Путешествие на Юг/Trip to the South

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.

Eat, sleep and talk. In the photo Cecelia (Italy), Paige (US), Me (US), Jo (Thailand), Sofia (Austria), Giacommo (Italy), and Meike (Germany).

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.

          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,".

                                          Vlada and I. This photo was taken by Jo, who showed us how to correctly do the peace sign.

The awesome thing(s) about Russian Language

I just got back from an AMAZING trip to the south of russia. But I don't really have time to make a long post about that right now, so that will come later. Please now enjoy this post about Russian language I wrote about a month ago but forgot to post.

         
  One of my favorite parts about Russia is a language. To people who don't speak it it probably sounds severe and awkward, but the more I listen to it the more I seem to find it to actually be quite a beautiful language. Its not surprising some of the world's most famous literature and poetry comes from Russia.

                  The first awesome thing about Russian: The creativity. With english we just have words and thats it, but in Russian, I'm not sure how to explain it, but you can mix and match, turn adjectives into nouns and nouns into verbs. The creativity of Russian is immediately visible when you look at Russian names. For example, lets take the name Анастасия (Anastasia)**. It is quite a common name, but the cool thing is, for every Russian name, there are an unbelievably large amount of nicknames. Look:
Настя (Nastya), Настинка (Nastinka), Настуля (Nastyoulya), Настюша (Nastyousha), Насть (Nast), Настюлка (Nastyoulka), Настка  (Nastka)
           and that's all I can list, but a russian person could probably supply you with a few more. Also you should know that it isn't just Anastasia, it is every single Russian name that does stuff like this. Another example would be Laura (my old host sister), who depending on the situation can be called Laurochka, Laurka, Lya-lya, Llyaloulka, Lyalousha, Lyalinka, Laurochoshka,  or Lyalka.

and Russian is even more awesome because this doesn't just apply to names, but also to pretty much every noun out there.
For example in clean correct Russian you would say
Ya hochy koosok torta. (I want a piece of cake) but Russians like to fondly adress their cake, and so rather than saying koosok torta (peice of cake) they say koosochka tortochki. Or if they really have a thing for the cake they could take it to the next level and say koosochishka tortitochki. It minorly resembles the spanish adding 'ito' to things to show they are tiny, but in Russian it doesn't really mean tiny, it just means that you feel affectionately about the object (in this case the cake and also the piece).


             You probably don't really believe that Russian is a beautiful language. I'll agree with you that it doesn't really sound graceful like french or spanish, but I think that what makes it beautiful is not really the way the words sound by themselves, but their meaning, and the meaning combined with the sound. I'll post a Russian poem, and a translation, and also a link to a youtube video so you can hear it, and when you hear it, sort of imagine the meaning in your head. It may not really click, but if you want to see what I mean, try.

Белый снег, пушистый          White snow, fluffy and soft
В воздухе кружится            Spins around in the air
И на землю тихо               And onto the silent winter
Падает, ложится.             It falls and lays still
И под утро снегом              And in the morning with snow
Поле побелело,               The feild is shrouded
Точно пеленою                Tightly embraced           
Все его одело.              by the snow, which is its clothing
Темный лес что шапкой       The dark forest with its snow-hat
Принакрылся чудной           is wonderfly covered
И заснул под нею            and it (the forest) sleeps under its clothes
Крепко, непробудно...       tightly embraced, it seems it will never wake up

Translating that for school a few weeks ago made me realize how weird Russian sounds in english.

 I also didn't totally literally translate, I went more for the feeling rather than 

the actual meaning of the words. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tilkivtE4fs (the actual poem starts at :30 seconds, sorry 

the video is strange, it was the only I could find.) 

The last reason (or at least the last reason I'll explain) why I like Russian Language is

the way that people phrase things. For example, in english, we have the phrase "haste makes

waste" right? The russian equivalent, which I heard a few days ago, is "If you do not work 

hard, you will not be able to get fish out of river". Another one that is really a pleasure

is "your elbow is close, but you can't bite it" this would probably be something along the 

lines of "so close but so far" in english. 

Well, Thats all for now, signing out from a very warm Nihzny Novgorod! 

**in case you were wondering, yes, like the princess. 

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.

Honesty/Chestnostz/Честность

I am going to take a post to describe what is in my opinion, the biggest cultural difference I've noticed between Russia and the US. In Russia, people tend to govorit pravda (speak the truth)...all the time.

EXHIBIT A
(with my old host family)
Dasha: Why did you cut your hair?
Me: I don't know, I just wanted a change.
Dasha: You are more beautiful with long hair.
Mama: I agree.

EXHIBIT B- in school, 7 year old Oleg has just recited a lengthy poem by heart, but mixed up a few words, and spoke rather quietly
Teacher: Class, how do you think Oleg recited?
Student: Very badly.
Teacher: Why do you think so?
Student: He said the words wrong.
Teacher: Why else?
Another Student: He recited quietly, and without emotion.
Teacher: Yes, absolutely correct. Oleg, becuase you did so badly, I am going to give you a 2 (the worst grade you can get in Russia, keep in mind this is in front of the whole class)
So, rather defeated, Oleg returns to his desk and the teacher calls on Nastya to recite the poem, she does.
Teacher: How did Nastya recite?
Student: Very well!
Teacher: Why?
Student: She knew all the words, and recited beautifully.**
Teacher: Correct. Nastya, I am going to give you a five 5, you're a good girl.***

At first I was really taken aback by such bluntness, but the more I get used to it, the more I think it is a good thing. Look:

Person A: Hi, How are you?
Person B: good, you?
Person A: Good.

How many times a day do you have that conversation? Tomorrow, if you want, count. Then think how stupid it is.
Why do we say everything is fine when it isnt?
Why do we say we like things when we dont?
Why do we say something was good when really it just wasn't?

I think its because we are afraid of offending people, but really, a difference in opinion or taste should not offend.

I am more of a compare contrast person than a we do it better here/they do it better there person, but this is one of the few times that I'll say it: I think the Russians are doing this right, and we are not.

*Just a little footnote, washing the floor means on your hands and knees with a cloth. 

**In the Russian language its not weird for someone to 'recite beautifully' its also not weird for something to 'smell tasty'.

***Again, in Russian this doesn't really sound abnormal.

Festival/Фестиваль

This past week I didn't study in my school, but rather in another school in my city. That is because at the school I studied at there was like an international festival, and all the foreign students in the area went to school there that week. It was cool to experience another school, and also fun to hang out with other foreign students.

       We each had to do a presentation of our country, a national holiday, and then do a song/dance that is representative of our country. Each foreign student was paired with a class of russian students and we prepared the presentation together. I did one on thanksgiving day. I wanted to do halloween, but with classic russian honesty, I was told that 'no that is a bad idea, do thanksgiving day'.
         Theres no candy or costumes, but I think it did in the end wind up being a cool presentation because no one knew about thanksgiving beforehand. For our musical number I was clueless as to what to do. I asked the people in my class for an opinion and they said they wanted to do a dance.

Just a question: faced with 25 Russian teenagers asking you to show them an american folk dance what would you do?

I will post the video of our dance, and preface it with nothing more than this: If you ever find yourself in Nizhny Novgorod, and everyone thinks that all americans are cowboys, its probably my fault.

Even if our presentation was minorly stereotypical, I think the school enjoyed it. Also, it is not as if there was no work done to break stereotypes, because going to school with these people and dancing with them for a week, they got to know me, a real american, so they get a picture of the real, and the presentational United States.

Also, all the foreign students for the finale did a Russian folk dance to a song called Katyousha. Its about a girl named Katya looking out at a lake waiting for a bird to bring her a message from the person she loves. Russia if nothing else is unique.

I'd love to also post the complete video of that dance, however the 8 year old I told to film didn't know how to work my camera (and I didn't do a fabulous job of explaining in Russian), and therefore I'll show you about 10 seconds of it.

Also I'm planning on doing a question and answer blog post, so if you have any questions about Russian, Russians, or Russia please email them to me in the next week or so: lindsaysaligman@gmail.com

C 8 Марта!/Si bosmoy Marta!/Happy 8th of March!

       Sorry I've gone a while without posting...I should start by saying:
 For reasons it wouldn't be right to go into in such a public setting, I have had to move to a new host family. It wasn't something I wanted to do, nor was it something something my host family wanted, but it had do happen.
        The good news is my new host family is also pretty great. I have a dad, Lyosha, mom, Irina, a 24 year old brother, Tyoma, and a 17 year old sister, Yulya. She's in my class at school, which is quite convenient, because now I have someone who can explain physics to me. None of them speak a word of english, so there is a lot of going back and forth with a dictionary, but I'm sort of happy about it, because what better way could there be to learn Russian? The other good news is they live in the same appartment building as my old family, so I can visit them as often as I'd like.

          So now to the main subject of this post. Remember protector of the homeland day? Well today was another lovely (and entirely religionless I might add) national holiday. It was womens day. It isn't like mothers day though, where you sort of kind of give your mom flowers and maybe call grandma... It's quite the legitamate day. Yulya about every five minutes was getting texts from every boy she knew wishing her a happy womens day. Tyoma got Yulya and I roses, and our parents got us chocolate.
          Yesterday there was a celebration at school too. We only had four lessons rather than six, and for the rest of the day we had a concert, which was one of the most russian things I've seen. It began with kids from the 2nd grade dressed as mushrooms doing a dance to a folsky song about grandma, continued with the girls in 11th grade reciting poems about being a woman, and ended with our middle aged male PE teacher playing the guitar and singing about how lovely women are. Only Russia.
       After our concert just the 10th class went to the classroom of our advisor and which all the boys in our class had decorated for us. They also bought us cake. So we drank tea, which they served to us, and ate cake. It was sweet, literally and figuratively.  Then they recited a poem for us, along the lines of 'beautiful, wonderful girls of the 10b class, we love you, and on this special day we want to give you gifts to show how glad we are to have you in our lives'. Then all the boys went and got gifts, and each one of them presented a gift to a different girl in our class. I got an apron and a spoon decorated with traditional russian patterns. "For to cooking!" a boy in my class enthusiastically explained. The whole thing seemed a little sexist to me, but the good kind of sexist, if that makes any sense. Its not like they are saying 'you are a woman you belong in the home' they are saying 'you are a woman and thats wonderful, we love you'.

                       He is singing about how wonderful women are. And this isn't creepy at all. Only Russia. I might add that this is the same PE teacher that forced us to run in circles for a half an hour and if we didn't go fast enough (or sometimes just because) he threw volleyballs at us.

Part of the concert