Today I am grateful for:

Camping trips with the hiking tourism club.

I’m not really one to spend much time thinking about regrets. In my ninth grade English classroom, there was a poster that read, “There’s no such things as shoulda coulda woulda. If you shoulda and you coulda, then you woulda.” I think about this a lot (shout out to you, Mrs. Boyd.) For the most part, there isn’t anything in my life so far that I wish I had done but didn’t. BUT the exception to this — I regret not being more involved in the Syracuse University Outing Club during undergrad. I shoulda gone on trips, I coulda gone on trips, but just never actively made time to make it out to the Adirondacks or wherever else the adventures were taking place. Maybe this is kind of a bummer way to start a blog post, reflecting on the bitter pangs of missed opportunities in the great wide somewheres.

BUT. The outing club gods have heard me! Recognized my agony and rewarded me with a second chance at gritty grimy intrepid exploits through the woods. In my last post I wrote about my half marathon with the sports tourism club of my university. This club has become a staple of my experience here in Novosibirsk. We meet twice a week for lectures about everything having to do with backpacking in all seasons. This past weekend, I was lucky enough to go on my first hiking tour. We left early on Thursday morning, sat on a bus for two hours, and then just got off in the middle of nowhere. And then we walked a lot. Through the forests and some fields and up one or two small mountains over the course of three days. I got one bad blister, a new recipe for rice porridge, and approximately four thousand burrs stuck to my hat and backpack. I spent some time thinking about KFC and an enormous amount of time trying to remember one specific line in the first verse of “You Are My Sunshine.” But for the most part I was just happy that we had perfect weather and all the leaves were perfectly yellow and wow, aren’t birch trees amazing?

Becoming a regular.

As I’m writing this now, I’m sitting in a cafe. It’s 7:07 pm, I’m drinking hot chocolate made with dark chocolate, almost every seat is occupied and someone’s toddler is walking around just lookin’ at folks drinking their beverages. There are A TON of coffee shops in Novosibirsk. Many people have told me it’s considered the coffee capital of Russia. It’s pretty dreamy.

Here’s a rough map of coffee shops in the area. So many options, it’s overwhelming and beautiful and I’m maybe always a little over-caffeinated.

So anyways, I’ve been visiting lots of different coffee shops and trying lots of different drinks. So far my favorite has been a peanut butter raf. In the process, I’ve found some favorite places, especially next to my university. The other day I stopped in at Kuzina to get some coffee before heading to class. After I ordered, the barista went ahead and wrote my name (in English!) on the paper cup without me even telling her. She held it up to show me and smiled. Maybe this seems like a small and trivial thing but it totally made day. She’s basically a stranger but still did a wonderful and kind little thing that makes me feel more at home in this city.

***BONUS GRATITUDE. *** So like I said, I’m sitting in this coffee shop, working on this blog post, both headphones in. A woman who looks about my age just came up to me, and showed me a note she had typed out on her phone. She wrote that I look just wonderful, sitting here doing my work, and she wanted to let me know she likes my style (for reference, I’m wearing a nearly ancient turtleneck, mom jeans from Target, and rubber boots. A look, for sure.). I assume she typed it out because I’m wearing headphones, the universal symbol of please-don’t-talk-to-me, and a note would be a gentler way of getting my attention. I dunno, I just think that’s so considerate. Anyways, she’s also an English teacher! She doesn’t live in Novosibirsk, which makes me sad, but is here visiting some of her students she works with online. I’m hoping she comes back soon so we can hang out more because she is so kind and funny and just made my day.

Teaching my first lessons!

Holy heck teaching is exhausting and delightful and I’m learning so much.

If you’re reading this, you probably know I am really introverted and not much of a talker and that it’s difficult for me to stand in front of a room and talk for 90 minutes. That’s why I liked journalism so much in college — most of my work was just listening to people talk about themselves. I just think that’s a nice way to spend my time. That’s not to say I don’t get to do any of that in my teaching role. I facilitate speech practice classes, so I spend several hours a day trying to get students to talk about themselves, to share their experiences and spark discussions. And let me just say, these students are brilliant. Even the first-year students have amazing English, and some students have such a genuine love for language that it’s really a joy to have a conversation with them. So far I’ve created lessons on gender roles, the senior year of high school in the United States (bringing back the ol’ prom photos), and national parks. I also lead an English-Speaking Club on Tuesdays and Thursdays, where we can talk about whatever we want. And then we take selfies at the end!

Finding a new favorite bookstore.

On my first full day in Novosibirsk, my friend Dima pointed out a bookstore in the center of the city that claims to be the largest in Siberia. It’s called Capital. I went in for the first time about a week ago and can confirm it is, indeed, massive. And marvelous. My initial reason for stopping by was to find postcards (Ian, if you’re reading this, I haven’t forgotten that I promised you some snail mail! Be patient my friend). But you know how sometimes you walk into a bookstore and suddenly get all amped up just being surrounded by all these creative works? And then you decide you need to buy four different books on handcrafts and some kind of anthology and maybe a few beauty magazines? Because I felt that real hard. Since that first visit I’ve limited myself to one graphic novel and a cookbook (mainly because a) I’m trying to be responsible and remember anything I buy here I have to lug back to the U.S. in June and b) my Russian is still pretty bad and I wouldn’t really get much out of reading anything more complex than comics and recipes.)

Kasha.

The American equivalent of kasha is just oatmeal. Does that disappoint you? That I’m taking up space on the internet to talk about how much I love boiled grains? Well tough luck, I paid for this domain and I’ll write about my favorite boiled grains all day long.

From my understanding, traditional Russian kasha is made from buckwheat (гречка, for my Russian-learning friends out there.). But rice and oat porridges also fall under the kasha umbrella, and those are the ones I prefer. The really neat thing about kasha is you can make it either sweet or salty. Talk about a double threat. Like, buckweat and meat? BuckMeat, might we say?? Or mix in some honey and walnuts with those steamy oats? Amazing.

I’m not trying to be dramatic or anything but starting your day with sweet rice porridge with apricots mixed in is probably the pinnacle of human experience.