Random Thoughts

Saturday afternoon. Bored. Why? Never be bored. Find something to do. Blog; go buy an umbrella; finish your laundry. Do some work for school next week...wait, work on the weekend? What? Well, I guess I'll blog. Sounds more fun than anything else. I don't really know what to say; nothing but random thoughts run through my head.



I bought "Evgeny Onegin" on an audio CD last night at a Russian bookstore. It's in Russian of course and I am so excited. I broke the plastic wrapping on it this morning and listened along as I read my English translation. Oh, how I wish I had brought my other copy of it in Russian. Why oh why didn't I?

I was really upset with Mark Zuckerberg yesterday as I was watching "Social Network" at the theatres. What he did to his co-founder...mean. But by the end of the film I guess I didn't dislike him so much. I guess I'll keep my facebook page up.

My housemate, Ella, made delicious borscht the other night. Best I've yet had in Russia.



I just agreed to tutor a 5th grade Ukranian boy in writing and a little in math. He is attending the Anglo-American school and I guess is really struggling. I heard about the job through a friend of mine who works at that school. So I will be working with this kid at least twice a week. Crazy what you can charge for tutoring in this city. Here I come Sallie Mae--I'll kick you to the curb so fast...

One of the classes I teach is 5th grade conversation. My school is on the IB program and so I teach conversation within a theme of inquiry. These next two months they are inquiring into the universe/space. So I get to teach all about the planets, NASA, and everything that is so cool about space. Teaching friends--are you jealous? You should be. I am having so much fun with it. I've spent so much time lately researching cool topics that interest me, then I boil them down to the basic ESL 5th grade level, and have some fun!!

Vacuum is very cool in particular. Who knew that vacuum theory/technology was so difficult to get your brain around? And black holes? And brown dwarfs? And binary stars? And plasma propulsion? And there is some really cool stuff you can see in infrared! I love it! For being so bad at science when I was in high school, I am surprised at how interesting it all is. It makes me wish I'd taken a physics class (even from Kamesh Sankaran...as killer hard as that would have been).

The weather in Moscow is very strangely warm lately. And by warm I just mean that I'm not bundled up to my nose in down and fur, but can wear a normal wool coat and shoes instead. This is probably the calm before the storm--Moscovites say it will get bitter cold very fast.

I eat too much chocolate in this country. Back in America, eating one piece of chocolate in a month was normal. Now I probably eat a piece (or more) every day...eek! But they are always bringing it to you at school. Every time I turn around someone has put more chocolate on my desk. And someone seems to always have a birthday. In Russia, when it is your birthday, you provide a party and bring all the cakes, chocolate, and fruit to your co-workers. There is just always too much chocolate and sweets available. The best chocolate in all of Russia, in my opinion, is the little Alyonka bar. So simple, and yet simply the best you'll ever eat!



I finished the book I have been reading since I arrived, "The Portrait of a Lady" by Henry James. It was interesting, but the ending was strange and not my favorite. I think I had higher expectations of it, but alas, it is what it is. Being as I am so similar to Isabel Archer in some ways, I hope I won't make some of the stupid choices she did. By reading about her life though, maybe I learned some things about myself, which is one of the best things you can hope for from a book.



Anyway, as you can tell I had a ton of random thoughts today. I do have a lot of stuff to tell about Helsinki still. I will get around to it one of these days. But for now, I am going to do some errands and hopefully go buy that umbrella.

Paka!