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.

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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.