belated update

The wifi signal threw me off. I swear I didn't run like that!

I was hoping this wouldn't happen, but I have neglected my blog. The upside is that I've been out doing fun things!  So, I'll do my best to remember...My dear, dear friend Jennifer is back with me for our third summer in Vladimir. She's got the same job as me with a different program, and we try to coordinate some social events. Her first group of students got held up, and then went to Moscow for the weekend, so it was just me and my Russian friends for the most part.  She and I did squeeze in a couple runs though, and I've gone on my own a few times too.  There's a nice 5k route I mapped out near my house, but it has a bit of a hill. Still, a good run, though it's started getting hotter out. My big plans for lots of running and exercising have been somewhat derailed by meeting up with my Russian friends from last summer, though.

Thanks to some of last year's participants, I have some good friends. On my way out of town last summer, two guys helped me clean up my apartment, so they were the first ones I called. They are part of the pop punk scene (to the extent that it exists), and are really nice. One spent a year in Florida, and has amazing English. One of this year's participants was really excited to meet people who share his interests in music, so I introduced them. Instant man crush.

There have also been some health issues, and every year it's something new. So far, the theme of the summer is orthopedics.  Three separate people have had to get something from the orthopedic store. I went with one of the students, and I had asked the cab to wait. I didn't realize we'd have to try this brace on, and felt bad about making the driver wait so long. But, when we got back to the car, and tried to leave, the engine wouldn't turn on. He's run out of gas, and couldn't switch to diesel until the gas engine came on.  So, after 5 minutes of trying, he called another car for us. This was only the beginning of the taxi adventures. I met Igor the cab driver (who is also a banker), who told us about how he used English to get better service while he was on vacation in Egypt. Then he told us about how the war in Iraq was an excuse to get oil. And now we're all studying Russian to take their oil. And now we're exporting our awful culture, including McDonald's (let's not forget that exporting requires an importer...), and GMOs are going to destroy the planet. Fortunately, the other cab driver who figured out we were Americans was not as political. Maybe that's because he's a cop when he's not earning extra money to pay for his car. Why didn't gypsy cabs ever take off in the States? Surely in smaller towns that would be a useful little industry, since cabs are so expensive outside of big cities.

In the Bogolyubovo monastery

I've also been trying to organize social activities for the students on Saturdays, in case they don't have something to do. After our trip to Bogolubovo, and my lunch at the Chinese restaurant, and a shopping excursion that resulted in a new pair of pink shoes and a replacement charger for my iPhone, I met the group for karaoke. It started out small and intimate, and a Russian lady asked me to sing "My Heart Will Go On" with her (I obliged). But as the evening went on, there were more and more people, and I just don't think I can keep inviting everyone out to things like that. Maybe bowling would be easier, because we'd be at different lanes, or a movie where there's not loud talking. Anyways, it was still a lot of fun to sing. We left for a club, and I stayed out way too late, helping one of my Russian friends win the heart of a girl. I can't believe I actually made it for a run on Sunday!

Something feels different this year, and I'm not the only one to notice it. Part of it is that I think I've outgrown staying out until all hours. Once in a while is fine, but it's not fun every weekend. I think I value time to myself a bit more, and am trying to make that a priority. Not to mention all the work I need to get done on my dissertation and the planning for the fall. I hope it doesn't mean that I'm becoming a boring person. Maybe just the clubs aren't interesting anymore... A lot depends on the company. So hopefully this weekend with Jen in town will be more fun.