More of yesterday...

This first picture is of our trip to the Gus-Khrustalny Chrystal and Glass Works. The first stop was the museum in the building, a one-room display through which we were led by a very nice woman who herself had to be in her 80s (and, therefore, probably part of the very exhibit she was showing us!). She spoke with pride about the history of the place and the objets d'art on display. Honestly, to me everything looked like props from the old 60s Star Trek television series... However, to each his or her own.

The second picture is of most of us-- the Americans on hand for the 4th of July fete-- getting ready to sing "America, the Beautiful" for our Russian guests. It was a very good time, with LOTS of food and music, though the magic of the evening was dampened a bit when I got an earful from Katya for showing up at 9:30pm. Most of the Russian host families expected us to be done right at 7pm per the printed schedule. It was a good time, all in all. I remain amazed at this American Home institution here in Vladimir, Russia.

A quick footnoote about yesterday. A new American student (here to study Russian) at the American Home was introduced-- she had just arrived yesterday, before the party-- and we got to chatting... A 20-year old Missouri-Synod Lutheran from Michigan... I used to know a 20-year old Missouri Synod Lutheran from Michigan... ;)

The Russian Bathroom

My Russian students often have difficulty, at first, with the English-Russian cognate "toilet." In American English, bathrooms are everywhere, though in public places without showers or bathtubs, we would say "restroom." In Russia, the toilet is the device, as well as the place where it is located. In public places, it's more euphamistically (and European-ly) called a "water closet." In an apartment, the toilet may be in its own little tiny (and I mean tiny) room, separate from the bathroom. In Katya's apartment, there is an actual bathroom (lexically, I mean)... The picture below doesn't quite to the dimensions justice, but in one room there is a bathtub, water heater, toilet, and small washing machine (and plenty of other odds and ends); in fact, it is so small that I can stand in the center and just about touch all four walls.

Next time you get in your shower and turn on the hot water that you take for granted, be grateful. Not everybody has it so good...

American Independence Day in Vladimir, Russia

Hello, or Привет, from Vladimir, where it is presently 5:45pm (8:45am in Texas). When we returned from Gus around 3:45 this afternoon, a carnival-like atmosphere was building in the backyard of the American Home (see first picture-- the guy in the black shirt and jeans is a reporter who's talking to Terry from Seattle in the picture, but who interviewed us both for a story he said would be out in a local paper on Saturday). Luminaries from the local area were among the 80 or so Russians invited to mark the American celebration of Independence Day, as well as the 15th anniversary of the American Home, established to foster intercultural relations among both Russians and Americans. It is truly a unique and unbelievably worthwhile endeavor! I've benefitted from being here only a week; I can only imagine what they can do in a year here! And Dr. Pope is the keystone... He's unique and unbelievable, too. ;) (I know you're keeping tabs on me and my blog, Ron!) In the second picture, Dr. Pope is addressing the crowd in Russian. The third picture is of a musical group that sang and danced for us-- they were really great! And the last picture is of five of us-- Stacie from Detroit, Deidre from Kansas, Guess Who, Mark from Maryland, and Tom from South Dakota. (Just after this picture was taken, Tom sat down in his chair which had sunk into the ground-- it rained pretty hard as festivities began-- and tipped over backward... His recovery was 10 out of 10, but I was laughing so hard I almost burst a blood vessel!) Anyway. That's it for today. Happy 4th to you all!!

Rebirth

This display is called "Rebirth" in Russian. I'm not sure why, but it caught my eye in the china and glass museum... It looks sort of churchy; however, if you click on the picture, you can see a larger shot and form your own opinion.

P.S. We are back at the American Home now, about to be put on display for about 80 Russian guests for our 4th of July celebration... I will try to post a picture or two just as soon as possible!

The Great Hall of China

This is the inside of what used to be a large cathedral. Now it's a crystal and glass museum... And we spent all day (it seemed) getting there.

Statue-esque...

They named a restaurant after this guy (I know, because we ate there after a very anticlimactic visit to the crystal and glass works-- pictures tomorrow)... As it turns out, this guy, whose name I can't recall (Malzkov, perhaps), and whose head is missing (just mentally transfer mine to his body-- we look alike anyway!), is the guy who started the whole famous (in Russia, anyway) Gus crystal and glass works. This statue was in front of a museum that used to be a church before the commies got ahold of it. It's now the Gus Museum of Crystal.

Still life through a bus window.

I took this picture as we were travelling through Vladimir to the orphanage on Monday. The girl in the red car was having an animated conversation with the woman in the back seat... Besides that, it's kind of a mini-vista. Russian drivers rival Italians in their observance of traffic practices, rather than of traffic laws (including lines on the road, which to Russians are simply suggestions).

I meant to mention a few days ago that the wind blowing through birch trees sounds like rushing water. We walked through a small grove on the way to a small cathedral a mile off the road and the sound was so serene... Another one of those you-had-to-be-there moments, I guess!

And to all you Americans out there, Happy 4th of July! We well be celebrating the 4th here at the American Home tonight after we return from the town of Gus (where we'll be touring a crystal works factory and museum).

С праздником!

The day before yesterday...

Here are three pictures from our trip on Monday to the orphanage and a kindergarten. That's me with the little tykes (the kid in the red shirt was in a panic because he couldn't find his markers that had been in a "goodie bag" the American Home prepared for each of them-- he eventually found them and became ecstatic). The next is of the kindergarten kids at the very end of their naptime. And the last picture is priceless... Our Esteemed Director (Dr. Pope) on a time-out (he can get a little rambunctious...).

Bluetoothin' with a priest...

...but not just ANY priest. The secretary to the Vladimir Archbishop. This may be the crowning achievement of my trip (so far!)...

While visiting the Nativity Monastery and Knyaginin Convent here in Vladimir, we were standing in front of a cathedral at 2:22pm when the sound of church bells rang out. Everyone looked around, but there were no bells moving in the bellfries. All of a sudden Father Innokenti (Innocent) exclaimed "Gospodi!" ("My God!") and reached into a pocket and retrieved a cellphone (in his hand in the picture) that someone had given him earlier in the day. The bells were the ringtone on the phone... He was a really nice guy, so after we were done visiting with him, I asked him where I could download that ringtone... In Russian he replied that maybe we could Bluetooth it, but he wasn't sure how to do it. He sent a nun off to get another phone, but while he and I were waiting (the others in the group had already departed-- this is why I have some spare time for a hastily pounded-out update), we worked it out. It was a great topic of conversation for Russian practice! And now I have an audio souvenir from Russia! How cool is that?

Random thoughts...

...quickly, because we're on a break right now. I got up too late to get to the American Home this morning to upload a picture or two...

Last night Katya's friend Olga stayed over night in the apartment-- she lives with her boyfriend and his grandfather, who, apparently, had too much to drink-- along with a new puppy. So there were 6 sentient beings in that one small place: Katya, Olga, I, one and a half dogs, and my silent friend, Stefan The Cat. I overslept a little this morning, which meant that the whole system got backed up a little; then I walked to the American Home in the rain. However...

My day made a turn for the better during my one-on-one Russian instruction. The conversation with the instructor (Nellie) was very interesting! I cannot believe how fortunate I am-- Dr. Pope made this arrangement for me, especially. It is such good practice (in the same way, though in a different context, as living with a non-English-speaking person)!!

Other quick observations: On Sunday, as we were traversing the city on foot, a small motorcade of 3 or 4 cars appeared on the road behind us. We moved out of the way and this line of dark-colored, expensive-looking cars passed us and stopped at a church up ahead. A few Orthodox priest-looking guys got out and we happened upon them a few steps later, as we passed a courtyard at the entrance to the church-- one of them was a, I think, a metropolit (pope/cardinal equivalent in "rank"), judging by the flowers the local church guys were proferring him. Many Russians consider that the Orthodox church has become more opulent over the last few years and continues to grow financially. Priests are purported to live in big, newly built houses, for instance...

Anyway. Gotta get to the next lecture. More later... And some photos of yesterday's excursions to an orphanage and kindergarten tomorrow a.m.

First Sunday in Vladimir...

Sunday is THE day that most Russian spend out and about, and here in Vladimir the tradition holds (and it's also party day, as the amount of "spent" beer bottles, cigarettes, etc., that I saw along my way to the American Home today would seem to indicate)... One of the women that works with Katya is a part-time guide, so we met up with her and another teacher in the group, Lori from Massachusetts, and her host family at 11:30am near the American Home. From there we visited a small convent-- we got there just before a church service began in an old cathedral on the grounds. The first picture below shows the крестный ход (procession of the cross), during which the priests carry an icon into the church. Such pageantry and so much symbolism! Once the procession entered the church, we were able to follow and I was actually inside during part of the service; by comparison to our largely Protestant American church services, a Russian Orthodox service can only be described as surreal. But very beautiful (though the asthetic draw was somewhat tainted by the temperature inside and the many bodies squeezed in) .

There was this young (20-ish) nun who I spotted peering around the corner of the church building. As soon as she spotted the procession, she sprinted over to the bells (next picture) and began ringing them quite dexterously. It was quite a sight!

After the convent, we visited the Stoletov House museum (a period museum, really-- the Stoletovs were a famous family centered on two brothers, one a general and the other a physicist) and the beautiful Patriarch Garden (last two pictures), a botanical garden worked on, mostly, by children, especially during the Soviet times. At the base of this long stairway is a pool and a pavillion, where we had tea (made from herbs grown there) and cake (homemade-- our guide, Larissa, picked the berries and made the cake from scratch). In the pavillion are pictured (l-r) me, Lori, her host's daughter Yana (who speaks English)Lori's host mother Natasha, Katya, and Larissa.

All in all, I think everyone is getting used to some of the "unique" Russian customs (like the hosts serving us food and then watching us eat, no coffee readily available, etc.). The first week has been great! (I can't wait to hear the other folks' tales from their dacha experiences!)

REEEC Photo Diary

There are pictures of our trip being posted to the University of Illinois REEEC site at:

http://www.reec.uiuc.edu/outreach/fulbright.htm (click on "photo diary")

The original link I had posted wasn't working. This link is listed on the sidebar, as well.

На даче...

I ended the long day that was yesterday with a barbecue at Katya's dacha (country place), about 20 minutes by car from her apartment (she drove and I was scared-- she has a tiny little tank-like car that reminds me of something clowns would climb out of). The others there were Olga (in baseball cap), Zhenya (who has lived in the States and could speak English), and Dennis (Olga's boyfriend). Katya's dacha is on a plot of land which is mostly garden-- she grows veggies and there are all sorts of berries around, strawberries, raspberries, etc. We had barbecued chicken and pork shish-kabobs. The converstaional Russian practice was great!

Наши бабушки...

We bring them all the way to Russia from America, put scarves on their heads, and photograph them. These are the women teachers in our group, with one of our Russian poitns of contact here at the AH, Galya (left, front). Actually, they are wearing scarves out of reverence for the custom here that women must be covered to enter some churches. We happened to be in a nunnery in Bogolubovo. As an interesting aside, the nuns don't mess around. One guy in our group strayed from the pack to look at baby chicks in a garden and got an earful from one of the sisters... By the way, we had the same guide all day that we had had in Vladimir, Pasha. He said something that is so profoundly true: "You can't understand Russia with just your brain."

Lunch in Suzdal...

Five American teachers eating lunch: (l-r) Mike from Maine, Mark from Maryland, Yours Truly, Rick from Tennessee (who should join the Blue Collar tour-- he is a riot), and Tom from South Dakota.

Belfry

Yesterday we were on the road again, this time to visit the city of Suzdal (the next stop, going east, on the Golden Ring) and the town of Bogolubovo to see the many 12th century churches. Inside the St. Euthymius Monastery of our Saviour, there is this belfry (pictured at left) in which one guy rings all the bells on the hour-- we were there to see/hear it at noontime. It was amazing! Also, we got the chance to hear "business monks" (as our guide referred to them) sing a capella inside one of the chapels. It was tear-inducing beautiful! On the clock face (next to the belfry pictured), there are no numbers-- in early times, church slavonic letters were used to represent the hours on a clock.

Below is a picture of a this cute little girl in a scarf picking flowers. I noticed her as we were walking into the Suzdal Kremlin (kremlin simply means fortress)...

Lenin and beer: two Russian icons?

Yesterday we were out and about for about an hour after lunch at a restaurant in the center of Vladimir. I went wandering with Warner (of Mr. Potato Head fame) and another teacher in the group, Stacie from Detroit. The picture below was taken in front of a big statue of Lenin which Stacie pointed out to be somewhat ironic because it's in front of a huge bank (capitalism). It's also ironic in two other ways-- there is a big Russian Federation seal on top of the bank, behind Lenin's head (same seal as the one used in tsarist Russia) and the spelling of "bank" is five letters long, rather than the usual four (the word bank has the old hard sign letter on it; this letter was one of the ones removed-- it's use on the end of words, actually-- as a result of Lenin's spelling reform). Anyway, it's so east-meets-west-y that we had to take the picture.

Then there was the beer break on the way back to the American Home for the next excursion...

The Eddie Van Halen of the balalaika...

Last night we had a potluck dinner for the folks in the group and the host families. There was an improvised horeshoes pit and, of course, vodka. But the cherry on top of the sundae was this guy who played the balalaika like Eddie Van Halen plays the guitar (though he looks more like the father on "Married with Children") . He was really good! In the second picture is my host(ess), Katya, in the audience...

Swiiiiiii-ing it!

One of our excursions yesterday was to "The Lenin Palace of Culture and Technology," the arts center in Vladimir. While we were being shown around, we happened upon this Russian woman instructing these two kids who were cuttin' a rug, let me tell you... It was amazing! There was also this young Russian lady who was brought along to translate for the director who was showing us around... She was cute as can be as she tried to keep up with him-- he kept talking and talking and talking in Russian. She did a great job. Consecutive translation is hard, especially in front of a large group of foreigners.

Haunting?

There are these mannequins in the museum complex in Vladimir that just defy description... This one is standing facing a door (as if to exit) in a corner display that looks pretty real at first glance. This tableau made me stop and wonder who? what? when? where? etc. Not only that, there was a very moving poem by the Russian poet Nikolay Gumilyov affixed to a little stand by the window of the museum to the left of this display. (Maybe you had to be there to get the full effect...)

And they can dance, too!

While we were visiting the museum complex situated between the St. Dimitrius and Assumption cathedrals, we had the opportunity to see a few young ladies in period costumes. This group shown here actually performed a folk dance for us (while another young lady played the the balalaika). They were great! The museums here in Vladimir really do have a lot to offer (by comparison to the larger cities in Russia). I really enjoyed our visit!

Which one is Mr. Potato Head?

This is one of our teachers, Warner, who is, coincidentally, from Champaign, IL (our starting point for this journey, if you've been keeping score at home). He has been tasked by some entity to get pictures of Mr. Potato Head as we move through Russia. This photo was taken yesterday in front of St. Dimitrius Cathedral... I'll let you decided who's who. ;)

St. Dimitrius

Yesterday we toured St. Dimitrius Cathedral (shown here), which was built in 1197, as well as a museum complex and the Assumption Cathedral (built in 1160). (More about these places here.) A teacher friend of mine in Mansfield (where I teach in Texas) is a member St. Seraphim Russian Orthodox congregation in Dallas and their church building is a smaller scale replica of St. Dimitrius in Vladimir. (I have taken my Russian students on a field trip to St. Seraphim the last two years.)

Golden Gates, et al

This is a picture I took yesterday of the famous Golden Gates in Vladimir. We went on a walking tour of it and the history museum in Vladimir, escorted by an English-speaking Russian guide. Yesterday was a pretty full and really interesting day... Besides the walking tour (during which we were rained on), we had lunch in the tavern next door, and they have set up some special one-on-one Russian classes for me. The Russian practice here is great-- and, as my newly-appointed tutors would probably tell you, I need the speaking practice! Katya lives about 2 miles from the AH, so I walk to and fro each day. I will try to get some shots of the sites on my route soon. Vladimir is a typical Russian city, of course, but very different from Moscow in many ways. It's a very interesting place. Talk to you again tomorrow... Пока!

Will Stefan ever learn to speak?

These are two of my very hospitable hosts, Katya and Stefan the Cat (along with a protruding 4/5 of me). Stefan is the only seemingly mute feline I've ever met. He'll open his mouth to say something, but there's no audio...

Pic Post Test

Here's a test post from my digital camera... This is my room in Katya's apartment. Uploading photos from AH is kind of slow, but I'll see what else I can post when I get the chance.

Live (okay, not really) from Vladimir! It's...

...me again! :)

Well, now. It's amazing what a hot shower and a few hours of sleep can do for the weary (and I mean WEARY) traveller. We got into Vladimir at about 5:30pm yesterday, at which point I had been up for +/- 30 hours. We were all dragging... I have tried to upload a picture of our Russian hosts waiting for us in front of the American Home when the bus pulled up (I felt like a GI returning home from war), but the cell service here isn't cooperating (I can text and call, but can't send an email). It worked fine from Moscow (different provider there, though). So you'll have to wait on pictures until I can find a computer that I can hook up a digital camera to... Here at the AH, the Internet service is metered, so sending pictures would be costly. Perhaps I can find an Internet cafe...

We left Champaign, Illinois, at 3:30am on Monday (most of us were up around 2) for the Bloomington airport on a bus and hit fog that delayed our take-off 45 minutes. Then, in Atlanta, we arrived late, so there wasn't an available gate-- we sat on the tarmac for 30 more minutes. After the 5-hour layover in Atlanta, we had to sit on the runway for 30 minutes because of bad weather. The 11-hour flight to Moscow wasn't too bad... As you can see by the picture below, Mike (teacher from Maine) and I made friends with Katya the Russian-speaking stewardess. Let's just say that SOME folks may have gotten a little free wine on the trip. ;)

It was noon when we arrived in Moscow, and by 1pm we were on the way to Vladimir by bus. The traffic getting out of Moscow was horrible, so it took us 2 hours to get to our lunch place, a very Russian-y (in the traditional sense) restaurant named Сказка (Skazka, which means "fairy tale"). The food was good, but the ambience was a little tarnished by the American rap blaring as our meal began (imagine hearing the N-word over and over as you try to eat your first meal in a foreign country). I think the restaurant folks thought we would appreciate it...

My host's name is Katya. She lives within a 15-minute walk of the AH (I walked here this morning), in a typical Russian apartment (on the fourth floor of a typical Russian apartment building-- if I can negotiate the technolgy here, I'll show you pictures). We took a taxi back to her apartment and I lugged my 60-lb. suitcase up 8 flights of stairs. She gave me a cold beer and I took a hot shower (thankfully, she has her own hot water heater and even a small washing machine), then we chatted some (in Russian-- she knows 5 words of English) and I crashed about 9pm. I felt bad because a couple showed up right about then and I think she thought I might be eating; I was just too tired. Anyway, Katya is very nice. And she mothers an energetic year-old cat named Stefan and a 4-year old Dachsund mix named Mike. I think my accomodations for the next couple of weeks will be okay. (Assuming nothing gets lost in the translation!)

As it is summer here, the sun doesn't set until late in the evening-- it was still light when I went to bed and when I woke up around 3am, it was starting to get light again. There's not much to do in a stranger's apartment that early in the morning... So I exchanged a couple of text messages with my wife, took another shower, then watched tv for a bit. She has cable, which is a far cry from the 6-channel Soviet-era set the lady I lived with in Moscow in 2004 had!

So, here I am at the AH waiting for today's activities to begin. So far, so good. (However, I discovered a major urban difference between Vladimir and Moscow or St. Pete-- you can't break a 500 ruble note early in the morning here...and I only wanted a bottle of water.)

Oh, yeah. There is a group picture of us taken the day before we left the U. of Illinois posted to the REEEC site at http://www.reec.uiuc.edu/outreach/fulbright07/photo_diary.htm .

That's it for now. Пока!

Well, we finally made it!

Here we are in the Moscow airport. More later when I'm not so tired. It's been a long day...

This photo needs context, yes...

Later, though, when I regain the use of my faculties after this long journey... (The woman's name is Katya and she was our Russian-speaking stewardess...)

Atlanta airport...at last!

We left Bloomington at 7:30am, rather than 6am, because of fog... We actually taxied out to the runway, but needed more gas to lift off, so we taxied back to the gate... The flight was only an hour and a half, but once we landed, we were stranded on the tarmac without a gate for 30 minutes... But we made it, finally. At least our 11-hour jaunt to Moscow won't be on a puddle-jumper.

While here in Atlanta, Dr. Pope is "interviewing" us... The picture above is of us shortly after mine.

Talk to you again from Russia!

Poshli my!

Well, it's 2:30am Champaign time... In an hour, we're off to the airport; before tomorrow is over, we'll be in Vladimir. This will be my last post here in the US, with the exception of a possible cellphone pic or two along the route.

Talk to you again from The Motherland!

Poka!

Blog Demo

This is our last briefing... The next one will be in Vladimir, Russia. I was showing the class how this cellphone photo-to-blog process works.

Mafia Laundry Operation

And I mean laundry laundry, not money laundry...

I got up this morning early to do a load or two of clothes to make sure I'm leaving for Russia with practically all clean stuff... What a process. First, you have to buy a "smart card" for $5 (or $10 or $20), which gets you $3 of laundry time. I ran two loads and it cost me $2.70 (the smart card isn't smart enough to give change). Then I realized I needed drying time, but I didn't have another $5 (only a $20 bill), so I woke up the deeply sleeping woman at the front desk who looked irritated and said she had only twenties... So I walked a few blocks to the nearest convenience store, got a cup of coffee and a newspaper, got one five in change, came back and added $5 to that smart card, so now I have $3.30 to spend on drying one load. What a racket! I feel sorry for the hapless college kids who are exploited by the laundry mafia...

The government needs to know about this. If I disappear, please tell my story...

Interesting topics today!

Our first speaker this morning was a high school teacher from Phoenix (who went on the inaugural Fulbright program in 2004) who presented a lesson plan from a course she designed called "Teaching Russian History through Literature in High School." I got to thinking about my half-semester course proposals for surveys of Russian history and 19th century Russian authors at Mansfield High School and may use her course as a model for combining the two... I think it would work out really well and I have access, now, to some great resources.

After lunch, we found out more about the American Home in Vladimir. Dr. Pope ran us through a pretty good slide show and offered all sorts of heads-up info about our visits to Vladimir and Murom. I'm really excited about going!!

We ended the afternoon with some videos... Mostly about Russian families, interviews with kids-- stuff we could use in the classroom, really. Then we ended on Paul McCartney's 2003 concert in Red Square...

Tomorrow is a morning-only wrap-up session. After that, I plan to sleep as much as possible before we have to get on a 3:30am bus the following morning...

That's it for now. Off to dinner...

Poka!

Aww, shucks...

...this is the longest-term continuous corn plot in the world. Really. And it's right here on the University of Illinois campus. My (horti)cultural horizons just keep on expanding...

From the conference room...

...is a another poor quality cellphone photo of me, my suitemate Terry from Seattle, and another teacher, Deirdre from Kansas. By the way, in reference to the corny picture above, I have to tell you that, being from Kansas (in only a way she can understand), Deirdre told me that she is "anti-corn"... Teachers. Who can understand them?

The Break.

Yesterday's topics were interesting, more or less. In the morning, the presenter was a grad student who was born in the Ukraine; he is a Jew and his family-- like many others-- left the Soviet Union in the 70s. He spoke about everyday life in the Soviet Union. I thought the topic was very good! (And he gave us a break halfway through-- it was two hours long.)

(No breaks from that point on...) There were two two-hour blocks after lunch, the first on Russian politics, from Gorbachev to Putin. A very enthusiastic professor kept going and going and going. By the time she was done and we earned 10 minutes (for good behavior?), my brain and butt were starting to go numb. The last two hours were on Business and Politics in the New Russia (aka economics). The presenter, a lawyer-turned-professor, was okay, but there is a reason why I don't teach economics. Much of what he was talking about and what appeared on his PowerPoint slides was over my head... By 5pm, I was starting to hallucinate...

We had a group dinner at 5:45pm at a nearby restaurant. Everyone is starting to get to know each other a little better-- it's interesting to see the group dynamics at work (like in the classroom).

Today's menu begins with a high school teacher who was on the 2004 trip, then we have a bona fide trip orientation by the seminar director who will be accompanying us to Vladimir, then some videos until 5 or so. Shouldn't be as brain-numbing as yesterday!

Anyway. It has been a great experience so far... We are scheduled to depart for Russia via (first leg) a flight to Atlanta from Bloomington (IL)-- to get to the airport, we have to get on a bus at 3:30am Monday. That will be one long trip. There's a lengthy layover in Atlanta before getting on the really long flight to Moscow; once in Moscow, we get on another bus to make the 2-hour trip to Vladimir...

So, that's it for now. You know the drill... Coffee!!

Where's Waldo?

This is another cellphone pic (thus the quality, subject notwithsatnding). By the Internatiolnal Studies Bldg. sign (where we have our lectures). The tall building behind me and to the right is our dorm.

Russian geography, history, et al

Yesterday was a long day. It seemed like we were anchored in our chairs in this same conference room forever (I think my butt went to sleep twice)!

But it was an interesting one. In the morning there were two lectures, the first on Russian and Eurasian geography (and ethinic groups), the other on Russian environmental issues. The program folks bought us lunch in the dorm dining facility (it was palatable) and then the afternoon sessions picked up a bit. We spent a good 3 hours with THE premier Russian history expert (and prolific author) of our day (as he is know around here), a U. of Illinois professor named Mark Steinberg. This guy's presentations were fascinating (to me, anyway); he is especially interested in the 1917 revolution and the life of the last tsar, which he talked about for half the time. The last portion of his lecture was on Russian peasantry (doesn't sound like an overly stimulating topic, I know, but it was good, too!). After that was a lecture on Russian folk music-- by the time the nice lady was ready to begin, we were all ready for a nap... But hers was interesting information, as well.

We walked a few blocks for dinner (and to restore blood flow to our internal organs-- brain, mostly) and then, as fate would have it, there were technical difficulties, so we didn't sit through the planned hour and a half of videos. I was glad, because I was ready for the rack (and I wasn't the only one)...

Today we have politics, politics, and-- you guessed it-- more politics. Then a group dinner somewhere and nothing afterward.

So, as is my now-established routine, I must go get coffee. Or perish. :)

Speaking of the Gulag...

...well, I wasn't, but I just thought I'd mention a book I'm almost finished reading called Dancing Under the Red Star by Karl Tobien. I sort of stumbled onto this book while I was wandering around a Borders Book Store last week. It's an easy read about the only American woman (one of only two Americans) to survive the Soviet Gulag system under Stalin. In the 1930s, Henry Ford sent a few hundred families to live and work in Gorky (now the city of Nizhny Novgorod). This young woman, Margaret Werner, was in her late teens when she was declared an enemy of the state (this, after the authorities came and got her father) and was sent to labor camps in Siberia.

I think it would be a book that high schoolers could read (and would get a lot out of). I'm considering assigning it or, at least, reading it in class next year.

That's it for now... Gotta find some coffee!

This is your name in Russian.

Well. What an afternoon. First, there was the lecture on Russian Electoral Reforms by a visiting professor from the University of Florida. Interesting, but it was a tad dry for me... Actually, someone in the crowd asked the lecturer a question and I understood neither the question nor the answer.

Then there was Russian Language 101 for almost two hours...

The pace picked up for the last lecture on cultural trends. Then there was a "wine and cheese" reception from 5-6pm (really). I had the opportunity to yak with the Russian lecturer who did the language/culture topics-- she is very nice and was amazed to hear that Russian is being taught in high school in Texas.

This was followed by a mass migration to some place called Murphy's for dinner. Now it's 8pm and I'm about to retire for the evening. What a party animal am I.

Tomorrow we have lectures into the after-dinner hours... The docket looks interesting enough. I'll let you know.

Until then...

Poka!

Not a great picture...

...but it's proof that I exist. This was taken by the teacher I'm rooming with in the computer room in Illini Tower. We spent a little time meeting the folks in the Russian Studies department here, where our lectures start at noon today.

Fireflies

Okay. Last night I landed in Champaign, Illinois, which, anyone here will tell you, is nowhere NEAR Chicago (we're two hours south). In fact, I think I'm closer to Kentucky than Chicago, actually...

The Champaign airport was practically empty when we arrived at 8:30pm last night. The largest plane on the tarmac was the one I got out of, a 90-person puddle-jumper. I chatted with the lady sitting next to me on the flight, which was a good thing; she offered me a ride to the U. of Illinois campus-- her son-in-law is a Miller beer salesman and is familiar with the layout and he picked her (us) up in her car. They were very nice people and they saved me the hassle of trying to find transportation on my own. (Though I'm sure her daughter and her husband wondered what kind of weirdo I might be...)

It was getting dark as we left the airport and everywhere were little flashing lights-- even in the middle of intersections. There were lightning bugs all over... Reminded me of Maryland or Pennsylvania.

My suitemate here is a history teacher who knows a little Russian. He's from the Seattle area and seems like a pretty nice guy. I haven't met anyone else yet; our first get-together is after lunch today.

I wandered out last night to get a bite to eat and there is NO doubt that this is a college campus! On my way to a small pizza place, I passed the Girls Gone Wild tour bus and there was loud music coming from just about every direction. Oh well. Only 4 days. And it's cool and quiet on the 10th floor of the dorm I'm in.

That's it for now.

Off to Champaign, Illinois...

Tonight I make my way to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the first step in my 5-week Russian odyssey. I'll be staying in a dorm building called the Illini Tower on the campus. With the exception of O'Hare airport, I have never really been to Illinois (well, I take that back...my family lived there briefly when I was a kid). For 4 or 5 days we will be attending pre-departure lectures on campus. I'm ready. Let the journey begin!

Dallas>Champaign>Vladimir>Murom>St. Petersburg>Moscow>Champaign>Dallas (or bust!)

Well, another summer, another blog (same blog as in past summers, just gave it a facelift)...

I am preparing to make my way back to Russia for the 3rd time in 4 years, this time as a participant in a 5-week seminar program entitled "Understanding Russia Through Everyday Life" through the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center (REEEC) at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. After a few days in Chicago, we'll be on the way to the famous Golden Ring city of Vladimir (not too far from Moscow), where the other program participants and I will be living with host families for 2.5 weeks before travelling on to Murom, St. Petersburg, and Moscow.

You can see what we'll be doing by clicking the program link above. As in previous trips to Russia, I hope to be able to keep a running log of notes, observations, updates, and, if possible, pictures here.

Stay tuned... The journey begins in 3 weeks!

Пока,

E.B.

Some pictures from the trip...

...that I took can be viewed here:

http://dbashmak.com/russiatrip06/

Well, we made it from Dallas to Moscow to St. Petersburg and back intact!
It was a GREAT trip!!

E.B.

Coffee

It's noontime here in St. Petersburg. Alex, Katie, Justin, Stephanie, and I
made the trek to Nevskiy Prospekt (the main drag that runs through the city)
via mini-van (about 15 people crammed inside-- definitely another cultural
lesson) and two Metro trains to get to a Kofe Khaus (Coffee House) to get a
fix before hitting this Cafe Max (Internet cafe) and a few sights in the
city. Abigail went with the others on a side excursion to the tsars'
residence about an hour away. This was a pre-paid thing that I didn't sign
us up for to keep the costs as minimal as possible. Tomorrow night, Alex,
Katie, and Abigail are going to see the ballet Swan Lake (they'll be tired,
as we have to be up at 3 am Tuesday!).

We're still having a great time! There's one minor problem here with our
phone cards, however-- the local number is always busy, so I am going to let
thie students make a short call home on my cellphone this evening, around 9
am Texas time. After that, we'll have to tough it out until we get home. I
will plan to call Carole from the Frankfurt airport just before we board the
plane to Dallas that everything is okay.

When we get home we'll recap Katie's experience with a Russian maintenance
guy who was dispatched to look at her phone (when she couldn't get through
with the phone card) and Stephanie's experience with a voltage converter and
Justin's indoctrination to Russian hot chocolate... (Nothing bad happened,
so don't worry!)

That's it for now.

Poka!

E.B.

We made it to St. Petersburg...

...and on a semi-airconditioned sleeper train (what a pleasant surprise to
have cool air in the cabins!). We had a long day-- in fact, it's the SAME
day, actually-- in getting here. The train left on time from Moscow at
12:50 am. Most of the students got a good night's sleep; I, on the other
hand, didn't sleep at all (like last time). We got into St. Petersburg at
8:45 am, but couldn't check into the hotel yet, so we had breakfast there at
9:45 and then went on am incredibly fast tour of The Hermitage museum, where
it was warm and there were crowds amd we were all starting to spoil a
little, given the last showers we all had were before 9 am yesterday. After
that, we had some free time to wander around the center of the city-- the
weather here is gorgeous! It's like fall in Texas-- cool (low 70s), low
humidity, clear skies, and a breeze. Our hotel is right on the river Neva,
though about 8 or 9 miles east of the city's center. It's kind of sitting
all by itself; there are no Metro stations, Internet cafes, or coffee shops
(all necessities) within walking distance! I am writing this at 9:45 pm
from inside am Imternet cafe in downtown St. Pete-- some of the students,
the tour director, and I walked about 2 miles or so to a Metro station just
to get to this place.

The hotel is, otherwise, nice enough. The best thing that happened to me
today was a hot shower at 5:30 pm (it took that long before we could get
checked in). But the weather is cool enough that sleeping with an open
window should be comfortable enough. And the view of the Neva River from my
window is awesome!

While we were waiting around at the other hotel last night, Stepahine,
Katie, and I bowled (Abigail watched and Justin was hanging out with some of
the other kids) in the alley (in the hotel). It was fun and we learned that
the only place you can find a couch in the hotel is in the bowling alley.
That's where you sit to put on your bowling shoes...

So, for me, it's been another 30+ hours with no sleep. And since we're
smack-dab in the middle of the White Nights, I doubt I'll be in bed before
midnight.

Tomorrow we'll either be on a bus tour that we didn't pay for ahead of time
or, if we can't pay now, our group will be setting out on our own walking
tour of the city. Monday, we have a bus tour of the city, followed by a
canal/river ride, and I think some of the kids expressed an interest in
seeing the ballet Swan Lake tomorrow night. Not me-- we're leaving the
hotel for the airport at 4 am on Tuesday, so I'm going to try to get as much
sleep as possible. Tuesday promises to be another extremely LONG day.

Everyone is fine here and having a good time. And for you parents that knew
about the nice card and enclosed gift card for me from my "Russia Kids" (as
they referred to themselves), that was an EXTREMELY UNWARRANTED, but very
touching gesture-- your kids are THE BEST and I have gotten compliments from
the other adults about them.

Talk to you again once or twice, hopefully, before we depart for home...

E.B.

Which is worse...

...at 10:30 pm-- fireworks or an incessant barking dog outside your window?
Even in a room 16 stories up, the fireworks (in celebration of yesterday's
holiday) shot off at 10:30 last night RIGHT NEXT to the hotel sounded like a
war zone (and sure were bright and colorful)! But for 15 minutes or so,
they silenced the barking puppy that hangs out near the front of the hotel.
The barking and yipping starts up at sunrise (3:30-ish) and just goes and
goes. We could have shut our windows to drown out the noise...but then we'd
have suffocated... Besides that, the guy with the accordian outside across
the street that starts up around 9 really lessens the dog's barking, anyway,
so...

We had to check out of the hotel at 9 am-- even though it's now 4:30 pm and
I'm writing this from the Internet cafe inside the hotel-- because we're
leaving for St. Petersburg on the night (sleeper) train at 1 am. For most
of the day today, we were at the Sergeiv Posad monastery (with a lunch break
at, dare I write this, McDonald's; a Russian McDonald's is in itself a
cultural experience). Now we're temporarily homeless (really only roomless)
until we get to St. Petersburg. We have dinner here at the hotel at 7 pm,
followed by 3 and half hours of hang time before the bus takes us to the
train station. The train will arrive in St. Pete at about 8 or 8:30, and
we'll take a bus to the hotel, then immediately go for a bus tour of the
city. Based on my last (and first and only, really) experience with the
Moscow-St. Pete sleeper train, I'll be up for a good 30+ hours before I can
truly crash in the hotel tomorrow night. The sleeper cars have cabins for 4
persons each with VERY little ventilation and submarine-sized bunks. On top
of the cramped quarters, we'll have to stow our honkin'-big suitcases in
there with us... But, as I told my students, it's another cultural thing
that they have to do while they're here to get the bragging rights. I'm
sure that, like everything else, it'll make for some good stories upon
return home!

So all is well for this small American group from Texas in Russia, marrooned
for the time as we may be...

Talk to you again from St. Petersburg! (Where DUSHNO will likely no longer
be the Word of the Day!)

Poka!

E.B.

When we got to Red Square this morning...

...it was closed! Really. For a World War II commemoration.

We left the hotel this morning early with the Houston group (the other two
groups are kind of stand-off-ish; in fact, the one from South Carolina is
all adults) and Metro-ed to Red Square and were met by oodles of cops and
soldiers-- after I spoke with one of the policemen, we changed course, got
back on a train and went to the huge children's store Detskiy Mir to look
around and then to the Arbat (big touristy shopping boulevard), where we
wandered from one end to the other, stopping for an hour or so for lunch at
the Hard Rock Cafe (not my personal choice or preference-- too many loud and
obnoxious Americans and English-speaking waitstaff--but, sometimes you just
have to go along with the majority) where I had a $10 BLT...

While on the Arbat, Justin (my sole male student) was targeted by a
picpocket who bumped him and checked his back pocket-- fortunately for him
(not the pickpocket), his pockets were empty (as they were supposed to be).
We tell the kids, boys especially, to carry money, passport, etc. in their
front pockets. Just another cultural experience for the group!

After the Arbat, we returned to the hotel for a short break (I took a cold
shower-- remember, DUSHNO), we hit the outdoor shopping area adjacent to the
hotel to look around. Some of the kids bought a gift or two and we got
caught in a small thundershower while there. Most of the students aren't
too enamored with the food selections presented at our free meals, but other
than that, things seem to be moving along.

Tomorrow we have to check out of the hotel by 9 am., then we'll be
travelling to Sergeev Posad
(http://www.avrora.biz/golden_ring/city/14.html), which will be an all day
trip. We'll be on the bus to the train station to go to St. Petrersburg at
10:30 pm; the train leaves at 1 am and gets into St. Pete at 8:30.

So, guess that's it for now...

Poka from Moscow!

E.B.

The Cathedral of the Archangel Michael

I meant to mention this in the DUSHNO email...

While we were inside the Kremlin yesterday, we visited this church-- inside
there are remains (coffins/sarcophagi) of past tsars and grand dukes back to
the mid-1300s. While we were there, there were four guys dressed sort of
like priests or priests-to-be (but were neither) inside who are part of a
choir that sang for us a capella. The song was very beautiful, very moving,
especially given the accoustics. The were "selling" a CD of their
Orthodox-style choir music for a donation, so I got one (to play during
exams at school, just to haunt my students). It was really an experience to
be in the churches were tsars were baptized, coronated, and laid to rest--
in three different churches that open to Cathedral Square in the middle of
the Kremlin. I wish I'd had more time to really look around more, but we
were on a tight schedule, so, given the time constraint, I think we saw a
lot. If you'd like to see a little more about this part of our visit to
Russia, there is encapsulated, easy-to-digest info about it on this web
page: http://www.geographia.com/russia/moscow02.htm

And a footnote to yesterday's visit to Red Square: One of my students,
Stephanie, who is African-American, got more than a little attention as we
were taking pictures on Red Square! Stephanie, who is a very pretty young
lady, was asked by two guys if they could have their picture taken with her.
And another guy who was just taking pictures in general, surreptitiously
snapped one of her. I guess we must have looked a little strange to them (I
in my MHS Russian Club t-shirt walking along with 5 teenagers, 4 girls and 1
boy). Inasmuch as Stephanie may be a novelty to them (this happened with a
professor from UT in 2004 who REALLY suprised the natives as an
African-American woman who is conversant in Russian!), I really want to tell
the next rubbernecker that she not only knows a little Russian, but she
could also whoop 'em in chess!... Stephanie is a rated player, for those of
you who don't know).

Anyway. I think that, with Alex' (one of my students) disk reader, I may be
able to get a picture or two out soon... So stay tuned!

Poka!

E.B.

Doooooosh-na!

Your Russian word for the day is DUSHNO (pronounced DOOSH-nah) and it means
stuffy, as in hot and humid and little air circulation... That's what the
weather has been like. Partly cloudy, but hazy and DUSHNO. We were
sweating like you wouldn't believe yesterday and the rooms are kind of warm,
so a cool/cold shower feels pretty good. It actually rained here last night
for about 15 minutes.

I got a knock on the door at 10:30 pm and there were my students, back from
the circus safe and sound. I still don't know how I got left behind
(however, there was an apology note from our tour director slipped under my
door that I found this morning)-- I guess if I'm the only one to get
misplaced or lost here, that's better than a student (the rule still holds,
though-- as long as I come back with at least four of them, this trip will
have been a success!)...

We're going to wander today... More later.

Poka!

E.B.

Eventful Day

Today I was up at 3:45 am (after finally getting to bed and to sleep just
before midnight-- damn jet-lag!) and decided to just say the heck with it
and took a shower and wandered down to the 24-hour cafe. Actually, the sun
was up when I was awakened by the sound of yipping dogs just before 4 am.
That and the heat in my hotel room (no a/c and just one skinny little window
that I had open as wide as possible) made for a less-than-perfect first
night for us all, though most of the students got some sleep.

We took a bus tour (IT had great a/c) of Moscow, stopping for pictures at a
few places along the way before going into the Kremlin. I didn't get in
when I was here 2 years ago, so it was a pretty interesting experience for
me. The students enjoyed it, too. We took some pictures there and in Red
Square, so sooner or later I'll send some along. These computers don't seem
to support my camera's microdisk without a cable I didn't bring, so...

The students got their Metro (subway) wings this afternoon when we returned
from Red Square to our hotel by metro-- it took a little longer than it
needed to because I wasn't sure of our exit (we ended up two stops too far,
but made it back okay); they got a good dose of the tepid metro cars, crowds
in the stations, and tricky card reader machines (on the entrance
turnstiles).

Oddly enough, though, I'm here in the hotel alone at 7 pm. We all had
dinner and were supposed to leave for the circus at 5:30; I ducked out to a
little store in the lobby and when I returned, they all had left. I guess
they must have used the Metro, as the bus was nowhere to be found. (I
wonder if they even know I'm missing?)

In any event, I won't be alone for long, as my friend Aleksei here in Moscow
is going to drop by for a visit...

More later!

E.B.

It takes a long time...

...to get to The Other Side of the World. It's presently 10:30 in Moscow as
I write this (and still light outside) and 1:30 pm Texas time. I have been
up now for almost 34 hours straight-- We (5 students and I) left Dallas at 3
pm on the 19th... 9 hours to Frankfurt, 3 hour wait, then 3 hours to Moscow.
We landed at Moscow Sheremetevo Airport at 4:15 pm local time and waited
for the last group (of four, from Houston) for more than three hours in the
airport! Then an hour ride to our hotel near the popular and uber-touristy
Ismailovskiy Park on the northeast side of the city.

Our tour director (in Russia) is a twenty-something young lady named Gillian
who teaches English in Poland and has a most distracting Scottish brogue. I
haven't met the remaining two group leaders, but the guy leading the Houston
group is a retired Marine Corps captain who teaches social studies. He's an
interesting character who has a dream of one day cashing in on the lack of
self-service laundry mats in Russia. He's been to Russia once or twice, so
he's familiar with the layout, but doesn't speak the language.

This hotel is full of English-speakers, which detracts from the overall
ambience of the country we're in (but it has its advantages, too,
particularly for our students).

Tomorrow the bus leaves at 10 and we are off to The Kremlin (going inside, I
hear), which takes us to Red Square, of course, then off to the circus
(somewhere)... If I can send pics, I will. If not, I'll post them after I
get home on the 27th.

So all is well in Mother Russia tonight.

More tomorrow, hopefully...

Poka, ya'll!

E.B.

Tomorrow I leave for Moscow...

...on a 9-day whirlwind tour of Moscow and St. Petersburg as a teacher-sponsor of 5 students. I hope to be able to post email updates here. We will be meeting up with 3 other school groups in Moscow, another from Texas and two from other states...

Stay tuned.

Midnight Express

It's been some time since I blogged... As I looked over the August 8 posting, I realized that a school year has come and gone already. So much water under the bridge in the last 10 months! In less than two weeks I'll be on my second journey to Moscow; it's even harder to believe that 2 years has flown by since I my first trip to Russia in the summer of 2004.

But it's just past midnight and I'm too tired to ponder what might be next.

Maybe I'll wait another 10 months...

Maybe not.

Summer's gone already...

... and I'm now knee-deep in in-service week stuff as our faculty gears up for the new school year and 2,600 kids next Monday. Here I sit at my desk in my classroom wondering where the time has gone over the last 2 or 3 months and observing the peace and tranquility of my 29 empty desks (it's like the calm before a storm)...

If I hadn't recorded some of my thoughts and experiences in this blog, I would have sworn that my trip to Minnesota was really only a dream...

Tunak Tunak Tun

Tunak Tunak Tun is the name of the catchy tune chosen as the Concordia Language Villages International Day (see my 7/9 Pickle On A Stick post) song. All the kids from various villages could do the dance that Indian singer Daler Mendhi does in his video, which you can see here (it's a RealAudio file):

http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~mrdarius/music/tunak.ram

Here are the original lyrics in Punjabi and English:

http://lyrical.nl/song/26240/25771+25769+25770

Also, there is a Lesnoe Ozero webpage with pictures from this summer's programs at:

http://clvweb.cord.edu/russian/vergas/index.htm

Okay. Now THIS may be my last post from Minnesota...

Winding Down

Well, Lesnoe Ozero is coming to a close in a few days. On Saturday morning I'll be on a bus with kids going to Minneapolis to fly home. (However, it's not entirely over with yet! Today is "Imperial Russia Day," replete with a time-authentic social caste system and visits by Peter I, Catherine the Great, and Aleksander II, and tomorrow is Soviet Day, replete with as much Communist Partying as can possibly be fit into one day: opression, shortages, lines, pay toilets, strict deportment in the classroom, and maybe even an exile or two to a gulag or defection to the West.)

It has been an interesting experiment for me, to "camp" with a bunch of teenagers and young counselors. I've really enjoyed my time teaching Russian here, but my sleep deficit is red-lining and everything tastes like bug spray. The kids have been a pleasure to live with, really (however, I would never want to return to that age of angst, hormones, and social winds that constantly change direction!).

Once I'm back home, I may find it odd to not get up and sing the Russian national anthem before breakfast, as is the custom here, or to pour my first cup of coffee in front of the watchful eyes of a burunduk (chipmunk) or to not hear the soul-stabbing cry of a loon from somewhere out on the lake as the sun comes up. (Speaking of loons, I never could get a picture of one-- they're always too far away. They're an odd sort-- and aptly named, yes-- and I often see just one, sitting solo on the lake beyond the reach of my camera lens. This morning I saw one that looked like it was out there waiting for something... It drifted quietly, then let out a cry, then sat quietly again. Every so often a pair, male and female, will appear, but from my observations, the loon population seems to be made up mostly of solitary males.)

On Thursday the 4-week credit students get finals, then we grade and do paperwork furiously before all the computers are shut down for packing on Thursday evening. Friday is clean-up day and then we're done, for the most part, until the program officially closes on Saturday morning, which I and a handful of kids will have to miss because we have to catch the early (7:30 a.m.) bus (the start of a long day: 5 hours to the airport via the Japanese Village, 2 hours to wait for a flight, and then 2.5 hours in the air) .

So, this could be my last post from Lake Trowbridge (aka the Black Sea). More, perhaps, once I've turned the corner and found my way home. Thanks for tuning in to my blog (which I may keep alive for awhile longer) and letting me share my summer camp experiences with you!

For the time being, Прощай! и С Богом! (Farewell! and May God be with you!)

That deer-in-the-headlights look...

Beware of any Russian-speaking kid brandishing a plastic sabre and wearing a dishtowel for a turban!

There is a 13-year old kid here named Misha, who is a 4-week credit student, and whose first language, purportedly, is Russian. I suspect his first language is chess (or "shakhmaty")...

Below is a picture of me playing him (he's dressed for a part in a camp activity) for the first time during "cultural hour" (he nuked me in just a few moves!). Actually, he was playing me and another villager simultaneously. I've played him maybe a dozen times and beaten him only twice...

He's a nice young man-- very bright, very personable, and very mature for his age. He and I have a tradition now during the 9-10 p.m. study hour. If he's done with his homework and I'm not helping students, he thrashes me in a game of chess (most of the time). I don't mind, really. It's entertaining to play him and I get some native Russian out of it!

Tomorrow starts our last week here at Lesnoe Ozero!

Пока!

Maslenitsa

Today we are celebrating the end-of-winter holiday of Maslenitsa ("Pancake Week"), which is happens the week before Lent. For dinner, we'll be having the traditional Russian "blini" (pancakes), which can be meat-, fruit-, or vegetable-filled. It is a festival similar to Mardi Gras. More here, if you're interested. And tonight we'll "burn the Baba" (an effigy of an old woman which represents Winter) to welcome Spring!

Today, also, we finally have sunshine and a temperature of 70-75 degrees. It's been really chilly and rainy here since last Sunday...

Below are a couple more pictures, one of me with my advanced-beginner students and the other of my "family" at the lunch table (minus me, of course; the red sign says Dostoevskys in Russian).

That's it for now...

Poka!

Brrr...

On Sunday, the weather here was wonderful-- warm, sunny, dry, slight breeze. Monday morning the rain and a front came through and last night the temperature dropped to 50. Tonight it is supposed to go down to 48. The ONLY positive to this is that there is little to no bug activity...

Today we had an auction for counselor services-- and I was the auctioneer, barking in Russian. I didn't have a gavel, but I DID have a hammer and a big cast iron pot to bang on. It was fun, but now I'm slightly hoarse...

We did a little shuffling around of the students, based on demonstrated skill levels and I inherited two young ladies from France. It's interesting to hear Russian spoken with a French accent. All in all, classes are going well. We're into the second "semester" now... Final exams in 10 days!

Not much else to report on. I'll try to get some more pictures posted soon.

Poka!

Слава Флоту!

Today is Russian Navy Day. A year ago today I was in St. Petersburg, home of the Russian Navy for a bit of the Navy Day celebration. Actually, we left St. Petersburg for Moscow that day... I remember it (and the train ride back to Moscow) like it was yesterday...

Conquering Earth may look easy on paper...

Yesterday was a long day. After the tweekers left, we boarded a school bus with the 4-week high schoolers for an excursion into Detroit Lakes. Our first stop was a Super Wal-Mart-- you'd have thought those kids had never seen one before! Then we were dropped of at the mall (I use that term loosely) for the afternoon to wander, see a movie, eat, etc.

I went with a couple of kids to see War of the Worlds and left the theater with more than a few questions, such as... Why do the aliens in most contemporary science fiction movies run around naked, without so much as an intergalactic fig leaf on (maybe intelligence and modesty don't go hand-in-hand)? Perhaps we're not the smartest carbon-based life forms in the universe, but when we travel into space, we hermetically seal ourselves in spacesuits for protection from any cosmic cooties. And if you're so smart that you can pre-stage an attack on a planet by burying your newfangled death-ray tripod gizmos underground for who knows how long, wouldn't you also be smart enough to figure out that there might be some microorganisms in the same place that might kill you in the end (seems like an awful waste of time and space)? Spielberg did an okay job with special effects and there were a few pockets of suspense, but WHERE DID THESE ALIENS COME FROM? What was the point of the meaty red root-y/vine-y growths (were they just needlessly killing people or were those tripod thingies also huge human mulchers?) And why give the aliens such procyonine qualities (in one scene, two or three aliens are in a basement looking for a trash can to tip over-- okay, not really, but that's the impression I got-- when one of them sees a bicycle hanging on the wall, spins one of the tires, then jumps back startled)? Why make them smart enough to get here, but not smart enough to figure out a bicycle wheel (that scene reminded me of those simple aliens in Mel Gibson's Signs-- you know, the ones that never bothered to test the water, so to speak, and were brainy enough to fly millions of miles across the universe to a cornfield in Smalltown, America-- naked, of course-- but weren't brainy enough to know that a baseball bat could be used as a weapon and that turning the door handle will let you out of a kitchen pantry)? When the aliens eventually discover-- if they haven't already-- what we've done to them on the big screen, will they giggle at our stupidity or be offended enough to anhilate us with their death ray? And, when they DO get here, surely they will have their handy-dandy pocket-sized universal translators with them SO WE CAN TALK TO THEM!

Well. I didn't mean to rant so long about that movie... I guess it was worth the $5 I paid to see it.

And, speaking of movies, after we stopped at a laundromat for a couple of hours, we returned to camp at about 9 p.m. and let the students watch a movie in English. Sadly, it was Anchor Man. Sadly, I had to sit through it. That is one of THE dumbest movies ever made-- however, it's humor at a high school level, so it the kids enjoyed it. Will Farrell can be a funny guy sometimes, but, honestly, after Anchor Man and Elf, I wonder how he can sleep at night...

Today at noon I'm off for 24 hours... Woo-hoo! I'm going to wander Detroit Lakes and sleep. Then sleep some more...

That's it for this installment.

Poka for now!

P.S. By the way, I noticed that there are three barber shops on the main street that runs through little Detroit Lakes... Sort of an oddly inproportionate number, don't you think?

Novgorod is breaking up...

This morning we say goodbye to our two-weekers (or tweekers in camp parlance). On Monday we will receive a shipment of new tweekers, though these will be older kids, near in age to the 4-week credit kids I teach. And after theses tweekers go today, our cabin is closing down and we're all moving to available cabins closer to the main area of camp. Below is a picture taken of me and Zhenya (the other cabin counselor, kneeling center) in Novgorod with the 10 young men we've been living with for the last 2 weeks in close quarters. Zhenya and I are splitting up and taking 5 each to new cabins (I'm going to Minsk).

So, Monday we receive new kids and begin the second semester of the "year."

This weekend, though, we all get 24 hours off. I'll be spending it in the sleepy little summer town of Detroit Lakes (famous, at least, for its two laundromats)...

More later...

Poka!

A year ago, give or take a day...

Today in one of my classes, I was passing around some realia I brought along (rubles, MGU student ID, metro tickets, etc.) for "show and tell" and as I looked at the dates on some of the tickets, it's hard for me to believe that a year ago tomorrow I was in the Tretyakovskaya Art Gallery in Moscow and one year ago Sunday I was in the Russian Navy Museum in St. Petersburg!

Well, even though I'm almost halfway through 4 weeks of Russian, it's still kind of strange to be in the middle of the woods in Minnesota. Where will I be this time next year?

Alas, another slow blog day...

Poka!

It's bacon!

Slow blog day, but an interesting observation... Nothing gets kids out of bed and to breakfast on time like the smell of bacon wafting from the kitchen. It was all they could talk about this morning! Go figure...

Poka!

Willy Wonka

As Sunday's routine is more relaxed here at Lesnoe Ozero, some of the other counselors and I were able to get into town yesterday for a few hours. We did laundry and saw a movie-- Charlie & the Chocolate Factory. (The last movie I saw in a theater was Finding Nemo.) I like Johnny Depp movies and though this remake of the Gene Wilder classic was pretty good. Great special effects and a Johnny Depp is somewhat of a darker Willy Wonka... Gotta say that the I liked the Oompa Loompas in the original version better (as well as the original Oompa Loompa song).

Today we were back on the regular schedule, albeit under less than favorable weather conditions. It got kind of chilly overnight and was in the 60s with a stiff wind and light rain for most of the day; on the plus side, the bugs weren't as active today (but the kids had to be entertained inside, since the beach was closed).

Just another busy day here on the Black Sea (that's what we call Lake Trowbridge while we're here)... Tomorrow is Kyrgystan Day, since one of our teachers here is Kyrgyzi...

Poka!