And the summer cold has spontaneously resolved ... mostly

Just a brief blog posting as I may not have to time post anything for a bit.  My summer cold that caused the most pinching laryngitis you can think of basically up and left!  Largely.  I hope that my rhinoviral friend is not just taking some time off because he feels that he has accumulated employee-entitled leave.  I think that he cleaned out his cubicle and set up shop elsewhere.  Preferably with any student of mine who has refuses to do their homework. >:)

But in my sick spell, I learned that there is more than one way to spread a virus or some bacteria to your fellow human being.  Rather than coughing on or carnally enrapturing them, you can also buy the disease, fungus, bacteria or virus for them at http://www.giantmicrobes.com/ !  Washable toys that are home and office-friendly (as long you say they're something else ... tehe) and something that's a part of the human experience!  Who says germs and the like are so bad??

My personal favorite is Polio here.  Classic 1950s -- around when hula hooping was a sport and Frank Lloyd Wright was architecturally edgy!  Iron lung costs extra.

E. coli -- not the best weight loss supplement, fyi.

Avian Flu -- making the mid 2000s Asian-viruses chic, like Ang Lee movies, Korean dramas, or classic Godzilla.

Chicken pox -- A childhood favorite, for me circa 1988 at age 6.

Chlamydia -- we've all had those one night college mistakes.

The Common Cold -- timeless ... and always will be.

Ebola -- African themes and primitivism go in and out of style.

Herpes -- reminding us to be careful under the mistletoe come the holiday season...

Penicillin --Fear not!  They even have some good guys!

Salmonella -- because you can never overcook that "chicken " you bought at the pan-Asian supermarket.

Well, that's it for now.  We will never be disease-free, but we can certainly enjoy life ... or have to work away in spite of them.

Summer colds and good times

Summer in Moscow has been going well.  I'm busy with work, making money and not in a completely broken, dysfunctional place.  And you'd think that I might be saying otherwise.  I have had the worst laryngitis I can remember after catching the Moscow-summer-energy-draining cold, which is not good if you're a teacher.  I've also had tons of teaching hours at different locations and get home feeling deader than John McCain's chances at ever becoming president of the United States.  I've even had my hot water turned off for a week due to annual maintenance by the Moscow municipal authorities.  Yet, I'm actually upbeat.  Though, I must say that I want this cold to go away NOW and that alcoholic consumption doesn't help it.

Depending on our students, we all need this from time to time.

Seriously.  Beer can actually make a cold worse (though a shot of pure vodka make actually have antiseptic benefits).  Why, I don't know, but I assume it's because you begin to ramble on when you're trashed further damaging your throat.  And with all the things there are to complain about in Russia, being dry is like trying to train for an Olympic sport!

But Moscow in the summer is not just about enjoying your booze before you think about where you want to go for the weekend.  It's also about hanging out some of the many parks!  Again, I live across from one of the best in Moscow and have made it a habit to take a stroll through it at least once a week.  I don't want to take it for granted before heading back to Petersburg where there is a dearth of many parks even half as civilized.

Ahh, summer rays on summer days.

And yes, there are definitely worse times and worse places to be working off a cold that refuses to be defeated. :)

Feeling renewed in Moscow

After being back in Moscow for a week, I can say unequivocally that my life is better here than in Petersburg.

And so I shall do one of my favorite things:  enumerate why!

1) It's cleaner
2) The people are more normal (and there are honestly fewer lower class, from-a-different planet types too).
3) Personal space is a little bit more respected.
4) Far fewer alcoholics out and about.
5) IT'S CLEANER!
6) Work and money are actually valued and sought after.
7) There's less arrogance (Ouch...)
8) Sunrise isn't as ungodly early.
9) People don't stand in the f^cking way on the street, escalators, etc. without making any visible effort to move.
10) Living conditions are better
11) THINGS WORK MORE!  I can't tell you how annoying it was to see ATMS and other computerized screens with "Ne rabotaet" on them in the Kultural Kapital.
12) People p1ss in public less -- like, not right in front of you.

At Finlyandsky Vokzal -- On the train tracks too! 

13) Moscow isn't some regionally bifurcated place and it's easy to escape to some other area that's decent;  in Pburg it's the Center (and even then at times ...) and the crack littered ghettos.
14) Far less at-talking!
15) More greenery.

Although to be fair, there are some clean (!) green spaces in Petersburg that attract a nice "clientele ".  Just past Sennaya Ploshchad' Metro, Yusupovsky Sad is a good place to relax as the days get warmer.

16) Far fewer mosquitoes.
17) Fewer Neo-nazi, skinheads.
18) Less teen/young pregnancy.
19) Far, far, far fewer broken windows!
20) The cars are in better condition.

Outside my apartment on Vladimirsky.  These are a dime a dozen here.

Okay, I'll stop for now.  I typed that list in less than ten minutes so imagine had that been an hour!  But I guess the most important point I want to make, is that I am glad to be back and out of Petersburg.  No place is perfect, but I have motivation and respect for my surroundings, something I don't have much of in Petersburg.  In fact, I can probably count the number of times on my hand, one of which was my last day there!  Oh, and another time was when I was on Dvortsovy Ploshchad' and saw, extremely uncharacteristic for the city, a little bit of cultural diversity.  I could only find one picture from that time, but it says something.

In the Soviet Union, this would have been unthinkable and in any part of Russia today, it's certainly the odd sight.  Of course, the bulk of today's racism, is sadly aimed at Central Asian and Caucasian people.

Now that I'm in Moscow, I can just be.  I don't have to make a concerted effort to look on the bright side.  I don't have to tell myself it's not that bad.  I don't have to walk around the city taking pictures of the place as if it were a crime scene.  And, even to be even more brutally honest, I don't have to put up with being in a broken city that is at least ten years behind its more accomplished sister.  Petersburg doesn't even have a world famous pop tribute to it either -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPRxoncWiSA.

Plus, I'm staying across from this wonderful park.  What more can I ask for? :)

Church of the Ascension -- Kolomenskoye Reserve, Moscow

Estonian break time, part IV -- An impromptu return!

Greetings, viewers.  I am writing to you from Moscow in much better spirits because I know that I am not trapped somewhere I don't want to be in the summer.  I finally managed to leave Petersburg, but it wasn't exactly an enjoyable departure.  I had a big suitcase and the dedushka who was in the same compartment as I tried to scold me about it!  Well, let's just say I had to re-educate this old man a little bit and that he eventually understood *very clearly* that his bygone method of smothering everyone in his presence was little more than a f^cking nuisance.  Of course, that didn't stop him from blabbering to , no, I mean AT, everyone in the compartment of stories about his past and the how great the White Nights are.  In other words, THINGS WE ALL DEMONSTRABLY COULD NOT HAVE CARED LESS ABOUT HEARING BASED ON OUR FACIAL EXPRESSIONS AND NON-RESPONSIVENESS ALONE!

I actually like a little bit of darkness at night, not Petersburg sunrises that say 4:40AM, but really brighten an hour earlier with various birds as alarm clocks.  Yes, little sparrow we know you have to be the first to find a worm and regurgitate it into the inchoate little beaks of your offspring; yes, gull family we all understand that you have to be the first the to rummage through the countless piles of Petersburgian trash and fecal products.  Yet, in all my frustration with Father Time on the train talking as if it were his civic duty, he actually tucked the 40 year-old man in the bunk below into bed me as if he were five.  I, however, rebelliously sat up, texting and surfing the net on my phone like a teenager.  To the dedushka, I was a lost cause.

But from Moscow, I can tell you about how I returned to Estonia.  I was back in Petersburg for about two weeks.  I had spare time because 1) I had to wait for my replacement ATM card to be shipped and 2) my classes were over.  In the back of my mind, I kept on thinking should I really have come back?  Is toughing it out really a good thing?  I tried to answer those questions affirmatively, but I had that lingering feeling that I should just dart out again.  I think what really tipped the scales for me was attending a visit by the esteemed Governor of Saint Petersburg, Valentina Ivanova Matviyenko to my university ... and how falsely imperious Petersburg leadership was presenting itself to me firsthand.  It was like they still thought, "Well, Petersburg is named after a tsar, so I think I'll be one too!"

Oh, Ms. Matviyenko you say the funniest things!

Exiting for more important matters.

Map of Narva ... by the way, you can walk to Russia!

After seeing yet another aspect of Petersburg that made me want to see the canals overflow and submerge the city, I just had to leave again.  I bought a bus ticket to Narva, the mysteriously interesting border city that is just barely in Estonia.  With most people speaking Russian, Narva has been a strategically important place in  throughout history for wars with the Germans, Swedes, Russians, Danes, etc.  Nowadays, it is a peaceful place with a river that separates it and Ivangorod, Russia.  When you walk around Narva, it's strange to see Russia only a few meters away.  And with Narva-Herrmann Castle and Ivangorod Fortress adjacent to each other, it's perhaps the coolest, most fascinating border crossing there is.

Many Russians who live in Narva walk in and out of the two countries almost every other day.  And since I had a multiple entry Russian visa, I thought I might as well too.  In fact, the border crossing seemed like one big happy village!  Neighbors in Narva or Ivangorod would often run into each and say hi as they were crossing the border, sometimes in opposite directions!  I couldn't help thinking how this would be next to impossible between the United States and Mexico, among other places.

All this harmonious border crossing aside, my time in Narva was best defined by castle viewing.  The imagery was almost fairy tale like, even, as I described to my friend, semi-ethereal when looking at the medieval buildings amongst the landscape.  And then there was simply the surreal feeling of looking at Estonia and Russia at the same time.

Narva, Estonia (left) & Ivangorod, Russia (right).  As I will continue to say, the coolest border crossing ever.

From Narva-Herrmann Castle -- The dandelions of Estonia in the foreground, Ivangorod fortress in the background.

Stunning view of Ivangorod Fortress from atop Narva-Herrmann Castle

Narva-Herrmann Castle

Inside Ivangorod Fortress -- spring has sprung

Inside Ivangorod Fortress

Russia (left), Estonia (right) separated by the Narva

I had to end my castletime fun in Narva and head back to Petersburg ... wait, no, who am I kidding?  I decided to spend one last night in Estonia and took the bus in the opposite direction to Tallinn instead!  If it's one thing living in Petersburg has taught me, it has been to drag my feet and procrastinate like there's no tomorrow (or should that be "to procrastinate like there's a tomorrow and another and another and another, etc.?).  I got to Tallinn and decided to 1) see Kadriorg Palace which I didn't last time and 2) stroll, meander, and be merry with copious amounts of red wine in Old Town till X hours in the morning.

Kadriorg Palace, Estonian National Art Museum

Kadriorg Palace -- drama of the historical kind

Old Town Tallinn -- Street performers love touching tourists...

Old Town Tallinn -- Jewelry for your pet

Old Town Tallinn -- About halfway through my wine consumption at around 11:30PM

Tallinn -- shopping carts and Soviet architecture.  After my wine consumption

The next morning, I did actually head back to Petersburg and despite an 18hr, super intensive hangover from well over ten glasses of red wine, -- which has allowed me to self-impose a temporary moratorium on anything containing alcohol -- the bus ride back was fast and enjoyable.  I got my Estonian high and the fact that I only had a couple days left in Petersburg before breaking for the summer made me not dread returning.  For this, I sincerely thank Tallinn and Estonia, and see that they have now become a spot of refuge when the Kultural Kapital gets me down.

A brief interlude -- on leaving Petersburg for the summer

Before I get to part IV of my Estonian trek, I just have to write a brief blog saying that this is my last day in Petersburg until I return in August.  I will be back down in my beloved Moscow!  But before you think this entry is going to be some sort wish to see Petersburg and her yokels sink rapidly into the Neva as I depart only to look behind me at the submerged destruction, you're wrong.

My last day in Petersburg was a good day.  In fact, it was a really nice day, something that I have rarely experienced here.  It included a boat tour, a satisfying dark, Czech beer, balmy temperatures and pleasant company.  While this wonderful day has not made me magically enamored with or even begin to like St. Petersburg, it did allow me to be able to leave the city on a high note.  Moreover, I was able to look at the buildings and places that I had walked by in the frigid winter, unhappy and scornful, in a different, more conciliatory light.  In my eyes, they had transformed into pieces of architecture enjoyed by their spectators and not just prison like facilities reminding me of Petersburgian disrepair.

My time here has been challenging and best described as an all too often slow-burning malaise.  Not today though.  Today, I was truly ready to come to terms with this place, however momentary.  And I am proud to say that my earlier memory of Petersburg when I came here on a freezing, late January night ...

The "lobby " of where I first lived (read:  Siege of Leningrad $h1t-hole)

... can't compete with my latest one on this spectacular early June day ...

Being led by Popeye on our boat tour.  Kazansky Cathedral to welcome us.

And I leave the summer to you, Petersburg.  May your White Nights be enjoyed by people other than I and may our truce be glorious.  Poka.