And a towel. Don't forget to bring a towel.

So over at one of the fashion blogs I read, there is a question about what to pack if you're going backpacking for two months. I'm not really what you'd call a backpacker, but I did go on a 6-week vacation this one time when I wasn't really staying in one place and had to carry everything with me.

Anyway, I started to write a response in the comments, but it got kind of long-winded and I didn't want to hijack the thread. So I decided to copy it here instead. Then I added footnotes wherein I talk about myself, as this is my blog and I can do that.

No matter where you go, I strongly recommend a scarf-shawl type thing. It will keep you warm, keep the sun off of you, and allow you to visit any churches with strict dress codes.

If you're going to spend a lot of time in cities: bring lots of sundresses in different lengths. They don't take up much space in your luggage. Depending on the weather or how conservative the place is, you can wear a hoodie or the aforementioned scarf to cover up (also make sure the material is opaque, as that can be embarassing otherwise). What's more, you can hand wash them, they dry quickly, and you don't have to plan an outfit. (If you're not comfortable wearing dresses, though, disregard this paragraph because you shouldn't travel in clothes you're not comfortable in).

For outdoor activities, you'll need pants and shirts (layers are good here), but probably not as many as you think.

As for shoes,
1. don't bother with "nice" shoes. You will never wear them. You'll be walking so much that, even if you do go out in the evening, you'll probably end up choosing comfort over style. It also leaves you with an excuse (and space) to buy shoes there, and who doesn't want that?
2. you should definitely bring sandals, but make sure they are comfortable and have good arch support. Actually, that should be true of all the shoes you bring.
3. Shoes are heavy, so the fewer you can get away with, the better. I only really needed two pairs.*

With regard to maintenance, get a haircut that will look ok when it grows out, and bring some hair ties. Keep your nails short, but bring a nail file so they still look neat. I don't like travelling with nail polish, but if you can't live without it, go for something light, iridescent and quick-drying. I also brought a bar of detergent for hand-washing clothes. I didn't even know they existed until just before I left, but they are very useful.

Finally, if you forget something, or you end up wanting something you didn't pack, you can more than likely buy it there. Then you have something useful with nice memories attached to it.**



* I can't believe I just advised somebody to bring fewer pairs of shoes. Does the fact that I advocated buying more balance it out?

** I bought a lot of clothes when I was travelling, the weirdest being the cordouroy jacket that brings all the boys to the yard. In fact, I wore it today and this really good-looking guy who had travelled a lot around Russia was flirting with me. When I wore it two weeks ago, I went to Moscow and an Italian tourist sang to me (I have no idea what he was singing. Perhaps it was some aria from an opera about an ugly girl with a nice jacket). It's also the jacket that prompted my student to tell me I had "a perfect figure" some months ago. There is NOTHING remarkable about this jacket. I will find a picture.

Perhaps I can make an analogy.
unremarkable cordouroy jacket : European men :: graph paper shirt, conservative haircut, and glasses :

a) European women
b) All women everywhere
c) Stephen Colbert's wife
d) Just you, weirdo

Well, I went to Petrozavodsk, but some boats to Kizhi (specifically, the three I could have taken) were cancelled because the tourist season is winding down. This happens when I travel. It's because I don't sign up for stuff in advance and instead try to figure things out by myself when I get there. Sometimes it doesn't work out. It usually doesn't bother me. For some reason it did this time.

That "some reason" might be:
- I was sick
- my bank collapsed
- the entire American economy might collapse
- my birthday is coming up
- my cell phone stops working for hours at a time for no reason
- when it does work I accidentally send unspeakably creepy text messages
- my camera is dying
- my iPod crashed three times in as many days
- work
- everything else

ANYWAY, Petrozavodsk is a nice city with a really charming waterfront, and I didn't even need a map because, after visiting a lot of Russian cities (seriously, I have visited a lot of Russian cities), I can just draw my own:



I sketched this for a coworker and then decided to add stuff. The middle part says "Lenin St."

I spent most of my time there near the lake. It might be my favorite waterfront in Russia, and that is saying a lot.

So I'd like to go back there and actually see Kizhi. And maybe Valaam (this was highly recommended by the hotel staff, but you need to spend a couple days). But I also feel like there is too much on my list of things to see and places to go and that I am never actually going to be done with it, particularly if I keep failing to cross anything off.

I am going away for the weekend. Back soon!

Misc.

I have a lot of half-written blog posts that I just can't really seem to make into full posts. This is going to seem like a pretty random list of stuff.


Annoying Problem:
Students who think that I'm the only one who can teach them. I wrote about this last year. Except now my title is "Director of Studies" and my contract hours are reduced.

My proposed solution was to give everyone a nifty-sounding title, but this did not really fly with administration.

The reason this bothers me is that, while I am a good teacher, a huge part of my job is training other teachers to become good teachers. When students say that none of our other teachers can teach them, they are basically saying that I am no good at the training part of my job.


Though they might have a point:
I was helping one of the teachers plan his lesson.
A: Okay, so next I would elicit questions from the students.
B, writes "Illicit questions from students."
A: Well, that would be a much more interesting lesson.


Weather:
Every year, I get back to Moscow just in time for some ridiculuously hot weather. And every year I think "well, I might as well enjoy the opportunity to wear all my summer dresses because it gets cold really fast." And a week later every year I think "what happened?!? It was 90 degrees last week and now it's 50-something."

This is my way of saying that it's been a bit cold.


Shopping:
So I was rereading The Luzhin Defense this summer. It's not white stockings and bluish shoes but gray stockings and bluish shoes. I have no idea how I mixed that up. It was pretty easy to fix.

Other than that, I have mostly been window shopping because I am trying to save money. But I did buy a gray hat. Not even Suze Orman could disapprove of this hat.


Swimming:
The first thing to remember is that people don't have swimming pools here because they mostly live in apartments. None of the complexes here have pools, though that might be different elsewhere. The point is, if you want to swim after the weather turns cold, you have to go to the public pool.

Anyway, going to the public pool here is a multi-step process.
1. Go to the doctor (you can do this without an appointment). They want to make sure that you don't have heart problems and that your feet are not fungus-encrusted. If you pass, they write you a health clearance and you pay about $9 to get it stamped.
2. Then you bring your note to the pool, where they enter your name in their database. This is good for 6-12 months, and then you have to get another doctor's note.
3. Make an appointment to swim. There are a number of 45-minute sessions in the morning and evening on weekdays, and all day on Sunday. You can make your appointment for the same day, but you're more likely to get a space if you buy in advance. They print you a ticket with your name and appointment at the admin desk. 4. Take this ticket to the cash desk and pay about $5 to get it stamped.
5. Bring your stamped ticket to the locker room, where they give you a key.
6. Change, shower, swim. Make sure you have a swim cap because they won't let you in the pool without one.

For all I know, public pools have the same procedure everywhere. But I had been putting all this off for a while because I thought it seemed like a lot of steps and I hate swimming anyway.

In fact,
a) It doesn't take as long as it sounds.
b) If the pool is indoors and nobody is looking at you, swimming is actually a lot of fun.
c) You can, however, still hurt your feet. Always stretch first!

In general I'm really liking this swimming-as-exercise business. It's much better for my feet and knees and lungs than running or walking, I don't have to worry about cars like I do with roller-blading, I can swim no matter what the weather, and it might help me do something about my little tyrannosaurus arms. Let's see if I can actually keep it up.

The disadvantages are the cost, the fact that I'm going to need a hair dryer, and the location of the pool (across town). I'm also not really going to give up walking, as that has a psychological benefit. Is there room in my life for one and a half forms of exercise?


For more about Russian bureaucracy:
Read Mikhail Zoshchenko. I hadn't even heard of him until I had already been living in Russia for a year. I find him hilarious, but I don't know if I would have before I came here.


Exciting News:
I'm going to Petrozavodsk in a few weeks!


Solution to Annoying Problem?
Occasionally when I send a text message, I send it to the wrong person. There are two reasons why this might happen.
1. If I'm sending a message about somebody, I might accidentally send it to that person just because they're on my mind.
2. I'm in a hurry and two people are close together alphabetically.

The first is not so bad because I don't send unpleasant thoughts via text message. That's just good sense. It's usually something like "I'm observing Mabel's class today" and then Mabel is like, "Why are you referring to me in the 3rd person?" And then I realize that I've made a mistake.

The second is not really bad, either, because it should be obvious that I've made a mistake. And because, on my old phones, the "formal" (students, administration) list was separate from the "informal" list (colleagues, friends), so even if I made a mistake, it would have the right level of formality. On my current phone, they're all mixed together.

So the other day a text message for a colleague was accidentally sent to a student, and I thought, "great. Now our students are going to think that I'm barely literate," as I use a lot of abbreviations. Not great for my professional image, kind of embarrasing. Probably obvious that I had made a mistake.

Except! The message starts with "Hey, how is KZ?" KZ=Kizhi Island in the context of this message, but that doesn't matter here. What's important is that these are also said student's initials. Which means:
1. I am barely literate
2. I call my students by their initials
3. I refer to them in the third person

Points 2 and 3 make me seem unspeakably creepy!

This is my way of saying that my next phone had better let me make separate phone lists.

No accusations, just friendly crustaceans

So, I made it home in one piece but haven't felt like answering any of the recent Friday Fives. Tomorrow I am going on a cruise to Alaska with my family. This is exciting because I get to go snorkelling for the first time ever.* Also, free food, a giant boat with a swimming pool and library, rainy weather, and opportunities to dress formally.


Coming home gives me an opportunity to see my family and friends, but also to catch up on movies and TV:

I saw Wall-E, which I liked for the first half and then really disliked due to its contempt for its audience (I don't often say this about movies). I also felt that they were putting forward a Lamarckian view of evolution, despite the fact that the society in the movie probably did not involve any natural selection whatsoever. The ending credits actually made up for the rest of the movie, though. First of all, they were nice to look at, but, more importantly, it was sort of like they were saying "but civilization produces some good things too!" Which I appreciated.

Pan's Labyrinth was really good, though it went over my head (here be spoilers):
"I was really shocked that they did that."
"Well, it worked out for her. It's not like she actually died."
"What?"
"Yeah, she got to go to the magical land where her parents were waiting for her."
"..."
"Have I taken this movie too literally? Because it would not be the first time."

Project Runway started on Wednesday. I think I hate Blayne, and not in a love-to-hate way. It's probably good that I'll be going home before the season really takes off.

I watched the entire first season of Mad Men in about three days and came to the conclusion that early-1960s America is like present-day Russia but with better clothes and hair (but not shoes).** I had a whole analysis of why this would be the case (essentially, it's that the characters in the show grew up during the depression, while the characters in Russia grew up during the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union). There is less smoking in Russia, but the amount of drinking is about right in certain circles. I also noticed that the characters on the show do not seem very religious compared to present-day America (which, again, is also true of present-day Russia), but maybe it just hasn't been a topic on the show yet. Anyway, the similarities were kind of creepy.


* I was asked to choose excursions, so the first thing I did is go down the list and cross out everything involving floatplanes, helicopters, and ziplines. Then I chose snorkelling and a tour of an abandoned mine. I only mention this because I'm watching my brother play Super Mario and remembering how much I suck at air worlds but am actually pretty good at underground worlds. I am consistent if nothing else.

** I once had a plan to invent a time machine and travel back to that era to go shopping and also hang out around optometrists' offices and pick up men. The physical impossibility of a) time travel and b) fitting into 1960s clothes did not deter me. This series totally did.

Once this seemed so appealing

My allergies are making me suffer. And as much as I try to tell myself that allergies are just God's way of reminding us that our immune system is working, or that I have it pretty easy compared to all the people with food allergies, I am still feeling pretty sorry for myself.

Here's a Friday Five (more like a Sunday Ten, but whatever) to cheer me up:

Theme: International Travel
1. You have the summer and plenty of money to travel abroad. Where all would you go?
Okay, so this was actually a writing assignment for my Russian class, but we had to make a whole years' worth of plans. This is probably the only assignment I completed within a couple hours of its being assigned. I can't remember the exact plan, though it was something like this:

June - Australia, Tanzania, Zambia

July - Costa Rica, Peru, the Galapagos Islands

August - Kamchatka, Murmansk, Petrozavodsk, Arkhangelsk, maybe St. Petersburg

2. What foods would you be sure you got to eat?
Seeing as I've been to McDonald's in every country I've visited, I have to continue that tradition.

The countries on that list aren't exactly famous for their food. In Australia, I'd be sure to have Chinese and Indian food, both of which are hard to find and pretty expensive in Russia. I would also try kangaroo at least once.

I really know nothing about African food, but I do love ostrich meat, so that's probably what I'd eat.

I also don't know anything about food in Costa Rica or Peru, though in both cases I have heard that there is lots of seafood and it is awesome. So I'd buy a guidebook and eat what it told me to eat. I would also have to try Inca Kola, one of only two local soft drinks to outsell Coca-Cola anywhere in the world.

In Russia, well, I'd eat the same stuff that I do now (mostly cold soup, which sounds a lot sadder than it is).

3. What landmarks would you be sure you got to see?
In Australia, I'd mostly be visiting my friend, who lives near Melbourne, but I would also like to go to Tasmania to see some weird animals, Sydney to see the opera house, and somehow I'd learn to go SCUBA diving and see the Great Barrier Reef.

In Zambia, I would like to see Victoria Falls because they look really beautiful. In Tanzania, I would like to climb Mt. Kilmanjaro. Actually, I'd probably give up after the first day as I am afraid of heights, but it'd be worth a try what with the unlimited budget and all.

In Costa Rica and on the Galapagos islands, I would be all about the weird animals. In Peru, which is probably the place I am most interested in, I would visit lots and lots of archaeological sites. I would visit churches in both Costa Rica and Peru.

Kamchatka has interesting geology, Arkhangelsk and Murmansk are cities that I'm told you don't really need to spend more than a couple days in, and Petrozavodsk has Kizhi island, which is basically a museum of wooden architecture. I'd spend the rest of the time (assuming there is any) in St. Petersburg, visiting the Hermitage and the palaces and fortresses around the city.

4. What airline would you use?
Any one with a decent safety record. Since I'm short and average-weight, there's no reason whatsoever for me to be picky about airlines.

5. Would your knowledge of other languages influence where you went? (i.e. would you be more likely to go to France if you spoke French?)
From the list above, it looks like it would, but that's really just coincidence. Anywhere I went, I'd stick to cities and touristy places, at least until I got more comfortable, which would probably happen fastest in Australia (where I speak the language and look like everyone else) and slowest in Peru (where I don't).

The second set is about travel within the USA.

Theme: USA Road Trip
1. Who would you take with you on a road trip?
Somebody who can drive.

2. What states would you visit?
Good question. I would really like to visit Chicago (again), Boston, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. (again), Atlanta, and New Orleans. Those are cities rather than states. And I would go to Florida because I want to drive on that bridge that connects the Florida keys.

3. What national parks and/or monuments would you go see?
I want to see Carlsbad Caverns and Niagara Falls. I also want to go back to Lassen, Yellowstone, and Denali. This last would be a rather long drive.

4. Las Vegas: Overrated or a Must-See?
I seem like the type of person who would say overrated, but actually I think it's a total must-see.

5. How long would you be gone?
As long as it takes!


So it seems like this Friday Five was pretty much written for me, but actually it makes me kind of sad because I don't have the time, money, or driving ability to do any of this. Yet. I have a student who responds to half of what I say with "you sound like somebody who went from Vladivostok to Moscow by train." This has become my defining characteristic as far as that student is concerned.

What will actually cheer me up: going home in three days!

I'll kill myself if Portugal doesn't win

The Russian team won a soccer match last night. Actually, it's kind of a bigger deal than that. The Russian team, which I'm told was in last place going in, beat the Dutch team in the quarterfinals of the European championship, sending Russia to the semifinals for the first time ever ("ever," by the way, is 17 years). I was watching this in a restaurant with a group of people. Nobody scored for a really long time, then both teams scored at the last minute, so the game went into overtime, during which Russia scored twice, for a 3-1 result. It was pretty exciting. One of my students was actually at the game, which must have been really exciting.

People on the streets last night were crazy, but in a peaceful way. I've been here twice for New Years' and I have never seen such excitement. Everybody was cheering. Some people had fireworks. I saw one guy who had climbed onto one of the WALK/DON'T WALK lights and was just sitting there waving his shirt. Like I said, crazy.

Naturally, I did not bring my camera.


Anyway, I'll do the first Friday Five in a long time (for some reason, I just forgot about it). But first I have a question of my own.

Why didn't anybody *tell* me that Viggo Mortensen was hot!?
a) "It always seemed like stating the obvious."
b) "I did. Several times. You said he needed a haircut."
c) "Did he show up somewhere wearing glasses?"
d) "He's not hot."
e) "If this is about 'Eastern Promises,' I am revoking your visa."


Okay, now on to the (kind of oddly phrased) Friday Five:
1) what is one thing about you that you hate?
One? I'm going to go with my lack of social skills here.

2) what is one thing about you that you love?
Trivia-brain!

3) if you had to change one thing about you what would it be and why?
I would be much, much better at dealing with people. I would never put my foot in my mouth or worry about doing so. I'd make eye contact with people, including but not limited to, attractive males. And I'd be able to manipulate people, but I'd use it for good rather than evil. Like somebody would tell me their problems and instead of saying "you really need to get over that" I could manipulate them into feeling better! And I'd be able to do that bitchy thing where you make fun of somebody but you do so so subtlely that they don't realize it until a few hours later, or they realize it but can't say anything because you're so subtle that they'd just come off as really defensive. That ability is like a hairdryer. I wouldn't ever use it, but it's weird to be a female without it.

4) what is one word that you would use to define yourself?
Polite.

5) imagine what you would look like in a perfect world...what do you look like?
In a perfect world, I wouldn't have to look any different. That said, I'd like to be able to change my appearance at will. I would mostly use this for changing the color of my nails without having to wait for the nail polish to dry.

Extended warranty? How could I lose!?

So, I made it home in one piece but haven't felt like answering any of the recent Friday Fives. Tomorrow I am going on a cruise to Alaska with my family. This is exciting because I get to go snorkelling for the first time ever.* Also, free food, a giant boat with a swimming pool and library, rainy weather, and opportunities to dress formally.

Back when I did high school debate, we started the debate by defining our terms. For example, if the resolution is: "Civil disobedience is justified," you have to decide exactly what constitutes civil disobedience. Is it always peaceful or can it be violent? Can it include property damage? Refusal to pay taxes? Stockpiling weapons? You get the idea. Then you have to provide a definition of "justified" because, if you don't, your opponent will frame the debate in terms of legal justification and then you have already lost. (Unless the judge doesn't know what they're doing, which happened more often than not).

It occurred to me that things might be easier if I started doing this in other areas of life. So I present:

The List of Terms to Define Before Going on Vacation

1. "vacation" - relaxing? sightseeing? shopping? thinking about work the whole time?
2. "nice" - specifically: nice hotel, nice weather, nice dinner
3. "pack light"
4. "sleep in"
5. "walking distance"
6. "most people" and "speak English"
7. and, finally, "affordable" and "reasonable" These are two very different things!

I stopped the list there because I got distracted making this chart:

Reasonability is a function of value, so the better something is, the more you can charge for it. Things which are out of your price range (illuminated manuscripts, five-star accommodation, designer shoes) may still be reasonably priced for what they are. You just can't afford them. Reasonability comes into play at the lower end of the chart, too. Say you have $100 budgeted for a new pair of shoes. You see a pair of flip-flops for $70. They're well within your budget, but you're not going to buy them because $70 is simply not a reasonable price to pay for flip-flops.

When I first made the chart, affordability was a straight line going across, determined by your budget. But in reality, there's some distortion when the lines cross, creating what I like to call the "life is short" spike. This is when you talk yourself into spending a little bit more than you should because it seems like a unique opportunity. This explains things like green shoes, hard-to-find short story collections, or buying a first-class ticket because then you'll be able to say that you've travelled on all the classes of Russian trains. So some people are more affected by the "life is short" spike than others.

At the very high end, when you can no longer afford anything, you start to exaggerate just how much by. This is where you start saying things like "those boots are worth more than I make in a year" or "I'd have to sell my firstborn child before I could buy that car." Or, "and I still wouldn't be able to buy that car" if your firstborn child is likely to be a nearsighted photosensitive little thing with stupid allergies. So some people are more affected by the poverty exaggeration decline than others.

This post is kind of all over the place, but check out the graph I made.

Other stuff I need to do: take up smoking, line apartment with asbestos, sleep around lots

So I'm back from Volgograd, but there's something else I need to get off my chest.

I have this issue every summer. Actually, I had this issue year-round growing up and I'm happy to be living in a place with actual seasons because I get nine months where I don't have to hear this.

"This" is: "You need a tan" or some variant thereof.

Is there a good response to this? I don't have a good response to this. I usually just say that I can't get one, which is true. Occasionally somebody will be enough of an idiot to argue, but all I can do is repeat myself.

What I'd like to say, though, is this:

"Thank you for your concern. Tell me what option you think is best:
First, I could lie in the sun like most people do. This will give me terrible burns but in a few weeks, after all the badly damaged skin has peeled off, I might be a little bit darker. As an added bonus, before long you'll be able to lecture me about how old I look.
Second, I could go to a tanning bed. This will most likely give me cancer, but at least we'll have a few good years between your lecture on how I need a tan and your lecture on how I need a wig.
Third, I could cover myself with chemicals that I don't really know the long-term effects of. But it's nice that I can rely on you to lecture me when they apply unevenly or turn me orange.
Or, finally, you could fuck off, mind your own business, and stop looking at me if it bothers you so much."

I had to get that off my chest. But I will never say that in real life. Politeness has nothing to do with it. It's that I basically have no self-confidence where this issue is concerned. If you want to completely ruin my day, maybe my week, point it out.

If you hate your arms, you wear long sleeves. If you hate your legs, wear long pants. If you hate your hips, wear a dark-colored A-line skirt. What do you do when you hate your skin? It's kinda everywhere. Move to Saudi Arabia or get over it, I guess. English teachers are pretty well-paid in Saudi Arabia.


Actually, one of my students (that one...sigh*) told me I had a beautiful complexion the week before last (yeah, I don't know, either). As that was the first and last time I'll ever hear that, I celebrated by going out for lunch. I ordered sushi and an Irish coffee. A couple days later, it occurred to me that that might be the whitest lunch ever. (I'm pretty sure I was wearing a scarf, too, as I am always wearing a scarf). But said student is seriously on my good side forever, even if that wasn't actually what he was trying to say.


* Yeah, I lost that argument when my contract hours increased for the summer. Though it was acknowledged that that facial expression is, indeed, creepy, and that I should never make it again, it was also pointed out that my contract hours were increasing and I never actually make eye contact with males I find attractive anyway. I could not refute either of those arguments, but it's only for a couple weeks, anyway.

I want it more than I can tell

I am suddenly having an awful week. For one thing, it is six days long. Russia doesn't do "observed" holidays, so if an important holiday falls on a Thursday or Tuesday, you get the Friday or Monday off. Or, rather, the Friday or Monday is moved to a weekend day.

For example, June 12 (Thursday) is Independence Day (the day Russia adopted its constitution). This year, we get both June 12 and June 13 off, making a four-day weekend. But, to make up for this, everyone has to work on Saturday. I am using the four-day weekend to go to Volgograd (20-24 hours by train, so not really doable on a three-day weekend). I bought the tickets earlier in the week and everything has gone downhill ever since. But the effect of that is that I am happy to be having a mini-holiday soon. So I guess it all works out.


I saw "Enchanted" the other day. I loved the premise. I liked the first half. I began to hate it after I realized where they were going with it. As far as I can understand, the point of the film is that what men actually want is some hot, dumb, inappropriately dressed girl to clean up after them. This is sexist and depressing.

And it's not often that I find a movie sexist. In fact, the only movie I can remember saying that about was "Sin City."* Honestly, I never really found the Disney cartoons to be sexist. My generation's Disney cartoons, in particular, kind of went out of their way not to be. But even the older cartoons just don't seem sexist to me. "Sleeping Beauty," for example, has three male characters, none of whom get much screen time. The rest of the characters, including the good and evil fairies, who drive the story, are all female and all kind of varied, character-wise. Is it kind of silly that "Cinderella" (and most of the other ones, too) ends with her marrying the prince and living happily ever after even though they didn't meet all that long before? Yes, but it's certainly not sexist, since, you know, the prince is doing the exact same thing. "Beauty and the Beast" (my favorite one!) is interesting in that the main character doesn't really gain anything by being beautiful. In fact, it kind of causes more problems than it solves. There are not a lot of movies like that.

So it's kind of funny that "Enchanted" strikes me as way more sexist than the films it was making fun of. Kind of funny. Mostly sad. Definitely not a film I'd take a kid to see.


Anyway, I got tagged for a book meme over a month ago, but got distracted by work, Perm, Eurovision, and work.

The closest book is the same travel book again:

Since they take the most direct route between cities the savings in time can be considerable over slow trains and meandering buses. Typically you will find drivers offering this service outside bus terminals. Someone in your party must speak Russian to negotiate a price with the driver that typically works out to about R5 per kilometre.

I feel less bad about this now because my mother and my brother also had practical-sounding books.

I'd like to also do my mother's version of the same meme, but this is harder because all of my page 123s are so boring (she had a really good one, though I have no idea what it is). I've got two so far.

Too easy:

Speed.
More important than any of those things, however, was one final requirement.
Luck.

This one is funny to me because I'm pretty sure these are the least distinctive three sentences in this book:

Why did you do it, why? But I'll save you. I'll save you.



* And I take that back now. When I saw it, it bothered me that all the female characters were sex workers and/or victims. The more I think about it, though, the more I think that that's totally accurate for the environment of the film.