The Hockey Game....

We met up at the university at 5:30 for the hockey game. Of course, I had never left the university, and didn't want to take my stuff with me to the game, I left my backpack and freshly washed undies in the international students office overnight.

We took the number 98 bus to the hockey game. This bus had seating for maybe 25 and was carrying about 45, so it was packed to the gills to say the least. I ended up completely on the other side of the bus from the middlbury students, and was slightly worried about getting off at the right stop. I suspected that the guys in front of me were going to the game, because of their backpack full of 20oz cans of Yarpivo, Yaroslavl's very own shwilly brew. Luckily a mother and her highschool aged daughter soon boarded the bus, carrying a plstic bag with the hockey team's logo, and I was spared having to ask the youngmen which stop it was.

Of course it turned out to be fairly obvious anyways, when the bus pulled up in front of a huge new arena with the team's name on it, and towards which thousands of people were marching wearing the team's colors. Many people were guzzling beer outside and I sooned learned why. Although the stadium sold both beer and food, it was against the rules to carry either into the actual fan seating area. After we found our seats we made our way back to the concessions area. I bought a beer for myself and Ryan, and I also decided to sample the stadium specialty, which was essentially a roll of bread, about four inches in diameter, three inches high with a mounded top, that had been dropped (briefly) in the deep fryer. They also sold smoked salmon and caviar there. We has missed about the first minute of action, but soon returned to our seats, which were in the second row, directly behind the goal that Yaroslavl attacked in the first and third periods. When we returned, having been gone for only five minutes, some people had already taken our seats. While we stood in the aisle deciding how we should approach this situation, someone tugged on my shirt, and indicated very clearly that I was blocking a larger portion of his view than he appreciated. Anyways, when we actually got to our specific seats, the people in them quickly moved, since they new they didn't have tickets for that spot.

The fans were loud and enthusiastic, for this second game of the season, but in general they weren't too roudy. People brought marching band drums, and one man even had a trumpet, which he periodically played, including two renditions of When the Saints go Marching In. I wonder is he understood he significance of that song in light of New Orlean's current plight. The stadium seemed to whold about ten thousand people, but I'm pretty bad at guessing such things.

The music that they played durring stoppages generally consisted of techno remixes, or just plain techno. The techno remixes included the most popular song in Russia right now, a techno remix of Axel F, the theme song to Beverley Hills Cops. Of course, Axel F was techno to begin with (the first (and only) electronica song to ever hit number one on the U.S. pop charts), making it a totally useless remix. In fact, three of the top ten pop songs in Russia right now are techno remixes, in addition to the somewhat bearable Axel F, there are totally unlistenable remixes of The Verve's Bittersweet Fantasy and some god awful Nancy Sinatra song (Is god awful Nancy Sinatra song redundat?). In addition to this, they played possibly the most irritating song ever, a techno remix of the Beatle's Oh Bla Di, Oh Bla dah. But nevertheless, the very salicously dressed (they changed outfits in between every period) 16-19 year old cheerleaders danced very suggestively (suggestively enough to make the mardi gras cheeleaders look appropriate for Mr Rogers) to all this crappy music, with such enthusiasm, that they at least, must have been enjoying it. At least they played some metal, but it was mostly Van Halen. Metal songs included Eruption (not bad), Panama (allright), Jump (bleh), and a very pleasant suprise of Iron Maiden's Fear of the DArk (fuckin' right!).

AS for the hockey itself, I expected to see a very rough and tumble brand of street hockey--well, I guess you can't really play ice hockey on the street, but at least a very rough and tumble brand of pond hockey. Hmmm...pond hockey doesn't sound very rough at all does it, oh well. In any event it was actually much more tame than American/Canadian hockey, both the NHL and minor league. The referrees were also much more strict in calling penalties than ours. Perhaps it was because it was only the second game of the season, and not much is yet at stake, but there was really very little heavy hitting, and not one big mid-ice collision, and not a single fight (unheard of in the NHL, and even more so in minor league hockey, where I sometimes think players take out their career frustration on each other).


With Yaroslavl up 5-2 early in the third period, most of the Middlebury students head home to beat the rush, but I know that leaving a sporting match early is a good way to guarantee an exciting finish, so I stayed. Moscow fired back two quick goals toward the end of the period, and then with about a minute and a half to go, Yaroslavl drew a two minute penalty for a particularly nasty high sticking, in which the stick of a Yaroslavl player, and I saw this very clearly, ended up in the mouth of a Moscow player. It made for an exciting finish since Yaroslavl had to play the last minute and a half with one less man. At the last second, a Moscow player fired a slapshot from close range, but the Yaroslavl goalie snagged it with a tremendous glove save, preventing a risky overtime. 5-4 Yaroslavl, quite a high score for hockey.

After the game we headed back on the bus. When I got back to he house, there was no trace of Rimma Andreevna but there was dinner waiting on the stove. Some dish that I would have to describe as fried frish with scrambled eggs and garlic and boiled, and then sauteed potaotes with possibly some rosemary. Also apparently that big jar of pickles in the fridge had finished pickling because their were pickles in a dish on the table. Interesting. They were very similar, not suprisingly, to Ba-Temtpe (sp?) pickles, but somewhat more of an aromatic taste. I want to say that there was a hint of anise, but I know that's not right, but maybe it will give you an idea.

All in all, it was one of my most expensive days in Yaroslavl, with the grand total coming to about $13.50.

Of course this included:
Three bottles of water
Three 16oz beers (two at the hockey game, one for me and one for Ryan, and another right now at the internet cafe)
About an hour and a half of internet time
That bun thing with the cheese, maybe about 500 calories, at the hockey game
Bus fare about 20 km to and from the hockey game
second row seats for a "super league" (the highest in russia) hockey game
and a fee for a woman to wash my clothes while I waited

Of course, the hockey tickets alone to an NHL game in the second row would proably be about $75 dollars, and the other stuff together would probably come to at least $30...wow....

Rimma Andreevna, on pension, complains about how everything is so expensive these days............amazing the differences between cost of living in different societies...