Life in Siberia

Greetings from Siberia! As some of you may have noticed, I’ve been posting my day-to-day experiences and impressions in my own blog, BK in the Borderlands. Of course, that does not mean that I intend to forsake Stadium 110 in any way. Instead, Stadium 110 will be my unofficial blog, charting what life is like for a young American male in Siberia. Instead of discoursing about my research or typically Russian experiences, it is here that I will rant about my lack of Internet, rave about the gorgeous Russian and Buryat women, and of course, muse about drinking. Among other things.

So first, my rant about no Internet. It sucks. I have to either go to the University to use it, and it has been down more than half of the times I’ve tried, so I’ve had to go to a Café to pay for it. Pay for it! What the hell? In the US, I can go to McDonald’s or Starbucks if I want Internet. That’s the first rant. I can live for a while without my own connection to the Internet, but in the middle of a season of Breaking Bad... it’s rough. Fortunately I stocked up on other shows before I left. I finished Mad Men, and Season 4 rocked. Then I watched Cowboy Bebop, and it’s as depressingly short as Firefly. If you haven’t checked out Cowboy Bebop, do so now. It’s a sci-fi anime about a group of bounty hunters (cowboys) on a spaceship called the Bebop. It’s pure noir and has some fantastic writing, animation, and the soundtrack is unmatched in animated television, as far as I know. Upon finishing that, I watched The Walking Dead, which was a lot better than I expected. AMC just makes good TV. I’ve also been watching Sealab 2021 intermittently throughout these series, which is great, but not up to par with Frisky Dingo, at least so far. Now I’ve started The Pacific, which has been rather disappointing so far. Maybe it’ll get better. I’d much prefer to be watching Russian movies and shows, but without Internet, I’m stuck in English. It’s a pity that I spend all day speaking Russian and then I come home and have to return to English. I also wish I could use Skype. International texts aren’t bad, but calls are another story. I haven’t spoken with anyone from the States in over 2 weeks, which is the longest I’ve ever been in the dark. I also miss football. I got onto ESPN earlier today and saw that the Packers were about to win the season opener, but I’d prefer to watch. It’s also weird that the Thursday night game is on at noon on Friday for me. Internet here is also slow as hell. I hope that when I get an apartment my speeds pick up a little, but it’ll probably take at least a day to download an episode of Breaking Bad. Even my neighbors from China think that the Internet here is strangely slow. Russia probably just hasn’t gotten around to building a good cable out here. Ah, I miss representative government. Even tho the US congress is failing in every possible way right now, our form of representative government has allowed us to build quality roads in every state, even places like Wyoming, North Dakota, and Alaska. You can also get fast Internet there too. Infrastructure here just seems like it was done as an afterthought, out of necessity. I guess this will likely be another topic of my rants: the Russian government.

Ok, so I got the Internet rant out. My anger at the Russian government is probably just still building, I remember 2 years ago it took a month or two before it hit me just how awfully the government runs this country. I’ve read before that there is just no strong sense of community in Russia, but I disagree with that. In the US, our sense of community is built through churches and the political process. In Russia, people band together for a common cause. A major reason that the Soviet Union pulled out of Afghanistan was that a huge group of mothers of lost soldiers banded together against the war. Last week, I volunteered at a building that is being restored to be a home for orphans and invalids. There were several community organizations present. In Buryatia, family celebrations are huge. If hundreds of people will flock to a birthday party or wedding, I think at least thirty would also band together to volunteer or form a political coalition. It isn’t the community at fault here. It is a government that is afraid to allow communities to have any say.

What else... The girls here are pretty. And very friendly. Being the only foreigner who speaks Russian well is a plus. Being an American is another plus. Among the people I know, I haven’t met a single person who has expressed hostility at the United States. I’ve heard some frustration about recent American economic struggles, but each time it’s been prefaced by an acknowledgement that current American difficulties are due to the government, not American citizens (a lot of that reaction is probably due to the general Russian’s relationship with the government). But more on this topic when I have more experiences with it.

Finally, drinking. I’ve grown to be a beer guy over the last few years. I think the American microbrewery system is unmatched in the world. In Russia, beers are either domestic (not very many, and mostly crap) or imported from Czechoslovakia or Germany. I can generally find bottles of New Castle, Corona, Heineken, but draught beers are usually Czech or German. I miss American bars. Being able to get a good IPA or porter is a privilege that we in America often don’t realize that we have (both because most Americans choose between Coors and Bud and think that they’re a refined drinker if they like Guiness). The bar that I go to most often here has about 6 beers on tap. I usually get Cernovar, which is a Czech dark beer that I would surmise is just a cheap porter (it’s way too sweet). They also have Asahi (Asahi is everywhere here), Kronenburg, and a few others that I can’t remember right now. It’s funny that I can’t remember, because Ken, Mering, and me almost won trivia night at the Cow because we could name every single beer on tap. In terms of hard alcohol, it’s pretty standard. I got into scotch this last year thanks to one of my roommates, and the only decent scotches that they have here are Chivas Regal and Johnny Walker. Vodka is really the only outstanding drink here, except for Samogon (moonshine), but Samogon is more of a tourist thing anyway. Really, I should be glad that it’s so difficult to drink well here, cuz I should save my money anyway. Sure, if I spend more than 10 dollars on food a day, I’ve probably eaten too much, but alcohol drains the wallet quickly. The only night that I’ve really gotten drunk was at a birthday party for one of my friend’s moms. I was the token American. A friendly old Buryat gentleman took it upon himself to explain to me everything that was going on and fill my shot glass every 5 minutes. By the end of the night, the toasts were flying and I was struggling to keep up. But it was excellent company. Russian drinking is different from American drinking in that it is almost always done as a celebration, and each drink is a toast. The more toasts that there are, the more things there are to be thankful for. It’s a slightly different mentality than Stadium 110. However, it is my goal to have some of the English students over to my apartment (when I find one) a few times to show them American traditions. Stadium 110 will be included.

Well, I miss you guys. If we ever want to truly have a Stadium 110 reunion, perhaps we should start planning now. I return home at the end of June. We should at least get together before the end of the world...