I'm off!

Leaving on the train in two hours to go to the North Caucasus. Then onto Kyrgyzstan and Moscow and probably Kazan. Who knows when I will blog again.

AAAAHHH SERIOUSLY LEAVING FOR THE CAUCASUS IN TWO HOURS! I am deathly afraid... of forgetting to pack something important. 

Annoying

It has become the time to assess the year in terms of what things are annoying, and to what degree they are annoying. As I have said, for the most part, everything has been fine, and anything that I would really significantly complain about is really nobody's fault, not even Russia's.

I've always been into list-making, so here I will make three lists (and start from the negative so we can end positively) of things that are annoying, sort of annoying, or not annoying at all.

ANNOYING:
*Winter, and the clothing associated with it. Today is technically the first day of winter and I feel like it's been winter for months already. I am tired of wearing heavy winter clothes all the time and miss wearing dresses and sandals.
*The fact that my rent increased by a LOT.
*Things getting canceled (see earlier posts from November)
* Stuttering when I speak Russian. Everyone who knows me knows that I can speak Russian reasonably well, but if I go all day speaking English, or not speaking to anyone at all and suddenly I need to say something, I stumble over my words. Half the people who first hear me speak think I'm Latvian, the other half think I have a speech disorder...and sometimes I may as well be a Latvian with a speech disorder.
*People getting sick all the time. At least it isn't me (knock on wood)
*The fact that on the first trip to Ekaterinburg I bought a beautiful pair of earrings, and on the second trip to Ekaterinburg I lost half of said pair of earrings.
*The question "Why are you here?", or the assumption that I must really miss all things American and would of course, go home for all of break.
*Babushkas. Yes, I am a horrible person for saying this. There ARE most certainly exceptions, but for the most part, Russian Babushkas are not sweet old ladies that tell you stories and make you tea. Or maybe they are, but that's not the side I see. The Babushki I see are either really depressing (such as the Babushka that sits outside the grocery store-where they sell reasonably fresh vegetables- selling rotten vegetables and worn-out looking mittens...for any last ruble or kopek she might scrape up), intimidating (you NEVER argue with a Babushka), or just downright annoying. I will not question the wisdom that comes with age, but...and maybe this is an American or Western point of view... an individual knows his or her own body and behaviors.
An open letter to Russian Babushki who might know English (haha): NO, for the hundredth time, I am NOT COLD. If I was cold, I would dress warmer so I would not be cold. I am not cold in my running clothes outside because I am running and therefore my body temperature goes up about 20 degrees. And running will not make me get meningitis or infertility or whateveryouclaimimightget. In fact, it is probably part of the reason why I still haven't gotten sick. NO, I am not cold wearing this short-sleeved shirt indoors, BECAUSE IT IS ROOM TEMPERATURE (OR EVEN WARMER) INDOORS. My feet are perfectly fine in these "autumn" boots and I do not need to buy myself "winter" boots... if I were cold, I'd put on thicker socks, and when I am walking my feet warm up anyway. I have a pair of winter boots, but they are too warm to wear inside. And NO, I do not need to wear stockings underneath my pants, at least until it gets to be -30. It is not -30, so why must I dress like it is just because it is by calender winter and at some point at this time of year it has been -30?
And furthermore, dear Babushkas.... No, I am not going to steal your stupid pel'meni (long story). I am perfectly fine walking home from work when it's cold outside, I will not get sick from being outside (it's the opposite, I'd get sick from germs on the marshrutkas), I will not become infertile from doing yoga on the floor (plus, I use a towel, for crying out loud!) An empty wine bottle inside does not mean I will lose all my money, and I will not get bridenapped when I go to the Caucasus.
Get it?!

Ok, enough.

SORT OF ANNOYING.
*Kefir. Not "annoying" because no one has force-fed me this stuff or anything, but how the heck to people drink this stuff? It's gross!
*The assumption that everyone wants cream added to their food.
*The bus driver on the 06:30 bus to Ekaterinburg who played Russian techno music the whole way. I had intended to sleep on this bus. Only "sort of annoying" because at least the music was Russian and not American pop, if I had to listen to Rihanna at 6:30 in the morning or something of the like, I would have jumped out the window and walked to Ekaterinburg. I also figured, that maybe the bus driver played this music so he wouldn't fall asleep at the wheel himself. Understandable.
*Ice skating, and it's popularity. Don't get me wrong... ice skating of course can be fun! I personally prefer to go slowly, or at my own pace, and not in huge crowds of people... and even so, only once in a while, it's not really my thing. In Russia, though, at least in Chelyabinsk, EVERYBODY ice skates. All the time. It's considered strange if you DON'T go ice skating every weekend. Why is this annoying? Because of unpredictable little kids darting around and causing a tripping-over-them hazard, and 13-year-old hockey players sharing the rink with you. So you have to watch out for little kids, hockey pucks, and the occasional hockey stick... not exactly what I call a fun afternoon.
*Pukhoviki. A pukhovik is a kind of Russian winter coat. It is not fur except for the collar, it is just a coat with a texture that looks something like the Michelin tire guy... except it doesn't make you look fat. They are usually long and slender shaped with a belt in the middle, so that even in warm winter clothes, Russian young women still show off their slim figures. People also wear pukhoviki when they go ice skating. I like my dublyonka, it is real fur and very warm and not as bulky looking as the American winter coats, but it does lack the sleekness of the pukhoviki, you cannot distinguish what kind of figure is underneath. I thought from before that wearing a dublyonka and high-heeled boots would make me indistinguishable from other Russians my age, but no... most people my age wear pukhoviki, plus "winter" high-heeled boots, and a hat on top. (Why, if the pukhovik has a fur hood, do you also need a hat?)
*Russian dates. A typical date with a Russian is a movie and a walk in the park... or sometimes, more ice skating. Somebody else correct me if I'm wrong. This kind of date is perfectly fine, I like movies (usually), and I like to go for walks, but for especially a first or second date when you are still getting to know someone, this isn't really what I have in mind. There are some things I like about this difference from American dates where people go to restaurants or something... they cost less money, they don't involve calories and/or being judged on what you do or do not get to eat... but when I want to go on a date with someone and get to know that person, I really need to sit down across from him and make eye contact and have a good conversation. You can't do this in a movie theater, and on a walk...while walking is great... there are too many other distractions, like other people, buildings, cars, cold, and what good a look do you get at someone when they are all bundled up in winter clothing? My ideal kind of date is to go and have a drink (just a glass of wine is enough) at a place where there is music, maybe live music (but not until after meaningful conversation) and dancing. Maybe this is too expensive?

NOT ANNOYING AT ALL (BUT YOU MIGHT THINK THEY WOULD BE)
*The actual temperature. Maybe because it's been a "mild" -15C on average, but the Russian Winter is more invigorating and strength-building than annoying. Once I am dressed right, I feel empowered after having gone running when it is -24 (that's the lowest temperature I have run through so far... about -12F)
*Kyrgyz bureaucrats. They get a 7.5/10 rating for me. I got the visa without any problem, they were quick with doing it and I never had to wait long. Maybe because there was not much going on there. The only issue was, I am pretty sure I am the ONLY female American they have ever in their lives seen come to their consulate in Ekaterinburg for a Kyrgyz tourist visa. I seemed to have blown their minds.
*Speaking Russian. Obviously. I LIKE to speak Russian. And if I get to do so for most of the time outside of English class, even better.
*Class periods/"pary". I used to think that 90 minute classes were long... but they seem to fly by actually.
*Trains. Call me crazy, but I actually like to travel by train. Yes, it's often long. We'll see if this changes after my 52-hour Chelyabinsk-Krasnodar mega-train-ride. But I usually meet interesting people and have an excuse to nap all day or read or do nothing at all.
*Running around a track. Even though it is much more boring than running on a road with hills, it has it's meditative points, and I am just so thankful for this Soviet track that it doesn't matter how boring it is, I'm just glad to have a place to run.
*Culture in general. As I have mentioned many times already, I've adjusted pretty easily. Well..until a Babushka comes around.

December

I really have no name for this next blog entry, so I've decided to title it "December." There are too many things to write about.

Actually, it is a good point to make that it is NOT November. November was kind of a month of inertia... I got into this lull of classes and routines and people canceling things right and left and being bored and stuck in a comfort zone... which has the effect on me that doing anything out of the ordinary seemed like a big scary deal.

This month is the exact opposite. Things are busy. Interesting. Always involving people. Sometimes stressful, in a good way.
One thing that was NOT stressful was... this weekend! I finally made it to a Russian banya.  In the movies, it's when large awkward looking men drink vodka in a sauna and hit each other over with birch sticks. Fortunately, this is was not the case... I went to the sanatorium with two friends- the colleague Volodya and his friend Anton... they are neither large nor awkward looking, we did not drink vodka, and there were no birch sticks involved. It was pure, relaxing fun. The only problem was that sometimes we would argue about which language to speak. Everyone always wants to practice English with me, but if I speak English for too long my Russian gets all messed up.
It was a weekend of freezing cold frozen-lake islands exploration, deep and meaningful conversations, and бесцельные прогульки (aimless walks- something Americans lack. I noted yet another difference...when friends meet up in America, it seems like it always has to be IN or AT some place.. a restaurant or house or something... Russians can just meet up and walk, without a destination. I like this.)

A sanatoria is like a spa, but not necessarily so expensive and fancy. It's just a room or room suite you can rent with access to a sauna and fresh air. This sanatorium was located outside Chebarkul, a small town near the city of Miass, another city in Chelyabinsk Oblast. It's a completely different world, for those who associate Chelyabinsk with only heavy industry and dirty air. The names of the sanatoria are always something like "Sosnovaya Gorka" (sleepy hill- the one we stayed at) "Lesnaya Skazka" (Forest Fairy Tale), "Uralskaya Zorya" (Ural Sunrise).... except there happens to be one sanatoria named "Metallurg." Seriously, only in Chelyabinsk.
Really? A spa named for the metallurgical industry? Images of massages done with broken tractor parts come to mind.

My winter travel adventure is well on its way to being prepared. I have almost all the tickets bought, accommodations discussed about, itineraries brainstormed. This doesn't mean planned out... it means "options are being considered." It's an adventure, not a plan.
The grand general itinerary is.... North Caucasus-Kyrgyzstan-Moscow-Latvia. Which cities in Kyrgyzstan beyond Bishkek and which places in the Caucasus beyond Adygeya are still to be determined and will depend on money, time, willingness of other people, security, and who knows what else. Places in consideration are Nalchik and Dombai in the Caucasus and Osh and Karakol in Kyrgyzstan... Moscow and Riga...this is more obvious.

Yesterday was my first daytrip to Ekaterinburg involving the Kyrgyz visa. Even though this whole process seems very inconvenient, it is actually very lucky that I live so close to Ekaterinburg. First of all, it's a beautiful city (I will take pictures the next time I go), and second of all, it is easy to take a bus there at any time of any day. The Kyrgyz consulate is located near the center of the city, and I worried about getting there too late (as I did with the Russian consulate in New York, where I waited four hours in line only to be told to come back the next day). On the contrary, there was not much of a line at all, only two Kyrgyz families looking to get Russian passports, which is what I imagine most of their work involves. Russians and other CIS citizens do not need visas to go to Kyrgyzstan. I felt pretty weird there, a young blonde who looks like a Russian waiting around in the consulate asking about tourist visas. The people in the office didn't really seem to know what to do; for some reason or other, they don't get many Americans in Ekaterinburg looking for Kyrgyz visas. They did not ask me to leave my passport there, only took copies of my documents and the forms, my payment in cash, and said it will be ready in ten days. If there are any problems, they will call me.
If there are no phone calls from Kyrgyz bureaucrats in the next ten days... then all is well. I will give them a rating of 5 so far. They were polite and not slow, but kind of unsure of what they were doing. If all goes well and I get my visa on time I will boost their Bureaucrat Rating to a 6. In short: There are much, MUCH worse bureaucratic experiences to be had.
Ekaterinburg itself is gorgeous... very Old Russian. Next time when I am more oriented (assuming the visa situation in the consulate won't take too long) I will take the rest of the day to visit a museum or walk more around the center.
Mom, Dad... when this is all over, you are going to have SO MANY MAGNETS.
Definitely worth the 6:30 am bus ride.

As for the North Caucasus trip... it is to begin after Christmas. I will be leaving by train on the 24th and will be spending the entirety of Christmas Day on a train to Krasnodar, where I will meet and stay with an old time Adyghe State University friend Igor. I will then meet a fellow Fulbrighter named Alex and take a bus to Maykop where I will meet more old friends and celebrate the New Year, and then we are looking to travel onward. I'm not sure exactly the plan, but it will involve mountains, friends, music, wine, long road trips, complex languages, and fond memories.

Okay... now rewind for a second to last week. It is worth mentioning the extra three classes I picked up because one of the teachers was sick. These were elementary level classes, where the students knew VERY little English. I was only with them for one period each, but they seemed to be amazed. To be honest, it is a *slightly* uncomfortable feeling for me... I am not used to talking so much about myself and my own life and having it be so interesting for people... usually when people do that, it sounds conceited and self-obsessed. The students, however, were fascinated to here about my life in America, about Oberlin, about long distance running, about Drag Ball, about my friends from all around the world, about the red Volvo I used to drive. We  mostly spoke Russian (I figured, since I was only with them for one class, I might as well call it a cultural lecture instead of language practice, since their level was so low in English) but towards the end these students became more comfortable and could construct some sentences in English.
Who knew that college life was so fascinating!

Food

Something strange happened. Here, living alone in my apartment, I have needed to actually cook for myself, all the time, and.... I like it.

The two things I like to make the most:

PLOV. Rice with some seasoning and spices with random vegetables, and lamb (it's supposed to be lamb but I had chicken) I also add pomegranate seeds. Traditional Uzbek dish.

Ural Sandwiches. I love this. They are delicious and take only about 15 minutes to make. Stir-fried mushrooms with lots of spices (whatever I can find) on a sandwich of Ural'sky Xleb. Best with wine and halva.

Sometimes though, I just make soup by throwing into a pot whatever vegetables I happen to find. Usually more mushrooms and onions and a lot of pepper. It also ends up pretty spicy. Other times I get REALLY lazy and just boil some frozen pel'meni... but unlike the Russians I do not add cream... paprika instead :)

A great weekend.

Enough about the snow and cold. That should be understood by now.

I have mentioned before that I haven't really been experiencing the dreaded "Stage Two Culture Shock", that things have been pretty stable and steady and normal... the only problem was that some days, especially weekends, end up being kind of lonely. It turns out that sometimes there is just a... cycle of cancellations... mozhno skazat'. Someone get's sick, and everyone else's schedule is thrown in a loop. I kept hearing the words "ne poluchitsa" (it's not going to work out) and day after day I was preparing for lessons/meetings/get-togethers and finding myself only turning around and going home. Alone.
Well, people were right, and that... "cycle" seems to have passed, and things have started to pick up again.

I also had felt that I was kind of stuck in a rut... not that anything was wrong or that I was unhappy, necessarily... but I had fallen into a sort of comfort zone, in a negative way. I got stuck in a repetitive routine and every day had been pretty much predictable and unfulfilling. Get up, go running, do my workout, take a shower, do yoga, get ready, eat, go teach a class or prepare for some class and go teach it, come home, maybe stop at the store, think up another lesson plan, eat dinner, waste time on the internet, go to bed. Repeat. I do walk a lot, but I never seem to leave this same 3-kilometer radius (the Center Region and Sovietsky Region of the city).
This isn't Adventurous Helen. This is Boring Helen. It had gotten to the point were any variation of this was some kind of big and scary deal... like needing to go to a store located out of the center. Or calling the Kyrgyz Consulate in Ekaterinburg to ask about the visa pickup times (which I still haven't done yet).
This worries me. How is this winter break going to be the Epic Adventure of a Lifetime if I'm stuck in a rut like this?

I think this weekend things have turned around a bit. A colleague named Larisa invited me over for dinner (Fish, salads, and vodka!) with her family and something felt internally...uplifted. I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe because I was actually out somewhere on a Saturday night after midnight, which hadn't happened yet this month. Maybe because her daughter and I plan to go to a club this next weekend. Maybe because we all sang songs together in Russian and English and other languages. Or because we spoke only in Russian and I felt like I was fluent again (my fluency/proficiency in Russian tends to rise and fall periodically). Or because we talked about more deep, pressing, sensitive topics and found ourselves in agreement from the bottom of our hearts. Or maybe it was the vodka. Who knows.... but something feels like it has turned around.
The next day, a student Anilya came over to record acapella songs in Russian and Bashkir. Finally, some work done on my other project! I'm also working on some music to perform, with Volodya at the dinner on Thursday and sometime in December... we'll be singing Katyusha as a duet.
My neighbors so far have never complained...

Today I received news that my visa is extended and all documents are in order, and tomorrow I will go to the train station and take care of the first leg of the Epic Adventure of a Lifetime... a train ticket from here to Krasnodar, leaving December 24th.
(Yay for all of Christmas Day being spent on a Russian train! Santa can find me somewhere near Volgograd or a Astrakhan or something...)

Also tomorrow... a lecture I need to give in front of students I have never seen. At least it's in English, I may have had to give it in Russian, although we found a person to translate so things can go faster and easier.
Next week, no excuses... KYRGYZ VISA TIME.

Progress is being made.

On winter, cold, and snow.

Today was rather mild. It was about -5C, or 23F.
The same cannot be said about last weekend, when the temperature dipped to -16... or very close to 0 degrees Fahrenheit.
Did I mention it is only November... and therefore not even actually winter?

The first snow fell on October 18th and has stuck around ever since. The entire city is covered in at least three inches of snow and it is not going anywhere until April.
This doesn't bother me, though. This is what I expected. It's RUSSIA. Russia has a COLD CLIMATE. Sometimes Russians will try to tell you that it's all a stereotype, that Russia is not actually all about snow and cold and fur hats... but in reality, 9 months of the year, it IS.
Even Sochi, the vacation place, the "warm" climate there is about the same as New York. In the winter, it snows there too. The south of Russia is no Florida... it's not tropical... and when you consider the high altitude there... forget it.

My dear home, Chelyabinsk, is exactly your typical cold Russian city. In January, it can get as cold as -35, and has gotten as cold as -40 (the convergence temperature, it doesn't matter whether it is F or C).

Now we have the debate of whether or not I am in Siberia. Technically, I am, since in the broad definition, Siberia is the land to the east of the Urals. If you ask most people, however, I am most certainly NOT in Siberia, I am in the "South Ural" region.. Siberia would begin in Tyumen or something.

This reminds me of another geographic oddity... Russian relation to mountain ranges. I guess that, Russia being an enormous country, everything is all relative... so, even though it takes a three hour drive to see any mountains, Chelyabinsk is "на Урале" (literally, "on the Ural"). I remember that Maykop (Adygeya) is considered на Кавказе, even though you can't really see any mountains from the city, but I figured this meant that it was undoubtedly Caucasian with respect to culture....but really, to call Chelyabinsk a city in the Urals would be like saying my house was in the Berkshires (again, a three hour drive away). Even so, everything, from  хлеб (bread) to banks to snowboards to shopping malls/you name it.. is "Ural'sky". Nobody calls this place "Siberia."
A friend the other day said that technically, the border of the Siberian Plane is actually located in Chelyabinsk Oblast, about an hour East of the city.

Siberia or not... it doesn't matter. This place is COLD. And it's only getting colder.

Along with the cold weather comes some perplexing cultural differences... and привычки (habits).
So. Last weekend it was -13.
Me: It's time to wear the dublenka (Fur coat. sometimes I call it a shuba, although its not actually a shuba... a shuba has fur on the outside, a dublenka has fur on the inside and the hood)
Russians: It's only November, it's too early to wear a dublenka.

Yesterday. It was only -3.
Me: I still wear the dublenka, but over only a short sleeved dress and without a scarf or mittens. I'm fine.
Russians: Aren't you freezing? You have no scarf!

Yes, outside it's cold, but inside it's still room temperature, or even warmer.
Me: I'll take off my warmer layers. If it's warm inside, I can wear short sleeves like normal.
Russians: Aren't you freezing? It's so cold outside!
Me: But I'm inside!
Russians: And why do you walk all the way home in the cold? Why don't you take the bus? You are going to get sick!
Me: Cold weather doesn't make you sick, being around sick people makes you sick!

Let's not even go there with the babushkas that see me in my running clothes. My running clothes, these days, consist of:
Spandex pants
A short sleeve shirt or sports top
A long sleeve Under-Armor running shirt
A shapka-ushanka (looks goofy, but something has to prevent frostbite on my ears)
A sweatshirt, which I remove when I get to the track.

But no scarf or gloves and especially no fur coats are necessary when running.... but I'm not even going to try to explain to the babushki how when you run, the temperature feels ten to twenty degrees warmer.

It's never a good idea to argue with a babushka... but we'll keep score this way. (The score being the argument over whether or not exposure to cold weather is the actual cause of getting sick) People are getting sick left and right. Everyone I know who works or goes to the university has been sick at least once.... but not me (knock on wood). Not even a cold. My guess is because I live alone (and not in a dormitory), I don't spend all day in the university around sick people, and I walk usually instead of ride buses or marshrutkas crowded with germs. I maintain a healthy lifestyle... and it has nothing to do with whether or not I wore a scarf today.

Don't get me wrong... I'm not saying that being around people is gross, or that people or gross, or that I don't feel bad when someone is sick. I just think that it has much less to do with the number of layers you pile on both outdoors and indoors than people want to think.

Russia from a Distance Runner's Perspective

I found a place to go running!

Be careful of forest fires.

 The pond.

I decided to start this post with these nice pictures. But don't be fooled... running in Chelyabinsk (and Russia in general) is not a simple and beautiful as this might suggest.
First, I chose a sunny day to take these pictures. The sun maybe comes out once a week here.
Second, its only realistic to run here on the weekends, for my long run. It is a short bus ride or a long walk away... so not really practical for the mornings before class.
Third, this park seemed big enough...the first two days I ran here, when I didn't know my way. Now, the reality has set in that these nice, windy paths that look like they are far from the urban bustle...just end up right back onto the city roads if you follow them for more than ten minutes. Any decent long run requires retracing your routes at least twice.

This is where I run most mornings.

:) I love my Soviet track!

Really, I am so lucky to have this right next to my apartment. Otherwise, I don't think I would keep up my running much at all, or it might be extremely inconvenient.

This week during orientation in Moscow (I guess I am supposed to dedicate a blog post to Moscow eventually... it's not my favorite city in the world, but obviously this weekend was worth mentioning) we had to listen to yet another lecture about culture shock, how it happens to everyone, how it is unavoidable... etc...
I do not want to try and say I am some kind of exception to the rule..of course not... I just never noticed the four-stage pattern that everyone talks about. There does not appear to be a "honeymoon phase" or a "depression phase"... in Chelyabinsk at least, I have been pretty much even keel all the way through... some days are better than others, but nothing looks skewed out of proportion. Moscow, two years ago, was a lot harder to adjust, but this year, I am settled in and everything just feels like life as normal, just in another place.
That is kind of how I operate, I guess. I live in different places, and make the adjustments accordingly... but life is still just life, I am still myself..

That said. The NUMBER ONE, MAJOR thing I miss, or that is difficult for me living here: Running.
Russian women don't run. Sometimes when I mention to someone that I am going running, they answer "from what?" Even on the Soviet track nearby, which seems to have a gym class take place there every morning... there are guys that jog around it and then go play soccer, but the girls, they usually either jog for 50 meters and then go back to walking and talking with their friends, or they don't bother trying to run at all. They are even sometimes dressed in boots and stockings and fur coats.
Anyone who knows me at all knows that I am a distance runner. I never claim to be the fastest on any team... my times were "respectable" when I was competing (5K time was 19:56) but really, I run now not out of competition but out of pure addiction. I have been doing this for nine years. My weekly mileage has been between 30 and 55 miles, this summer I tried to reach as high as 60 although my legs pretty much rejected that idea. I figure my summer training is around 80 kilometers per week.
My favorite...or maybe top 5... things to do in all of life is to go on a 15 mile run during a cool, dry August evening, during a beautiful sunset...at a moderate, 7:40 per mile pace, listening to the best of Caucasian mountain music, increasing the pace up my own hills.
In Russia, it's not that much of a letdown to make do with a Soviet track and a medium-sized park. In fact, one of the things I liked about running on long, hilly roads back home was that I could mentally "escape" from my hometown and picture myself in some faraway land... and now, here I am in a faraway land.
In the park, by the way, running is not so weird... it does feel weird on the way to and from the park, dressed in running clothes, but it's worth the 20 minutes of bracing myself on the bus and ignoring the well-dressed people who surround me to start the run in the small forest, which does look distinctly Russian. There are others running, especially on nice days, and I even encountered one person who was actually faster than me!
On the track however, I am certainly puzzling to people. I kind of enjoy this. For one, I sometimes take off my pullover and am in just the short-sleeve athletic shirt... something unheard of to everyone else. Here, if it is not summer, because it is Russia, everyone is dressed in winter clothes from head to toe. It is as if the concept of warming up from athletic activity does not exist.
Second, I am a girl and I run fast and for a long time... also unheard of.
Track "etiquette' does not exist here. What is supposed to happen is when someone runs faster than you, you let them pass you, or if you are walking you use the outer lanes to let the people doing a workout have the inner lanes. Here, this is not the case. It would not be a problem if the walkers just kept walking, and I would pass them just as I would pass a standing obstacle.. .but instead, they turn around with a bewildered look on their faces, and actually end up getting more in the way than they were before.
This doesn't really bother me, it's kind of amusing.

I haven't really gotten to the non-awkwardness level of being able to run the opposite direction around the track. I normally do that in order to make sure my skeleton remains aligned. 20 circles every morning in the same direction can make my hips uneven, but if I were to try to even this out, it would certainly be a revolution. Russia's not a place that makes it easy to go against the grain, literally.

Now I seem to face yet another obstacle: Snow. Of course, having gone to school in Oberlin, I certainly know what running in the snow is like.. but that's a place where it is okay to run on roads that are occasionally plowed. I am assuming here that nobody is going to plow the track, so my running season will end as soon as the snow gets too high to trudge through. Right now, there is about two centimeters of snow covering the ground.... but it's only October.
It's also worth mentioning that my first time running around the track in the snow, yesterday morning... went not without a few major wipeouts from the slipperiness... fortunately, it was not embarrassing, because only one other person was crazy enough to also be there at the track.
I also enjoy the irony of seeing people smoking on the side of the athletic stadium.

On Sundays, I take a short bus ride to Park Gagarin, where I do my long run (about 80 minutes... 20 songs) which is the pretty place pictured above. I have yet to try it in the snow, but hopefully it will хватит...