Sorry I haven't posted in a while. It is because I was on a wonderful 2 week long trip to the south of Russia! Our time was spent in the following way: 2 days on the train there, 4 days in Astrahan, 4 days in Akthubinsk, 1 day in Volgograd, and 2 more days on the train home. I was there with 17 other exchange students (out of the 100 total in Russia), from Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Thailand and America (it was surprising how nice it is to talk to another american after months and months of only Russians and other well, not american people). I could write everything we did, but it might bore you, and I also don't such an abundance of time on the internet (this is my host sisters computer, and the most common source of conflict between us is how often I use it). I decided that rather than write a short summary of every single thing I did, I would pick 5 highlights and describe them to you.
1) The train
In Russia they say that there are only three things to do on the train, sleep, talk, and eat. This is absolutely correct. For 34 hours both ways, that is absolutely all we did.Fhe train in Russia isn't like any train I've been on in america, though admittedly, I've never been on a night train there. What we had in Russia is basically one big cart, and there are subsections (there is no door, just a little dividing wall) with four beds on one side of the hallway which goes through the middle of the cart, and two beds on the other. This will become clear with pictures, don't worry. The cool thing is that since there is no separation, you find yourself in very close quarters with strangers and nothing to do. Basically you make lots of friends. For example, I woke up one morning to find that Giacommo, an Italian exchange student, had befriended this group of rather large middle aged russian men, and was eating some sort of seafood with them.
2) Salt-Lake: Did you know that the dead sea isn't only in Israel? I really didn't. Who would have any idea, that in the middle of nowhere (literally, it is an hour away from the small town of Ahtubinsk in South western Russia), there exists a lake with condions to the dead sea. The floor of the lake is almost all salt, just hardened, which means that if you decide to go swimming spontaneously, as we did, you will be in a lot of pain.
They told us that it was going to be too cold to swim in the lake, so no one brought bathing suits. Turns out, when we get there, it is actually incredibly hot. So we all decide to just wade in a little. But, of course, wading in a little leads to splashing, which leads to full out swimming in your clothes (although I lost a pair of jeans, and still have cuts on my feet, I do not regret this decision). It was really cool, because, you don't sink. If you try for exapmle to stand on two feet or touch the bottom you will have a very hard time doing so and also probably hurt yourself (salt in eyes, salt in mouth, sharm salty lake bottom). Our problem however was when we had to get out of the lake, because in some parts, it is too shallow to swim, and like I said, it hurts your feet--a lot. It was a cool bonding experience though. We were singing the AFS theme song as a joke because it says "walk together, talk together all your people of the earth" and we were literally walking together (and wincing with each step). Like I said though, no regrets.
The lake, pre-swim. Note the feet, there are no shoes on them. Note the jeans, you will never see them again.
3 Jo figures out why hes in Russia
When we were on the trip we stayed in 2 temporary host families, one in Astrahan, one in Ahtubinsk. It was cool to see the sort of inside life of another russian family, because I figured out that although there are lots of similarities, different families live differently. It was cool to realize what things are "russian" and which things are more typical to my host family in Nizhny. Anyways, my host sister in Ahtubinsk, was really awesome. Her name is Vlada and shes about my age (a year older). She is totally not the usual russian teenager, because she is absolutely obsessed with Korea and Japan. When I first met her, she warned me not to freak out when I saw her bedroom, the walls of which are not visible because there are so many posters of korean popstars and anime, some of which she painted her self and with friends. It was really cool to see self expression like that, because most other russian bedrooms that I've seen are quite without presonality.
So Vlada... Remember her, and now I'm going to tell about someone else I met on the trip, and then explain how they are connected. So on the trip with us there was a Thai boy named Jo (also an exchange student). He at first was really shy, but after a while completely opened up. When we were in Astrahan, we all had to presentations about our home country in a school there, and when Jo did his, it was visible that the students for some reason didn't seem to care. He was clearly sort of hurt by this. In Russia, it seems to me that there are two types of foreigners (actually in the US too). There are people like me, from the US or from Europe, and because we are from these richer countries we are considered cool and interesting. Then there are the people from Uzbekistan and Azerbajan who a lot of Russian people (not all Russian people but a lot) look down upon and are openly racist to. This is actually very comprable to the US, if you think about the difference between meeting someone from France versus Mexico. It is interesting that that never ocurred to me before. I had to come to Russia to realize such a thing about my own country. So for some reason, the kids at the school put Jo into the less fondly reguarded group of foreigners and were totally rude to him. He told me "I think they want to learn about Europe not Asia". I got the feeling by the way that he said it that this happens to him a lot.
So I'm guessing you already in your head have some idea of how Vlada and Jo's stories connect, but I'll tell you the details. One night in Ahtubinsk, we were just all sitting in the park (Russian host siblings and exchange students). Vlada was there with some of her friends, who also happen to share her obsession with east asain pop culture. (This is a note to my broadway/glee/harry potter obsessed friends in Philly, it was really funny, how much Vlada and her friends reminded me of you guys, sure the obsession is different, but the things they do are quite the same). So we are sitting there, and Vlada flips on her phone to check the time, and the background is her absolute favorite korean singer. Jo happens to see the phone and points to it saying in russian "That's Jong Hyun!" which in fact is the name of the singer. Turns out, that although he is Thai, Jo is also quite obsessed with Korea and Japan. As you may guess, a conversation began there, and they became instant best friends. By the end of the night Jo, Vlada and her friends were doing the dances from Korean music videos that they'd both memorized. It was one of the coolest things I've seen in Russia, and made me realize why being a exchange student is worthwhile.
Vlada and I. This photo was taken by Jo, who showed us how to correctly do the peace sign.
1) The train
In Russia they say that there are only three things to do on the train, sleep, talk, and eat. This is absolutely correct. For 34 hours both ways, that is absolutely all we did.Fhe train in Russia isn't like any train I've been on in america, though admittedly, I've never been on a night train there. What we had in Russia is basically one big cart, and there are subsections (there is no door, just a little dividing wall) with four beds on one side of the hallway which goes through the middle of the cart, and two beds on the other. This will become clear with pictures, don't worry. The cool thing is that since there is no separation, you find yourself in very close quarters with strangers and nothing to do. Basically you make lots of friends. For example, I woke up one morning to find that Giacommo, an Italian exchange student, had befriended this group of rather large middle aged russian men, and was eating some sort of seafood with them.
Eat, sleep and talk. In the photo Cecelia (Italy), Paige (US), Me (US), Jo (Thailand), Sofia (Austria), Giacommo (Italy), and Meike (Germany).
They told us that it was going to be too cold to swim in the lake, so no one brought bathing suits. Turns out, when we get there, it is actually incredibly hot. So we all decide to just wade in a little. But, of course, wading in a little leads to splashing, which leads to full out swimming in your clothes (although I lost a pair of jeans, and still have cuts on my feet, I do not regret this decision). It was really cool, because, you don't sink. If you try for exapmle to stand on two feet or touch the bottom you will have a very hard time doing so and also probably hurt yourself (salt in eyes, salt in mouth, sharm salty lake bottom). Our problem however was when we had to get out of the lake, because in some parts, it is too shallow to swim, and like I said, it hurts your feet--a lot. It was a cool bonding experience though. We were singing the AFS theme song as a joke because it says "walk together, talk together all your people of the earth" and we were literally walking together (and wincing with each step). Like I said though, no regrets.
3 Jo figures out why hes in Russia
When we were on the trip we stayed in 2 temporary host families, one in Astrahan, one in Ahtubinsk. It was cool to see the sort of inside life of another russian family, because I figured out that although there are lots of similarities, different families live differently. It was cool to realize what things are "russian" and which things are more typical to my host family in Nizhny. Anyways, my host sister in Ahtubinsk, was really awesome. Her name is Vlada and shes about my age (a year older). She is totally not the usual russian teenager, because she is absolutely obsessed with Korea and Japan. When I first met her, she warned me not to freak out when I saw her bedroom, the walls of which are not visible because there are so many posters of korean popstars and anime, some of which she painted her self and with friends. It was really cool to see self expression like that, because most other russian bedrooms that I've seen are quite without presonality.
So Vlada... Remember her, and now I'm going to tell about someone else I met on the trip, and then explain how they are connected. So on the trip with us there was a Thai boy named Jo (also an exchange student). He at first was really shy, but after a while completely opened up. When we were in Astrahan, we all had to presentations about our home country in a school there, and when Jo did his, it was visible that the students for some reason didn't seem to care. He was clearly sort of hurt by this. In Russia, it seems to me that there are two types of foreigners (actually in the US too). There are people like me, from the US or from Europe, and because we are from these richer countries we are considered cool and interesting. Then there are the people from Uzbekistan and Azerbajan who a lot of Russian people (not all Russian people but a lot) look down upon and are openly racist to. This is actually very comprable to the US, if you think about the difference between meeting someone from France versus Mexico. It is interesting that that never ocurred to me before. I had to come to Russia to realize such a thing about my own country. So for some reason, the kids at the school put Jo into the less fondly reguarded group of foreigners and were totally rude to him. He told me "I think they want to learn about Europe not Asia". I got the feeling by the way that he said it that this happens to him a lot.
So I'm guessing you already in your head have some idea of how Vlada and Jo's stories connect, but I'll tell you the details. One night in Ahtubinsk, we were just all sitting in the park (Russian host siblings and exchange students). Vlada was there with some of her friends, who also happen to share her obsession with east asain pop culture. (This is a note to my broadway/glee/harry potter obsessed friends in Philly, it was really funny, how much Vlada and her friends reminded me of you guys, sure the obsession is different, but the things they do are quite the same). So we are sitting there, and Vlada flips on her phone to check the time, and the background is her absolute favorite korean singer. Jo happens to see the phone and points to it saying in russian "That's Jong Hyun!" which in fact is the name of the singer. Turns out, that although he is Thai, Jo is also quite obsessed with Korea and Japan. As you may guess, a conversation began there, and they became instant best friends. By the end of the night Jo, Vlada and her friends were doing the dances from Korean music videos that they'd both memorized. It was one of the coolest things I've seen in Russia, and made me realize why being a exchange student is worthwhile.
At the end of the night, before we went home, Jo was jumping up and down saying "Ya nashol! Ya nashol!" Which means, I found, I found. Then he said something in Thai, which Ploy (another Thai exchange student, a girl) translated as "this is why I'm in Russia,".
Отличный рассказ) Только правильнее не "Путешествие на Юге", а "Путешествие на Юг":)
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