The beginning of the end of winter

From my bedroom window on the ninth floor of my host family’s apartment, I can see everything. When I wake up in the morning, I can look down to the street below, and see all the people hurrying along in the morning cold before the sun has peaked over the top of the apartment buildings to start warming the street below. During the day, I see the bright sun reflected in the golden ornaments that adorn the sky-blue spires of the city’s cathedral a few blocks away. And in the evening, it is a spectacular. As I watch the sun slowly setting over the hills in China a few miles away, casting a golden glow over the many rooftops, I can see the silhouettes of cranes towering over far-off unfinished high rises. At night time, I see neon lights reflected in the window facades of neighboring apartment buildings. I see the white smoke bellowing out of the power plant to the north, and moving in a horizontal line over the city, in contrast to the dark night sky. I can see everything.

Just like the dynamic view out my window, my life here has been changing quickly as well. It is the end of February. That means that I have been now living in Russia for 6 months, half of a year. I am aware of this, but the significance of this milestone still hasn’t hit me. I have come so far since I arrived on a hot and sunny late-August day, knowing barely a word of Russian. Now the days are cold, but I am really starting to fit in as a “Russian” in language and in life.
We have started class again at the university, after an almost month long break for Chinese New Year. I am still actively involved in leading our Rotaract Club here in Blagoveshchensk. On February 14, Valentines Day, we carried out a small project in one of the shopping centers, celebrating Valentines Day, and also doing PR for our clubs and Rotary. Our club charters have been signed by Rotary International, and we are now just waiting for them in the mail. I designed a website for our clubs (in both Russian and English), and the website is now online at www.actamur.ru/en (this is the English part).

On Friday, February the 26th, an international conference on linguistics and foreign language was held at my university here. Participants in the conference arrived from all over Russia, Germany, France, China, Japan, and the United States. A team from the US consulate in Vladivostok also came. I met with the Consul General, Tom Armbruster, and several other Foreign Service officers. I ate several meals together with them at restaurants, and got to know them. I told them of my future plans of studying at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown, and they were all excited. They were all very interesting people, and promised to give me a tour of the consulate when I arrive in Vladivostok. The research paper that I wrote (titled “A comparison of foreign language education in Russia, the United States, and Europe”) was published in a book which includes the work of all the participants in the conference. I wrote my article in English, but at the conference, a presented a summary of my research in Russian. All were amazed that I had only been studying Russian for six months. The Public Affairs Officer from the US consulate was especially surprised, as she had met me back in August when I first arrived, not speaking any Russian. The conference was great, and I met many teachers from the university who would love to have me come to their classes.

Other things that have been going on in my life…
I cooked a pizza, for my host family, American style, with home-made sauce, parmesan, and sausage. It was delicious.
They have bee doing remodeling in one of the apartments below us, so sometimes, they will shut off all our water. When they turn it back on, the water is brown for the first twenty minutes, so we have to bleed out all the faucets.
I also went to the nature park again with friends of my host family. We went ice skating, tried playing a little hockey, and did a little sledding. On the way back we were stopped by the police, but we got out of it somehow…
February 23 was “Protector of the Fatherland day” (formerly “Soviet Army and Navy Day”). It is a day where they honor all those who serve in the armed forces, and also men in general, even if you haven’t served in the military.
On February 27, our Rotary club celebrated 105 years of Rotary and 14 years of the club. It was held at a Chinese restaurant, and all the food was delicious. It was a very fun and lively evening.
Recently, one of the pipes next to our apartment building burst, so we are now without running water. A water tanker truck is parked outside our building, so we have to go collect water from there in order to wash the dishes, flush the toilet, and take showers.
I have also started collecting Russian music discs and movies to enjoy when I return back home. I’ve been trying to collect some classic movies, and other good Russian films which have been recommended to me. And luckily music and DVDs here aren’t expensive at all. I can buy a CD with all the albums of an artist for $3, and I can buy a DVD, even a new one, for $5.

March is already starting tomorrow. With the end of February and the arrival of March, a new hope and anticipation for the warmer temperatures of spring has also arrived. I will be moving to my third and final host family on March 6th. My 19th birthday is a week from today, on March 7. Then on March 11, I will be leaving Blagoveshchensk for PETS (Presidential-Elect Training Seminar for rotary) in Nahodka. I will be traveling with several Rotarians, and my friend and president-elect of our Rotaract Club. There we will meet Rotarians and other Rotaract members from all over eastern Russia. Right after that, I will go to Vladivostok, where I will stay for two weeks before the start of their youth exchange outbound orientation. In Vladivostok, I will get to see all of the other exchange students who I haven’t seen since August, and those who I have never seen before. Right after the orientation, we will be leaving to our trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg. It will be a great trip, seeing the other exchange students and other parts of Russia. I won’t return to Blagoveshchensk until the middle of April sometime. By the time I return, I am hoping that it will already be warm here, and that I won’t have to look at snow again until next November.