More on Tomsk

The name of the university I take classes at is Tomsk State University, which was founded about 130 years ago. The school and the city in general remind me of Gainesville. The city has a lot of students due to a large number of universities - in fact, 1 out of every 5 citizens is a student. There's one main street, called Lenin Prospect, which is like Gainesville's University Avenue: on this road is located Tomsk State University, there are cafes and clubs, and lots of traffic. Like Gainesville, there are trees everywhere and parks all about, and my campus is especially green. Unlike Gainesville, there are no Krishnas (at least none that I've found), but there are gypsies, or at least so I've heard. I did, however, manage to take a yoga class the other day. Most like Gainesville, it's downright swampy here. Once you leave the city you get swarmed with mosquitos and encounter country folk, and in general the weather is warm or rainy. The past couple days a certain kind of tree went in bloom, causing cotton-like stuff to blow around like snow. Everywhere I went this stuff would be blowing in my face. It's calmed down though.

We've gone on a couple excursions so far. Yesterday we visited the local brewery, which was pretty neat. We had a guided tour and got to wear laboratory coats and microphone headset apparati while we took pictures and ignored everything the guide said, because at this point attempting to understand how a factory works in Russian is a bit beyond my capabilities. Still, I felt like James Bond infiltrating some top-secret facility, and it was cool getting free beer and kvas. Yes, it's the time of year for kvas, which is this syrup-like, beer-like drink that has been drunk in Russia for ages. It's not all that bad, but still, not all that good - most likely an acquired taste. The beer, on the other hand, is excellent, especially the non-filtered, and I'm not a beer connoisseur. The factory also reminded me of the Death Star, minus the light-sabers and storm-troopers.

Kvas!

Beware: Russian Nerds and free beer