Hmmm

She's a Russian independent filmmaker who models on the side. She speaks perfect English, Russian, French, and German. She went to school in London and splits time between St. Petersburg and Berlin...

This is what GLEE looks like

This picture was taken by a small digital camera teetering on top of a bottle of water that couldn't have come closer to falling without actually falling before the timer on the camera snapped this shot.

Just a good pic of us in St. Petersburg

This was just before we choreographed a music video. No, really, we choreographed a music video.

If you can figure this picutre out, let me know, because I can't

I'm not kidding

when I say that Russian girls wear ridiculous clothes. They may not be whores, but they are certainly in whores uniforms. What makes this picture funny isn't just that it was taken just to document this girl's short skirt but that she caught Dave taking it.

Really?

In an earlier entry I wrote that Sara cleaned her dirty toes with toothpaste. If you didn't believe it, well, believe it. And it worked.

Makeshift Poker at the Cuba Hostel

As all bad poker games go, we were victims of a clueless woman betting when should have folded and catching lucky cards on the river. It wasn't for money but the integrity and fun of the game was compromised. Then again, we had a great time and made a lot of new friends. Our international game included a Dutch guy, a couple Danes, a French Canadian, our current crew, and a Texan woman who said ya'll all the time.

The Hermitage

The Russian 180

Trying to be friendly in Russia gets you nowhere. To Russians, smiling at strangers only makes you look stupid. “Hello” and “How are you?” are most often unnecessary phrases and even “Thank you” can be skipped and replaced with a grunt or snarl. It’s not being impolite, it’s just being Russian and when in Russia, do as the Russians do and give others attitude before even considering befriending them. No other country knows how to turn enemies into friends like this one.

This Russian 180 has been omnipresent throughout our time here. We have met postal workers, hostel receptionists, ticket ladies, store clerks, and even old ladies in parks who are initially cruel bitches before changing their disposition completely and acting like sweethearts. I can’t figure out the precise cause for the turn around but the difference couldn’t be more dramatic.On a sunny day in the middle of St. Petersburg we came across a small park between apartment buildings and proceeded to play on the swing set. Despite Sara having a great time, two old ladies sitting on a bench barked at us to stay off the playground. They did not politely ask us to stay off the swings, they furrowed their wrinkly brows and yelled at us.

We stopped playing and walked over to sit next to the ladies on the benches. After a couple sentences their attitude toward us had flipped the classic Russian 180 and they were suddenly very sweet to us. We sat and talked to them for 20 minutes or so with Stephen as the translator.
The ladies had lived in St. Petersburg their entire lives and couldn’t explain the drastic changes their city has seen throughout the years. I can’t imagine the stories they can tell but also didn’t have the patience to listen to them speak Russian and not understand a single word.

Stephen helped the rest communicate with the ladies though and enjoyed the more pleasant second half of their turn around. Just another case of the Russian 180

Last Days in Moscow and then on to St. Petersburg

In a souvenir shop down Arbat Street in Moscow Peter and I were tempted to purchase these extremely handsome hats but, unfortunately, they weren’t in the budget. Lonely Planet books are great for helping with finding transportation but I’m always frustrated that their budgets always leave out dispendible cash for alcohol and stupid hats. I tried out another hat but despite its popularity with the local women, I ultimately decided to buy a t-shirt. I did hate on the mall in the Red Square at first, but after going inside I was impressed with the architecture and shocked by the prices. It’s easily one of the nicest malls I’ve ever been to in my life. Sara was only slightly interested in the clothes though, as always, she was just looking for a good time. Admittedly, there’s something about those round little wooden boobs that begs, touch me. Since I’ve forgotten the majority of my Spanish from school, the son of this Spanish family had to translate most of our conversation. He was excited about his role though and we spent a while chatting before I told them about this site. Suddenly they were adamant about us having a picture together. I hope they visit the site and see themselves in this shot. They were a really cool family. I calculated that in the past couple months traveling from Xiamen, China to St. Petersburg, Russia, I have been on a train for a combined total of 223 hours. That’s more than 10 days on a train. This picture was taken once we arrived in St. Petersburg, marking the end of our trans-Siberian rail trip. Notice how cracked out we look. Later on in the same day, Sara and I slept during the morning hours waiting for our check-in time. It wasn’t the most comfortable sleep but I could have slept just about anywhere at that point in time. We only caught a short siesta though because of all the other people in, out, and milling about the hostel. Only with my impeccable eye, Sara’s good looks, and Steven’s swagger were we able to capture such a moment in time on film. Numerous modeling agencies have already contacted us about potential new careers in the world of being really, really, ridiculously good-looking. I’m sure Peter won’t be happy about this picture of him with Bizzaro-Bussigel being online but the resemblance between him and this Aussie is just too striking. It only took an hour at the bar before Peter attempted to kill the guy for copying his style. Outside a film museum advertised as a photography museum I saw this cat taking a cat-nap. Unfortunately this photo is far more interesting than any of the short films we saw. Then again, I liked the one with the fat lady mowing the lawn in her less-than-flattering bikini. Only one word comes to mind when I look at this picture: eyelashes. Wanna see something gross? Check out Sara’s filthy little toes blackened from playing Frisbee in a local park. Wanna know something strange? She used toothpaste to clean them off. And you know what’s funny? It worked. I’ll say that this picture doesn’t quite capture Sara’s mood throughout the trip and I would have left her middle fingers out if it wasn’t for Peter’s huge, wide-open grill. The other character in the shot is a friend we made at the hostel who’s currently going to U of M. Not only is he cool but he also wears a watch (not one of us has had a watch this entire trip) and he speaks Russian. Some people like to call St. Petersburg the “Venice of Russia” which I think is annoying. It’s certainly not Venice, and certainly not anymore than Bangkok is the Venice of SE Asia or Zhouzhuang is the Venice of China. How’s this: Venice is Venice, St. Petersburg is St. Petersburg, and Ohio is the armpit of the United States.
This sign needs little explanation. I just wonder what really necessitated the sign in the first place. How many cars plunged down into the canal before the finally put this up warning drivers about the perils of driving over the curb and into the water? You know it’s time to do laundry when you start wearing dirty clothes inside out. I’m not just picking on Sara though, we all have made our compromises along the way, using sniff checks to decide when a change of clothes is necessary. Call it gross if you want but travel through Siberia is less than luxurious and finding a washing machine in major cities can be a problem.
I’m not sure what Peter’s exact reaction to Sara’s kiss implies, nor do I understand why Stephen is going for bunny ears but Dave seems less than impressed. Now that’s a comfortable chair. It may not look it, but that chair hugs the person lucky enough to be sitting in it. Here’s another model shot taken outside the Church of Spilled Blood. Best t-shirt of the week award goes to Dave for his “I am Mickey Mouse” classic.

Night on the Pond

Moscow's not the cheapest place in the world to go out for some drinks. In fact, it's the most expensive. But small budgets and face control at clubds didn't stop us from having a great time at night. A small group of us from our hostel took some cheap beers out to park in the middle of the city where we found many Moscovites doing the same.
The Setting: A large pond in a park in the middle of a posh neighborhood where two lost geese swam.


Our crew:
a Ukrainian student named Tanya.
an Australian animator named David
an annoying Danish dork named Peter
a massage therapist from Cali
a composer from New York
and a photographer from Michigan


The Mixer: Cheap Russian Pivos, cheap Russia wine, and a camera.


The Results: A return to our childhood, playing on a colorful playground.


The Finale: Dustin racing up in the opposite elevator, missing out on the best picture of the night.