Yekaterinberg

We survived the 54 hour train ride. I know what you are thinking, how on earth are you able to not go insane living in such tight quarters for two days? It's easy when you do a flashback to the 1980s. I'm not even kidding you, if the guys aren't wearing Adidas tracksuits they are wearing clothes that were cool in the age of the Material Girl. The women are not exempt from this massive fashion faux pas. I'll just leave you with this image in your mind: leopard spandex, tight neon shirts and hooker heels.

We asked the local guide here in Yekaterinberg about some of the style choices. Here was the conversation:

Keri: What do you call this hairstyle?
Russian Guide: It's called "modern"
Keri: So a mullet is modern?
Russian Guide: Yes.

This conversation right there epitomizes Siberian fashion.

My birthday got surprisingly more interesting. First off, thank you for all you Happy Birthday emails. I get really excited when I get a new email that isn't spam or one of those gushy forwards that I am the bazillionth recipient-- so thank you :)

I have no idea how Leavitt did it, but she and Nat managed to sneak a birthday cake on to the train without me knowing. In fact, she was so sneaky that when we went to different cathedrals around Irtusk she bought a prayer candle. I thought, "Oh if Leavitt buys a prayer candle maybe I'll pick up some religious goodies." So I bought a card with a saint who was holding a book. I figured it could be the patron saint of Twilight, since Nat and Keri have desperately been looking for New Moon.

Little did I know Leavitt used the prayer candle for a birthday candle. As embarrassing as it was, the whole tour group sang Happy Bday to me and just when it came time to blow out my prayer candle-- SPLAT!-- Nat totally creamed me with a second cake right across the face. Oh that sticky goodness was a complete shock to me. The only thing I did was retaliate adn smeared some on her face and then Leavitt. It was the funniest thing ever! We were picking cream out of our hair over the next few days.

One of the more entertaining things we've started to do was write songs. The ukulele has been central to our songwriting and so we've been writing songs about different people in our tour group. We've insinuated (ok, flat out accused through song) that they are drug runners and fugitives from Australia. That was a big hit-- I foresee it going platinum. Then we wrote one about Quarantine Girl and it was just quotes from her. She makes Eerore and Grumpy Bear look like a picnic. Our musical writing is definitely keeping us busy on the long rides.

Our eating habits are all about snacking. We munch on cheese and crackers and I have been taking a liking to Pringles. Some how the chocolate gets eaten first and the fruit gets left on the train once we arrive, hmm... The babushkas (old ladies) are the coolest ever! They have these pre packaged meals that you can buy from them. One lady was limping around the train station on one of our 20 minute town stops. Then, like the majestic olympic torch in her hand, she held up fresh carrots from her garden. I have never seen Leavitt move that fast out of our cabin train. I think she scared the poor babushka once she caught up to her.

After all the lack of showering, long days in the train we arrived to our 4 star Yekaterinberg hotel. Leavitt and I bunked together and were amazed at such luxuries as heated bathroom floors, warm showers and the most comfortable imaginable. Leavitt was bouncing off one bed into another. Unfortunately, inertia plays a large roll in this and she went head first into the wall-- it was soooo funny! Of course I had to test out the beds as well and managed to splat myself on to the wall as well. I love Yekaterinberg!

I would write all about our day in Yekaterinberg-- it was very Romanov! But I'll save that for another day :)

We're all doing fine and well in Mother Russia and I'm surprised at how fast this trip is flying. This time next week we'll be heading back to Namerica. We leave tomorrow morning for a 24 hour train ride to Moscow where we will be for a few days. I'll make sure and post an update then.

Talk you all soon!

Czarina Emily

Our transition into Russia has been a good one. After our 36 hour train ride, we got to the beautiful Lake Baikal town of Irtusk. Since we don't know any Russian, we've been looking to find ways to remember how to say things. We found that if we said it really loud and fast it would somewhat sound like Russian.

Does your ass fit = Welcome

Bin Laden Fishnets = Thank you

Does Freed Anya = Good bye

We have been doing a homestay, which means we've been bunking with a family. Leavitt and I stayed at a family who has just been so kind to us. On the first day she asked what we don't eat and so I mentioned i wasn't a big fan of fish. I didn't think that it would kill off 80% of Lake Baikalan cuisine (we had chicken that night). I did end up trying some fish, it was ok. The smoked fish or ulma tasted like bacon bits.

Lake Baikal is huge. Then again, it's the largest freshwater lake in the world. It seriously looks like an ocean and the water is pristine clear. They said that it had been an especially cold summer and so the water it is only 8 degrees celsius-- so in the 40s maybe? Was that going to deture us from swimming? Heck no!

Leavitt, Nat, Keri, Quarantine Girl and me went down to the lake's edge. I really wish it could have been warmer, the lake is full of so many cool things than any other lake I've been in. They have these weird coral looking things, neat species of fish and freshwater seals. When we went to the museum they had two seals there and they seriously looked like fat little butterballs with button eyes swimming around! They we're pretty adorable.

Leavitt and I did the "1, 2, 3"and ran into the lake. It wasn't bad at first, then the sharpness of the cold goes through your body and it's piercing. Your feet are the first ones to suffer, after that you become stiff with cold. We got back and shore and collapsed on to the rocky shore. Nat and Keri went in next and then Quarantine Girl. Nat and I then went back and I wanted to do a hand stand. It wasn't so bad, but I had to open my eyes to see where to place my hands. I have never felt my eyeballs freeze before. It's a really weird feeling.

Quarantine Girl challenged Leavitt yet again, to another competitive thing. You would think that after losing to archery and then something else she would give up any sporty challenges. Nope. The duel was to stand in Lake Baikal the longest.

Leavitt had already been walking around in the lake, it was hardly a challenge. After a few minutes, you can see the silent struggle Q had internally. Leavitt propped herself against a rock and sensed that Q was ready to give in. She perked up and Q waved her off. Leavitt was like, "Oh I thought you were getting out, I'll go sit up against my rock then". It was easy to guess who won. I wonder what the next challenge will be.

It was a great day. I love Siberia-- ok, at least in the summer. One of the things that threw us off was when it was 9pm and we were dog tired. Leavitt and I looked at each other and were like, "Is it time to go to bed yet?" We've been used to China and Mongolia where their sunset times are closer to 8pm. It didn't even get dark in Siberia till around 10:30 or so. We'll be entering white nights soon, so that should be really interesting.

Our next leg of the trip is the worst, it's a 54 hour train ride to Ekaterinburg. This is where the Romanov's were murdered. We'll be spending 2 nights there and I'm looking forward to that. It's been a great few days, I am really surprised how the trains are really not that bad. It does help having Keri around, she stirs even more life into our train cabin. It's a lot of fun.

For my birthday today, the group got me a Lake Baikal shirt and all signed it. It was very sweet of them. Then Natalie was kind enough of to regift the hotel slippers I slipped into her bag. Keri gave me the Raisinettes I was coveting. We'll be opening those up tonight on the train! I am definitely loving it here. The best part about it is that the mattresses keep getting softer the further west we go!

I'm glad you are liking the emLogs-- I'll talk to you soon or really, in about 60 hours :)

Emily the Siberian Tiger Wrestler

emLogs #09 - Sore Throat Singing

I must say, I do like Mongolia a lot. The capital isn't very pretty and it's definitely got Soviet accents to the architecture, but the people are very cool. They are friendly here and respect one another. Sure, we've got the pick pocketers (which one of our cameras fell victim too-- oddly enough at a Buddhist monastery). But the general vibe is a good one.

Yesterday Leavitt picked up one of those weird witchcrafy things-- bones? It's where you have four bones that you roll and it will tell you some sort of fortune. Kind of like that creepy witch lady from Pirates of the Caribbean can do. We've been asking it all sorts of questions.

Keri the Brit asked: Will I be a high powered CEO in the next year?

Answer: With no obstacles.

Dutch 1: Will I be pregnant in the near future?

Answer: You will have everlasting life

Leavitt: Will Hedrick get married in the next year?

Answer: Try harder

As you can see, it's all a load of crap :) But we've been having a blast with them. Everytime our guide G asks us what we want to do, we consult the bones. Tonight we went to a Mongolian culture show. It's funny, they played all these traditional instruments and all the stringed ones had only 2 strings! People really need to not tease me and my 4 stringed ukulele anymore. At least I have twice as many strings!

That was definitely a highlight of the trip-- especially to listen first hand the Mongolian throat singers. They use their mouths as an instrument, but where it gets tricky is when they can sing two notes at once. We've resolved to master throat singing so Keri, Nat, Leavitt and me have banded together and started practice on our throat singing quartet. Leavitt goes super low and sounds like a cow mating, Nat goes more soprano and sounds like a sparrow and me, well, I'm just trying to actually not bust out laughing every two seconds.

I'm really digging the Mongolian food too. For lunch we actually did this mix of foods-- Indian and Mexican, so Indi Mex. Keri was craving nachos or "nachos" as the case may be here. Nat and I did the korma dish and it was all like 3 dollars or

so!

Which brings me to something that keeps screwing us up, the money thing. They use high denominations, so a meal would cost us 12,800 mongolian. That's just too many zeros. I keep mixing up 1,000 and 10,000 notes, which probably isn't the best

thing.

Tomorrow we head to the ger camp and will be hanging out with nomads! I'm looking forward to this part of the trip. I'll be out of contact for a wee bit, but I always enjoy everyone's emails (I feel more connected).

It's been such a great day with the rain and all. I love rain, its been a nice relief! Hopefully it will clear out a bit for our nomad weekend!

Talk to you all soon!

Emily the Horrible Throat Singer