{"id":280,"date":"2009-10-12T20:22:35","date_gmt":"2009-10-12T20:22:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lebca.wordpress.com\/?p=280"},"modified":"2010-03-31T00:22:51","modified_gmt":"2010-03-31T08:22:51","slug":"lasagna-math-party-my-room-2192009-2102009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/moscow\/lasagna-math-party-my-room-2192009-2102009\/","title":{"rendered":"Lasagna, Math Party, My Room (21\/9\/2009 – 2\/10\/2009)"},"content":{"rendered":"

So as the title might imply, these two weeks were somewhat slow. But I needed that. As a group we got some good relaxation in but even with the extra time I didn’t get any more work done, and continued to stay up late the night before assignments were due. That’s changed now, I’m getting better and only have 2 more problems on my Topology assignment that’s due Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Anyway, the week began with my first session of tutoring an 8th grader in English, specifically translating vocabulary from maths, biology, chemistry, and other school subjects from Russian to English, so when he moves in November he won’t be super shocked\/confused. I went out to where his school was on the very bottom of the red Metro line:<\/p>\n

\"Yugo-Zapadnaya — Yugo-Zapadnaya Station. A huge apartment building at the edge of the city. Behind me lies a path along the road that opens up into a park. I headed there to meet Sasha and then we went to his school.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
On a different note, here’s how Russian’s park:<\/p>\n
$\"All$
All over the sidewalk, in any way, direction, and angle they please. I'm not sure why I didn't think this as weird earlier. I will try to include more photos of stuff like this. Apparently back in the early 90's they didn't even have lanes on the roads and people would drive wherever they wanted.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Natasha scored an apartment when her ‘new’ family friends left town for 3 weeks. They have an oven and we lack one. So some of us went over one weeknight and had lasagna. All cooking supervised by Austin. For dessert we had a chocolate cake, with the thickest cream (homemade) I’ve had in a long time (to fix that I went for a run the next morning).<\/p>\n
$\"Doesn't$
Doesn't that look delicious! It was. We made 2 pots and only ate one. So there were lots of leftovers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
On Friday night the 25th of September we went to Natalie’s (we began calling the apartment ‘Natalie’s), and had a low key night watching ‘I love you man.’ Here is a special photo of us chillaxing after the film:<\/p>\n
\n
$\"This$
This is what a mathematician's party looks like. Not really, but we all made fun of each other for being on our laptops and not socializing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
There are a few subtleties in this photo that make it special. First and foremost is the background on Chris’s laptop (the one in lower LH corner). It is a photo of the saddest dog in the world<\/a> (taken from reddit.com). In addition, Chris’s expression matches that of the dog. Next, is the background of the laptop on the right of the screen: Mark Thom. Mark Thom is one of the students in our program and Adeel took the most amazing photo of him and is now using it as his background…the creepiness of that makes it funnier. Mark Thom:<\/p>\n
$\"In$
In the words of Adeel Khan, paraphrasing Kanye West, "This photo is one of the best photos of all time."<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n
$\"Can't$
Can't forget about Natalie in the corner making the party space bigger than just the couches.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Right before we decide to sleep which is around 4am Natalie informs us she, Christina, and Daniel are going to the ballet the next morning. Since, I didn’t come to the apartment with anything appropriate to wear to the show, along with about everyone else, we decided to pass. Also, we wanted to sleep more than 5 hours. So when Natalie woke up to leave, she captured us sprawled out around the living room:<\/p>\n
\n
$\"The$
The 'Cute Boys' photo. Probably the most comfortable sleep I've had in Russia yet. Yes that is three people on the pull-out bed. Apparently all of us were very comfortable. The switch of direction by the middle-person, Lenny, was the key to maximum comfort here.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n
$\"Chris$
Chris constructed a bed out of two armchairs and their cushions. He claims it was super comfortable. I dunno why he sleeps with his knee up like that.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The next night we went out to 35mm KINO, a movie theater that shows films in English, and watched ‘Moon’, a very entertaining and thought provoking low-budget science fiction film that was released this summer and is quite on par with District 9. Since the movie theater was down the block from Natalie’s\u00a0 we all ended up sleeping over there again. Sunday morning we back over to the dorm and I took some photos of my room as promised:<\/p>\n
\n
$\"My$
My bed to the left. Austin in his bed, the table\/desk\/group_study_area fridge, closet, towel. Don't forget the linoleum floor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
$\"From$
From my desk spot, where I'm sitting now actually typing this. Our shelving space to the left. I borrowed Planet Earth from Natalie's; it's at the end of the table. Our water boiler sits on top of the fridge. We have to boil all the water that we drink, which is a lot since soymilk is so hard to find as well as expensive. $12 for a Liter.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The bedding is a little odd. No fitted sheet. Just a flat sheet below and then a flat sheet above with some wool matting that fits into it. The sheet is more like a thin duvet cover. On top lies the thin blue blanket. But the heaters crank here and I haven’t been cold once yet. Quite comfortable actually. I’ve gotten used to the difference and sleep pretty well now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So as the title might imply, these two weeks were somewhat slow. But I needed that. As a group we got some good relaxation in but even with the extra time I didn’t get any more work done, and continued to stay up late the night before assignments were due. That’s changed now, I’m getting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-moscow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1292,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions\/1292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

Yugo-Zapadnaya Station. A huge apartment building at the edge of the city. Behind me lies a path along the road that opens up into a park. I headed there to meet Sasha and then we went to his school.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
On a different note, here’s how Russian’s park:<\/p>\n
$\"All$
All over the sidewalk, in any way, direction, and angle they please. I'm not sure why I didn't think this as weird earlier. I will try to include more photos of stuff like this. Apparently back in the early 90's they didn't even have lanes on the roads and people would drive wherever they wanted.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Natasha scored an apartment when her ‘new’ family friends left town for 3 weeks. They have an oven and we lack one. So some of us went over one weeknight and had lasagna. All cooking supervised by Austin. For dessert we had a chocolate cake, with the thickest cream (homemade) I’ve had in a long time (to fix that I went for a run the next morning).<\/p>\n
$\"Doesn't$
Doesn't that look delicious! It was. We made 2 pots and only ate one. So there were lots of leftovers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
On Friday night the 25th of September we went to Natalie’s (we began calling the apartment ‘Natalie’s), and had a low key night watching ‘I love you man.’ Here is a special photo of us chillaxing after the film:<\/p>\n
\n
$\"This$
This is what a mathematician's party looks like. Not really, but we all made fun of each other for being on our laptops and not socializing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
There are a few subtleties in this photo that make it special. First and foremost is the background on Chris’s laptop (the one in lower LH corner). It is a photo of the saddest dog in the world<\/a> (taken from reddit.com). In addition, Chris’s expression matches that of the dog. Next, is the background of the laptop on the right of the screen: Mark Thom. Mark Thom is one of the students in our program and Adeel took the most amazing photo of him and is now using it as his background…the creepiness of that makes it funnier. Mark Thom:<\/p>\n
$\"In$
In the words of Adeel Khan, paraphrasing Kanye West, "This photo is one of the best photos of all time."<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n
$\"Can't$
Can't forget about Natalie in the corner making the party space bigger than just the couches.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Right before we decide to sleep which is around 4am Natalie informs us she, Christina, and Daniel are going to the ballet the next morning. Since, I didn’t come to the apartment with anything appropriate to wear to the show, along with about everyone else, we decided to pass. Also, we wanted to sleep more than 5 hours. So when Natalie woke up to leave, she captured us sprawled out around the living room:<\/p>\n
\n
$\"The$
The 'Cute Boys' photo. Probably the most comfortable sleep I've had in Russia yet. Yes that is three people on the pull-out bed. Apparently all of us were very comfortable. The switch of direction by the middle-person, Lenny, was the key to maximum comfort here.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n
$\"Chris$
Chris constructed a bed out of two armchairs and their cushions. He claims it was super comfortable. I dunno why he sleeps with his knee up like that.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The next night we went out to 35mm KINO, a movie theater that shows films in English, and watched ‘Moon’, a very entertaining and thought provoking low-budget science fiction film that was released this summer and is quite on par with District 9. Since the movie theater was down the block from Natalie’s\u00a0 we all ended up sleeping over there again. Sunday morning we back over to the dorm and I took some photos of my room as promised:<\/p>\n
\n
$\"My$
My bed to the left. Austin in his bed, the table\/desk\/group_study_area fridge, closet, towel. Don't forget the linoleum floor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
$\"From$
From my desk spot, where I'm sitting now actually typing this. Our shelving space to the left. I borrowed Planet Earth from Natalie's; it's at the end of the table. Our water boiler sits on top of the fridge. We have to boil all the water that we drink, which is a lot since soymilk is so hard to find as well as expensive. $12 for a Liter.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The bedding is a little odd. No fitted sheet. Just a flat sheet below and then a flat sheet above with some wool matting that fits into it. The sheet is more like a thin duvet cover. On top lies the thin blue blanket. But the heaters crank here and I haven’t been cold once yet. Quite comfortable actually. I’ve gotten used to the difference and sleep pretty well now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So as the title might imply, these two weeks were somewhat slow. But I needed that. As a group we got some good relaxation in but even with the extra time I didn’t get any more work done, and continued to stay up late the night before assignments were due. That’s changed now, I’m getting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-moscow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1292,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions\/1292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lebca.com\/fromrussiawithlove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}