Current temperature: -9 F. Feels like: -31 F.

Nothing exotic happened since I went to Mongolia. I wrote 5 posts in Sleptember and only 2 in November, and they described events that mostly took place in October. What does this mean? I guess things aren’t as noteworthy anymore, I have started forgetting that I am in another country from time to time, which doesn’t mean that I feel comfortable here, it just means that my brain thinks that I’ve always been a foreigner, or at least for a lot longer than 3 months. So its gotten used to not being used to the surrounding environment. Maybe. I don’t know.
So in case you were wondering about my November, here are some (the) highlights:
*Helping my host grandma take apart a sofa chair to save the rubber belts that held up the cushion at her dacha in the countryside, then chasing after a garbage truck through five-inch thick mud in rubber boots because he only comes once every two weeks. (it was a lot more dramatic, you really had to be there guys)
*Watching the new James Bond film, surprisingly well dubbed into Russian, but in the end deciding that it would still be pretty unsatisfying even in English. I think I honestly enjoyed the new Kylie Minogue song that they played over the speakers before the movie than the film, which isn’t to say that it wasn’t a fun movie, its just that that Kylie Minogue song is great. I think its called “In My Arms”
*Getting a hair cut from what I think is the first or second gay man I have seen in Irkutsk.
*Watching 2 basketball games at the stadium “Labor”. The local team is the Irkutsk Irkut (a pretty stupid name, if you ask me,) and although the level of play is about at an american high school, the crowd is a lot less animated and men don’t really clap that much. Which is a problem, because I can’t make that “woooo” sound, so I have to clap to show my support. We won the first game and lost the second against Saransk. Also sort of depressing: the little middleschoolers who break dance during the timeouts while the crowd watches, bewildered and not feeling anything. Basketball may one day become big in Irkutsk, but break dancing—not so much.
* Visiting the nearby town of Listvyanka on lake Baikal when the temperature was -6 (f) with a very strong wind blowing. It wasn’t that cold because I got to wear my new mink hat with the ear flaps down. We went to the little museum and in a little tank they had two nerpa seals! They are freshwater seals that look like lumps of fat, and they are adorable. I think everyone’s sentiment was expressed in the exclamation of a little girl, who said “Ookh ti! Nerpochki!”, which translates to “oh jeez! Nerpa sealies!”
The only problem with Listvyanka in the winter is that there wasn’t anything to do for the five hours between check out time and bus leaving time. I mean, nothing. Also, the five of us ate in an empty restaurant that somehow managed to far exceed my expectations of bad service: it was icier than the wind along the shore of lake Baikal! Hahaha!
*Buying a small tv for my room, sort of against my will, and not understanding that the word “passport” can also refer to a manual, and, following the wishes of my grandma, almost asking the cashier at the electronics store to stamp my U.S. passport. But I didn’t, because something deep down told me that even in Russia, Best Buy-like stores shouldn’t stamp official government documents.
*Watching a hockey match: In line for tickets, I heard about 400% more swearing than normal, and I knew that this wasn’t a great sign. I saw some little 12 year olds and women, but for the most part everybody was a man. A Man, with a capital “M”. So we bought our tickets and were surprised to see the stadium had tons of blank spots. But as we quickly found out, the most outstanding member of each group shows up early and claims a whole row, and we weaved among many rows, trying to guess whether that man with the big club flag was saving two rows or just two. We finally sat pretty far to the side, and I felt a little uncomfortable, because there were about 200 police officers with little world-war-2 style helmets and riot batons standing around the rink. But they had sweet uniforms on—not their normal camo jackets, but sort of beige great coats and wool boots, so they looked just like Ivans from Stalingrad, or something. So it was fun to look at them, but not really, because they glared at everybody who walked by them. At least they were there, though. So before the game started the rows around us filled in a little, and the people behind us started talking about their preparations to the match. One of the questions was, “did you bring the drugs?” “Yes.” Which I thought was weird. Although I think they were joking about alcohol. I mean, the rink is outside, it was pretty warm that day but it was still a lot of sitting in the dark in winter. I got a good lesson in Russian swearing, and the game was actually very beautiful, actually. They play hockey with a little orange ball instead of a puck, and our team, Baikal-Energiya scored two goals in the first seven minutes.
It might seem like “Baikal Energy” is a bad name for a team, but the visiting team from Novosibirsk was called “SibSel’Mash.” No joke. Which is short for “Sibirskiy Sel’skokhozyaistvenniy Mashinazavod”, I think, or “Siberian Agricultural Machine Factory.” Such names aren’t that rare in Russia, so its like “Home Depot Arena,” but a lot worse. In the end we played badly and it ended in a tie, 3-3, although our team is pretty good, we’re in the same league as the Moscow teams, etc.
*Celebrating Thanksgiving at the coordinator’s apartment, eating marshmallows and sweet potato paste… in Russia!
*Asking for the brand of vegetable oil that host-grandma wants at the local market and the saleslady not understanding.
* The stupid lady in the coat check breaking my coat zipper, and now I have to button it up. Good thing this week has been freakishly warm. Goddamn coat lady.
So that was November. I have six more months left, and that’s starting to sink in, but I don’t regret staying another semester. Although I miss namely the people who read this blog.
PS. I thought I would have a little side note on music. I can’t find new music here, really, so I just put all the unlistened songs on my computer on shuffle, which is several hundred hours worth. It has been a pretty positive experience for me: there are more than a few brilliant songs that I just never listened to on my computer, and songs are sort of like friends. I mean, there was a time when you weren’t friends with X, your really good friend, and your life wasn’t empty before that, but its even better now that you know him. So the song “Ready For The Floor,” by Hot Chip, or St. Christopher’s “All Of A Tremble” was there before, but I hadn’t listened to them before I came to Russia, so I didn’t know that they are immaculate. And just like it is odd but altogether nice to meet up with Y, your best friend from seventh grade, when a song that used to hit me hard comes up on shuffle, I can remember why I used to like it so much. I hope that made sense.

Now I have to buy a new coat because it is really cold outside. Like face-sucking cold. And not in the sense of kissing, but as in the air is trying to suck the life out of you. Something about low pressure systems, I think.