The smell of rain

This morning I woke up with my alarm at 6:55 AM, and the first thing I noticed was the smell of rain from outside. I jumped out of bed and looked out onto the street nine floors below. Sure enough, the streets were damp, and a light morning drizzle was underway. Now for those of you reading back home in Ohio, rain probably doesn't seem that exciting, as we seem to have it all the time, but here, rain is one of the things that I have missed the most. Ever since the snow started falling at the end of October, I have been waiting for the next time that I would see rain again. As we got deeper into winter, and the frost and layers of ice on the street got deeper and deeper, I just wished for a spring rain. So I had a long time to wait, but they told me that spring will be here in the end of March or so. Ok, that's a little longer than back home, but not to worry.

However, I found out that this year Russia had one of the longest on snowiest winters on record for a long time. When I returned to Vladivostok from Moscow (where it was +20 and already blooming), I was reminded of this fact. April 13 in Vladivostok, it snowed. The middle of April is too late for winter, even by Russian standards.

Within two days, I boarded a train and took it all the way back to Blagoveshchensk by myself. This was an okay experience; I traveled in a coupé (a room with four bunks and a table) with an older couple from Blagoveshchensk, and some other random guy that didn't really talk much. Except for the stuffiness of the train by the end of the 34-hour journey, it was a pleasant experience. It was nice that they trusted me enough and thought that I was able enough to travel by myself on the train. It is almost a compliment that they know my language skills are good enough to cope with traveling alone for that distance. It's over 900 miles from Vladivostok to Blagoveshchensk by train, which would be like traveling from Cleveland, OH to New Orleans, LA. On the way to Blagoveshchensk, the train stopped in Khabarovsk for an hour and 15 minutes, and a couple of my friends from the Rotaract Club of Khabarovsk came to meet me at the train station. They brought me balloons, and we walked around a little and talked. I would love to come back to Khabarovsk in June to visit for a few days, as I've heard that it is a very beautiful and interesting city. As I boarded the train again, my friends danced for me (and the rest of the amused passengers on the train) for a full ten minutes before the train finally pulled away. The conductor in our wagon told me "What fun friends you have!"

So I arrived in Blagoveshchensk on a Thursday morning. I had been gone from my city for over a month (since March 11), and I didn't know what I should expect. My host mom met me at the station, and drove me back to our apartment. As we drove through the streets that I had not seen for such a long time, I (to my relief) saw that there was no more snow or ice on the ground here. That being said, it was still cold (like around freezing). Spring hadn't started yet, nothing was growing, and the whole city was just brown. Brown, leafless trees, brown dirt and sand in the streets left over from winter, brown grass. Not quite what I had hoped, but nonetheless better than all white (although that might have been cleaner).

With the melting of the snow and 3-inch layers of ice also came the unveiling of all the stuff that had been covered and frozen in time for the last six months since the beginning of winter. Beer bottles, shards of broken glass, melted piles of dog poop, used needles, and thousands upon thousands of cigarette butts appeared on the street. And it's still laying there. Sometimes I notice that someone has swept some of the trash into a pile, but the wind just scatters it again, and people keep adding their collection of fresh cigarette butts to the ground.

I have started back in with my choir group at the university. These are the times that I really look forward to all week. When I start at Georgetown next fall, I have decided that I want to join an a cappella group do some singing as a side thing. I have also continued with my piano lessons and have recently been learning all the different chords and how to do harmony.

Since I have been back, I have also been to a couple concerts/performances. I went with my host mom to a performance of a local, but very talented dancing ensemble. It was an amazing performance. I also went to an "International Youth Concert" which featured singers, dancers, rappers, and other performing groups from Russia, Azerbaijan, China, and Israel. They all performed traditional dances and songs, and it was amazing to see a collection of all these different cultures. There was even a French rapper who performed.

Last weekend I went with my second host family to their "dacha" or summer cottage, outside the city. It is a small shed and plot of land where they grow fruits and vegetables, grill "shashlik", and relax. Even though it wasn't green yet, it was a warm, sunny day, and it was almost like paradise to relax out in nature, do some raking and yard work, and eat delicious food. We ate grilled meat, drank tea brewed over an open fire, and also ate "ukha" (with the stress on the last syllable - ukha with the stress on the first syllable means "ear", and we certainly didn’t eat that) Anyway ukha is a type of soup made out of fish, but not quite. They asked me if I knew what ukha was, and I said "yeah, it's soup made with fish." But they said "No, soup made with fish is soup made with fish. Ukha is ukha" I didn't really see the difference, so they explained it to me, and from what I understood, ukha is soup made with fish cooked in a vat over an open fire at your dacha. So there it is.

So that brings me back to today. It's raining. But it's really only a drizzle. And while most people would say this with disdain and go outside with an umbrella. I am walking in the rain, getting wet, and being as happy as can be.

My trip to the Two Capitals of Russia

I was in Moscow and St. Petersburg for a total of 11 days and finally got to see the “European” part of Russia. Each day that we spent in these two cities was different, and we saw a lot of Western Russia. I roke it down into days, partly so I remember everything we did, and partly so that you can follow the action better and get a better picture of the “two capitals of Russia”.

Day 1: Arrival in Moscow

We had just flown across Russia, nine and a half hours from Vladivostok to Vnukovo Airport in Moscow. When we landed, we found out that while we had been in the air, there had been two suicide bombings in the Moscow metro. Instead of fearing for our safety, the first thing that we all worried about is what time our parents back home would be waking up and seeing that there had been two explosions in Moscow, the day that we were supposed to be arriving. We were all okay, of course, but we wanted to contact home to make sure that our parents weren’t worrying about us. After we retrieved all our bags, we piled into a private bus and drove into Moscow in the middle of five-o-clock traffic. We finally made it into the center, drove around a little, stopping at the main campus of MGU (Moscow State University). We then drove to the Arbat (a pedestrian street with shops that is closed to traffic). We walked around the Arbat for a while, found a McDonalds, and ate my first Big Mac since I left for Russia. We then found an internet café and were able to use that to email our parents at home and say that we were okay. Then we went to the train station, where we boarded our train for St. Petersburg, which left at 11PM.
[picture: me, Gabi (US), Margeaux (France), and Joao (Brazil) at the airport in Vladivostok]

Day 2: Tired

Our train arrived in St. Petersburg at 6:45 AM. We were all tired, dirty and wanted to take showers (we had just flown across 7 time zones, and then took a night train ride with little sleep and no showers). We just wanted to go to our hotel, but we were told that we would be going on excursion until afternoon. The sun was just rising over Petersburg, and despite my sleepiness, I couldn’t help noticing the beauty of the city from out the window of the bus. It has a lot of low buildings, rivers and canals, and I couldn’t help comparing it to Paris or even DC, with all of their historic architecture. After we ate breakfast, we went to see the Petropavlovsk Fortress, some statues and monuments, and an old Russian battleship anchored in the harbor. We went to a café, went to the “House of Books” (a large bookstore), where I bought some books. We returned to the hostel where we were staying (located in the middle of St. Petersburg). We took showers, relaxed, and bought some food from a nearby supermarket, which we ate for dinner.
[picture: me standing along the banks of teh still-frozen Neva river, with the Hermitage Museum in the background]

Day 3: Peterhof
Today we went to go see Peterhof, which was a big palace outside of St. Petersburg, built by the last emperor of Russia. In the summer, they have amazing fountains that all run off gravity, but they were still all covered from the winter. I also found out from my parents today that Georgetown is giving us $25,000 in financial aid for next year! I was so excited when I found out, as this will help us a lot. Despite my tiredness, I decided to start a new approach of always being positive and finding the bright side of things. Have to walk a long way? Good exercise. Tired from the flight? That means I sleep great tonight! I’m in St. Petersburg with my friends, what more can I ask for? It’s really nice to be in a good mood, so I’m going to use it for the rest of my last three months of exchange so I really enjoy them.

Day 4: More points of interest

Today we say Yusupov Palace. It was in the center of the city, and very interesting. I liked it better than Peterhof, and it was where Rasputin was killed. We also saw the Isaac Cathedral. It was Holy Thursday today, and it was interesting to see. Then we saw the Church of Spilt Blood. In the evening all the exchange students went to a Chinese restaurant together.
[picture: Pachera (thailand), Ethan (US), and I along a canal in Peter]



Day 5: Hoofing it

Our excursion today was on foot. We walked along one of the many canals, went to Kzanskiy Cathedral. Then we went to the Hermitage Museum. It is a huge museum (one of the largest in the world). It the square outside the museum, they have a tall pillar that stands without foundation of any kind. It is the only of its kind in the world. For dinner, we ended up buying food from one of the local supermarkets and bringing it back to the hostel. It was cheap, and it was delicious (especially the lavash – like a big long tortilla that costs < $1)
[picture: me with lavash]


Day 6: Last day in Peter
In the morning we went to Catherine’s Palace, and then went to the train station to drop our bags off at the luggage locker. Then we had the rest of the day, until 9PM, free to walk around. I went with Ethan (American), Pachera (Thailand), and Mauricio (Columbia) to go walk around. We walked around Nevskiy Prospect, the main avenue in St. Petersburg. We watched people. We went to a music store, McDonalds, and saw all the expensive cars parked outside the Grand Hotel of Europe. Basically, we just walked around for about 7 hours straight. But it was a great way to spend our last day in Peter, just walking around the streets, watching the people. That for me is sometimes even better than doing a tour-guided group. We boarded the train, and set off towards Moscow once again at 11 at night.

Day 7: Moscow in the Morning

Our train arrived at 6:02 AM. From our red-eye arrival, we all packed onto a private bus right away. It was Sunday morning, the sun was just rising, and it was still cool and damp in the streets. We drove through the almost empty Moscow streets (enjoy it, they said, while you can—Sunday morning will be the only time that the streets are this empty). We stopped at different areas around Moscow to walk around for 15 minutes at a time and then move on the next spot. We saw some monuments (see picture of me with famous Russian actor), the home of MosFilm (think Russian Hollywood), Moscow City (a development of brand-new, high-tech, bright and shiny office, residential, and shopping skyscrapers along the bank of the river), and Victory Park. We went to go eat some breakfast, and then we went to Red Square. Red square actually isn’t really red at all, except for the walls of the Kremlin. The reason that it’s called “red square” is because the current Russian word “red” krasniy, in old Russian meant “beautiful”, which is now krasiviy. Anyway, we waited in line for about half an hour, and then were finally admitted to the Mausoleum where the (real) mummified corpse of Lenin is kept. No one really knows if he is real anymore, or if he is just a wax dummy. Either way, it was serious business. You can’t even take electronics into the mausoleum, you have to go through a metal detector and security check, and there are guards that stand on every corner on the inside, and you are not allowed to stop, talk, or wear hats. They honestly probably have better security for this corpse than they did at the airport on the way here. So I saw Lenin. He actually looked pretty good for having been a dead body for almost 90 years, but his complexion was a little, ahem, waxy.
We finally got back to the hotel, showered, rested, and then got hungry. All the restaurants around were expensive, so we just went to a supermarket and bought food there to last us the week. We bought cereals, water, bread, cheese, meat, juice, snacks, pastries, and other stuff.

Day 8: A cemetery, GUM, and a really good cheeseburger
In the morning, it was raining a little, and we went to a beautiful cemetery where famous Russians like Chekhov, Yeltsin, and Molotov (who invented the Molotov cocktail) are buried. After that, we went back to Red square, went inside the church with the big colorful spires, and then were free. I went with Gabi (one of the other Americans) to GUM, or Glavniy Universalniy Magazin (Or Main Department Store). It is a HUGE shopping mall located right on red square. It is beautiful inside (see picture), and has a lot of expensive shops (some were so expensive that they didn’t even put price tags on their products… if you have to ask, you can’t afford it). After being in there for a while, we wandered a little around the streets and happened to find a “Steak Café”. Being Americans, and seeing that they also had hamburgers made with steak meat, we had to go in and eat lunch. We were served some of the most delicious cheeseburgers I have eaten in a long time (it’s the first real burger I’ve had since America). And it only cost about $11 which isn’t bad considering it came with fries and is right in the middle of Moscow, where everything is really expensive. That evening back at the hotel, all of the exchange students reserved the spa area in the basement of the hotel. They had a swimming pool, a Jacuzzi, a sauna, and billiards. It was a fun and relaxing way to spend 2 hours.

Day 9: the metro a week after and the Gulag museum
So today was another walking day, but we didn’t just walk, we also used the metro. Some of the students were a little concerned about using it a week after there were 2 suicide bombers on it, but they reassured us saying that “you can also die at any time by a brick falling off a building and hitting you in the head, so don’t be afraid.” Which is true.
So we went on the metro, and there was actually so much security and such that we didn’t really have to worry. We went inside the actual Kremlin, and saw the almazniy fond, where they have a hug collection of diamonds. There they have the second largest diamond in the world, and a lot of other precious stones, gold, and platinum. Then we walked around inside the Kremlin, saw all the churches there, and saw the big tsar bell and tsar cannon. After that, Gabi and I decided that we wanted to go see the Gulag history museum. No one else, especially the Russians, wanted to go with us to see that. So we went, got lost a little, and finally found it. It was very interesting, and very sobering at the same time. There were gulags all over Russia, including, I found out, in my host city of Blagoveshchensk. They had artwork, artifacts, and information. And the museum only opened a few years ago, so this is all relatively new. It was a really nice warm day out (+20 C), and I spent part of the evening sitting outside in the park near our hotel without a coat or sweatshirt, enjoying the nice weather.
[picture: self-explanatory]

Day 10: Tsaritsino and an old acquaintance
Today, we went to Tsaritsino, which is a palace/park compound outside the city. The grounds themselves were very beautiful, and the palace was as well. The palace had sat as ruins for about 200 years, and they finally within the last decade or so decided to rebuild it. So it was all finished just a few years ago, so everything inside was new. When we were back at the hotel, Mauricio, the Columbian exchange students, was talking to one of his cousins through Skype. He said that his cousin had actually been in Ohio a couple years ago through Rotary youth exchange. I started talking to him, and found out that he lived in Sunbury and Galena, right next to Westerville! I asked him when he was there, and he said in 2007-2008, which was when I was preparing to do my short term exchange to France. I asked him what his name was, and he said “Juan Pablo”! I knew this guy! We went to all the exchange weekends together 2 years ago. Of course, the first thing he asked me was “what the hell are you doing in Russia?!” It’s so funny how small the world is sometimes. That night, I went with all the exchange students to the Jazz club “BB King”. It was a fun way to celebrate our last night in Moscow.

Day 11: Tretyakov Gallery and going back home (to Vladivostok)
This morning, we packed up everything, left the hotel, and piled onto a bus. We first went to the Tretyakov Gallery, a famous art museum in Moscow. After that, we drove to the airport, went through security and such, and then boarded the plane back to Vladivostok.

Home away from home away from home (Vladivostok)

It seems like such a long time already since I stepped onto the train in Belogorsk, leaving behind Blagoveshchensk, and starting my journey to Vladivostok, Moscow, and St. Petersburg. It seems like even my life in Blagoveshchensk was a lifetime ago, even though in reality, I started my journey on March 11.

That morning, I awoke at 3:30 in the morning, and got in the mini-bus that would take me and our group of Rotarians to the train station in Belogorsk 2 hours away, in order to take the express train to Vladivostok. "Express", however, is a relative term, as it took 22 hours to reach Vladivostok, instead of the 32 hours that it took me to get to Blagoveshchensk from Vladivostok back in August. The train ride was pretty uneventful. I traveled with a group of local Rotarians, and one other Rotaract member, Anton, to go to Vladivostok. Our final destination would be a small seaside town called Nakhodka, where the Russian PETS (Presidential Elect Training Seminar) would be held. On the train, we slept, ate, played some cards, and watched some TV. About halfway in our journey, the train stopped in Khabarovsk for half an hour, and Anton and I walked out of the train to see the area around the train station and stretch our legs. Unfortunately, we couldn't stay long in the city, but I am hoping to have a chance to come back to Khabarovsk to visit, as it is an interesting city, and I have several friends who live there and would love to have me come visit.

Our train arrived in Ugolnaya (outside of Vladivostok) early in the morning, and I stepped off the train into the cool morning air. It was cool, but not cold, the first time that I could walk around outside without needing a hat. We packed into a couple of mini-buses and began our 3 hour drive to Nakhodka. As the sky became lighter, the earth that I had left six months earlier revealed itself. I for the first time in six months saw mountains, saw the Pacific Ocean crashing wave by wave into Russia, and smelled the familiar scent of sea salt in the air. As we drove along the coast, the thought occurred to me that my home country, my rodina, was only just on the other side of this ocean, and then I felt the closest to home than I had been in six months.

We arrived in Nakhodka, and right away began our work at PETS. There were Rotarians from all over the east of Russia there, and even a couple Americans (the district governors on the Alaska side). And the funny thing was, all of these Rotarians who I had never met before, already knew me. "So you're the one from Blagoveshchensk". I already had a reputation with them, and they already knew everything about my life in Blagoveshchensk. There were also Retractors from different cities in Russia there. The PETS conference was actually interesting and useful, as I understood 90% of the information that they presented at the conference. One of the nights, I went with the other Retractors to Partizansk, a city an hour away. I met Laura Secor, another American exchange student there. We hung out with the Rotaract group all night. After the PETS conference was over, I helped make presentations about starting new Rotaract and Interact clubs in Nakhodka and in Partizansk. After our last presentation, we drove to Vladivostok, where I met my host family.

For my time in Vladivostok, I am living with the Rubtsov's in Artyom, which is a city about 45 minutes outside of Vladivostok. I am living with Vladimir and Lilia, and a host brother, Kolya, who is 14. They also have a daughter who was an exchange student to the US, and now lives and studies in Canada. They are really nice, and I really enjoyed living with them. They live in their own house there, and they have a German shepherd and a cat, and they keep chickens (which means we always have really fresh eggs).

In Vladivostok, I am going to the lyceum, which Eleonora Trubnikova (the head of the youth exchange program) directs. It is interesting for me, because it is the first time that I have attended an actual Russian "high school", taking different classes. In Vladivostok, I also got to meet up with Gabi, Torrey, Margeux, and Joao, the other exchange students. It was really nice to see them. While I was there, a new exchange student, Mauricio, from Columbia arrived. Everything there- the city, the students, and the new exchange student, reminded me of when I first arrived in Russia in August, knowing nothing. And now I am looking at the very same city, the very same people, through different eyes, with a new perspective, with a new understanding. Before I returned to Vladivostok, I thought that I would be super glad to see all the exchange students, whom I hadn't seen for over six months. But it was funny, when I first saw them, they only wanted to speak in English, and I felt myself gravitating toward the Russians than the Americans. I only wanted to speak Russian, and it took me a while to warm up to wanting to speak English again.

But I saw the city. And what a city it is! It is a bustling port city, the "San Francisco of Russia". There is going to be a big international conference in Vladivostok in 2012, so the city is going through a lot of reconstructions, new roads, bridges, and buildings. It is not a super clean city, but it is full of life and character. The people are more active, brighter in outlook, and more interesting.
During my two week stay in Vladivostok, there were two major blizzards. The first one happened on my first day there, and I was told that I was lucky that it happened, because it covered up all the dirt which had been there only one day earlier. Despite the fact that the blizzard shut down some of the buses and made the roads slick, I got to see the city covered in a clean white blanket of snow. And it was beautiful. I immediately fell in love with the city, the sights, the activity, the people.

In Vladivostok, I used the public bus system extensively. Even in Blagoveshchensk, I didn't use the real buses; I had always taken the marshrutki, like vans that drive around the city. So it was the first time that I really took the "real" bus system in my life. Vladivostok is a bigger city than Blagoveshchensk, and has more foreign brands and shops. They have a "Subway" there, and it was the first time that I had eaten at an American restaurant since I arrived in Russia.

I spent my days in Vlad split pretty evenly with both my Russian and foreign friends. They all wanted to show me the city and hang out with me, and they all gave me a little different view of the city, even though some of the points of interest that they all showed me sometimes intersected. Even though I was in Vladivostok for only two weeks in all, the friendships that I developed with the exchange students, but especially with the Russians, are stronger than most of the friendships that I developed in my six months in Blagoveshchensk. I can definitely say that I have good friends in Vladivostok, and I cannot wait to return to them in June before I leave for the US.

I also spent some time at the US consulate in Vladivostok while I was here. The first day I visited them, I got a small tour of the inside, and then I went to lunch with the consul general, and some of the other officers. The next day, I went to the consulate again to listen to a speech by a Russian-born citizen who immigrated to the US and eventually became an American citizen. Before she left the Soviet Union, she had earned a PhD, but when she arrived in the US, her diploma was not recognized, and she ended up re-earning her PhD in American universities. She arrived in the US with $200, and started working as a cleaning lady. She ended up re-earning her PhD, starting a family, and becoming a citizen. She told her amazing story in Russian, and I understood 99% of everything which she said. After the speech, I went out to eat with the Public Diplomacy Officer and one of the Russians who work at the consulate. Then, on Saturday, they invited me and the other American exchange students to a "Chili cook off" which they were having at their townhouses. There were 8 different chili recipes submitted, along with cornbread, tortilla chips and salsa, and brownies, all things that I hadn't even seen for almost seven months. It was all very delicious, and I enjoyed the company of all the Americans who were there. All of these Americans were there in Vladivostok for different reasons, but we all shared the commonality that we are all in Russia, and it was interesting hearing all the different stories and backgrounds which all ended up in the same place... Russia.

I also found out from the consulate that there is a new spaceport being built in the Amur Oblast, where Blagoveshchensk is, and that the mayor of my host city is actively searching for another city to take part in a "sister city" agreement, most likely with a sister city that has connections with the aerospace industry. I have been talking to some Rotarians and local politicians back home in Columbus to see if any one there would be interested in taking part in a sister city program with Blagoveshchensk, since there is already a tie with the Rotary clubs and through the exchange program.

The last few days of my stay in Vladivostok I spent at an outbound exchange student orientation at the "yunga" camp, the same place where I spent the first few days of my time in Russia back in August. The foreign exchange students in eastern Russia and the Russian outbounds for next year all came to Vladivostok for Orientation. It was really fun to see everyone. We made presentations about our countries, and the Americans told about our home states, held up an American flag, and sang the Star Spangled Banner. It was great. We also had a diskoteka on the last night and we all danced and had a lot of fun. That Sunday after the orientations, Russia moved its clocks forward one hour. But it was not only Russia's clocks that moved forward, but the country itself. The very same morning that Russia moved its clocks forward, Russian president Dmitri Medvedev announced that Russia would consolidate its 11 time zones down to 9 in an attempt to help better unify and connect the opposite ends of the country.

On Monday morning, we all gathered at the Vladivostok International Airport to leave on our Moscow/St. Petersburg trip. We got through security fine, and boarded the plane. We flew with Vladivostok Avia, and had a nine hour flight to Moscow. I slept a little, ate Russian airline food, and watched Russia beneath us, stretching out in all directions. We arrived at the Vnukovo airport outside of Moscow. When we landed and were in the terminal, we learned that there had been two suicide bombings in the Moscow metro while we had been in the air. So the bombings did not affect us, and we would be spending the first 5-6 days of our trip in St. Petersburg anyway. But the events of my trip will all be in my next post...

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!”

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.

My Russian hat

Now I am a real Russian. I bought myself one of those Russian hats with the ear flaps. It wasn't cheap ($160) but I like it, and sometimes you just have to splurge. I mean you're only in Russia once, right? This kind of purchase is "good for one's soul" as my host parents said.

It will keep my whole head nice and toasty for the last month of the Russian winter, and from what I've been seeing on the news lately about the weather in DC, it will come in handy next year too!

Here is a picture of me with my new "Ushanka" (hat with ear flaps):

Pianos, Spleen, and $1000

In the last week or so, a couple interesting things have happened. I am now taking piano lessons twice a week (thanks to my Rotary Club here). I was really missing the piano, and its great to be playing again. I'm a little rusty, but not bad. I'm learning how to read sheet music better now too.
Also, I got good news from the Westerville Sunrise Rotary Club back home. My host club here is doing a project against Tuberculosis, which is still a problem here. They are trying to raise money to buy several machines to detect TB in patients early. But they are really expensive ($8,000 each, and they are buying 6). I thought that this was a great project, and I wanted to get involved somehow. So three months ago, in October, I wote a letter to the Rotary clubs at home, describing the project, and asking if they could help with some sort of donation for the project. Not only would this help my host club, and the people here suffering from TB, but it would also help create a bond of friendship between two international Rotary clubs. And that's what the Youth exchange program is all about, is being ambassadors of goodwill, and connecting people from around the world. Anyway, over the past three months, I was in contact with my sponsoring club at home, sending them updates on teh project, and scanned newspaper articles describing the project. The Westerville Sunrise Club just had a board meeting a week or two ago, and they discussed the project, and decided to donate $1,000 to the TB fund. Not only that, but they want to work together with my host club to set up a matching grant for next year so they might be able to give an even larger amount next year! This is an exciting step for both clubs, and for myself. My thanks goes to the president of the Westerville Sunrise Club, Walter Lundsrom, for working with me on this and championing the cause to the board, and of course my thanks also goes to the board, for without them, this wouldnt have been possible. Thank you all! Over these last three months, I had not told my host club about this, and last week, I presented this information to my club and they were overjoyed. It was a great and pleasant surprise for them.
On another note, on Feb 10, I went to a concert of a Russian rock group named Сплин (Spleen). They have an unusual style, but it is original, and I enjoyed the concert. It was funny though, becasue the lead singer sounds like a Russian Adam Sandler.
We are occasionally starting to get some warm days (-7 degrees), whihch is really nice. I never thought that I would consider -7 warm, but now I do. I have less than a month until my birthday, and also less than a month until I depart for a month-long trip to Nakhodka, Vladivostok, Moscow, and St. Petersburg. It will be great, because it will be the very first time that I have left the city since I arrived five and a half months ago. It will be nice to finally get out and see a different part of Russia. I'm counting down the days until my departure on my first trip here, which sould be the 10th or 11th of March. It will also be the first time that I get to see other exchange students since I arrived. I'm still on break from school right now, until the 24th. Most of my friends are all busy with school right now, so its hard to get together with them. But in general, things are still going well here for me.