Деревня/Derevnya/Village

                So in Russia, most families, or at least most that I've encountered have two homes. One in the city, and another in the derevnya (village) which is called a dacha. This is the case because most people were born in small villages and at some point in their life moved to the city. My host dad for example, was born in Suneevo, a small village about 2 and a half hours away from Nizhny and came to Nizhny to study (my host mom was born in Kazakhstan, which at the time was part of the USSR, and also came to Nizhny to study, where she met my host dad, they got married, had 2 kids named Yulya and Artem, and eventually decided to host a 16 year old American girl named Lindsay).
    So we went to Suneevo over the weekend (it was my second time there, I also went during our week long break at the end of March) and stayed in the house that my host dad was born in (its been renovated a bit since). Cool though? If when I say village you are imagining an american style small town, you are not imagining correctly. When I say village, I mean village. I don't think we have villages in the US. It's funny, because Suneevo reminded me in some ways of Harmons, (a village in Jamaica where I've been). My host family got a kick out of my saying the Russia resembled Jamaica, and you probably do too, but I stand by my assertion.

My host parents.

A house in the village. This is what a typical house looks like. I'd post a picture of ours but I for some reason didn't take one.

                              These girls, Natashka (8) and Dianka(3), are our neighbors. They live in the village all year around. They are absolutely adorable. The younger one didn't totally understand what it meant when I said I wasn't from Russia. She kept asking "Why are you talking funny?".

                                        The downside to spring in Russia: Flooding.

                                                   Happy Easter! You'll notice there are some dyed eggs on the table. On the morning of easter about 8 different people came to us and wished us a happy easter, and gave us some of their dyed eggs, and we gave them some of ours. Also something minorly interesting, the white stuff (a sort of cottage cheese yogurt thing called pas-ha) you see on the table, they said that is the body of christ, and the eggs, which are traditionally dyed red, represent the blood of christ. I thought that was interesting because it minorly resembles catholocism.

This is one of the three streets in Suneevo, its our street. Aside from houses this village also has 2 small stores for food and a "club" which is a room with a pool table where kids hang out in the winter. I have no clue what the population is but I'd guess around 100.

Also AFS Russia had a contest, where you had to do something that demonstrated your vision of Russia. I wrote an essay, and got second place. The prize is going on a free trip to the south of Russia for 2 weeks (since I got 2nd place for me its 50% free). So I am leaving on Sunday, and am quite excited for a 30 hour train ride to a completely different part of the country!

Question and Answer/Вопросы и Ответы

So, lots of friends/family from the states have emailed me with questions, so I thought I'd dedicate a blog post to the answering of said questions.


How is the russian pop music?  Do the students you're meeting listen to american & european & african music too?
For the most part, Russian pop music isn't fabulous, but most american pop music isn't either (both of those statements are my opinion). The thing that I like about pop music though, which I think is the thing everyone likes about it, is that it is popular. Everyone knows it, and lets face it, its way more fun to sing with people than to sing alone (agian, my opinion).  People do listen to songs in other languages (mostly english) but it seems to me they listen to Russian songs most often. I'll post the youtube links to some songs that are currently popular here.
                               Город Сочи -heres a russian pop song that sounds like a pop song, but it sort of has a russian feel, or at least it seems that way to me. There are quite a few of this type. It is about Sochi, a very warm city in the south of Russia. You probably know it because the Olympics are going to be there. **after listening more closely to the lyrics I figured out it is about a guy who is leaving his wife and finding a new girl in sochi... slightly less charming, but still a cool song**

                                      
                              

                                              Около Тебя- Close to you...this song is everywhere. Probably has been number one in Russia since I got here.  Its an example of a russian pop song that sounds exactly like an american pop song, just not in english.

           
  Девушка по дорогу-Girl on the Street... This one isn't bad. Another pop song that sounds fairly american, just in russian.

It might also interest you to know that the most popular English song in Russia at the moment is probably "I'm Sexy and I Know It". Everyone sings it, and no one understands. They wonder why I laugh.
Are there any people there from other places in the world besides you?
Yes. I came to Russia with an organization called AFS, which sends students from all over the world, well... all over the world. AFS sent about 100 kids to Russia for a year program back in September, and they sent an additional 5 (one of which being me) in January for just a semester. These are kids from all over the world. I haven't met the majority of them, because we are all over Russia, but there are 4 foreign kids in my city appart from me. Sofia (from Austria), Quentin (from France), Giacommo (from Italy), and Marysabel (from Venezuela). Also there is a small town not far from where I live where there are four more foreign students that I've met. Andrea (also from Italy), Sandra (from Germany), Pim (from Thailand), and Fabiana (also from Venezuela). The girls from Venezuela recently went home though, which is sad.
Is there a place the teens hang out?
I feel like in Russia it is not very common for teens to go to eachothers houses. It happens, but not nearly as much as in the US. I think that is because as far as I've seen, most people here live in small (by american standards) appartments, which means a whole lot of people in a small space and not a whole lot to do. I also asked Yulya, and she said that friends almost never sleep over at eachothers houses. Lucky for Yulya though I sleep over at her house every single night.
             Every night though teenagers 'гулять'. The verb literally translates to 'go for a walk'. They just walk in circles around the appartment buildings where we live, or sometimes, when its cold, hang out in the staircases of the afformentioned buildings. It sounds sketchy, but its Russia, and therefore it happens.
Do they do valentines day or is that just for places with hallmark stores?
They do have valentines day. There was lots of card giving at school, and at home (this was my old family) our dad bought our mom roses and gave Dasha, Laura and I little flowers. We all had dinner together, and afterwards ate heart shaped cake. Although valentines day is celebrated here, it is nowhere near as big of a deal as protector of the homeland day or womens day. 
What are people most interested in asking you?
Do you live in a house or an appartment? Why? How many floors does your house have? Why? Do you learn Russian at school there? Why? Do you like McDonalds? Why? Do you like Russia better than america? Why?
In case you missed the pattern, in Russia, every question when answered, is followed with another question: Why.
At what temperature do the Russians consider  it  "spring"?  
 "Spring" began about a month ago, but as I write, there is still snow on the ground, and the temperature is around 35 farenheit. So I guess thats an answer for you.
What are groceries like? Is everything fresh? Do they have frozen foods?
For the most part, everything is fresh. I have no idea how, because its still so cold here, but in the stores they always have fresh food, and every I'd say three days we go and buy food to cook a soup, or some sort of dish, and the cook a large amount of that dish, and then eat it for the next few days, and then once we run out buy ingredients for another dish. Try to picture in your head. Where I live, there are four appartment buildings (gigantic) set up in a square, and in the middle of the square, there is a little playground. Then on the corners of the appartment buildings, there are stores. Within a 5 minute walk from my house, there are three different grocery stores, a pharmacy, and a store where you buy miscellaneous things such as hairbrushes and contianers.  These stores aren't like stores in america though. There is a counter, and you have to go up to the counter and ask for what you want, and the woman will give it to you. They do have frozen food, but normally we don't eat it. Normally, we eat home cooked food, every day. Its quite nice, though I can pretty safely say, that once I get back to the states, I will never again in my life eat soup.

How long does it take to feel comfortable in a language when you're immersed in it?
It depends on the person, the language, and the degree to which they are immersed. Of the 100 students in Russia on the year long program, there are some who after 7 months speak near fluent russian, there are others who literally cannot speak more than a few words.
Person: Some people are good at math, others are good at learning languages, others are good at sports, just depends on the person's natural language learning ability.
  Language: Russian for example, is way more similar to English than it is to Thai, making it significantly harder for a thai person to learn russian than for me. Conversely, Spanish is way more similar to English than russian, making it significantly easier for me to learn Spanish than Russian.
   Degree of Immersion:  If you spend all your time, reading, writing, speaking or even thinking in a language other than the one you're immersed in, then you'll probably not learn as fast.