Friday, May 25, 2007
Гммм
Some time in the near future I am going to write an entry to wrap things up, detail what I will and won't miss from Russia, etc. For now however, I would much rather walk around the place I have called home for the last few months and actively reminisce rather than passively on paper.
I hope everyone is happy and healthy.
До скорого,
-Гриша
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Расписание
May 26 - Yaroslavl - Moscow
May 27 - Moscow - Irkutsk
May 30 - Arrive in Irkutsk
May 31 - Irktusk to Lostyanka (and back) to see one view of Lake Baikal
June 1- Irkutsk to an island named Olkhon in the center of Lake Baikal! (arrive at night)
June 2 - Day tour of Olkhon
June 3 Olkhon - Irkutsk
June 4 Day in Irkutsk and then Irkutsk -Ulan Ude
June 5 Bus from Ulan Ude - Ulaanbatar (Mongolia!!!)
June 6 Start tour of Mongolia/Gobi Desert
June 12 End tour in Ulaanbatar
and after that a flight back to Moscow and a day or two in Yaroslavl and, um, home.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Оранжовое Настроене
All that remains to be done now is to book my tour of Mongolia and the Gobi Desert.
Oh, and all my finals, too.
Also, I and a friend were just on the news from when we were watching the Day of Victory Parade. So I’ve achieved my dream of being on Russian TV.
Edit: I also just won Spider Solitaire with 2 suits. This accomplishment probably interests no one but me.
Наконец!
Its finals time here in Russia.
The long definition of this means that I am swamped with work and need to do the following:
15 minute oral presentation on the group “KINO” for Русская Култура (already done)
3, 3 page essays for Culture class
A 12 page analytical essay on Gorky’s early prose (the official thesis is “How Gorky’s portrayal of landscapes works in conjunction with his romantic hero and the idea of freedom in earlier works”)
A Russian Grammar test
And an acting presentation for Phonetics
All of these, of course, in Russian.
The short definition of this means that I have rediscovered the joys of “3D Space Cadet Pinball” on my computer. My procrastination has resulted in a whole slew of new high scores, most notably the 2,341,500 highest score.
To make myself feel better about it all, the names that correspond to each High Score all include my name and a description of what project I am supposed to be working on while playing pinball.
Example: the aforementioned 2,341,500 high score has a corresponding name of «Гриша (работая на доклад)” or, in English “Greg (working on report)” This specific one was for history. But there are other ones there “Greg (working on essay)”, “Greg (working on homework)” etc.
Ok, this really isn’t about Russia.
On Saturday I saw a play, Chekhov’s “Two Funny Stories About Love” (the title sounds much better in Russian) and, amazingly, I understood almost all of it (about 80 percent). It was hilarious-there is one actor there who is incredibly talented. He is the kind of actor you could watch for hours on end and never get tired of. A friend of mine works at the theater and has offered to sneak me in any time I want to see a play.
Oh, before the play, while walking to the theater, I saw something absolutely incredible. It was sunny out but half the sky was covered in dark clouds. And then, all of a sudden, it started to hail. I have seen sun showers but I have never, in my life seen a..I don’t even know what to call it, a Sun Hailing? Anyways, it was beautiful and if I wasn’t so tired I’d do a better job of describing it here, but, sufficed to stay, I delayed my trip to the theater by a good 10 minutes by just stopping and standing and watching the square in front of me, the sun right above me shining, a bit farther off darkened clouds, and all around me streams of little white circles.
I was supposed to see Spiderman 3 in Russian tonight with some friends but unfortunately tickets were sold out.
Tomorrow is День Победы (Day of Victory [WWII]). This is an incredibly important day in Russia (I believe I have already touched upon the significance of the second World War in Russian history and the unimaginable toll it took). There will be a parade tomorrow and many, many veterans will be out on the streets, it will be very interesting to see.
It’s a very odd feeling that this is already my last month here. In fact, I have even less, since soon I will be buying a train ticket to head to Siberia, see Lake Baikal, and then head on a tour of Mongolia. So I actually leave here, if all goes as planned, on the 27th, and don’t return to just a few days before my plane flight back on the 16th of June.
By the way, the train to Irkutsk (Siberia) is 3 days long.
That grammar was incorrect. The train ride is 3 days long. The train is probably about 20 cars or so. I’m already forgetting English.
Like I said earlier, its strange that I only have a month left. The other day, after coming home late, I happened to look at the two large suitcases I had brought with me to Russia, now stuffed in the corner of my room. And these suitcases, that months ago seemed so heavy while I dragged them anxiously and expectantly out of the freezing night and up the dirty stairs to my Babooshka’s apartment, the suitcases, in which I had absurdly “prepared” all my clothes and books and emotions for something you can never truly prepare for, these suitcases that now lay forgotten in the corner – they had dust on them.
You can take that for whatever kind of metaphor you want.
ok, I have to get back to work, hope all is well with everyone,
-Гриша
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Так....
So…
I don’t know if anyone is left that still reads this or if you’ve all long since given up hope that I would make a decent update (I know I have!)
I don’t even remember the last time I wrote, I think it was upon returning from Moscow on my break, yeah.
Well its April 30th now and, if I remember the song right I think there are only 30 days in April which means tomorrow will be May 1. This is incredibly strange, not only because it means I will be leaving in a little over a month, but because it means I arrived here 3+ months ago. However, I don’t want to do a wrap-up/reflective entry just yet, so you’ll have to settle for a sporadic list of interesting things in the order I remember them.
Russian Writers-First and foremost, for some reason I never posted about this but it has probably been one of the greatest things to have happened here. About 2+ months ago I found out that there was a writer’s group meeting in Yaroslavl. So I went to it and there I became friends with a circle of real Russian writers (many of them published, all of them poets). One of the guys there even has his own publication and wants me to submit my own writing to be translated and published in the journal. So that would be cool.
But I really wish I had written about this when it first happened, because it was incredible, I went ot the meeting, perhaps freaked the participants out a bit by my direct questions about philosophy of writing, subject matters, etc, but then we spent about 5 hours just walking around discussing form vs. function, the future of writing, reciting poetry (me, the poetry I knew in Russian, them, the poetry they knew in English), etc. Anyways, I meet with them about once every two weeks so that is great.
Concerts-Besides the classical music concerts I try to go to at least once every two weeks Irecently went to an INCREDIBLE concert here by the group Машина Времени (Time Machine). They are known as the “Russian Beatles” as a result of their popularity (they’ve been around for over 30 years and are more or less the equivalent to the Rolling Stones in terms of name recognition). The concert was amazing.
Детский Дом- that translates to “Orphanage”. With the YMCA group here I went to an orphanage about a month ago which was a very interesting experience. Unfortunately because of the high frequency of slang used it was difficult for me to fully understand everything the kids there were saying. But I was very glad I went and I wish I had more time to write about it.
Черупашки Нинжи – There’s really no excuse for not writing about this earlier. That translates to “Ninja Turtles”. Yes, those ones. Well, the new movie is playing here and, as it was обязательно (incredibly incredibly necessary) that me and the other Americans had a chance to see our childhood heroes (read: “current heroes” as well) we all got together one day, headed down to one of the local theaters, bought tickets with more excitement than the people at the theater had probably ever seen, and sat down and watched a good 2hours of Ninja Turtles…in RUSSIAN. After that we went and ate pizza. There were a bunch of photographs taken to document the event but unfortunately they are on someone else’s camera now and won’t be up for a while.
Moscow- Last week I was in Moscow for a conference for Middlebury students and graduates of the language school. It was basically a gathering for the purpose of networking and I was able to get a whole collection of business cards from people currently working in Moscow. The best part of this was being able to see some of my friends from summer school who I have not seen in a while.
Middlebury Professors- Earlier last week Professor Beyer (my first Russian teacher ever! Professor Beyer, if you are reading this, hello!) and two other Middlebury Professors came to visit us (they were also at the conference) and we all had breakfast together one day. It was really nice, and strange to actually be able to have a conversation in Russian, especially when most of my first year conversations consisted of saying my name and where I am from with a 5 minute pause in between each word.
Currently I have been incredibly busy as a result of finals and friends. When I don’t have встречи (meetings, but more accurately in the context of “hanging out”) I am reading non-stop. Except for the breaks.
I’m at the point now where half of me wants to go to home, but the other half knows that the second I am there I will want to be back in Russia. A while back I came to the odd realization that with every step I take here, a bigger and bigger part of me is going to stay here. At times I feel as if I don’t have a home anymore, or more accurately one single place I can call home. That and my personality is split between my Russian self and my American self. One of the things people who have been to Russia always say is that “when you’re in Russia you want to be home, and when you are home you want to be in Russia”. I think I’ve mentioned that here before.
Oh, on an even more philosophical note (and this is addressed to my first year Russian classmates):
Do you guys remember that cartoon we watched «Дядя Федор»? and how there was that one really odd scene (ok, there were a lot of really odd scenes) with the cat and the sandwich and a) we had never seen a sandwich that looked like that before and b) we had no idea what the cat was talking about [for those of you were not lucky enough to be witnesses to this film, the scene in question basically involves a cat, eating a sandwich, except he tells this kid that the best way to eat the sandwich is upside down (there is only bread on one side) because it tastes better that way. Ok, after that explanation every one should be just as confused as we were]
WELL:
The sandwiches бутерброды really DO look just like that here. AND, I took the cat’s advice, and ate one upside down – they taste like 50 times better.
Regarding the same мултфильм (cartoon) – I was walking down the street about a month or two ago and I saw a man that looked exactly like the creepy postman also from Дядя Федор.
I think there were other parallels I had meant to address as well but they will have to be saved for another time.
With only a month left I’ll try to do more updating in here.
Also, remember that band Сплин (Spleen), my favorite group here? Through a series of random events (ok, two) I ended up with the phone number of one of the members. We’ll see where this leads…
Also, to anyone whose email I have yet to reply to…I am going to very soon, I’m sorry if I haven’t gotten back to you yet!
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Its been a while
I have been extremely busy between spending time with friends here and occasionally finding the time to do schoolwork.
But there will be a new post in which all is detailed.
It just won't be this one.
Hope everyone is well,
-Гриша
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Moscow
Even though its 2 minutes till midnight and I just got back from Moscow (safe and sound I should add) and I really want to sleep, I am going to write this entry now, recapping Moscow because, as we all know, if I just put a promise for the entry here, chances are it won’t appear later. Or maybe it will appear but on a completely different theme or topic than promised. Moving on,
I’ve always had a underlying appreciation for
Both Olyeg and Aleksei got their Visas! I am psyched beyond beliefe about this, as it means they will be in
The second halfd of the day was spent wlaking around
And then in the afternoon I met up with the people for whom I am currently working translating their website. They are a band (called “RadaNik”) and we had an incredible time – went to a café, talked, laughed; it turns out one of the members of the band loves Mr. Bean with a passion only, perhaps, eclipsed by my own, and we spent a good hour or so saying things like “Помните когда он делал это!» “Remember the time he did this!” etc. It was great, and they are all wonderful people and I now have an open invitation to go to a recording session of theirs next time I am in
Sunday night I saw a presentation of Gogol’s Ревизор “The Revisor” (maybe that’s not an accurate translation), a comedy that I occasionally understood and, when I did, very much enjoyed.
Its impossible to stress just how different the Russian view of World War II is. Not difference, so much as, just how central a part the war played (and continues to play) in the lives of Russians today. In
«Что такое Русский стол?»
«Там лежит пива, бутилка водки, киелбаса, и собака.»
«За чем собака?»
«Есть киелбасу»
In English
”What makes a Russian table (for eating. Basically: What is a Russian table composed of)”
“Beer, a bottle of vodka, kielbasa, and a dog”
“Why a dog?”
“To eat the kielbasa”
Klin is a nice, small town that certainly has the feel of the Russian countryside, occasionally interrupted by busy streets. One large difference from either
There was only one sort of scary incident that happened on my way back. Sensing the fact that I stood out fairly strong in the town I tried to take as few pictures as possible so as to not look even more like a tourist. However, at one point I came across a bridge that was over a small but pretty waterfall. I figured that taking pictures of the waterfall would not immediately identify me as a foreigner, since Russians probably did as well, and therefore headed down the staircase to the path which ran alongside the river and started taking a few pictures.
Suddenly I heard a loud crash close to me and looked up to see a group of middle schoolers standing on the bridge overlooking the waterfall. They were throwing fairly large stones in my direction and laughing. (I only found out later that this happened to a friend of mine in
Returning by train to
Tuesday: Went to the Tretyakovskaya Gallery (an incredibly famouse museume, with onie of the best collections of Russian art), got in at the student price which is about 2 dollars. Afterwards I went back to “
One last story before I finish up:
On the train ride back I was quite tired and was looking forward just to reading and not having to think, so for the first hour I ate my Russian equivalent of Raman Noodles, drank my chai, and read. But somehow or another, (I forget how) I ended up exchanging a few words with the guy sitting across from me (with the intention of going back to reading right afterwards). However, the conversation quickly took a fairly philosophical turn and, not being one to turn down such a conversation, the remaining 3 hours on the train flew by as we talked passionately about the human soul, how to lead the fullest life, karma, God’s existence, and the responsibility of one human being to another. It was an incredible conversation and it turns out the man (he’s probably about 30-40 years old) lives in
This is already too long of an entry and badly written. Next time I am going to write an entry about various aspects of Russian culture/philosophy I enjoy/don’t enjoy. And perhaps soon I will finish the entry I already started about the 8th of March as it touches on many of the same themes.
In conclusion, I successfully traveled alone around
До скорово,
Гриша
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Oh
As a result just a few things:
Pictures from St. Petersburg have been posted. Go! See them! Now!
Um, I think that's all, when I get back from Moscow I will write a long entry, maybe even 2.
Hope everyone is well,
-Grisha
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Soon
-8th of March (humongous holiday here)
-My trip to Saint Petersbug
-and new photos will be posted.
Very soon.
Righ now i am quite busy. Also, I think I will be ehading to Kiev in two weeks
-Grisha
Saturday, March 3, 2007
Part II –In which Grisha learns the real meaning of the word болен as well as many other fun medical terms.
Read Part 1 first if you haven’t yet.
As I said we returned around 5 and I was tired and decided to take a nap. I couldn’t sleep, however, and around 6 I started to feel sick. Ok, very sick. I will spare everyone the details but I will say this was the most sick I have ever been in my entire life and, though it sounds silly to say now I definitely was laying in bed at times thinking that this was how I was going to die, in Russia, in Arhangelsk, in the Taiga of all places (weird to think in Russian –I’m almost positive I conjugated the verb “to die” incorrectly. Sigh).
So while I was busy not retaining any water, food, or medicine, and heating the entire hotel with my forehead, our Coordinator, Megan was constantly checking on me, giving me different medicine to try and trying to think of what it was I might possibly have come down with. We went through a bunch of different possibilities and kept coming back to the river. But this seemed unlikely since no one else fell ill and a lot of other people drank the water.
One of the most interesting medicines I tried was called “Activated Charcoal”. They have it in the U.S. to and its basically charcoal that you take and it binds to anything not good in your stomach so that you don’t end up digesting it. Scientifically speaking its incredibly interesting and it kept me interested, but maybe that’s only because I saw so many of the tablets.
When it was clear that nothing we were trying was working Megan was able to get the hotel people to call a doctor (keep in mind, we were in the Taiga so hospitals weren’t an option. And, even had we been in Arhangelsk, well, its difficult to explain and understand- coming from a country where the hospitals always have all the newest medicine, good doctors, clean needles, etc – but the hospitals in Arhangelsk are not exactly where you want to go. But we were able to get hold of a doctor who went around making house calls etc. I was thrilled at this as I am currently reading Doctor Zhivago and when he arrived I wanted more than anything to call him Zhivago but I decided it may not be the best thing to do.
So the doctor arrives and inspects me and he’s not completely sure what I have but he says most likely it is an intenstinal infection, virus, что-то (something). He ruled out грип (like the flu) which is quite strong and super contagious so this was good. He then said the nurse would give me two shots, one to bring down the temperature and one for antispasmatic purposes. This was a very interesting experience which I will take some time to detail:
The nurse comes over to me with one of the needles and says something to me in Russian which I don’t fully understand but I figure she wants to give me the приривка (shot) so I start rolling down my right sleeve.
She’s on the left side of the bed and starts saying «Нет, нет» (No, no) and repeats what I didn’t understand the first time.
“Oh” I realize, “I’m an idiot, obviously she’s on the left side, she wants me to unroll my other sleave” so I start to do this too. Unfortunately this action is again met with the now too familiar «Нет, нет» followed this time by an explanation with hand movements.
And then I understand.
So I turn over on my stomach, half glad my Russian wasn’t good enough to understand what was about to happen until the last possible moment, and half hoping that maybe I still hadn’t properly understood and she was about to give me a shot in my leg or something.
But I had understood perfectly and luckily I hadn’t seen how big the needle was.
A little while later she gave me another shot and started to explain what to do and I said “Еще раз, да? Хаха Я знаю что делать, я уже мастер сейчась!» (the grammar is off but something to the effect of “Again, ok, haha I know what to do – I’m a master at this now!”)
After the doctor visit I began feeling better and was finally able to sleep which was good. Unfortunately our group of American students needed to leave the next day and end what was supposed to be a 5 day stay there since it was still unclear what I had and we didn’t know if anyone else would get sick. As it was another girl, Вера (Vera/Virginia) in our group also got sick, luckily not as bad as me, but still not good.
So at this point me and Vera have two options as we head back towards Arhangelsk on the 4 hour road (remember how bumpy it was on the way there? It was no different on the way back. This was interesting and nowhere near as fun as the first time)- we can see a doctor there if we are feeling very ill (we were both feeling a bit better already) or we can fly into Moscow the next day and go to an American clinic. Despite my fear of Russian planes we chose to fly into Moscow.
There’s not much more to tell, well there is but I am tired of writing. It was Wednesday when we arrived at our hotel in Arhangelsk, we couldn’t get tickets until Friday and by Thursday I was feeling quite a bit better so me and two other girls in our group walked around the city, went to a fascinating museum, and walked across a frozen river to an island (pictures were taken). It was only after I got back that I realized I probably shouldn’t have done so much but it was a good time. Then yesterday we flew out to Moscow at 7 in the morning, went to an American clinic, got medicine and tests done, etc and then took a train back to Yaroslavl. Now I am sitting in my room in Yaroslavl and taking the weekend to relax and recuperate.
Oh, an interesting side note, we obviously know I had some type of poising or virus from the water but like I said we just don’t know what exact virus or disease. And Megan said there is a small possibility it could be Dissentery which would be extraordinarily cool to say I had so I’m crossing my fingers for that result. But we’ll see. I’m feeling much better now (infinitely better compared to Monday/Tuesday) but now I’m off to go eat some lunch and do some work. Hope everyone is happy and healthy at home!
До встреча
-Гриша
PS:! Big news! This morning I called and talked to a guy who lives in Moscow and who has a band and he wants me to do an English translation for his website. I am so psyched. Apparently I will be paid for this was well which is cool. And he knows other people who want the same thing –pretty soon I may have my own business here!
PPS: I forgot to say how now, for at least the next week or so, there are certain foods both Vera and I can’t eat. These include: Any and all milk products, fruit, anything fried, boiled, broiled, lemon, eggs, and various other things as they will hinder progress of the medicine, aid the organism, and make my stomach танцует (dance). This means my diet will be consisting mostly of bread, water, pasta, meat, and чай (tea)- here’s to carbohydrates!!
I learned some new words in Russian this past week….Part 1
Most of them were medical terms.
Let me start from the beginning.
Last Sunday we got on a train to go to the Taiga in Arhangelsk, something I had been waiting to do since we first heard about it. The train ride was 16 hours and a lot of fun (pictures of both the train ride and the time in are Arhangelsk have been posted) and involved шахматы (chess), reading Doctor Zhivago, sleeping on the top bunk on a moving train (a formidable task especially for one with a penchant for both sleep talking and sleep walking), and attempting to eat all of the food our бабушки gave us for the train.
Side note: (hence the indent) We were on the train for 16 hours as I said but our host grandmothers gave us enough food for about a month. It was kind of insane. In the two plastic bags that I received I had two or three logs of meat, a full packet of cheese, 2 full lunches, 3 oranges, 2 apples, and enough bread and water to get me through any potential famine that happens to strike Russian поезды (trains) within a 16 hour window. Actually one of the girls, Аня (Anya) in our group had about twice as much as me. But all of this yielded various photographs of me attempting to eat a rather large sandwich so as to not let any of the food go to waste. Also, I lost the шахматы game. Sigh.
Very quickly a bit about the train: We were in the cheapest (and most safe) compartment though now I’m forgetting what they are called in Russian. Each one of these compartments has room for 4 people and is not closed off from anywhere else. So basically there’s one main walking hall that runs through the train and on the left occasionally is the место (place – it sounds better to say this word in Russian, in English saying “place” sounds like you couldn’t think of a more descriptive word and, as I couldn’t, here it appears in Russian) where you stay. It’s a small area but not tiny and lining the two longer sides are cushioned “benches/beds” The two bottom ones are where everyone sits when people are awake and they also can be opened to function as trunks to store чимоданы (bags, suitcases) –a very good idea so that no one steals them. Some distance above each of these are the top beds (where I slept) and in the middle of the room is a small table. Okay, enough about the train, I love Russian trains. (Though I must add that sleeping on one is difficult, I got about 20 minutes the entire night)
We arrived in Архангелск (Arhangelsk) sometime VERY early morning (7? 8?, anyways, it was before 1pm) and there we had an excursion around the city. It’s tough to describe the city as its has multiple feels to it, its at once large and white from all the snow but dirty and with an industrial (not factory industrial just industrial if that makes sense) sense that stems from the shipping ports (its located along a large river). The tour was very interesting and we went to one museum where we clearly told our museum guide we only had an hour and a half before lunch and we wanted to see everything.
And so we ended up standing in front of the VERY first Icon in the VERY first room for an hour. This was as hilarious as it was frustrating and half the time she wasn’t even talking about the icon. But there were some very beautiful paintings we saw in our 30 minute jaunt through the rest of the museum (Айвазовский/Aivazovskii was there so I was thrilled beyond belief).
We then had lunch at a restaurant with a sailor/ocean theme which was exceedingly strange and afterwards we went to an incredibly beautiful area (pictures were taken) where are preserved all of these houses and churches. Its an old village where people lived but the thing that makes it so different is, since metal was so expensive, everything is made out of wood. Everything. I had never seen a wooden church before but this was incredible. Imagine typical Russian architecture of a church but then imagine that completely made from trees in the forest. Like I said, there are pictures.
After that we then took a 4 hour ride to the area we were staying in the Taiga. The road was incredibly bumpy and our group ended up in the back where every few seconds we were catapulted to the ceiling. This was actually very fun.
Oh, another quick thing, there was other people in our tour group too and we all stayed at the hotel together and did the excursions together. They were all Russians and were all really nice. Lets see if I can remember them. There was Таня and her mother from Moscow, Сергей (Sergei) and his wife (they were 20 years old and had already been married for two years) from Arhangelsk, a boyfriend and girlfriend pair that were fine during the day but at night they were drunk and yelling at eachother, and then a 6 year old named Федр (Fyodor) and his mother. In one of the pictures I have constructed the самый сильный дворец в мире (the strongest castle in the world!) with him out of blocks. He also beat me at chess. Sigh.
The next day (Monday) we had our first excursion in the Taiga. I can’t describe how incredibly beautiful, peaceful, pure everything is there. Well I can but I have a lot to write about. Look at the pictures. Our first excursion was in a cave (there are quite a few in the area) and I believe people used to live there. It was incredible and we got to put on a lot of very funny gear including camouflage (so our clothes wouldn’t get dirty), special boots for some (there were none that fit me unfortunately), and a hard hat equipped with a working light). At one point towards the end of the excursion our guide (a great guy who, if you are reading this, Joel Norton, reminded me of you a lot. If you are reading this and you are not Joel Norton I am sorry, I will try to find someone else in Russia who reminds me of you.) Anyways, at oen point he had us turn off all our lights and we stood there in silence and then he told us to think about how we were in one of the few places on earth where there is absolutely no light. It was wonderful. And we stood there for about 15 minutes, our eyes trying desperately to adjust but not seeing anything, just listening to silence and occasionally the voice of our guide as he told us stories and philosophy.
Oh, by the way, all tours, etc, everything was conducted in Russian.
On the way back through the caves there was an underground river we came across. We were told that the water was okay to drink and so some people began taking sips and or gulps. I was one of those people. Remember this point. We will return to it later.
Later on in the day we went and explored two waterfalls and returned back to our “hotel” site at around 5pm.
-End Side A. Please Turn Tape Over to Side B to continue-
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
A quick post
A couple of quick things because I should update but dont have much time.
Friday: Went to a concert and, afterwards saw the most beautiful thing I have seen here so far-fog on the river Volga. I was going to write a long entry just about this but unfortunately I am pressed for time and will just say now how wonderful it was. There was fog everywhere and me and some friends walked along the banks of the Volga and if you looked closely in clear areas you could see whisps of fog being pulled like cotton from off the surface of the water. And it took only a few steps for one to dissapear completely into the mist and only see a few feet ahead or behind you.
Saturday- Went into the woods with people from the Russian YMCA where we played games and celebrated Масленица with traditions that involved making a giant person sized doll, then tying to her a strand of fabric we recieved (into which we thought all of the bad things that happened in the previous year) and then burning her and then jumping over the fire. My friend took pictures so they will be forthcoming
Sunday: walked around the город. Actually, EVERYONE waled around the город. As this was the official day of Масленица everyone goes otu to гулать (walk around- but with a connotation of having no direction in mind, "stroll" is perhaps the more accurate definition)
Sunday: I also washed my clothes. By hand. A long entry is forthcoming about this b ecause I want to detail it properly.
On Monday I came down with something and have been sick but am feeling better. I didnt go to classes on Tuesday and thus was able to sample many various home remedies from my babooshka. These included:
-Garlic. Garlic all the time. Everywhere. With every meal she gave me two slices to put in my soup and two other slices to sniff.
Yes.
To sniff. Or rather, inhale as deeply as possible.
Apparently it helps stop infection and as I have no complaint against garlic I obliged. I think it works to some degree but I'm weary that some time in my future photos will show up somewhere of me with garlic up my nose and will cost me an important election.
-Honey. This is key. Honey with chai, on bread. And its quite good.
-Чай (tea): I thought Russians had a lot of chai to drink when they were healthy..but apparently the amount grows exponentially when one is болень (sick)
I'm not that sick anymore (and it was only a sore throat, a headache, and a nose which ran enough to rival Gogol's) so no one need worry. The only thing one has to be careful of here is the cold whether. Tomorrow it will likely be -30 degrees Celsius and in Arhangelsk it could be minus 40 or more.
We leave for Arhangelsk on Sunday and I am very excited.
Ok, I must go now, sorry for the staccatic rythym of this post I have about 1000 things to do today.
I think some new pictures should be uploaded soon.
До встреча,
-Гриша
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Update
-There is a week long celebration going on currently in Ярославль called Маслоница so every night there are festivities like music concerts, film marathons, etc. Anyways I just found out that Saturday and Sunday morning a bunch of hot air balloons are going up in the air (obviously…) above the Волга River. I’m crossing my fingers that anyone can ride in them if they pay money, but either way I will go to see them.
Monday, February 12, 2007
Каждый раз когда я начинаюсь чувствовать себя плохо эдесь, что-то случилось что-бы я чуствовал себя лучше...
This was to be posted Saturday.
Despite the fact I had made plans to go to a museum today with a girl from the Roman History course I woke up feeling completely unmotivated and having very little energy to go знакомится (get to know, make friends with) people. So I sat in bed for awhile debating what to do and finally convinced myself that even if I didn’t think I would have that good of a time I may meet someone (she was inviting other people) who I end up becoming good friends with.
And that’s exactly what happened. The two guys joining us were named Alex and Olyeg, two of the nicest people I’ve met here (that’s actually tough to say, I’ve met a lot of wonderful people here already). Anyways, we all went to the museum, had a great time, and it turns out that both Alex and Olyeg are going to be in America this summer in order to improve their English. In order to receive their Visa they are required to give short, concise, well worded, descriptions in English of what they hope to achieve in the US, what they will be doing there, their philosophy of life, etc. to the consulate, I believe. Its insane compared with what I had to do to get my Visa, in fact, I didn’t even have to write or speak a word of Russian, everything was done through professors’ recommendations and forms filled out in my native language.
Anyways I promised to help them with their English (they are already quite good) and if all goes well I should be able to meet up with them some time this summer. After seeing the museum we all went to МакМастер (MacMaster – a rip off of McDonald’s) where we talked about various things and, after discussing differences in holidays between our countries, Аля (the girl from the Roman history class) decided she wanted to celebrate Valentine’s day as they don’t have it in Russia. Therefore all of us are going to get together this Wednesday and celebrate an Amercian Holiday in Russian. I am incredibly psyched.
Afterwards I went to the Имка (Russian YMCA equivalent) again. I’m so glad I decided to do this. I love the people there, I love the kids, and its incredibly fun. I could say a whole lot more about it and I probably should but I really want to wrap this up.
After that I went to an Organ Concert which was incredible and, after looking out on the
Its difficult to write about everything that happens because I am not a fan of constant cataloguing of events, but its occurred to me that I still have yet to describe the city in any detail as well as various other things I’m sure people are interested in. Therefore, if there is anything you would like to hear more (or less) about, or just have any questions in general be sure to comment and I will be happy to try and answer them.
I hope everyone is doing incredible and enjoying whatever occupies them currently,
До встреча
-Гриша
Edit: Sunday I visited a monastery in an incredibly beautiful part of Yaroslavl and I recently posted new pictures of our trip there.
The first is the room where I am currently living
The next few until Lenin's statue are from the region of Yaroslavl where I live
and eveyrthing else is from the region where the monastery was.
Today’s Objective: The Mainstream Course
Friday I began the difficult task of trying to find a mainstream university course to take, that is, one with real Russian students. Its difficult for a number of reasons:
1). Расписение or the schedules….are, in the first place difficult to find and usually not posted until the day before classes start.
2.) The schedules….even after you find the schedule you still need to attempt to read it- this is almost impossible. Each schedule is arranged in various columns by time of day listed in roman numerals (you have to find out what time corresponds to what roman numeral in another part of the building and they are different for each schedule), class group and level, and most are filled in by hand in pencil. They are subject to change at a moment’s notice and there are no copies of the schedule, just one giant one on a bulletin board that each student needs to make a copy of in their own notebooks. Luckily a very kind девушка assisted us in reading the schedule for the history department.
3). The schedules….lets say you’ve managed to find the schedule, understand it to some degree, and are all ready and gung-ho to go to the class. Well, there’s a decent chance the class will have changed times without you knowing, or just have been canceled. They warn us about this before hand though it has yet to happen to me. However, as I will be trying out classes all next week I am eagerly expecting it at least once.
Its not really that bad but the first time you stand in front of a bulletin board for 20 minutes trying to figure out how to read the schedule it’s a bit disconcerting.
Anyways, Friday I tried out my first class. I had no idea what it was since the name wasn’t posted on the schedule. It turned out to be roman history and the professor was really nice and after class she asked me how I liked the city and I told her I loved being here though I was just starting to understand what “cold weather” really meant.
I really like the class and the people in it are very nice (I got the phone numbers of a few of them) the only thing is I’ve already taken Roman History and as nice as it would be to already know what is going on in the class I feel like that would kind of be cheating, not to mention it would be interesting to attempt to learn something new in Russian. Well, I have all of next week to see- I’ll be trying out at least one different class each day.
Счастливы!
-Гриша
Thursday, February 8, 2007
Week 1!
I was with my group (4 people total) and, after a morning of touring the city, we stop by a local diner for lunch where, not to my surprise at all, I could barely understand the menu. But I stand there for a while, looking at it and finally I see something I recognize "фасол с мясом" (fasole s myasom) and i think "well, I have no idea wat the first word is but I'm pretty sure the second word means meat". Not only is meat good but I know what it is so I go ahead and order that, the entire time wondering pleasantly what "fasole" (the first word) might be. So I wait. And I wait. And finally the waitress arrives.
With the most gigantic mound of red kidney beans I have ever seen in my life.
And I think "ok, well, I like beans, at least there will be meat"
"с мясом" I hear her ask, and I nod my head at least 4 times and say "Да!" (yes)
And so she takes out a giant vat of butter and begins to pour it over the aforementioned mound of beans.
And then I realize that not only have I forgotten the correct way to decline the word 'meat" in the instrumental case but, of more immediate importance, there will be no meat served with this meal.
For those of you that don't speak russian the word с маслом means "with butter" and is somewhat close to my incorrect idea of what "with meat" was.
And so my first lunch in Yaroslavl consisted of water, butter, and about a pound of kidney beans.
Interestingly enough, I wrote a poetic parody about it that strikes me, and probably only me, as humorous. For those of you unfamiliar with the Russian poet Blok, you should be. He's great. Anyways, he has this one poem which is one of my favorites and which I shall post here. Included afterwards is a direct word for word translation just so people hwo don't speak russian will have an idea of what it is about - granted it completerly lacks the beauty, flow and rythym of the original:
Ночь, улица, фонарь аптека,
Бессмысленный и тусклый свет
Живи еще хоть четверть века
Все будет так. Исхода нет.
Умреш- начнеш опять сначала,
И повторится все, как встар;
Ночь ледяная, рябь канала,
Аптека, улица, фонарь.
-А Блок
Night, street, streetlamp, store
Meaningless and dim light
Living still after a fourth of a century
All will be so. No escape.
And repeat everything, as before.
Night, icy ripples of the canal,
Store, street, streetlamp.
Нож, кухня, фасоль, тарелка.
Красная гора - это обедь.
Смотрел на ней хоть три минута-
Я уж купил. Исхода нет.
Судба- единственный король.
Нож, мой голод- души, живота,
Тарелка, кухня, фасоль
and a word for word translation:
Knife, cafe, beans, plate
A red mountain- this is lunch
[I've] stared at it already three minutes-
Already bought. No escape.
And so - I eat. What can I do?
Fate - the only king.
Knife, my hunger - of soul, of stomach,
Plate, cafe, beans.
I can almost hear Блок turning in his grave.
Ok I dont want to make this too long so I will wrap up listing a few things I have done this week.
-Had classes
-Walked around the city for hours on end
-Asked for (and recieved) help finding various places
-Went to a music and time museum, got a tour of which I understood about 50 percent
-Saw a play at the theater in town.
-Saw an Ingmar Bergman film in russian at a local film club (scenes from something it was called), understood almost all of it, and made two russian friends there with whom I have hung out with.
-Volunteered at the russian equivalent of a YMCA, spoke english to young russians, was promptly told by said young russians that Russia was better than the USA, and, above all, spent about 5 hours at the YMCA with other volunteers about my age and made friends (russians would say "aquaintances) with about 6 or 7 real russians, all of whom are very friendly, very funny, and just wonderful people in general.
-Had my first birthday in Russia which was amazing. Recieved chocolate, and ice cream from my class, chocolate and a special dinner from my babooshka, various birthday greetings from aforementioned russians and ate 3 dinners.
Really things have been great so far but I should wrap up this post. Today I tried to find a course to take at the Russian university and it was an ужасный experience because the schedules are so hard to read. I will talk about this later.
До скорого,
Гриша
This was meant to be posted some time ago
Hello all. Though this will probably won’t be posted online for a few days I am currently writing from my new home in
After my last post I stayed at the hotel two more days while we finished up orientation. Probably the best story that came out of those two days occurred one night when, trying and failing miserably to sleep, I turned on the TV and was incredibly happy and surprised to find a Russian cartoon on. In fact I think I actually said outloud “Oh Да!” All Russian cartoons tend to lean towards the incredible (in all senses of the word) and this one actually explained the story behind why cats and dogs don’t like eachother. Apparently one day there was this dog who had ruined his hat and went to get it fixed by the seamstresses..who were, of course, cats. They fixed it for him, BUT while waiting for him to return a very rich goat arrived at their shop one day. A very rich goat who, incidentally, had also just ruined his hat and had been laughed at by a female goat all in the same day. I’d just like to pause here and point out the seven plus layers of tension underlying this cartoon already. Anyways the goat can’t find a hat he likes so, in a last ditch effort the main cat gives him the dog’s hat because he knows he will make more money off of the rich goat than the dog who was a sheperd. There was also another odd show on that basically enacted out Russian jokes and, at the punch line of each, became host to an array of raining smiley faces with big lips that laughed at the aforementioned Russian анекдоты. Said floating mouths helped to make it clear when the punchline was but did absolutely nothing to assist with the humor of any of the jokes.
The last day in
But probably my favorite thing so far has been our 4 hour train ride from
Then we arrived in
We were shown around the city of
That’s another thing, I’m not sure how much I’m going to write in this. I want to of course but at the same time I don’t want to detract from my Russian and I know from summer school how much one can improve without speaking or writing any English. The other thing of course is I’d like to write to some degree just so I’m not completely rusty when I get back. Regardless I’ll try to find a balance. Alright, I am off to talk with моя бабушка.
Also, we saw the
And tomorrow we are going to a monastery and seeing a play.
And I start classes on Monday.
До скорово
-Гриша
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
First Post [Again]
Moscow so far reminds me of (for those of you from the Boston area) a combination between Boston driving and Worcester aesthetics or, for the more musically inclined, a copy of the Pink Floyd album cover “Animals” but with a bit more light and movement. This of course is after only a few hours, most of which were spent napping, but its amazing the amount of smokestacks everywhere and the general layer of smoke that pervades the city. That said it certainly has a distinct feel to it and I haven’t stopped smiling since I’ve been here…except for the whole brown water incident.
A bit about the flight:
My first flight from Boston to Atlanta was fairly uneventful, so much so that this single sentence covers it.
The flight from Atlanta to Moscow was a bit more interesting mainly because I had two major accomplishments-I had my first multicultural Russian exchange, and I sat next to a real Bellarussian on the plane.
The multicultural exchange was perhaps one of my finest moments and one that I hope will set a standard for the many others to come. I had just arrived at the check-in gate, met up with some people in the program, was standing in line to board, and generally feeling good about the whole experience. All of a sudden, from somewhere behind me comes a loud repetitive beeping sound and I turn to see a Russian man on one of those small truck airport machines.
He looks at me.
I look at him.
He looks at me.
I look at the giant moving vehicle approaching me and beeping like crazy.
He says something in the vein of “move out of the way, please” (in Russian)
I step back.
He says «Спасибо» (Thank you)
It was a beautiful moment.
-The Bellarussian I sat next to on the plane was a nice guy but spent most of the time complaining about how Delta charged for alchoholic beverages and then, when I told him one was included with the meal, was quite surprised that the wine on Delta was better than that on AirFrance. Unfortunately most of our conversation during the first half was conducted in English (I tried to start off the conversation in Russian but when he did not respond in like I didn’t feel like pushing the point) and was composed of me asking him excited questions about Russia and him contradicting me at each point. An example:
Conversation 1:
Me: So, do you have any advice for someone going to Russia
Him: No
Conversation 2:
Me: So…is there anything I should see in Russia?
Him: No.
Me: Oh.
Him: Well, you can see Red Square
Me Yeah, I’ve heard its incredible
Him: Its really boring, I don’t know why so many tourists go there.
To be fair I think he didn’t understand everything I was saying but, regardless, my favorite part of the whole exchange came as we were flying into Russia. We were above the clouds and the sun was burning on the horizon and it was absolutely beautiful and I said to him
“Wow, isn’t that incredible”
He shook his head with a combination of disappointment and disgust and said “Its just clouds!”
But then, towards the end of the flight something interesting happened. He randomly turned to me and said “Let’s talk in Russian” and we spent the rest of the time talking about Russia, him giving me advice that had previously been withheld, and us discussing the differences between America and Russia.
Afterwards our flight landed and we made our way to the hotel where I am sitting now. The first thing I did when I got to my room was, of course, turn on the Russian TV. Currently I am stll trying to figure out whether I was watching a game show or a trial because someone kept excitedly asking “Если бы вы были там, что вы бы делали?» Basically “If you had been there or been in this situation what would you do?” Like I said, I’m still trying to figure out if the target of the questions stood to win a large sum of money or time in jail.
Anyways some of us are going to be heading into the city tonight in about 20 minutes (its 7:40pm here and we are 8 hours ahead) so I’ll wrap this up.
I hope everyone who is traveling abroad gets there safe and I hope everyone who is in classes is having fun. Things are good here and for the strangest reason when the plane landed I felt as if I was coming home. I realize its foolish to say, not having been here even a full day yet, but like I said I haven’t stopped smiling.
Also, tomorrow I find out who I’m living with. (Бабушки!) (Grandmothers! – something is lost in the translation)
До скорого,
-Гриша