Author Records Kolya Sulima

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Prisoner of Fahrenheit Castle: how to get used to the American system of weights and measures

In the beginning there was meat. I looked at the price tag - inexpensive, and smiled. After the price there were letters l and b. That's it - $5.99 lb. I asked for 2, and the seller began his manipulations: he put on disposable gloves, took out a piece of meat from the display case, threw it on...


How I moved to America and was tortured to count everything in pounds and gallons

In the beginning there was meat. I glanced at the price tag - inexpensive, and smiled. After the price there were letters l and b. Like this - $ 5.99 lb. I asked for two, and the seller began his manipulations: he put on disposable gloves, took out a piece of meat from the display case, threw it on the scales, entered the code, grabbed the printed sticker and slapped it on his sleeve. Then wrapped ...


Ibeans and Amazons: How Online Stores Make Us Their Slaves

On the Amazon site, you can spend your whole life to death and never stumble upon the same product. The endless guts of the Amazon go somewhere in the Parisian sewers of the times of Victor Hugo, the catacombs of Odessa, the Egyptian pyramids. First you look for a backpack, and you are immediately offered a bunch of all sorts of accompanying stuff: sleeping bags, tents, thermoses and stoves on dry ...


Friendship or friendship? How to make friends with us in America

They say Americans don't know how to be friends. Lies, of course. Americans can do everything that we can, and some even better. We just mean different things by friendship. We will have to start not even with how we are friends and why, but with how we arrange life. For example, mobility. We are the post-Soviet population - settled people, descendants of peasants. ...


What are all the immigrants silently silent about

I remember very well how I learned to iron and sprinkle water from my mouth on clothes, hold a fork in my left hand, clean boots, sharpen knives. I remember learning that threads always twist in the same direction. Each of the small household ...


Life on wheels: why do Americans love mobile homes

Americans love acronyms. Let's say "RV" - Recreational Vehicle or "Vehicle for recuperation." How ridiculous and lofty it sounds. "ArVi" is just a trailer, but for an American there is much more meaning and baggage in this word. We have never had such ...


What national traits should a Belarusian kill in himself if he moves to America?

How does a Belarusian newly arrived in America differ from, for example, an Indian? Habit. We, every one of us, have the fearful look of a deer in the hunting season. We sit on the edge of a chair, looking around, ready to immediately begin explaining why we are innocent. IN…


Personal experience: What kind of neighbors can you get in America

American neighbors are a much more peaceful natural phenomenon than the familiar drill man, rammstein man, and scandal man. Unless the human hero-lover dilutes the dull routine of the tenant: a minimum of drama, a lot of smiles and non-binding greetings. We lived in the fourth room. Room two ...


What does a typical American man look like?

Skaters Eternal boys, nowhere without a skateboard. There are girls on the boards, but I have not met a single one older than twenty-five, but a heavy man of about forty-five, flying a proud falcon down the main street, is a common sight. If something changes over ...


Why is it so hard to love San Francisco?

You don't need to call anyone in San Francisco. Everyone comes here without special invitations. This city looks like it was rubbed with sandpaper. He is all naturally shabby, coquettishly unkempt, gracefully dirty. There is a lot of charm in this. Thousands of amazing signage from the seventies. Whole blocks are built up ...

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