Happy 2010!

С Рождеством and С Новым Годом!!! A little late I know. Anyway, the holidays in Russia were interesting. I was afraid I was going to be really homesick on Christmas, and yes, I did think of home often. But thankfully I had a fairly festive and positive day at school. Sarah and I sang Christmas carols in the English classes in the morning. And then we went out to the market and checked out this little religious store. The lady inside knew who we were immediately thanks so our TV appearances. She was really nice and we're going back without a doubt! Then we went back to school for the tree decorating :) It was perfect timing for me and Sarah. It felt really festive and was a lot of fun to do with our friends! And what made Christmas really special was my teachers thought of me and gave me presents! It was so sweet; I almost cried.

With the 26th came the start of school vacation! Sarah and I went to Krasnodar for a day of shopping and it was perfect, with the exception of a slight misadventure on the public transportation system within the city, but we got where we needed to go and now it's a funny story to tell! We visited the book market again and spent nearly 3 hours in a cafe before meeting up with Wilson and Clare and going to another cafe. Sarah and I were very pleased with how smooth the trip went and we'd like to go to Krasnodar one more time before heading north.

The 28th and the 29th were the New Year parties at school. The 28th was with the 8th class, which is my cousin's class, and she and her friends were really happy that I came. Then the 29th was with the 10th and 11th classes. Both nights, they sang New Year songs and did like presentations and skits. We even danced the cotton eyed joe. I don't know why they thought that was so festive, but whatever. Sarah was the photographer for those events so I have to get the photos from her.

Then there was the adventure with Alla dying her hair blonde. Yes, blonde. Inna and Ulya came over and we all went into the bathroom and they wipped out a box of hair dye. Alla said it wouldn't make her hair super blonde. I just looked at the picture of the girl on the box with the platinum blonde hair and smiled and nodded. Of course, her hair turned and orangish blonde and she freaked out. She had to tell her mom about it and they both decided it would be better if Papa never say it. Alla easily avoided Papa because of his new work schedule (he's a night taxi driver now. I don't know why) and bought brown hair dye the next day, New Year's Eve. I had to dye her hair back because Mama was too busy with New Year prep. It was a nice little bonding moment for us :)

Then that night was New Year's Eve and we all went to my uncle's house and EVERYONE was there! My family is so freakin' big... It was pretty cool. We had a big meal and there was lots of talking and laughing. At midnight we went outside to the streets and watched the fireworks. You could just stand there are turn in a circle and see 6 or 7 fireworks displays. People were just setting them off at their homes. The night was pretty cool, but it wasn't as festive as I was hoping. It felt like any other family gathering. But like my homeroom teacher said, I've experienced 17 holiday seasons in America. I can afford to spend one in Russia :)

Nothing much has happened since New Years. I went around town and took pictures of the backstreet, rural areas with Sarah and Andrea. I wanted to capture the Russia that I know the best :) All the Americans are coming to visit Korenovsk on the 8th to get a taste of small town Russia. That should be cool. As my time winds down here, I'm hoping to make the most of it!

Scrambled Eggs

No, I didn't eat scrambled eggs. But that's the first thing that comes into my mind when I try to describe my current state of being. My feelings are just a bunch of eggs, some of them are happy about going home and some of them are dreading the day I have to leave here, and they're all just cracked into one big pan and scrambled all together. Any exchange student can relate to this feeling I'm sure. All I can do about it right now is just keep trekking. I coming home the 23rd of January for better or for worse. So I just have to enjoy the time that I have here while I can. That's all there is to it.

I haven't done anything major since my last post. Just a bunch of little things, but sometimes its the little things that count :) I have a couple things I can say about school. First, there's this girl at school Ulya, she's in the 8th form, and she's so sweet. She brought chocolate into school the other day and we had a little chocolate fest before English class. I love it! Also, I feel a lot more comfortable with my class and now go to all their English, Literature, Russian, and History classes. This is because before, the only kids who really talked to me were these couple crazy girls who really aren't my speed at all. But now, there's a group of 4 girls, Galia, Vicka, Lera, and Lena, who are like how I was in school. And they have been really nice to me and have been talking to me a lot, which makes me feel a lot better about going to classes with my form. Finally, I'm really starting to like my Russian teacher, Olga Vladimirovna, a lot. She's very sweet and patient, which is good seeing as she has to explain everything to me really slowly and sometimes more than once. She knows that I'm a good student and that I'm really trying my best. She also knows that I like to know why something is and not just memorize it, so she's really good about explaining and clarifying things. She's awesome.

I went to Ust-Labinsk, a near by town, on 12/13. I have some friends there I wanted to visit, Phillip (American), Alessandro (Italian), and Igor (Russian). I was really proud of myself because I went to the bus station in Korenovsk, bought my ticket and successfully made it to Ust-Labinsk all by myself :) It was cool to see Phillip's home and meet his family. We had cake and tea at his house before going to a cafe and walking around the town. The only problem was it started to rain (gotta love Russian winter) so we didn't really feel like walking around on the streets too much. So we went back to Phillip's house and played Scrabble in Russian. It was pretty epic. It's a really good game for learning a language though! The taxi ride home was a bit of a nightmare because the driver didn't know how to get to Korenovsk center, but thankfully we met up with a taxi from Korenovsk and I got home eventually! I went to my cousin's birthday party for a bit after that. I felt bad, because I kinda showed up at the end, but she was glad I came at all!

The next day, on the 14th, IT SNOWED!!!!! It was really cool. I woke up in the morning, and BAM it was snowing. It wasn't so cool to have to navigate the public transportation system to school that morning in the snow, but I was still really excited to see it!!! Unfortunately, we've had some rain since then, so now it's just a slushy brown mess everywhere. You need a map to safely walk down our driveway to avoid the puddles and ruts. I guess snow like that isn't that common here and they're saying we probably won't get anymore :( Maybe some around New Year's, who knows. It was cool though after school because everyone joined in a massive snowball fight at the front of the school! The Russians are brutal! They will liberally rub snow in your face even if you don't even know them! It was still loads of fun :)


That same day after school was this cheerleading concourse thing we did at my school. The girls in the 10th class asked me to do it with them and I was like why not! We did all the choreography ourselves. It was really fun and a great bonding activity for me to do with them. There were only two other classes that did routines. My class won!!! I was surprised we were able to pull it together. Russians don't really practice that hard! All I could think of were dance rehearsals with Pam and I was like, she would die if she saw these girls! But obviously we practiced enough because we nailed it at the performance. I have a video of the performance, but my internet is too slow to upload it to facebook :/ I'll upload it later.

Then there was the whole fiasco with our train tickets for our trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg! AFS Krasnodar was helping us plan our trip, just the Americans. We were going to leave on the 2nd and come back the 15th, stay with our families for 5 more days and then leave for Moscow again on the 20th. Didn't make much since but we were going with it. But then, AFS in Moscow called Phillip and said that they had already planned a trip for us to Moscow and St. Petersburg on the 14th. We were all such confused and super pissed. Why weren't AFS Moscow and AFS Krasnodar communicating?!?! It wouldn't have been so bad, but Wilson had already bought the train tickets for the 2nd... You could return them, but the money you got back depreciated everyday after the date of purchase. And you need to present your passport when you return the tickets, so Wilson couldn't return ours. We had to go to Krasnodar ourselves. We didn't want to wait too long because of the depreciation thing. It was a big problem that I was kind of stressed out about because it was a pain to go to Krasnodar just to return tickets and I didn't know when I'd be able to go. But thankfully, Sarah asked her Papa and, even though it seemed like it was a slight inconvenience, he drove me and her down to Krasnodar and we returned our tickets. Thank god it's all settled now. We're letting AFS Moscow take it from here. But it's still really frustrated to see how disjointed AFS Russia is. None of the Americans are too pleased at this point.

But anyways, that's over with and I don't need to think about it anymore. I went to a disco tech at my school on Friday. Every since the cheerleading thing, I've become good friends with those girls from the 10th class. So I went, but I didn't get to stay that long. We were dancing for a bit, but then one of my friends Susha said she was feeling light headed and needed some air. So we went out in the hall and opened a window but that didn't help much. She almost fainted. She said she needed to go home. But I didn't want her going home by herself. She really didn't look good. She said she'd be fine, but my mama lion instincts kicked in and I was like, no I'm going home with you. I don't live too far from her, so we shared a taxi home so she wasn't alone. I didn't really mind. Honestly after a while school disco techs can get boring after a while. Eventually, ever song sounds the same. I need a little hip hop to really get my groove on! As you can see from the photo, for the time I was there, I really did have a good time.

Yesterday, I went to church with my family. I didn't feel like staying home alone. I didn't really understand anything they were saying. I tried really hard at one point, but there's only so much talking in Russian I can handle before my brain shuts down! But I'm still really glad I went because I felt like part of the family and my Papa was pleased I went. And I want to spend as much time with them as possible with them! That evening, Afonia and Lisa came into my room and started talking to me and looking at all my stuff. I didn't mind until they started running around screaming playing on my bed. I was trying to do stuff on my computer but they kept asking me to play with them. So eventually I was just like, okay, I'll pretend I'm 5 again and I joined them :) It was really cute. I also watched a movie with Alla, my cousins, and a church friend. And it was nice to hang out with them, but 1) I didn't understand the movie and 2) after the movie and I didn't really understand what they were talking about because they're all really close and they were talking really fast and joking around. It just kinda made me miss hanging out with my friends and being able to actively participate in a conversation, not just when some specifically asks me a question and says it really slowly and simply. But I know I'll get that soon enough!

I can't believe Christmas is Friday! I'm going to miss being at home, definitely. But I'm getting together with the Americans in Krasnodar for a party, so I won't be alone on Christmas anyway. But I'll definitely be thinking off all you guys stateside! Hope everyone has a great Christmas : ) I'm really pumped for New Years here. There's this carnival party at my school on the 28th which should be lots of fun. And I guess my family is having a big family party on New Year's Eve. Of course, I don't know many details, but it should be awesome! Can't wait!

Turkey Day Abroad!

Thanksgiving in Russia might have lacked a proper turkey and the family that I have celebrated the holiday with for the past 17 years, but it was still a really nice experience. Sarah and I originally had plans of attempting to make a turkey and have our own little dinner, but both of us being so busy, those plans kinda unraveled on their own. But the day turned out all right after all. We made hand turkey's in English class. Meet Wilbur. We were limited in terms of art supplies, so we had to use Sarah's highlighters. But I think he turned out very handsome :) After school, Sarah and I went for a walk around the town. We walked for several hours because it was such a nice day and we were having really good conversation. It's funny how like-minded we are. We have such great conversations about politics and religion and music and literature and everything. It's nice to have someone to talk to about intellectual things like that since I lack the ability to have such a conversation in Russian! When I got home, my family was preparing a special dinner for me! I was so happy they were recognizing my American holiday! They made mutton. They seemed to know that we usually eat turkey on Thanksgiving so I don't know why it was mutton. But I don't really care because there was mashed potatoes and it was just really sweet of them to think of me like that. I tried to explain to them in my limited Russian why we celebrate Thanksgiving. I think they understood!

Then there was Mother's Day on Sunday the 29th. I thought it was on Friday so I bought my mama flowers and gave them to her early. I think she really appreciated it. Then on Saturday there was a party at my cousins house with all the usual family and friends. Mother's day is a really big deal, more so than in the U.S. Alla and Inna had a whole little program with songs and poems. It was really cute. All the moms were crying at one point! They presented little gifts to the mamas and babushkas too. There was lots to eat (of course) but it was all sweets. Cakes and cookies and candies (I made American chocolate chip cookies that everybody seemed to like) I didn't eat that much; you know me and sweets! I even got to make a little speech. It was quite simple obviously. I just said that when I came to Russia, I came to a family I didn't know at all. And now I will always have a Russian mama, papa, sister, brother, and grandmother. They really liked it I think. If anything they thought my Russian was cute! All and all it was a great party. It just made me miss my real mom!

Not much else is happening and yet everything is happening at once! From this point on, my time here is precious and I need to utilize every minute! I'm getting to know some students in the 10th class really well and am doing stuff with them. I'm doing this dance competition with them at school, so I've been practicing everyday after school and on Saturdays. They don't really practice that hard and the competition really isn't that serious, but it's still something fun to do with them! And then there's Simon, who is also in the 10th class and he's really cool too. I went гуляатьing with him, Sarah, and his sister Sasha. She lived in Alaska with some work program so she speaks English really well. It's weird to hear Russians speak with American slang! Haha, but it was really fun. I got to go to his house for dinner after and his family was awesome. They were really excited to met me and Sarah and were so welcoming. I love being guests at Russian homes!!! I think it's how every culture should be :) It's something I can't really explain and something I'm definitely going to miss...

Updated Pictures on Facebook

I added more pics that Sarah gave me to the album on facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=43758&id=1211594619&l=818786fe13

And I added pics from the ballet and some other random ones to the Random Russia pics album.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=40742&id=1211594619&l=19cacdfb59

Russian Ballet!

So basically, up until this weekend, nothing really significant happened, so I really didn't have anything to write about. I was sick for the entire week after Sochi and then my school was closed for most of last week because everyone was sick. I think it was because of the flu, probably swine, but I'm not sure. So that meant I was home just chillin', not really doing anything. My papa came home from America on Thursday, which was so great. It's really nice to have him around again. Mama and Alla talk to me only when they have too. Papa is much more patient and will have legitimate conversations with me, even if I don't understand everything and he has to reword or explain a lot of things. He's just a very good-natured person and not only do I have someone to talk to, but his presence has definitely reestablished the norm in the house. Mama isn't as stressed, we eat more regularly and we just feel like more of a family. Something I found very amusing was that Papa brought home a dozen Big-Gulp cups from 7-Eleven home because he'd never seen a cup so big before! Yup, it's American! And he also brought home 2 huge things of Saran Wrap for Mama because they don't have that here and they are absolutely fascinated by it. The best thing he brought home was peanut butter though :) After nearly 3 months without anything American food, Peter Pan peanut butter is heaven <3 Also, Afonia's present was Konex and those pieces are pretty difficult for a six year old to handle, so I ended up helping him build a plane, truck, and Ferris wheel. It ended up being a really nice bonding moment for us :)

Okay, so that turned out to be a lot of writing for not really doing that much! Anyways, this past Friday I went to Krasnodar with Sarah and Olya and saw a Russian ballet! The show was Sleeping Beauty. I was super excited that I knew the show. It made it more interesting to know the plot line and follow along. Though I have to say the plot was fairly non-existant compared to the Disney version we all know and love! What the show lacked in plot was made up for in splendor!


The dancing was phenomenal the costumes absolutely beautiful and the set unbelievable. It was so professionally done! I have so much respect for all of those dancers. They were incredible. Their movements were like water but their legs were as stiff as wood. My ankles hurt just watching! It made me want to get back to dancing so that I could be that graceful too! I'm so happy that I was able to see a Russian ballet! It was something I really wanted to do.


So yeah, the ballet was the highlight of my weekend. But I also got my ear pierced! Just one one my right ear towards the top. The place was small and in the middle of the market, but the lady was very professional and everything was very sterile. So now, I can say I got my ear pierced in Russia! Also, I made bacon and eggs at Olya's apartment Saturday morning. It wasn't real bacon, but it was the closest thing I could find and after I fried it, it did sorta taste like the real thing! Also, I bought a beautiful winter coat that I love :) And I saw 2012, which wasn't all that great. Just like any other end of the world movie. Like I said to Sarah, it was like the Day After Tomorrow, only they end up in boats instead of Mexico.

That pretty much sums it up. I think that this weekend in mother's day here (Not sure, could have easily misunderstood) but no matter what my family is having a party Saturday night, so I'm staying home this weekend. Maybe the party can substitute for Thanksgiving! I'm thinking maybe a trip out to Ust-Labinsk next weekend to see my boys. Maybe, we'll see.

More Sochi pics

There are more pictures from Krasnodar and Sochi up on facebook
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=43758&id=1211594619&l=818786fe13

Zombies, and Snow, and the Black Sea, Oh my!

So I kinda have a lot to write about since my last post. First, me and Sarah totally brought Halloween to the Motherland and crashed the school disco tech in Zombie costumes. Well we didn't really crash it, but we sure scared the heck out of them! Once they got over the initial shock I think they thought it was pretty awesome. Me and Sarah spent the whole afternoon making our costumes and getting ready. We spent like an hour walking around the market trying to find some cheap basic clothing that we wouldn't feel bad about cutting up. We both asked where the 3 packs of T-shirts from Walmart were but they don't have anything like that here!

I'm really happy with what we ended up with. We got these mesh tops that are really popular here and cheap black cloth pants and mutilated with with scissors and a razor blade. Then doing our hair and make up was pretty awesome too. Teasing hair is so much fun, especially if you don't have to worry about it looking pretty. All Sarah had to do was brush her hair and it puffed out like a mushroom cloud! And I decided I really like doing costume makeup. If I help with the high school musical when I get back in the spring, they better do a show that has crazy makeup cause extravagant makeup is so much fun to do! That picture is one of the less scary ones that we took. The woman in between me and Sarah is our school director and the woman on the other side of me is my Russian teacher! There are a few more pictures up on facebook under Random Russian Pics.

So that was Friday. Saturday we left for Krasnodar. When we got there, we had to work on the presentations we would be doing for Sochi. Mine was about American culture and traditions. But the only bit of American culture that I really talked about was Prom. Other than that we just sang the lyrics to the YMCA and I taught them a simple hip-hop dance I choreographed. So yeah, the presentations were weird and I'm really tired about talking about America. We also had an AFS Halloween/Karla's birthday party. We cared this squash thing to look like a Jack-0-lantern :). In Krasnodar, we mostly did a lot of shopping, but I SAW RUSSIAN SNOW!!! I made me so happy. When we walked out of the mall we were all just like, AHHHH!!! And we frolicked around for a little while and had a bunch of Russians stare at us like we were crazy. But that's okay it was totally worth it. It made me so happy. In the picture, note the snow on the palm tree and Phillip leaping at the base of the tree!

On Tuesday we took the train to Sochi. For the record, this train was normal and ten hundred thousand times better than the first Russian train I went on! In Sochi, I guess we didn't actually do all that much. We only went into the city of Sochi once on a excursion for the afternoon and it rained for most of it and that was really the only time we left the hotel. But that didn't really matter. What I loved about this trip was just being with everybody. Not only did I have great times with my American peeps, but I got to meet some other really cool Russians. There were these younger girls that I thought were so cute. One of them, Tanya, was crying when she said goodbye to me! She's the one on the far right in this picture. She's a really good dancer. One of the activities we did was an auction. The Russians had created these businesses and had spent the day making money and they could spend it at this auction. And each of us American were auctioned off and Tanya and her group bought me, and the prize was a dance workshop with me. There was also a kiss from Phillip and a walk in the moonlight with Wilson. Wilson was the most expensive out of all of us. I came in 2nd! So yeah, that was pretty cool. And there were a bunch of other people I got to talk to and I got numbers and screen names and I really hope I get the chance to see them all again!

I think that best part of the whole trip was jumping into the Black Sea with my fellow Americans. Sarah jumped right in but it took the rest of us a few minutes to warm up to the idea of jumping into cold salty water with all our clothes on. But then we were like what the heck, who knows when we'll be back! It was just one of the moments when you feel happy to be alive, when you know you're living and you never ever want to lose this feeling. The theme song from Friends was totally playing in the background. Unfortunately, one friend was missing, Clare didn't jump in, but she was there in spirit! The funny part about all of this was there was a camera crew from the equivalent of NBC in Russia there and they interviewed Sarah and took footage of us dripping wet laughing our heads off! All of us are trying to locate the video of it on the internet but have so far been unsuccessful. We also went swimming in the Black Sea again on our last day. This time with our bathing suits. The water felt a lot colder the second time around!

Now, I have a horrible cold. I was actually really sick on Sunday, the day after we got back. I had a temperature and everything and I never have a temperature. But my fever broke the next day and now I'm just struggling with a cold and no tissues. Seriously, they don't have tissues here. It's so weird. I don't know what they do when they're sick like me. But anyways. Since Sochi I haven't really done much since I usually have just enough energy to go to school, do my homework, and go to sleep. But me and Phillip are trying to plan a trip to Krasnodar to see a Russian ballet next weekend, so we'll see if that comes through or not :)