From Russia, with love...and apologies to 007

So...clearly I'm awesome at this "travel blog" thing, haha. Internet is pretty accessible, but finding a good time to use it is not...so here I am, a week and a half into my trip and just writing about the beginnings of it...Here's my luggage, while waiting for the bus that started my journey (an hour late, I might add!):

MC dubbed it 'the turtle' and the name stuck. I kind of adore it. Speaking of MC, he gracefully hosted me for a day in Chicago before I took off on a 20+ hour homelessness adventure. By gracefully hosted, I mean he made me a steak smiley face:
Then he made fun of it:
After that lovely dinner and a day of walking about Chicago, and sushi with the everyone (which I neglected to take pictures of because I fail, mostly), I got up at fucking 5 AM to go to O'Hare and fly to Atlanta, and thence to Moscow. Besides the usual, it was pretty uneventful...checked in, checked luggage, had a coffee, security, hour long wait for my flight. Bah. Stalkerishly watched a mom with two adorable little boys, 4 and I'm guessing 1 1/2 years old (because they were adorable!!!) while reading Dance with Dragons. Slowly. Flight to ATL was 2 hours, and not chock-full, which was nice. Mom with the two boys sat in front of me and managed to control them impressively well. (Having had little sisters, I remember how difficult it is to keep a handle on little kids in-flight). To my surprise, I started passing out toward the end of the flight and actually missed landing! Which is one of my favorite parts :( Oh well.

Atlanta airport is HUMONGOUS. The terminal had 5 sections (A-E)...I had to go through all of them (A-E) to make my connection). I walked from A to B...then I got tired/nervous about getting there on time and grabbed the train. (They had shuttle things coming by every minute or two.) Finally got to E-wing, found my gate, wandered around a bit, grabbed a food. Tables in the food court were decorated with pretty flowers:

Hallway in the airport was decorated with dresses made out of recycled materials:

Those were my two favorites. :) Made of plastic bags and bottles. There were others that were paper, etc. Anyway, I got to my gate, waited a half hour, boarded, and sat on a plane for 10 hours. Sunrise:

Delta wasn't as terrible to fly as people would have had me believe...true, no modern conveniences like power outlets or internet, or free alcohol, but the flight attendants were super nice and the flight was half empty so I had two seats to myself. They also cleverly served breakfast and coffee right before landing, so I arrived in Moscow feeling fresh and alert and ready for adventures. Quickly found the express train to the city that my parents had told me about. My mom had also warned me not to pass out when I got on it; I found out why:

It was NICE! The ticket was like 11.50 for a 40 minute ride, though...Impressively quick for that ride, though, so it's worth it. First impressions: Russian cars, people selling veggies at the elektrichka stations (sort of like metra, commuter trains), little country houses (dachas), a group of goats, giant piles of trash, and graffiti. Also, old-school and new-school Russian block apartment buildings:

They looked really shabby to me on first glance (and some of them actually are) but mostly it was just open windows (windows here actually open, guys!) and laundry drying on balconies that gave this impression (dryers are considered a huge luxury here, even well-to-do people dry their laundry on a line on the balcony). So really, things aren't as bad as I first thought, haha.

My next stop was the "Belorusskiy vokzal" or Belarus Station to take an elektrichka a few stops, then catch a marshrutka or "route taxi" to my grandma's. These 'taxis' run along existing bus routes (or their own routes that don't follow bus routes) and are actually cheaper than bus fare by a few rubles! They aren't taxis in your typical sense, and sometimes they seem kind of sketchy. But I've discovered that a lot of things I would think are sketchy (taxis, kiosks, smaller shops) are actually standard here. So, here's the train station sign and here's the elektrichka.

Going to go spend family time now with cousins, my further adventures will follow another day ;)

63.7 miles: Watching paint dry...plus blog redirection.

Hello all! I am watching paint dry. This is my job. Actually, I tried to pawn it off on a lab undergrad, but he had to go to class. :\ And the other undergrad I could/was going to pawn it off to is off with one of the other students on his usual project. So...I'm wasting my time. *ahem* I mean using, productively :D

I'm actually pretty happy with how research has been moving this week. Construction of the test section went slower than I expected (omg, how surprising, in research--sidenote: most things go slower than expected, in my experience, they take between 2 and 7 times as long as planned...) but at least at the end of every day I felt the need to shower, put a bandaid on each new blister/scratch/cut/gaping wound (j/k), and proudly declare: I did something today! ;)

In other news, the positivity project has largely worked, so I'm largely scrapping that idea (I may come back to it when I feel particularly crappy about my day and need to find good things about it). Generally, though I am focusing on more good things in my life lately, either because of the positivity project or just because, I don't know.

Instead, YLEDO is going to be come a .... TRAVEL BLOG! With PICTURES (I hope)! I'm going to Russia for a month, so I hope to document what I am doing for all you readers to experience. It's interesting, as it's my first trip overseas 'alone' and although I'm going to my 'home' country, it really feels more like a vacation to a foreign land. Granted, I know the language, but not the customs, so it's like going to Britain or Australia. I'll be able to interact, but I'll stand out like a sore thumb anyway (I think). But I guess now instead of saying "I live in the US," I can at least say "I study in the US" and not feel like as much of a foreigner. Because Russian students go abroad all the time, right?

Anyway, look for long detailed posts in the near future as I have few things to do. As well as suggestions for things to do/see/visit.

From (Champaign, for now) with love, GS

39.7 miles: How I lost my faith in humanity...and gained it back again.

So, I was sitting at Corner Bakery in Union Station today on my layover between Megabus and Metra, and I witnessed an appalling scene. Well, actually, I'm judging based on only partial information here, but I think my assessment was fairly accurate in this case. When the commotion ensued, I looked over and a middle-aged guy with a backpacking-backpack and 2 other bags was trying to sit down at a table (I'd say next to mine, but that would be redundant as the seating area is tiny). The problem? He had put down one of his bags in an empty chair at another table. The table (for 4) was occupied by a Cubs fan and his two lady friends. I didn't hear the first comment (by Cubs fan, henceforth A-hole), but I suspect it was rude. The middle aged guy (henceforth: Backpacker), responded akin to "I'm sorry, I just need to sit down to use the internet.") I again missed A-hole's next comment, but Backpacker removed his bag from the seat, asking "You would call the police if I leave my bag there?" incredulously. To which A-hole responded "Not only would I call the police, I would f**k you up!" (Censorship added). What followed was a back-and-forth with Backpacker feeling he was "threatened" and that "we don't treat people like that here," and "this is a public place!" and A-hole using words like "pussy" to describe Backpacker. The only reasonable sentiment came from one of the ladies, who at one point wisely suggested that "Ohmigod, everyone at this table needs to, like, shut up!"

Now, you have probably guessed that my sympathies lay with Backpacker; however, I actually feel that the situation was escalated and perpetuated by both parties. Sure, Backpacker probably set his stuff down without asking...but it was an empty chair and he was obviously overburdened (it was obvious if you saw him) and tired. Any (in my opinion) reasonable, decent human being, even if he/she was bothered by this, would have asked politely "Excuse me, would you mind moving your bag?" possibly after Backpacker sat down. Or "Excuse me, are you planning to move that in a second?" before he did. I'm guessing that A-hole's response was more akin to "What the hell, dude? Get your sh** out of here!" Backpacker, on the other hand, could have moved his stuff and kept his mouth shut instead of starting a moralistic lecture(it's like getting into internet arguments...see xkcd). No one wants to be told they're being rude by a stranger on the street (or in a train station).

So, that was the losing faith part. Made slightly worse by the fact that I felt terrible for Backpacker, but didn't want to get involved (perhaps wanted to see if they would figure it out on their own, which they did). I did give him a small smile as I left. And he thanked me for throwing my trash away o.O I only actually realized what it was he was thanking me for after I had practically left, so I couldn't even brush it off properly. So, the experience seemed somewhat incomplete on my end, having not given him reassurance of my siding with him there.

Fortunately, on the next leg of my journey I was in a Metra car with a couple with a baby (maybe 8 mos old?). They were all, collectively, adorable (and the baby independently adorable as well, of course). Furthermore, when the conductor came by, she got distracted by their baby and accidentally punched the 10-ride pass twice instead of once like they wanted/needed. They pointed this out, and she was immediately super-apologetic, started thinking of ways to fix it, and ended up writing a note on the ticket as well as giving them her phone number in case they had trouble with it, even though (according to her) they shouldn't. Furthermore, as she was doing this, the couple got slightly flustered and started saying that it was fine, no big deal, etc. Which is the part that restored my faith in people :D Because sometimes not making a fuss over a few dollars is just easier on everyone. Still, the conductor had already figured it out so she wrote them a note, reasoning that "a ride is a ride." Points for righteous business practices/customer service people. :D Further restoring my faith in humanity.

Incidentally, I currently have a pretty terrible opinion of Cubs fans.

Obnoxious people

I'm usually pretty easygoing...I like it when people on buses or trains with me have lively conversations with each other, when kids are, well, kids, when instead of awkward silence there's a sort of life in there.

But for the love of God, shouldn't people have manners?!

This girl, who was wearing grey leggings with purple flowers on them and a short jacket, by the way, started off by making ridiculous and ridiculously loud sneezing noises. Well, weird noises happen to the best of us. Except that from that point forward, for the next hour, she and her boyfriend got progressively louder and louder and more obnoxious. They squealed, they screamed, they snorted, they drummed on the tray tables. And then they started cussing loud enough for the whole car to hear. What the HELL?

I was this close to telling them to shut their rude asses the fuck up; not sure why I didn't (even in a non-confrontational way, since confrontation is what they would expect...)

So, that's the experience for the day.

Resolution news: not getting any better :\

In-Between

Training ended on Friday (later for me than others, more on this later).

The week was pretty fantastic--tiring and long but also (I guess) productive. We started by meeting everyone (of course), and going rules and policies and that stuff. Then First Aid/CPR. Somewhere in there we also started looking at the plan for the two-week sessions. Campout under the trees (COLD). Swim tests and being re-taught how to belay in a different style. "Rules" of hiking and a practice hike at Castle Rock. Campout at the beach, with travel staff cooking for the other 30 people (as well as themselves). The best part of the whole week was really the people and I'm glad we did a thing on the beach where we got to hug and have a short conversation with almost every fellow staffer. Random picture:

(Myself and resident staff counselor A_, the day we wore "matching" shirts. Neither is Apple-related, haha.)

Friday after the campout, I used my somewhat new "approved driver" status to drive 3 of the guys to the doctor for physicals (paperwork... :( ) I basically got to read for 4 hours (got through 10 pages of The Two Towers!) while they got that done. Then we went to get food before heading back to camp, since we had already missed lunch by a lot. By the time we got back, everyone had gotten their staff shirts, my roommates had moved into our actual summer housing and gotten their keys, and I was pretty hopelessly behind. So I rushed around catching people before they left for the day and managed to get stuff done. Yay! That was the end of training.

Today, I met one of my oldest friends, SS, for the day. We had giant crepes at Q-cup, then hung out at her house for a while. I did laundry and we played Monopoly with her boyfriend and talked. Later her sisters came home--aged five and eight. They're absolutely adorable and I forgot how easy it was to earn the adoration of such babies (especially the little one). They came to watch us play and I let the youngest roll the dice and move for me, while the older one took over the bank. Once we got RS (boyfriend) out, we quit and went swimming while the laundry finished. By then we had worked up appetites again and went for sushi! (California sushi rocks!)

We chose Chocolate Sushi in Sunnyvale--I had been there before and had an awesome time even though I was pretty full to begin with. The food was delicious once again, but this time I had more space to enjoy it. The coolest part was when we ordered chocolate sushi and it turned out it was actually chocolate-drizzled eel and avocado nigiri. It was weird but definitely a worthwhile experience!

After that we just chilled at her house and talked, again, until I had to go back. And had tea, as is the Russian way ;) . Back in my room, I packed for the camp session and ended up with surprisingly little stuff...I also discovered over the course of the day that I had lost track of my red IIT hoodie for the second time this week. I hope to find it tomorrow.

Finally, I forgot to mention--I got a mini Leatherman to replace the knife I had confiscated on my way here! It's tiny and cute and fits on my keychain. I hope it's sufficient for camp use!

Departures & Arrivals

My dad didn't understand why I heaved deep sighs in the car today on the way to the airport. It took me a while to, also. I'm not just leaving home for a summer job....I don't believe I will ever be home for more than a week in a row again, and it probably won't be as leisurely as these three weeks were. For some intents and purposes, I left behind "home" and I left behind some more vestiges of childhood. Some of the last.

I was really suprised when I started tearing up/choking up on the first few pages of Catching Fire. I'm never, ever that affected by books (and rarely by movies). Don't take me wrong...the book is heart-wrenching! I just didn't expect that to make me tear up, and it pretty much did. I blame my already precarious emotional state for my overreaction, but don't let that affect my recommendation--it's a good book!

Another part of my being emotional is that, however much I mask it, every time I am really excited about something not because it's something I love that I've done before, but because it's new, adventurous, and unprecedented, the happy part of the excitement is tinged with a healthy dose of fear...it probably has to be, to be truly, honestly exciting. What I'm doing now--summer job with a lot of responsibility in California; then graduate school, (mostly*) financial independence, a housing arrangement outside of school...my life seems like it's going to have some rapid hairpin-turn changes, and that looks intimidating. Possibly kind of like hills, which look steeper when you look forward at them. ;) [*mostly = excepting undergrad debt, which is still not in my name]

So, on to good things! I got to walk on the tarmac today at San Diego International! It was super-unusual, but really cool. I'll even accept having the aisle seat twice today for that privelege. I had a flight with a 30-minute connection, and the way my first plane arrived (4 minutes late, though it was like 20 minutes late leaving Chicago, so they did pretty well!), it was in another branch of the terminal than the outgoing flight. Going the "proper" way would require going through security again (!!!), so they gathered us up in a group and took us the "other" way, across the (short stretch of) field. There was baggage processing and toward the end a plane came taxi-ing to a gate nearby. I found myself laughing, almost hysterically. Fortunately it was loud, so no one heard, but I was still pretty giddy when I got on the plane.

Then I got my luggage, met my ride, and stepped out into...California. Not quite the way I remembered it, because I haven't been here in summer in 6 years. The flowers that were blooming seemed weird and out of place, and the smells weren't quite right, but still very much Californian (or maybe I say that because they starkly contrasted with the smells of Illinois). I think it was redwood...it was between pine and juniper...sweet, tree-y, and reminded me of home in a long-forgotten kind of way. I also had the strange feeling of being out of place for a while, but that went away as soon as I got here (AT's house). It's good to have a home away from home...especially when you're not quite sure where home is anymore... ;)

Tomorrow: Lunch with an old friend (LD) that I've miserably failed to keep up with, then shopping with AT's sister, possibly a quick drugstore run, and then...camp!

Friday: Training!

Day Before Leaving

It smells like gasoline.

11 in the morning, but it still feels the same as when I got up at 7:45 to take VG and MC to the train station.* Including the sound of lawnmowers.

I need to pack. Unfortunately, for the moment my mental list doesn't fit into any reasonable amount of luggage. I need to remind myself how little I ACTUALLY need. The problem is, skimping usually leads to needing something else, later. Though, there's no way to get around at least 3 pairs of shoes: sneakers, hiking boots, and water-shoes. That's half my bag right there.

I hate "the day before" with a passion. The day of is exciting and more than 2 days before you can successfully ignore whatever is going to happen. But not the day before. That's when you have to think about it. And you can't procrastinate on paperwork anymore >.>



*They came over to rock climb yesterday and stayed for dinner. Since we weren't done until 11 or so, and by that point the train would have gotten them home really late, they stayed the night, instead.