Arnie in Russia

i will lump everything from the last week into this one post in an effort to communicate the things i have seen heard and felt in regards to my travel to russia.

September 15th

10:00 There's really no way to understand a place without being there.
10:17 Ok, let's try this again.
10:17 wonder if I'll make it this time
10:17 feelin good
10:17 maybe because I bought mj legally today for the first time today
in a little peanut butter chocolate snack!
10:18 still though, so hard to leave the (almost) everything and one
I love: my family my beautiful garden my brother my holi my mom and
dad, my Jordan and Tracy my ropeswing my cousins!!etc
10:23 getting on the plane, have to pee, all that good harbin spring
water...one minute till my birthday time
10:24 happy 10:24 me

Two deportations in two weeks, must be a record! Just kidding I
made it through this time.

12:37pm next day (16th)

Taking off from Moscow to st Petersburg, on a plane that looks like

it was purchased used from the last airline I was on. SFO>lax>iAd>dme>led

4 planes just to get that slightly disturbing but thrilling feeling you can only get

by thrusting yourself into a land where you know nothing, nobody, nowhere, and

understand very little, with grand dreams of achieving great things, or

experiences atleast. Kind of like when I went to Bali, except no coconuts and

durian here, just an expected dark mood and some scary looking people. But

beautiful people also...

Special thank yous to my homies that saw me off the last two weeks

especially my cousin Jake for taking me n holi up to lake tahoe for that awesome

hike at northwest and refreshing swim in the lake and to gram n gramps

house, so good to see them. To Jane Suzanne holi and Jake for taking

me to the hotspring for the last time. Being deported was a blessing in disguise

because I got see lots of my fam that I haven't seen in a while and would

of not been able to see the first time I left, got to record my uncles band, 'the Fellas'

live in downtown Vacaville, my hometown, and got to go to the worlds heirloom

exposition in Santa rosa before my flight out of sf. This expo was truly extraordinary.

Here are some pictures from the Worlds Heirloom Food Exposition, which is the last thing i did in America, at 6pm in Santa Rosa, California before my flight left at 10:30p in San Funcisco.

truly a world class event displaying some of the most amazing specimens of food in the universe

banana squash

watermelon vase with carrot and celery flowers

cindarella-mobile?

how do like (allllll) them apples?

so many heirloom varieties. it is important to recognize the possibilities beyond your average supermarket selection, and dig in.

these next five photos i took on my first flight to moscow, not knowing i was going to be deported because of insufficient paperwork, fined, and returned to california, to wait 2 weeks for the Russian Consulate in SF to straighten it out:

my flight attendant

celery first class-style. the seats lay down FLAT!!

"almost there, weeeeee, ready to go back?" ;)

this is my favorite page in rosetta stone so far where you learn how to say the people you love.

я люблю мама = i love my mom (mama)

я люблю отец = i love my dad (ah-tyets)

я люблю сестру = i love my sister (syestroo)

я люблю брат = i love my brother (braht)

я люблю деда = i love my grandfather (deyada)

я люблю бабушку = i love my grandmother (babooshkoo)

the first two words are pronounced:

я = ya

люблю = loobloo

and then you add the person

no go tell someone that you love them, in russian of course

я люблю тебя= i love you! (ya loobloo tebya)

DO IT!

here are some touristical photos i took on my second day here:

a concert hall in the conservatory

rimsky-korakov, the russian composer this school is named after

Mariinsky Theater, world famous opera and ballet theater across the street from the conservatory

my school, Санкт-Петербургская консерватория - Римского-Корсакова
(Conservatory of St Petersburg, Rimsky-Korsakov)

a nearby cathedral

construction of another hall of the mariinsky, across the canal

the usual happenings in a catholic cathedral:

if russia is supposed to be this meaty place, tell me why these people are scouring the fruit and veggie section, and the dead animal meat section in empty??

lots of little fruit markets, like this (frukti)

my dorm building is in the background, the left, behind the tree

The following day my roomate, Virgil, took me to the city center, where i realized the beauty of this city:

that is virgil, on the banks of the neva river, smoking a cigarette.

during the winter this whole river freezes, and crazy guys cut holes in it and go swimming!

golden stuff on top

peter the great- oddly porportioned

click on the pictures to see them big

we went to eat at a small russian style restaurant. i got this brezinsky salad. basically tomatoes and parsley with oil, oversized chunks of garlic that i put aside, and hot peppers that almost killed virgil