The last little amount of time that anyone has left in any place should be enjoyed, appreciated, and lived to the fullest. That is the approach that I have been taking to the last few weeks of my exchange in Russia.
Since I left Blagoveshchensk almost three weeks ago, I have been keeping busy. When I first arrived in Vladivostok, I attended the Rotary District Conference. The exchange students did an opening ceremony holding flags and telling about ourselves in Russian. One of the nights, we took a boat to Russkiy Ostrov, or “Russian Island” off the coast of Vladivostok. As we were leaving the shores of the city, the sun was shining, but while underway, we plowed straight into a huge wall of fog. However, the fog didn’t ruin the party, and we had a fun time full of good food (including lamb, scallops, and fresh crab), and singing and dancing. Afterwards, I went to a nightclub with some of the exchange students.
Since November, I have wanted to take a trip to the city of Khabarovsk, between Blagoveshchensk and Vladivostok, but it never worked out. However, after the Rotary conference, I had a chance to go visit, so I seized the opportunity and bought a train ticket to Khabarovsk. I lived in Khabarovsk for almost a week with some good friends in Rotaract. They showed me the city, took me to do interesting things, and gave me a good time. While I was there, I was going non-stop the whole time, barely taking time to sleep. I walked with them all day, seeing the city, and stayed up almost all night just hanging out. I went to a bar and heard “Big Max” sing some jazz and blues, I saw a museum, I walked along the Amur River, met a lot of new friends, learned how to skateboard (kind of), and went to different parks to hang out and grill food. It was really hot while I was there, and I drank a lot of kvas (a kind of cold carbonated drink made from bread), that we bought from the street vendors set up all over the city. I had a great time and made some good friends in Khabarovsk, which I will really miss.
The day after I got back to Vladivostok, it was one of the exchange student’s birthday, and we decided to celebrate by going camping out on the beach. The day that we decided to go, it was raining all day, and we weren’t sure if we would go or not, but all the food was already bought, the tents lugged across the city, and we were all together, so we went. The whole trip was planned on very little time, without a lot of foresight. I found out as we were leaving that I was the only one with any substantial camping experience, having gone camping with my parents in California since I was little. We got to the beach outside of Vladivostok, and amid the rain started setting up camp. We had ten people and three tents, which we set up surprisingly fast. After setting up camp, we were hungry, so the girls prepared some meat, cheese, and vegetables to make buterbrod (open faced sandwiches). After that, I went with Laura Secor to try to find dry firewood from the forest. We actually found a good amount of not too damp wood, and got sufficiently wet ourselves in the process of walking around in the damp grass and bushes. We came back and got a fire started which we were able to keep going all night, despite the drizzling rain. The trip actually turned out pretty good and it was fun, but not even the fire could keep us completely dry, and at 2AM, some of us decided to call a taxi to come take us home so that we didn’t have to sleep in the damp and cold.
One day later that week, the two Lauras (Secor and Lopez) were at Subway, and happened to run into a young British traveler trying to order a sub. They helped him order his sub in Russian, and then invited him to come walk with us. Matt, 23, from Britain, was traveling from Australia all the way back to Britain over land. He had just arrived in Vladivostok from Korea, and was departing that night to go non-stop to Moscow on train, an eight-day ordeal. We walked around the city, showing him Vladivostok, and telling him interesting things about Russia that we picked up during our year here. We also took him to a billiard hall to play some pool. When we departed, he thanked us dearly and said that we made his time in Vladivostok worthwhile and memorable.
That night, I helped Gabi cook a homemade dinner of hamburgers, mac and cheese, and French fries for her host family. Despite some initial hamburger-making-failings we finally got everything done and were able to enjoy an almost-all-American almost-like-home meal, washed down with some very-Russian drinks.
The next day, we had the Graduation Ball of the Lyceum that all the exchange students here attended, and to which I was invited to. All the girls were wearing ballroom dresses and the already beautiful Russian girls looked even more so. All the guys were wearing suits and cleaned up pretty nice too. The ball was held in the Hotel Hyundai, the fanciest hotel in the city. At first, we took a lot of pictures, then we did an opening ballroom dance, called the bolognaise, at around 7PM. After that, we ate, the students performed different songs and acts and received their diplomas. After that, the room turned into a discotheque, and they had a DJ and a live band that played all night long. We danced and partied all night long, until 5AM the next morning. Then we all walked to the dark, quiet harbor and greeted the sunrise, which is a tradition for Russian school graduates. It was such an incredible experience to stay up all night to greet the sunrise. The whole evening was an unforgettable experience, and one of the best of my exchange.
Then, my friends started leaving. It is already the last week of June, and that means that all the exchange students are starting to all fly back home. The first of my friends to leave was Torrey, who left to go back to Virginia on Sunday. We all went to the airport with him to see him off. It was a very sad and touching experience. I couldn’t cry, but I felt this deep pang in the middle of my chest, seeing my friend leave. It wasn’t completely sad though, because I know that I will be able to see him again someday once we are all back in the US. On Wednesday, Laura Lopez is going back to Chicago, on Thursday, Gabi is leaving for Pennsylvania, and on Friday, I myself and Laura Secor will be leaving to go back to Ohio and Oregon, respectively. The last few days we have spent together, walking around the city, hearing each other’s voices, and listening to each other’s jokes for one last time.
The feeling is bittersweet — we are all together one last time in order to all collectively say goodbye to each other, to say goodbye to a city, a country, and an overall way of life which has become so familiar to us, while fully knowing that in a few days time this same bittersweet feeling will return to us as we, now apart, will greet our old friends, and the city, the country, and the overall way of life that we said goodbye to on a similar hot summer day 10 months ago, and which have now become for us so completely unfamiliar and foreign.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
An ending, part 2
On June 7, I said goodbye to my host city of Blagoveshchensk for the last time. Most of the day I spent finishing up my packing, taking occasional breaks to go outside and walk around the streets and along the river, taking in the sights one last time. Finally, by 9 PM, I was ready, and at 9:30, we got in a taxi and went to the train station. I was leaving Blagoveshchensk to go to Vladivostok for a Rotary conference, so there were some Rotarians traveling with me. But when we got to the train station, many more Rotarians were there, and also a group of Rotaracters, my friends, were there. In all, there had to have been around thirty people who came to say goodbye to me. My friends and previous host families were there. We took a lot of photos, they gave me some last minute gifts, and we said our goodbyes. While we were saying goodbye, I didn't cry, although I had wanted to. My second host family, the Murzakovs, whom I really liked and got attached to, was there.
One of the Rotarians, who had always helped me out during the year, gave me a small souvenir, with an engraving on the back. When I showed one of the other Rotarians this gift, he was surprised, because he said that the other Rotarian is usually kind of reserved and doesn't connect a lot with people, but that I must have really connected with him and been seen as almost like a son to him. When I boarded the train, I stood by the window and looked out at all of them. I sang them a verse out of the Russian song "Katusha".
As the train finally started moving, my friends started running after me, alongside the train, shouting their goodbyes, with the Rotarians and host families watching from a distance.
I didn't realize what all these people meant to me until the train had rolled out of the station, and the clickety-clack of the train moving into the darkness replaced the departing shouts and goodbyes of the friends with whom I had spent the last 9 and a half months of my life.
Standing in the corridor of the train, staring out of the now dark window, the full heavy reality of my departure suddenly crashed down upon me, as if falling from a great height. It hit me so unexpectedly, and I let out a loud sigh. It was a sigh of sadness, of relief, of pain -- the kind of sigh that you let out when you are tired after having just put down a heavy burden that you have carried a long way. It was a sigh that one may use to break the silence, when he doesn't know exactly what to say, even though he wants to say it to somebody, to anybody, to share what he is feeling. It is a sigh that sums up all his emotions, in a single expulsion of breath.
I looked over at Larisa, my first host mother, who was also standing in the corridor of the train with me. She also looked back at me, and just smiled.
One of the Rotarians, who had always helped me out during the year, gave me a small souvenir, with an engraving on the back. When I showed one of the other Rotarians this gift, he was surprised, because he said that the other Rotarian is usually kind of reserved and doesn't connect a lot with people, but that I must have really connected with him and been seen as almost like a son to him. When I boarded the train, I stood by the window and looked out at all of them. I sang them a verse out of the Russian song "Katusha".
As the train finally started moving, my friends started running after me, alongside the train, shouting their goodbyes, with the Rotarians and host families watching from a distance.
I didn't realize what all these people meant to me until the train had rolled out of the station, and the clickety-clack of the train moving into the darkness replaced the departing shouts and goodbyes of the friends with whom I had spent the last 9 and a half months of my life.
Standing in the corridor of the train, staring out of the now dark window, the full heavy reality of my departure suddenly crashed down upon me, as if falling from a great height. It hit me so unexpectedly, and I let out a loud sigh. It was a sigh of sadness, of relief, of pain -- the kind of sigh that you let out when you are tired after having just put down a heavy burden that you have carried a long way. It was a sigh that one may use to break the silence, when he doesn't know exactly what to say, even though he wants to say it to somebody, to anybody, to share what he is feeling. It is a sigh that sums up all his emotions, in a single expulsion of breath.
I looked over at Larisa, my first host mother, who was also standing in the corridor of the train with me. She also looked back at me, and just smiled.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
An ending, part 1
Tomorrow, I am leaving my host city of Blagoveshchensk. Forever. It still hasn't really hit me, that I will no longer walk along the streets or see the people who have become so familiar to me in the last 10 months. But maybe that is because of the fact that although I am soon departing my host city, I still have about three weeks left in Russia. Tomorrow I will be boarding a train for Vladivostok, where there will be a Rotary conference, and where I will be living for the last three weeks of my Russian life. Many adventures and old friends await me in Vladivostok, and while I am excited to go there, I also can't help thinking about the last few weeks I have spent here since I got back from China.
Summer has finally arrived in Blagoveshchensk, complete with daily temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius. I have been trying to take full advantage of this warm weather by getting outdoors as much as I can. Our classes at the university have already finished, so now I am free every day. The past couple of weekends, I have been spending a lot of time at different dachas or barbeques. Two weeks ago, I went to the dacha of one of the Rotarians, where we ate delicious shashlik, walked along the Zeya river, played ping-pong, relaxed in a Russian banya, and discussed deep philosophical issues. The next day, I went horseback riding with a different group. We rode all day, fording rivers, along the beach, through green grassy fields that moved with the blowing wind, and along small ridges and hills. By the end of the day, my whole body was shaken and sore, I was sunburnt, and I had had such a great time.
I have also had some time to see a few more concerts. A few days after having gotten back from China, I went to go see Bi-2 in concert. Bi-2 is a Russian rock band, and I thoroughly enjoyed their music and the concert. This past weekend, I also went to a smaller concert of a local rock band called Perekryostok, which means "intersection". It was held in a small bar, it was loud, and it was also a great concert. Last weekend I also went to another barbeque with Rotary out in a park, where they welcomed two new members into their club. I helped out with the grilling, and we had great food and a fun group of people.
On Thursday, two Americans arrived in Blagoveshchensk, and came to live with my host family here in our apartment. Clyde and Vivian are an older couple from Alaska, who are Rotarians and will be going to the Vladivostok conference with us. My host parents speak some English, but I have also been translating for the Americans. It has been funny though. Russian has become almost more automatic for me now than English, so sometimes when I am translating something for Clyde and Vivian, I will start talking at them in Russian and not realize it. And of course they have no idea what I'm saying.
On Thursday night, I did my farewell presentation for my Rotary club. We went to a Chinese restaurant, and I made a slide show with pictures from my entire exchange year. I talked in Russian for almost an entire hour. I told about my life here, I told jokes; I thanked them for everything they have done. They presented me with gifts, and I also gave them gifts. It was all very emotional, and I will be sad to leave them.
On Friday, I traveled to the Bureiskaya GES, which is a hydro-electric dam about four hours away from Blagoveshchenk. It was a long bus ride, but it was definitely worth seeing. We got to go inside the generator room, which is basically a big empty hall, except for six big generators protruding from the floor. The whole hall was filled with a low rumbling hum, and I reached down and placed my palm on the floor, and could feel the vibration of the entire station working, the water pouring down, and the generators spinning. It was one of those feelings that I will never forget.
That night, once I returned, I went to dinner with Alexander Udod and his wife. Alexander Udod was the Russian politician whom I taught about the American political system and political jargon before his month and a half long legislative exchange program in Washington DC. He recently returned and invited me to dinner to thank me and tell me about his experience. We went to an Armenian restaurant. I had never had Armenian food before, but it was really delicious.
But now I'm getting ready to leave, excited to go, but also sad at the same time. I just know that I'm going to make the most of what little time i have left.
Summer has finally arrived in Blagoveshchensk, complete with daily temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius. I have been trying to take full advantage of this warm weather by getting outdoors as much as I can. Our classes at the university have already finished, so now I am free every day. The past couple of weekends, I have been spending a lot of time at different dachas or barbeques. Two weeks ago, I went to the dacha of one of the Rotarians, where we ate delicious shashlik, walked along the Zeya river, played ping-pong, relaxed in a Russian banya, and discussed deep philosophical issues. The next day, I went horseback riding with a different group. We rode all day, fording rivers, along the beach, through green grassy fields that moved with the blowing wind, and along small ridges and hills. By the end of the day, my whole body was shaken and sore, I was sunburnt, and I had had such a great time.
I have also had some time to see a few more concerts. A few days after having gotten back from China, I went to go see Bi-2 in concert. Bi-2 is a Russian rock band, and I thoroughly enjoyed their music and the concert. This past weekend, I also went to a smaller concert of a local rock band called Perekryostok, which means "intersection". It was held in a small bar, it was loud, and it was also a great concert. Last weekend I also went to another barbeque with Rotary out in a park, where they welcomed two new members into their club. I helped out with the grilling, and we had great food and a fun group of people.
On Thursday, two Americans arrived in Blagoveshchensk, and came to live with my host family here in our apartment. Clyde and Vivian are an older couple from Alaska, who are Rotarians and will be going to the Vladivostok conference with us. My host parents speak some English, but I have also been translating for the Americans. It has been funny though. Russian has become almost more automatic for me now than English, so sometimes when I am translating something for Clyde and Vivian, I will start talking at them in Russian and not realize it. And of course they have no idea what I'm saying.
On Thursday night, I did my farewell presentation for my Rotary club. We went to a Chinese restaurant, and I made a slide show with pictures from my entire exchange year. I talked in Russian for almost an entire hour. I told about my life here, I told jokes; I thanked them for everything they have done. They presented me with gifts, and I also gave them gifts. It was all very emotional, and I will be sad to leave them.
On Friday, I traveled to the Bureiskaya GES, which is a hydro-electric dam about four hours away from Blagoveshchenk. It was a long bus ride, but it was definitely worth seeing. We got to go inside the generator room, which is basically a big empty hall, except for six big generators protruding from the floor. The whole hall was filled with a low rumbling hum, and I reached down and placed my palm on the floor, and could feel the vibration of the entire station working, the water pouring down, and the generators spinning. It was one of those feelings that I will never forget.
That night, once I returned, I went to dinner with Alexander Udod and his wife. Alexander Udod was the Russian politician whom I taught about the American political system and political jargon before his month and a half long legislative exchange program in Washington DC. He recently returned and invited me to dinner to thank me and tell me about his experience. We went to an Armenian restaurant. I had never had Armenian food before, but it was really delicious.
But now I'm getting ready to leave, excited to go, but also sad at the same time. I just know that I'm going to make the most of what little time i have left.
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