A quick brief before I start traveling Russia

Well I figured that I should give everyone a quick update about my life before I leave on my trip, because I don’t know if I will have time to update my blog until the middle of April when I return.

Last Monday, I went to go see another concert here in Blagoveshchensk. It was the concert of a Russian guitarist “Didyulya”. His style is similar to Spanish guitars, and he plays with a group including two drummers, a keyboardist, a saxophonist, and a bassist. He didn’t say a word the entire concert, but just came on stage and started playing. He and his whole group are very talented, and in short, it was one of the best concerts that I have seen in my whole life. If you ever have a chance to see Didyulya, definitely take it. After the concert, a reporter from one of the local radio stations came up to me and asked me a few questions about how I liked the concert. I answered in Russian, and he didn’t even know I was a foreigner.

Here in Blagoveshchensk, I have met a politician who works with the foreign policy matters of the Amur oblast, and will soon be going on a state-funded exchange program to the US in order to witness the political system and improve his English. He found out about me, and asked me to give him lessons about American politics, and to have conversations with him to help improve his English. He has already studied English for many years, so he has a good understanding, and I taught him in English. For the past week, we have met at his office. I researched and printed off information for him, and prepared a lesson for each day. I have taught him about the structure of the US government, the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, the election process, state and local government, political terminology, American political correctness, current political issues in the US, and about Denver and Washington DC, where he will be spending his time. This was a great experience for me, not only because I am interested in politics and government, but because I was able to share this knowledge and help foster understanding between our countries. Even though it wasn’t much, this was a very fulfilling experience for me. I also asked him questions about his job, about Russian politics and government, and about his thoughts on different political events. This was very interesting to hear as well. He said that when he returns from his month and a half long visit to the US, he would love to meet with me again to talk about his experience, and has said that if I ever have any questions about Russian politics or government while I in college, I should feel free to email him and ask. I am very glad that I got to make his acquaintance.

On March 6, I moved to my third and final host family. Packing up was difficult, mostly because I already have too much stuff, but I managed to fit it all into my bags. I will really miss my second host family, the Murzakovs, as I got really close to them and they are super nice and interesting people. However, it will also be interesting to move to a new family and get to know them well also. I only moved one block away from my second host family, so I am still pretty much in the center of the city. My third host family, Andrei Konushok and Irina Bakumenko (they keep their last name separate for business reasons), does not have any children who still live with them. Their two daughters (who were both Rotary exchange students) are both grown and live in Canada.

On March 7, I had my 19th birthday. Whenever I would tell people that my birthday is March 7, they kind of laugh, because March 8 is International Women’s day (which we don’t celebrate in the US), and they always say that I am lucky that I wasn’t born one day later. My birthday went well. For lunch, I ate at a Chinese restaurant with my new host parents, my host mom’s mother, and one of the Rotarians. It was really nice. Later, I also met with some friends, and in the evening, I went to the Banya with my second host family, and ate dinner at the restaurant there. For gifts, I got a “Russia” baseball hat and winter cap, I got some DVDs and CDs (classic Russian movies, some Russian music, and also a DVD of a Didyulya concert in Moscow. I also found out that on March 6, my first host mom gave birth to a son, her first child. I was so happy for her when I found out, and I can’t wait to see her new baby.

It's already starting to become warm (above -10), and things are slowly starting to melt, and cause the streets to become dirty. Despite this, Spring in Russia is one of the most glorious experiences ever, if not jsut for the fact that Russian spring directly follows the infamous Russian winter. The arrival of Spring brings so many good feelings, and makes me feel "proud" that I survived my first Russian winter.

I think that’s about all the news I have for now. I’ll be leaving for Vladivostok at 3:30 AM on Thursday. I can’t wait to experience everything that is before me in the next month. I’ll take a lot of pictures, and tell you all about my experiences in Vladivostok, Moscow, and St. Petersburg when I return in April.

As we say in Russian: «до встречи! » … “Until we meet again!”