Mind Grenades!

10/27/2010

Halfway! I’m ready for a break holy crap. This week has been OUT OF CONTROL! I’m ready for America as well, but hey, maybe this vacation will help me like Russia more. I’m to the point where I’m pretty sick of it. Oh, and I got to talk to someone about the changes from the Soviet Union.

I’m soooo excited to get to Finland and Sweden! Top countries rated to live in; I’m interested to see how it differs from America. I hope that somewhere in Stockholm they’re doing a satellite view of the Rally to Restore Sanity. I’ve heard that tons of countries are doing this, time for Google! Don’t expect a post next week, unless I find Wi-Fi and type it up on my Zune or Nook. On the Nook, the new one is not impressive at all. It’s just a glorified tablet, not nearly as awesome as the Kindle or regular Nook. But there’s an update coming, more speed yay!

They told us we would get sick of Russia, and its hit. I’m tired of almost everything, except the girls, those I’ll always like. I miss fresh air, air that you can breathe without gagging because of second hand smoke, exhaust, or B.O. It sounds great, I know. I can’t wait to step out of the plane and breathe in the fresh, extremely polluted air, of Utah. I miss dryers. My clothes are always crusty, it’s no bueno. My students broke a door off the hinges, I wanted to swear loudly.

I’m still having problems rapping my mind what Almer told me. I spoke with him for an hour about the Soviet Union and what it was like. The first thing he said was that there was no advertising. Imagine that, driving and seeing no billboards (except only a few could drive). It’s hard to imagine not being constantly assaulted to buy this or that. The next thing was about how everything was state controlled. They had a store close to their home that sold vinegar, salt, and two more things. Just that, nothing else, and you had to wait for hours in line. You had to wait in line for hours for meat. There was a 10-15 year wait for a car! You could trade flats, but you couldn’t get a new one. He said that Ray Bradbury wrote it almost how it was in Fahrenheit 451. Not Animal Farm, or 1984, but a book we mostly attribute to learning about the evils of banning books. The coolest thing he showed me was four books by Jack London. They were made in the Soviet times, and in order to get one book you had to bring FIFTY FIVE POUNDS of waste paper! I couldn’t believe it! I still can’t! The thing he said that made my jaw drop was, “Europe, America, they do not know what Socialism is.” Not word for word, but that’s the point he was getting across. Talking with him about it was a mindgrenade!

Well, now I’m going to get back to wishing I was stateside for the Rally, and watch the Colbert Report. Until next post!