Check out pics from my trips to Krasnodar! http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=42267&id=1211594619&l=baa54fe38d
And also, I will be leaving for Sochi for an AFS camp during school vacation next week. I leave for Krasnodar on Saturday and then take a train to Sochi Monday night. So there won't be any blog posts until after I get back next weekend. But when I get back, I'll have lots to tell!
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
More pics are up!
I added some pics from my first disco tech at my school to Random Russia Pics album at this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=40742&id=1211594619&l=19cacdfb59
And pictures from the World Dialogue Day at my school are up at this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=41870&id=1211594619&l=b4bc023d72
Enjoy :)
And pictures from the World Dialogue Day at my school are up at this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=41870&id=1211594619&l=b4bc023d72
Enjoy :)
Finally feeling like fall... well, sort of
Today is the first day since I've been here that the temperature has not gotten about 60 degrees since I've been here! This is what fall is supposed to be like! Well, actually it's kinda foggy out so it's not as dry as I would like, but at least I'm not melting in the heat like I was this whole week. I miss the weather in Maine so much!!! The fall here is too warm and starting to become too rainy. I don't want one of those winters where you get rain instead of snow. But there will be snow when I get back to Maine I know which makes me happy :)
So this week I didn't really do anything all that exciting. I went to my first history class on Tuesday and I really like it. I was kinda nervous about going because I was pretty much just showing up and I had no idea how the teacher would react. But it was with my class and the teacher was really cool about it. He's one of three male teachers in the school and I think he's the best teacher of all. He actually interacts with the students. Like, his lessons are more like conversations than lectures. In most classes that I've seen here, the teachers talks and asks questions of the students but really doesn't talk to them so I don't think the students really understand what they are learning. And my history teacher is Dr Jeckl and Mr. Hyde when it comes to temperment. The others teachers are all sweet one minute than practically screaming the next. He's very levelheaded and maintains control of his class and I respect him for that. He also speaks English a little, which is cool. He even threw in a few English words in his explanations just for me, which I thought was really nice of him. Unfortunately, I don't know his name. I can never remember a teacher's name the first time I hear it. They don't go by Mr. So-and-so. They go by their first name and their patronymic name, which is their fathers name plus -nov or -slav or -vna or some or crazy ending.
I've come across a problem in my English class, the one I have with my class. Lera is a crazy girl in my class I don't like much but she really wanted me to sit next to her and there weren't really any other seats available so I was like okay, whatever. A few minutes later, I realized why she wanted me to sit next to her. She wanted me to do her work for her. And I did, just because I didn't know what else to do. What was I going to say no and have her bug me about it for the rest of class? At the end of class, she told me to sit next to her every English class. So now I'm like great, what am I supposed to do now? I want to go to their English class but I don't want to sit next to Lera. But I think that maybe the teacher spoke to Lera about it after class. So I think I'm going to go to their next English class on Wednesday and see how it goes. If Lera asks me to sit next to her, I'll say no. I guess I don't really care if she gets mad at me because I don't really like her. She's very brash and loud and quite the little party girl.
Let's see what else? I had some really good family time with my Mama, Afonia, and my Aunt the other night. I talked a bunch in Russian. Not very well, but it still felt good to speak to them all so much :) I'm starting to become a little creeped out by all the bugs that seem to be around. The weather is getting colder, so I hope they go away, but right now, I kept on seeing these little hopping bugs all over my desk. And there are tons of flies everywhere. It's really annoying and slightly gross. I also find it funny how Russians are so picky about putting stuff on the ground! I don't know if I've already posted this, but you do not put anything on the floor in Russia. I was sitting in a chair and I put my bag down on the floor at my feet and Olya freaked out. She said it was dirty but I know for a fact that they wash the floors regularly. Also, you don't go bare foot outside and you never wear shoes inside. In America there is a little grey room, but here it is very black and white. We talked about this for like 20 minutes and we both thought the other was crazy!
So I think the biggest thing I did this week was the Форд Боярд. I still don't fully understand it, even after participating. But there were three teams, each of the 10th form class. I was with 10б. We all had team uniforms and as you can see by the picture, ours was just to dress crazy. Each team had to run around the school and do different tasks. Fo
r every correctly completed task, the team received a key. The team with the most keys at the end won. That's what I understood but I was more complicated than that I know. But it was really fun and it was a good bonding experience for me even though it wasn't with my class. I really like 10б even though they're all only 15. But that's okay, they're still cool. But spending so much time with them made me realize just how close they all really are. They're like brothers and sisters. I guess that's what happens when you've been in the same class together all through school. It made me feel a little on the outside looking in at some points. They tried to include me, but there's only so much I can understand and only so much I can say. It made me miss my group of friends a little. But I know that they all really like me and they are all very friendly to me. So I hope that as my Russian gets better, so will our friendship. :)
So this week I didn't really do anything all that exciting. I went to my first history class on Tuesday and I really like it. I was kinda nervous about going because I was pretty much just showing up and I had no idea how the teacher would react. But it was with my class and the teacher was really cool about it. He's one of three male teachers in the school and I think he's the best teacher of all. He actually interacts with the students. Like, his lessons are more like conversations than lectures. In most classes that I've seen here, the teachers talks and asks questions of the students but really doesn't talk to them so I don't think the students really understand what they are learning. And my history teacher is Dr Jeckl and Mr. Hyde when it comes to temperment. The others teachers are all sweet one minute than practically screaming the next. He's very levelheaded and maintains control of his class and I respect him for that. He also speaks English a little, which is cool. He even threw in a few English words in his explanations just for me, which I thought was really nice of him. Unfortunately, I don't know his name. I can never remember a teacher's name the first time I hear it. They don't go by Mr. So-and-so. They go by their first name and their patronymic name, which is their fathers name plus -nov or -slav or -vna or some or crazy ending.
I've come across a problem in my English class, the one I have with my class. Lera is a crazy girl in my class I don't like much but she really wanted me to sit next to her and there weren't really any other seats available so I was like okay, whatever. A few minutes later, I realized why she wanted me to sit next to her. She wanted me to do her work for her. And I did, just because I didn't know what else to do. What was I going to say no and have her bug me about it for the rest of class? At the end of class, she told me to sit next to her every English class. So now I'm like great, what am I supposed to do now? I want to go to their English class but I don't want to sit next to Lera. But I think that maybe the teacher spoke to Lera about it after class. So I think I'm going to go to their next English class on Wednesday and see how it goes. If Lera asks me to sit next to her, I'll say no. I guess I don't really care if she gets mad at me because I don't really like her. She's very brash and loud and quite the little party girl.
Let's see what else? I had some really good family time with my Mama, Afonia, and my Aunt the other night. I talked a bunch in Russian. Not very well, but it still felt good to speak to them all so much :) I'm starting to become a little creeped out by all the bugs that seem to be around. The weather is getting colder, so I hope they go away, but right now, I kept on seeing these little hopping bugs all over my desk. And there are tons of flies everywhere. It's really annoying and slightly gross. I also find it funny how Russians are so picky about putting stuff on the ground! I don't know if I've already posted this, but you do not put anything on the floor in Russia. I was sitting in a chair and I put my bag down on the floor at my feet and Olya freaked out. She said it was dirty but I know for a fact that they wash the floors regularly. Also, you don't go bare foot outside and you never wear shoes inside. In America there is a little grey room, but here it is very black and white. We talked about this for like 20 minutes and we both thought the other was crazy!
So I think the biggest thing I did this week was the Форд Боярд. I still don't fully understand it, even after participating. But there were three teams, each of the 10th form class. I was with 10б. We all had team uniforms and as you can see by the picture, ours was just to dress crazy. Each team had to run around the school and do different tasks. Fo
r every correctly completed task, the team received a key. The team with the most keys at the end won. That's what I understood but I was more complicated than that I know. But it was really fun and it was a good bonding experience for me even though it wasn't with my class. I really like 10б even though they're all only 15. But that's okay, they're still cool. But spending so much time with them made me realize just how close they all really are. They're like brothers and sisters. I guess that's what happens when you've been in the same class together all through school. It made me feel a little on the outside looking in at some points. They tried to include me, but there's only so much I can understand and only so much I can say. It made me miss my group of friends a little. But I know that they all really like me and they are all very friendly to me. So I hope that as my Russian gets better, so will our friendship. :)
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Of cookies and Krasnodar
So I decided I want to try and do weekly posts because now I'm finding I have some cool if not slightly random stuff to write about and I think you guys will find it interesting. If you didn't you wouldn't be reading my blog!
So this entry is for the week of 12 -18 oктябрь (October 12th-18th). Here are some highlights from last week. I talked to Phillip and we established two things: We Americans are not going to school on Thanksgiving (what day is that anyway?...) and we're not going to school on Christmas (they have a different Christmas in January. Idk if they have vacation around the 25th at all). We want to try and together with everyone in Krasnodar. We'll see what actually goes down.
In school, I'm running into some difficulty in my Russian lessons because, I understand how to do what my teacher is teaching me (for instance, I understand I need this ending for this case and this ending for that case) But I can't always understand the concept because the Russian doesn't make sense in English. Like, I can't easily translate it. And when this happens I have to base to anchor the concept to and its just a bunch of random Russian case endings and verb conjugations floating around in my head and I don't really understand it. I'm glad that Olya is here. Otherwise, I would have no one to ask what this computes to in English and I would be totally lost!
Hmmm, what other random stuff can I tell... All the little girls wear this cutest white bows that are about the size of their faces. I have some pictures of my little cousin wearing one. They're so cute! When you buy bottles of soda at the story, they sometimes have straws in them. This makes me so happy for some reason! I love my cooking class but the teacher doesn't speak English at all and she doesn't try and talk to me in Russian and when she does she doesn't speak very simply so I don't understand. This makes the class kinda awkward. She doesn't seem interested in me. Like when I tell her what ingredients are in English, she says Shannon I don't understand and I'm like, I know you don't understand that's why I'm telling you! You're teaching me Russian I thought you'd like to learn some English maybe. It's just kinda awkward and kinda hurts a little you know? Umm, what else. I think it's funny that everyone thinks what I'm doing is so fascinating. The students are always looking at what I'm writing or asking to look at my things. I don't mind most of the time. I just think it's kinda funny.
Oh yeah, I had to translate some stuff for a business! Like it was all offical like and I had no idea what they wanted and I was so afraid I was going to mess up so I was stressing out and it was crazy! This business lady just shows up in my English class and my English teacher asked me to stay and help. But I really didn't do anything because I don't know Russian well enough to do a lot of translating. But I got 100 rubles out of it so that was kinda cool! hahaha
Okay, and then the biggest highlight was Krasnodar on Saturday. There was an AFS party and we had to bake a native dish, so I made chocolate chip cookies! It was also a birthday party for Phillip. For a present, I made him a slide show that made fun of all the awkward situations that we have been
in since we've been in Russia it was awesome. He loved it because it was homemade and showed I put a lot of effort into it. The only thing is I went with Andrea and we arrived late so most of the food had been presented and eaten and Phillip had opened all of his presents already. But that wasn't that big of a deal. I stayed the night with the family I stayed with when I came to Krasnodar when I first arrived in Russia. The next day, I went for a walk with some AFS volunteers and some of the AFS students. We went to an exhibition about Putin and a small art gallery. Then we ate a cafe before going to the Galleria, which is a really big mall. But the stores there were pretty high end and most of the stuff was kinda expensive. You'd be surprised Russia isn't as cheap as you would think. In this picture, we're all around this statue. If you touch the nose, it's supposed to bring you good luck! Let's hope it works!
So this entry is for the week of 12 -18 oктябрь (October 12th-18th). Here are some highlights from last week. I talked to Phillip and we established two things: We Americans are not going to school on Thanksgiving (what day is that anyway?...) and we're not going to school on Christmas (they have a different Christmas in January. Idk if they have vacation around the 25th at all). We want to try and together with everyone in Krasnodar. We'll see what actually goes down.
In school, I'm running into some difficulty in my Russian lessons because, I understand how to do what my teacher is teaching me (for instance, I understand I need this ending for this case and this ending for that case) But I can't always understand the concept because the Russian doesn't make sense in English. Like, I can't easily translate it. And when this happens I have to base to anchor the concept to and its just a bunch of random Russian case endings and verb conjugations floating around in my head and I don't really understand it. I'm glad that Olya is here. Otherwise, I would have no one to ask what this computes to in English and I would be totally lost!
Hmmm, what other random stuff can I tell... All the little girls wear this cutest white bows that are about the size of their faces. I have some pictures of my little cousin wearing one. They're so cute! When you buy bottles of soda at the story, they sometimes have straws in them. This makes me so happy for some reason! I love my cooking class but the teacher doesn't speak English at all and she doesn't try and talk to me in Russian and when she does she doesn't speak very simply so I don't understand. This makes the class kinda awkward. She doesn't seem interested in me. Like when I tell her what ingredients are in English, she says Shannon I don't understand and I'm like, I know you don't understand that's why I'm telling you! You're teaching me Russian I thought you'd like to learn some English maybe. It's just kinda awkward and kinda hurts a little you know? Umm, what else. I think it's funny that everyone thinks what I'm doing is so fascinating. The students are always looking at what I'm writing or asking to look at my things. I don't mind most of the time. I just think it's kinda funny.
Oh yeah, I had to translate some stuff for a business! Like it was all offical like and I had no idea what they wanted and I was so afraid I was going to mess up so I was stressing out and it was crazy! This business lady just shows up in my English class and my English teacher asked me to stay and help. But I really didn't do anything because I don't know Russian well enough to do a lot of translating. But I got 100 rubles out of it so that was kinda cool! hahaha
Okay, and then the biggest highlight was Krasnodar on Saturday. There was an AFS party and we had to bake a native dish, so I made chocolate chip cookies! It was also a birthday party for Phillip. For a present, I made him a slide show that made fun of all the awkward situations that we have been
in since we've been in Russia it was awesome. He loved it because it was homemade and showed I put a lot of effort into it. The only thing is I went with Andrea and we arrived late so most of the food had been presented and eaten and Phillip had opened all of his presents already. But that wasn't that big of a deal. I stayed the night with the family I stayed with when I came to Krasnodar when I first arrived in Russia. The next day, I went for a walk with some AFS volunteers and some of the AFS students. We went to an exhibition about Putin and a small art gallery. Then we ate a cafe before going to the Galleria, which is a really big mall. But the stores there were pretty high end and most of the stuff was kinda expensive. You'd be surprised Russia isn't as cheap as you would think. In this picture, we're all around this statue. If you touch the nose, it's supposed to bring you good luck! Let's hope it works!
Thursday, October 15, 2009
K-dar with Andrea, Sarah, and Olya
K-dar, offically known as Krasnodar but its so much easier to text k-dar so that's what me and the American's call it, is the capital of the Krasnodar region (go figure) and about an hour bus ride from Korenovsk. I went with Andrea, Sarah, and Olya last Saturday, the 10th. We got a bus at 8 in the morning and caught a bus back at 7:20, so we had all day in the city! When we got there, we walked through a big park that had a cute little kid's amusement park that reminded me of a mini Storyland for some reason. There was a ropes course too that me and Sarah wanted to do but it wasn't open yet :(We then went to a book market which was really cool. They
had some new books and book supplies and cheap little plastic toys that Russians like to sell, but there was one part that was all old books and it was so cool. Anyone who has been with me to Yes Books in Portland knows my weakness for slightly used classic literature :) But books are heavy and thus expensive to bring home with me, so I restrained myself and only got three books small in size. Two book with poems by Alexander Pushkin, the greatest and most loved Russian poet, as well as a history book that is written in Old Russian (the equivalent of the Canterbury Tales to modern English from what I gather) I realize they I probably have no hope of ever reading it, but Olya was very impressed by the book and says the author is very respected in Russian history, so I thought it would be cool just to have. We had ice cream in the park on the way out of the book market. I had coconut and it was sooooo unbelievably good!Then, we met up with Karla, Wilson, Clare (all fellow Americans who live in Krasnodar) as well as Bella (student from Brazil) and Karla, Bella, and Wilson's host sisters. Don't ask me to remember their names, but they seem to go everywhere with them which would be kinda annoying I would think but they didn't seem to mind. We met at the Red Square, which is not an actually outdoor square like I thought. It's basically a giant mall with a bowling alley and indoor skating rink. The first thing we did was eat McDonalds and I really wanted a hamburger but it was so crazy busy and both the lady behind the counter and Olya couldn't understand what I wanted so I just got the McChicken sandwich because it's the only thing that I could say that they understood. (Later, I realized with chagrin that Wilson knows how to order a hamburger and I could have asked him but it was too late then!) I still enjoyed my chicken sandwich and the french fries were really good!
After that, we kinda sat around for a while. And I really wanted to something and Andrea, Sarah, and Olya had gone off to go shopping, but I really wanted to be with Clare and Wilson and Karla, but they were just sitting there! Finally, me Bella and Clare just left and everyone else followed us. We went to couple store and the clothes were really cute but I didn't buy anything. Clare tried on this really pretty dress that looked awesome on her and we all tried to get her to buy it but she didn't think she'd ever wear it and didn't want to spend the money. It was $90 dollars. After that we went to a book store that had English books and I bought Gulliver's Travels (an appropriate title for my current situation is it not?). I know I shouldn't be reading too much in English, but you guys know how much I love reading and I'm halfway through Cat's Cradle already and I can't stand the thought of not having another book to read! But I'm going to see if can make it last til I leave.
We left everyone at the mall after that and me, Sarah, Olya, and Andrea went for pizza, but when we got there they didn't have any just plain cheese pizza and apparently you can't order it that way, so I say hamburger on the menu and was like "That's what I want!!!" It was pretty good. There was mayo and ketchup on it which was weird but didn't taste too bad. Of course, nothing compared to a flame-broiled baby my dad can whip up on the grill, but it satisfied my need for beef. Temporarily anyway. I'm already craving it again!
We had some time to kill before the bus, but Olya felt the need to practically run to the shoe store because Andrea wanted to look for shoes (he's so Italian) But of course, he didn't find any he liked. But there was a DVD store there too and I actually bought some, which might seem stupid at first because they won't play in American DVD players. But they play fine on my laptop, they have the English language on them, and they were ridiculously cheap, only 5 bucks for brand new DVDs!! So I got 17 Again, The Duchess, and Star Trek. It makes me pretty happy :)
So yeah, that was Krasnodar. We are making plans to go back soon and this time, we want to see a movie at the theater!
Pictures are going up, slowly but surely!
I finally got some pictures to post on facebook! It's a random collection of pics I've taken since I've been here. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=40742&id=1211594619&l=19cacdfb59
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
The Russians love their гулять!
гулять: to stroll, to walk with no purpose. It's basically what Russians do in their free time. They don't go to each others houses and theirs really no other place to go, so they гуляют. I had my first major гулять last Friday with my first Russian friend Лина (Lina). She's only 16 and in the 10th class, buts she so cute and funny and I actually really like her. She's really into photography and we have a similar taste in music. So we were talking online (I was using a translator of course) and she invited me to go гулятьing with her and her brother. I met her brother Kostia at the last disco tech at school. He's at the university studying computer programming and he speaks English really well. So I was like, yeah I'd love to! I invited Andrea and Lina's friend Anya (I think? It's hard for me to remember names!) And then we ran into a bunch of other people intermittently as we were walking and met up with Kostia and his friend Alex in the park.
We walked around the park and the streets a bunch, and just as гулять implies, it was without purpose. Until Kostia suggested we go play pool. We were all horrible but it was so awesome. And the Russians play pool differently. The balls are all
white and they are numbered. The que ball is yellow but you don't have to use the que ball; you can use any ball you want to hit the other balls. I still sucked at it! We stayed in the pool hall for a while until the smell of smoke drove us out (I smelt so disgusting when I got home, I took a shower right away!). We walked around some more, ran into some drunk kids from school which we neatly got rid of. Then it was getting late and I wasn't sure how I was going to get home because I live too far from the center to walk and the buses had stopped a while ago. But Kostia was so sweet and was like, I will put you in a taxi if you want because I promised your mama when I called her to ask if you could stay later with us that I would get you home safe. I am responsible for you. I was very sweet and gentlemen like of him. I ended up going in a taxi with Andrea and his mom from Andrea's aunt's house. So it was all good. Awesome times. I hope I can do something like that again!What I've been up to
So, in the last post I talked a lot about my life in general, so know I thought I'd share some funny little details about my life here. I have started to right things that have happened to me as they happen in my assignment book (I don't need a lot of room to write my homework because I only have one actual class a day!) so now I will remember everything and have a bunch of awesome, random things to tell you guys!
Well, first off, I don't think I've talked about the disco techs yet, at least not in my blog. I know I've talked to some of you guys about them already. But anyways, they're pretty awesome. There have been two at my school and then one in the town hall building (I think that's what it is). It's
like going back in time to middle school dances!!! The boys and girls don't dance together unless its a slow song and even then there's maybe four couples on the floor and they are dancing a foot apart, barely touching each other, and looking around at anything but the person they are dancing with because they want to be anywhere else but there! It's so perfectly awkward! Me and Sarah were cracking up, but no one else really could understand. They really like to dance in circles too. I would mix it up a bit though and try to break the norm but you need more than one person for that. The best part that is is nothing like middle school or high school for that matter is the fact that the guys actually dance. They don't just stand there with their pelvis pushed up against a girl's butt. And 90% of them are actually really good dancers. I can't describe how they dance. It's something you have to experience. I will get a video of it at some point I promise. I need it for myself so I can always remember. And all you guys in America will have to take notes because I think everyone guy should dance like that.
The second disco tech at my school was part dance/part cultural presentation. I guess it was world dialogue day or something; I don't know exactly. Andrea had a slideshow about Italy, sang the national anthem, and taught the dance that goes with the Tarantella. Rodrigo did a traditional Bolivian dance in a pretty sweet costume (I can't believe he brought that with him; it must have weighed a ton!) Me and Sarah had a hard time figuring out something to do for America because it's so big and each region is so
different in culture. And we are from two different regions, Northeast and Midwest. So what ended up going down was I sang the national anthem, Sarah sang the fifty nifty states song, we played a game called Honey do you love me (I had never heard of it before but it's actually really fun. I'll have to teach it to you guys when I get back) and then we taught them the Cotton Eyed Joe. I think they enjoyed it, especially the dance. I had a girl ask me for the song the next week in school!
So yeah those are the disco techs. There's another one this Friday at school. Should be cool, hopefully. Okay, what else? Ummm, oh yeah, October 5th was Teacher's Day at school. It was kinda cool. I think we should start the tradition in the U.S. The 11th class decorated the school and set up music in the lobby and greeted each teacher with a balloon. Then, throughout the day, students went around to their teachers and gave candies and flowers and cards. And the best part was the teachers didn't have to teach that day. The 11th class did! Me and Sarah taught an English class for the day. It was kinda fun. We didn't really know what we were doing because we can't speak too much Russian and I don't think they understood everything we said in English. But Sarah was very energetic and the little kids seemed quite entertained so I think it went alright.
Umm, I was on Russian TV for like 30 seconds! The local TV station came and we had to stand in front of a camera and speak Russian! It wouldn't have been so bad if I had known about it ahead of time. But I was literally walking down the hall to my next class and my English teacher grabs my arm and leads me to the end of the hall where there's a camera and she starts telling me all this stuff in Russian to say and I was like, umm, I won't remember that, so I'm just going to say what I know. I said something like, My name is Shannon, I am from the USA, I am learning Russian, Right now I only know a little Russian. I love Korenovsk and my family, Everything is good! I sounded like an idiot. Andrea's host sister has a video of it I think. I wonder if there's any way for me to post it online? I was supposed to be interviewed by the Krasnodar TV people too but there was a fire in the bizare and they felt the need to go cover that for like 2 1/2 hours so I don't know if they'll come back or not.
And that same day I had the TV interview thing, I had my NSLI Russian test. Because the whole point of my scholarship is to learn Russian, NSLI and AFS want to make sure I actually am learning something, so I had a test to gauge my progress. And again, I wasn't aware of it until the head of AFS in the Krasnodar region showed up at my school with a rep from the Moscow embassy. I mean I knew I had a test at some point, but I didn't know the day. I kinda had a little melt down at the point because that was two fairly major things that they didn't feel the need to inform us about. To be perfectly honest, I don't even know if the Russians know what is going on. But I asked my English teacher if there was any way that we could be notified at least a couple days before stuff like that happens again and she said yes but who knows if anything will change. As I have said before, it's not in the Russians' nature to plan ahead. But yeah, my actual test went alright. My ignorance on the matter might have actually worked in my favor. I probably would have been freaking out about it for days if I had known about it ahead of time. I had to read Russian and translate it then listen to a piece of Russian text and answer questions about it. Both pieces were fairly simple and I understood most everything. My pronunciation could probably be better though and it's definitely harder to understand something that is being read to you than it is to understand written text you can see. But the lady from Moscow said that I did very well for only one month of Russian studies. So I guess I did okay! Only me and Sarah had to take the test because we are NSLI.
Okay, this post is getting pretty long. I'm going to start a new one :)
Well, first off, I don't think I've talked about the disco techs yet, at least not in my blog. I know I've talked to some of you guys about them already. But anyways, they're pretty awesome. There have been two at my school and then one in the town hall building (I think that's what it is). It's
like going back in time to middle school dances!!! The boys and girls don't dance together unless its a slow song and even then there's maybe four couples on the floor and they are dancing a foot apart, barely touching each other, and looking around at anything but the person they are dancing with because they want to be anywhere else but there! It's so perfectly awkward! Me and Sarah were cracking up, but no one else really could understand. They really like to dance in circles too. I would mix it up a bit though and try to break the norm but you need more than one person for that. The best part that is is nothing like middle school or high school for that matter is the fact that the guys actually dance. They don't just stand there with their pelvis pushed up against a girl's butt. And 90% of them are actually really good dancers. I can't describe how they dance. It's something you have to experience. I will get a video of it at some point I promise. I need it for myself so I can always remember. And all you guys in America will have to take notes because I think everyone guy should dance like that.The second disco tech at my school was part dance/part cultural presentation. I guess it was world dialogue day or something; I don't know exactly. Andrea had a slideshow about Italy, sang the national anthem, and taught the dance that goes with the Tarantella. Rodrigo did a traditional Bolivian dance in a pretty sweet costume (I can't believe he brought that with him; it must have weighed a ton!) Me and Sarah had a hard time figuring out something to do for America because it's so big and each region is so
different in culture. And we are from two different regions, Northeast and Midwest. So what ended up going down was I sang the national anthem, Sarah sang the fifty nifty states song, we played a game called Honey do you love me (I had never heard of it before but it's actually really fun. I'll have to teach it to you guys when I get back) and then we taught them the Cotton Eyed Joe. I think they enjoyed it, especially the dance. I had a girl ask me for the song the next week in school!So yeah those are the disco techs. There's another one this Friday at school. Should be cool, hopefully. Okay, what else? Ummm, oh yeah, October 5th was Teacher's Day at school. It was kinda cool. I think we should start the tradition in the U.S. The 11th class decorated the school and set up music in the lobby and greeted each teacher with a balloon. Then, throughout the day, students went around to their teachers and gave candies and flowers and cards. And the best part was the teachers didn't have to teach that day. The 11th class did! Me and Sarah taught an English class for the day. It was kinda fun. We didn't really know what we were doing because we can't speak too much Russian and I don't think they understood everything we said in English. But Sarah was very energetic and the little kids seemed quite entertained so I think it went alright.
Umm, I was on Russian TV for like 30 seconds! The local TV station came and we had to stand in front of a camera and speak Russian! It wouldn't have been so bad if I had known about it ahead of time. But I was literally walking down the hall to my next class and my English teacher grabs my arm and leads me to the end of the hall where there's a camera and she starts telling me all this stuff in Russian to say and I was like, umm, I won't remember that, so I'm just going to say what I know. I said something like, My name is Shannon, I am from the USA, I am learning Russian, Right now I only know a little Russian. I love Korenovsk and my family, Everything is good! I sounded like an idiot. Andrea's host sister has a video of it I think. I wonder if there's any way for me to post it online? I was supposed to be interviewed by the Krasnodar TV people too but there was a fire in the bizare and they felt the need to go cover that for like 2 1/2 hours so I don't know if they'll come back or not.
And that same day I had the TV interview thing, I had my NSLI Russian test. Because the whole point of my scholarship is to learn Russian, NSLI and AFS want to make sure I actually am learning something, so I had a test to gauge my progress. And again, I wasn't aware of it until the head of AFS in the Krasnodar region showed up at my school with a rep from the Moscow embassy. I mean I knew I had a test at some point, but I didn't know the day. I kinda had a little melt down at the point because that was two fairly major things that they didn't feel the need to inform us about. To be perfectly honest, I don't even know if the Russians know what is going on. But I asked my English teacher if there was any way that we could be notified at least a couple days before stuff like that happens again and she said yes but who knows if anything will change. As I have said before, it's not in the Russians' nature to plan ahead. But yeah, my actual test went alright. My ignorance on the matter might have actually worked in my favor. I probably would have been freaking out about it for days if I had known about it ahead of time. I had to read Russian and translate it then listen to a piece of Russian text and answer questions about it. Both pieces were fairly simple and I understood most everything. My pronunciation could probably be better though and it's definitely harder to understand something that is being read to you than it is to understand written text you can see. But the lady from Moscow said that I did very well for only one month of Russian studies. So I guess I did okay! Only me and Sarah had to take the test because we are NSLI.
Okay, this post is getting pretty long. I'm going to start a new one :)
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
It's Been Awhile...
So my mom has been riding my case about not posting anything new for a while, and yeah, I have kinda left you guys hanging. I've just been writing in my journal a lot, and when I write in my journal, I find I don't have the energy to restate everything I just wrote again. But, anyways, here's what has been going on.
I guess I'll talk about school a little bit first. I go to школа 17, which is right in the middle of the downtown. There are like, 7 other schools in Korenovsk and I guess they're all jealous that my school has us four exchange students. Yes, there are 4 of us in the school; me, Sarah from America, Andrea from Italy, and Rodrigo from Bolivia. It is nice to have Sarah at school to talk English with, and we help each other learn Russian. They try to keep us apart at school so we don't speak English, but that doesn't work too well. Andrea is cool too. He lives near me and we go for walks a lot. We talk mostly in English. I think he is getting better at English than Russian!
The school is very old, but they keep it meticulously clean. Everyday after classes are finished, one of the older forms is on "duty" and they clean the entire school. And I mean clean. They take rags and wipe the baseboards and walls, they sweep everywhere even the front steps, and they wash the windows. Don't tell the janitors in America about this! It's not strictly a high school; it is 1st through 11th form (they graduate at 16/17, no 12th grade). It's kind of annoying to have little kids constantly running around and screaming, but oh well. I'm technically part of the form 11a (there are two parallel classes in each form, 1a and 1b etc...) but I don't really do anything with them. I have my own schedule, which has been a point of contention in terms of my happiness. To make a long story short, as part of my scholarship I am supposed to have Russian Language classes. The students in Krasnodar are receiving these classes at a language school. However, me and Sarah and Phillip are not in Krasnodar and or schools can not provide us with the same caliber of lessons. After a few days of massive confusion and frustration on my part, I finally got some sort of language classes and slowly, I have settled into them. My teacher is very nice, but she doesn't speak English, so it makes learning Russian a little difficult. But we are getting by. At this point, I have deduced that the Russians don't plan well and its a miracle that I'm getting any sort of private lessons. So I'm just going with the flow and doing the best with the situation I am presented with. I talk to Phillip a lot (he's in Ust-Labinsk, but we have little mini therapy sessions and it's great) and we decided that making the best of what we have is all we can do.
Besides my daily Russian lessons, my schedule consists entirely of English classes. Sometimes I help the teach, but I mostly study Russian in the back of the room by myself, which I don't mind too much. I've always liked to study alone. I hope that later on when I understand more I can join my classmates in some other classes. On Thursdays I have труд which is home economics (only for girls, so sexist) and I get to make traditional Russian food which is pretty cool. So far I have made Russian pancakes (basically a crepe, but don't tell the Russian's that) the Russian version of a pirogi, and soup. (I know the Russian names but have no idea how to spell them! I have the recipe for the pirogi things though so I can make them at home!) And can I
just say that the Russians love their soup! We have soup with almost every meal. And also may I add that there are 12 different types of borscht, something I was not aware of until I got here. I eat Kuban borsht, which is basically water tomato sauce with a crap town of onions and peppers and a few potatoes. I eat it, but I don't pretend to enjoy it. Here's a pic.
At school, there is an English translator who is working as a teacher (she told me why but I didn't really understand exactly). Her names is Olya (Оля in Russian) She can't be more than 23 and she speaks English really well. She takes me out in the city sometimes during school and she helps me buy stuff at stores because most everything is in a glass case or behind a counter so if I went by myself I'd have to pull a Tarzan as Madame my french teacher would say and speak very crudely saying "это пожалуйста" ("this please") while pointing. Sometimes me and Sarah and Andrea take walks in the city too when we have English class. The teachers don't really care what we do, so it's kinda nice to have a bit of independence because school can get pretty boring.
So yeah, that's school, which is pretty much my life. My family is so awesome, but they don't really do anything. They never leave the house except to go to school/work or church. So it's good that Andrea lives near me so we can easily go for walks together just to get out of the house. The Russians don't really go outside. Like, there is a beautiful garden behind my house that is really pretty at sunset, but there is not where to sit. There's no where to sit anywhere outside. And as most of you know, I'm used to a nice big deck to go out and relax out on. Oh well. It will be winter soon and I guess it's pretty rainy and cold here in the winter so I won't want to be outside.
Because school is the only thing I do and I get pretty bored being home all the time, I'm looking into doing dance classes at an art school near my school. The director at my school gave me a schedule and told me the teachers name, but I'm a little confused. Like, do I just show up? I'm going to talk to my parents about it, and if they say yes maybe they can help me talk to the director to figure out what I need to do. Cause I was talking to Phillip about the whole being stuck at home thing and he says his family is kinda the same way so he started taking classes at an art school and he says its nice to have something else going on. And also, I really miss dancing. I have no idea what type of dance I'll be doing (I don't think its ballet though :() but I don't really care. Dance is a great stress reliever for me and also, its something I can do without knowing a lot of Russian because with dancing you communicate with your body, not your mouth.
And not to mention a little exercise wouldn't hurt. I'm afraid to say I've gained at least 5 pounds since this whole adventure began. They're diet is so carb-centric. Like the meal I just had was bread, potatoes, and these fried pancakes with cheese things. That's it. No vegetable or meat or anything. I feel like I'm going to explode! I eat grapes and apples and bananas often enough, but I'm not getting a lot of vegetables. I don't like tomatoes so all I really eat are cucumbers, which are basically crunchy water. And of course, there are tons of onions in every dish and yes, I actually do eat them. I never would have thought it possible, but they're not that bad most of the time. But the other day, my mama bought lettuce (it was different than American lettuce but i didn't care) and she made a green salad just for me. They put cucumbers and cauliflower (I told them I like broccoli and I think they think cauliflower is broccoli) and they drenched it in oil and put salt on it (They put salt of everything. And tons of butter. And the only flavoring they use here is salt, dill, and parsley) I didn't care though. I was just happy to have some greens :)
I have a couple other dietary notes to make. First, every Russian, at least in the Krasnodar region, loves sunflower seeds and I have taken a liking to them myself. There are tons of sunflower fields around here. Unfortunately I arrived as they were all dying so I didn't get to see them in all their beauty. But there are still tons of seeds kicking around. And they eat the ones with the shell on it. I still haven't gotten the hang of shelling them, but my host family has it down to a science. And also, my family raises there own chickens. I hear them in the morning and they are in my belly in the evening. And one time I made the mistake of walking into the outdoor kitchen when they were preparing the chickens. Seeing chicken feet sticking out of a pot was an experience I could have done without.
Okay, this is a pretty hefty sized post. I'm going to peace out for now. I'll write more often I promise!
I guess I'll talk about school a little bit first. I go to школа 17, which is right in the middle of the downtown. There are like, 7 other schools in Korenovsk and I guess they're all jealous that my school has us four exchange students. Yes, there are 4 of us in the school; me, Sarah from America, Andrea from Italy, and Rodrigo from Bolivia. It is nice to have Sarah at school to talk English with, and we help each other learn Russian. They try to keep us apart at school so we don't speak English, but that doesn't work too well. Andrea is cool too. He lives near me and we go for walks a lot. We talk mostly in English. I think he is getting better at English than Russian!
The school is very old, but they keep it meticulously clean. Everyday after classes are finished, one of the older forms is on "duty" and they clean the entire school. And I mean clean. They take rags and wipe the baseboards and walls, they sweep everywhere even the front steps, and they wash the windows. Don't tell the janitors in America about this! It's not strictly a high school; it is 1st through 11th form (they graduate at 16/17, no 12th grade). It's kind of annoying to have little kids constantly running around and screaming, but oh well. I'm technically part of the form 11a (there are two parallel classes in each form, 1a and 1b etc...) but I don't really do anything with them. I have my own schedule, which has been a point of contention in terms of my happiness. To make a long story short, as part of my scholarship I am supposed to have Russian Language classes. The students in Krasnodar are receiving these classes at a language school. However, me and Sarah and Phillip are not in Krasnodar and or schools can not provide us with the same caliber of lessons. After a few days of massive confusion and frustration on my part, I finally got some sort of language classes and slowly, I have settled into them. My teacher is very nice, but she doesn't speak English, so it makes learning Russian a little difficult. But we are getting by. At this point, I have deduced that the Russians don't plan well and its a miracle that I'm getting any sort of private lessons. So I'm just going with the flow and doing the best with the situation I am presented with. I talk to Phillip a lot (he's in Ust-Labinsk, but we have little mini therapy sessions and it's great) and we decided that making the best of what we have is all we can do.
Besides my daily Russian lessons, my schedule consists entirely of English classes. Sometimes I help the teach, but I mostly study Russian in the back of the room by myself, which I don't mind too much. I've always liked to study alone. I hope that later on when I understand more I can join my classmates in some other classes. On Thursdays I have труд which is home economics (only for girls, so sexist) and I get to make traditional Russian food which is pretty cool. So far I have made Russian pancakes (basically a crepe, but don't tell the Russian's that) the Russian version of a pirogi, and soup. (I know the Russian names but have no idea how to spell them! I have the recipe for the pirogi things though so I can make them at home!) And can I
just say that the Russians love their soup! We have soup with almost every meal. And also may I add that there are 12 different types of borscht, something I was not aware of until I got here. I eat Kuban borsht, which is basically water tomato sauce with a crap town of onions and peppers and a few potatoes. I eat it, but I don't pretend to enjoy it. Here's a pic.At school, there is an English translator who is working as a teacher (she told me why but I didn't really understand exactly). Her names is Olya (Оля in Russian) She can't be more than 23 and she speaks English really well. She takes me out in the city sometimes during school and she helps me buy stuff at stores because most everything is in a glass case or behind a counter so if I went by myself I'd have to pull a Tarzan as Madame my french teacher would say and speak very crudely saying "это пожалуйста" ("this please") while pointing. Sometimes me and Sarah and Andrea take walks in the city too when we have English class. The teachers don't really care what we do, so it's kinda nice to have a bit of independence because school can get pretty boring.
So yeah, that's school, which is pretty much my life. My family is so awesome, but they don't really do anything. They never leave the house except to go to school/work or church. So it's good that Andrea lives near me so we can easily go for walks together just to get out of the house. The Russians don't really go outside. Like, there is a beautiful garden behind my house that is really pretty at sunset, but there is not where to sit. There's no where to sit anywhere outside. And as most of you know, I'm used to a nice big deck to go out and relax out on. Oh well. It will be winter soon and I guess it's pretty rainy and cold here in the winter so I won't want to be outside.
Because school is the only thing I do and I get pretty bored being home all the time, I'm looking into doing dance classes at an art school near my school. The director at my school gave me a schedule and told me the teachers name, but I'm a little confused. Like, do I just show up? I'm going to talk to my parents about it, and if they say yes maybe they can help me talk to the director to figure out what I need to do. Cause I was talking to Phillip about the whole being stuck at home thing and he says his family is kinda the same way so he started taking classes at an art school and he says its nice to have something else going on. And also, I really miss dancing. I have no idea what type of dance I'll be doing (I don't think its ballet though :() but I don't really care. Dance is a great stress reliever for me and also, its something I can do without knowing a lot of Russian because with dancing you communicate with your body, not your mouth.
And not to mention a little exercise wouldn't hurt. I'm afraid to say I've gained at least 5 pounds since this whole adventure began. They're diet is so carb-centric. Like the meal I just had was bread, potatoes, and these fried pancakes with cheese things. That's it. No vegetable or meat or anything. I feel like I'm going to explode! I eat grapes and apples and bananas often enough, but I'm not getting a lot of vegetables. I don't like tomatoes so all I really eat are cucumbers, which are basically crunchy water. And of course, there are tons of onions in every dish and yes, I actually do eat them. I never would have thought it possible, but they're not that bad most of the time. But the other day, my mama bought lettuce (it was different than American lettuce but i didn't care) and she made a green salad just for me. They put cucumbers and cauliflower (I told them I like broccoli and I think they think cauliflower is broccoli) and they drenched it in oil and put salt on it (They put salt of everything. And tons of butter. And the only flavoring they use here is salt, dill, and parsley) I didn't care though. I was just happy to have some greens :)
I have a couple other dietary notes to make. First, every Russian, at least in the Krasnodar region, loves sunflower seeds and I have taken a liking to them myself. There are tons of sunflower fields around here. Unfortunately I arrived as they were all dying so I didn't get to see them in all their beauty. But there are still tons of seeds kicking around. And they eat the ones with the shell on it. I still haven't gotten the hang of shelling them, but my host family has it down to a science. And also, my family raises there own chickens. I hear them in the morning and they are in my belly in the evening. And one time I made the mistake of walking into the outdoor kitchen when they were preparing the chickens. Seeing chicken feet sticking out of a pot was an experience I could have done without.
Okay, this is a pretty hefty sized post. I'm going to peace out for now. I'll write more often I promise!
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