A Few Words About My Feetnes Tsentr (Fitness Center)

In an attempt to combat the mass amounts of deep fried, sugar coated, fat laden, mayonnaise smothered food I am force fed on a daily basis, I joined a gym way back in November. My membership has expired at this point, but I figure if their system is too archaic to keep track of the memberships (we're talking no computers, I paid in cash, and my ID is handwritten and laminated...) then I have the right to keep going until they discover me.

My gym is called "Olympic Style" and is situated on the campus (they say "territory") of the Ukrainian National University of Physical Fitness and Athletics, on Physical Fitness Street. I couldn't make this up, could I? Its a 10 minute walk from my apartment. As far as I can tell, I am the only American who goes to this gym. I am also the only woman who works out without the assistance of a trainer, does not wear biking gloves on the elliptical, does not wear trendy pumas on the treadmill, does not wear a cute matching spandex work out outfit that exposes most of my skin, and who actually breaks a sweat. I get a lot of weird looks. The men are equally entertaining. Lots of body builders, lots of mullets, lots of hunky trainers (I'm serious). My favorite is the guy that runs bare-foot on the treadmill. Ouch!

machines, lots of weight machines, free weights, a mat area, a boxing ring, and a bowling alley...I have yet to bowl. There are of course, flat screen TVs. The non-stop. Why on earth do the The gym is actually pretty nice (I pay more than I do in the US, even though my US gym is nicer...there just aren't a lot of gyms here to drive the prices down). It has several cardioTV's however, are on mute, and there is no way to plug in headphones to the machines. But, even if I could hear the TVs, I wouldn't want to. The only stations that are ever playing are the Russian Sports channel, which sometimes shows awesome stuff like rhythmic gymnastics (its sooo cool!), but usually shows something awful like Russian Billiards...The other TV broadcasts all Fashion TV all the time. This channel is the bane of my existence. A lot of "trendy restaurants" also show this channel. Why do restaurant and gym people think you want to watch skinny girls parade around in their underware while you are eating or exercising? Today it was in fact a lingerie run-way show. Awful. I should also mention that my mp3 player is broken, so I am subjected to Russian/Ukrainian pop and house music, which I have to admit, I sort of like.

That's the gym in a nutshell. Not my favorite place.

On another note entirely, I'm going to St. Petersburg at the end of next week!!! I am so excited. After Boston, Petersburg is my favorite city in the world. I'm going to visit Matt and Alyson, the JSC volunteers there (I've directed you to their blog on many occasions), hopefully my host mom from when I studied abroad (a hysterical 75 year old woman who I became very close with), and one of my best friends, Kristin, who is there doing a writing program with Gary Shteyngart (author of my favorite book, Absurdistan). She's a lucky girl! I had a mild visa scare and wasn't sure that I would get my Russian visa in time, but it turns out if you are willing to wait in line for hours and pay a lot money, anything is possible. I'm sure you can imagine that the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Kiev Ukraine is a bit of a nightmare...