Personally, I think new years is pretty stupid. It's completely arbitrary. Every other moment of each year could just as easily be classified as the starting point of the next year. The only reason it happens to fall on the January 1st is because that's when Aloysius Lilius decided it would be. Just in case are not familiar with the good (Calabrian) doctor, Lilius proposed the calendar we currently use as a reform to the Julian (Casear) calendar. A decree of Pope Gregory XIII made it so, which is why it carries the name Gregorian calendar instead of Lilian calendar. I suppose new years is, more-or-less, an anniversary of this 1582 event. Nevertheless, they might as well just call it - "That night a week after Christmas when everyone gets plastered and makes false promises...."
I must apologize for the pessimistic attitude, but yesterday just pissed me off. I'll digress in another post.
To honor the spirit of a fake drinking holiday that I'm not particularly fond of, I am going to do best/worst of 2k7.
Best/Worst of 2k7
Best Pop Song:
(I would do song of 2007 but bands that I listen to don't actually single songs...)
"Kiss Kiss" - Chris Brown ft. T-Pain
I really don't like T-Pain. Anyone who gets his signature singing style from a single vocoding effect gets no respect from me. Despite the fact he has sung the hook for just about every hip-pop (that's my new term for hip-hop/pop/top40. it's pretty clever if i do say so myself and i thought of it inline while typing. not too shabby.), you won't be hearing about him much longer. His voice is a fad in pop music right now, and nothing more. Chris Brown, on the other hand, is fairly talented, and this song is catchy.
Honorable Mention: "Easy" - Paula Deanda
This might be my favorite hip-pop song of all time (it's between that and "my love"). The only reason that it didn't get the best of 2k7 is because it was re-released this year featuring Lil' (no matter what he calls himself, he'll always be Lil' to me. I mean the guy is like 2ft tall.) Bow Wow. Originally, it was released in 2k6 featuring Lil' Wheezy, which was a million times better than the Lil' Bow Wow version and my favorite version.
Best Album:
Somewhere in the Between - Streetlight Manifesto
Tom is lucky that he is amazing at music. He made us wait for 5 years. 5. years. For those of you that don't listen to Streetlight, you don't know the pain. Albeit, I assure you it was one of the more traumatizing experiences of my entire life. Of course, Tom did pull it off. The entire album is ridiculous from the lyrics to the melodies to the horn lines. Unbelievable from top to bottom. I listened to it exclusively for a solid month after it was released, and it's only 40-some odd minutes long. I don't feel like to the math on it, but given how much I listen to music, that is a bunch of play throughs.
Honorable Mention: Blackout - Britney Spears
I feel bad, and she is trying.......
Best Concert:
RX Bandits at the TLA
This was a pretty competitive category since I saw a lot of amazing shows this year, but the clear victor was RXB. I have never experienced music like that in my entire life. The instrumentation, the presenatation, the selection, and the passion are unrivaled. It was if the music enveloped me........and I wasn't even under the influence of anything. It was just amazing and I would highly recommend catching one of their shows if at all possible. Even if you have never heard them, I would still recommend it, cause they are that good live. It will blow you away. This show ranks now ranks as my second favorite show of all time right after the first time I saw the aquabats, but that is for another post.
Honorable Mention: Streetlight Manifesto, Reel Big Fish, and Less Than Jake at Ram's Head Live
Like I already said, i went to some amazing shows this year (paramore, saves the day acoustic, suburban legends/streetlight, etc.). i feel like i am almost obligated to choosing this as the honorable mention just for the line-up alone. Look at it. Then, look at it again. I can hardly believe that line-up occurred myself, and I was there. Simply amazing. Three of the most influential bands in my entire life (there are only two others that would rival their influence in my life - RXB and five iron frenzy). And, it was a great show to boot. Streetlight opened to be expected. RBF played their usual set which is still pretty good. And, LTJ played a ridiculous set with songs exclusively from Hello Rockview and Losing Streak which are my favorite albums by them and arguably their best in general (though i'm sure many would include anthem and/or pezcore in this list). Not to mention, there was a huge crew there with me. We were rolling about 12 deep that night. Concerts are grow exponentially more fun with the more people you know that are there.
Best Movie:
H-to-the-P-O-double-T and the O-O-T-P, yea you know me
It's probably the worst film adaption of an H-to-the-P-O-double-T book yet. Even so, i don't go to the movies often and i highly enjoy 'arry potter. hence, it wins.
Worst Person:
Bill Belichick
There are so many four-letter words and explicit phrases available to let someone you know you don't like them, yet not a one of them does this guy justice. Besides his apparent hatred of sleeves, he is disrespectful to opposing coaches (doesn't shake hands), he is disrespectful to other teams (runs up scores), and, above all, he is disrespectful to the game (cheats). I could never support someone of such low caliber.
Dishonorable Mention: Jamie Lynn Spears
I know she wants to be, but she will never be more (in)famous than her sister. To adequately explain this phenomenon, I derived the inequality below.
fame{alpha*disneyChannelShows + beta*teenPregancies} < fame{Britney}
where alpha, beta are in the set of all real numbers
So that's that. I was going to do a few more, but I ended up writing more than I expected for these ones and i'm about to head out a new years party no less. Ironic considering the first paragraph. Had I been on top of my game, I would've asked everyone to submit ideas for the best/worst a couple weeks ago, but I just thought to do this yesterday. To make it up to everyone, I'll make sure to ask for ideas next year pending I still care about this blog.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Skacore in the Jersey Underground
mom: "it's 6:58am. you better get up or you're going to miss the bus, and i'm not driving you to school today."
ryan: **several unintelligible grunts and the sound of a 6'3" 17-year-old rolling over in bed**
by my senior year of high school, i had nearly perfected the art of getting up exactly 12 minutes before the bus showed up. get dressed, eat life cereal, brush my teeth, equip for the day, and catch the bus on its exit trajectory out of my cul-de-sac (i didn't know it was spelled that way until just now either). for the 1 out of 10 times that i didn't make it to the end of my driveway in time to join the endless procession of "the wheels on the bus," i would get my mom to take me.
mom: "i told you to get up and you didn't. now, you missed the bus. i told you i'm not taking you to school."this is the earliest i can remember waking up without an alarm since i was about 8 years old. seriously, 7:31am (i know it's past eight now, but it took me a long time to find out how to spell cul-de-sac. on a related note, did you ever notice that spell-checkers are counter-intuitive for words that you have no idea how to spell? you have to be pretty close, like a single omission/addition/transposition away, for spell check to actually help you out. that sucks for me. my ability to spell exists in two completely polar states - no prob at all or not even close. accordingly, spell check rarely helps me out)........what's up with that? i suppose this is the consequence of not being able to breathe. stupid head cold. **shakes fist at nothing in particular** it sucks that being sick makes it harder to sleep, because you actually need sleep to get better. it's kind of a kick in the balls when you are already down. oh well.
ryan: "that's fine. it was my fault. i'll just not go to school and not take a test in one of my millions of honors/AP classes. tests aren't important anyways, they just determine my grade. i was probably going to fail that class anyways. i mean i didn't really want to get into a good college. really, it's fine. whether i take that test or not, i was probably going to get a associate's degree at ITT Tech, go on picnics with all of my sweet new friends, and buy a hyundai. so don't worry about it mom. you don't have to take me to school. i'll just drive hyundais the rest of my life. oh, it's cool that i live in the basement for the remainder of eternity too, right?"
mom: **sigh** "go get in the car."
anyways, the real reason i started this post was to talk about the show that i went to last night at the First Presbyterian in Pitman. When i first got there, i had no idea where to go and most of the church was dark. normally, when i go to random local shows, i just follow the tunes which usually lead you down 14 stairwells, past the utility basement, over the bridges, and through the woods. the problem was that i couldn't hear any music playing, so i just to started wondering around the outside of the church, in a very shady manner, until i happened upon a single 8.5x11 sheet of paper taped to a side door labeled simply - "Ska Here." Classic. It's been a good 7-8 years now since i was hanging out at VFW halls and church basements on a normal basis, but i'm super psyched to see that not much has changed. Forget the radio and billboard charts and MTV award shows and all the other crap. This is music. Kids hanging out on a cold Friday night in the jersey underground just dancin' it up, chillin' with their friends, and rockin' some tunes. that's how it's suppose to be.
Kenny's band, The Sandinistas, was playing which was my reason for being there (despite popular belief, i was not there to meet 14 year olds). it was great to catch a show since i haven't seen them play since the summer when they still had a horn section. they play as a three-piece ska/reggae/punk ensemble now. they did a pretty good job. it's tough being the first band to play but they still managed to get some kids dancing. go get in touch with your jersey underground and check them out.
i'm a little sad cause i can't do my travel stats to end off this post. it's unfortunate because it was such a great way to conclude everything i had to say. so, now, i am forced to think of some other amusement to satisfy my desire to not leave all of my future posts......unfinished.
hmm, ok. i just had a thought. maybe i'll do favorites (or least favorites) with a little explanation. for instance:
favorite type of bread:
italian
i don't know why they even bother to make other types of bread. they all taste like crap compared to italian bread. it's super good with butter or accompanying some sort of dish involving tomato sauce or gravy.
hmph, i liked that. that was good. yea, i think this will be the new way to end posts. also, this is a great way for anyone that actually reads this blog to get involved. put in your favorite (or least favorite should the situation warrant) in the comment section. it'll be fun. and, of course, you are always welcome to comment on any of the other crap that i talk about.
hmm, ok. i just had a thought. maybe i'll do favorites (or least favorites) with a little explanation. for instance:
favorite type of bread:
italian
i don't know why they even bother to make other types of bread. they all taste like crap compared to italian bread. it's super good with butter or accompanying some sort of dish involving tomato sauce or gravy.
hmph, i liked that. that was good. yea, i think this will be the new way to end posts. also, this is a great way for anyone that actually reads this blog to get involved. put in your favorite (or least favorite should the situation warrant) in the comment section. it'll be fun. and, of course, you are always welcome to comment on any of the other crap that i talk about.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Hookers in the Hall: A Reflection
Day 7
This is hour 5 of my layover in Frankfurt, Germany. The sun is lowering in the sky. It's time to start looking for shelter. I am beginning to worry because I have not ate in several hours due to my lack of euros. my core temperature is beginning to lower. If I am not careful, hypothermia will soon set in. I set off to find dry wood, but, in this primarily metal and linoleum climate, the task proves difficult. Look for stray chairs near your gate, they are a light but good source of fire and should last most of the night. At this point, if you have still not found food, it is better to stay huddled under your make-shift tent made of coke bottles and pants. This way you can conserve energy and use it to warm your body. In order to survive the night, it is imperative that your clothes remain dry. Sleeping too near the fire will cause you to sweat. Once you begin sweating, your body will cool drastically. To guard against this, it is wise to sleep naked and then there is no chance of your clothes getting wet. otherwise, you will die....unless one of your discovery channel cameramen loan you a hot dog and his key to the local comfort inn.......
i got that far in and then they began boarding my flight back to the mother country, so i was forced to quit prematurely. accordingly, i am writing the remainder of this after the completion of my travels. originally, i had planned to make the last travel blog entry at the same location that i made the first entry. at the very least, i started the last one there, so for all practical purposes, i stuck to the plan. this works out pretty good though because now i can complain about how awful the last flight was.
it was long and it was cramped. the delightful asian fellow sitting in front of me decided he needed to have his seat reclined as far as possible for the entirety of the 9.5hr flight. i was giving him the benefit of the doubt that he was just trying to sleep, but it became clear that this was not his intent. as such, i took the polite route and kindly asked him to raise his seat. he acted for half a second like he heard me and then hastily turned without relinquishing the angle of his seat.
just in case, you are wondering -> that's not ballin'. if someone asks you to put up your economy class seat on an international flight, don't be a jerk about it! but, i got him. tore one of that bastards eyes out......actually, i did opt to become physical at this point but without permanently damaging anyone. he got up to the go the bathroom about 10 minutes later. during his unfortunately(but fortunately for me)-timed water closet excursion, i reached over the seat unceremoniously and pushed the button to make his seat jump back to upright. upon his return, he began making attempts to lower his seat again. although for some reason, it would not recline back at all now despite his numerous attempts to achieve this state. as to why it did not work again is a mystery man may never know the answer to. perhaps mechanical failure, perhaps divine providence, or perhaps bobSaget and leonardNemoy are co-producing a show about the candid humor of paranormal activities at high altitudes. numerous theories abound, nevertheless it should be noted that the malfunction was not due to me wedging my knees against the back of his chair so that it could not possibly move at all........ever again.
anyways, the flight sucked. as it turns out, when you fly with the rotation of the earth, the flight takes much much longer. pity. um. yes. quite. indeed. curious.
the best part of the trip back happen before we even had checkout of the hotel. at 0335 GMT+03 when i left my room to go downstairs and checkout (the flight was at 0630 GMT+03), there were a pair of 'what the russians call' prostitutes standing directly outside of my door. i'm not entirely sure why, well, i mean i can guess why, but why my room? i'm not sure. one possibility is that they have developed an 'sixth' sense, if you will, through natural selection which allows them to locate sources of alcohol and small bills - both of which i was stashing in a moderate amounts within my luggage. regardless of how they did it, it was a delightful surprise nevertheless. my mind instantly drifted to how funny it would've been if one of the 'ladies of the night' had walked out of my room with me while Moshe was waiting in the hall. i'm sure the comment immediately following would've been along the lines of: "ryan, this is not an expense we can charge to eye-triple-E."
and, so ends my adventure to Leningrad. to close, i will leave you with a list of likes and dislikes, the final stats, and a wish that all of you had a thanksgiving as interesting as mine.
likes and dislikes:
i think the best way to do this would be to make what is called a complement sandwich where i will say something positive, something negative, and follow each negative with a positive.
-> 3.5% milk
-> warm 3.5% milk
-> benzs and the crafty hobbits that drive them
-> cold weather
-> the things you do to say warm in cold weather, like chess
-> losing muscle mass from lack of doing anything physical for a week, including but not limited to: carrying bags, opening car doors, opening regular doors, walking up steps, and etc.
-> our tour guides!
-> fancy-pants restaurants
-> the st. petersburg public transportation system
-> cold weather......again.......cause it was freakin' cold
-> attractive women
-> the realization that i will probably not find any american girl attractive for several months after this trip
...there is no positive follow-up to that. darn.
FINAL stats...
28.11.2007
st. petersburg - 0923 GMT+03
frankfurt - 0723 GMT+01
philadelphia - 0123 GMT-05
start time - 1430 GMT-05 21.11.2007
total time elapsed - 154h 53m
Current Song:
"Around the World" - Suburban Legends
cause i'm all around the world and all i wanna be is next to you......
points - the world:
hooray, prostitutes! = 1
guy sitting in front me = 1
points - ryan:
some act of nature mysteriously thwarting the guy sitting in front of me = 1
FINAL score:
the world - 8
ryan - 9
"eat it world. love, ryan"
This is hour 5 of my layover in Frankfurt, Germany. The sun is lowering in the sky. It's time to start looking for shelter. I am beginning to worry because I have not ate in several hours due to my lack of euros. my core temperature is beginning to lower. If I am not careful, hypothermia will soon set in. I set off to find dry wood, but, in this primarily metal and linoleum climate, the task proves difficult. Look for stray chairs near your gate, they are a light but good source of fire and should last most of the night. At this point, if you have still not found food, it is better to stay huddled under your make-shift tent made of coke bottles and pants. This way you can conserve energy and use it to warm your body. In order to survive the night, it is imperative that your clothes remain dry. Sleeping too near the fire will cause you to sweat. Once you begin sweating, your body will cool drastically. To guard against this, it is wise to sleep naked and then there is no chance of your clothes getting wet. otherwise, you will die....unless one of your discovery channel cameramen loan you a hot dog and his key to the local comfort inn.......
i got that far in and then they began boarding my flight back to the mother country, so i was forced to quit prematurely. accordingly, i am writing the remainder of this after the completion of my travels. originally, i had planned to make the last travel blog entry at the same location that i made the first entry. at the very least, i started the last one there, so for all practical purposes, i stuck to the plan. this works out pretty good though because now i can complain about how awful the last flight was.
it was long and it was cramped. the delightful asian fellow sitting in front of me decided he needed to have his seat reclined as far as possible for the entirety of the 9.5hr flight. i was giving him the benefit of the doubt that he was just trying to sleep, but it became clear that this was not his intent. as such, i took the polite route and kindly asked him to raise his seat. he acted for half a second like he heard me and then hastily turned without relinquishing the angle of his seat.
just in case, you are wondering -> that's not ballin'. if someone asks you to put up your economy class seat on an international flight, don't be a jerk about it! but, i got him. tore one of that bastards eyes out......actually, i did opt to become physical at this point but without permanently damaging anyone. he got up to the go the bathroom about 10 minutes later. during his unfortunately(but fortunately for me)-timed water closet excursion, i reached over the seat unceremoniously and pushed the button to make his seat jump back to upright. upon his return, he began making attempts to lower his seat again. although for some reason, it would not recline back at all now despite his numerous attempts to achieve this state. as to why it did not work again is a mystery man may never know the answer to. perhaps mechanical failure, perhaps divine providence, or perhaps bobSaget and leonardNemoy are co-producing a show about the candid humor of paranormal activities at high altitudes. numerous theories abound, nevertheless it should be noted that the malfunction was not due to me wedging my knees against the back of his chair so that it could not possibly move at all........ever again.
anyways, the flight sucked. as it turns out, when you fly with the rotation of the earth, the flight takes much much longer. pity. um. yes. quite. indeed. curious.
the best part of the trip back happen before we even had checkout of the hotel. at 0335 GMT+03 when i left my room to go downstairs and checkout (the flight was at 0630 GMT+03), there were a pair of 'what the russians call' prostitutes standing directly outside of my door. i'm not entirely sure why, well, i mean i can guess why, but why my room? i'm not sure. one possibility is that they have developed an 'sixth' sense, if you will, through natural selection which allows them to locate sources of alcohol and small bills - both of which i was stashing in a moderate amounts within my luggage. regardless of how they did it, it was a delightful surprise nevertheless. my mind instantly drifted to how funny it would've been if one of the 'ladies of the night' had walked out of my room with me while Moshe was waiting in the hall. i'm sure the comment immediately following would've been along the lines of: "ryan, this is not an expense we can charge to eye-triple-E."
and, so ends my adventure to Leningrad. to close, i will leave you with a list of likes and dislikes, the final stats, and a wish that all of you had a thanksgiving as interesting as mine.
likes and dislikes:
i think the best way to do this would be to make what is called a complement sandwich where i will say something positive, something negative, and follow each negative with a positive.
-> 3.5% milk
-> warm 3.5% milk
-> benzs and the crafty hobbits that drive them
-> cold weather
-> the things you do to say warm in cold weather, like chess
-> losing muscle mass from lack of doing anything physical for a week, including but not limited to: carrying bags, opening car doors, opening regular doors, walking up steps, and etc.
-> our tour guides!
-> fancy-pants restaurants
-> the st. petersburg public transportation system
-> cold weather......again.......cause it was freakin' cold
-> attractive women
-> the realization that i will probably not find any american girl attractive for several months after this trip
...there is no positive follow-up to that. darn.
FINAL stats...
28.11.2007
st. petersburg - 0923 GMT+03
frankfurt - 0723 GMT+01
philadelphia - 0123 GMT-05
start time - 1430 GMT-05 21.11.2007
total time elapsed - 154h 53m
Current Song:
"Around the World" - Suburban Legends
cause i'm all around the world and all i wanna be is next to you......
points - the world:
hooray, prostitutes! = 1
guy sitting in front me = 1
points - ryan:
some act of nature mysteriously thwarting the guy sitting in front of me = 1
FINAL score:
the world - 8
ryan - 9
"eat it world. love, ryan"
Monday, November 26, 2007
Near-Death Experiences through the Streets
some days you go to class. some days you go to work. some days you just chill out at home. and, some days you ride around in the back of a mercedes benz through a russian city with a madman. my day happen to be the latter of these. for our final day in Leningrad, me and moshe decided to tour it up - in style. cause, you know, we haven't been really too classy at all up to this point, with all the meetings in suits (hoodies), expensive restaurants, and personal tour guides and such - not classy at all. so, we got a driver for the day. a particularly squatty looking fellow with a sort of general scowl about him. not an angry scowl, it was just the shape of his face. actually, i can directly put his image into your head. ok. close your eyes. did you? you did. oh really? well then how are you reading these questions, you filthly liar.....
.........imagine the hobbit from the very beginning of fellowship of the ring. the one that is sweeping in front of his house when gandalf rides into the shire on a wagon. you know the one i'm talking about. now, put a high-end thrift shop suit (if there is such a thing) on him. of course, it doesn't match, but you know at one point, there was a horrible brown-gold plaid shirt that went with that tie. finally, make him about 1.2m and top it off with a gray derby cap.
and, homeboy was rocking a benz..........ballin'! cars are really weird around here. there are a fair number of volvos and benzs and i even saw a porsche today. but then are there a million crappy asian cars/vans/trucks that look like they could've just as easily been on a street in 1970s south vietnam -- yesterday. anywho, homeboy was killin' it. pulling u-turns. cutting in front of 4 lanes of traffic. making turns and backing up with no regard for pedestrians at all. there had to be at least 6 times today where i was immensely afraid for my life or that of a stranger. i suppose the point is that no one died. but, i wouldn't be particularly surprised if we were to have a conversation along the lines of:
me: "homeboy, what's the word on the street?"
homeboy: "chillin'."
me: "how you rockin' today?"
homeboy: "you know me."
me: "yea, i do. you killed some bitches, didn't you?"
homeboy: "they got in my way."
me: "i heard that. and i know you tryin' to get a hit of this chronic"
homeboy: "hell yeah i'm tryin' to hit."
.......crafty hobbits.
we went to the summer palace of the Romanovs. it's a little outside of St. Petersburg. it was kinda crazy cause the public isn't normally allowed in on mondays, but we had the hook up and got a private tour. it's was pretty nuts. the grand hall had the most intense (re)verb rocking ever. the room is 1000m^2 and about 8-10m high. you could clap and it had the nastiest effect on it. basically, it would be the most ballin' place to setup a recording studio ever.
so we walked around the palace and the surrounding gardens for a while. at one point, i mentioned that this would be a great place for a summer retreat because the gardens were flat and divided up into sections about the size of a football field and lined with trees. does anyone else realize how perfect that is for sports? flat. big. and bordered. perfect. clearly, moshe and our guide didn't appreciate this attribute of the grounds as they both laughed at me profusely for proposing that you could get a nasty game of kickball going on here. it's been so long since i've played kickball. i think the problem is that wiffle ball is so much better. and, anytime you could play one, you could be playing the other as well. they require roughly the same supplies (sans the difference in balls.......hah, balls.....). but that's fine cause i like wiffle ball way better even if i am the lesser measel. speaking of, i was able to find an ovenchkin jersey from when he played on the russian national team for tyler. nice.
after the palace, we just kinda rode around the city for a while looking at different things. the nice part of the afternoon was that Milana met up with us for the last couple hours. now, i'm usually a modest person, but i'm pretty certain Milana is into me. she wasn't suppose to come with us today and we already had a guide, so she just came for the hell of it (aka to hang out with me). i mean, i can't blame her. plus, she kept smiling at me and whenever we were walking anywhere, she would hang back to talk to me and let the other girl walk with Moshe. unfortunately, it's just not meant to be considering we don't live in the same hemisphere.
anyways, we came back, ate another overpriced dinner, got some souvenirs for the family, and now i'm just about to go to sleep so i can wake up at 0315 GMT+03 to catch the plane back. i know you are probably overcome with joy at the prospect of my return. just two more days my friends........
stats and such:
time:
26.11.2007
St. Petersburg - 2103 GMT+03
Frankfurt - 1903 GMT+01
Philadelphia - 1303 GMT-05
start time - 1430 GMT-05 21.11.2007
time elapsed - 118h 33m
Current Song:
"Apologize" - Timbaland feat. One Republic
Dear Milana,
First, I just wanna say that we've had some good, no.....some great times together. You showed me around Leningrad. I made you laugh. You got me away from the russian police. I told you about Ska. But, girl, i just can't go on like this anymore. it's tearin' up my heart when i'm with you, and when we are apart, i feel it too. i'm an engineer, you're a humanities major. it's just not in the cards. but, i want to apologize for the pain i might have put you through.
Yours Always,
Ryan
p.s. this song was playing in the WaWa while I was picking up a 1.0L vanilla coke for 28 rubles!
p.p.s. when most people add secondary and tetriary post scripts, they usually mistakenly abbreviate it p.s.s. and p.s.s.s. clearly, they don't realize that p.s. stands for post script. the correct extension is to keep adding Ps so that it becomes the post post script instead of the post script script. that just doesn't make any sense at all.
p.p.p.s. i think someday we'll get back together maybe.
p.p.p.p.s. i think someday things'll be much better baby.
points - the world:
making me do the touristy thing and shop in a store labeled "Souvenir" = 1
points - ryan:
surviving that crafty hobbit = 1
score:
the world - 6
ryan - 8
"we can beat this thing!" - ryan, in max's basement
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Cultralizing at the Hermitage
i'm sure cultralizing is not a word, but it is the only thing i can think of that correctly corresponds to my activities today.....
we woke up (relatively late) at 9pm and had yet again another monster breakfast. i don't think that i have mentioned breakfast up to this point, but they are great! they don't have everything ever, but everything they do have is super tasty. so far, every morning since arriving we have taken breakfast at the hotel and every morning i have started off the day right with two heaping plates of eggs, bacon, cold cuts, rolls, hash browns, and fruit. traditionally speaking, i'm not even a big fan of big breakfasts - cereal everyday, all day, but this has been super awesome. in fact, just talking about it gets me really excited for tomorrow morning.
anyways, oh oh oh, i just remembered. the front desk girl was still there this morning and she was there just 20 minutes ago when i came up. therefore, she is a robot. it's proven.
now, like i was saying - anyways, after a delight breakfast, we met with a tour guide, not Milana this time most unfortunately, who walked us around outside a little bit to some statues and such. then, we went to the hermitage, which is a giant museum. i heard before going in that it takes several days to appropriately see the whole collection. i believe it. we were walking all over the place, from the opening until it closed, and we still did not see everything. but, we did see lots of cool stuff and well known artists, such as Da Vinci, Rembrandt, Rubens, and Monet among several others. this is what i am talking about when i say cultured. As it turns out (not really suprising at all though), Moshe is highly versed in the fine arts. He was basically my walking narrator. He knew everything about every piece and artist in the museum. Needless to say, i learned lots of interesting stuff about art.
so we went to a museum and walked around......a lot. by the time we arrived back to the hotel, i was extremely tired and decided to take a nap in the hour that i had available until Moshe and I were suppose to go get dinner. Well, i ended up sleeping for 3 hours instead. Moshe didn't take it personally (though we did joke about my effort to ditch him) and had gone to get food on his own when i hadn't emerged for an hour past our appointed meeting time. so, i was on my own to get food. options at this point include: order room service, go to the restaurant on the first floor, or go exploring. it's me, so of course i chose option four: find the closest liquor store!
but real quick, i'll justify my decision. the room service is absurdly expensive. let me give you an example. a cheeseburger and fries costs 560 rubles. at a current exchange rate of 24.5 rubles to 1 US$, that works out to be about $22..........for a cheeseburger. i could buy the entire checkers menu for $22 (which i plan to do when i return anyways, because checkers is amazing)! but, that's how everything is at this hotel -- really expensive. it's also part of the reason that i didn't go to the restaurant again, while the other is that i already ate at the restaurant, and it was just ok. plus, i really wanted to go exploring a bit, and option number four is really just a more specific version of option 3.
so, our friendly, neighborhood front-desk robot assisted me with the general location of vodka, and off i went. nothing really notable happened until achieving my destination. it is late sunday night at this point, so very few people were out and even fewer shops were open. but, lucky for me, the liquor store is actually a 24 hour mini mart. it's funny because we have passed this location several times. i didn't realize that it was a mini mart before this trip because there was always 10-15 seeming hooligans hanging out in front and appearing very rowdy. this was no different tonight, it just so happen that this time i was able to see the sign that said 24 hours (in russian of course). that's when i realized that this is Leningrad's Wawa! how fantastic! and the hooligans in front - they are basically me. just chillin' with their friends in close proximity to the nearest all night food outlet. that's awesome. if i lived in Leningrad, they would be my friends. this made me extremely happy.....my kindred spirits half a world away.
the store itself was surprising linear. it wasn't arranged in aisles, it was one aisle that just wound it's way around the store. and the best part about this mini mart was that half of it was a liquor store with all kinds of stuff and a wall full of vodka. i got what appeared to be the expensive stuff, even though it was still just 400-some rubles for a liter, which is actually super cheap. that's low-end vodka prices in the US. and, there were ones that were even cheaper. like 5 bucks for 0.5L. that's insane! no wonder russians like it so much, it's stupid cheap.
during lunch with my russian counterparts yesterday, we were talking about drinking briefly. i was informed you can purchase alcohol at 18, but most start drinking around 14. the one girl told me that she heard that the US was 21, which i confirmed. she then went on to tell me that 21 is when russians stop drinking (heavily). it makes sense. i suppose drinking will decrease in fun once you've been doing it for the better part of a decade.
i got a couple bottles of vodka (look forward to that 331), but, unfortunately due to the fact that i don't have a big suitcase and because you are only allowed to carry 3 bottles out of the country anyways, i had to stop at that point. i did also pick up a couple food products to complete my original intent, and i got a 0.5L (16.9oz) of cold beer for like $0.90. i've been drinking it the entire time i've been typing this by the way. it's pretty good. once again, it's no yuengling, but good nonetheless. and it absolutely destroys other beers that are in the same price range (natty, beast, keystone, etc.).
so i spanned the gambit today: the day at one of the premiere museums in the world and then a 24-hour liquor mart at night. it's pretty much the Leningrad equivalent of going to the philly art museum then to a 7-11 and the beer distributor on 42nd.
class, the whole way........
stats!:
25.11.2007
st. petersburg - 2245 GMT+03
frankfurt - 2045 GMT+01
philadelphia - 1445 GMT-05
start time - 1430 GMT-05 21.11.2007
time elapsed - 96h 15m
Current Song:
"4'33"" - John Cage
A little lesson in music history: John Cage was an American composer in the 20th century, and a controversial one at that. His most famous piece 4'33" does not contain any notes played by the musician - they just sit still for 4 minutes and 33 seconds. the music, if you will (though it kinda depends on what your personal definition of music is), is the noise of the audience during this time, often characterized by coughs, murmurs, and awkward laughing. basically, it's the sounds of musical silence. as such, i feel it's appropriate for a day that i spent at the museum where i heard no music the entire day. in retrospect, that is really depressing. it's rare that i am awake for that long of a period of time and don't listen to music for at least part of it.
points - the world:
i didn't get boned at all today. nice.
points - ryan:
not getting boned by the world = 1
discovering kindred spirits = 1
score:
the world - 5
ryan - 7
we woke up (relatively late) at 9pm and had yet again another monster breakfast. i don't think that i have mentioned breakfast up to this point, but they are great! they don't have everything ever, but everything they do have is super tasty. so far, every morning since arriving we have taken breakfast at the hotel and every morning i have started off the day right with two heaping plates of eggs, bacon, cold cuts, rolls, hash browns, and fruit. traditionally speaking, i'm not even a big fan of big breakfasts - cereal everyday, all day, but this has been super awesome. in fact, just talking about it gets me really excited for tomorrow morning.
anyways, oh oh oh, i just remembered. the front desk girl was still there this morning and she was there just 20 minutes ago when i came up. therefore, she is a robot. it's proven.
now, like i was saying - anyways, after a delight breakfast, we met with a tour guide, not Milana this time most unfortunately, who walked us around outside a little bit to some statues and such. then, we went to the hermitage, which is a giant museum. i heard before going in that it takes several days to appropriately see the whole collection. i believe it. we were walking all over the place, from the opening until it closed, and we still did not see everything. but, we did see lots of cool stuff and well known artists, such as Da Vinci, Rembrandt, Rubens, and Monet among several others. this is what i am talking about when i say cultured. As it turns out (not really suprising at all though), Moshe is highly versed in the fine arts. He was basically my walking narrator. He knew everything about every piece and artist in the museum. Needless to say, i learned lots of interesting stuff about art.
so we went to a museum and walked around......a lot. by the time we arrived back to the hotel, i was extremely tired and decided to take a nap in the hour that i had available until Moshe and I were suppose to go get dinner. Well, i ended up sleeping for 3 hours instead. Moshe didn't take it personally (though we did joke about my effort to ditch him) and had gone to get food on his own when i hadn't emerged for an hour past our appointed meeting time. so, i was on my own to get food. options at this point include: order room service, go to the restaurant on the first floor, or go exploring. it's me, so of course i chose option four: find the closest liquor store!
but real quick, i'll justify my decision. the room service is absurdly expensive. let me give you an example. a cheeseburger and fries costs 560 rubles. at a current exchange rate of 24.5 rubles to 1 US$, that works out to be about $22..........for a cheeseburger. i could buy the entire checkers menu for $22 (which i plan to do when i return anyways, because checkers is amazing)! but, that's how everything is at this hotel -- really expensive. it's also part of the reason that i didn't go to the restaurant again, while the other is that i already ate at the restaurant, and it was just ok. plus, i really wanted to go exploring a bit, and option number four is really just a more specific version of option 3.
so, our friendly, neighborhood front-desk robot assisted me with the general location of vodka, and off i went. nothing really notable happened until achieving my destination. it is late sunday night at this point, so very few people were out and even fewer shops were open. but, lucky for me, the liquor store is actually a 24 hour mini mart. it's funny because we have passed this location several times. i didn't realize that it was a mini mart before this trip because there was always 10-15 seeming hooligans hanging out in front and appearing very rowdy. this was no different tonight, it just so happen that this time i was able to see the sign that said 24 hours (in russian of course). that's when i realized that this is Leningrad's Wawa! how fantastic! and the hooligans in front - they are basically me. just chillin' with their friends in close proximity to the nearest all night food outlet. that's awesome. if i lived in Leningrad, they would be my friends. this made me extremely happy.....my kindred spirits half a world away.
the store itself was surprising linear. it wasn't arranged in aisles, it was one aisle that just wound it's way around the store. and the best part about this mini mart was that half of it was a liquor store with all kinds of stuff and a wall full of vodka. i got what appeared to be the expensive stuff, even though it was still just 400-some rubles for a liter, which is actually super cheap. that's low-end vodka prices in the US. and, there were ones that were even cheaper. like 5 bucks for 0.5L. that's insane! no wonder russians like it so much, it's stupid cheap.
during lunch with my russian counterparts yesterday, we were talking about drinking briefly. i was informed you can purchase alcohol at 18, but most start drinking around 14. the one girl told me that she heard that the US was 21, which i confirmed. she then went on to tell me that 21 is when russians stop drinking (heavily). it makes sense. i suppose drinking will decrease in fun once you've been doing it for the better part of a decade.
i got a couple bottles of vodka (look forward to that 331), but, unfortunately due to the fact that i don't have a big suitcase and because you are only allowed to carry 3 bottles out of the country anyways, i had to stop at that point. i did also pick up a couple food products to complete my original intent, and i got a 0.5L (16.9oz) of cold beer for like $0.90. i've been drinking it the entire time i've been typing this by the way. it's pretty good. once again, it's no yuengling, but good nonetheless. and it absolutely destroys other beers that are in the same price range (natty, beast, keystone, etc.).
so i spanned the gambit today: the day at one of the premiere museums in the world and then a 24-hour liquor mart at night. it's pretty much the Leningrad equivalent of going to the philly art museum then to a 7-11 and the beer distributor on 42nd.
class, the whole way........
stats!:
25.11.2007
st. petersburg - 2245 GMT+03
frankfurt - 2045 GMT+01
philadelphia - 1445 GMT-05
start time - 1430 GMT-05 21.11.2007
time elapsed - 96h 15m
Current Song:
"4'33"" - John Cage
A little lesson in music history: John Cage was an American composer in the 20th century, and a controversial one at that. His most famous piece 4'33" does not contain any notes played by the musician - they just sit still for 4 minutes and 33 seconds. the music, if you will (though it kinda depends on what your personal definition of music is), is the noise of the audience during this time, often characterized by coughs, murmurs, and awkward laughing. basically, it's the sounds of musical silence. as such, i feel it's appropriate for a day that i spent at the museum where i heard no music the entire day. in retrospect, that is really depressing. it's rare that i am awake for that long of a period of time and don't listen to music for at least part of it.
points - the world:
i didn't get boned at all today. nice.
points - ryan:
not getting boned by the world = 1
discovering kindred spirits = 1
score:
the world - 5
ryan - 7
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Finished at the Angleterre
me: "i wish we had radio stations in the us that played the 'singin' in the rain' soundtrack"
moshe: "yes, maybe we should just quit research and make our own radio station. forget wireless communication........gene kelly."
if you have ever seen a movie with a soviet prison (like goldeneye!), you would have a pretty accurate representation of what this university looks like in the dark. apparently, it is dark about 18 hours a day in this part of the world. it was still pitch black when we arrived at the school at 0815 GMT+03, and practically all of the lights were out on campus. i instinctively began searching around for a siberian computer programmer and a tank so that i could bust out. for those that are not down with the double O, there is a pretty awesome tank chase through the streets of St. Petersburg in 'Goldeneye.' it was one the first thoughts that popped to mind when i entered the city two days ago.
so, we got everything setup and were rolling by 0900 GMT+03. it turns out there are 25 students in the technical english program. they are all EEs and 5 of them were girls! that's probably more than all of the girls in Drexel's college of engineering combined.........and they were better looking too. i should really take a minute to apologize for continually talking about how much more attractive foreign girls are, but it's just weird to go from seeing no hot girls ever to seeing them in an electrical engineering course. a welcomed change i assure you, even if it is to be short-lived. anywho, Moshe did a presentation on the eye-triple-E and then did a lecture/activity on barcodes. it took him about two and a half hours. i started my talk (on acoustic signal processing) and lectured for about an hour before we went to lunch.
lunch was a little awkward at first.....as me and Moshe both went and sat at different tables with the students (they were the point we came after all). so, i was just chilin' with some russians, eatin' some food, shootin' the breeze, you know. i highly enjoyed it. they were very nice and genuine people, much more so than americans at any rate. we were just talking about random crap - school, music, general life stuff. there was a little bit of a language barrier as they weren't really fluent, but they could speak some and generally understood what i was saying. when i declined tea after the meal (i hate all forms of tea and coffee, in case you didn't know. but, the russians seem to drink it at just about every meal), the one girl at my table commented that i would probably rather a beer.......
.....AM I REALLY THAT TRANSPARENT?.........
.......this is a question that i've been asking jules for months now. and, i believe the answer is undeniably - yes. apparently, i wear exactly what i thinking on my face. even people half way around the world that i met this morning can read me like a large print book. son of a bitch. eh, it was true though. i could've gone for a beer.........
after lunch, i lectured for another hour and a half and did some examples of audio effects with ableton. in total, i was speaking for about two and a half hours, which is definitely the longest presentation i've ever done. in fact, until now, the longest had been about a hour and a half. this is actually a problem though. cause i wrote this presentation a little bit on monday but mostly on tuesday. that means that i can whip up a huge presentation at what was basically the last minute (before we left to make the commute anyways) and still pull off a pretty good talk with no practice that is two and a half hours long! damnit. see all this does is raise my confidence. now, i'm never going to have motivation to do work ahead of time ever again.
the presentation went pretty smoothly overall. they asked a couple questions at points but it seemed like they understood most of it, which is awesome because it is a involved topic if you have no former knowledge of it. the only roadblocks were discrete time and finding the least common multiple. apparently, they had never learned either of these, just a difference in curriculum i suppose. it wasn't a huge deal as i was able to throw together some quick examples to help them through it. all-in-all, i was mostly satisfied with my job. and, the students seemed to like both of the lectures. several of them commented on it afterwards.
so that was pretty much today, spent almost entirely at the university. now, it is time to really enjoy the vacation since our work is over. tomorrow, we're going to the hermitage, which is one of the premiere museums in the world. i can't say i'm a huge museum fan, but if it's one of the best in the world, i suppose i can cope.
on a side note, the same girl was working at the front desk of the hotel yesterday afternoon, last night (around 2300 GMT+03 the last time i was down there), this morning at 0800 GMT+03, and tonight around 2200 GMT+03 and smiling the whole time this leads me to two possible conclusions. A.) she is the most dedicated worker in the entire world, or B.) she's a robot. i'm leaning towards the latter. but, we'll see. if she is still working tomorrow morning when i go down and still smiling, that definitively proves that she is a robot. there is no one in the world that would be smiling if they have to work double shifts for the entire weekend.
stats:
time:
25.11.2007
St. Petersburg - 0115 GMT+03
Frankfurt - 2315 GMT+01
Philadelphia - 1715 GMT-05
start time - 1430 GMT-05 21.11.2007
time elapsed - 75h 00m
# of hours spent sleeping - 11h (out of 48h)
# of hours spent playing ds - 12h (jules and dan -> i beat the elite four....HAZAA)
# of hot girls i've seen - i'm discontinuing this count. it's infeasible, because i can't realistically count that high.
Current Song:
"singin' in the rain" - gene kelly (singin' in the rain soundtrack)
it was on in the taxi on the ride over. russian radio is so awesome. kiss kiss, a-ha, and singin' in the rain, how can i loss? i can't.
points - the world:
a foreigner labeling me as an alcoholic = 1
points - ryan:
last minute presentations and people who pull them off = 1
score:
the world - 5
ryan - 5
moshe: "yes, maybe we should just quit research and make our own radio station. forget wireless communication........gene kelly."
if you have ever seen a movie with a soviet prison (like goldeneye!), you would have a pretty accurate representation of what this university looks like in the dark. apparently, it is dark about 18 hours a day in this part of the world. it was still pitch black when we arrived at the school at 0815 GMT+03, and practically all of the lights were out on campus. i instinctively began searching around for a siberian computer programmer and a tank so that i could bust out. for those that are not down with the double O, there is a pretty awesome tank chase through the streets of St. Petersburg in 'Goldeneye.' it was one the first thoughts that popped to mind when i entered the city two days ago.
so, we got everything setup and were rolling by 0900 GMT+03. it turns out there are 25 students in the technical english program. they are all EEs and 5 of them were girls! that's probably more than all of the girls in Drexel's college of engineering combined.........and they were better looking too. i should really take a minute to apologize for continually talking about how much more attractive foreign girls are, but it's just weird to go from seeing no hot girls ever to seeing them in an electrical engineering course. a welcomed change i assure you, even if it is to be short-lived. anywho, Moshe did a presentation on the eye-triple-E and then did a lecture/activity on barcodes. it took him about two and a half hours. i started my talk (on acoustic signal processing) and lectured for about an hour before we went to lunch.
lunch was a little awkward at first.....as me and Moshe both went and sat at different tables with the students (they were the point we came after all). so, i was just chilin' with some russians, eatin' some food, shootin' the breeze, you know. i highly enjoyed it. they were very nice and genuine people, much more so than americans at any rate. we were just talking about random crap - school, music, general life stuff. there was a little bit of a language barrier as they weren't really fluent, but they could speak some and generally understood what i was saying. when i declined tea after the meal (i hate all forms of tea and coffee, in case you didn't know. but, the russians seem to drink it at just about every meal), the one girl at my table commented that i would probably rather a beer.......
.....AM I REALLY THAT TRANSPARENT?.........
.......this is a question that i've been asking jules for months now. and, i believe the answer is undeniably - yes. apparently, i wear exactly what i thinking on my face. even people half way around the world that i met this morning can read me like a large print book. son of a bitch. eh, it was true though. i could've gone for a beer.........
after lunch, i lectured for another hour and a half and did some examples of audio effects with ableton. in total, i was speaking for about two and a half hours, which is definitely the longest presentation i've ever done. in fact, until now, the longest had been about a hour and a half. this is actually a problem though. cause i wrote this presentation a little bit on monday but mostly on tuesday. that means that i can whip up a huge presentation at what was basically the last minute (before we left to make the commute anyways) and still pull off a pretty good talk with no practice that is two and a half hours long! damnit. see all this does is raise my confidence. now, i'm never going to have motivation to do work ahead of time ever again.
the presentation went pretty smoothly overall. they asked a couple questions at points but it seemed like they understood most of it, which is awesome because it is a involved topic if you have no former knowledge of it. the only roadblocks were discrete time and finding the least common multiple. apparently, they had never learned either of these, just a difference in curriculum i suppose. it wasn't a huge deal as i was able to throw together some quick examples to help them through it. all-in-all, i was mostly satisfied with my job. and, the students seemed to like both of the lectures. several of them commented on it afterwards.
so that was pretty much today, spent almost entirely at the university. now, it is time to really enjoy the vacation since our work is over. tomorrow, we're going to the hermitage, which is one of the premiere museums in the world. i can't say i'm a huge museum fan, but if it's one of the best in the world, i suppose i can cope.
on a side note, the same girl was working at the front desk of the hotel yesterday afternoon, last night (around 2300 GMT+03 the last time i was down there), this morning at 0800 GMT+03, and tonight around 2200 GMT+03 and smiling the whole time this leads me to two possible conclusions. A.) she is the most dedicated worker in the entire world, or B.) she's a robot. i'm leaning towards the latter. but, we'll see. if she is still working tomorrow morning when i go down and still smiling, that definitively proves that she is a robot. there is no one in the world that would be smiling if they have to work double shifts for the entire weekend.
stats:
time:
25.11.2007
St. Petersburg - 0115 GMT+03
Frankfurt - 2315 GMT+01
Philadelphia - 1715 GMT-05
start time - 1430 GMT-05 21.11.2007
time elapsed - 75h 00m
# of hours spent sleeping - 11h (out of 48h)
# of hours spent playing ds - 12h (jules and dan -> i beat the elite four....HAZAA)
# of hot girls i've seen - i'm discontinuing this count. it's infeasible, because i can't realistically count that high.
Current Song:
"singin' in the rain" - gene kelly (singin' in the rain soundtrack)
it was on in the taxi on the ride over. russian radio is so awesome. kiss kiss, a-ha, and singin' in the rain, how can i loss? i can't.
points - the world:
a foreigner labeling me as an alcoholic = 1
points - ryan:
last minute presentations and people who pull them off = 1
score:
the world - 5
ryan - 5
Friday, November 23, 2007
Underdressed with the Vice-rector
carrying a bookbag, calling taxis, opening doors
what is "things i normally do for myself but have not done since i showed up"
i would not make a good celebrity/rich person. it kinda bothers me when people wait on me. i'd rather carry my own bag and open my own doors. but i don't want to be a jerk about it. "no, you can't carry my bag!" at the hotel, they have bus boys and the concierge to take care of any needs you might have. nuts to that.
gripe, gripe, gripe......you're in freaking russia and you let good service drag you down. i know, i know. i just wanted to get it off my chest.
anywho, we took the st. petersburg metro to the st. petersburg electrotechnical institute today. the metro is raw as hell....and efficient! It's super underground, reminiscent of the DC metro in that your ride the escalator for like 5 hours before to make it to the bottom. And the platform was instense! The trains came every 3 minutes - exactly. There was even a clock that counted down the arrival of the next train to the second.
there were literally a thousand people in the station. and, the trains were loaded. but, the most amazing thing ever happen. all 5 million people waiting on the platform parted as the new train arrived and allowed everyone to stream out of the train before packing in. I mean packing. The next time the door opened i almost got carried out of the train by the flood of people flowing past me. and on the escalator, everyone not actively walking up the escalator stood against the right side so people could past on the left if necessary. that's awesome! It was about 10 minutes total from the time we walked into the station till the time we walked out at the destination like 3 miles away. simply amazing.
we met the professor at LETI who arranged our visit who was quite nice and very excited to be with us. the school was not in the best shape. after talking with the professor for a while, it became quite apparent that the school was in a desperate financial state. we talked with him for a while and went over what we were going to do tomorrow. afterwards we went to the Popov museum on LETI's campus. Alexander Stepanovich Popov was a professor at this university around the turn of the 20th century and he basically invented the wireless communication via radio waves. We then took lunch, and I assumed our business at the school had completed for the day. but, instead of being turned loose on the streets of Leningrad we were taken to see the vice-rector. i'm still not entirely sure what a vice-rector is but he had a nice office and his own secretary (which is considerably more than i had seen previously on campus). and, because i had assumed at the onset of the day that we were only going for an informal meeting and then touring around, i wore comfortable clothes, which happen to be my default attire consisting of:
sneakers + swat shirt + hoodie = classy
so what if all the other 6 people at the meeting had suits and business cards? so what if they took pictures to commemorate our visit?
afterwards, we went with our super nice and super cute student guide, Milana, to two cathedrals which were epic on a bad day. and, as we were walking around to them we got to see lots of the city. there are canals and bridges all over the place, and the canals have ducks! i'm pretty sure i would like the schuylkill a lot more if it had ducks in it.
once we returned to the hotel, the concierge made reservations for us at a restaurant around the corner. it was probably the classiest place i have ever ate. The average plate was about 1400-1500 rubles (which translates to about $60). i ordered orange juice and they squeezed it fresh. the menu came in russian and english. i still didn't know any of the words on it. so, i randomly picked one of the dishes under the label - pasta. it was pretty good, and i never did find out what it was.
and, so ends the first! full day in leningrad. presentation tomorrow. maybe i'll remember a tie this time............doubtful.
stats and such:
time:
23.11.2007
St. Petersburg - 2310 GMT+03
Frankfurt - 2110 GMT+01
Philadelphia - 1510 GMT-05
start time - 1430 GMT-05 21.11.2007 (i just realized that i f'd up the start time in the first two, my bad)
time elapsed - 48h 40m
# of hours spent sleeping - 6h (out of 48h) (out of 52h if you count what time i got up on wednesday)
# of hours spent playing ds - 10h (in soviet russia, ds plays you!)
# of hot girls i've seen - 108 (we were on a college campus. about 60% that i saw were hot. but, drexel is hanging in there strong with -4%.)
Current Song:
let's play a game. guess the last place in the world you except to hear the song "kiss kiss" by chris brown and t-pain. if you said "the teacher's lounge at the St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University", you were wrong. i also most feel out of my chair laughing when i heard this come on during lunch today.
points - the world:
raining instead of snowing because the temperature is 2 degrees celius = 1
points - ryan:
talking with Milana about the music scene in russia = 1
wearing a swat shirt and hoodie to a meeting with the vice-rector of LETI and a candlelit dinner with Moshe = 1 (for being hardcore)
score:
the world - 4
ryan - 4
what is "things i normally do for myself but have not done since i showed up"
i would not make a good celebrity/rich person. it kinda bothers me when people wait on me. i'd rather carry my own bag and open my own doors. but i don't want to be a jerk about it. "no, you can't carry my bag!" at the hotel, they have bus boys and the concierge to take care of any needs you might have. nuts to that.
gripe, gripe, gripe......you're in freaking russia and you let good service drag you down. i know, i know. i just wanted to get it off my chest.
anywho, we took the st. petersburg metro to the st. petersburg electrotechnical institute today. the metro is raw as hell....and efficient! It's super underground, reminiscent of the DC metro in that your ride the escalator for like 5 hours before to make it to the bottom. And the platform was instense! The trains came every 3 minutes - exactly. There was even a clock that counted down the arrival of the next train to the second.
Septa patron #1: "i'm tryin' to hit this train. you tryin' to hit this train?"
Septa patron #2: "uh-huhhhh"
Septa patron #1: "come yet?"
Septa patron #2: "uh-aaaahh"
Septa patron #1: "cause i'm tryin' to stand in front of the door when it opens so everyone else can't get off. then me and my 4 6-10 year old children are all going to take up half the car and ride to the next stop 2 blocks away, you know?"
Septa patron #2: "uh-hmmm"
[ 16 minutes later ]
Septa patron #1: "girl, i ain't tryin' to not catch this train"
Septa patron #2: "word........"
there were literally a thousand people in the station. and, the trains were loaded. but, the most amazing thing ever happen. all 5 million people waiting on the platform parted as the new train arrived and allowed everyone to stream out of the train before packing in. I mean packing. The next time the door opened i almost got carried out of the train by the flood of people flowing past me. and on the escalator, everyone not actively walking up the escalator stood against the right side so people could past on the left if necessary. that's awesome! It was about 10 minutes total from the time we walked into the station till the time we walked out at the destination like 3 miles away. simply amazing.
we met the professor at LETI who arranged our visit who was quite nice and very excited to be with us. the school was not in the best shape. after talking with the professor for a while, it became quite apparent that the school was in a desperate financial state. we talked with him for a while and went over what we were going to do tomorrow. afterwards we went to the Popov museum on LETI's campus. Alexander Stepanovich Popov was a professor at this university around the turn of the 20th century and he basically invented the wireless communication via radio waves. We then took lunch, and I assumed our business at the school had completed for the day. but, instead of being turned loose on the streets of Leningrad we were taken to see the vice-rector. i'm still not entirely sure what a vice-rector is but he had a nice office and his own secretary (which is considerably more than i had seen previously on campus). and, because i had assumed at the onset of the day that we were only going for an informal meeting and then touring around, i wore comfortable clothes, which happen to be my default attire consisting of:
sneakers + swat shirt + hoodie = classy
so what if all the other 6 people at the meeting had suits and business cards? so what if they took pictures to commemorate our visit?
afterwards, we went with our super nice and super cute student guide, Milana, to two cathedrals which were epic on a bad day. and, as we were walking around to them we got to see lots of the city. there are canals and bridges all over the place, and the canals have ducks! i'm pretty sure i would like the schuylkill a lot more if it had ducks in it.
once we returned to the hotel, the concierge made reservations for us at a restaurant around the corner. it was probably the classiest place i have ever ate. The average plate was about 1400-1500 rubles (which translates to about $60). i ordered orange juice and they squeezed it fresh. the menu came in russian and english. i still didn't know any of the words on it. so, i randomly picked one of the dishes under the label - pasta. it was pretty good, and i never did find out what it was.
and, so ends the first! full day in leningrad. presentation tomorrow. maybe i'll remember a tie this time............doubtful.
stats and such:
time:
23.11.2007
St. Petersburg - 2310 GMT+03
Frankfurt - 2110 GMT+01
Philadelphia - 1510 GMT-05
start time - 1430 GMT-05 21.11.2007 (i just realized that i f'd up the start time in the first two, my bad)
time elapsed - 48h 40m
# of hours spent sleeping - 6h (out of 48h) (out of 52h if you count what time i got up on wednesday)
# of hours spent playing ds - 10h (in soviet russia, ds plays you!)
# of hot girls i've seen - 108 (we were on a college campus. about 60% that i saw were hot. but, drexel is hanging in there strong with -4%.)
Current Song:
let's play a game. guess the last place in the world you except to hear the song "kiss kiss" by chris brown and t-pain. if you said "the teacher's lounge at the St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University", you were wrong. i also most feel out of my chair laughing when i heard this come on during lunch today.
points - the world:
raining instead of snowing because the temperature is 2 degrees celius = 1
points - ryan:
talking with Milana about the music scene in russia = 1
wearing a swat shirt and hoodie to a meeting with the vice-rector of LETI and a candlelit dinner with Moshe = 1 (for being hardcore)
score:
the world - 4
ryan - 4
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Dreaming in Sankt-Peterburg
large. neon. signs. everywhere. or as Moshe commented, “it feels like Detroit.” at any rate, we finally made it after some absurd amount of traveling. i think the commute was about 20h. Now, that's not quite as bad as my commute was down in DC last year, but it's getting close.
once we got through customs and baggage (it took us like 4 minutes to all of this as opposed to the two hours we spent in philly merely acquiring the tickets at check-in, suprise suprise), we had a guy waiting for us with moshe's name on a sign. to preface my next comment, i must ask "have you ever seen rocky 4?" home boy was rolling in a dirty black benz with donuts for tires. at that moment, i felt extremely compelled to throw on fur and then run to the top of a mountain. to my dismay, there is no snow on the ground and the area surrounding Leningrad is flat. this is not totally suprising as it borders the baltic sea. fun trivia fact for the day: st. petersburg is the most northern city in the world that has more than 1 million residents. translation: it's cold. the high is freezing. i could see my breath while i was walking through the jetway from the plane! luckily, i was able to acquire some under armour last week, so i'm good to go - crunchwrap style.
this city is huge. it's the third largest in Europe and it doesn't hide it. it was a 45 min ride from the airport on the city limits to our hotel near the center.......and we were going like 80kph (50mph for you US standard dogs). it's pretty impressive. there is a lot of sweet, old architecture. i'm excited to see it in the daylight tomorrow. for now, i'll have to be content with the fantastic view of St. Issac's Catheradal which consumes the entirety of my window.
by the way, to continue a thread from the previous post, russian girls are hotter than american girls too. now, please keep in mind that everytime i bad mouth american girls, i am excluding my friends. i would not be friends with them if they weren't hot.......
......maybe i'm a touch shallow. **shrugs** eh, whateve. but, i might be cutting america short. i'm basing my perception of american girls almost exclusively on the northeast. meanwhile, j keeps telling me the hotties are in miami. to counter though, i feel like every girl that is hot is also fake and a DB, to say the least. meanwhile, russian girls seem to have a very pleasant air about them. they are able to show their awesome features without looking like a total slut.
i'm pretty sure there was something else that i wanted to talk about, but i'm going to say nuts to that. i have to be up in 6h (0645 GMT+03 -> 1045 EST), and with the exception of dosing off for about an hour during the flight from frankfurt to leningrad (i'm tried to fight it, but i failed....), i have been up since yesterday morning which was about 30h ago.
tomorrow, i'll have some sweet touristy stuff to share i'm sure. and if i ever get around to reading the manual for my phone, i'll post some of the pics that i've been taking with it.
and happy thanksgiving everyone!
STATISTICS!
time:
23.11.2007
St. Petersburg - 0035 GMT+03
Frankfurt - 2235 GMT+01
Philadelphia - 1635 GMT-05
start time - 0230 GMT-05 21.11.2007
time elapsed - 23h 5m
charge left on my laptop - (1000000%) ((moshe lent me a socket adapter))
# of hours spent playing ds - 10h
# of hot girls i've seen - approx 21
Current Song:
"take on me" - a-ha
the driver was rocking it on the way to the hotel.
points - the world:
forcing me to use the elevator to go to my third floor room = 1
points - ryan:
discovering that there are attractive women in the world = 1
score:
the world - 3
ryan - 1
once we got through customs and baggage (it took us like 4 minutes to all of this as opposed to the two hours we spent in philly merely acquiring the tickets at check-in, suprise suprise), we had a guy waiting for us with moshe's name on a sign. to preface my next comment, i must ask "have you ever seen rocky 4?" home boy was rolling in a dirty black benz with donuts for tires. at that moment, i felt extremely compelled to throw on fur and then run to the top of a mountain. to my dismay, there is no snow on the ground and the area surrounding Leningrad is flat. this is not totally suprising as it borders the baltic sea. fun trivia fact for the day: st. petersburg is the most northern city in the world that has more than 1 million residents. translation: it's cold. the high is freezing. i could see my breath while i was walking through the jetway from the plane! luckily, i was able to acquire some under armour last week, so i'm good to go - crunchwrap style.
this city is huge. it's the third largest in Europe and it doesn't hide it. it was a 45 min ride from the airport on the city limits to our hotel near the center.......and we were going like 80kph (50mph for you US standard dogs). it's pretty impressive. there is a lot of sweet, old architecture. i'm excited to see it in the daylight tomorrow. for now, i'll have to be content with the fantastic view of St. Issac's Catheradal which consumes the entirety of my window.
by the way, to continue a thread from the previous post, russian girls are hotter than american girls too. now, please keep in mind that everytime i bad mouth american girls, i am excluding my friends. i would not be friends with them if they weren't hot.......
......maybe i'm a touch shallow. **shrugs** eh, whateve. but, i might be cutting america short. i'm basing my perception of american girls almost exclusively on the northeast. meanwhile, j keeps telling me the hotties are in miami. to counter though, i feel like every girl that is hot is also fake and a DB, to say the least. meanwhile, russian girls seem to have a very pleasant air about them. they are able to show their awesome features without looking like a total slut.
i'm pretty sure there was something else that i wanted to talk about, but i'm going to say nuts to that. i have to be up in 6h (0645 GMT+03 -> 1045 EST), and with the exception of dosing off for about an hour during the flight from frankfurt to leningrad (i'm tried to fight it, but i failed....), i have been up since yesterday morning which was about 30h ago.
tomorrow, i'll have some sweet touristy stuff to share i'm sure. and if i ever get around to reading the manual for my phone, i'll post some of the pics that i've been taking with it.
and happy thanksgiving everyone!
STATISTICS!
time:
23.11.2007
St. Petersburg - 0035 GMT+03
Frankfurt - 2235 GMT+01
Philadelphia - 1635 GMT-05
start time - 0230 GMT-05 21.11.2007
time elapsed - 23h 5m
charge left on my laptop - (1000000%) ((moshe lent me a socket adapter))
# of hours spent playing ds - 10h
# of hot girls i've seen - approx 21
Current Song:
"take on me" - a-ha
the driver was rocking it on the way to the hotel.
points - the world:
forcing me to use the elevator to go to my third floor room = 1
points - ryan:
discovering that there are attractive women in the world = 1
score:
the world - 3
ryan - 1
Sleep Walking in Frankfurt
so after an hour and a half at the check-in, several hundred dollars in lost documents (namely tickets) ((kindly paid for by eye-triple-E)), and a couple disgruntled exchanges with Lufthansa employees aptly draped in navy and gold, we were on our way up the elevator of the Philadelphia International Airport.
I know i'm only one (extremely long) sentence in, but I must immediately make note of the fact that there is a couple making out next me. Curious. Being that this is my first time out of the country (
.........oh thanks, rub it in, you bastards.
"oh, you're going miss the best meal of the year. then, why don't we go ahead and shove that in your stupid face with a meal that just barely passes as a substandard version of the one you would be eating."
22.11.2007
start time - 0230 GMT-05 21.11.2007
time elapsed - 14h 4m
charge left on my laptop - 46min (41%)
# of hours spent playing ds - 7h
# of hot girls i've seen - approximately 10
Lufthansa club mix
the armchair radio had 30 stations. 28 of them were Russian or Indian, one was soft rock, and one was house. presented with the options, i’ll take the house dressing. soft rock sucks only to be trumped by crap rock and wuss rock.
making us fight with airport officials before we even leave the city we live in -> 1
mocking me with a turkey dinner while missing thanksgiving -> 1
points - ryan:
not dying…..yet -> 1
getting told by Moshe to do work instead of play ds at 0400 EST -> -1
score:
the world - 2
ryan - 0
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)