`Am not too fond of the USA' - Vaitsekhovskaya's interview with Leonova

[Iceman]

Ok, so now we've learned that the US is lacking in (1) fresh food, (2) paved roads and (3) grandmothers that can cook.

OMG, That has me in stitches. My observation is that many grandmothers in the US don't cook to any extent. They, a high percentage of which had jobs outside the home, depended heavily on convenience foods they resorted to during the years they worked. With that circumstance, many young women are not even taught by their mothers how to cook as they were in past generations. There used to be home economic classes in the public schools that taught cooking, sewing etc. Do those even exist any more? WITH REGARD TO FRESH VEGETABLES ETC, many towns in the US, even small towns, have farmers' markets. My small town of 7,000 has one. A lot of families now don't even have meals together anymore. When I was growing up, we all had at least two meals together at the kitchen table and the television was cut off during that time unless something very special was on. Sorry this is so rambling and badly organized and I could say more, but will quit now.

[Loves_Shizuka]

I defend my right to tell the world what I think of ALL cuisines, Zemgirl. And I INSIST y'all get offended. Because if I hate salad it must mean I hate YOU!

[Iceman]

I can tell you with utmost confidence that Hackensack, NJ is not the fresh food capital of the universe.

Why is New Jersey called the "garden state" then?

[Marco]

Has it come to this? Leonova's skating is so boring that people would rather talk about salads and roads in a thread about her.

[Iceman]

Marco, LMAO. Leonova has a very simple solution to her problem-----find a coach who doesn't transport her to New Jersey for a month (she seems to have sme misgivings any way about the attention he gives her).

Or have her food flown in from Russia or the skaters pool their resources and hire a personal shopper or chef

[hollygrove]

This is an interesting discussion. Does anyone have a link to a translation of an interview with Oleg Ovsyannikov from way back when they were living and training at U. of Delaware in the 1990s? As I recall, he lamented that Angelika had arrived and promptly made new friends & was always off shopping at malls, going to movies, etc. He was sitting in the Russian townhouse, homesick, discontented with his surroundings, etc. even though they were getting lots of ice time, housing, and so on. Am I making this up? Does anyone else remember this interview?

[Asli]

Has it come to this? Leonova's skating is so boring that people would rather talk about salads and roads in a thread about her.

Food is at least as interesting a subject as any skater, let alone Leonova.

[nikjil]

I am someone who loves to try new food and one of my favorite parts of traveling is trying local specialties. In order to do this, I decided early on that I wasn't going to get grossed out by ingredients but would just try it. While there have been a couple things I haven't loved, (congealed duck's blood in Taiwan), there have been many more things that I have loved (wonderful intestine in Taiwan). Having said this, I have plenty of friends and colleagues who find cuisines that I think are farely commonplace to be scary. I'll never forget my boss taking the office out for, what was for me, fairly widely available middle-eastern cuisine, and only two of us would eat it.

Given that Leonova sounds fairly provincial, all of this ssems to me be less a knock against the US then a general dislike of trying new foods and only liking the foods she ate as a child. It also sounds like general homesickness and unhappiness with the Morozov set-up. I have the feeling that the headline could have read "Am not too fond of [fill-in-the-blank]" because it would have applied to anyplace she was training that wasn't home.

[jeffisjeff]

With that circumstance, many young women are not even taught by their mothers how to cook as they were in past generations. There used to be home economic classes in the public schools that taught cooking, sewing etc. Do those even exist any more?

The womens must be taught to cook! And to sew!

[Holley Calmes]

Why is New Jersey called the "garden state" then?

Because most of it is not a burb of NYC. Middle and southern NJ are lovely and have lots of agriculture. Actually, they grow fabulous produce-including peaches. NJ peaches are as good as Georgia peaches, and I'm from Georgia. Fabulous tomatoes. I visit my daughter in southern NJ 5 times a year, and every summer we enjoy going to famers markets all over the place with locally grown produce. NJ gets a bad rap for stereotypical things-like mafia, dirty burbs, etc-that are more associated with the very northernmost part of NJ. It indeed is a garden state mid to south. I go there all the time. Great beaches too. Good grief-the NJ Tourism Board should pay me.

[vivika1982]

Marco, LMAO. Leonova has a very simple solution to her problem-----find a coach who doesn't transport her to New Jersey for a month (she seems to have sme misgivings any way about the attention he gives her).

Or have her food flown in from Russia or the skaters pool their resources and hire a personal shopper or chef

I just read the last page of this discussion and i am a little confused about the food,grandma's cooking and etc.. since she didn't even mentinoned those stuff in the interview.She only shortly answered a guided rethorical question :"You don't like Amerika very much,do you?" . BTW many skaters who train in Russia could give the same answer if they were asked straightforward similar question, so i don't see a point of guessing or assuming what exactly she doesn't like. I am not very found of her skating either but to be fair she just sounded homesick.That's all.

[Skittl1321]

In just a quick reading of this thread, I don't think that many people object to Leonova's opinion about America. I see more debate food quality in America.

Personally, I don't care if she likes America or not, I'm more irked by the assertions that everyone in America eats crappy food.

I agree- I see nothing wrong with what Leonova said. I take offense at the people in this thread who say there is nothing of quality to eat in America.

[nikjil]

OMG, That has me in stitches. My observation is that many grandmothers in the US don't cook to any extent. They, a high percentage of which had jobs outside the home, depended heavily on convenience foods they resorted to during the years they worked. With that circumstance, many young women are not even taught by their mothers how to cook as they were in past generations. There used to be home economic classes in the public schools that taught cooking, sewing etc. Do those even exist any more? WITH REGARD TO FRESH VEGETABLES ETC, many towns in the US, even small towns, have farmers' markets. My small town of 7,000 has one. A lot of families now don't even have meals together anymore. When I was growing up, we all had at least two meals together at the kitchen table and the television was cut off during that time unless something very special was on. Sorry this is so rambling and badly organized and I could say more, but will quit now.

I don't know about today, but back in the early 80s, I had two semesters of Home Ec. It was a waste, I already knew how to cook and between poor vision and lack of coordination can barely sew a button. The problem of parents not teaching children how to cook isn't limited to the US, my brother lives in Hong Kong, the majority of girls he dated don't know how to cook.

[Southpaw]

Why is New Jersey called the "garden state" then?

Because once upon a time, in a prison deep deep in Hudson County, lived a convict named Paul Dunyan. Paul was assigned to license plates and one day the Jersey Devil on his shoulder whispered into his ear and Paul listened with the intensity of a former mayor who had the great misfortune of doing business with a man on the shadier side of the law. In a flash Paul took up his brush and painted the ironic words "The Garden State" at the bottom of the license plate. The warden, a provincial man from Burlington County with a passion for fresh warm tomatoes plucked from his own yard, was so charmed by the slogan that he sent the license plate straight off to the governor in Drumthwacket on the next train and the very next day our new license plate with its touch of irony was seen jaunting along all the paved and unpaved roads of our fairy tale hamlet.

[quartz]

Women don't need to cook. That's what husbands are for.

[rfisher]

I just read the last page of this discussion and i am a little confused about the food,grandma's cooking and etc.. since she didn't even mentinoned those stuff in the interview.She only shortly answered a guided rethorical question :"You don't like Amerika very much,do you?" . BTW many skaters who train in Russia could give the same answer if they were asked straightforward similar question, so i don't see a point of guessing or assuming what exactly she doesn't like. I am not very found of her skating either but to be fair she just sounded homesick.That's all.

This is a problem with only reading the last page of a long thread. You really don't know the thread evolution. This hasn't been about Leonova since probably page 2 and this in fact has been mentioned multiple times to explain to other posters such as yourself who didn't read the entire thread before questioning why people were saying what they said and, will sadly, happen multiple more times as new people read the last page only.

[taf2002]

This is an interesting discussion. Does anyone have a link to a translation of an interview with Oleg Ovsyannikov from way back when they were living and training at U. of Delaware in the 1990s? As I recall, he lamented that Angelika had arrived and promptly made new friends & was always off shopping at malls, going to movies, etc. He was sitting in the Russian townhouse, homesick, discontented with his surroundings, etc. even though they were getting lots of ice time, housing, and so on. Am I making this up? Does anyone else remember this interview?

I don't have the link but I remember the interview. Travel & living in another country is clearly what you make of it. They both had the same living conditions but Angelika chose to enjoy the good stuff (contrary to popular belief, the US DOES have some good stuff) & Oleg concentrated on the shortcomings. I have done a lot of traveling and while I wouldn't want to live every place I've visited, I can't ever remember going anyplace & then not having anything good to say about the place.

[vivika1982]

I don't have the link but I remember the interview. Travel & living in another country is clearly what you make of it. They both had the same living conditions but Angelika chose to enjoy the good stuff (contrary to popular belief, the US DOES have some good stuff) & Oleg concentrated on the shortcomings. I have done a lot of traveling and while I wouldn't want to live every place I've visited, I can't ever remember going anyplace & then not having anything good to say about the place.

I believe this is the link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0drI1scYQec

This is a problem with only reading the last page of a long thread. You really don't know the thread evolution. This hasn't been about Leonova since probably page 2 and this in fact has been mentioned multiple times to explain to other posters such as yourself who didn't read the entire thread before questioning why people were saying what they said and, will sadly, happen multiple more times as new people read the last page only.

My mistake I forgot the GSD is not strictly about skating

[VIETgrlTerifa]

I don't have the link but I remember the interview. Travel & living in another country is clearly what you make of it. They both had the same living conditions but Angelika chose to enjoy the good stuff (contrary to popular belief, the US DOES have some good stuff) & Oleg concentrated on the shortcomings. I have done a lot of traveling and while I wouldn't want to live every place I've visited, I can't ever remember going anyplace & then not having anything good to say about the place.

I agree. I moved to Newark, of all places, and I still won't condemn the whole state of New Jersey just because of very big short-comings of Newark. Heck, there are parts of Newark that are actually quite enjoyable (and I'm not just talking about the PATH to Hoboken and NYC).

[MacMadame]

I myself have declared my sheer disgust for all things "salad".

I am not a rabbit!

a provincial man from Burlington County

Hey, I've lived there.

Women don't need to cook. That's what husbands are for.

Word. (Mr. Mac does all the "cooking" at our house.)

I just read the last page of this discussion

People who don't read the thread and the announce that as they post their thoughts on a thread with hundreds of posts should be shot!

I can't ever remember going anyplace & then not having anything good to say about the place.

I like to travel but that's going a bit too far. [I definitely have nothing nice to say about the bus station in downtown Detroit in the 70s.]