Over a week ago to be exact..., but here it is anyways:
Hello all. Though this will probably won’t be posted online for a few days I am currently writing from my new home in Yaroslavl. My host бабушка (grandmother) is wonderful and very interesting to talk to but I will get into that later. Today I think I experienced to a very small degree all the various stages of culture shock, or at least the beginning hintings of its presence.But first, I’ll finish up talking about Moscow
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 Moscow I went with two of the girls in my group to see the рынок (market). Even though I didn’t buy anything it was nice because it’s one of the only situations where everyone around you wants to speak to you. As a result I got a lot of practice saying “no thank you, I don’t want one”.
But probably my favorite thing so far has been our 4 hour train ride from Moscow to Yaroslavl. After waiting for about an hour in the train station (вокзал) we saw that our train was finally boarding and headed outside where we saw what, for me, was the most wonderful, albeit stereotypical, scene ever. Outside it had started snowing and the air was frigid with cold. The ground was a mix of sloshing brown slush and since it was only snowing lightly the entire train station acted as an immense looming backdrop seen through the flakes. There were trains, and I mean trains, each lined up next to one another with the backs facing us, and stretching as far as the eye could see (this is not an exaggeration, we had to walk for a good 10 minutes just to get to our вагон or train car) In between each train was a snow covered walking path that had those giant metal speakers you usually see in films about Russia or in army training camps every 50 feet or so. If I had to describe the scene the entire feeling was just- brown, a dirty brown but not a disgusting brown, a brown that loomed over the scene while at the same time subtly pervading the expanse of cold, dark blue. It was almost like the feeling one gets during a long summer’s day when its hot and sticky and the day feels as if its stretching just a little farther holding out against the night and things feel both too thin and too full of nothing at once. It was like that but imagine the color scheme changed to a darkish blue and imagine that stretched out feeling, instead of being hot, as being rooted in cold, actually frozen in cold so its not longer stretching just completely and utterly living static. And after a long period of trying to get our giant чимоданы (bags) into our small space we sat drinking sugery чай (tea- learn to recognize this word, you’ll see it a lot, its all they drink), warming up and watching through the windows into the night and the snow covered ground and the black endless forests that passed by.
Then we arrived in Yaroslavl and took a micro bus to drop each of us off . I was the first and I spent the whole time reciting my hsotesses’ name so I wouldn’t get it wrong. Люция Владимировна (Lyootseeya Vladimirovna) met me at the door and then, after carrying my things up, she told me I was not wearing enough in the cold and made me food and tea. She’s very nice and very interesting to talk to. This is already becoming too long of an entry. Very quickly about today:
We were shown around the city of Yaroslavl. It was below zero and we were shown the university which looks like a 1 star hotel on the inside and various entrances are through random metal doors in back alleys. Also the toilets have no toilet paper so you have to bring your own. But it was interesting and fun though I quickly became tired and cold. It was frustrating as the day went on trying to communicate with people in various shops so that by the end of the day I came back wanting a break from it all. But I’ve had time to relax now and had a nice dinner so I feel like I’ve come full circle. Alright I don’t feel like writing anymore-
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 Volga river which was beautiful.
And tomorrow we are going to a monastery and seeing a play.
And I start classes on Monday.
До скорово
-Гриша
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