In Which I See a Really Sweet Mullet

It has been a busy week in Yaroslavl'. On Tuesday we had a group trip to the Yaroslavl' Regional Universal Scientific Library, also known as the Nekrasov library, with our Politics class. This was an interesting expedition, as we got to see how the Russian system of libraries works. I have to admit – I don't think that the US should adopt it. It is far too complicated, and there isn't anywhere near enough freedom to take books you want. In fact, only a very small percentage of the books in the library are available to be taken home – you have to do all your reading in the library, in one of the reading halls. In addition to that, you can't go wandering through stacks of books looking for one you want. To get a book, you have to use the card catalog (no computer catalogs) and then take the information about the book you wrote down to someone who then requests the book. After waiting for 20 minutes or so, the book is brought to you from the deepest recesses of the library. It seems to be that our system is far superior, as you don't have to deal with ornery Russian library workers (virtually all Russian service workers are ornery, by the way), you don't have to wait around for the books to come, and you can peruse the racks of books, looking for exactly what you want. I guess people here just really love their bureaucracy. There were, though, some cool things – there was a section of really old books, and we had a long talk from the woman who worked there, though I understood little of what she said (likely due to the fact that I stopped paying attention about halfway through). Anyways, that's it for the library. On Wednesday we had a walking tour for our Culture class, given by the professor. We had been talking about traditional Russian architecture, so we went around the city looking at the various 17^th century churches, and things of that nature. It turns out that the Yaroslavl' region has its own type of church architecture, which is rather distinct from that in other regions of the country. Almost all Yaroslavl' churches have onion domes that are scaly, and almost all churches are white with green domes. Apparently this is different from other places, such as Moscow where the domes have spiral designs on them (look at a picture of St. Basil's on Red Square to see what I mean). Also, Yaroslavl' churches apparently traditionally have short staircases leading up to them, though I'd say this is rather a minor detail. In all we saw saw probably eight or so churches on our little “ekskurtsia,” along with some monuments and other things important to the history of the city. It was a very pleasant tour, and I took a bunch of pictures. I'll try to put them up online as soon as I can, though I have no idea when that will be.

On Friday I ended up (after many delays and complications) going to hang out with the group of Finnish students that was in town for a week or so. We ended up at a very cramped bar, where I had a conversation with two youngish Russian men about politics. Their English was about on the same level as my Russian, so the conversation was about half in each language. It was really interesting, though, to hear what they had to say, though I admit I had a very difficult time hearing them, as it was really loud in there, and they spoke too quickly in Russian, and not very well in English. Kevin, a student from the University of Nebraska studying here, and I agreed to go play pool on Sunday with these two Russian fellows, Andrei and Pavel. Unfortunately they called too late on Sunday, as I had homework, but Kevin and I agreed to call them up later in the week to reschedule.

After a fairly quiet Saturday afternoon in which I almost bought some much-needed shoes but didn't have the nerve to ask the woman working at the store to help me, I went to go see a hockey game. Not surprisingly, this is where the awesome mullet comes in. I remarked on our way to the stadium that a hockey stadium was likely to be a prime mullet spotting location, and I was not disappointed. About halfway through the game a man sat down in the row in front of us who had the sweetest mullet I have ever seen with my own eyes. The best word I can think of to describe it is “epic.” Oh man, it totally made my day. Most mullets I have seen thus far were rather short and greasy, and worn by younger (under 25) males, but this one was different. This guys was probably in his 40s, and had the most perfect mullet imaginable. I will try to provide photographic evidence (I asked my friend Sarah to take a picture of it, and when she wouldn't, I borrowed her camera and did it myself). Aside from hairstyle related issues, the game was a lot of fun. The Lokomotiv fans were really into the game, though they ended up losing 5-4, after putting up a valiant fight towards the end to get back into the game. I was surprised to find that no alcohol was sold at the stadium, as far as I could tell, and that no bottles of any kind were allowed into the arena. I bought a bottle of soda on the concourse, but was told that I could only bring it to my seat if I poured it into a little plastic cup. As the game was about to start, I just downed my 7up and went back to my seat. I think both of these rules are designed to make it the arena a safer and more pleasant place to be – if alcohol were involved the fans would likely get very rowdy, particularly against Moscow or Petersburg teams, and if bottles were allowed in, they would probably be thrown onto the ice. Anyways, the game was a lot of fun, and I will definitely be going back sometime in the not too distant future.