Forgive me for the bad quality these pictures have turned out to be - my digital camera is practically broken and nothing turns out good. Oh well, better than nothing, right? Besides, Christmas is only about a month away and then there's my birthday in late January *hint hint!!!*

Russian Orthodox Church -
This church is right down the street at the end of the block from where our friend lives in Chicago (and where he kindly let us stay for 4 days). The 'hood is dubbed Ukrainian Village - and yes, there are a lot of Russian/Ukrainians/Belorussians in the area.






Quick side note memory: One morning on our way to get some coffee, we encountered two crusty-looking men grumbling to each other in Russian walking towards us on the sidewalk. One of the men suddenly cleared his throat and repulsively hocked a massive loogie, spitting at the concrete, only milliseconds before passing us. Ew, so nasty and impolite. Looking up at Vasya, I was astonished to see him start laughing. And laughing hard, too. I asked what was so funny and he replied: "Gopniks! In America! I just can't believe that gopniks are living here in Chicago! The madness!" Yeah, it really is a small world after all (sorry for the cliché) and quite interesting to see that culturally learned behavior and such doesn't easily die, even when re-establishing oneself across the other side of the globe.


Anyways, minus our fellow gopniki, I really loved this neighborhood and everything about it - it's just so quaint, easy to walk around, and totally neighborhood-y while being only a short bus ride from the hubbub of downtown. Kruto, da?!

Tags: 2009, chicago, neighborhoods, photos, travel
Mood: dorky

Russian Orthodox Church -
This church is right down the street from where our friend lives in Chicago (and where he kindly let us crash for 4 days). The 'hood is dubbed Ukrainian Village - and yes, there is a lot of Russian/Ukrainians/Belorussians in the area. I really loved this area - so quaint and easy to walk and neighborhood-y while being a short bus ride from downtown. Kruto, da?!

Yesterday:

- STILL living the ghetto fabulous life without a refrigerator and now the Exxon guys ask me if I'd like a bag of ice with any purchase I make. At least we upgraded from the cruddy styrofoam ice chest to a full-size Rubbermaid cooler!

- I got pulled-over for ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, while driving to an extremely important meeting. And I was unforgivably late because of that cop bastard.

- Discovered water leaking under the bathroom sink. Now I get to call a plumber - yay!

- I rear-ended my new car into a fat, yellow, concrete post which I somehow did not see. I started crying on my way home...

Wrote a REALLY long post on LJ about a bunch of stuff I wanted/needed to get off my chest (the first in a looong while), only to hit the wrong button when my mouse suddenly went bat-shit crazy, deleting ALLLL of it. And no, the 'restore draft' thing didn't work. *cries* (yet again).

- Decided to get drunk off of Lambic (Framboise), which seemed like an excellent idea at the time. But it just ended up making me drowsy and feeling like a whiny lush.

Tags: life, nov2009, personal
Mood: pessimistic

Last night And here i was counting on everyone 2 b too hungover from halloween parties to come out . :P

Tags: 2009, halloween, holiday, october09
Location: working
Mood: - I WISH!!

I'm really not a "weather buff" or even hold much interest in the subject, but ever since living in Russia (especially Saint-Petersburg), I can't help being much more aware of the daily temperatures and climate conditions. Oh, and being married to a marine engineer who's interested in all things meteorological doesn't hurt either. That said, this year has seemed especially cooler than normal, particularly this month of October. It is effin colddddd!!!i I'm  disappointed because it is Vasya's first time living here in the USA with me and I wanted him to experience first-hand just how disgustingly humid and miserably hot it tends to get here in the summer. Naturally, it was the coolest summer I can ever remember, and he probably thinks I made the whole thing up and am just a big ninny. When autumn started, I assured him that September and some of October are usually just extensions of the summer but with dryer air and cooler nights. Yeah, well now I look like a liar, too, because there's absolutely no extended-summer-feeling about it being 39°F (4°C), overcast and drizzling. And it's been relatively this damn cold for more than a week! Goddamn. Maybe I will just blame the weather - the weather Vasya apparently brought with him from Russia. 

Бугьте Здоровы, Мои Дорогие Друзья!

:)))

Tags: life, october09, weather
Mood: miffed

External Funding Opportunities for Graduates

Academic-Year Scholarships
Council of Higher Education Scholarship
Jacob K. Javits
Ford Foundation Predoctoral Diversity Fellowships
AAUW Educational Foundation Fellowships
Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans
American Council for Polish Culture
The Kosciuszko Foundation Tuition Scholarship
Thomas R. Pickering Graduate Foreign Affairs Fellowship
National Security Education Program (NSEP), David L. Boren Fellowship

( The Cut! - click to read more... )

Tags: education, info, international, links, october09
Mood: productive

"twitter is the autotune of the internet, producing worthless material."

                                                                                                                                                               -- agyoi (on 10/14/09)

Tags: lj, october09, quotes
Mood: lazy

Okay, this one is actually legit, but everything after the cut may not be... They're the kind of questions that make you want to bathe with a toaster (or SPOILER ALERT: poisonous jellyfish). I assume some of them are fake, but I sadly guarantee a
good portion are serious. And, well, *pouring out a little liquor* it's been real, humanity.

Hit it for a dozen or so of the worst questions ever asked...
 

( Hit it for a dozen or so of the worst questions ever asked. )

 

Source:
http://www.geekologie.com/2009/05/the_worst_and_saddest_of_yahoo.php

Tags: humor, links, september09
Mood: restless

Got an email from Lucia at Proz.com (a translation service). I'm posting a copy of that email in case anyone is interested in entering it - you don't have to be or become a member to do so, but you should probably be literate in both English and Russian. :)))

Here's what the email said:

Dear Xxxxxxx, Another edition of the ProZ.com literary translation contest (theme: "business") is now underway, and entries in English to Russian are being rated by site users in what is known as the "qualification round". You are invited to stop by and rate a few entries; this will help ensure that the best entries make it to the finals. Note that you don't have to be a member to provide feedback to contestants and rate entries. Regards, Lucia Leszinsky Member services and support Contest coordinator

Tags: language, russian, september09, русский
Mood: nerdy