to intimidate would-be thieves and if that fails, call the police in an emergency. Our house is also surrounded by electric fencing. We have to sign in and out of the Home Base and we have a curfew that isn’t really observed by anyone.
Outside of the safety of the Home Base, I’ve heard a few shudder-worthy stories. When we got here, we were told that the nearest underpass on the walk to Rondebosch is not safe. We were later told that this was because two former female volunteers who used that underpass alone at night were once held up at gunpoint. But it’s not like the city of Cape Town isn’t trying to make itself more secure. Check out this sign from outside the underpass.
Clockwise from the top left: No automatic weapons, no axes, no knives and finally no bringing along the equally creative and lethal combo of spear and spoon. To me the sign is both really funny and scary. I wonder which city official approved it thinking it might do anything.
I’m a little unclear about the details, but a volunteer who just left and was Jaime’s and my roommate when we first got here was also apparently held up at gunpoint recently. But supposedly it was right after he had spent almost all he had on souvenirs, so he had no money on him. The muggers thankfully were not interested in Cape Town trinkets, so they let him go.
Jaime and I also had one pretty close call, although we didn’t find out about it until a few days later. We were in a near-by neighborhood named Obz, short for Observatory, and we had just finished shooting a couple games of pool at Stone’s, one of our favorite bars. We called a cab and were just milling about the well-lit, decently busy for a Sunday night area, when we saw another bar called Rooster or something like that. We peered inside but decided to stay outside and wait for our cab. Later that night there was apparently an armed robbery at the bar that left two people shot and one dead. Spooky stuff.
But don’t worry about me. Just one more week here, (so excited to come home!), and I plan on keeping safe. I’m working on typing up my log of our amazing five day trip to the Eastern Cape and our hike into the African wilderness, so I’ll try to get that up soon.
It should be a pretty fun last week. Tonight we plan on going to the gay pride parade, which is supposed to be one of Cape Town’s best parties. Tomorrow night we’re going to Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden for its weekly concert in the park, followed by dinner at an amazing set-menu, all-you-can-eat restaurant named Africa Café. No real plans yet for the week, except Jaime and I have two tickets for a comedy show called Three Wise Men (featuring Christian, Jewish and Muslim comedians). And for Christmas I think we’re cooking for ourselves like Thanksgiving. Jaime and I plan on the afternoon of Christmas Day on the beach, lounging around and throwing a Frisbee.
Bonus! How to speak South African
Considering South Africa’s British roots, South Africans generally speak the Queen’s English. You have your fair dose of “bloody,” “mate” and other British words and phrases. But South Africans have also developed their own uniquely South African phrases. Here’s a random sampling of stuff I’ve picked up:
Robot- Traffic stoplight (Nobody’s been able to tell me how this one got its name)
Howzit?- How are you? (Answering “how’s what?” makes you look like an idiot. Trust me).
Izit- Oh, really/ You don’t say
Okes- Blokes/ guys
That’s all for now!
DA
Friday, December 5, 2008
About to go to Jo'burg
Cab should be coming any minute to take us to the airport. Should be a nice weekend. We're staying at a bed and breakfast owned by a fellow volunteer's friend's dad. It it supposed to rain so we'll make do.
Had a good week. Finished up my first volunteer placement at a school for the mentally disabled, which was really challenging. Spent Thursday and Friday at Jaime's placement messing around with little kids, which was a lot simpler and more fun. Next week, I'm going to start being a camp counselor with another 18 year old volunteer from San Fran.
Hope everybody has a great weekend!
DA
Had a good week. Finished up my first volunteer placement at a school for the mentally disabled, which was really challenging. Spent Thursday and Friday at Jaime's placement messing around with little kids, which was a lot simpler and more fun. Next week, I'm going to start being a camp counselor with another 18 year old volunteer from San Fran.
Hope everybody has a great weekend!
DA
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
And I ran, I ran so far away
Just got back from the 10k. Finished it in 299th place at 52:20. I had wanted to break 50 but it was really hilly so it's ok. There were a few runners who were barefoot for the 6 miles. And there was broken glass at more than one intersection.
The best part of the race was definitely the ending. There was a full brass band playing close to the finish line and they were cheering like crazy in addition to playing their music as I finished. And then we went to Nando's a healthy fast-food chicken restaurant, like CA Chicken Cafe but better, for a massive feast.
I will sleep very well tonight. And be extremely sore tomorrow. But it was fun to race, and we're going to look into more races while I'm here.
The best part of the race was definitely the ending. There was a full brass band playing close to the finish line and they were cheering like crazy in addition to playing their music as I finished. And then we went to Nando's a healthy fast-food chicken restaurant, like CA Chicken Cafe but better, for a massive feast.
I will sleep very well tonight. And be extremely sore tomorrow. But it was fun to race, and we're going to look into more races while I'm here.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Much delayed final impressions from Russia
I wrote this at around 3 in the morning on my last night in Yaroslavl and never got around to posting it. So better late than never, here are my final impressions of Russia.
In no particular order here are some of my final thoughts as I prepare to leave Russia, and some random tidbits that never found their way into other posts…
Russia seems to be a country torn in two different directions. On the one hand there is the illustrious history and culture and the accompanying desire to preserve and respect both, and on the other there is this frantic desire to catch up with the West. It’s been 17 years since the fall of the Iron Curtain and 20-odd years since Gorbachev instituted glasnost and perestroika, but I still sensed this pressing urge in Yaro to show the world that despite its near thousand year run, the city can be just as modern and hip as any of its European neighbors. Whether it was the Mario’s pizzeria or the posters for the weekend’s clubs and parties posted on a wall that separated the street from a cathedral that was a couple hundreds years old, I felt this strange dichotomy all the time here.
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Russian drivers are that scary. There are practically no lanes on any roads, and also no recognition by most drivers that they are powering a massive machine of metal, gas and rubber and us pedestrians are not. They weave through crosswalks and people as often as possible. Between us, Jaime and I had somewhere around 10 close calls. With that there comes this healthy dose of panic (“I don’t want to die in the middle of a street whose name I can’t pronounce in a small city in Russia nobody has ever heard of”) anytime you step off the sidewalk.
There are also two fun little variations on the traditional red, yellow, green stoplight. Green flashes before turning to yellow, giving drivers the heads-up they need to really floor it to make it through the intersection. And before red turns to green, there’s the intermediary warning of red and yellow, which most drivers seem to see as green regardless of whether you’re still in the sidewalk.
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For the largest country in terms of area, you might be surprised to find out that there’s only about 10 Russian names. Seriously.
For guys there’s Vladimir (Volva for short), Ivan (Vanya), Alexander (Sasha), Dmitry (Dima), Pavel (Pasha) and Nikolai (Kolya).
For ladies there’s even less options. There’s Ykaterina (Katya), Anya, Asya, Maria (Masha).
Honestly, 90% of the Russians I met were named one of those above 10 names.
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Russians always seem to be getting married. Whenever we went out to a museum in Moscow or St. Petes, or even out in Yaroslavl on the weekends we seemed to encounter at least one large, traveling marriage party of twenty people following around the happy couple. We’d go somewhere and there would be a man in a tux and his bride in a white wedding dress taking pictures on the steps of the Hermitage in St. Petes, or laying flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow. And this is in November! I can’t imagine what it’s like in the peak wedding months.
Another note on romance. Anytime I stepped on the escalator in a metro station in Moscow or St. Petes, I was able to find at least two lovebirds in what I nicknamed, the couple pose. The couple pose consists of the woman standing as one normally would on the escalator with the man on the step below, risking life and limb to face her and stare into the eyes of his beau and occasionally steal a kiss. I watched bemused as couples young and old stepped onto the escalator and automatically assumed the position. I worried about the ones who rode the escalator normally.
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We were told by Nadia that Russians spend something like 80% of their income on clothes and fashion accessories. And you can tell. Woman almost always go out for any errand in the city wearing high heels. And I was turned away from a casino in Moscow because I was wearing “sport shoes.”
Megan pointed out that there’s this big discrepancy between the quality of what people wear and the quality of their buildings and cars. At least once a week we saw a car that did not fit with the image of its owner break down in front of our hotel. And every apartment building in Yaroslavl had boarded up balconies and other signs of outward wear and tear.
In that vain, it seems like half the buildings in Yaroslavl are being renovated, reconstructed or repaired. There’s a long way to go, but should be interesting to see what this city looks like when they make some improvements.
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It’s really strange to know that I’ll be saying goodbye to Russia in less than 12 hours. When I thought about the gap year, I got excited for each and every stop, but it was hard to look past that initial two month stay in Yaroslavl, and accordingly most of my preparations seemed to be focused on it too.
And now, it’s over. I’m done with the first stop out of five, and almost a quarter of the gap year in terms of weeks abroad.
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So as promised, here’s what’s coming up next. At noon, Jaime and I will leave Moscow for New York. We’ll spend two days in New York. I’m staying with my sister Michelle who lives there and works as New York Teaching Fellow. Jaime’s mom and older sis are coming to town so he’ll stay with them in a hotel. I’ll probably be pretty jetlagged from the 10 hour flight, but I have the rather ambitious plans in my 49 hours in the Big Apple to go to dinner with Michelle and my cousin Brian, see friends at NYU and Columbia, visit Michelle’s 4th grade classroom at Public School #1, and unload all of my winter clothes on her for her to take back to LA during her Thanksgiving break.
Tuesday afternoon, Jaime and I are headed to Cape Town, South Africa for five weeks! We’ll be doing our second and final CCS volunteering program there. The program doesn’t start until Sunday so we’ll be staying with family friends of a South African friend (Daniel Ozen) until then.
Random side note about South Africa. Whenever I told my people I was going to Russia, the response I got almost unfailingly was somewhere in the neighborhood of “Wow. Interesting.”
Cape Town seemed to generally net the different response of “How fun!” I’m curious to see how close that expectation comes to reality. I had a ton of fun in Russia. I enjoyed my time here, met some great people and would love to come back. But I also am not the average Russian tourist.
I have been fascinated by Russia since I did a non-fiction book report on the history of the Soviet Union in 5th grade. And Russia was included in Jaime’s and my gap year largely due to my urging.
So it’ll be interesting to see how much fun South Africa is compared to Russia. I’m also curious to see how I’ll find the culture and history in the upcoming four countries compared to that of Russia, since I’ll have had no prior interest in them. Promise to keep you all updated.
Ok. Now it’s time for me to go to bed. Have to leave the hotel at 5 am for the five hour trip to Moscow.
Da Svidanya Rossiya!
In no particular order here are some of my final thoughts as I prepare to leave Russia, and some random tidbits that never found their way into other posts…
Russia seems to be a country torn in two different directions. On the one hand there is the illustrious history and culture and the accompanying desire to preserve and respect both, and on the other there is this frantic desire to catch up with the West. It’s been 17 years since the fall of the Iron Curtain and 20-odd years since Gorbachev instituted glasnost and perestroika, but I still sensed this pressing urge in Yaro to show the world that despite its near thousand year run, the city can be just as modern and hip as any of its European neighbors. Whether it was the Mario’s pizzeria or the posters for the weekend’s clubs and parties posted on a wall that separated the street from a cathedral that was a couple hundreds years old, I felt this strange dichotomy all the time here.
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Russian drivers are that scary. There are practically no lanes on any roads, and also no recognition by most drivers that they are powering a massive machine of metal, gas and rubber and us pedestrians are not. They weave through crosswalks and people as often as possible. Between us, Jaime and I had somewhere around 10 close calls. With that there comes this healthy dose of panic (“I don’t want to die in the middle of a street whose name I can’t pronounce in a small city in Russia nobody has ever heard of”) anytime you step off the sidewalk.
There are also two fun little variations on the traditional red, yellow, green stoplight. Green flashes before turning to yellow, giving drivers the heads-up they need to really floor it to make it through the intersection. And before red turns to green, there’s the intermediary warning of red and yellow, which most drivers seem to see as green regardless of whether you’re still in the sidewalk.
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For the largest country in terms of area, you might be surprised to find out that there’s only about 10 Russian names. Seriously.
For guys there’s Vladimir (Volva for short), Ivan (Vanya), Alexander (Sasha), Dmitry (Dima), Pavel (Pasha) and Nikolai (Kolya).
For ladies there’s even less options. There’s Ykaterina (Katya), Anya, Asya, Maria (Masha).
Honestly, 90% of the Russians I met were named one of those above 10 names.
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Russians always seem to be getting married. Whenever we went out to a museum in Moscow or St. Petes, or even out in Yaroslavl on the weekends we seemed to encounter at least one large, traveling marriage party of twenty people following around the happy couple. We’d go somewhere and there would be a man in a tux and his bride in a white wedding dress taking pictures on the steps of the Hermitage in St. Petes, or laying flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow. And this is in November! I can’t imagine what it’s like in the peak wedding months.
Another note on romance. Anytime I stepped on the escalator in a metro station in Moscow or St. Petes, I was able to find at least two lovebirds in what I nicknamed, the couple pose. The couple pose consists of the woman standing as one normally would on the escalator with the man on the step below, risking life and limb to face her and stare into the eyes of his beau and occasionally steal a kiss. I watched bemused as couples young and old stepped onto the escalator and automatically assumed the position. I worried about the ones who rode the escalator normally.
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We were told by Nadia that Russians spend something like 80% of their income on clothes and fashion accessories. And you can tell. Woman almost always go out for any errand in the city wearing high heels. And I was turned away from a casino in Moscow because I was wearing “sport shoes.”
Megan pointed out that there’s this big discrepancy between the quality of what people wear and the quality of their buildings and cars. At least once a week we saw a car that did not fit with the image of its owner break down in front of our hotel. And every apartment building in Yaroslavl had boarded up balconies and other signs of outward wear and tear.
In that vain, it seems like half the buildings in Yaroslavl are being renovated, reconstructed or repaired. There’s a long way to go, but should be interesting to see what this city looks like when they make some improvements.
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It’s really strange to know that I’ll be saying goodbye to Russia in less than 12 hours. When I thought about the gap year, I got excited for each and every stop, but it was hard to look past that initial two month stay in Yaroslavl, and accordingly most of my preparations seemed to be focused on it too.
And now, it’s over. I’m done with the first stop out of five, and almost a quarter of the gap year in terms of weeks abroad.
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So as promised, here’s what’s coming up next. At noon, Jaime and I will leave Moscow for New York. We’ll spend two days in New York. I’m staying with my sister Michelle who lives there and works as New York Teaching Fellow. Jaime’s mom and older sis are coming to town so he’ll stay with them in a hotel. I’ll probably be pretty jetlagged from the 10 hour flight, but I have the rather ambitious plans in my 49 hours in the Big Apple to go to dinner with Michelle and my cousin Brian, see friends at NYU and Columbia, visit Michelle’s 4th grade classroom at Public School #1, and unload all of my winter clothes on her for her to take back to LA during her Thanksgiving break.
Tuesday afternoon, Jaime and I are headed to Cape Town, South Africa for five weeks! We’ll be doing our second and final CCS volunteering program there. The program doesn’t start until Sunday so we’ll be staying with family friends of a South African friend (Daniel Ozen) until then.
Random side note about South Africa. Whenever I told my people I was going to Russia, the response I got almost unfailingly was somewhere in the neighborhood of “Wow. Interesting.”
Cape Town seemed to generally net the different response of “How fun!” I’m curious to see how close that expectation comes to reality. I had a ton of fun in Russia. I enjoyed my time here, met some great people and would love to come back. But I also am not the average Russian tourist.
I have been fascinated by Russia since I did a non-fiction book report on the history of the Soviet Union in 5th grade. And Russia was included in Jaime’s and my gap year largely due to my urging.
So it’ll be interesting to see how much fun South Africa is compared to Russia. I’m also curious to see how I’ll find the culture and history in the upcoming four countries compared to that of Russia, since I’ll have had no prior interest in them. Promise to keep you all updated.
Ok. Now it’s time for me to go to bed. Have to leave the hotel at 5 am for the five hour trip to Moscow.
Da Svidanya Rossiya!
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