Первая Часть от Моего Рассказа

There was this poem that stalked my mind, but sadly I've forgotten its name and its author. It was written by an Asian American poet, and the poem was shaped like a fishbowl. I read two years ago, because a former friend talked about his English assignment. Then a year later, it was on the English HL test in May 2011. It was a fantastic experience to encounter this familiar poem once more. As you could imagine, I had lots of fun while analyzing the poem. Although it was a rather short piece, I never could remove the concept out of my mind. And so, during one of my sadder days in Russia, I wrote a short story.

And today, I rediscovered it on my laptop.

Вчера мне приснились две необычные рыбки. Они забыли, как и когда они попали в таких странных положениях, но наверно это случилось недавно. У одной рыбы был слабый плавник, но она была очень милая с разноцветной чешуой. А у другой рыбы были яркие голубые глаза, и, к сожалению, плохое зрение.

Рыбы никогда не видели друг друга раньше, потому что они жили в разных аквариумах. Они даже не знали, что их дома находились близко из-за одного высокого домашнего растения между аквариумами.

Однажды хозяин хотел помыть аквариум, где жила рыбка с голубыми глазами, поэтому он перенёс её в другой аквариум. Ей было страшно быть в чужой воде, но когда познакомилась с другой прекрасной рыбой, она чувствовала себя удобна. Вместе они плавали по всему аквариуму, говорили о своей любимой еде, и играли в прятки. Быстро они подружились.

К сожалению, время тоже быстро пролетело. Хозяин закончил мыть аквариум, где жила рыба с голубыми глазами. Он вернул её домой. Рыбка заплакала, но конечно ни человек не мог видеть слезы рыбы в воде. Наша бедная подруга не знала почему, но она не могла другую рыбку забыть.

Теперь между двумя аквариумов существовало нет высокого растения . Рыбы могли смотреть друг на друга мимо холодных прозрачных стеклов. И, так они продолжали общаться. Они поговорили, когда возможно. Показывали новые интересные камешки друг друга, рассказывали о жизни, придумывали о будущих приключениях вместе.

Они старались держать дружбу очень сильно, но это было не совсем как раньше. Стеклими стенами разлучили рыбок. Впридачу, каждый день рыбка, которая была с голубыми глазами и плохим зрением, видела хуже и хуже. Трудно ей видеть даже вещи в своём аквариуме. Как могла она видеть свою подругу?

И, вдруг я встала от сна. Это было не ясно мне что произошло с рыбами. Задумалась и задумалась я. Потом я знала. Я была довольна с двумя противоположными вариантами для нашего конца:

...Продолжаться во второй частье.

...And it continues, but I've lost the original entry in my diary. I threw it away by accident. Yikes! However, I'm sure I'll eventually rewrite the two endings. I have the gisp of what happens, but the exact words are gone.

17 More Days!

The ending so Near

Been a while since the last update, but things in general are going well. I've been rather homesick lately, even though the weather's quite nice. There's been a major hoard of mosquitoes in town, but I successfully prayed to the rain gods to drown them out for a few days. It's cooler with the rain and winds, so it no longer feels like summertime. School for the most part has finished, and I went to watch the Last Bell for the graduating class. They have exams arriving in June, and unfortunately so do I.

There's approximately one month left in Russia. This is both wonderful and bittersweet at the same time. I would really love to travel around the country, but there's no chance of obtaining permission from the authorities.. On the brighter note, we finally have news about the TRKI test. This is after four months of persistently asking...btw. Students MIGHT be able to take the test in Moscow sometimes in June; I have no other information other than that sadly.

Plans were vague at first. We didn't know if it was a possibly to sit this exam or not. I used to be so passionate for studying for this test, by preparing the best I could, but through May, I've lost a bit of self-motivation to perform well anymore. I can't blame it on the weather; it's sometimes else. I lost value in certificates and fancy pieces of paper which recognize academic achievement.

Sometimes I still feel like my "real life" is in pause. I took a year off, when most of my peers have started their freshman year of university. This feels so strange to come back, and yet at the same time, I'm looking forward to returning home so much. It's going to be a bit difficult re-learning college level mathematiques, but it's all part of a long process. I have no reason to slack off. I really need to focus on my education.

And yesterday night, I watched Eurovision on television, this was absolutely awesome. One of my life goals has been achieved. Oh, and I suppose it was cool to see Russia regain the World Hockey Champion title earlier in the month too. So all in all, I hope June will be a great month. See you guys soon!

Coming Soon to Theaters

On Tuesday, we went to the film Avengers in the nearest cinema. It was
a fabulous opening night. Noticeably, the boys significantly
outnumbered the girls in attendance, but my girl friends and I helped
even out the number just....a tiny bit. I believe none of the humor
was lost in translation, because there were so many memorable laughs
from Iron Man's impenetrable "kamen" (stone) heart, Hulk smashing the
overconfident demi-god Loki and so on. I really enjoyed the movie,
although I thought the buildup dragged on too long. It took the team
of superheros forever to build trust in each other and develop
teamwork, but nevertheless the movie clicked. Later that night, walked
around with my host sister in our lovely neighborhood overlooking the
"zalif" (bay, riverside). I don't know why I never mentioned this
earlier, but we also have a place called "Belii Allei" (White Alley)
with three glass pyramids that resemble mini-Louvre museums. There
really is no purpose for these displays, but White Alley is a really
nice place to be.

Earlier this week, my sister led me down a steep path to the bay. It
was literally behind the apartment, but I was scared out of my wits
going down the path. It looked so darn dangerous. Plus, the sun was
setting, so I poorly saw where we were going. However, as we reached
the end, there stood the gorgeous Volga river right in front of us.
The water shined, looking so serene and clean. My sister joked that
this place would be a great place for a date, because there's even a
beach down the road, but I know that's not happening anytime soon. We
were nearly out of breath when we went up the path home. And so, we
agreed that we should exercise more once exams ended and summer
started. I'm sure I'll go back to the bay once more to photograph, but
I'm not much of a "nature-person".

And what else is new? I went to the Finnish-Russian sauna with my host
mother, sister and host mother's friends. There was a pleasant small
swimming pool, where all these women and I swam "golie", and this term
I'll leave for you to translate yourselves. It's a decent time in
Russia. Lessons are more interesting in this last quarter, then
compared to of the other 3/4th of the year. I've settled into a good
crowd of friends. Then, I realize that school will finish at the end
of May, the Petersburg trip will arrive after, and soon I'll be home.
I seriously am ecstatic to return to America. Certainly, I will miss my
year in Russia, and I'll miss the novelty of Russian culture, but I
am so ready to leave. I still dream about travelling the world, and
learning several world languages. Although, there will be some dull
moments this summer at home; it will all be okay. I have time to catch
up with friends and family.

Also, I'm already planning my whole exciting adventure for university!

Spring Has Arrived

Or more like Summer, because the weather is settling around the nice
mid 20 degrees Celsius, which compares to the warmer weather of my
hometown. Only a few weeks ago, it was still snowing. And now? No
trace of snow, but we do have occasional rain. It's rather funny,
because Russia celebrated the arrival of Spring in March, but the
weather did not match the time of year at all. Now, it's a mid-way
point between Spring and Summer. The weather is mostly sunny, while
the grass is turning green. I don't know how many times I can repeat
this, but the sudden weather change really amazes me. I can't get over
it.

It feels like not much has happened since the last blog post, but I'm
probably wrong. The memories have lumped into a giant mass of good
feelings, and also anxiety about returning to America. I strongly miss
home. Even as Spring beautifies the city, I'm very nervous about the
remaining two months. I want to make the most out of the short time,
but concurrently, I want time to fly by ever-so quickly so I can enjoy
the Summer back with friends and family in America.

I'm certain my Englich vocabulary and grammar has died over the last
ten months, but I simply cease to care. I'll return home with an
awkward speech pattern, odd lingo, but I'm sure I'll reassimulate and
regain my Bay Area dialect once more. As much as one wants to deny it,
Bay Areans have their own specialised form of English.....which
rapidly updates with every new advancement in technology and music.
Well yes, you'll see guys. We'll keep this a rather casual post today,
without the deeper analysis behind this theory. But I assure you, the
dialect is there!

We're making great progress in our school Russian lessons. We changed
teachers, which really improved the whole situation of pedagogy, but I
digress....I'm quite happy that school will soon end. May has yet to
arrive, but I hope it ends soon! The end of school would also signal
our trip to Saint Petersburg. I'm quite excited for the trip, because
I've purchased a few books about Peter the Great; I'm just waiting to
see the city myself now!

Some of the exchange students were allowed to visit the South for the
end of April, but most of us continue to stay in school. I had a
desire to visit Moscow on Victory Day, but I feel like that won't be
possible, because of finances and because of the difficulty of
obtaining program permission...so I just remind myself of that life
lesson: "You can't always have what you want". Oh well, life overall
is great. I'm missing America like crazy, and I have absolutely no
wi-fi access, so I don't go on the Internet usually.

Today is just an exception, so in the future....there won't be much
more blog posts. Sorry!!!

Running out of Time

There's only 3 months left in Russia, meaning I'm going to spend less time on the computer blogging and more time preparing for Russian exams. Exchange friends and I were considering joining a fitness club, but I'm not sure if we have time for all this. At least we've been having a decent time in town; we've even had a wonderful birthday celebration for Paige last Saturday. In the meantime, I can only leave you with this short slideshow/video montage of the last 7 months in Russia:

If you know the roots and prefixes,....

Then this should be easy to understand the gist of these verbs.

• переписать. To re-write, overwrite
• пописать. To pee* stress is different
• написать. To finish writing
• вписать. To write in, inscribe, fit
• выписать. To write off, prescribe
• отписать. To unsubscribe
• записать. To register, to record
• подписать.To sign
• списать. To copy, write off
• описать. To describe
• прописать. To register, prescribe
• приписать. To attribute, assign
• дописать. To finish writing

School on a Sunday

Relating back to a post where I said there were cars drifting on the frozen river, I can report that I've seen more. Meike and I spent Saturday checking out the art museums in town, and happened to see the race going on called the Volga Trek.

Participants paid a fee of 1000-3000 euros to race on the Volga river a la mode Tokyo Drift...if you understand what I mean. There was also a person hang-gliding around the bay, but I'm not really sure why. In all we spent a solid 4 hours walking around the galleries, and I found Pear her birthday present.

And sadly, that concluded the three day break we had off for Women's Day in Russia. Sunday we went to school, which means we have 7 straight days of school this week. But good news, next week starts Spring Vacation. I'm not sure if we'll have camp or anything special to do during break, but I'm hoping we do.

People watch TV and don't know their own neighbors!

Above is a line from a classic Russian film "Москва слезам не верит", or otherwise known as "Moscow does not believe in Tears". But in fact, I met my Russian neighbors today. It was an accident, because I came to the 10th floor, but no one was home to let me in the flat. My backpack was filled with groceries for pizza, but no where to leave it. My nice neighbors invited me to wait for my sister in their home, and initially I refused, but then I started talking with them, so all was well. I only stayed for maybe 10 minutes. And on the general note, for the last four months, I've been meeting new faces everyday, aka the residents of the 16 floored apartment. I'm sure I won't meet everyone, but it's been a nice experience so far.

And now, my pizza is finished, and it's so American compared to all these mayo-pizzas! There's champignon (white) mushrooms, sausage and cheese! Life feels great. And I forgot to write about yesterday's busy schedule, but I'll cheat with free prose: 5 lessons, school day without teacher, watched Russian movie, ice skate, shoes, watched people dance at the ball, "grape", McD and home!

Next to do?

We have four more months to go in Russia. Spring "started" March first according to the people in town, but it's snowing more nowadays than it was in the last 6 months. I still feel like I speak English too often, and should speak more in Russian. Recently, my friend Pasha and I advanced to the regional level of this academic conference contest. We placed first on the school level, then first on the city level.

The first time my partner really surprised me, because our project was done wonderfully in English. The second time, we had less than a week to translate everything into Russian. I feared that my Russian would really ruin the presentation, but in fact, we had done well. Our judges smiled often. During our question and answer portion, I was surprised that the audience was actually paying attention. Most of the time, it's really difficult to capture the interest of these young teenagers. So, what's next? I'm not really sure, but anyhow, the weather's lovely.

I went ice skating with my host sister and friends not too long ago, and I hope to go again soon.

And March 4th is election day in Russia, but everyone says it's simply a formality. We all believe Putin will return to his presidency without contest. On the interesting note, Russia has an interesting way to combat polling irregularities. The country has 600k volunteers to watch over the polling stations via Internet and cameras. And I'm watching the elections online too...

My Russian Lessons

Things are normal at school. I don't hate it, but it's not terribly exciting. I realized that I'll be okay in the next 4 months. I'll just continue to self-teach. In the mean while, I'll make it more fun by finding awesome little humorous pieces to read. It's also not so bad when I'm reading Russian food magazines too; it's a great way to pick up new vocabulary.

Source:http://www.belomors.ru/russian/uncultured_people.gif

Mid Stay Orientation

Let's try to do a quick summary rather than too much reflection. I arrived late 20 mins to School 41, but completed a survey early along with the other 9 AFS students about our last 5 months in town. We ate pastries, and shortly after we ate lunch. I went with Meike, Tamara, and Pasha to Natasha's class. There we introduced ourselves in Russian. I spoke last and convinced people to move tables so we could do karate. I did a half-assed* job until I got embarrassed to continue. The other AFS people weren't participating, but then they joined in as we did that "Red Horse and Fly" German song. We got tired and ran out of the class. Later we hit the AFS blue pinata. We had interviews about our problems/concerns about the year program. I cried, not knowing how to explain how frustrated I was about school, but all went well. We had an end of the day recap, with news that we might have a trip to Veliky Novgorod (northern Russian) or Kazan. Afterwards, Pasha, Tamara, Meike and I went to McDonalds, where we drew fancy doodles and wrote in various languages. Then it was time to go home. The weather is getting warmer.

*no vulgarity intended, to me half-assed means you only have one donkey rather than two, so the work is done not as efficiently.

Going Halfway

Five more months left here. Next Saturday, foreign students in our town are supposed to have a mid-stay orientation to reflect and talk about our days in Russia. I don't know how it will be like, but I don't think it would really be anything special. Maybe I should bring a pinata for us to whack. Yesterday, we had a meeting at school 41 starting at 5:30pm, but sadly there wasn't much to do beforehand. Pear and I searched for a birthday present for her host brother at Mega Mall, but still had plenty of time to kill afterward. Near school 41, we've always passed by a few food stands, so with the extra time, we got the chance to check them out.

One of the kiosks happened to sell doughnuts "ponchiki" for a decent price, so I bought a few to try along with tea. We stood near the stand to drink our burning hot tea, which kept us warm from the cold. I reached for my bag of doughnuts for a bite, and surprisingly the pigeon crowd chased after the food. The birds in America would never dare be that close to humans, but in Russia, they're gangster birds! These daring creatures fly so close to a person's face in the presence of food. When you walk toward them, they waddle away to clear path and don't bother to waster their energy by flying away. I guess it's simply because Americans have long domesticated pigeons (even teaching them to deliver our mail in past days), so they're just scared to approach us unless we enslave or hurt them. Oi, that's a culture shock.

There's also always a lot of dogs and cats roaming the snowy streets of town, but all seem friendly. Haven't met an aggressive dog on the street, but saw one trapped in a cage once. Then again, I was told that particular German Shephard had a larger bark than desire to bite anyone. I don't know what to make of that idea, but I'll just accept it. Tasha pointed out that the dogs here are rather smart too. They know to cross the street only when there's a green light...and we've seen a bizzare case of a lost dog trying to board marshrutkas.

Turned out Alright

Wednesday was stressful, because there was too much to get done. Tasha, Pear and I ran around Cheboksary to record things for this promotional video about town, or what I like to call propaganda. It was too stressful, because it was the day I needed to finish a presentation with Pasha too. Anyhow, I don't want to get into details, but everything was finished and turned out alright.

Today was the preliminary stage of the contest for presentations. Pasha and I placed first in our research about Stereotypes about Russia and the United States. Our work isn't that strong in my opinion, but our presentation made the judges smile, so I guess it was good? We're moving on to the city-stage, which makes me a bit nervous. I hope we place again! On the bright note, several of our friends already placed in their schools, so they will join us for the bigger city event.

What is your name Mister?

In Russia, I've encountered the cleaning product "Mr. Proper" (Mister Chister) instead of "Mr. Clean". However, the name's not limited only to Russia. Some other countries market the cleaner as "Mr. Proper", but it perplexes me why they chose the word "proper" over "clean". The culture of this perplexes me.

And also, we've received news about our Spring Camp with AFS. The approximate cost is about 14,000 rubles, about over $450 US for 3 days. If this was a longer camp, I would understand the logistical cost for housing, food and activities, but this is a rather steep price. The cost means many of the other exchange students won't go to camp, so even if I go, I won't see them. Sure, I'd probably make closer friends with the people who actually participate, but I'm a bit disappointed by all this.

I don't like to post negative things, but sometimes the way AFS-Russia events are organized bothers me. If I didn't have a scholarship, I probably wouldn't have the funds for many of these activities. And for this, I sympathize for other exchange students. I haven't seen a day where there was free camp or AFS event; it would be more comforting if we knew to where the initial program fees went (transportation, food, housing, camps, etc.). Sadly, we don't.

And on the extremely random note, I lost a black and white striped swimsuit in Siberia....Sorry. It was placed on the heater to dry, but the next day we were in a hurry to pack and leave Lyantor. So there the swimsuit stays.

Food is Cheap, Clothing is not

It's no secret that food is cheaper in this country than in America, and I've been taking advantage of that. I tried looking deeper into this. At first, the cost of consumer goods perplexed me. Food, movie/opera tickets, transportation and basic necessities were relatively cheap, but clothing, electronics and especially cars were three times the price we saw in America.

Example, let's place $1 to 30 rubles (although, the dollar seems be to going down nowadays):

Commodity Good	My Russian Town's Price
Roll of bread	$0.30 = 10 rubles (supermarket price, at bakery probably cheaper)
Movie ticket	$4.66 ($2.33) = 140 rubles (70 rubles on Weds)
Ipod Shuffle	$75 = 2250 rubles (It's only $35 in US)
Winter Coat	$200-$500 = 6000 -15000 rubles (these aren't fur coats)
McD Cheeseburger	$1.33 = 40 rubles
Ford 2008 Escape	$36,000 = 99000 rubles (3x than in US)
Shampoo	$3 = 90 rubles
Bus ride	$0.40 = 12 rubles (11 rubles for trolleybuses)
Bowling w/ 6 people	$3.33 per person/hr = 100 rubles

I'm not an economist, but here are some various ideas:

1. Most status and brand name items are imported. The set original price is already expensive, but the shipping and transportation from the manufacturing country raises the price of these goods.
2. Naturally, basic necessities should be accessible to the majority of citizens, so prices are lower. It's more fair this way. Plus, goods like food can be produced locally, so they cost less.
3. Clothing is overall expensive, because of it must be made to withstand Russian weather, and it's also a status item.

The prices are pleasant for foreigners, who come from countries with a stronger spending power, but this doesn't mean living in Russia is easy. I think Russian citizens have a more difficult life. Compared to America, the earning wages in Russia are lower for most professions. The average wage equals to $7,680 per year, with larger cities with higher average income. Even though cafes and restaurants are generally cheaper than where I used to live, people can't survive by eating out every day. I noticed families often ate more at home, prepared their own meals, and cooking skill is heavily stressed for females.

Another thing I noticed is that Russians seem to be more comfortable with speaking about money. The question of “How much does that cost?” and “How much does your father/mother/you make?” is less intrusive as it would be in other cultures. Perhaps this culture appreciates money more, because they know the meaning of hard labor behind it.

15 Qs about Russia

MasterRussian.com

How well do you know Russia?

Russia boasts rich history, strong traditions, influential arts, ballet, literature and architecture. Test your knowledge of facts about Russia. The answers will be reviewed in the end.

My results:

Renaissance Man
Congratulations! Just one minor mistake. The questions were rather difficult and you scored a lot. It's always a pleasure to deal with a well-educated person.

» Take this Russian language test
» View all tests at MasterRussian.com

По-Русски

Так, я никогда не писала здесь по-русски, но мне надо стараться. Почему раньше у меня был нет русского текста? Потому что было трудно мне. Я еще боюсь что у меня много ошибк когда я пишу, поэтому раньше я только писала в моей тетради, который никто не видел. Тем не менее...Я в России, и хочу лучше знать этот язык.

У иностраных школьников еще 5 месяцев этой стране. :)

And a quick note:

I have a guilty pleasure in Russia: sweets. At the grocery store, I bought two bags of this cream-cheese-milkcurd concoction called “tvorog” (творог). I've first tried it in Siberia with strawberry jam, and almost no other desert can compare. It's amazing how something so simple to prepare can be so delicious, no baking required! (Of course, if I had to make the milk curds and jam from scratch, it would be tedious.) I haven't had it in the while, but now I'm addicted to tvorik with condensed milk. No one else in my household seems to like it as much, so at first, I ate more, as not to waste it, but unfortunately now, I'm absolutely hooked. As much as I like this desert, I know it's not the healthiest dish, so I'm happily awaiting the day when I eat my last plate. Then, I don't plan on purchasing any more. I've gained weight from eating too much, and not exercising here.

How we made the Egg Pinata

It's all Sand anyhow.

Three pinatas were finished this week, thanks to the help of Pear, Tamara and Joe. Today, I presented a Powerpoint on Pinatas, which I stumbled on...but nevertheless, we destroyed two pinatas and distributed the candy to the 8th grade class. I found that funny, because American children love to run up and savagely fight over the candy claims, but the Russian students wanted to fairly share and pass on the sweets. I find this to be a funny analogy to capitalism and communism, but really I mean it as a joke.

After the presentation, some AFS students went to Pizzanik. We ate and talked at the cafe. Tasha, Joe and Pear went home early, while Tamara and I explored the bay "zalif". I compared the snow to white sand, and we had a running gag that we were actually in the Sahara Desert, not cold Russia.

We saw people walking over the frozen Volga river, and we wondered how we'd be able to do the same. There was no clear entrance, so we walked around to look for it. We came to the conclusion that we should jump over the gates, and hop on the ice. At that exact time, Meike called us. She wasn't too far from us, and I joked that since she's conveniently tall...if we got on the river, and needed a boost climbing back up the gates, she'd be able to help.

Really, we had no clue if there was an easy exit from the river, or if we had to jump the gates to get out. Either way, nothing really would stop us. We were determined to walk on the river, like the Russians.

And so we met. We revealed our master plan to Meike, who was at first hesitant, but then decided to collaborate. Then I was first to climb down from the gates, and onto the river. It was cool, walking on top of a frozen river, since I'd never be able to do this in my part of California. The weather forbids me this liberty. We walked, then wrote "AFS" on the snow, and we found a road exiting the river. That all felt so easy.

Later, we walked downtown. We hung out until 7pm. I was really interested in know why they chose to go with AFS to Russia, while there were other options such as Rotary. The talk help me learn more about my friends and their home countries.

Quick Update

Brought an unfinished pinata to school...and next thing you know, on Saturday I'm supposed to do a presentation on Chinese New Years and Paper Mache.

Sunny Winters

I quite like the winter in town. Sure, it's much colder than
California, but there's never any rain or snow storms here. I think
it's pleasant that our town has sunshine during the winter months. It
would be depressing seeing cloudy grey skies everyday. I'm really
excited about going to college in the States, because I have some
ideas on how to continue studying Russian, and also, I've decided I
want to work more with international students. There's a part of my
heart in being a foreigner; I would have never felt this if I wasn't a
exchange student. I feel absolutely positive right now, because this
week has been treating me rather kind.

Yesterday, Tasha came over. I was rather anxious, because I never had
friends at the flat before, but all was well. I met my older sister's
friend Nastia from Moscow at tea. We all sat in the kitchen and
acquainted ourselves. In addition, Tasha and I picked up some Russian
slang. Some words are rather rude, so I rather not advertise them over
the Net. At some point, I think all exchange students might pick up a
few curse words in the country too. How could you not? I doubt I'll
use these words, but it's useful for the movies, especially the
thrillers/actions. Nastia decided to join Tasha and I for the French
film later that day.

Time passed so quickly. Afterwards, we were on our way to the central
library. We were already running a bit late to meet our schoolmate
Lily, but we easily found the viewing hall. The film had just started.
"Ensemble, C'est Tout" had Audrey Tatou, who's famous for starring in
"Amelie", so I thought the film was rather cool. It was easy to
understand. I defaulted on reading the Russian subtitles, but at times
I understood the scenes from hearing the spoken French. These
subtitles disappeared "ochen bistro" (really fast), but overall, it
was a good exercise to improve my foreign language comprehension. I
felt proud being about to understand the film with the absence of
English. The film ended around 7:30, and then we all headed home.

I was rather hungry during the film, because one of the character's
profession was a cook, but the hunger just dissolved when I was on the
way home. In fact, the ride home was itself a joy. Shortly after
Nastia departed, I met a high school student who spoke English. She
attends a school which specialized in English, and has had many
exchange students in the past. Long story short, we exchanged numbers
and let's see how it goes from there. I'm beginning to think that
Cheboksary is a lot more globally-connected than I initially thought.
We lost contact with the language festival volunteers, but they're
also part of Cheboksay's international communtiy. I really missed the
cultural and ethnic diversity in California, but it's wonderful that I
can find it here too. It just requires some effort to see!

So that's more good news for you. ;-)

Swimming in the River

Yes. I already spoiled the topic of today's post by the title, but
nevertheless, that is what Russians are doing today. It's a spiritual
holiday today, where people swim or dip their bodies in the water at
least three times to cleanse themselves of sins. I think it's a rather
cool tradition since it's great timing with the New Year, but I don't
think I would dare step into the cold waters this winter. Maybe some
winter in California I could handle. I find myself missing Winter camp
in Moscow very strongly, but now I'm dealing with it better, because
school's keeping me busy. We had a test yesterday, and I felt rather
confident about my work this time. I was slightly interrupted during
the oral section, but it was bound to happen. I chose the topic of
"Moya Strana" which translates to my country. It was natural to speak
about it since AFS students always have to present about their native
countries at camps and school. As you might have noticed, my English
is getting stranger. The normal use of syntax is distorted, but that's
happening naturally and I don't mind. In Russian, word order doesn't
matter as much as in English, because they use a case system, which
clearly identifies the actor and object(s) in each sentence. It's
smart, but also a bit hard to learn at first. So now, it's all about
adapting. Most of this week, I didn't want to go on the Internet,
because I'm having a good time without it. Saying this is rather
funny, because in America, I could hardly live without the Internet.
In fact, I would feel really guilty too, because I worked on
websites...and without Internet, you might guess how little I would
accomplish. Anyhow, I purposely want to keep this post short, because
there will be other times to write. See you guys in 5 more months!

Culture Note of Two New Years

Today is "Stari Novi God" meaning "Old New Years". It might seem confusing to have those two adjectives next to each other, and it might seem like an oxymoron, but it in fact makes sense in Russia. Historically, Russia and other countries operated on the Julian calendar system rather than the Gregorian, so New Years was on January 14th. Then in 1918, Russia adopted the Gregorian calendar, so the concept of "Old News Years" arrived. It was a nice way of preserving an old tradition I think. On this holiday, the celebratory programming for New Years re-aired on television and neighbors came over as guests. I also have the pleasure of knowing that they observe the 13th of Friday as superstitiously as they do in the States.

And...in February, I can technically count the "Chinese" lunar new years as a third New Years celebration, since Russia also goes out of its way to celebrate the year of the Dragon too. There is more paraphernalia of dragons in this country than I ever saw in America.

I Haven't Forgetten

Midway through writing yet another journal entry in my Russian "tetrad" booklet, I realised that it's been some time since I last updated the blog. Once again, sorry about the lack of posts. I made a commitment to maintain this blog, so I'll try posting at least once a week again. This Wednesday our winter break (zimnee kanikuli) ended, as the new semester began at school. We had four days of camp near Moscow, but we didn't explore the city until departure day. Camp started out poorly, to be honest, as the exchange students and Russian students did not< want to interact at first, but over the days, people became more friendly toward each other. For the most part, we had a good time presenting our native languages and about our home countries. Every night there was an evening dance (discoteka), but I only went once or twice. Instead, we stayed in the dorms to talk with friends we haven't seen in the last four months.
I wasn't very social in camp outside the established group of friends, but I don't regret it much. I talked to the people I wanted to, and made enough new friends too. Despite the good spirits, there was a tiny air of sadness lingering over the four days. Time is precious, as we learned. This Winter Camp would be the last time we would see other exchange students until June or maybe earlier. That is, if we're lucky. Sadly, some close friends live in faraway cities, but we're discouraged from traveling outside our placement city. It's already quite hard, because the distances are massive. It was cited that our personal safety was a top concern, and travelling across regions would pose a liability for the exchange program in case of accidents. On Departure Day of camp, all the students split up. We have different trains to catch, so we said our goodbyes. The Cheboksary kids lunched at McDonalds. Then later in the day, we went to Red Square (krasnaya ploshad) and GYM shopping center. We met up with our very cool volunteer Rianne afterwards. She led us through the Metro, where we saw the Bolshoi Theater, Malinki Theater and various monuments (pomitniki). We even had a nice stop at Starbucks. Then we walked through the historical Arbat Street, which I thought to be one of the most gorgeous sights ever. I really enjoyed the excursion, even though I wished we had more time to explore.

Vi-Ki-Newt

Forgot to share this nice memory, but it happened sometime in Fall. My host sister asked how to translate Russian verb "vi-ki-newt" into English. I told her that it translated as "to put it (something) in the trash", and she repeated it several times quickly. But one time she discarded "the" and slurred the "it", so the phrase became something close to "put in trash". I told her how slightly offensive it might be to say this in Russian public. I'll let you figure this one out, about why we afterwards laughed at this. Well no, maybe I should be more straight forward:

Put it in the Trash.... Now that sounds really bad right? I personally wouldn't  want to insult any politician.

After reflection, I realized that I could have said "discarded" or "to throw out" as possible translations, but this was just perfect for a funny moment. Funny that we had no intentions other than to teach each other English and Russian, and this is how it turned out.

I spent the day writing cultural notes about Russia in my "tetrad" journal, but I don't think I'll publicise a list over the net. It's something you could personally ask me about, since some of it borders on stereotypes and generalizations. I feel that it's better to think of each person as an individual than to make assumptions first, and secondly, I don't want to impose any politically incorrect views on readers here.

Old New Year's Stariy Noviy God

So there's a part two of the New Years Celebrations. The grandparents (mother's parents) came over at 9pm, so the whole family ate Russian salads, and the pizzas my sister Anya and I made. Then around midnight, we watched the President on TV congratulating this time zone on New Years. Things sped up afterwards. Before I knew it, we were leaving the house for our friend's party.

It was a great night, but I'd like to bring up the salads again. They were simply amazing, and I totally want to take the recipe back to America. This salad with fish and beets is fabulous!

Wedding

Proud to say I understood this entire film. =) I think you will too, even if you don't know the language.