Ekaterinbourgeoise

How much fun can three Americans have in Ekaterinburg in three days?  So much that I can’t even imagine what we’ll get into in Petersburg, let alone Europe...

Fellow Fulbrightniks Jason and Matt arrived here on Sunday morning and we leave tomorrow night for our grand tour.  While they’re here I’ve been trying to show them a good time in the capital of the Urals, and I think I’ve succeeded.  On their first day here we ran around the city.  I said some goodbyes, including to my dear Israeli friends who will go home before I get back here.  My attachment to them grew so gradually I barely even noticed, but now I know I’ll really miss them.  But, they said, they’ll wait for me in Israel.  Last night the boys and I had a bunch of my friends over and taught them how to play the drinking game King’s Cup.  It was quite possibly the first time the game has ever been played in Russia and in Russian (the kids here don’t need a game in order to drink large quantities of alcohol), but it was a big hit with everybody!  

Today was an excellent day for Americans in Russia.  We started by searching out cheeseburgers, and managed to find them, but the entire food court-style restaurant had no ketchup!  This was especially upsetting, given all the unexpected foods Russians eat with ketchup.  Then we walked to the Church-on-the-Blood, the site of the Romanov mass assassination.  Tomorrow being Christmas according to the Gregorian calendar, we caught a beautiful church service and saw people carving amazing ice sculptures outside.  From there we went to my favorite Beatles-themed Yellow Submarine bar where we fortified ourselves for the boys’ dream: walking on the frozen Iset river.  Incidentally, we learned the word Iset is Tartar for “smelly dog.”  After a stroll on the ice, which included writing “USA” in the snow, we went down to the local city of ice.

Most Russian cities do some kind of ice display around the holidays.  Ekaterinburg being such a huge metropolis, ours is an entire city made out of ice, with sculptures, slides, a labyrinth and other attractions.  Jason, Matt and I heard music from across the street so we went to check out the “dance party.”  After a few runs on the ice slides, we noticed no one was really dancing to the blaring music.  So we started our own dance floor, always trying but never succeeding to get others to join us.  We got a lot of attention, and in fact a man in a giant piglet costume danced with us for a minute, but we couldn’t get the party started.  One passerby, however, called us niformalni, which basically means “underground,” so that was cool.  Taking his comment as a cue, we went to the nearby artsy club/bar, 2KY, where we danced to a live band and DJs.  The boys lasted longer than me (maybe because they drank an alcoholic energy drink) and were happy to be in a club that wasn’t mainstream, even if we all complained about the hipsters just the same.

Tomorrow night we begin our 35-hour train ride to St. Petersburg.  I’ll definitely try to write from there, because after that, I’m gone!  See you on the dark side of the moon suckers!