The end

This last week was filled with tests and goodbyes. After two tests, two projects and two finals, we were finally done with school! Then Thursday night we had a goodbye concert, where we thanked our teachers and host families, sang, and ate food. It was a little long but still good, thanks to our talented group.

Friday we went to here another Russian camp. It was my favorite one, because the campers were more my age, they spoke English and they had real bathrooms. We went to classes with them and then hung out and talked. It was really fun getting to know the girls and I wish we could have stayed there longer. Luckily I can still keep in touch with all of my Russian friends through Facebook and vkontakte.

Saturday and Sunday were spent with my host family. They took me to an amusement park, a water park, souvenir shopping, to their grandparent’s and to the banya. I had tons of fun and will definitely miss them in America. Then we met at 2:30 am to drive to the airport, and our traveling adventure began.

My School

Clearly, this post is a little late, since I’m done with all of my regular classes, but I figured I’d write about a normal school day anyway.

First of all, you don’t address teachers by their last name (like Mr. Thomas), you address them by their first name and patronymic (sort of like a Russian middle name). Also, you use different notebooks here. You can’t buy the big 3-ring wide ruled notebooks here; they’re all little tiny paper notebooks. Also,  everyone writes in cursive. Everyone. And Russian cursive is significantly different from print. It was pretty confusing at first, but now I think I’ve got it down.

Anyway, our old classroom used to be a fairly standard classroom: two people per desk, in two lines. Then we moved downstairs to the better classroom, so now we all sit around one big table. I like it a lot better. We have two classes, Lexica and Grammar.

Grammar is pretty much how it sounds. We usually go through our textbook and learn a couple of grammar lessons, and then do exercises in our notebooks or orally. It’s a fairly boring class, but not too bad. We usually end the day with a Dictant, which is where she reads a passage in Russian and we write it in our notebooks, to practice spelling and grammar. Our homework is usually pretty easy, just some exercises. Grammar tests I always do the worst on, because I’m really bad at Russian grammar.

Lexica is a mix of reading, writing, and speaking. It’s focused more on comprehension of words and vocabulary than it is on grammar. This class is a little less structured. We’ll often read the essays we wrote the night before, and then sometimes learn a lesson or write and perform a dialogue. Some days we learn new vocabulary, or read a story or learn Russian sayings. Homework is usually just some sort of essay. The tests are fairly easy because they are usually a monologue and dialogue about something random, and sometimes they are pretty amusing.

That’s it, my school day. Class is for about 3 hours every day, with a break in the middle (for snacks). We study in the International Students building. Oh yeah, and our teachers speak to us only in Russian. That was pretty hard the first week, but it definitely helps us learn a lot. I know a bunch of random grammar terms now 🙂 Our teachers are really nice, which is good.

Almost the end…

Less than a week until I go home, which is super crazy. This week will be mostly full of tests and projects and other such boring things, and then a bunch of crazy goodbye stuff.

On Sunday I made chocolate chip cookies with my host sisters, which was really fun. We found chocolate chips (sort of), which was amazing because they don’t use them in Russia. Considering the fact that I guessed on most of the measurements and cooking time, they actually turned out pretty well. I think my host family liked them too, which was good. My American friends did too; a little taste of home. Unfortunately, they’re all gone now. I guess I’ll just have to make some when I get back!

I’ve been watching a little bit of the Olympics, too, but not that much. I hardly ever have free time. It’s weird to see only the Russians, though, instead of the Americans. It’s interesting. I watched some gymnastics; I think I heard that there is a Tatar girl on the Russian gymnastics team, so everyone from here is pretty proud.

We went to a monastery yesterday, which was alright. Nothing too exciting, but it was a nice environment. Today was a test, which I actually did really well on for once, and tomorrow we’re presenting projects, which will be horrible. I will survive somehow. Tomorrow is also a test for NSLI-Y, but in the evening. And then final exam Thursday. This is too weird. Only about 5 days left in Kazan…

Week 5

I know, I haven’t written all week. To be honest, there hasn’t been an insane amount to write about, so I’m doing it all in one clump.

Monday was just school as usual, then I came home and hung out with my host family. They took me out to dinner, which was really nice of them. It was really good food; I had sushi for the first time, and it was delicious. Then I skyped my family, went for a walk with my sisters, and drew. Nice relaxing day.

Tuesday was about the same. I went to Mega, which is the really big mall in Kazan. They have a giant IKEA (with a restaurant and cafe) and a ton of other stores. I didn’t buy anything, but it was a pretty impressive mall.

Wednesday we had cooking classes, yay! We learned how to make a bunch of different Tatar pastries that are really really yummy. It was fun, and hopefully I can make these when I get home. It was really cool to watch the lady work, too. She was very quick and efficient, and hers turned out much better than ours 🙂

On Thursday, we took a children’s train out to a lake. By children’s train, I don’t mean a train for children (although it was that too), but a train RUN by children. Kids drove it, were the conductors, everything. Pretty cool to see kids doing that, and they were adorable. The lake was really pretty, too. Probably the best one we’ve been to. A couple of people swam, but it wasn’t very hot out so I just relaxed.

Yesterday (Friday) we found this really cool Cuban restaurant that had cuban and mexican food. The atmosphere was really awesome, and the food was good too, but a little overpriced. It was nice to have mexican food, though; that’s not something you’ll find easily in Russia. After lunch I basically went to the grocery store and got a bunch of food for presents. I really love grocery stores; I love buying food. That was really fun.

Today we went to a museum. There is a Tatar poet who is said to be the Pushkin of the Tatars – he wrote a bunch of fairy tales that basically every Tatar knows. So we visited the place he grew up and saw the museum. The museum was pretty cool, and was right by a really pretty river. We also saw a movie based on one of this guy’s stories, and it was really hilarious in a ridiculous way. I didn’t really understand the whole plot, but the main bad guy essentially did ballet in the forest. It was hilarious. After that our bus broke down for a little while, but our driver fixed it and we got home fine.

That’s it, week five. Only one more week until I’m back in America – and that week will be filled with tests, projects, goodbyes, and packing. So this is basically the end of my last normal week in Russia! Crazy.

The Dacha

On Sunday I went to my host grandparent’s house, which is where my sisters have been all week. They live out in the country, in a dacha about an hour from Kazan. They have chickens, geese, and a couple of goats, along with a big garden full of fruits and vegetables.

The dacha is in the middle of the beautiful countryside; there are only a few houses around, and you can see rolling fields in all directions. It would be a really nice place to walk and think. I did go for a walk, actually, twice, and saw a little creek and a field of bright blue wildflowers. That’s the kind of place I could live.

My host grandma cooks delicious food. She made home-made trigolnikis, which are triangle-shaped pastries filled with meat and potatoes, and another dessert pastry, plus some delicious soup with home-made noodles. That was just for lunch – for dinner we had shashlik (grilled meat) with the barbecue sauce I brought from Kansas City. The food was so good – I had some of the trigolnikis for breakfast this morning. Yum!

My host mom is Tatar, so she and her parents and her cousin who came all spoke Tatar to each other. It was very interesting; not at all like Russian. My host mom’s cousin has a son and an 8 month old daughter, who was really adorable.

I spent a lot of the day resting, which was really nice. I watched some random Russian tv and played with the kids. I also went to the Russian banya. It was an interesting experience – essentially taking a shower inside a sauna. A little weird, but it felt really good. Relaxing.

Well, we went to the dacha with a bunch of food, and came back with a bunch of (different) food as gifts. I guess that’s the Russian tradition, trading food when you are a guest. I’m not complaining; I love Russian food!

Cheboksary: Part 2

Saturday I was in Cheboksary again, this time with the whole group. We drove down in the bus and met a couple of Flex alumni – Flex is a program where Russians come to the US to study. I also met up with Natasha, my future host sister.

We started at McDonald’s, since it’s supposed to be better than in the US. I’m not a great judge, since I don’t eat at McDonald’s in the US, but I’m pretty sure it was better. They had fries that were actual potatoes, and some wraps and stuff that looked really good. I just got a burger, but it was nice to have some American food 🙂

After lunch we spent most of our time walking around Cheboksary, like I had done before. We took a bunch of pictures of the group, on the bridge and steps and stuff. It was cool, windy, and a little rainy, but overall really nice weather. After that we walked around the souvenir shopping area. There are a bunch of little wooden booths set up where people will come and sell their souvenirs – Natasha says they are homemade, which is pretty cool. You can get almost anything there – matroishkas, spoons, ornaments, little toys.

We took the trolley bus up the hill to the park that I went to last time, with the WWII memorial. It has really nice views of Cheboksary. There were at least 4 or 5 wedding groups there, taking pictures in the gardens and by the monument. One couple came up in a horse-drawn carriage, but most people just come in long car caravans with flowers and ribbons on them. I’m sure our group photo-bombed a couple of wedding photos.

After the park we walked around the mall for a bit, and then headed home. It’s about 2 hours back to Kazan, so not too bad. A nice, long, busy day.

Soviet Museum and the Opera

Our excursions this week were to a museum and the opera, both really fun.

The museum was something like the Museum of Soviet Life. It was basically this room full of old stuff from the Soviet period; clothes, shoes, toys, etc. I played some really old games, and some people from our group sang and played the guitar. It was really interesting; by far my favorite museum in Kazan.

We were lucky enough to get tickets to the Opera on Friday; it’s the end of the summer season, so tickets are pretty hard to come by. Everyone got dressed up, and a bunch of us met before hand to have a semi-fancy dinner. Then we took a bunch of pictures before going in to the theater.

The theater was really pretty. Chandeliers, marble staircases, gold leaf, and so on. I had really nice seats; ground floor, 7th row, right in front of the stage. The opera was Turandot. The singing was in Italian, and the subtitles were in Russian, but I got the basic plotline from my friend so it mostly made sense. The singing was amazing though; really beautiful. I’ve never really been to an opera before, but this one was great. Quite an experience.

Russian Camp: Take 2

On Tuesday we went to another Russian camp, this time for University students. It was full of freshmen and sophomores from our host school, книту, formerly кгту. It was really fun, again. We split into groups and got to know some college kids, saw their cabins and stuff. I sang our national anthem with some other Americans, and we asked some random questions.

After the basic get-to-know-you stuff, the guys went off to play soccer while we watched from the sidelines and danced. We had a mini-danceoff, and then they blasted music and we tried to learn some Russian dances. Then we played some volleyball, and hung out. We were only there for like 3 hours, unfortunately. I wish we could have stayed longer; the people were really nice, and it seemed like a fun place.

Cheboksary

Fun fact: a couple of days after I get home from Russia, we’re getting an exchange student from Russia. Another fun fact: she lives in a town not far from Kazan, where I am. After emailing back and forth, we figured out a way to meet up and for me to see her hometown. Sunday (yesterday) my future host sister, Natasha, and her family picked me up and showed me around Cheboksary. It was a really fun way to get to know her and her family before she spends the year with us.

We started at their apartment, which was really clean and pretty. Her mom fed me a delicious lunch, and I saw pictures of Natasha and her friends and some exchange students she’s hosted. After that we drove down to Cheboksary, to see a little bit of the city. We started with some really nice views of the river, and then went to a park where they have a monument celebrating the end of WWII. There is a nice statue and an eternal flame going, and we saw a couple getting their wedding pictures taken there. There were also great views of the city of Cheboksary. We also saw some very pretty churches. After that we went down to I guess the city center and walked around. There were very pretty buildings, a fountain in the middle of the water, and lots of little vendors selling cute things.

Natasha and her family took me to their dacha, where their grandmother lives. We had a delicious lunch-dinner, with fresh berries and vegetables from their garden. The garden at the dacha is awesome. They have tons of beautiful flowers, and they grow a lot of food there too. I especially like the fresh raspberries.

I took a bunch of pictures with Natasha and her family, and she did too. We had a lot of fun hanging out and getting to know each other. Her family is really nice and they were so sweet to me. I’m really excited for her to come! It’s like a little extension of my Russian trip.

Oh yeah, we’re actually going to Cheboksary (probably) as a group this weekend, so I’ll meet up with Natasha and see her again. Cheboksary is supposed to be the cleanest city in Russia – it was given an award in 2006. I can see why; it’s very green, with lots of trees and grass and flowers, and very pretty. Lots of little souvinir stands too, so hopefully I can get some good shopping in.

Russian Camp

This weekend was really busy. On Saturday, we (the whole group) took the bus out to Buinsk (I think it’s буинск in Russian), which is a little town in Tatarstan. There we visited a Russian kid’s camp, out in the middle of the forest. It was actually really fun, since a lot of these kids hadn’t seen Americans before, or if they had, it was last year at the same camp.

The camp is in the middle of this really pretty pine forest. The trees are very tall, and the branches don’t start until at least halfway up, so they give shade without being overwhelming. There was no undergrowth in the camp, just dirt and sand, which was really nice because there weren’t really any bugs. The kids live in cabins around the camp, and there is a cafeteria, a volleyball court, a soccer field, and a playground. Everything is painted bright colors in the Russian tradition. The cabins were actually really nice, compared to what I’m used to – clean, no bugs. No plumbing though, which was the only downside.

As soon as we got in all of the kids came in to welcome us. Then we split up, with 2-4 Americans going with basically a cabin of kids. For the first part, we went around doing “carnival” games, and if we won we could collect letters that we would later turn in for treats. They had normal games, like sack races and arm wrestling, and some new fun ones. There was one where you had to find a ruble in a plate of flour using only your face (it made for great pictures) and one where you essentially squirted water at each other for five seconds and then whoever squirted the most water won. Another game took place in a circle drawn in the dirt; there were two people, and you had to stand on one leg with your arms behind your back and try to push the other person out of the circle using only your shoulder.

After the games we went back to the cabins to rest and talk. The Russians asked questions in Russian or in English (if we couldn’t understand them) and we answered mostly in Russian. Then we went and sat in a big circle and sang songs. Well, it was mostly the Russians who sang songs, because we didn’t know them. We tried singing some American pop songs a capella, but that didn’t really work out. It was really fun though; one of the counselors brought her guitar and sang with us, and she was really good. Then we went and had lunch, which was possibly the best camp food I’ve ever had. Way better than the stuff we get at the cafeteria every day.

After writing down our contact information for the kids in our group (I bet I have a ton of Facebook friend requests) there was a dance off between the Americans and the Russians. The Russians had been practicing for weeks, and we had to do it impromptu so we had to resort to things like the Burning, the Can-Can, and the Macarena. Needless to say, the Russians won. It eventually turned into a big dancing circle, and then into a slow dance where the American boys were asked to dance by Russian girls. Kind of funny, seeing as most of the girls were only 14.

We ate dinner, wrote down more contact information, and took a bunch of pictures before going back to our bus. The kids were so cute – hugging us and saying they didn’t want us to leave. The camp sent us off with big bottles of water and crab chips (crab-flavored Lays, really weird) for our 2.5 hour bus ride back to Kazan.