It is the same mistake...

This week, I decided that classic cross-country skiing sucked, and that skating cross country skiing must be so much better. For my friends unfamiliar with the subtle differences between classic and skating skiing, I am providing a graphical explanation below:



And I also decided that buying the required gear must be the most difficult part in starting this new activity. So I went and spent my money on a pair of skis which look very much like the skis I bought last year for conventional skiing, but twice as expensive, and a new pair of shoes. This is not the first time I spend my money for expensive gear, thinking that the technical know-how will come naturally... and then realizing that either I don't have the skill, or that I don't like the activity. Had I paused for a minute to reflect, this is what I could have recollected from my history:
-at the age of 9, I was designated goal-keeper by my classmates for the recess soccer games (Designating someone as a goal keeper is a diplomatic way of conveying that you are really bad on the field and that one more demotion sends you playing with the girls). The first thing I did was buying a pair of goal-keeper gloves, convinced that with those, I'd be the next "Joel Bats". Next thing I know I was playing "Dungeons and dragons" with the other nerds of my school.
-later in life, I picked up tennis. I had very promising skills, and clearly, my progression was only limited by the low quality of my gear. So I bought a new racket (brand "Lacoste")... Later, I quit tennis after a long 5-year "plateau", with the highest reward being the finalist in the double mixed tournament of Miribel.
Other examples of impulsive purchases of sport items include my clothes for triathlon (I never ran a triathlon), a high-end heart-rate monitor loaded with cool features which I never used, the expensive clip pedals for my bicycle which I must have used 5 times in total, my russian sports car...
End of the story: the new skis specially made for skating don't make skating easy. I can't really say yet I like the sport... any activity where I fall in public more than 2 times within 30 minutes is not likely to be my favorite activity. And I can't get that duck-like step right. Maybe it's because I don't have those lycra stretchy pants that look really cool and don't impair the leg movement?

Siberian Exiles

Ilia contacted me for an interview about living in siberia: it is all here:
http://metkere.com/en/2008/11/siberian-exiles.html

Lost in the dark

It fell over a foot of snow since last week, and it was time to inaugurate the ski season. So I brushed the dust off my cross-country skis and went for a tour in the forest. What a great pleasure to glide on the white snow, accompanied only by the squishing sound of the skis, and the light friction of my socks against my skin at the heels... It felt so good after 2K that I decided to deviate from the usual route and follow the 10K track. That's where things got wrong: unfortunately, I did not realize that it was well after 4pm when i took this decision. Soon enough I could see the light fading as I passed birch tree after birch tree, and intersection after intersection. I kept on pushing, as the tracks I followed became less and less defined.
It was nearly dark when I saw a very debatable indication for the 10 vs 15K track... I reflected for a minute before choosing left or right, knowing that a wrong decision would cost me a finger or a toe (did I mention I overestimated the temperature when I left, so I did not wear clothes warm enough?). I took a left, which turned out to be the right decision and kept on pushing, and at that stage I did no longer enjoy the friction of my damn socks against my heels. It is not such a good feeling to be alone out there in the dark, not knowing if I was on the right trail, with no friend or wife to blame for the bad situation.
In the end, I made it safely back to civilization, with little damage other than some more erosion of my confidence in leadership skills, and of the skin at the back of my heels.

Note: the supporting pictures I took with my phone for this story got corrupted... blame Motorola for it.

Food food food (#1)

Long time no see. I was out of the country for work, using the last opportunity to travel before the economic crisis has the local airlines lowering their safety standards. I just made it back, and to my surprise, no snow is yet sticking on the ground, but as I am typing, snowflakes are starting to fall and I expect to see the first patches of snow sticking to the ground sometimes today. However... snow falling in Siberia in November is no longer an event that deserves a blog post, so let's move on.
With absence of interesting facts to report, I decided to start talking about the food that we can find in Siberia. This first article is about the food I had in Buryatie, in central Siberia. The pictures below should wake up your appetite, so grab something in your fridge before going further.

Below, you can see a typical meal that you can have in many restaurant in Buryatie.

On the left, a fish salad: yes, this is Omoul... served raw with onion, green onion, and a bit of seasoning. This is appropriately called "Omoul salad".
On the right, you can see "posies": these are giant raviolis filled with meat and onion, and greasy juice... Mmmmh. Note the absence of silverware: you are supposed to eat that thing with your fingers following a well-defined technique: first have a small bite and suck out the greasy juice (watch your shirt). Then just eat the rest and lick your fingers, and say "Vkusna!" (that means "delicious", and saying it will keep you out of trouble).



Then comes dessert: The traditional dessert all over Russia is a "blin", and when you have several of them, you use the plural form and these are "blini". It is filled with whatever you like, but last time I suggested to fill one with ice-cream, I was met with uncomprehension, so just ask for honey to avoid any embarassment. Also, don't even try to have blini without tea, or people will look at you like you have ink on your nose. On the right, this is a picture of typical "buryat" tea, which is mixed with milk, butter and salt, so don't order it if you are lactose intolerant (I don't recommend lactose intolerant people to come to Siberia overall, as they put cream absolutely everywhere). You can try this buryat tea at home and tell me what you think. I don't like tea in the first place, and the dairy products they mixed it with did not make it better.


Good appetite. More siberian food is coming your way in the next weeks.

I am not a leper

As part of my Russian visa renewal, I was tested for leprosy last week. This was in addition to my HIV and tuberculosis tests. No need to argue that I still have all my fingers and my mere skin problems are a bit of redness after shaving, I had to go. So I hid my little bell and left my long coat at home and complied with the rule. It turns out I am not a leper. Even if it did not really come as a surprise, that was still a relief. The doctor made a visual inspection of my arms and back, and in spite of his expertise, could not detect any more symptoms of leprosy than I did. So I was able to go back to work.
I shall come back with more interesting story next time. Maybe about a medical test for bubonic plague or scurvy. Russian authorities would help me making better plots with more suspense if they actually tested diseases that are still around in the 21st century.

Happy first year anniversary!

Already 1 year that I am in Siberia. Geezz, time flies by. So I guess it is time to look back at the 2007/2008 season and make a small assessment. Let’s go with the really obvious first: this first year was full of discoveries: dipping my skinny body in the frozen Ob Sea, spending days and nights in a cave, exfoliating my skin and clean the clogged pores at the bania… One thing I can say is that I changed my hobbies since I arrived. No more jogging in lycra in the steamy heat. Overall, that’s fine with me. Running in Houston is actually boring like hell, I just did it because Men’s Health magazine said it was cool to suffer. Here, I might have less free time (yes, I have a job that keeps me busy), but I spend it more wisely, as suggested by my captivating blog .

It has been refreshing to live in a place with seasons, it is really like different worlds between the summer and the winter. I like the summer better, but I did not realize that before moving here, so I can’t really complain. The winter is also fun, as long as you don’t mind runny nose, cold fingers and wearing 4 layers of clothes….and the winter in May is really at the edge of what my sense of fun can support.

One thing I don’t talk about too much in my blog is the people I have met here, and whom I hang around with. In my blog, it seems like all Siberia is centered around me (which is almost true geographically speaking). But in reality, I have met really amazing people and I have very good friends here. I won’t name them just because they all begged me never to mention their name in my blog (that might endanger their future political career, who knows?), but they exist, and they’re real humans, not just bunnies like before. Still, my good ol’ friends are what I miss the most, and there is plenty of evenings that I would rather be spending on a good ol’ food fight rather than staring at the buildings from the Soviet times. But I don’t regret being here, and sometimes I feel there is nowhere else I’d rather be than here, where I have time to contemplate and procrastinate while eating cheese.

I can’t really mix very well with the locals yet, though… only with those who use regular verbs at the present time, who articulate very well and don’t mind repeating things twice. You probably understand it reduces my potential circle of acquaintance to a very small population… But I work on my Russian skills. One day, I will speak perfect Russian, and then everything will be easier: I’ll be able to order my steak medium rare on one side and rare on the other, and complain when the salad is served after the soup.

My secret to live here happily? Develop a taste for cabbage and take things lightly. The inefficiencies of the system are just there to make things more fun. It would be so boring to live in a place that does not require a stamped printout of a e-ticket to travel, that does not ask to register by the authorities when being in a city for 3 days, that provides hot water every day, that provides electricity without cutoff, or where you don’t have to register your car at the army. That’s how I look at it.

Thanks for reading my blog and for keeping up with me for the coming year… As for US presidents, the second term might really be the f....d up one. Let's see...

Mushrooming

Today I tried another very popular hobby in Novosibirsk: Mushrooming. It may sound like I was just passively growing mould and funghi on my body, but it is in reality an activity that consists in picking mushrooms. It is done in the forest, at the fall season. I thought everything worked pretty much as planned... we found a forest (not very difficult around here)... but I did not realize that October 5th is already the end of the fall season under this latitude. So we did not find a single mushroom. Still, I had decided that this post was going to be about me picking mushrooms, and I was not going to give up that easily. So we took a picture of me acting like I am picking a mushroom in the forest. Then, I blew in a plastic bag to pretend I had a full bag of mushrooms, and I showed it to the camera. The best part of the day was when I was offered lunch by an expert mushroomer, who picked his mushrooms a few weeks ago, and opened a can of mushrooms just for me.
I hope this proves skeptical people that I am not wasting my time here in Siberia and that I always find something constructive to do with my week-ends.