Short

I would include more updates, and infact I have already written and fomrated the updates, but I will release them over a few days, instead of all at once, so that none get missed.

With Pictures come Many Updates

There is an interesting history here in Ivanovo.  You would never hear about this city, in a US history class, but here it is tought that the very first soviout revolutionarys came from this citie.  It is a and was a factory town, and it only makes sence for labor inequalitys to fule such ideas.  In my History class last semester when we coverd the Russian Revolution, Ivanovo was not mentioned.  When I asked my profesor why, he said it was not important were things started.

There is a monument at the very center of Ivanovo.

The dying solder drops the flag, and another will always pick it up and continue the fight.  

Also it is considered an old man passing on the flag to the new generation.

A rose grows from a factory pipe.

These are at the very center of town.  It is a local tradition for wedding partys to come to this monument.  Another local wedding tradition is to take a lock and atach it to a bridge.  We have walked acrose 2 bridges a number of times and both have many locks atached to them.  Some very new locks, and some very old.  Masha wants me to spesify that the wedding tradition of visiting the monument is for the one with the flag passing, and not the factory pipe.  I was confused since they are at the same location, but I guess it is spesific.

Finaly Pictures

Sory for being a little slow.  It took me a litle bit to properly setup Masha's internet for wi-fi.  Now that I can get online with my computer, I can put some pictures online.

Masha and I are having what you might call our first fight.  Its not really a fight, more of a gental disagrement.  She does not want pictures of her online.  So untill I convincer her to allow me to put pictures of her on this blog, it will only be me, and various things online.

My mother gave to Masha's mother a gift of Wild Rice, and a recepe for wildrice soup.  Of course, the recipie includes things that we can not get here, so we had to supstitute.  Here is the soup.

The soup was very good.  There where a few things different.  First there is no Cambles Cream of Potato soup here.  So we had to make that ourselfs.  Olga did everything on her own, from the translated instructions, even though we did not ever everything quite right.  The potatos were shreded, and there was some parsly.  The stores did not have any strip bacon left.  There was recently a holiday, and all that was available was back bacon.  Also there was no American Chese, so Olga used some other kind.  The flavor was almost exactly right.  The consistanct was just a little creamyer, since Raw Milk was used, but it was quite delisous.  Olga is a great cook.

My home away from home

I have made it safly to Иваново, and I am at Masha's home. I will quickly appologies, I am using her computer, and the spell check is in Russian, so EVERY word is spelled wrong, and I will not be able to properly correct them. The aparatment here is quite small, but is very nice. The things they have are new, and in very good condition. However there is not much room, and so there is no wast or excess. Also the honey comes in a very unusual form.

So Ryan, showed me a site, when I was sittin the the Worst airpot in the US. He checked it during my flight and it showes your location. Ryan, Post the link to this site in the comments, please.

Masha's mom is fantastic. She is very fun, and friendly. We looked over the resipie for wild rice soup, and discused it some. It seams that not only the wild rice is an american only product. Its quite difficult to explain what a "can" of soup. But we will find some substitutes, and make it worl. Also, Velveeta does not exisit here, and the american chease is a dary prdocut and not actualy chease so we will have to find a substitute for that also.

No internet for my laptop yet, but we will fix that tomorrow.

In Chicago

Looks like I made it to Chicago just fine. Not to many people sitting around my gate so it may be an empty flight which will be nice. I really can't pinpoint it, but I really don't like this airport. I watched a cleaning lady emptying a garbage can and she had a nasty bag full of garbage on top of her portable trash bin, it shifted and had a hole in it, and a foul smelling fluid came poring out. She did nothing about it, letting it spill onto the carpet with me and anther person looking on. The other person said something to the cleaning lady and she barked at him that she saw it. Finished her task letting it continue spilling, and then finally adjusting the bag so it would stop spilling. A woman sitting very close, did not know until the guy near me said something, she moved her bags away from the spill, and the cleaning lady started barking at her not to move her bags since nothing was spilled on them direct. I really just don't like this airport. Nothing good here, I looked into flying Minneapolis to Amsterdam, then Amsterdam to Moscow, but was strongly persuaded against, since the airport in Moscow that KLM flys into is supposedly much harder to navigate, and not as well organized. But next time I will try it. Can it be worse than Chicago? I'm willing to find out.

Off again to Russia

My dear friends and family. For all of you who read this, I am once again off to Russia. This time to meet the family of my travailing companion. This trip will be a little more laid back, less site seeing, and more meeting and intermingling.

I will travel to a provincial town, I have also heard small used in reference to Ivanovo (Pronounced eevanava). But the population is 400000 so I don't think it will be small, I guess maybe it is compared to Moscow, but so is Minneapolis.

I will leave Minneapolis in just under 3 hours. I will take a plane to Chicago (Worlds Worst Airport), then from there to Moscow. Masha will be meeting me at the airport, and we will travel together by bus to Ivanova.

Masha said she will show me the place she works, so I'm looking forward to seeing a Russian Court House, and governmental offices. This should be really a fun trip, and very interesting. Stay posted for pictures and further updates.

Some people say its the worst recession since the great depression.  I have seen quite a few charts like this one.  Things have been worse for short periods, and its far from over.  Let us hope the governments plan works.

Fallowing Traffic

It is very interesting to watch the traffic for this blog.  

This image is my traffic.  My first trip to Russia was from Dec 28 to Jan 10th.  It seams perfectly reasonable that after that time period people would stop visiting.  What I'm curious about next is my march trip.  I will be leaving for Иваново on March 12th and return on March 22nd.  Will my traffic pick back up?  It sure well if I tell everyone to come and look, but what if I don't?  I think it will be interesting to see.

My upcoming trip will not contain as many monuments or historical events.  However I will get a better look at Russia.  How people are living, what its like outside of the famous cities.  With a population of 400,000 this is no little town.  It will be very interesting.  I expect even less people to speak English on this trip.  My Russian is still very bad, but I'm making some progress.

Economy

Just in case any one is still checking on this blog.  I have found some interesting videos by an economist name Peter Schiffer

This is in 2007, they laughed at him and he called it exactly right.

And this is what he is saying now...

I hope he is wrong since its not a very good outlook, but I think he might be right.  I only wonder what the best way to prepare for hyperinflation would be.

Going Back

So I finalized plans to return to Russia.  I will be going from the 12th of march untill the 22nd.

This time I will stay in Ivanovo, its pronounced more like Eevanava, and is properly spelled Иваново.

My tickets are bought, I'm only waiting for my Visa to come, and then to board my flight...