Spring is in full swing here in Vladimir. And let me tell you, it is every degree of nasty. But, in a little bit of exciting news, we had our very first rain last night. Though this might not seem like such an exciting event, it means two very wonderful things. 1) It is now warm enough, even at night, for precipitation to take the form of rain and not snow and 2) the rain will help get rid of the lovely brown snow. I wanted to go out and dance in it, but refrained because frankly, I get stared at enough here as it is.
Now I know that this is Russia and that in theory one white person shouldn’t stand out in a sea of other white people. And given I don’t have the best sense of style, or hair, or general appearance in the world. But my gosh, I get stared at a lot. (And I’m not talking about the good staring here, though sometimes I try and think so to comfort myself) The predeparture guide warned that Russians dress nicer than a typical college student and advised us to bring nicer clothes for school and other occasions. I’m personally pretty glad I didn’t invest too much in ‘nice’ clothes for Russia, because I will probably never understand Russian fashion. Europe is known for having an extremely fashionable population, and though it doesn’t always match American ideas, it’s a least not far off. Russian fashion, and perhaps it would be more accurate to say fashion in Vladimir, is completely crazy. You know how I described the houses here as being tacky but beautiful in their bold colors? Yeah, well, I’d say the same for Russian fashion, minus the beautiful part. Walking in the halls of the technical school where we have classes, I am completely engulfed by 80s flashback clothing. The girls like to wear tight (and I mean tight) jeans and randomly colored sweaters with a hit of brightly colored bra poking through and super-point high heeled shoes with their size 0 jeans tucked in while the boys really get into their tight black jeans and these amazing elfin shoes where the toe curls up to make almost a complete circle. If this is the nice Russian dress the booklet was talking about, I’d rather go naked. And if there’s one generalization I feel comfortable making with Russian women, it’s that they all have bad hair. A combination of horribly outgrown die jobs, lack of conditions, and too much styling (yeah, they’ve even dug their crimpers out of the closet) makes for hair that just begs to be covered by a big furry hat. Everything for a reason, I suppose.
So yeah, however nice my American clothes are, I don’t really fit in much at school. But even walking around in town, people can tell the difference. It’s funny how things we normally don’t give a second thought to in the US, like facial structure, make such a difference in a place without much diversity. I’ve even been working extra hard on my stone cold Russian face, but still the stares continue. I need some good plastic surgery, or a really bad dye job.