Merry Christmas Everyone! December 25 has come and gone, but I still have not had Christmas in Russia yet. Christmas in Russia is on January 7, because the Russian Orthodox Church follows the Julian calendar, and not the Gregorian calendar. But even then, New Years in Russia is bigger than Christmas. That is because during Soviet times, there was no Christmas. But New Years is when everyone gives gifts here. They still put up Christmas trees though, but instead of “Santa Claus” they have “Ded Morroz” or “Grandfather Frost.” And then I also heard that there is “Old Christmas” on January 14, but I don’t really know what that is yet.
So it has been a long time since my last post, almost a month, but a lot has happened during this past month. I departed the United States four months ago today. It is strange to think that I have already been here for four months. But it is also strange to think that I have been here for only four months. Four months is already a long time—already longer than most people spend away from home in a foreign country. It is already four times longer than I spent in France last summer. I am already over one third of the way done with my exchange. I have lived four months in a foreign country- and that’s amazing in itself. The even more amazing thing will be that I will be doing this for another six or seven months. I am still just at the tip of the iceberg.
But even during the last month a lot has happened. I am now living with my second host family, the Murzakovs. I was supposed to move on Dec. 15, but that was during the week, so I ended up moving on Sunday the 13th. It was hard packing up everything, mostly because since I arrived, I have added a lot of bulky winter clothes to my wardrobe, and I could barely fit everything into my bags. When I left the Nazaruks, I left them with some gifts- an American flag, and also a photo album that I made with pictures I took here in Russia. They really liked it. I now live with the Murzakovs. They are not Rotarians, but friends of the club, and their oldest daughter, Anna, is now a youth exchange student in Michigan. They live on the 9th floor of an apartment building right in the heart of the city. This is a great change from my last host family, because now I can walk everywhere, and I don’t need to take the bus half an hour into the city every day. My host parents, Yuri and Lena, own a couple of perfume shops in the city. They also have a younger daughter, Ira, who is still in school. They also have a dog, Masha, and a cat, Jessica, who looks like a sphinx, and has no hair. They are all very nice and they are a great family. I have my own bedroom here.
Last Saturday, I also did something a little crazy, kind of fun, very Russian, and completely cold. One of the Rotarians here owns a banya which is right next to the river Amur. For those of you who don’t know, when you do Russian Banya, you sit in the hot Banya for a while, and then you go into a pool of cool water, or if outside, you rub snow all over yourself, and then get back in the banya and repeat. Well I topped both of those methods. Once we sat in the banya for a while, we then ran onto the frozen river, and dunked ourselves into a hole in the ice. There was a ladder on the edge of the whole, and I climbed down until I was up to my chest in the river water, took a deep breath, and then dunked my head under water, blew out all the air and opened my eyes under water. I then did that four times in a row. The air temperature that day was -10 or -15 with the wind, and the water temperature was a toasty +3 degrees. It was still just about the coldest thing I have ever done. It was one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences, but I’m glad I did it. As part of the tradition, I also drank some of the cold river water, kissed the flag of the sports club of the people who do crazy stuff like this all winter, and kissed the metal ice-breaker pole (my lips almost got stuck to it).
On that same day in the evening, we had our Rotary New Years Party. It was at a Ukrainian restaurant, and there was good food, and Ded Morroz came and led the festivities. It was a great time, and a lot of the Rotarians gave me gifts for New Years. The club bought me a new pair of ice skates so I can go skating all winter. They also bought me a pointy hat made of wool with a red star on it (you use it for banya, so when it gets really hot, it shields head and face from the super hot air), and also got other gifts like a photograph of a statue, signed by the Rotarian who made that statue. It was really nice that they gave me all those gifts.
At the university last week, it was the anniversary of the English faculty, so all the students in the English faculty did a lot of presentations recreating stories from famous British and American writers and playwrights. They invited me to sit on the jury and judge the presentations. It was actually really good, and it was funny to see famous English works, such as “Fall of the house of Usher” or “Romeo and Juliet” acted out, but with a twist of Russian humor. This week, I went back to the group and made a presentation to them (in English) about Rotary, Rotaract, and a little about myself.
The language. I continue to get better and better each day. I am now starting to think in Russian, and sometimes if I try to think of English, a Russian word pops into my head first. My host parents also speak a little English, so sometimes when I don’t know a word, I can ask them and they know. But I am able to speak more fluidly now, and also add emotion into my Russian. I’m not translating things in my head anymore, I just know the idea of the word or I can just picture the object in my head without thinking of it in English first. I am also learning words and phrases that I am having a hard time translating into English. The meaning and connotations are perfectly clear to me in Russian, but I can’t always find a word or even a phrase in English to describe it. It’s strange. I’m also starting to be able to read stories from books and understand them. In my opinion, being able to read in a foreign language is one of the most rewarding things. I like reading anyway, but reading in a foreign language is great, because when you read, you actually have to form the picture of what’s going on in the story in your head, and if you are able to play this story in your head from reading a foreign language, it means you are really starting to “get” it. I also got mistaken for a Russian the first time since I arrived. We were at the banya, and I said something about living in the US, and some guy asked me where in the US I lived. I said that I lived in Ohio, but that I was born in California. He said “Oh, you were born there! I thought you just visited there. I though you were Russian.” I think that being mistaken for a native of whatever country you are living in is the greatest compliment that an exchange student can get. It is also kind of funny when people ask me how many years, or from what age I have studied Russian, and I say “four months.”
I also went to the movies a couple times in the past month. I went to go see the new movie “2012” about the end of the world. I was able to understand a lot of it.
I also went to go see the movie “Avatar” in 3D. If you have not yet seen this movie, I recommend that you go see it. It not only has amazing visuals and special effects, but also has a good story. If you are an exchange student, or will be an exchange student, I especially recommend that you see this movie. It has a theme of moving to a new world, trying fit in with a new culture and balance it with your old culture at the same time, and also of eventually becoming a part of and fitting into your new culture. I recommend that exchange students go see it. You will like it.
I also heard that back in the US, there is a boondock saints 2, and that it was better than the original (which I find hard to believe), but unfortunately, that movie is not here in Russia, so I’ll have to wait until I get back to see it.
On Christmas Eve, I decided to cook some spaghetti for my host family. I had never cooked spaghetti on my own before, but I had watched and helped my parents make it many times back home in the US. I used onion, red and yellow pepper, garlic, ground meat, tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar and red wine. I let it cook for a few hours. It was delicious. I even made some garlic bread to go with it. It was kind of funny, because my spaghetti sauce was pretty international, made with ingredients from many different countries. There were vegetables probably from China, Iranian tomato paste, Russian “farsh” which is like ground meat made from beef, pork and other stuff, spaghetti noodles made in Italy, and some sort of Scandinavian cheese to top it off. Then on Christmas day, I just slept in, because I decided not to go to school (yes we had class on Christmas day). That evening, six of the Rotarians took me to the Banya again, and we relaxed there, and then we went to a restaurant afterwards. That was about as much as I celebrated Christmas, but it was nice.
According to the statistics, I should be experiencing the lowest point of my exchange right now, being around Christmas. But I am at one of the highest points right now. It seems like thinks just keep getting better and better. If I’ve already made it through the hardest uphill part of my exchange, things can only get better, as it will be all downhill from here on out.
December 21 was the winter solstice, the darkest day of the year, and the official start of winter. On the 21st, the sun rose at 9 AM, and then set again at 4PM. It was our shortest day of the year, only 7 hours of daylight. However in the summer, I heard that on the longest day of the year, the sun will rise at around 4:45 AM and set around 10:15 PM – 17.5 hours of daylight.
But the darkest gay of the year has already come and gone. It can only get brighter from here on out…
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
The Rotaract Club of Blagoveshchensk
Well, I have only been here for three months now, and I have already become president. But don’t worry—I won’t be taking over for Dmitry Medvedev anytime soon—I am now the president of the newly created Blagoveshchensk Rotaract Club. A few weeks ago, Galina Gusarevich, the current president of the Vladivostok-Eco Rotaract club, sent me an email asking if I would be interested in helping to create a Rotaract Club in Blagoveshchensk. For those of you who don’t know, Rotaract is like Rotary, but for college students and young professionals ages 18-30. I of course agreed to help with this new club. I made a speech to my Rotary club about it at one of their weekly meetings. There were mixed feelings about starting Rotaract from the members of the club, but the president supported it. I went online on the Rotary International website and read all I could about Rotaract to learn how it works.
Then, on Friday, November 27, five members from the Khabarovsk Rotaract club arrived in Blagoveshchensk. There was President Dmitry Burchak, and five girls from his club. We met them at the train station, and five different Rotarians hosted each of the students at their home for the weekend. On Friday afternoon, we made a presentation at a preventative medicine clinic run by one of our Rotarians. There is a lecture hall with a projector and screen there where we made our presentation. We had about 30 young men and women from different universities around the city come to our presentation. They listened to us present about Rotary and Rotaract for over three hours. We explained what Rotaract is, what it does, and also told about what the Khabarovsk club and other clubs around Russia have done. Even I presented (in Russian) telling them who I was, and that I wanted to help create Rotaract here in their city. At the end of the meeting, we invited them to help with the public activism project that we would be carrying out the following day. We also asked them to attend the training session we would hold on Sunday, to start to train new members how to run Rotaract. We received a strong and interested response from all in attendance.
But we didn’t stop at just trying to create a Rotaract club: on Saturday morning, we made a presentation about Interact at School #5 in Blagoveshchensk. Interact club is like Rotaract, but for “high school” students ages 14-18. I was a member of my high school club back in the States for four years, and I served as president of my club during my senior year of high school. We made our presentation at school #5 for a class who had studied English for a long time, so I presented in English about what my club has done, and also why they should join Interact. We also invited them to come to the training session on Sunday. On Saturday afternoon, we carried out our activism project called “Quit Smoking—Eat Vitamins”. We went to the shopping center owned by one of the Rotarians, and offered the people there the option to exchange their packets of cigarettes for an apple. We had about 15 students show up, both from our presentation the day before, and from school #5 to help us carry out this project. In the three hours we were there, we collected over forty packets of cigarettes. As we were leaving, we were stopped by a young journalist from the Amurskaya Pravda, the biggest newspaper in the Amur Oblast. She questioned us about our project and about Rotaract. A few days later, a large article, complete with a color picture, appeared on page 3 of the newspaper, telling about our project and explaining what Rotaract is—essentially giving us a huge amount of free advertising for our club. And here is the article (it even talks about me a little, and I'm in the picture): http://ampravda.ru/2009/12/01/024083.html . On Sunday, we carried out a seven hour training session for Rotaract and Interact at the med-center. We carried out a mock-meeting and went into further detail about how the two clubs work. We also had a brainstorming session where we split into groups and though up potential projects for our club. Then on Monday, we made yet another presentation about Interact, this time at School #13. That afternoon we did another social project where we asked people on the street about social problems that they would like to see improved in the city. We wore badges with the Rotaract logo and introduced ourselves saying “Hello, I represent Rotaract club, a social organization for youth, and I would like to ask you a small social question.” We collected a lot of data from these people, which will help us decide which projects we can carry out to help the city. That evening we had a meeting together with the Rotary Club, and we established our Rotaract and Interact clubs in the city. It was decided that I should be president of the Rotaract club for the first year (until July 1 when the rotary year ends). I already have a lot of experience, having been a member and president of my school’s Interact Club, and also having been with Rotary with the exchange program for over two years now. Even though I don’t speak Russian fluently, I am learning very fast and already have a good command of the language for as little time as I have been here. Plus, I will be able to more easily communicate with Rotary International during the developmental phases of the club. I will be using my experience to help get the club started, but this will also give me a lot of valuable experience. I will be working closely together with the secretary and president-elect of the club, Anton Kasyan. This pair of Anton and me will be really effective during this first year of the club, as I know what needs to be done, and Anton knows how to implement it. We are also working closely together with the Rotary club of Blagoveshchensk to get the club started. They have provided us with an initial meeting place, PR, and also sponsored the visit of the Khabarovsk Rotaract Club. We already have a lot of interested members who are eager to get started right away on service projects. We already held our first meeting on Saturday, with another meeting planned for this Wednesday. Initially, our Rotaract Club and our interact club will meet together, until each of us have a stable membership base. Our first priority is to get chartered and officially recognized by Rotary International. I think that we will have very successful and active clubs here in Blagoveshchensk. We have many factors in our favor. When Dmitry burchak was here, he commented that he thinks we have a great environment for Rotaract and Interact because our city is “small, compact, and young.” I completely agree with him. In addition to this, we have a very active and supportive Rotary club here to help us get started. The relationship between the three clubs here in Blagoveshchensk will be a mutually beneficial relationship, as we can use the Rotary club’s experience and professionalism, and they can use our energy and activism to help with their projects and goals. We are already trying to recruit members from the different universities and areas in the city. Next week, I will be presenting to the students in the English faculty at my university about Rotaract.
Personally, this will be a great experience for me. This is like a practical application of International Relations, the subject that I will be studying in college when I return to the US.
The visit of the Khabarovsk Rotaract club has already created a very strong bond of friendship between our club and theirs, and we plan to continue to work together in the future. We will start taking part in district Rotary and Rotaract events, such as the Rotaract district conference in Chita, and the Rotary district conferences. Once we get established, we will also then travel to other cities in Russia to help start Rotaract and Interact Clubs there, like the Khabarovsk club did for us.
Then, on Friday, November 27, five members from the Khabarovsk Rotaract club arrived in Blagoveshchensk. There was President Dmitry Burchak, and five girls from his club. We met them at the train station, and five different Rotarians hosted each of the students at their home for the weekend. On Friday afternoon, we made a presentation at a preventative medicine clinic run by one of our Rotarians. There is a lecture hall with a projector and screen there where we made our presentation. We had about 30 young men and women from different universities around the city come to our presentation. They listened to us present about Rotary and Rotaract for over three hours. We explained what Rotaract is, what it does, and also told about what the Khabarovsk club and other clubs around Russia have done. Even I presented (in Russian) telling them who I was, and that I wanted to help create Rotaract here in their city. At the end of the meeting, we invited them to help with the public activism project that we would be carrying out the following day. We also asked them to attend the training session we would hold on Sunday, to start to train new members how to run Rotaract. We received a strong and interested response from all in attendance.
But we didn’t stop at just trying to create a Rotaract club: on Saturday morning, we made a presentation about Interact at School #5 in Blagoveshchensk. Interact club is like Rotaract, but for “high school” students ages 14-18. I was a member of my high school club back in the States for four years, and I served as president of my club during my senior year of high school. We made our presentation at school #5 for a class who had studied English for a long time, so I presented in English about what my club has done, and also why they should join Interact. We also invited them to come to the training session on Sunday. On Saturday afternoon, we carried out our activism project called “Quit Smoking—Eat Vitamins”. We went to the shopping center owned by one of the Rotarians, and offered the people there the option to exchange their packets of cigarettes for an apple. We had about 15 students show up, both from our presentation the day before, and from school #5 to help us carry out this project. In the three hours we were there, we collected over forty packets of cigarettes. As we were leaving, we were stopped by a young journalist from the Amurskaya Pravda, the biggest newspaper in the Amur Oblast. She questioned us about our project and about Rotaract. A few days later, a large article, complete with a color picture, appeared on page 3 of the newspaper, telling about our project and explaining what Rotaract is—essentially giving us a huge amount of free advertising for our club. And here is the article (it even talks about me a little, and I'm in the picture): http://ampravda.ru/2009/12/01/024083.html . On Sunday, we carried out a seven hour training session for Rotaract and Interact at the med-center. We carried out a mock-meeting and went into further detail about how the two clubs work. We also had a brainstorming session where we split into groups and though up potential projects for our club. Then on Monday, we made yet another presentation about Interact, this time at School #13. That afternoon we did another social project where we asked people on the street about social problems that they would like to see improved in the city. We wore badges with the Rotaract logo and introduced ourselves saying “Hello, I represent Rotaract club, a social organization for youth, and I would like to ask you a small social question.” We collected a lot of data from these people, which will help us decide which projects we can carry out to help the city. That evening we had a meeting together with the Rotary Club, and we established our Rotaract and Interact clubs in the city. It was decided that I should be president of the Rotaract club for the first year (until July 1 when the rotary year ends). I already have a lot of experience, having been a member and president of my school’s Interact Club, and also having been with Rotary with the exchange program for over two years now. Even though I don’t speak Russian fluently, I am learning very fast and already have a good command of the language for as little time as I have been here. Plus, I will be able to more easily communicate with Rotary International during the developmental phases of the club. I will be using my experience to help get the club started, but this will also give me a lot of valuable experience. I will be working closely together with the secretary and president-elect of the club, Anton Kasyan. This pair of Anton and me will be really effective during this first year of the club, as I know what needs to be done, and Anton knows how to implement it. We are also working closely together with the Rotary club of Blagoveshchensk to get the club started. They have provided us with an initial meeting place, PR, and also sponsored the visit of the Khabarovsk Rotaract Club. We already have a lot of interested members who are eager to get started right away on service projects. We already held our first meeting on Saturday, with another meeting planned for this Wednesday. Initially, our Rotaract Club and our interact club will meet together, until each of us have a stable membership base. Our first priority is to get chartered and officially recognized by Rotary International. I think that we will have very successful and active clubs here in Blagoveshchensk. We have many factors in our favor. When Dmitry burchak was here, he commented that he thinks we have a great environment for Rotaract and Interact because our city is “small, compact, and young.” I completely agree with him. In addition to this, we have a very active and supportive Rotary club here to help us get started. The relationship between the three clubs here in Blagoveshchensk will be a mutually beneficial relationship, as we can use the Rotary club’s experience and professionalism, and they can use our energy and activism to help with their projects and goals. We are already trying to recruit members from the different universities and areas in the city. Next week, I will be presenting to the students in the English faculty at my university about Rotaract.
Personally, this will be a great experience for me. This is like a practical application of International Relations, the subject that I will be studying in college when I return to the US.
The visit of the Khabarovsk Rotaract club has already created a very strong bond of friendship between our club and theirs, and we plan to continue to work together in the future. We will start taking part in district Rotary and Rotaract events, such as the Rotaract district conference in Chita, and the Rotary district conferences. Once we get established, we will also then travel to other cities in Russia to help start Rotaract and Interact Clubs there, like the Khabarovsk club did for us.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
November and other Interesting Stories
Well, right now, it seems like the only thing in Russia that isn’t frozen is the time. I have already lived here in Russia for almost three months, which means that already I am over a quarter of the way done with my exchange year. I still have eight months left in Russia, and a lot left to do and see, but even in these three short months I have lived here, I have already accomplished so much. The month of November went by particularly fast for me because half of the month was spent without school under quarantine. Although this slightly slowed my progress with the language, it allowed me almost three weeks of free time in which to work on other aspects of my Russian life.
A couple of weeks ago, I started attending the meetings of one of the many youth service groups in Blagoveshchensk, called TEMA. This group carries out various service projects around the city, including working with children, cleaning the city, and various other goodwill projects. It is a very friendly, energetic group of young people. I don’t understand everything at their meetings, but they help me with the language and tell me what I need to know. It’s not all work however. For example, this past Sunday, we all went ice skating together. This was the first time I have gone ice skating since I was very young, so I had pretty much forgotten how to skate. At first I was pretty unbalanced, but by the end of the night, and several falls later, I had gotten the hang of it again. I really like ice skating, and it’s good exercise too, so its good that I still have all winter in which to go ice skating.
One of the other things I have been working on is establishing a Rotaract and an Interact club here in Blagoveshchensk. For those of you who don’t know, Rotaract and Interact are both service organizations which are extensions of Rotary for college students and high school students, respectfully. One of the Rotaract members from Khaborovsk emailed me with the idea of starting a Rotaract club here in Blagoveshchensk and asked if I would like to help. I, of course, said yes. I made a speech to my Rotary club (in Russian of course) about starting a Rotaract club here. There are still some mixed feelings about it from some of the Rotarians, but the president of the club supports it, and everything is already in motion to get the clubs started. A group of Rotaracters from Khabarovsk is arriving in Blagoveshchensk on Friday, and we will be giving presentations at one of the local universities and schools. We will try to gauge the interest in the program and look for potential members. There will also be a training session on Sunday for people who are interested in becoming officers and leaders in the club. I have been reading up on the two programs and outlining ideas for them. This will be an interesting project, and maybe by helping establish these clubs, I can use some of my previous experience with Rotary and in Interact club back home to help these clubs be sustainable and leave behind a sort of legacy. I am excited to help with this project.
Last Friday, I also went to the concert of Alexandr Vikolob, our music teacher at the university. He is a singer-songwriter, and we listened to him perform some of his own original music, and some covers of other songs. It was a great concert and I really enjoyed it. However, there is an even more interesting story about my adventure in getting there. The concert was held at ОКЦ, which is in the center of the city, and a little under a half an hour bus ride from my current host family’s apartment. The concert started at 7 PM, and I was supposed to meet some people there at 6:30, so I left my apartment at 6:00 to get there on time. Before I continue, however, let me quickly explain how the buses in Russia work. Of course there are the normal large city buses, but there are also маршрутные такси (or taxis that follow a route). They are basically big vans that can hold up to 13 passengers. They follow a specific route, but anywhere along the route, you can tell the driver to stop. They are faster than normal busses, and they come usually every 5 or 6 minutes. I was on the bus, and we were not quite halfway there, when suddenly the bus driver stopped at one of the bus stops and made everyone get off, and then drove away. I’m sure he explained why he did this, but I didn’t understand him. But no worries, I thought, the next bus will be here in about five minutes and I’ll just get on that one. Sure, I might be a little late, but Russians are usually not really concerned with being exactly on time, so they probably won’t notice. However, the next bus that went by was full. While I was waiting for the third bus to come, of course, a train had to go by and block the road from where the buses come for five or ten minutes. I had never seen a train go by there before, and of course, the first time had to be when I was already running late. Finally the train went by and the third bus came—also full, of course. I was beginning to panic, so I just got on the next bus that came. It was a different number with a different route that I had never been on before, but it would take me within a few blocks of my destination. I was sitting by the door, and at the stop before I needed to get off, someone didn’t close the door when they got off, so I closed it. But I guess I closed it a little too hard, as the door then got jammed, and the driver started yelling at me in Russian (which you don’t want to have happen). He took a crowbar, got out of the bus, and pried the door back open and shut it again, gently. Usually on the buses, you can’t get the doors to close all the way, so you have to close it hard, but I guess I picked the wrong bus to do that on. Once it was fixed, I apologized to the driver, and asked him to stop at the next stop. However, I think he was still mad at me, because he didn’t stop at the next one, and only stopped at the one after that because someone else has to get off. By now it was already past 6:45, so I proceeded to run the remaining three blocks to ОКЦ. I arrived at five till seven, out of breath, trying to explain to the others, who had been waiting for me since they arrived at precisely 6:30 (of course), why I was late. I think all they understood from me was something about a bus driver, a train, full, a different one, a door, and running. Oh well. I made it to the concert, and they forgave me. But I think the thing that I will remember more from that night is not the concert, but the bus ride there, which seems to remind me of some saying about “life’s not about the destination, but about the journey.” Right.
Well, now for the weather report on the 10. Already, it has reached -25 degrees Celsius (about -13 Fahrenheit for all you Americans). For those of you who don’t know, that’s cold. It’s cold enough that you don’t want to breathe through your mouth, but if you breathe through your nose, everything in your already-running nose instantly freezes. It’s an interesting sensation, but you get used to it after a while. I can’t wait to see what will happen when it reaches -40… But unlike in Ohio, where in the winter it snows and then melts, creating a big slushy mess, here in Russia, when the snow sticks, its here to stay, probably until the end of winter. It is constantly below freezing, and unlike in Ohio, they use sand on the roads instead of salting them. This means that everything isn’t destroyed by salt by the end of the winter, but the roads look really dirty. After our first major snow a few weeks ago, all of the streets in the city were literally sheets of ice for at least a week. The condition of the roads would be enough to shut everything down in Ohio, but here, nothing changed. Russian drivers may seem to be a little reckless at times, but they are also very skilled drivers (for the most part), and even driving on sheets of ice, managed not to create pile-ups at every intersection.
Now for my language report. As I said before, my progress slowed a little bit because we weren’t in school for a few weeks, but I have still made a lot of progress since my last report. Even though we weren’t in school, I was still speaking Russian all the time and watching Russian TV and whatnot. During our break, I watched more TV than I usually do. But even now, I am starting to understand more and more. I like watching Russian comedy shows when they are on. I am beginning to understand some of the jokes and laugh at them, which is a big step in my language progress. One of the things that I’ve found out is that they like to talk about Obama a lot, and also Hillary Clinton. Since we are right across the river from China, we also get a couple of Chinese channels broadcast. The name of their channels is “CCTV”, which is kind of interesting, and slightly ironic, considering the fact that there is still government censorship of the media in China, and they named their TV station “Closed Circuit” TV. One of their channels basically just shows the Chinese military doing drills and exercises all day. The other channel has some strange medieval-china soap opera-ish show, and also a cooking show titled “A Delicious Dish of Dog”. I’m not kidding. But anyway, back to my language. We are now back in school again, so I’m getting back into the swing of that. Also, the daily journal that I have been keeping since I arrived in Russia, I began to write completely in Russian, which is a big step and also good practice for me. I’ve also learned some interesting new Russian words and “Russian-isms.” For example, the Russian word for “roller coaster” is американские горки, which literally translates as “American hills”. Also they call the “at sign” (@) собака, which means “dog” in Russian. Some other interesting observations: раб means “slave” and работа means “work (as in your job)”; the Russian word мир means both “world” and “peace”; the verb пытать means “to torture” and the reflexive verb пытаться means “to try (literally- to torture one’s self)”. Also in Blagoveshchensk, there is a chain of malls called Хуафу “Huafu” which is owned by a Chinese company. I was told by my host mom (who studied Chinese) that Huafu in Chinese means “The wealth and prosperity of the Chinese Nation”. It s just kind of funny, because nobody here knows that they’re shopping at a mall named after the wealth and prosperity of China. Also, the three different “Huafus” in the city are named “Big Huafu”, “little Huafu”, and then, of course, there is “heavenly Huafu”. I just found this kind of humorous. I continue to get more comfortable and automatic with the language every day. I can now have conversations with people on the phone. I have begun to think in Russian, I am also now sometimes having dreams with Russian words and sentences in them.
Everything is still going great here in Russia, and I am still not homesick. I have been in contact with some of the other current exchange students from our district, and who are also in Russia right now, and it is always fascinating to hear about how their lives are going. We are still just now entering the beginning of winter, and I have many cold months ahead of me. But I think that if I can survive this Siberian winter fine, I’ll be able to make it through any other challenge in front of me. It still almost seems surreal that I am actually doing this. Molly McKinney, who was an exchange student to Germany last year, told me two days before I left for Russia, that once I return to the States, the past year will just seem like a dream. It already is like a dream, but a good dream, one that I don’t want to wake up from—at least for another eight months…
PS- today is Thanksgiving! The only reason I remembered is because on the news this morning it showed Obama doing his presidential turkey ceremony at the white house.
I have uploaded new pictures from the past month. I have created a second picasa album for these as each album can only hold 500 pictures. You can see these new pictures by clicking on the slideshow for my first album and then clicking on the link to view all of my albums. The second album is titled "russia pictures part 2". I have also uploaded some more artistic photos.
A couple of weeks ago, I started attending the meetings of one of the many youth service groups in Blagoveshchensk, called TEMA. This group carries out various service projects around the city, including working with children, cleaning the city, and various other goodwill projects. It is a very friendly, energetic group of young people. I don’t understand everything at their meetings, but they help me with the language and tell me what I need to know. It’s not all work however. For example, this past Sunday, we all went ice skating together. This was the first time I have gone ice skating since I was very young, so I had pretty much forgotten how to skate. At first I was pretty unbalanced, but by the end of the night, and several falls later, I had gotten the hang of it again. I really like ice skating, and it’s good exercise too, so its good that I still have all winter in which to go ice skating.
One of the other things I have been working on is establishing a Rotaract and an Interact club here in Blagoveshchensk. For those of you who don’t know, Rotaract and Interact are both service organizations which are extensions of Rotary for college students and high school students, respectfully. One of the Rotaract members from Khaborovsk emailed me with the idea of starting a Rotaract club here in Blagoveshchensk and asked if I would like to help. I, of course, said yes. I made a speech to my Rotary club (in Russian of course) about starting a Rotaract club here. There are still some mixed feelings about it from some of the Rotarians, but the president of the club supports it, and everything is already in motion to get the clubs started. A group of Rotaracters from Khabarovsk is arriving in Blagoveshchensk on Friday, and we will be giving presentations at one of the local universities and schools. We will try to gauge the interest in the program and look for potential members. There will also be a training session on Sunday for people who are interested in becoming officers and leaders in the club. I have been reading up on the two programs and outlining ideas for them. This will be an interesting project, and maybe by helping establish these clubs, I can use some of my previous experience with Rotary and in Interact club back home to help these clubs be sustainable and leave behind a sort of legacy. I am excited to help with this project.
Last Friday, I also went to the concert of Alexandr Vikolob, our music teacher at the university. He is a singer-songwriter, and we listened to him perform some of his own original music, and some covers of other songs. It was a great concert and I really enjoyed it. However, there is an even more interesting story about my adventure in getting there. The concert was held at ОКЦ, which is in the center of the city, and a little under a half an hour bus ride from my current host family’s apartment. The concert started at 7 PM, and I was supposed to meet some people there at 6:30, so I left my apartment at 6:00 to get there on time. Before I continue, however, let me quickly explain how the buses in Russia work. Of course there are the normal large city buses, but there are also маршрутные такси (or taxis that follow a route). They are basically big vans that can hold up to 13 passengers. They follow a specific route, but anywhere along the route, you can tell the driver to stop. They are faster than normal busses, and they come usually every 5 or 6 minutes. I was on the bus, and we were not quite halfway there, when suddenly the bus driver stopped at one of the bus stops and made everyone get off, and then drove away. I’m sure he explained why he did this, but I didn’t understand him. But no worries, I thought, the next bus will be here in about five minutes and I’ll just get on that one. Sure, I might be a little late, but Russians are usually not really concerned with being exactly on time, so they probably won’t notice. However, the next bus that went by was full. While I was waiting for the third bus to come, of course, a train had to go by and block the road from where the buses come for five or ten minutes. I had never seen a train go by there before, and of course, the first time had to be when I was already running late. Finally the train went by and the third bus came—also full, of course. I was beginning to panic, so I just got on the next bus that came. It was a different number with a different route that I had never been on before, but it would take me within a few blocks of my destination. I was sitting by the door, and at the stop before I needed to get off, someone didn’t close the door when they got off, so I closed it. But I guess I closed it a little too hard, as the door then got jammed, and the driver started yelling at me in Russian (which you don’t want to have happen). He took a crowbar, got out of the bus, and pried the door back open and shut it again, gently. Usually on the buses, you can’t get the doors to close all the way, so you have to close it hard, but I guess I picked the wrong bus to do that on. Once it was fixed, I apologized to the driver, and asked him to stop at the next stop. However, I think he was still mad at me, because he didn’t stop at the next one, and only stopped at the one after that because someone else has to get off. By now it was already past 6:45, so I proceeded to run the remaining three blocks to ОКЦ. I arrived at five till seven, out of breath, trying to explain to the others, who had been waiting for me since they arrived at precisely 6:30 (of course), why I was late. I think all they understood from me was something about a bus driver, a train, full, a different one, a door, and running. Oh well. I made it to the concert, and they forgave me. But I think the thing that I will remember more from that night is not the concert, but the bus ride there, which seems to remind me of some saying about “life’s not about the destination, but about the journey.” Right.
Well, now for the weather report on the 10. Already, it has reached -25 degrees Celsius (about -13 Fahrenheit for all you Americans). For those of you who don’t know, that’s cold. It’s cold enough that you don’t want to breathe through your mouth, but if you breathe through your nose, everything in your already-running nose instantly freezes. It’s an interesting sensation, but you get used to it after a while. I can’t wait to see what will happen when it reaches -40… But unlike in Ohio, where in the winter it snows and then melts, creating a big slushy mess, here in Russia, when the snow sticks, its here to stay, probably until the end of winter. It is constantly below freezing, and unlike in Ohio, they use sand on the roads instead of salting them. This means that everything isn’t destroyed by salt by the end of the winter, but the roads look really dirty. After our first major snow a few weeks ago, all of the streets in the city were literally sheets of ice for at least a week. The condition of the roads would be enough to shut everything down in Ohio, but here, nothing changed. Russian drivers may seem to be a little reckless at times, but they are also very skilled drivers (for the most part), and even driving on sheets of ice, managed not to create pile-ups at every intersection.
Now for my language report. As I said before, my progress slowed a little bit because we weren’t in school for a few weeks, but I have still made a lot of progress since my last report. Even though we weren’t in school, I was still speaking Russian all the time and watching Russian TV and whatnot. During our break, I watched more TV than I usually do. But even now, I am starting to understand more and more. I like watching Russian comedy shows when they are on. I am beginning to understand some of the jokes and laugh at them, which is a big step in my language progress. One of the things that I’ve found out is that they like to talk about Obama a lot, and also Hillary Clinton. Since we are right across the river from China, we also get a couple of Chinese channels broadcast. The name of their channels is “CCTV”, which is kind of interesting, and slightly ironic, considering the fact that there is still government censorship of the media in China, and they named their TV station “Closed Circuit” TV. One of their channels basically just shows the Chinese military doing drills and exercises all day. The other channel has some strange medieval-china soap opera-ish show, and also a cooking show titled “A Delicious Dish of Dog”. I’m not kidding. But anyway, back to my language. We are now back in school again, so I’m getting back into the swing of that. Also, the daily journal that I have been keeping since I arrived in Russia, I began to write completely in Russian, which is a big step and also good practice for me. I’ve also learned some interesting new Russian words and “Russian-isms.” For example, the Russian word for “roller coaster” is американские горки, which literally translates as “American hills”. Also they call the “at sign” (@) собака, which means “dog” in Russian. Some other interesting observations: раб means “slave” and работа means “work (as in your job)”; the Russian word мир means both “world” and “peace”; the verb пытать means “to torture” and the reflexive verb пытаться means “to try (literally- to torture one’s self)”. Also in Blagoveshchensk, there is a chain of malls called Хуафу “Huafu” which is owned by a Chinese company. I was told by my host mom (who studied Chinese) that Huafu in Chinese means “The wealth and prosperity of the Chinese Nation”. It s just kind of funny, because nobody here knows that they’re shopping at a mall named after the wealth and prosperity of China. Also, the three different “Huafus” in the city are named “Big Huafu”, “little Huafu”, and then, of course, there is “heavenly Huafu”. I just found this kind of humorous. I continue to get more comfortable and automatic with the language every day. I can now have conversations with people on the phone. I have begun to think in Russian, I am also now sometimes having dreams with Russian words and sentences in them.
Everything is still going great here in Russia, and I am still not homesick. I have been in contact with some of the other current exchange students from our district, and who are also in Russia right now, and it is always fascinating to hear about how their lives are going. We are still just now entering the beginning of winter, and I have many cold months ahead of me. But I think that if I can survive this Siberian winter fine, I’ll be able to make it through any other challenge in front of me. It still almost seems surreal that I am actually doing this. Molly McKinney, who was an exchange student to Germany last year, told me two days before I left for Russia, that once I return to the States, the past year will just seem like a dream. It already is like a dream, but a good dream, one that I don’t want to wake up from—at least for another eight months…
PS- today is Thanksgiving! The only reason I remembered is because on the news this morning it showed Obama doing his presidential turkey ceremony at the white house.
I have uploaded new pictures from the past month. I have created a second picasa album for these as each album can only hold 500 pictures. You can see these new pictures by clicking on the slideshow for my first album and then clicking on the link to view all of my albums. The second album is titled "russia pictures part 2". I have also uploaded some more artistic photos.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Russian Post... maybe it would have been faster if they walked it here
Well, today, Saturday, the package that my parents sent to me five weeks ago arrived. Five weeks! But I was lucky. They said it usually takes about 2 months from the US. Here in Russia, they don't deliver the package to your door, but they deliver a notice to your mailbox that you have to go to the post office to pick it up. And it is a Russian tradition that whenever you receive one of these notices that you got a package from home, you have to dance to get it. So I did a little jig. Actually picking up the package was surprisingly easy though. We just went to the closest post office, gave them the notice, and signed a piece of paper. I havent opened the package yet, but I think it contains the much needed autumn warm clothes that I needed a month ago that will be very useful now that it is sub-zero and snowing. Haha. But I was really excited to receive the package. The reason that the government post is so slow here is that all mail that comes into and leaves the country has to be processed through Moscow, which is on the opposite side of Russia. DHL could have had it here in 2 weeks, but it would have cost about $400 I think. So it was worth waiting, and now that I know that my packages wont dissapear into a black hole or fall off the truck somewhere between Moscow and Blagoveshchensk on a deserted stretch of siberian highway, I wont have to worry for five weeks the next time my parents decide to send me something. Thanks parents! (PS if you send me another package now, it might arrive by the holidays...)
UPDATE: I opened the package and somehow my parents knew that it wouldnt arrive until winter so they sent me a lot of warm winter clothes. I really loved getting the package and thank you a bunch for sending it! All these warm clothes will really help.
UPDATE: I opened the package and somehow my parents knew that it wouldnt arrive until winter so they sent me a lot of warm winter clothes. I really loved getting the package and thank you a bunch for sending it! All these warm clothes will really help.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Thanks a lot, H1N1!
Quarantine. It's what all of out schools have been doing for the last 2 and a half weeks. There was a large breakout of the flu in Blagoveshchesnk, and therefore, all the schools in the city, including my university, closed on October 28, and will not reopen until the 16th of November. At first it was just the normal flu. Then ther were a few dozen confirmed cases of swine flu here in my city. So I have been without school for over two weeks now. But I havent gotten sick yet, so I guess the quarantine worked. It was just kind of strange to see everyone walking around in surgical masks everywhere. But then I found out that it was strange for the Russians too, as this is the first time that they have ever worn surgical masks in public too. But don't worry, it's quieting down now, and I'll be starting back at the university on Monday.
Meanwhile, I have been busy, still learning Russian, celebrating halloween (which still isnt really big in Russia-- when we walked around in the streets all dressed up, most people just looked at us funny), and working on starting a Rotaract club here in Blagoveshchesnk. So I've been staying busy.
Meanwhile, I have been busy, still learning Russian, celebrating halloween (which still isnt really big in Russia-- when we walked around in the streets all dressed up, most people just looked at us funny), and working on starting a Rotaract club here in Blagoveshchesnk. So I've been staying busy.
(The newspaper headline is "Swine or not Swine?")
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
The Hunt for Red October
Привет товарищи! It has been almost a full month since my last blog post, but don't worry-- they haven't sent me off to Siberia yet... wait a minute... scratch that last thought. And despite the title of this post, October hasn't been very red either. That is, except for the first week of the month. October 11 was Election Day in Russia, and for that first week, there were campaigners (including the communist party with all their red flags) all over the place. It seemed like everything centered on the election--- all the billboards, radio and TV ads, and just about anywhere there was space was covered with political ads. My host dad ran for the city duma (council) as an independent candidate, but did not win.
Despite "Red October" not quite living up to its namesake, the autumn here has been filled with the brilliant yellow, red and orange colors of the falling leaves. Autumn here was really beautiful, but even as I write now, autumn is already over, and old man winter is waking up. It has already dropped below 0 degrees Celsius, and we have already had snow that stuck to the ground. Needless to say, I have found out that our idea of "winter" clothes is a lot different from the Russians'. I have been told that in the winter, it will be in the -20s and 30s Celsius, and even occasionally dip into the -40s Celsius (-42 degrees is where the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales meet, so you can get an idea of how cold it will get). I thought that my wool pea coat that I brought with me would make a fine winter coat, but if you want to see something similar to what we will be wearing for coats in the winter, turn on the Discovery Channel and take note of what they are wearing when they show people on an expedition to the South Pole... So I have been slowly building my winter wardrobe. One thing that was really nice though, was that when I went to go buy some winter boots at a shoe store that one of the Rotarians here owns, he gave me a 3000 ruble ($100) pair of boots for free!! It was so nice and I was very grateful.
Also at the beginning of the month was the 60th anniversary of the Peoples' Republic of China. And since China is right across the river from us, we got to enjoy their beautiful fireworks display.
I have also now been to several Chinese restaurants here. The Chinese food here is so much better than the "Chinese" food we have back in the states. Delicious!
Some of the Rotarians also took me horseback riding last Sunday. It was the first time that I have ridden, but it was great... but the next day I was so sore from riding. There, when we were riding, I met Alexandr Sergeievich, a young talented musician who plays guitar and piano, sings, and writes his own songs. He also teaches a music "class" at BGPU (My university), and when he found out that I was interested in Music and also played the piano, he invited me to come. So I went. It is not really a "class" but more like a lot of students who are interested in music who come together to play and sing. So I am now kind of in a choir, and it also gives me a chance to play piano sometimes. We meet two nights a week, and so far, it has been really fun. Plus, I think that singing in Russian will help me improve my language skills. It’s also fun because sometimes we sing songs in English, and the other students get a kick out of when I belt out some Beatles or "Johnny B. Goode" in English. But it's great.
School: Well some of the Rotarians met with the rector of the university, and he said that I could continue to study at the University for free so that's good. Earlier, I had wanted to transfer to one of the local secondary schools, primarily I think because I just wanted to make a large group of Russian friends. But now I have realized that the University class will be best for me. I'm basically getting 25-30 hours a week of free Russian language class. So I think I will stick with the university.
The past few weeks, the flu has been going around the university, and a lot of students have been getting sick. Last week, it was so bad that one day, we only had three students in the class. Our teacher said that right now, the hostels are more like hospitals. But I have remained healthy and flu-free through it all. The only kind of medical issue I had was that I just yesterday started wearing my contacts again, after maybe three weeks without them. My eyes got really red for a while, and I thought that maybe there was an infection on my contacts. At home (in the US), every night after I would take out my contacts, I would rinse them under hot water before putting them in my contact case with solution. And when I got to Russia, I continued to do the same thing. However, the only thing is that they don't drink their tap water, and it didn’t connect that it probably wasn’t a good idea to rinse my contacts in that water either. But I have learned.
This past weekend, I also went on a small excursion with my Russian language class to a "nature base" 30 km outside the city. It was me, my Chinese classmates, my teacher, and her young son and niece. We cooked food, walked around a pond, hiked through the forest, and enjoyed the nature. It was really fun and beautiful there.
One cool thing was that I found Tabasco here in Russia! It may not sound like a big deal, but I really like Tobasco, and their pepper sauce here is not spicy compared to our standards of spicy (It is like that with their mouthwash too... while ours actually stings when you use it, theirs is like mint flavored water). I looked all over for tobasco, and I finally found it one day at a store, so I had to buy it. And the best part is, I don't think my host parents like it, so I get the whole bottle to myself!
Russian: My Russian has improved so much in the last month. I can now hold actual conversations with people (on familiar topics). I talk with my host parents all the time. I can even talk a little bit to strangers and salespeople now, so I'm not completely helpless. Russian grammar is hard, but it is like one of those 2000 piece puzzles that you spend several months putting together. At first it seems impossible, but then you start connecting pieces, recognizing patterns, and it starts coming together. You don't put it together on your own-- that's no fun-- you recruit friends and family to help you assemble it. And its not likely that you will get bored of it-- it will keep you busy for a while. And then when you have finally completed it, you see all those pieces in a new and beautiful way. That's kind of like how Russian is. But I have slowly been falling in love with the Russian language. It is a very intricate, descriptive, and interesting language. English can not even come close to the depth of the Russian language, and I look forward to mastering this language. For example, in English we have the verb "to go". But in Russian they have different descriptive motion verbs. There is "to go by foot" (идти), "to go by conveyance" (ехать), "to go somewhere and then return on foot" (ходить), "to go somewhere and return by conveyance" (ездить), "to go on foot on one specific occasion" (пойти), "to go by conveyance on one specific occasion" (поехать)... you get the idea. And there are verbs like that for flying, swimming, going by boat, and riding too. And then there are also the Russian words that describe actions and concepts that we don't have a single word for in English. Some of my favorites are: слепец (one who fails to notice the obvious, also "blind person"), замучивать (to torment the life out of, to bore to death), and my favorite: добивать (to deal the final blow, kill, finish off; completely smash). Russian is full of descriptive words like these. And then there are many words that have identical or almost identical dictionary meanings, but mean very different things in different contexts. As you can see, Russian is like a challenging but fun puzzle that I am putting together.
Until we meet again! До встречи!
(Check out my new pictures!)
Despite "Red October" not quite living up to its namesake, the autumn here has been filled with the brilliant yellow, red and orange colors of the falling leaves. Autumn here was really beautiful, but even as I write now, autumn is already over, and old man winter is waking up. It has already dropped below 0 degrees Celsius, and we have already had snow that stuck to the ground. Needless to say, I have found out that our idea of "winter" clothes is a lot different from the Russians'. I have been told that in the winter, it will be in the -20s and 30s Celsius, and even occasionally dip into the -40s Celsius (-42 degrees is where the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales meet, so you can get an idea of how cold it will get). I thought that my wool pea coat that I brought with me would make a fine winter coat, but if you want to see something similar to what we will be wearing for coats in the winter, turn on the Discovery Channel and take note of what they are wearing when they show people on an expedition to the South Pole... So I have been slowly building my winter wardrobe. One thing that was really nice though, was that when I went to go buy some winter boots at a shoe store that one of the Rotarians here owns, he gave me a 3000 ruble ($100) pair of boots for free!! It was so nice and I was very grateful.
Also at the beginning of the month was the 60th anniversary of the Peoples' Republic of China. And since China is right across the river from us, we got to enjoy their beautiful fireworks display.
I have also now been to several Chinese restaurants here. The Chinese food here is so much better than the "Chinese" food we have back in the states. Delicious!
Some of the Rotarians also took me horseback riding last Sunday. It was the first time that I have ridden, but it was great... but the next day I was so sore from riding. There, when we were riding, I met Alexandr Sergeievich, a young talented musician who plays guitar and piano, sings, and writes his own songs. He also teaches a music "class" at BGPU (My university), and when he found out that I was interested in Music and also played the piano, he invited me to come. So I went. It is not really a "class" but more like a lot of students who are interested in music who come together to play and sing. So I am now kind of in a choir, and it also gives me a chance to play piano sometimes. We meet two nights a week, and so far, it has been really fun. Plus, I think that singing in Russian will help me improve my language skills. It’s also fun because sometimes we sing songs in English, and the other students get a kick out of when I belt out some Beatles or "Johnny B. Goode" in English. But it's great.
School: Well some of the Rotarians met with the rector of the university, and he said that I could continue to study at the University for free so that's good. Earlier, I had wanted to transfer to one of the local secondary schools, primarily I think because I just wanted to make a large group of Russian friends. But now I have realized that the University class will be best for me. I'm basically getting 25-30 hours a week of free Russian language class. So I think I will stick with the university.
The past few weeks, the flu has been going around the university, and a lot of students have been getting sick. Last week, it was so bad that one day, we only had three students in the class. Our teacher said that right now, the hostels are more like hospitals. But I have remained healthy and flu-free through it all. The only kind of medical issue I had was that I just yesterday started wearing my contacts again, after maybe three weeks without them. My eyes got really red for a while, and I thought that maybe there was an infection on my contacts. At home (in the US), every night after I would take out my contacts, I would rinse them under hot water before putting them in my contact case with solution. And when I got to Russia, I continued to do the same thing. However, the only thing is that they don't drink their tap water, and it didn’t connect that it probably wasn’t a good idea to rinse my contacts in that water either. But I have learned.
This past weekend, I also went on a small excursion with my Russian language class to a "nature base" 30 km outside the city. It was me, my Chinese classmates, my teacher, and her young son and niece. We cooked food, walked around a pond, hiked through the forest, and enjoyed the nature. It was really fun and beautiful there.
One cool thing was that I found Tabasco here in Russia! It may not sound like a big deal, but I really like Tobasco, and their pepper sauce here is not spicy compared to our standards of spicy (It is like that with their mouthwash too... while ours actually stings when you use it, theirs is like mint flavored water). I looked all over for tobasco, and I finally found it one day at a store, so I had to buy it. And the best part is, I don't think my host parents like it, so I get the whole bottle to myself!
Russian: My Russian has improved so much in the last month. I can now hold actual conversations with people (on familiar topics). I talk with my host parents all the time. I can even talk a little bit to strangers and salespeople now, so I'm not completely helpless. Russian grammar is hard, but it is like one of those 2000 piece puzzles that you spend several months putting together. At first it seems impossible, but then you start connecting pieces, recognizing patterns, and it starts coming together. You don't put it together on your own-- that's no fun-- you recruit friends and family to help you assemble it. And its not likely that you will get bored of it-- it will keep you busy for a while. And then when you have finally completed it, you see all those pieces in a new and beautiful way. That's kind of like how Russian is. But I have slowly been falling in love with the Russian language. It is a very intricate, descriptive, and interesting language. English can not even come close to the depth of the Russian language, and I look forward to mastering this language. For example, in English we have the verb "to go". But in Russian they have different descriptive motion verbs. There is "to go by foot" (идти), "to go by conveyance" (ехать), "to go somewhere and then return on foot" (ходить), "to go somewhere and return by conveyance" (ездить), "to go on foot on one specific occasion" (пойти), "to go by conveyance on one specific occasion" (поехать)... you get the idea. And there are verbs like that for flying, swimming, going by boat, and riding too. And then there are also the Russian words that describe actions and concepts that we don't have a single word for in English. Some of my favorites are: слепец (one who fails to notice the obvious, also "blind person"), замучивать (to torment the life out of, to bore to death), and my favorite: добивать (to deal the final blow, kill, finish off; completely smash). Russian is full of descriptive words like these. And then there are many words that have identical or almost identical dictionary meanings, but mean very different things in different contexts. As you can see, Russian is like a challenging but fun puzzle that I am putting together.
Until we meet again! До встречи!
(Check out my new pictures!)
Sunday, October 11, 2009
New Photos
Check out my picasa web album on the right! I just uploaded a lot of new pictures. To view the whole album, just click on the slideshow on the right. Most of these are just everyday photos, but I also have some good artistic ones mixed in there. To view them, when looking at my album in picasa, click on the link for all of my albums, and there will be one with all the "cool" pictures in it, or at least the ones I like. Some of them I have edited a little. Please leave comments on my blog and on my pictures. I like to hear what you think of them. I'll give you another update in a week or two. Until then... до встречи!
Friday, October 2, 2009
Баня! (Russian baths)
So on Friday I was naked with a group of Rotarians. Hmm... maybe not the best phrasing. What I meant to say was that on Friday, I went to the Russian Banya with some rotarians, and it was awesome! Of course, when you go in, you are not wearing any clothes. This is probably the sole reason that we don't have bath houses in America... because Americans don't like to get naked in front of other people. But once you get past that, it is really great. We first sat in a hot steamroom for a while, then we went into the dry sauna, then we went into a warm pool and cooled of there for a while. We kept going back and forth between the warm pool and the hot sauna. Sometimes you would jump in a really cold pool really quickly, and then go back into the sauna. Also, in the sauna, someone would take branches with leaves soaked in hot water and beat you with them. It was all really nice, and after 2 hours of that, you feel really refreshed. Pictures soon! (Haha just kidding!)
What else did I do this week? Teachers' Day was this week, so there were a lot of presentations and concerts this week. We had our concert on Wednesday. As we were setting up, there was a grand piano (the Russians call it a рояль "royal") on the stage, and if you know me, you know that I can't resist stting down and playing when there is a beautiful piano sitting there. So I did. And then my teacher heard me play, and said that I would be performing a piao piece during the concert that was in 20 minutes. So I did. And everyone liked it. I think. In fact, they liked it so much that the next day, the dean of music (or something like that) came into our class and pulled me out so I could play piano for her. She listened, and then asked me some questions which I didn't understand. Unfortunately, I think she took my puzzled look as saying "no" to whatever she was asking, but I'm trying to figure out if maybe I can take some lessons.
Also, I might be changing schools soon. The university started asking for money (40,000 rubles) for my first semester of Russian language. I guess the classes I was taking were not the free ones, so I might be moving to study at Secondary School #5, which would be fine too, but just kind of unexpected. I will find out this next week what will happen.
On Friday, I also lived with my 3rd host family (Andrei and Irina Bakumenko) for a day, which was nice. So now, I only have not met my second host family, the Murzakovas.
Everything here is still going well. There is always something new happening, and things here tend to happen more unpredictably and spontaniously than in the US, which is kind of a nice change from the strict rigidity of the scheduled American life.
What else did I do this week? Teachers' Day was this week, so there were a lot of presentations and concerts this week. We had our concert on Wednesday. As we were setting up, there was a grand piano (the Russians call it a рояль "royal") on the stage, and if you know me, you know that I can't resist stting down and playing when there is a beautiful piano sitting there. So I did. And then my teacher heard me play, and said that I would be performing a piao piece during the concert that was in 20 minutes. So I did. And everyone liked it. I think. In fact, they liked it so much that the next day, the dean of music (or something like that) came into our class and pulled me out so I could play piano for her. She listened, and then asked me some questions which I didn't understand. Unfortunately, I think she took my puzzled look as saying "no" to whatever she was asking, but I'm trying to figure out if maybe I can take some lessons.
Also, I might be changing schools soon. The university started asking for money (40,000 rubles) for my first semester of Russian language. I guess the classes I was taking were not the free ones, so I might be moving to study at Secondary School #5, which would be fine too, but just kind of unexpected. I will find out this next week what will happen.
On Friday, I also lived with my 3rd host family (Andrei and Irina Bakumenko) for a day, which was nice. So now, I only have not met my second host family, the Murzakovas.
Everything here is still going well. There is always something new happening, and things here tend to happen more unpredictably and spontaniously than in the US, which is kind of a nice change from the strict rigidity of the scheduled American life.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Я приехал в России месяц назад (вчера)
So, I arrived in Russia a month ago (yesterday) (that's what the title says).The last few days have gone well. On thursday, I was a little sick, and had my first experience with traditional Russian remedies (which consisted of rasberry jam, pine extract, salty pre-chewed bread, and not being allowed to take a shower). But I felt better on friday, which is also when I went to a concert with my host parents. We went to go see Larisa Dolina, who is a very famous jazz singer in Russia. She sang well, but is more popular with the older crowd... but still it was fun. On saturday, I got my first haircut in Russia. I didnt really know how to tell her what I wanted in Russian, sho she just kind of cut my hair. It honestly is not bad, but the sides she cut just a little too short for my liking. On saturday night, we went to a Chinese restaurant with my host parents' nephew (who is currently in the army) and Nikolai Nikolaiovich, one of the other Rotarians who is a teacher at AMGU and a psychiatrist. The Chinese food here is "the real deal" as china is right across the river. It is so much better than our "American Chinese" food. They also gave us really вкусно (tasty) Israeli chicken. On sunday, I slept in and then at around 13:00 we got dressed up (suits) and went to Church. The orthodox churches here are different than other Christian churches in the US. We drove out into another town to a small wooden, but beautiful church. Inside, there are no pews or seats. You go in and buy some candles (there is a shop with religious icons, books, and candles) and then light them and pray at various icons. It is very beautiful inside with many candles and golden icons. Every person in Russia has their protector saint and has various icons in his home of this saint and of Jesus. Even people who are not "religious" (i.e. go to church often) are very serious about their faith and most people in Russia wear crosses or some sort of religious icon.
Tomorrow, at school, I will be visiting one of the english classes, meeting the students, and speaking to them in English. Next week, the english teacher will be gone, and I will be going to their class and "teaching" them so they don't forget anything. I think it will be fun. It is also very nice to have the language faculty all together at the university, because sometimes if there is a word that I want to know how to say in Russian, it is easier to ask the French or German teachers the corrosponding word in that language than it is to try to translate it from english, because sometimes the other languages have just one word for an idea that is several words in English. For example, the other day, I was flipping through my dictionary and came across the Russian verb "угорать" which in english means "to be poisoned by carbon monoxide fumes." Very descriptive... Also on wednesday, I will be doing a skit with some of the other students in my Russian classes about cheating. It is in Russian (канечно-of course) and in front of the whole school (Я думаю-I think).
A month into my exchange, the language is going well. I am now able to hold short conversations, understand sentences in conversation (words and phrases on TV and on the radio), and I feel mre comfortable speaking to strangers in Russian. I am starting to also learn some of the subtleties in inyonation and pronounciation. For example there are the Russian verbs писать and писать. They are spelled the same, but if you put the stress on the second syllable, it means "to write" and if you put it on the first syllable, it means "to piss." Needless to say, this verb can lead to some interesting conversations. Also, there is the russian letter "л" which is like our "L". If it is "hard" then it is formed jsut like we do in english. However, if it is a "soft" L (ль) then it is formed by making the "L" sound but with your tongue far back on the roof of your mouth, and if you do it the wrong way, you can form two different words. Even though Russian is a difficult language, it is nowhere as hard as Chinese, so I should feel lucky to be studying such an easy language. Or so says my Russian friend who also speaks Chinese.
Tomorrow, at school, I will be visiting one of the english classes, meeting the students, and speaking to them in English. Next week, the english teacher will be gone, and I will be going to their class and "teaching" them so they don't forget anything. I think it will be fun. It is also very nice to have the language faculty all together at the university, because sometimes if there is a word that I want to know how to say in Russian, it is easier to ask the French or German teachers the corrosponding word in that language than it is to try to translate it from english, because sometimes the other languages have just one word for an idea that is several words in English. For example, the other day, I was flipping through my dictionary and came across the Russian verb "угорать" which in english means "to be poisoned by carbon monoxide fumes." Very descriptive... Also on wednesday, I will be doing a skit with some of the other students in my Russian classes about cheating. It is in Russian (канечно-of course) and in front of the whole school (Я думаю-I think).
A month into my exchange, the language is going well. I am now able to hold short conversations, understand sentences in conversation (words and phrases on TV and on the radio), and I feel mre comfortable speaking to strangers in Russian. I am starting to also learn some of the subtleties in inyonation and pronounciation. For example there are the Russian verbs писать and писать. They are spelled the same, but if you put the stress on the second syllable, it means "to write" and if you put it on the first syllable, it means "to piss." Needless to say, this verb can lead to some interesting conversations. Also, there is the russian letter "л" which is like our "L". If it is "hard" then it is formed jsut like we do in english. However, if it is a "soft" L (ль) then it is formed by making the "L" sound but with your tongue far back on the roof of your mouth, and if you do it the wrong way, you can form two different words. Even though Russian is a difficult language, it is nowhere as hard as Chinese, so I should feel lucky to be studying such an easy language. Or so says my Russian friend who also speaks Chinese.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
RUSSIA!!!
When foreigners come to Russia and comment how majestic and interesting the Trans-Siberian Railway is, Russians reply: “Yes, it is – for the first 8 hours…” Indeed it is true. After 52 hours of flying, three days of orientation, and 32 hours on the Trans-Siberian Railway, I finally arrived in my host city of Blagoveshchensk on the morning of Tuesday, September 1, 2009. I was warmly greeted by my host Rotary club, and then I was taken to the home of my host counselor, where I promptly fell asleep and subsequently lived for the first two weeks of my life in Russia.
My journey to Russia was unproblematic but could be described as one of the longest experiences of my life- especially the 14 hour, trans-Pacific flight to South Korea. I left Columbus excited and eager to face the year-long journey that was ahead of me. When I arrived in Chicago, I happened to run into MC Bones, who I had previously met at the Otterbein Outbound Orientation in Westerville. She was on her way to Croatia and it was nice to have her to talk to during my several-hour layover there. Once in LA, I met up with Laura Secor from Oregon, who was also going to Russia. We flew the rest of the way to Vladivostok together.
My first experience landing was interesting, but very Russian. On the runway, there were people on bikes, and soldiers with machine guns. They had us get off the plane and all load into a bus, which took about 10 minutes to get everyone on. The bus then proceeded to make a right turn, drive 10 feet, and stop, where we all disembarked.
At the airport, we at first could not find anyone there to meet us. We stood there for maybe 20 minutes with no one there to meet us, while taxi drivers kept asking to take us into the city (in Russian)… finally we found someone there for us. They didn’t know what we looked like, but they didn’t seem to be trying very hard to find us either.
We had a three-day orientation at a day camp on the Russian coast in Vladivostok. The beaches and coastline there are beautiful. Several local Rotarians and past exchange students were there for the three days to help. We met each other, went over rules, and they talked about culture shock and cultural differences. We spent one day having a picnic on a Russian island, and the US Consulate General in Vladivostok also came to talk to us. There were 4 Americans, a Brazilian, and a French girl. None of us had previously studied Russian, except for the Brazilian, who had had a year of study in the language. I was the only one there who had chosen Russia as their top country.
The Thursday after I arrived in Blagoveshchensk, I started my studies at Blagoveshchensk State Pedagogical University. There, I am studying Russian as a foreign language with the Chinese students who have come to Russia to study. Language classes here are different than in the US, as they are only taught in the foreign language you are learning, so my Russian teacher speaks only Russian to us. The classes are going well, and they ar helping me learn the language very quickly. There are not that many people here who speak English, so am am picking up the language very fast. It is kind of funny though, because people always look at me weird when they walk into my classroom and se me sitting with all the Chinese students because they think I am Russian.
For the first two weeks, I lived with the Patlays. Larisa Patlay is my host counselor, so living with them for a couple weeks allowed me to get to know them well. Then on September 15, I moved in with the Nazuruks, my first host family. They live further outside the city, but they are very nice. They own an advertisement agency here in the city, and Alexander, my host father, is also running for the Duma, or city council. Election day is coming up on October 11, so there are a lot of political ads. Two of the major political parties here are the “Communist Party of the Russian Federation” and “United Russia”.
Here, I have been walking or taking the bus everywhere, as they have a very good bus system. On one of the weekends, the Rotary club took me on a canoe trip on the Zeya river. We spent all day canoeing, eating, and enjoying the beautiful Russian countryside. The Russian countryside and nature is like nothing we have in the US. It is so beautiful, and even just their normal countryside and forests are comparable to some of the best national parks we have in the US.
Russian food is different. They eat a lot of soup, potatoes, meat, and sour cream, but they also like a lot of fresh and natural foods. They like blini (dipped in sour cream), pelmini (dipped in sour cream), soup (with sour cream in it), and sometimes just sour cream. They also drink a lot of tea… and I mean a lot. I probably have at least 5 or 6 cups of tea a day, every day. But the tea here is really good and I have grown to love it.
When I first started at the university, I started taking French as well, but I found it too difficult to study a foreign language in a different foreign country… plus there are no English-French dictionaries here. I have Russian classes at the university 6 days a week, and I study Russian at the university about 30 hours a week, not including homework and my own self study. Needless to say, I have been learning very fast, as when I arrived I could speak almost no Russian and now I am able to hold short conversations with people and pick up phrases and sentences when others are speaking. I am fitting in here very well. All of my friends and family here are very interested in the US and in my English. I have been teaching them some English and they are teaching me Russian. So far, I have gone to the movies, played billiards, gone shopping, visited a museum, and walked around the city many times with friends. I have learned how to cook Blini (like thin pancakes). I feel kind of… American though when they ask me how long it takes to walk from one end of my city to the other, and I can only tell them how long it takes to drive…
Luckily, there is not one McDonalds or Starbucks here, but they still have brands (such as Cadillacs, Reebok, and Addidas) that we have in America. There are also many malls and shopping centers, and even a Chinese market where one can buy stuff directly from “Made in China”. It is strange as you walk along Lenin Street and across Lenin square (the two places that seem to be in every Russian city) and can see China across the river.
In the winter, the river will freeze, as temperatures reach -30 to -40 degrees Celsius (They laughed at me when they asked me how cold it was in Ohio in winter and I replied that -10 (Celsius, about 5 degrees F) is the lowest it gets. They laughed even harder when after they asked if we get a lot of snow and I said yes we do, I pointed to somewhere below my knee indicating how deep our idea of “a lot” of snow is. Right now at the end of September, it is already getting cold. In the mornings, it is in the 30s (Fahrenheit), and there is already front on the ground. The first day of autumn was just a few days ago, but it is already starting to feel like winter.
Russians do a lot of things differently. Everyone lives in apartments, most Russian women wear heels (and are very beautiful), they don’t wear shoes in the house, and they hang dry their clothes and don’t use dryers. Some things I found out the hard way—such as the hot water faucet is on the right side and not the left, whistling in the house means that you have no money, and sometimes, they shut off the hot water supply for the entire city for a week for “repairs.” (Each building does not have its own hot water heater like we have in the US, their hot water is piped throughout the city from the cooling towers of the local power plant, which means that you get hot water fast, but you don’t want to drink it…) In addition, I have also found out that bears do not indeed roam the streets in Russia…
I have only been here a month, but all I can say is that Russia is amazing! There are things and people that I miss in the US, but I do not feel homesick. Whenever I start to feel like I just want to go home, I just remind myself how cool it is that I am living in Russia, and everything is fine.
My journey to Russia was unproblematic but could be described as one of the longest experiences of my life- especially the 14 hour, trans-Pacific flight to South Korea. I left Columbus excited and eager to face the year-long journey that was ahead of me. When I arrived in Chicago, I happened to run into MC Bones, who I had previously met at the Otterbein Outbound Orientation in Westerville. She was on her way to Croatia and it was nice to have her to talk to during my several-hour layover there. Once in LA, I met up with Laura Secor from Oregon, who was also going to Russia. We flew the rest of the way to Vladivostok together.
My first experience landing was interesting, but very Russian. On the runway, there were people on bikes, and soldiers with machine guns. They had us get off the plane and all load into a bus, which took about 10 minutes to get everyone on. The bus then proceeded to make a right turn, drive 10 feet, and stop, where we all disembarked.
At the airport, we at first could not find anyone there to meet us. We stood there for maybe 20 minutes with no one there to meet us, while taxi drivers kept asking to take us into the city (in Russian)… finally we found someone there for us. They didn’t know what we looked like, but they didn’t seem to be trying very hard to find us either.
We had a three-day orientation at a day camp on the Russian coast in Vladivostok. The beaches and coastline there are beautiful. Several local Rotarians and past exchange students were there for the three days to help. We met each other, went over rules, and they talked about culture shock and cultural differences. We spent one day having a picnic on a Russian island, and the US Consulate General in Vladivostok also came to talk to us. There were 4 Americans, a Brazilian, and a French girl. None of us had previously studied Russian, except for the Brazilian, who had had a year of study in the language. I was the only one there who had chosen Russia as their top country.
The Thursday after I arrived in Blagoveshchensk, I started my studies at Blagoveshchensk State Pedagogical University. There, I am studying Russian as a foreign language with the Chinese students who have come to Russia to study. Language classes here are different than in the US, as they are only taught in the foreign language you are learning, so my Russian teacher speaks only Russian to us. The classes are going well, and they ar helping me learn the language very quickly. There are not that many people here who speak English, so am am picking up the language very fast. It is kind of funny though, because people always look at me weird when they walk into my classroom and se me sitting with all the Chinese students because they think I am Russian.
For the first two weeks, I lived with the Patlays. Larisa Patlay is my host counselor, so living with them for a couple weeks allowed me to get to know them well. Then on September 15, I moved in with the Nazuruks, my first host family. They live further outside the city, but they are very nice. They own an advertisement agency here in the city, and Alexander, my host father, is also running for the Duma, or city council. Election day is coming up on October 11, so there are a lot of political ads. Two of the major political parties here are the “Communist Party of the Russian Federation” and “United Russia”.
Here, I have been walking or taking the bus everywhere, as they have a very good bus system. On one of the weekends, the Rotary club took me on a canoe trip on the Zeya river. We spent all day canoeing, eating, and enjoying the beautiful Russian countryside. The Russian countryside and nature is like nothing we have in the US. It is so beautiful, and even just their normal countryside and forests are comparable to some of the best national parks we have in the US.
Russian food is different. They eat a lot of soup, potatoes, meat, and sour cream, but they also like a lot of fresh and natural foods. They like blini (dipped in sour cream), pelmini (dipped in sour cream), soup (with sour cream in it), and sometimes just sour cream. They also drink a lot of tea… and I mean a lot. I probably have at least 5 or 6 cups of tea a day, every day. But the tea here is really good and I have grown to love it.
When I first started at the university, I started taking French as well, but I found it too difficult to study a foreign language in a different foreign country… plus there are no English-French dictionaries here. I have Russian classes at the university 6 days a week, and I study Russian at the university about 30 hours a week, not including homework and my own self study. Needless to say, I have been learning very fast, as when I arrived I could speak almost no Russian and now I am able to hold short conversations with people and pick up phrases and sentences when others are speaking. I am fitting in here very well. All of my friends and family here are very interested in the US and in my English. I have been teaching them some English and they are teaching me Russian. So far, I have gone to the movies, played billiards, gone shopping, visited a museum, and walked around the city many times with friends. I have learned how to cook Blini (like thin pancakes). I feel kind of… American though when they ask me how long it takes to walk from one end of my city to the other, and I can only tell them how long it takes to drive…
Luckily, there is not one McDonalds or Starbucks here, but they still have brands (such as Cadillacs, Reebok, and Addidas) that we have in America. There are also many malls and shopping centers, and even a Chinese market where one can buy stuff directly from “Made in China”. It is strange as you walk along Lenin Street and across Lenin square (the two places that seem to be in every Russian city) and can see China across the river.
In the winter, the river will freeze, as temperatures reach -30 to -40 degrees Celsius (They laughed at me when they asked me how cold it was in Ohio in winter and I replied that -10 (Celsius, about 5 degrees F) is the lowest it gets. They laughed even harder when after they asked if we get a lot of snow and I said yes we do, I pointed to somewhere below my knee indicating how deep our idea of “a lot” of snow is. Right now at the end of September, it is already getting cold. In the mornings, it is in the 30s (Fahrenheit), and there is already front on the ground. The first day of autumn was just a few days ago, but it is already starting to feel like winter.
Russians do a lot of things differently. Everyone lives in apartments, most Russian women wear heels (and are very beautiful), they don’t wear shoes in the house, and they hang dry their clothes and don’t use dryers. Some things I found out the hard way—such as the hot water faucet is on the right side and not the left, whistling in the house means that you have no money, and sometimes, they shut off the hot water supply for the entire city for a week for “repairs.” (Each building does not have its own hot water heater like we have in the US, their hot water is piped throughout the city from the cooling towers of the local power plant, which means that you get hot water fast, but you don’t want to drink it…) In addition, I have also found out that bears do not indeed roam the streets in Russia…
I have only been here a month, but all I can say is that Russia is amazing! There are things and people that I miss in the US, but I do not feel homesick. Whenever I start to feel like I just want to go home, I just remind myself how cool it is that I am living in Russia, and everything is fine.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Ready to go!
So FedEx just came at 2:45 today with my passport and included visa. I also received my plane tickets so I'm all ready to go. I'm just finishing packing and cleaning... but mentally I'm ready to go. I'm not really nervous at all... just excited to go. I've been preparing for this moment for a year now, so even though I only have less than 24 hours left in the United States, what I'm doing feels natural.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
About Blagoveshchensk
So one thing I forgot to post was information about the city that I will be living in for a year... Blagoveshchensk! Blagoveshchensk is the capital of the Amur Oblast and has a population of about 250,000 people. It is located in Siberia/the Far East, on the intersection of the Amur and Zeya rivers. The mur river forms the southern border of Russia with China. I will be able to look across the river and see China! The city across the river is called Heihe and has about half a million people living there. The present-day city of Blagoveshchensk was founded in 1856 as a military outpost. During the Chinese Boxer rebellion, the city was shelled for two weeks, and it was taken by the White Army during the Russian Revolution. The city does a lot of trade with neighboring China, and has a port, an airport, and is connected to the Trans-Siberian Railway. In the Summer, the temperatures reach +35 C (95+ F) an in the winter, the temperatures drop to -20 to -30 C (-4 to -22 F).
The View from outside the Murzakova's apartment windowSaturday, August 15, 2009
Leaving on a jet plane...
I just received my final itinerary yesterday! Looks like I have a lot of traveling ahead of me. I am departing from Columbus on Tuesday, August 25 at 1:48 PM. From there, I will fly to Chicago, and then arrive in Los Angeles. Once I am there, I will meet up with another exchange student, Laura Secor, from Oregon, who is also going to Russia. We will depart LAX for the 6,000 mile trip to Seoul, South Korea, at 12:20 AM Wednesday morning. On our way across the Pacific, we will cross the international date line and lose a day. After a 6 hour layover in Seoul, we finally depart for our final destination, Vladivostok, on the east coast of Russia. We will arrive in Russia at 3:50 PM on the 27th. The trip to this point, including the change in time zones, is 52 hours over 8,500 miles. On the 28th, there is an orientation in Vladivostok for all of the incoming exchange students to Russia. Then, on the 29th, I will get on a train on the Trans-Siberian Railway to Blagoveshchensk (or Blagoveschensk, I've seen it spelled both ways), my host city, where I will arrive two days later, on the 31st. I will be taking the two-day train ride alone, but the Russian Rotary is paying for my ticket and my food for the train ride. So, from the time I leave Columbus to the time I arrive in Blagoveschensk, I will be traveling for 6 days.
The day after I arrive in Blagoveshchensk, on September 1st, I start school at Blagoveschensk State Pedagogical University. At the university, I will be studying with the students in the English-French department. I can get extra Russian tutoring for free if I exchange my English for it, and I will also be studying French (from Russian), because of my interest in foreign languages, and my exchange to France last summer. The rector of the university was nice enough to let me study at the university because of this and my age, and I really appreciate that he did this for me. In Russia, secondary schooling only goes through 11th grade instead of 12th grade like here in the US. This means that in Russia, you enter the university when you are 17/18, and since I am 18 and will be turning 19 while I am there, he allowed me to study there. I don't get to choose my classes, and I may have to take some classes at the secondary school if I can't handle the university classes, but I am going to do my best in my university classes. It will be difficult at first, since I do not know a lot of Russian, but I will be trying to learn the language as fast as I can. I'm going to try to not speak any English to anyone (except in my english class!), so hopefully I will pick it up quickly.
The first two weeks of my exchange in Blagoveschensk, I will be staying with my host counselor, Larisa Patlay. She and her husband Victor have two children, a son Vadim and a daughter Evgenia, who are both studying in Australia right now. They are vegetarians, and they offered to serve me meat while I stay with them, but I think I am going to try being a vegetarian for the two weeks that I am living with them.
After I live with the Patlays for two weeks, I will move in with my first host family, the Murzakovas. Anna Murzakova is actually a Rotary exchange student who is here in the US right now for the year. She is staying in Charlotte, MI. She has a younger sister, who is 9, a mother and father, and a dog, Masha. They live in an apartment in the center of Blagoveschensk.
So now you all know what I will be doing for the first month or so of my exchange. For the first month, I will not be in contact with anyone with the US and I'm going to try to not be on the computer that often. I'm not bringing my laptop with me, so I will not have an English keyboard, but I'll try to keep my blog updated.
With only about a week to go, I am getting pretty excited to leave. I have my suitcases open on my floor and I am starting to pack them up...
The day after I arrive in Blagoveshchensk, on September 1st, I start school at Blagoveschensk State Pedagogical University. At the university, I will be studying with the students in the English-French department. I can get extra Russian tutoring for free if I exchange my English for it, and I will also be studying French (from Russian), because of my interest in foreign languages, and my exchange to France last summer. The rector of the university was nice enough to let me study at the university because of this and my age, and I really appreciate that he did this for me. In Russia, secondary schooling only goes through 11th grade instead of 12th grade like here in the US. This means that in Russia, you enter the university when you are 17/18, and since I am 18 and will be turning 19 while I am there, he allowed me to study there. I don't get to choose my classes, and I may have to take some classes at the secondary school if I can't handle the university classes, but I am going to do my best in my university classes. It will be difficult at first, since I do not know a lot of Russian, but I will be trying to learn the language as fast as I can. I'm going to try to not speak any English to anyone (except in my english class!), so hopefully I will pick it up quickly.
The first two weeks of my exchange in Blagoveschensk, I will be staying with my host counselor, Larisa Patlay. She and her husband Victor have two children, a son Vadim and a daughter Evgenia, who are both studying in Australia right now. They are vegetarians, and they offered to serve me meat while I stay with them, but I think I am going to try being a vegetarian for the two weeks that I am living with them.
After I live with the Patlays for two weeks, I will move in with my first host family, the Murzakovas. Anna Murzakova is actually a Rotary exchange student who is here in the US right now for the year. She is staying in Charlotte, MI. She has a younger sister, who is 9, a mother and father, and a dog, Masha. They live in an apartment in the center of Blagoveschensk.
So now you all know what I will be doing for the first month or so of my exchange. For the first month, I will not be in contact with anyone with the US and I'm going to try to not be on the computer that often. I'm not bringing my laptop with me, so I will not have an English keyboard, but I'll try to keep my blog updated.
With only about a week to go, I am getting pretty excited to leave. I have my suitcases open on my floor and I am starting to pack them up...
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