7 things you didn't know about Russia.. Or already assumed but are now confirmed.

I've been in the Motherland for a little over 3 weeks now, and boy, I've seen some stuff maaaan. Some weeeirrrddd stuffff. Anywho, below is my top list of perhaps the most intriguing aspects regarding Russian culture.

1.) Mullets are absolutely socially acceptable. And I know you think this goes just for men... not a chance- girls are proponents of the "business in the front, party in the back" look as well.
2.) Man purses- you call it European, I call it questionable. Either way, "Murses" are everywhere. (Bonus points go to those who rock the Mullet/Murse combo)
3.) Looking pissed off / tired in public. Unlike in America where people will smile at complete strangers and murmur a muffled "hello",  Russians mean-mug 24/7. You hold a door for a little old lady? You're getting a frown and if you're lucky, a nod.  Everyone looks straight ahead with a frown. ALL THE TIME. It's actually hillarious. And here's the catch- they aren't even actually mad at YOU! This was the hardest concept for me to grasp at first. It is not a sign of hostility, but simply the way they go about their business in public. At orientation we were told to put on our "Metro Faces". Basically our academic advisers told us not to look like dumbass Americans all the time. Too bad I laugh at everyone all the time here.. Whoops.
4.) Grapefruit juice + Gin. In a 16 oz. can. $1.20. Need I say more?
5.) Girls wear heels. And nothing else. American college girls would be put to shame in this country. No offense ladies- I am a huge supporter of the yoga pants / boyfriend's crewneck / uggs / greasy, messy hair- look around campus, but school is like your high school prom. Errrryday.
6.) Your typical Russian fight consists of a 1 or 2 on 10 matchup. I witnessed this first hand. I will not be throwing down in Russia despite all hopes and dreams I have of getting in a Russian club brawl. They don't mess around with the talk-talk-talk-talk... okay 1 on 1 brawl-type of fighting we see in America. There is no code of ethics. Gee go figure...
7.) Cross-walks. In America, it is quite simple, correct? White walking man = go. Red hand = stop. Simple. Russia? Nooooooo. Traffic lights are more like terrorism threat levels indicating how likely a pedestrian is to be hit by a car. We play real-life Frogger daily. No big deal.

Next post will be overdue photos! all photos! You stay classy, America. One love.

Hermitage!

Today I had the pleasure of visiting the second largest museum in the world, The Hermitage. (Государственный Эрмитаж) Located in the center of St. Petersburg, the Hermitage first served as the royal winter palace for Catherine the Great in 1764. Here are just a few pictures from my visit today. The Hermitage (pronounced errr-meee-tahhhzzhh) has over 3 million items on exhibit, so there are many I will see in a second trip back to the museum later on.
Perhaps the more interesting aspect of my visit to this area today is the history behind the Palace Square. This was the place that hosted the dismal events such as Bloody Sunday in 1905, and the October Revolution of 1917- both violent and blunt events in Russian history. (One who studies this nation's history will find that most Russian events are harsh and violent...) I stood in the same spots today where citizens protesting the Tsar's regime were gunned down by the royal guards.. SKETCH.

The Palace Square, with the Alexander common on the left and Hermitage on the Right.- Other unnecessarily tall buildings can be seen in the background- St.Isaac's cathedral on the left and the Admiralty Navy building in the center background.

Alexander Column. This was built to commemorate the Russian defeat of that one French general at Waterloo in 1812. I just get all French military figures confused!  Don't blame me- they all lose or surrender and as a result, it is impossible to distinguish these individuals.

The Raphael Loggias. This picture amuses me due to the fact that a nearly identical photo exists on wikipedia.

My tour group had moved on, but Da Vinci's work really forced me to stop and ponder the wonders of Italian artwork and the Renaissance.

Outside the front gates of the Winter Palace. (Note: I was very tempted to Photoshop the Soviet Union hammer-and-sickle flag over the Russian Federation flag. That white, blue and red just doesn't seem right...)

This picture is the same, but gives you an idea for the size of the building. The lines I am standing on are for Stalin-era troops during military marches and parades. Yeah I'm pretty much a Soviet Infantryman.

It's ya boy Rembrant's art

Catherine the Great's personal kick-it spot, complete with over-the-top chandeliers. Obvi.

Peter the Great's own throne chair. Seeing as how he stood an equal 6'6" to my height, I had to fight the urge to hop the ropes and snag a pic in the big man's chair. After all, it would have been a perfect fit!

Arrival

Finally finally finally finally finally I am here! A 26 hour transit starting in Spokane and ending in St. Petersburg seemed like eternity. My journey took me through the likes of Denver, Toronto, and Frankfurt. Upon arriving we (we consists of the other 25 students in the same program) were bussed to a hotel. My first taste of Soviet Union grandeur was thrown in my face, as a massive monument dedicated to the Heroes of Leningrad engulfed the intersection where my hotel was located. This monument congratulates the members of the city of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) for the accomplishment of surviving the Nazi siege from 1941-1945. Extreme hunger, cold, and of course Nazi soldiers were the daily occurrence for any Russian citizen at the time.

The obelisk in the center measures 175 feet tall, while the two main statues are around 40.

From left to right: Sergei, Anton, Mikhail, Ivan......

Below and around the arc is writing that commemorates the 900 days and 900 nights during which the residents of Leningrad were under siege.

Tall. Monumental. Heroic. Tall. Yep, I'd say that fulfills the Russian requirements for a statue.

Novorossiysk is commemorated here as well. It is considered one of 9 "Hero Cities" that were crucial in fending off the Nazi Invasion.

 I also had the chance to visit the Church on Spilled Blood. (Russians are masters in making any name completely dismal and sad.) I won't go into the history, but nevertheless this church was perhaps the most colorful and vibrant thing I have seen so far!

Could have sworn I was in Eugene with this rain...

Onion domes fer dayz

It is dinner time, but I will post about my living situation tomorrow. Until then, до свидания!

To the Motherland

And then there was one. One week until I depart the U.S. for a country that is all but familiar to me. One week until I am heaved into a place where simple things such as asking someone for directions, reading a restaurant menu, or shopping in a grocery store become seemingly insurmountable tasks. At least I know what I will be getting myself into- kinda. Despite the multiple problems I may face, I am pretty stoked to say the least. While I am abroad, I plan to not only explore the history and culture in and around St. Petersburg, but other places in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia as well. As of now, trips to Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Ukraine and Poland are planned. Domestically in Russia, I plan on visiting Moscow (of course) and, quite frankly, other cities you’ve probably never heard of. (Hipster blog line of the day)

            One of my most recent purchases was a Nikon D3100 Digital SLR camera with which I will be documenting my travels, and will be posting many photos here, on my blog. So stay tuned for pictures of random and crazy Russian stuff. Bye now.

Can't we all just get along?

AANNNDDD I'm back. Sorry to all my readers for being a slacker and not posting. I don't mean to deprive you from revelations via a sports blog, but it has really been too long. I find myself saying this at the start of every entry. Man I suck. But HEY! at least I don't suck as much as the Seattle Seahawks draft this year.. I for one do NOT believe in Charlie Whitehurst. Who would ever think an NFL division would have such terrible quarterbacks??? With the exception of the budding Sam Bradford in St. Louis, the NFC West is pretty abysmal when it comes to the field general position.. should see a lot of INT's for DBs this year from those 4 teams.. But then again, maybe we won't! (Yes we will.)

One might ask: "Why can't you solve the labor dispute, Mr. Goodell?" While I would ask: "Why are you holding 3 footballs awkwardly in front of an obvious green screen, Mr Goodell?"

Lockout Schmockout. Who cares? SERIOUSLY. Everyone knows that football WILL be played next fall. I understand the labor dispute and where both sides are coming from. Actually I don't, now that I think about it. Let us take a bunch of far-too-wealthy business men and have a money allocation conversation with a bunch of overpaid hood-rats. Yeah, not gonna end well. Regardless of Roger Goodell having the worst job in the world right now (He should be inserted in my top 10 list) he will sleep well come September. America cannot function without football. It would be like GoDaddy.com without Danica Patrick, or a 7-11 without Slurpees! (God forbid) Besides, what else would America do on a Sunday? Yardwork? Puhleaaasse. Go to church? God forbid again! Wait.....
The potential income from an entire NFL season is far too much to just toss away, especially considering our nation's economic situation. Simple as that. Well hopefully I have allayed some of your fears.
In the meantime, Go Ducks. And by Go Ducks I mean the copyrighted phrase. And by Go Ducks I mean cover up this recruiting scandal as quickly as possible.

History...

I recently had a casual debate with a person  over a somewhat controversial idea based on history... Now I say casual because: 1- that person was a good friend of mine and we could never be super heated over such a trivial subject (literally-trivial) 2- neither of us are majors in the subject we were discussing. Well that's not entirely true, because I am a minor in the topic- which was history. An early advantage to me, right!?
Now I know right about now you are reading this and are thinking "Who the hell minors in history? What are you trying to be, a high school teacher!?" No. After realizing how much of an annoying pinhead I was in high school, there is not a chance in the world that I would task myself with molding young minds, yet alone deal with idiots. Those who do, however, are the key to our country's success. (or demise...) I doubt I could handle the future of the most powerful country on Earth.. Yikes.
Anyway, we were discussing the American situation in the Middle East, and the argument was if history was cyclical or linear.
If you are by chance a history major/minor, then I am sure you have had that professor who starts off every term with this discussion. I've had teachers argue both sides. This only makes the argument more interesting to me.
For the sake of, well, you, I'll limit historical examples to strictly what we were arguing about.
We were discussing the fact of guerrilla warfare, and why the mighty American military struggles to contain and suppress a relatively weak force in the Taliban/Al Qaeda insurgency.
I argued that success against guerrilla warfare is a very difficult feat to pull off, and historically, this has been the case.
Perhaps the most prevalent example of guerrilla warfare which is taught in every school at every level is the American Revolutionary War. Take the British military- a highly trained and professional fighting force- and put them up against a rat-pack of farmers, teenagers, preachers and militia men. A massacre would ensue- on a conventional battlefield. The British were armed better, equipped better, and led better. The newly proclaimed "Americans" knew this. Guess what? So does the Insurgency in the Middle East. The Patriots played to their advantages, which were excellent marksmanship, knowledge of the local terrain; and above all, a deeper desire to win their freedom.
Now I am not saying that our American fighting force has no desire to win or to protect freedom.  What I am saying, however, is that like the British, our fighting force are paid professionals who are there to do their job, receive pay, and return home to their families.
No regard for human life certainly wins the war when it is a war of attrition.
There are many similarities between the Insurgency and our American Revolutionaries. The Revolutionaries won their fight because of their advantages (and I hate to say it, but a little help from those French bastards)
The insurgency has not been completely eradicated because of their tactics as well. A force who ambushes and retreats is insanely hard to defeat, as shown by:
1. American Revolutionary War
2. Soviet Occupation of Afghanistan (1970s)
3. French resistance in Nazi-Occupied France in WW2
4. Soviet urban warfare in Stalingrad vs. German Army in WW2 (and a little help from mother mature)
Also many others, but these are perhaps the most obvious and best examples.
In this case, history is undoubtedly cyclical. All of these instances pitted a borderline desperate force against a much larger one, and the one with less to lose came out on top....
I'm out of time but there's just a little food for thought. The one with the most stunning similarity to our current situation is the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. I encourage you to just wikipedia the topic- super crazy to see how similar it is to our war. Any thoughts on this are more than welcome! Have a nice day.

Summertime in the 509

Sooooo I am, like, totes jealous of like, semester school kids who are like, on summer VAYCAY right now OMG!.......
Once again I apologize for slacking on posting, as I'm sure my vast following of people have been on the edge of their desk chairs waiting for my next blog...
2 sentences, 2 completely sarcastic statements. Great start...
In any case, summer is fast approaching, and for those of you who are Cougars, Beavers, Grizzlies, etc, summer is already upon you. Us Ducks, Huskies, Vikings, Eagles, and Sasquatch (I see you, Spokane Falls Students!!!) still have a solid month of midterms, papers and finals to endure before the golden rays can be soaked up. Oh joy. When that fateful weekend of June the 10th or so arrives, I will be returning home to Spokane to coach the Lewis and Clark AA legion team to a state title. Well probably not, but I'm staying optimistic. Still a sweet job that I am looking forward to! Other than that, I am applying for various internships with news and radio stations in Spokane and hope to land a job in some sort of sports field. But besides that, I have made a list of things that I want to do before summer ends and I head off to the motherland that is St. Petersburg, Russia in late August.
1. Soccer Golf in Manito Park. Actually insanely fun- I encourage everyone to try this.
2. Bomb the hills on and around Brown's Mountain. With motor scooters as towing rides back up (Thanks Nolan and Ryan!) and longboards, Blake Reed and I conquered the likes of Bernard, Cedar, and Lincoln during Summer 2010. Time to step up not only our stupidity, but our health insurance policies as well.
3. Barbeque. Nuff Said.
4. Bonfires more often. Cliff park hosted a fair amount of chill-out sessions, but not nearly enough times.
5. Wiffle Ball. I know we can get some sort of league going- who's down?
Please share any other ideas that you may have- Especially manly stuff. Although Daniel Wukelic's basement was awesome last summer, I think some more time outdoors would be much more entertaining. (Sorry, Dwuke)