McDonalds in Russia

Still haven’t worked on pictures, so I have to save most of my stories for later. Sigh. I guess I’ll talk about McDonalds.

McDonalds in Russia is NOTHING like McDonalds in the US. The one on the main walking street in Kazan is really nice – two stories, nice furniture/decorations, etc. They have a cafe-thing that sells coffee and pastries and cakes, plus the regular part. It’s always really crowded, another thing you don’t really see in America. Russians really love McDonalds. We went today after our scavenger hunt to tally up points, and we saw a LOT of couples. In America it’s really bad form to take your date to McDonalds (not classy at all), but apparently it’s good in Russia. My host family asked if I liked McDonalds, and when I said no I had to explain that McDonalds isn’t the same in America. Same food for the most part, but not as nice. Or as busy.

That was my exploratory (that’s probably not a word) cultural experience for the day. That and getting lost with my host sister, but oh well.

Russian and Tatar food

Not much happened today. Well, I went to a hipster cafe, but I’ll have to save that story for later. So I’m going to write about food.

My mom is Tatar, but we live in Russia, so I get to taste both foods. For breakfast, I never have anything sweet. Porridge, meat, eggs, and bread are what I’ve had so far. Lunch is in the cafeteria, so it’s not very good (school food). Dinner is always delicious though. A lot of meat and potatoes (literally). Meat and potatoes plain, in a soup, over pasta. Today I had pelmini, which are my favourite Russian food. They’re like a cross between dumplings and ravioli, and they’re usually cooked in some sort of broth. You eat them warm, with sour cream, and they are incredibly delicious. I also had some blini, or Russian pancakes (sort of like crepes). I also had some sort of Tatar dish that was meat and potatoes cooked together inside this giant pastry-pie. Yum!

Russian ice cream is also really good, and really cheap. You can buy it anywhere on the street or in a продукты, a little Russian super market.

Tea is a really big thing over here. I mean, REALLY big. My host parents usually drink about one cup per meal, but my friends talk about how their host families just keep feeding them tea. I, of course, can’t drink regular tea, but I bought some herbal tea and I drink that. It’s not my favorite, but I’m getting used to it.

A sure sign of traditional Russian hospitality is that they feed you a lot. For example, yesterday I had two dinners – one when I got home and another after my parents got home. Even after dinner is done we sit around and drink tea, snack on cookies, cakes, candies, and fresh fruit. I usually end up going out later to get ice cream with my sisters too. It’s all delicious, but a little overwhelming.

My favorite part is the fresh fruit. My host family has a дача (dacha), or summer-house out in the country. Most Russian families do. My family built theirs themselves, and they have cherry trees out there, so yesterday they brought home a giant bag of fresh cherries. Today my host mom’s mom (host grandma?) came to visit and brought fresh raspberries and eggs. I haven’t tried the eggs yet, but the raspberries were delicious! Fresh and juicy and so sweet.  Eating those and the pelmini really made my day.

That’s Russian food (so far). I haven’t been to any restaurants yet, but I’m going to try to go on my next free day. Tomorrow is a scavenger hunt to help us get oriented in the city. I’ll try to write about our excursions or the hipster cafe next time, if I can get pictures to work. poka!

The beginning

здраствуте! At least I think that’s how it’s written. Anyway, my Russian is going well. I got to and from school all on my own today, navigating the apartment complex and bus stops. I’m definitely absorbing more Russian. I’ve started automatically answering “da” instead of “yeah” and I count in Russian now. Plus I can understand my host family a little better, but that may just be because they’re talking slower to accommodate me.

Today was my first day of REAL school, since yesterday was just like five or six tests (ugh). Today wasn’t much better, since we had an hour and a half of grammar. Passive case, ugh. My teachers are really nice though.

After school we did a bus tour of Kazan and visited the famous Kazan Kremlin. I’ll try to upload pictures later, if I can. No promises, though. We saw some nice churches and a very pretty mosque. It rained most of the day today, unfortunately, so we all got pretty wet. Good thing I brought an umbrella!

Tomorrow is more school. I think we have grammar second though, yay! I’m over halfway done with my first week in Russia. It’s just speeding by, huh? Dosvedanya!

In Russia

I made it! After a total of twelve hours of flying and WAY too much time waiting in lines, I am now in Kazan, Russia. We got in Sunday evening after losing a day in transit, and went straight to the university to meet our host families. My host family is incredibly sweet. I have a mom, a dad, and two younger sisters, 12 and 8. My sisters are Айназ and Сайда, or Ainaz and Saida. Their mom (my host mom) is Tatar, not Russian, which is why they don’t have traditional Russian names. I don’t speak very good Russian and they don’t speak very good English, but we manage to communicate.

My little sisters are adorable. We spent yesterday and today playing with balloons and making piggy banks (you know, with a balloon and paper mache). We talk in broken sentences of Russian and English, but it’s a lot of fun. My host mom cooks me mountains of delicious food, and it’s really easy to get full.

Today we (the NSLI-Y students) went to the university where we’ll be studying. Then we walked around the center of Kazan, and saw a lot of Lenin statues. Lenin actually studied at Kazan State University, along with Dostoevsky (I think). We also found this extremely hipster restaurant. It’s on the top floor of an office building, around the back in a little alleyway. It’s actually a coffee shop, so all of the drinks and snacks are free. There is a catch – you pay by the hour. 2 rubles a minute for the first half hour, and then 1 ruble after that. It also has free wifi, so hopefully we’ll end up doing our homework there.

Well, it’s the end of my first full day in Kazan. My host mom is making another delicious dinner (I can smell it from here).

DC: day two

Orientation, yay! It was a mixture of “this will be so fun, get excited” and “be careful, you’ll probably be arrested.” It was fun but scary, full of horror stories about people losing luggage and getting stopped by the police and losing laptops.  So I think we’ll all be sufficiently cautious.

Tomorrow is MORE orientation, then we go to the airport for our flight to Russia! We all got matching shirts, so anyone will be able to clearly see all 60 or so NSLI-Y kids flying to Russia. Yay matching!

This is it, my last night in the United States for the next six weeks. Wish me luck!

DC: day one

I got up bright and early for my flight today, on a teeny tiny little plane. But I made it! Once our group got to the hotel we had like four hours to kill before dinner. I walked around, stood around, walked down to Walgreens, and watched way too much Food Network. Then, finally, dinner and the oh-so-fun icebreaker activities. Now just hanging out until bed.

I’m rooming with two girls from Chicago and Detroit (I think…) who are going to Yaroslavl and Gatchina. Just try t pronounce that first one. They are super nice, but one of them doesn’t have her luggage yet because of plane problems. Some people aren’t even here yet. Stupid United. I met tons of nice people today. There’s another Claire going to Kazan.

Tomorrow is the mysterious orientation, I think filled mostly with get to know you activities. Guess I’ll find out.

I’m Off!

This is it! My last day in Kansas. Tomorrow I wake up at the crack of dawn to fly to DC and meet my fellow exchange students for orientation. No one really knows what “orientation” means, but I’ve been told there will be speakers and we’ll be taking notes. Also, free food. After two-ish days in DC, seventeen-ish other teenagers and I get on a plane to fly to Kazan. I think we’ll be meeting host families there. After that, who knows?

This is it! Everything I need for the next six weeks fits in these four bags. Hope I didn’t forget anything!