February 2012
2 posts
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January 2012
2 posts
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Banya, At Last
Somehow, in all the time I have spent in Russia, I have missed out on experiencing a banya. The first time I was sick and other times it would come up at inconvenient times, but finally, last weekend I had my chance.
I expected the banya to be hot, but I didn’t expect how intense it would feel. The entire surface of your body is blasted by the heat. Each time water is poured over the...
December 2011
9 posts
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My "Charlie Brown" Tree
Two of my friends paid me a visit and brought a surprise. A little artificial tree and a few decorations. They set up the tree and put some shiny “icicle” strips around my apartment. Since then I bought a strand of lights and a few more ornaments. It seems that Christmas (or in this case New Year’s) ornaments in Russia are about the same as in America. You can find the...
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Skating
They opened a skating rink recently in front of the Drama Theatre. If you have skates you can skate there for free, otherwise you pay 100 rubles (about 4 dollars) to rent skates for an hour. I went there on Sunday and had a nice time, and it was free, since I have skates. I grew up without ice skates. Where in Van Vleck was I going to use them? I always wanted them but they would have been...
November 2011
5 posts
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38 Parrots
via youtube.com At last I see where the jokes about measuring things in parrots come from!
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Love Your Neighborhood
The sign reads “Just Love Your Neighborhood”. I use to live in the apartment building onto which this is affixed, so if it was about just that building I don’t think I would agree, but as for the neighborhood itself, yes, I do feel an emotional connection to it. Though I don’t live in Industrialniy neighborhood anymore, I visit it often. My church is there and I...
October 2011
4 posts
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Dung Beetle
Here is the latest whatzit in town. It’s a giant dung beetle rolling a giant ball of dung. Both are made of old tires. The tire treads add a nice texture to the sculpture, especially to the beetle. Avant garde? Yes, but at least it looks like something, like an actual thing, even if that thing is a ginormous ball of…..
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Первый Снег
The snow has started to fall. We’ve had the первый снег - the first snow. The ground is still a little too warm to let the snow set for long but that will change soon enough. Two years ago the first snowfall was heavier. There was enough to make snowmen….
I took a walk that day and found some snowmen in a park. This was one of them. It seems that after the first month or so...
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Пермь 1967 год...
via youtube.com Perm in 1967, long version.
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Omskie Pelmeni
A friend introduced me to these last week. They are her favorite pelmeni. She said that the best pelmeni are from Siberia. This brand is from Omsk. They are more expensive (twice the price) than the pelmeni I usually buy, but you can definitely taste the difference. Not only is the meat filling superior, there is also more of it per dumpling. There is nothing like homemade but this is...
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Milk
Of the various brands of sweetened condensed milk in squirt bottles, this one is my favorite. It tastes sort of like vanilla pudding. Very good in coffee.
September 2011
7 posts
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Bruce Willis
They had these flyers outside a bank up the street from me. His face is on billboards around town for this bank. The text reads - “When I need money, I just trust them.”
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HDRt
A high dynamic range turnip. ;) Well, not pretty but I like the effect. I combined three exposures in AKVIS HDRFactory.
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Snacks
These are toasted bread snacks with ham and cheese flavor. They are lighter than the typical toasted bread snacks, thanks to some “special technology”… Since they are essentially croutons, I sometimes use them in salads.
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Ишь ты, масленица!
via youtube.com This is a Soviet cartoon from 1985. It’s about a very clever little boy who outsmarts the greedy man who ripped off his grandparents. I think the title means: “Wow! It’s the Maslenitsa!” or maybe “Hey look! It’s the Maslenitsa!” It seems that the “maslo” they talk about (in the pot) is butter, though the word also...
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Breakdancing
via youtube.com I came across this breakdancing competition last night in Gorky Park. They were holding it on the rotunda.
August 2011
9 posts
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Чиж & Co - Перекресток
via youtube.com This song has been stuck in my head all week. It’s Перекресток (Crossroads) by Чиж & Co.
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БАРАКАБАМА
This banner is across a street in Perm, Russia. At first I thought this looks a lot like “Barak Obama” but the spelling is off. Well, after running баракабама through a Google image search, it turns out they must mean “Barak Obama” after all. It still doesn’t explain why it’s here…
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Carrot/Banana Juice
I saw this in the local grocery store and curiosity got the best of me. It’s actually quite good.
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The Blues
We’ve had a series of discussions this summer at the American Corner in Perm about American music. Yesterday we did a presentation on the blues. I’ve always been a big fan of the blues, so it was fantastic to have the opportunity to discuss this music genre with them. Here is one of the musicians we presented - Son House performing Death Letter.
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КИНО - Группа крови - Олимпийский 1990
via youtube.com Today is Victor Tsoi Commemoration Day. Here is a video of him with his band Kino performing Группа крови - “Blood Type”.
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The П
This is the giant П in Perm. It was finished in June.
Why a giant P? Because P is for Perm as C is for cookie.
I haven’t met anyone here yet that likes it, and I would have to agree. It does not seem to serve any purpose but to be a giant P, which you can come look at and take photos of, and pose in front of for a photo.
Sweetened condensed milk with real coffee...
Sweetened condensed milk with real coffee flavor. If your cup of coffee is missing a little “coffeeness”, this should do the trick.View or comment on Robert Bates’s post »The Google+ project makes sharing on the web more like sharing in real-life.Join Google+You received this message because Robert Bates shared it with vandorn@posterous.com. Unsubscribe from these emails.
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Musical Cheburashka
I found this Cheburashka sitting in a village near Pilorama.
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Andrei Makarevich
On Sunday I went to Pilorama with the director of the American Corner, Andrei, and another American volunteer, Elizabeth. The American Corner had an exhibit there so we had a chance to come along.
Pilorama is held at what was once a penal colony called Perm 36. Elizabeth and I were given a tour of the camp, which is now a museum. I’ve read Gulag Archipelago, so I’m familiar...
July 2011
11 posts
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A Little Too Much Birch
50 Facts About Russians →
From a Canadian English teacher in Moscow, Russia….
1: Russians distrust anything cheap.
2: The English word “bargain” can not be adequately translated into Russian.
3: Although Russians distrust anything with a cheap price, they are fine with freebies.
4: A Russian who reaches high levels of power feels it his his/her duty to put down those who don’t.
5: In...
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An Avocado in the Urals
This is not news to my fellow Texans who already live here but…
Yes! You can buy avocados in Russia! They are still a novelty. Well, in the produce department of my neighborhood Vivat they don’t sit in bins like the tomatoes and cucumbers but instead are on a shelf with other “exotic” produce. Hopefully they will catch on.
Idiom of the day No.36
russiangrammar:
Взять быка за рога
- [vzat’ byka za roga] -
Lit. To take the bull by the horns.
To take up a matter vigorously and promptly getting directly to its essence.
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June 2011
9 posts
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