Yesterday, I was walking home from school when I saw this tree standing poudly in the park. All the other trees around had already shed their leaves in resignation to winter, yet this one held on. Though too weak to stop them from turning yellow, he’s keeping his leaves as long as he can.
In Russia, you need a flashlight, even during the day. A couple of minutes ago the lights went out in my room. This happens far more often than I find acceptable. Fortunately, my room is broken up into two circuits, one for the lights, refrigerator, and stove, and one for the rest of the room. So I can still use my computer. Now, however, I have to wait for someone to reset the circuit breakers until I can have lights or warm food.
I think this happens because some stupid kids plug too many damn things into their sockets. I live on the foreigner floor, where most of the people are drunk twenty four hours a day, and I’ve seen all the electronics they have packed in to their rooms. It seems to me that they haven’t taken into account that this is a Russian building, and probably can’t bear the load of their electric tea kettle, microwave, toaster, stereo, computer, speakers, lamp, hair dryer, curling iron, clothes iron, waffle iron, alarm clock, television, dvd player, cell phone charger, and desk water fountain.
As a result, if I want to do anything in the bathroom, like get ready for the day, I need to use my flashlight. Joy.
With everything that’s happened these past six months, I think it’s pretty clear that my immune system is sub par. Well, I’m coming down with a cold. Actually, I think/hope that I’m already in the getting better phase. I think it started with the plane ride, because on Wednesday morning I woke up with a sore throat. Yesterday was pretty bad, but today’s a lot better. A bunch of friends want to have another party at Lake Ladoga this Sunday. I specifically brought marshmellows over from the States so we could roast them on the shore. Marshmellows don’t exist in Russia, and we figured that roasting them is about as American as anything. I’m still not sure if I’m going or not, we’ll see how I feel on Sunday morning. It’s already cold, and I don’t think that a day on the beach would do me any favors.
I’m finally back in Russia, I arrived here on Tuesday. It was the most pleasant trans-atlantic flight I’ve ever had. The plane from LA to Paris was literally only one third full. Practically everyone had an entire row to themselves, including me. That meant that I could lay down and actually sleep. Even without this stroke of luck, Air France is by far my favorite airline. Decent food, decent legroom, and really hot stewardesses.
Jet lag coming from the US to Europe has never been a problem for me. I usually spend 20 hours traveling, and arrive at night, which means I can just go to bed. If I go to bed when I should, adjusting to their schedule isn’t really all that difficult. Coming back, however, is hell. After 20 hours of travel, I usually arrive three hours after I left, which is usually early in the day, so I still have another 9 - 10 hours of staying awake.
For what it’s worth:
Russians Most Miserable People in the World, Second Only to People of Zimbabwe
Research shows that citizens of ex-Soviet countries are the most unhappy people in the world.
The organization World Values Survey has surveyed 81 countries, asking people to evaluate their level of happiness and satisfaction with life. Citizens of Russia and the former republics of the USSR are on the bottom of the list, ahead only of Zimbabwe.
Contrary to popular belief, economic wellbeing is not a key factor in ones happiness. People from developing countries, Mexico and Puerto Rico, reported to enjoy their lives the most. Others from the top five include Columbia, Ireland, and the Netherlands. The United States ranks 15th.
Russia and the CIS are at the very bottom of the list. Russia is 78th, Armenia is 79th, Ukraine is second to last, 80th.
Crap, I want to study in Ukraine next year. In my brief, one-week experience, Ukrainians tended to be pretty jovial people. In fact, they tended to be more friendly and welcoming than Russians.
This is me, last January, standing on the Neva river. Normally it looks something like this. In winter it freezes over, and I was told that you could walk across it. Being the idiot that I am, an Aussie friend and I decided to try. We inched our way, fearing that the next step would send us plunging into it’s depths. We got halfway when we saw this broken path (behind me). We threw some snowballs in, which quickly melted. I was up for trying to walk across anyways, but my friend forcefully held me back 
The skyline behind me contains some of Piter’s most famous landmarks. The big green building on the left is the Hermitage, the yellow building with the spire is the Admiralty, the Russian Naval Academy; and the golden doe sits atop St. Issac’s Cathedral.
I always knew we were smarter, apparently we’re also better lovers:
American Sex Lives 2004, a new “Primetime Live” sex poll conducted in conjunction with the ABC News Polling Unit, is among the most comprehensive surveys of its kind in decades and establishes a new, detailed picture of sex attitudes and behavior in America today.
Of those involved in a committed relationship, who is very satisfied with their relationship?
Republicans 87 percent; Democrats 76 percentWho is very satisfied with their sex life?
Republicans 56 percent; Democrats 47 percentThe poll analysis also reveals who has worn something sexy to enhance their sex life:
Republicans 72 percent; Democrats 62 percentWhen asked whether they had ever faked an orgasm, more Democrats (33 percent) than Republicans (26 percent) said they had.
Who knew John Kerry was a kindred spirit?
Spirituality is important to me. I’ve always felt that we humans are insignificant maggots scuttling across the muck of the universe, and that life itself is just a meaningless moment of agony between the suffocating stench of the womb and the foul decay of the grave.
When it rains, it pours.
As if the past six weeks haven’t been bad enough, fate throws something else into the mix. Some of my teeth have been hurting recently, and today I went into the dentist. I need to get one of my wisdom teeth removed.
Apparently, some time ago, I chipped a piece off, and for the past however long, evertime I’ve eaten, pieces of food have used it as a hiding place. Brushing and flossing didn’t get them out, so they’ve just sat there, eating away at my tooth from the inside. They’ve finally made their way to the nerve, and now I’m starting to feel it.
I have an appointment tomorrow for the surgery. One week after having neck surgery, I will again be going under general anasthesia, and will have several days of painful recovery. Fantastic. I hate general. Last week was the first time, but I’ve had my fill. I was apparently rather physical coming out last time, and all I remember was being scared and claustrophobic when transitioning to full conciousness.
And the icing on the cake is that both times my main recovery has been on the weekend, the only time I could have seen my friends. By the time I’m feeling decent enough to move, the weekend’s already gone.
Painful neck, permanent nerve damage, tooth removal … Life sucks. But one thing I’m learning is that it can always get worse, so we shouldn’t complain too much.
Update: It was all done under local, and over in about four minutes. Now I’ve got gauze in my mouth, and vicodin in my veins.
My first year at UCLA, I signed up for a class in Jewish Mysticism, taught by a visiting scholar from Israel. It seemed interesting enough, and had a great “cool” factor. After the first couple of weeks, however, it all seemed like crazy talk, and I dropped it in favor of something else. I’m glad to see that I’m not the only one who thinks it so incoherent:
First, some introductions. The greatest scholar and historian of kabbalah in this century was the late Professor Gershom Scholem of Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Professor Saul Lieberman is the great Talmud scholar of the Jewish Theological Seminary.
In an introduction to a lecture Scholem delivered at the seminary, Lieberman said that several years earlier, some students asked to have a course here in which they could study kabbalistic texts. He had told them that it was not possible, but if they wished they could have a course on the history of kabbalah. For at a university, Lieberman said, “it is forbidden to have a course in nonsense. But the history of nonsense, that is scholarship.”
However, I stil understand the sentiment expressed by Rabbi Abraham Chen, before a seminar of Scholem’s students: “A scholar of mysticism is like an accountant: He may know where all the treasure is, but he is not free to use it.”
BTW: The Jewish Virtual Library is a fantastic resource on all things connected to Judaism, and it’s hyperlinked like the Wikipedia. Which means that it, too, can make me lose track of hours.
John Kerry, in the first debate, made mention to the fact that the coalition was only the US, the UK, and Australia. Furthmore, he has consistently referred to it as a coalition of the coerced and bribed. I find this attitude extremely disrespectful, as if the only countries in the world worth recognizing are France and Germany. Just to set the record straight, the following countries have all lost soldiers in Iraq, and they should be recognized for their sacrifices :
Australia
Bulgaria
Denmark
Estonia
Hungary
Italy
Latvia
The Netherlands
Poland
El Salvador
Slovakia
Spain
Thailand
The Ukraine
The United Kingdom
