Thursday, December 20, 2007

"smels like a horse"

We went to NASA today. They donated part of their land to local schools to provide young Americans with an opportunity to learn more about farming. Tram, that goes to some of NASA facilities, passes this farm by. There were longhornes. It smelled like we were on a farm...
There were lots of kids on our tram and they all started to argue about this smell. One little girl said it smelled like a horse. the other boy sait "No. that's how sheep smell I know!!!" (well... he knows. That's a good argument, so logic and manly) Others were saying something else.
Well kids, actually it smelled like sh*t. That's all. Doesn't matter if it belongs to horses, sheep or camels. It really doesn't matter...

I just though that was kinda funny.

Monday, December 17, 2007

true ladies do not age

I had my birthday recently and quite a lot of people asked me for my age. I’ve said 1) it is rude to ask a girl/woman/lady about her age; 2) it doesn’t really matter, it’s all about how I feel. (But I’ll share my secret with you… my friend put only 24 candles on the cake... he thinks I’m 24… Really? I though much younger).

I truly believe that as long as a lady feels as a true lady, age doesn’t matter.

Here’s funny example from home. Few days ago my mom called my grandmother. Granny could not talk and said she’ll call her later. Few minutes later she called and told my mom that because of her she missed a very important part of the TV program and now she doesn’t know how to get rid of dark circles under eyes. (And I’ve never seen her with real dark circles). Isn’t it wonderful, that my grandma still cares about the way she looks? She still feels flirty. And she is in age category of 80+, as if it matters.

My grandma is planning to attend a dance party in 2 weeks and she’s already asking my mom for advice what dress to wear! She loves to dance. I guess I love dancing because of her.

So girls, feel flirty, feel yourselves as real ladies and forget about your age… and everyone around will forget about it too.

Isn’t that a wonderful way to stop aging?

love and money

This Sunday priest in the church I went to told us that this year an average amount one American would spend on Christmas presents would be 907$, which is lower than the amount spent on average last year (942$). Interesting. I know that Americans shop a lot and they are spending a lot on things that they would not probably need. But when it comes to presents, how much should a person spend? Is it about money?

I always thought that present is attention! And yes monetary value matters too, but it is not the most important criteria. You cannot buy [true] attention and love, giving love to others is the greatest present of all.

Is there really a need to spend that much on presents? Or people think that the higher monetary value the present or presents have, the more the giver loves him/her? Can we really translate love into money?

Or we got to the stage where we do not care enough to devote time and give love, so we just give presents to show that we still remember.

One more thing: it is Christmas. Since when is it about giving presents to people? Isn’t it about passion, love, kindness and sharing (but not money… feelings).

Friday, December 14, 2007

spice it up and cook it

Today there was a lovely cat around our apartment and at some point it sneaked in our apartment and run straight to the kitchen. This lovely animal was very hungry and started to eat orange rind. We got her(him??) some sour cream and took it outside.
My friend said it would be nice if I would have tuna, cats love tuna. I've agreed and added that any raw fish would be good. "Raw fish??? Are you kidding me? ... What about cat food? What about canned tuna? You spice it up, cook it and give it to a cat."
Now it was my turn to say "What?" Why would you ever cook fish if cats eat and love it raw (unless they were fed with canned cat food all their life)? And why would you ever want to spice it up? Not for animals.

Save animals, save electricity, save spices... Do not cook fish for your cats please!

Thursday, December 13, 2007

chineese food

We went to a Chinese restaurant today. We went there with some Asian people, including one Chinese person. The food was great, but was it really Chinese?
My friends said "NO." That's exactly what I've thought. You may pretend that your restaurant serves Chinese, Italian, Greek food, but it would be just your (in this case American) interpretation of Chinese, Italian, Greek food.
And it does make sense. You have to fit the local taste, otherwise you are pure Chinese and absolutely out of business, if there are not enough Chinese people to attend your place.

And even McDonalds serves fried rice in Asia... totally not American thing!

Kinda funny, we do attract people by the name (some exotic food), but then give them totally different thing... adopted to our taste.

they say it's good

We went to a movie today "Before Devil Knows You're Dead". It is some kind of alternative or independent movie. Critics say it is good. Actors played really well, I agree. But I would never say it is good.
When movie shows all the possible bad things: when children kill their own mom for money, when the whole life is about money, when money make you violent. Isn't it something that we don't wanna have in society? So would it be good to go public with a movie that shows all the bad things of this world and than have hundreds of critics saying that the movie is good?
I left the theater feeling really depressed. Can that be good? This movie did not motivate me to something good, but made me feel very blue.
And then again, when critics say that the movie is good, they may talk about music effects, play of actors, director's job. But when people hear that critics think really positive about the movie, do they know exactly that critics were looking at different details and not necessarily the idea behind the movie?

Monday, December 10, 2007

banana republic

It's exam time. Right now is about 2 am... I'm still studying. Actually I've just finished my paper. I went out of the room and saw a guy wearing a T-shirt that says "Banana Republic". I caught myself thinking about where this republic is. Probably somewhere in central America... Well and this is not the first time when I saw Banana Republic on a T-shirt and started thinking about location of this country...

Although it's just probably in the mall or somewhere in downtown of a big city...

Saturday, December 8, 2007

hi there

There are several expressions in English meaning of which is so difficult to get. Although I already know what they mean, every time I hear them I feel kinda frustrated and awkward. For example “hi there.” Are you talking to me?? There? Here? Where? Does the place matter? Do I matter? Maybe you forgot my name??? Possibly…

And what about “here you go” and “here you are?” These are examples when words together have a totally different meaning than the sum of meanings of every word. It is like Here you go, there he goes, somewhere else they go and you all go to different places…but it has nothing to do with going and direction! And my dictionary does not give translation of this expression. Can you imagine how I felt when someone told me “here you go” for the first time? Where should I go? Why me? Maybe you wanna join me? :)

“Here you are” is so different from “you are here.” It doesn’t have anything to do with the place. If you ever try to translate it into some language with the use of a dictionary you’ll get something weird!

Exploring English is so much fun!

Friday, December 7, 2007

devil eggs

Americans have this dish, which name sounds like "Devil eggs." It is stuffed eggs, but stuffed differently that we do at home. The name was so intriguing... as if it was something so good you cannot resist and you would get them at any possible price...like making a deal with Devil. I was thinking about this dish as of something like fruits from the tree of knowledge at Edem.
I was really excited... before yesterday when I've decided to google for "Devil eggs" recipe. It gives you lots of pages, but when you go to those pages "Devil eggs" turn into "Deviled eggs." All the magic is gone. :((
I've lost any excitement about this dish. Regular stuffed eggs.

Thursday, December 6, 2007

KISS principle, STAR approach

Have you ever noticed how often Americans use abbreviations that are actual words? For example KISS, which stands for "keep it stupid simple."
When I heard about KISS principle for the first time I really thought about the real kisses. We were discussing some relations of women with their male bosses. I had no idea that KISS stands for something else than the actual kiss. Well... it even made some sense, although it was not a true "feminist" approach(and US is one of the leading countries in the fight for parity between the genders), which is everywhere here. I could not believe my ears! Kiss approach in relations with the male boss? Is that how you get promoted? Might be fast, but kinda "below the waist line" method.

And in addition to KISS principle, there are so many others like RACE, STAR, ROPES, etc.
When coming up with an abbreviation for something people probably spend a lot of time to find words that, when put in a certain order, can be abbreviated with already existent word.
I wonder if it puts any limitation on the understanding the essence of the abbreviated thing.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

lost in translation

When you learn a foreign language you heavily rely on dictionary for picking words. I don't know how dictionaries are "created," but sometimes that give really "funny" words.
So when you look for words dictionaries may provide you with not the best translation.
For example, today in my German class one student used a word "Anhorung" for hearing. But the word actually means "public hearing". So Beethoven actually lost his "public hearing" instead of just hearing. And things like that happen all the time.
Later today one guy said that he's restless and he referred to it as to a medical problem. So I my roommate, who is MD, talked to him about that. We looked up in a dictionary the meaning of the word and started to laugh. The medical meaning of the word "restless" is kinda funny. Yeah baby.. . at your age at 11 pm... kinda normal... Enjoy! :))

communicating

How do we communicate? Why do we do it? I always though that communication to a certain extent includes exchange of information. That communication is more effective when is done personally.

Over the course of last 2 weeks I got into situations where I was not sure if I did something wrong, had wrong expectations or the other side was acting badly to me/others.

I hope it is not a cultural thing, but just a person that acts this way. Although even if it just a person it kinda hurts.

Anyway, here is one example:

Today was/is a birthday of one of students who is on the same program with me. A friend of mine, lets say Mr. B., calls me and I tell him that we are celebrating. Mr. B. asks me to say “Happy Bday” to that guy. I’ve asked him to do it himself. Mr. B. came up with reasons not to do it, for example, he though that if he would wish happy bday directly to that guy, this guy will be confused/embarrassed/feeling uncomfortable for not having him invited to the party. Where is the logic? So do you wish Happy Bday only when invited? That is sad. I know it is really SOOOO difficult to call and wish Happy Bday if you don’t care, or at least post on facebook’s wall. But you can make someone smile, isn’t that worth it?

about fairy-tales


Do you think it is weird for a master level student enjoy reading fairy-tales? Some of my friends here think it is ok, but weird. They said "Fairy-tales are for kids." Really? Is that why everyone is so serious at out age and do not believe in miracles?
I've talked to one of my best friends from home today. Her status in gmail account is "Reading Fairy-tales aloud." She still reads fairy-tales. I do to.
They are positive and they teach you wise things. They make you believe in miracles and impossible things. They are so positive!
Reading fairy-tales is not childish, childish is being blind and do not see miracles around/ do not see beyond ordinary things and do not give freedom to your imagination.
Life is plain & boring when imagination is turned off.

Monday, December 3, 2007

boys, cars, stars and gays

I have a really nice shiny, tiny red car! My favorite color is red. On October 19th I've decorated it with some stars. Star (5 points) is my favorite shape. I really like the way it looks - very nice. I guess it reflects my personality.
I give my car sometimes to a friend of mine to drive. He is a guy! Every time after driving my car he would share his experience with me. He told me that everyone stares at him. Guys give him a really weird looks, girls just stare at him. So he gets all the attention. (Isn't it great?)
He is sure that everyone thinks he is a gay. He is sure that's because of stars!
Why? what's wrong with stars? Back home only real "machos" decorate their cars. All girls just go crazy about those guys. Stars on the car and any other decorations are usually masculine symbols.

Maybe because my car is so tiny? But before I put stars on it, he didn't get any attention while driving.
Maybe mix of tiny + red + stars means something more than tiny + red + stars??? Some kind of mystic synergy?

Or maybe people think it is a shooting star and they need to make a wish?? :)) Would be nice if yes.

Friday, November 30, 2007

"silly strings" or spaghetti fun

I’m pretty happy to experiment some really funny and crazy things while I’m in the US. I remember from movies, that US have party strings – strings that are in the bottle, like hair spray or whipped cream. When I saw it in the store I got excited as a kid. And it was just 1 dollar… (maybe that’s why the color wasn’t the best).

Anyway, me and a friend of mine wanted to do something crazy. So we decided to decorate a door of our friend. And we knew he’s gonna be away at the time of our action. We planned! Got prepared! Got there!

Action!

Well… Hollywood movies are such a lie! These strings do not stick to things as you would expect. We wanted to do something cool, something nice… and maybe a little bit bad and totally unexpected… Wanted to decorate the door and stairs. Turned out to be like we just trashed his apartment. It looked like dirty pink spaghetti all over the staircase.

So later he called me and told that what we did was not good and these “silly strings” were not a nice thing at all. Whatever!!! WE had fun!

And Neighbors who saw us doing it definitely had fun too. Those guys, actually, had the most fun, cuz they saw us some other time doing some decoration work again :))

Thursday, November 29, 2007

“I’m a professional Christian”

coming back to the topic of religion, churches, etc.

“I’m a professional Christian,” – said N., who preaches sometimes at the local Baptist Student unit. “Smells” like money to me. So this guy is actually being paid to talk to us about spiritual issues (issues with no monetary value attached). Those are the issues that you cannot really talk about unless you have passion and strong desire, otherwise, your lesson will go nowhere. Does that mean his inspiration to talk to us is not true, not motivated by his believes, but motivated by check that he’ll get at the end of month? Might be. A lot depends on a person here.

I guess it is ok to have paid staff in the church, but those should be people who really can deliver a message and truly believe in certain things. Screening for job in such a place should be very strict. The guy I'm talking about does a terrible job. He really needs to work on his delivery more… Maybe he needs more money to get motivated to improve??

“Professional Christian”

Now what that is supposed to be?

Does that mean the message you come up to talk about are paid? Do those who pay tell you what to talk about and how to interpret certain things in the Bible (And yes, Bibles here come with interpretation. Probably different churches have different interpretations. That’s interesting… Meaning creation? Why not to let people understand things for themselves? I always though of Bible as a book with personal interpretations. It is different for everyone and its lessons are different for everyone).

Is Christianity a profession? I always though of it as a true devotion to God, no monetary value attached. But Religion and churches here are huge business. It’s getting the same way back home now too with more people going to churches.

Well, anyway, I truly believe that believing in God, religion and churches are three totally different things that are often not connected at all.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

tea... i want some tea

I want a cup of tea. Yes, black please. No sugar. And no ice, please!!! And... is there any way I can get a cup of hot tea??? (with the look that tells I'm almost sorry for these "weird" drinking preferences).
I really have totally different drinking preferences. Tea should be hot by definition. No ice in my drinks!!! Not at all. And, by the way, if you haven't noticed yet, it's WINTER!!! Winter is cold, by definition. (although, south of the US barely gets any snow).
maybe something wrong with my definitions of TEA and WINER? Possibly...

Monday, November 26, 2007

secrets

My experience with Americans led to a wonderful discover: there are two types of secrets. 1) Secrets that you are not supposed to share with others and 2) secrets that you probably can share.
Wow! That is something new. I though secret is something you do not talk about. I was wrong. People actually specify if they don't want you to talk about a secret. Weird! I though I can just say it is a secret and people would know that it is something they should not share with others.
It is quite interesting that people tell you a secret and then they add that it is something you cannot share. So the word "secret" probably has some other meaning than just something that should not be shared... Mystery!
Or maybe it is a common thing here to share secrets? Or maybe it is just a common expectation?
But anyway, anytime someone shares a secret with me and asks not to share it with anyone else - I cant help smiling.

oh yes... international students are not adequate: you share secrets with them and they laugh.

but good lesson for me: do not expect Americans to treat your secrets the same way as you friends from home.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

towels

What is a towel?
Isn't it a thing you use to dry your face, body and hands? Well, that's what I thought a towel is. For me it is a very functional thing. There are two different categories of towels - for kitchen and for people. Those that are for people are different in sized depending if they are for hands or for a body.
Today I went in a bathroom and was so confused. There were so many different towels of different sizes hanging in different places. Some of them were rolled (different in different manner). There were so many of them so I had no idea which one to use and I was so afraid to mess everything up. Have you ever feel frustrated from not knowing what to do? I though something like that can never happen with towels. They are just things to get dry your hands or other parts of your body. Apparently, they are more "sophisticated" than that.
I remember the same confusion 4 years ago when I came to my host family house for the first time. Reveley mentioned at least 5 different types of towels when we were in my bathroom. There were towels for hands (I know what that is), towels for body/after-shower (fine with that too), towel for face (what??? what about the one for hands? or for body? aren't you touch it with your hands when you dry your face?... anyway - ok), towel for feet (or really? I guess USSR never had those...), towel to step on when you get out of shower (well, that is luxury). All of these were different sizes and different in texture. And there were also towels that were used for decoration.
Kinda overwhelming, isn't it?

articles

They are in fact placed in the text randomly! The only 2 rules that always apply - 1) they should be in front of a noun, not after. And 2) "a" and "an" are for singular nouns only. These are the main rules. Everything else is random. Totally random!

I met with a former professor of English during my Thanksgiving trip. She tough me a lot 4 years ago. Thank her so much for everything!
At some point in our conversation I told her about my problems with articles and she said that articles are used differently in British English and American English! As a student I've learned British English that is why I cannot say "I'm going to the University", I would never use article there. Maybe that's a part of my problem?
Well, I always though that grammar is the same in both English languages. I was so wrong. Now the whole issue with articles does not make any sense to me.
Isn't it like fashion or custom? People got used to something in a certain way and stick with it for their life. And if you not a part of a community you would never get why they all do it this way and not the other. In case with articles whole nations stuck to certain ways. If that's it, then it is totally random to me. I'm even more confused about articles now.

I WANT THE CUP OF A COFFEE - and I don't care if doesn't make any sense... and I don't drink coffee anyway.

Seems that getting the rules about articles is more difficult that I though. (if randomness could ever be determined by rules...)

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Thanksgiving grin

Coming back to the topic of shopping in the USA.
I went to post Thanksgiving sale to the mall of Lynchburg, VA. Well... I was not really planning to buy anything, just wanted to see if everything was almost free on that day. I guess you know the answer. There were no free stuff. Seems like some stores even increased prices so they would be able to display 50-70% discounts.
There were two things that I did not really liked:
1) People did not seem to be happy. And that is holiday. They all were searching for something and seem not to get any satisfaction in their search. Maybe buying is not what you need? But everyone still was shopping, running from one store the other. I wonder will there be ever time when people would not be so crazy about sales? I feel like many of those people bough stuff they did not really need, but it was "such a good deal," so they could not miss it. So they were really shopping for good deal, not to satisfy their necessities.
2) It is a holiday... such a wonderful time to spend with the family... nope... people did rush to the shopping centers (not all of course).

As Jonas Ridderstrale, Kjell Nordström said in "Funky Business: Talent Makes Capital Dance:" it is an era of shopping and fucking. Well, they are probably right.

Monday, November 19, 2007

God's game plan

Religion is one of my favorite topics. There are so many question, not so many answers. Well, you just have to believe and be strong in your believes.
I might get back to the topic of church and religion again, but for today I just wanted to share my experience at the Baptist Church.
1) I've learned a new word - "pew". Awesome, isn't it?
2) I sang... and I loved it.
3) I saw a very interesting name for the Bible - "God's game plan." Interesting.
Basically this version of a bible has regular text that the bible has and interpretations.
First of all, I prefer when people interpret things themselves and not get limited by someone else's vision. Isn't that framing? Something that PR or Ad people is accused of.
Second, how appropriate is the name? Game is something not always serious, sometime just to have fun. Of course it can be strategic too. It's like in ancient Greece where Gods played with people's lives. But what if it is really a game, is that the reason why people are saying we'll do what God wants us to do, but some of them just do nothing saying that God, probably, doesn't have any mission for them? It's something really difficult for me to understand. I truly believe that people should be active and should not wait for the sign from above.

shopping the american way

We've created us a credit card mess
We spend the money we don't possess
Our religion is to go and blow it all
So it's shoppin' every Sunday at the mall
Shania Twain

Well, yes! you cannot imaging a single city without the mall. And people are in fact obsessed with clearances and good deals. Shopping is one of the main things in the lives of many Americans.
Well, I actually wanted to talk about grocery shopping.

I've been to Sam's Club this Sunday. That is something amazing. Can you image huge packs of everything? of absolutely everything - starting from salad to fresheners. Like a pack of 12 fresheners - to make sure that at the end of the third bottle you would hate this smell for the rest of your life. Or 72 rolls of toilet paper! The whole year with the same brand. I don't think it's loyalty, cuz at the end, you'll be so sick of this type of paper... You would see it in your nightmares. That is economy. "Small is beautiful" principle doesn't work here.

Some things were packed in the right sizes. Actually the majority of things were packed just right. Right enough for it to keep freshness while being used.

I'm used to do shopping very frequently, cuz lets say bread or milk (100% organic) stay fresh just for 3 days. So you have to shop frequently. But here people do it maybe once a week or twice a month. That's why they have shampoos in packs of size of almost a gallon. If, by any chance, this shampoo will fall on your feet while you take a shower (and things happen) you are in trouble... more precise ... you are in a cast for the next few weeks.

But I'm sure Americans are used to it...

Saturday, November 17, 2007

students, time and romance

I went to the movie yesterday and decided to walk form there to the place where I live. It is just 1,5 miles (I've checked with google maps). I got out of the movie at around 10 pm. The temperature outside was close to 32F (almost freezing point). I felt like it was the perfect weather to walk.
I went basically through all the campus and I haven't met a single person! Why? Is it too cold? Not for me! and not in general...
Is it too late? Are you kidding me? for college kids? no way!
Or maybe people do not really walk here? That's probably it.
I just remember that back home there are couples on campus walking till midnight. And they do it all year around, unless it is not colder than -15C (~5F). That is something that differentiates campus from any other place - couples are everywhere and all the time.
So what's different with students here? Don't they fall in love? Or they prefer watching movies, going clubbing or something else but indoors instead of enjoying privacy and fresh air of the outside? Might be. They even enjoy artificial flavor sweets more that natural fruit, so indoors vs outdoors thing should not really surprise me...

And you know what, you could see stars really well yesterday.

Well... I guess I had a romantic walk with myself yesterday :) and nobody around! Just me&me.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

ladies' talk in the ladies room

It happened to me in this country so many times before and today it happened again. It is so weird... weird to talk to someone in the restroom. I'm fine with greeting, but everything else should be outside the restroom. You do not talk to someone who is behind the door, seating and "resting." Moreover, you do not talk to your professors in the restroom! I'm saying "don't" but that's what people do here and they seem to be fine with that.
In my culture it is kinda unacceptable. We even have anecdotes about those who talk in restrooms.

And talking on the cellphone while in the restroom is not really nice. I would be very disappointed if I would learn that some person was on the phone with me when s/he was in the restroom.

And you know what? They discuss everything there, starting from weather to food! Food is not a topic for the restroom!

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Wednesday's lessons

There are two:
1) People are so great! (as if I didn't know)
2) Women and Men are different when fighting... but seems like girls are smarter with their strategy

In details:
1) I went to Cheatham's Garage today to change my fan belt. Those are very nice people. Seems like it's family business. They've checked my belts and tighten them... and not only the one I wanted, but few more and did some other really nice things. I would need to return there to change boots and repair oil leak. The thing is - they didn't charge for anything today. They said I can pay everything on Friday. Wonderful! These people trust other people and they seem to build relations, real relations. They probably do not send reminders about oil change, but they talk to their customers and are listening to whatever they have to say. While I was there several people came and in addition to talking about cars they've asked them about their families and other things. They knew more about their customers then just info on their car and car related habits. Very personal approach - works well. Too bad big corporation struggling with CRM cannot reach that level of privacy.
Isn't that great? building relations and trust provides you with loyal customers, and benefits both sides emotionally. Actually, I'm so excited about the place that I would suggest only this company if anyone would ever need a piece of advice.

2) I went to self-defense class. I loved it. Punching - is something I love. And they said use all possible methods to escape, even biting. Biting!!! That's exactly what I do all the time. Don't even remind me about this strategy - I'll use my teeth right away if I ever feel the danger.
Anyway, coming back to the lesson. He said that guys usually fight till there is a winner. Girls, when have to fight, do all possible to escape/run away. If they can discourage the other side, they do not keep fighting till the winning end, but run away!
I think it's smart. Why put yourself in bigger danger that you already are?
And the same principle is in climbing and while water rafting. If there is a chance to avoid danger - just do it. All the climbing trails avoid the most dangerous things if possible. In rafting the ability to avoid danger - that's what is count when you judge about people's ability to rule the boat. Although, when river's category is 3 or below - you may go through all the dangerous spots just for fun.

My day was great!
Now I want to figure out, where and with whom can I master all the punches they've tough us today.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

peanut butter jelly sandwich or PBJ

I've tried it today!
I've heard about it so many times, but never could imagine that someone really would put grape jelly on top of peanut butter. I always thought that maybe peanut butter is kinda like jelly in texture and that is why it is called PBJ. Well... they really put jelly on top of PB.

And it tastes very good! But still it is like "can I, please, have a sandwich with sugar and sugar?" Too sweet.

And now I understand why people have grape jelly at their fridges... I never buy this one, because it does not work for me. I usually mix jelly with hot water and drink it... (sounds weird for this country and for home country too,,, this is our family thing)

I'm so happy I don't have peanut butter at home. PBJ does not sound to be very healthy.

greeting people

When I got back after my first visit of the US, people though I was way too polite - I would smile a lot and say "hi" even to clerks in the bank or somewhere else (and we do not greet those we do not know). Partly based on this politeness I became very good friends with a girl who got back from UK. She became more polite too. We were known as the most polite people in our department.
Greeting is a norm as well as "how are you" question. Although people usually do not expect any negative answer here, and I'm totally fine with any answer as long if it's true. If greeting is a norm, does that mean that I'm in trouble when someone does not say "Hi" at the beginning of the letter to me?
Personally, I try to put "hi" or some kind of a greeting in any message, unless it is not one out of several messages in conversation. And when I do not get greeting from a person I feel that maybe I've done something bad.

Or is that a form of a conversation where greeting can be omitted? What about SMS? is it polite not to say "Hi" there?

Monday, November 12, 2007

bed time story: experiencing american mattresses

Have you ever try to sleep with someone on the same bed here in the US? I'm not asking about any bed activity, just sleeping. Let's say you are visiting a friend and he/she does not have spare bed so you share and let's say the size of bed is either full or queen.
I have experience sleeping on several mattresses - cheap and expensive, big and small, nice and not so nice - and all the time I would have the same thing. If you share it with someone, or someone would just sit on the side of the bed while you are lying in there - you would feel like you are on the ship in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. These mattresses do not suppress any movements, but the opposite - they make them to resonate. It feels like someone is jumping on the bed while you are sleeping.
It is fun at the beginning, but what if you are just fell asleep and the other person decided to turn from the right to the left side - get ready for shaking experience! These mattresses may result in motion-sickness.
Is that the way to promote privacy and individual sleeping? :))

but local mattresses are so good for jumping!!!

Sunday, November 11, 2007

my school is my prison

For me any building, where people spend significant amount of time, should have walls, a roof, at least one door and windows to make sure that during the day the insides of the building are lighted.
But there are exceptions! For example a warehouse. Some people do work in them and they do not see a lot of day light. Another example is a prison. I've never been to one, but for some reason I believe they might not have windows... Lamp light has some suppressing effect on people and when people do not see enough of day light they get depressed (and feel punished). Also absence of (day) light make the space look smaller and does not give any feeling of a freedom. And again, view from the window kinda "extends" the room and make it look bigger.
Imagine my condition when I went to my college for the first time. Building looks really nice but it has windows only on the third and second floors out of five floors. More over, for the person who spend a lot of time outside there was not enough air on the first floor (which is almost under the ground).
Modern architecture is a wonderful thing, you can create whatever looking good, but don't forget about people who will be working/living in that building. Don't forget about functionality of the building. It is not about attracting people's attention, not in case of a school.
Actually the more you pay attention to that the more building with very little on no windows you see. It seems to be ok for the US. Even the place where I live... really small windows...
But what at least about energy saving and not turning the lights on during the day?

"my job is to make my professor happy"

I had a wonderful discussion today with a friend of mine. He is TA (teaching assistant) for some professor in the school. TAs are responsible for administering tests, check tests, take attendance and etc. So basically they are responsible for the less interesting part of the teaching process.
So we've been talking about situation that he had with one of his students and he said at some point that his job is to make his professor happy.
Well isn't that a very hard job to make someone happy? People are so unpredictable. On the other side - isn't it the easiest job ever? All you need is to make your boss to smile and treat t as his happiness.
The funny thing about it was that it can be translated to my language also as satisfied. And we often use this expression "my only responsibility is to satisfy my boss" referring to our jobs. But this expression has 2 meanings one of which includes sexual context. People use this expression as a joke all the time. If only my friend knew what I had in my mind when he said about making his professor happy... I'm sure he would not say something like this again... :)

Sunday, November 4, 2007

shopping for tomatoes

Have you ever seen people who smell each tomato before they put it in their basket??
Know what??? Those are internationals. And know why?? We want TOMATOES - red vegetables with distinct tomato smell.
For some reason tomatoes here do not taste like real tomatoes and do not smell. But those that do smell taste so much better then others.

I wonder if those who shop for vegetables in stores as opposed to farmers markets (and even in Earth Fare tomatoes are not good) ever tried good tomatoes? But maybe people just do not care? I know already several people who do not like veggies and fruits - which seems to be almost like impossible to me. Aren't fruits and some of veggies the most tasty things in the world?

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

iPod

iPod, iTunes, iPhones - everyone is talking about them. iPod is almost an icon of young generation. Why? Is it nice? smart? I just think it's a fashion thing - to demonstrate how cool you are.
I used to have fake iPod (a friend of mine bough it for me in China), unfortunately it didn't work properly lately so I had to change it.
I got myself 80Gigs and up to 30 hours of playback in a form of a black little box. Looks nice. I love the touch control panel, but I don't like that it or iTunes are stupid. iTunes searched for music on my computer in "My Music" folder - but all the smart people, who know that when Windows crashes all the windows folders get destroyed, do not use these folders. I just had my Winamp playlists there. Anyway, somehow it found all the music files on my computer... and even more... several pdf files and some other staff... Maybe iPod is smart enough to play those?
Ok... fine... That's not the problem.
I keep my music very organized on my computer - all in different folders, iTunes apparantly doesn't care... as well as my iPod, so now I have 20Gb of music all in one folder on my iPod.

I've decided to create several playlists.. and of course some songs were present in more than just one playlist.. and you know what? When the song is present in more then one playlist, it is present on my Ipod more than once... kinda stupid... I guess everything arranged by playlists on iPod.
So as a result I have thirty something Gb of music now on my iPod...

Is that smart? or is that iSmart which equals iStupid?

Nevertheless, so far i like my iPod... it works better then the fake one. Although the fake one was smarter... real smarter.

Monday, October 29, 2007

stripping down for Halloween

Halloween is approaching and people are so concerned about what to wear.
Isn't Halloween a wonderful chance to experiment with an identity without harm for your image and status?
For some reason the majority of girls would be dressed as sluts, bitches and prostitutes. Personally, I like it - pretty much free striptease. I just wonder why costume of a prostitute is so popular? Is it because of moral norms of society that tell that sexy dress is not acceptable and demonstrating your [sexual] desires and intentions is bad? And don't we always want something that is prohibited? Isn't it like in Japan, where talking about sex is not acceptable and they have so many [sometimes illegal] cartoons and magazines about sexual practices. Actually the majority of Anime is sexual content.

And when I said prostitute or slut costume I actually meant all those very open dresses, which basically do not cover, but push/open certain body parts. Even Cindirella (which is really innocent fairytale hero) would look extremely sexy and bitchy. Basically there will be lots of similar costumers - short skirts, push-up bras/tops and tights - with little attributes/indicators of who you are (red hood for red-hood girl, wand for a witch, wings for an angel).

So is Hallowing public stripping day?

Friday, October 26, 2007

hiking


Second day of Fall break. We went to Tallulah Gorge SP today. I've been there before and decided to show it to my roommates. We got there at around 10.
In order to access ground flour you need to get a permission - some paperwork and some oral instructions from several quite nice and handsome guys. Anyway, this is not the point. The point is who goes hiking there. At some point before we arrived there some other people had already gotten their permissions and went hiking.
Me and my roommates have accent so those guys started asking us about where we were from. Well... post-USSR countries. It turned out that other people who had already registered were from Great Britain and somewhere else. There were no a single American till 10.30 (but the day was nice).
Why?
Do they sleep to much? or hiking is not quite popular? I don't know.
Although when we went hiking in Utah this summer we met more Germains and French people than Americans I believe...

And one day later I need to share my observations about how people do hiking/camping in the US (not only Americans).

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

How are you?

As Wikipedia says 'politeness' is cultural thing. What is considered polite in one country can be rude in another.
My cultural background is the root to my confusion.
When people ask "How are you?" how come they expect to hear something like "good," "fine," "ok" or any other form of saying that things are ok? What if they are not?
Like today, a friend of mine is not really happy, he's miserable (as he said), but whenever someone calls he says "I'm good."
So how close you should you be to a person to stop lying about things?
Or this question does not have any meaning and used not to learn something, but just to "play" conversation according rules of the society? I guess that's how it is.

Still... if people do not really care why would they ask? Wouldn't that be more polite not to ask at all if you don't care? I guess that would be culturally unacceptable.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Pumpkin pie

The other day my friends and I decided to carve the pumpkin. We did it a little bit early but there was a good reason for that - my good friend was leaving the country and she really wanted to experience this pumpkin carving thing.
So, as the person who does not mind cooking, I was responsible for making pumpkin pie.
It was kinda weird from the very beginning. 1) When I've started looking for recipes I found several that mentioned cloves (for example this one). Are those garlic cloves??? If there's garlic, than it's not a dessert anymore. I understand when you use garlic for garlic bread, but not for a cake!!!
Anyway, I found another recipe and it worked quite well for me.
2) it's not as easy as I though to get pumpkin "meat" out of pumpkin. You cannot just cut it off. It peels . I'm not a pumpkin lover and never cooked anything with it before, but I'm sure pumpkins back home are different! And then it was not easy to puree it even after cooking it according the directions. So I end up using a tool for pureeing garlic or garlic grater.

The pie was awesome. Carving was a difficult process. An American guy who was doing it had hard time.

When we finished carving and baking it turn out to be that we don't have candles, so some of us went to Wal*Mart around midnight to get candles. Then it turned out that we didn't have a lighter or matches... Well, though it was late I went to ask my neighbors if they had it... those who were not sleeping didn't have anything (... we live in a non-smoking place).

Well... don't wanna tell how we did it, but we were able to light the candles!!!

"I'll let you go"

Apparently some Americans think that "I'll let you go" at the end of phone conversation is polite. Maybe... Not for me with my cultural background.
I would use this phrase only in a situation when I really need a person (to talk, to do something together, whatever) and the person really does not have time and needs to leave and I'm basically making her/him to stay. Then, at some point I may let this person go. That makes sense to me.
But when you call me and then talk to me and you know that I don't mind talking to you, don't say "I'll let you go now."
If you are busy - just say that. Be true and nice to me, instead of pretending like you've been holding me for so long and I didn't want to. If there's something I don't like - I just tell that. So if I was talking to you on the phone for so long, I guess I didn't mind...
Seems logical to me...

Friday, September 21, 2007

Intro

Hello!
I had an idea about this blog for quite a long period of time. I wanted to start it during this summer when I didn't have any classes and had some spare time. But, as it usually happens, you start new things when you are extremely busy. And yes, I am quite busy now - 5 classes and my wonderful social life.
Actually, I have this blog to share my social and sometimes not-so-social life with you.
As I'm coming from a foreign country I had sometimes a very unique experience with ordinary things. (Obviously, those things were not ordinary for me).
Are you ready to learn about my experience in the US?

Follow me to my world of cognitive dissonance and cultural experience!