Monday, November 22, 2010

2010 11 22 - Vacation!

I am going on vacation - Ok some of you snarks may want to point out that I am already on vacation. Well this is my Vacation within (or possibly from) my Vacation.

Actually Billie Jo and I are both going on an excursion to Russia's Cultural Capital of St Petersburg. This means for a week neither of us will have class and Billie Jo will not have to work. I am not as fortunate - since I am already not working, I am not getting this break from work that Billie Jo is getting.

But as we head off for Vacation, I thought I would scratch out some general thoughts on living abroad - and summarize them in two broad categories. Things That I miss and Things that I don't.

I will start with...

Things I don't Miss:
1 - Working
2 - Television (Fight Club is right again - although Jo and I have been catching up with "Modern Family" OnLine)
3 - Driving (including all the garbage that goes with it: Pumping Gas, Scraping Windshields, Parking)
4 - American Food - I may have mentioned this before - Russia is a Meat and Potatoes country so the diet is pretty comparable. I may expand on this in future post - not sure.
5 - Clocks - when there is no work there is no time - And really for the most part Moscow really lacks in clocks - There are no clocks at school and I can only think of one on the side of a building in all of Moscow.
6 - Shaving - due to my quality Asian Skin, I don't shave that often as it is - well while I am on the road I have managed to cut down that routine down to about once every other week.
7 - Liquor Laws - Moscow being the good capitalist society that it is doesn't even bother with an open container law. You can buy a half litre of beer at a corner Kiosk for 89 rubles and drink it next to Lenin's Tomb in the heart of Red Square if you like.
8 - American Beer - Baltika is perfectly fine as is the wide variety of European Beers at the local magazin(or kiosk)
9 - NFL Football - knowing the banalities of Brett Favre's travels, Mike Vick, Ben Rothliesberger, The Vikings, The Eagles - I Don't Miss ESPN's overhyped coverage of the entire spectacle either.
10 - Black Friday and Christmas Hype - Although the Christmas Hype here is just as bad - The Holiday here is actually New Year's so it occurs a full 7 days later, but they had decorations up on the first of November - There is no Thanksgiving so they skip right through that holiday.
11 - Getting Messages from Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, John McCain, Ed Rendell, Arlen Specter, The Clintons or anyone else on our answering machine while we were gone.
12 - The 10-20 pounds I must have lost since I've been here. Between lugging my old legs up and down stairs and going back and forth to the Metro, Eating a little healthier and not knowing how to order any food I have definitely lost some weight - and 2 notches off my waistline.
13 - Mondays - They are part of my weekends here!!



Things I Miss:
1 - Chicken Wings - Ok this is a direct contradiction of #4 above - so what - if you don't like it go write your own blog.

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