Hi Muuumm,
First of all let me send out apologies for my lack of contact in the past week
to everyone! I promise I’m not neglecting you. Nothing very much different to
report over this past week since last time, but life is goooood here in Moscow.
I can safely say that I have settled in, although there’s not a whole heap of
settling because I’m so busy all the time, especially now that classes have
started and I’ve met even more awesome people on the team. Ha, who am I kidding, I
have 2 classes plus an online course that meets in a chat room once a month.
Online course or “online course” that’s code for YouTube? Definitely the
latter. I mean, I’m studying really hard. But it’s difficult to sit yourself
down after 8 months off uni and living the good life of doing nothing but
training. Little bit of slack please. And just on that note of YouTube, since
when did they start putting advertisements at the beginning of their videos?
Its seriously getting up my goat. I leave for one second and everything changes…
Anyway, how is everyone’s festival season? I still sometimes wake up thinking
it’s going to be 40deg C and want to get a Cimba’s coffee and park my (now
tanless) arse on Cott beach. It’s true, my tan is fading so fast. All that hard
work and sunburn pain for nothing. The snow just eats it up. No tanning for me.
Let’s talk about snow for a second shall we? I don’t think I’ve ever fallen
over so many times in my life. And I used to like falling over back home,
because it doesn’t ever happen very often, so it’s pretty fun, and chances are
you’ll be laughing in stitches with whoever you’re with. But here, it’s just
embarrassing. It’s definitely the time that I’m most focused during the day.
Forget training, walking on snow/ice is a MISSION. Seriously, do I get a scout
badge for completing this?!
Haha, no but seriously, a typical day for me goes like this:
830-945: Wake up at some point during this period (least favourite part of the
day)
945-1015: Figure out which clothes, out of the whole 16kg I brought over with
me, will give me the most warmth but the least amount of layers. It is such a
pain having to stay warm walking between buildings, only to have to take off 3
layers once you get into the heated rooms. Grr! But I’m working it out better
each day, and by that I mean sometimes I just cbf putting on my jacket so I
risk the cold.
1016: Walk over to breakfast to a place called Bob’s. I think Bob is on his
death bed with cardiovascular disease because he serves donuts and cookies for
breakfast. I mean, come on. Who eats that? Surprisingly, a lot of people.
Sadface. But I found some mind blowing granola which tastes sooooo good. I look
forward to it every morning. It helps me get over the disappointment of waking
up. Usually the temptation of coffee does that for me, but here it just doesn’t
compare. Which is fine, because the Dr. Pepper is deeeeelish. But I only have
it on weekends.
11ish: go to physio for my ankle (which is doing a whole lot better, still a
little weak though). They put this boot
thing on, which has a hose connected to a machine thing and pumps it with ice
cold gel. So cold. Death by boot.
The rest of the day I usually go to class (except Tues/Thurs because I don’t have
anything on those days) and then back to training. Usually I will come home for
“Perth Time” but i happened to meet some more awesome people so have been
hanging out a bit more in the evenings. Either that, or I’m still trying to
walk home in the snow from training. Seriously, I’m like a sloth on that shit.
They make the foreign students complete an English language test before they
come, they need Snow & Ice 101 competency test for anyone who hasn’t handled
it before. The first question I get from anyone
is: “Have you fallen over today?” THAT’S how many times im talking
about.
Woah, this is going super long, and it’s not even exciting. Sorry guys. Doubt
it compares to all the Super Seven travel stories. But it’s not as if I can go
out partying! The Brazilians are loving their staying up till 2am, but I can’t
keep it up. Once it hits 11pm, something inside me turns off and out comes
zombie ZT. I cant even speak, I become delirious. I have already seen a red cup
though, (Willis can I check that off the list?)
One thing I am noticing more and more though, is just how difficult it is for
some people to understand what I’m saying with specific words. Thank goodness I
didn’t go to a non-english speaking country. That would be soooo tough. I’d
need like, 5 helmets. Anyway here’s a few translations:
1. Stacked – “I stacked it”. You’ll only get blank looks. Common mistranslation
for my American pals when they try to use it – “I stacked myself”. They’re
getting there :)
2. Stuffed – “I’m pretty stuffed after that session”. Starved? Well, that too I
guess.
3. Capsicum – “Lettuce, onion, cucumber, capsicum….” Why are you stopping,
maybe he didn’t hear me. Capsicum please. CAPSICUM. Oh. Peppers?
4. “Fillet” – doesn’t exist here apparently. It’s fillaaayyyy. Soz im not
fancy. Note – stay away from Subway completely, too hard to explain chicken
fillet AND capsicum.
5. “Pigeon hole” – I asked if I could be directed to the teacher’s pigeon hole
to return a book. Blank look. I was
shocked. I panicked and could not even think how to explain what a pigeon hole
is. She asked if I meant a mailbox, but I told her I didn’t want to post it, I
just want to hand it back without going to her office. They call it a mailbox.
Wrong. Mailbox is for mailing things. By the time I leave, they’ll be changed
to pigeon holes. Trust.
6. “Zoe” – warranted I don’t put the two dots above my ‘e’, I SUPPOSE it could
be read as Zo. But it’s not. Zoe. Say it with me now: Zo-wee. I had to spell my
name once: zed oh ee. The guy didn’t write anything. Thought I may have said it
a bit fast. Zed oh ee. He’s still not writing. So I sound it out: ‘Zoe’. One
more time for the people in the back: zed oh ee. Oh wait. Zee? oh ee. Bang, get’s
it first time. No zeds here. Only zees.
American is a hard language to adjust to.
Think I might leave it there. No comps yet, this weekend’s is most likely
cancelled as we’re in a snow storm at the moment (SNOW DAY TODAY!!), so it’s a
bit dangerous to drive. Next weekend looks like to be my opener. So I’ll give
you an update then :)
Cya, don’t wanna be ya. Haha, tricks. Light and love people.
ZT
