Petersburg

It becomes apparent to me that St. Petersburg is unlike any other city in the world. Some call it "The Venice of the north" It was built on a river delta from nothing mirroring central europe. It looks extremely European for a Russian city. Also parts of it remind you of Venice because of the canals. It's a beutiful city and because it's so far north you can experience the phenominon of "white night". Sadly we are in spring at the sun will start to go down around 10 pm so we can't read newspapers in the streets at 2 am, but I know it's possible in the right season. It's quite beautiful here, and beautiful in it's own specific way. I'm very glad this will be the last Russian city I am to set foot in before returning to America

it's been too long

So, the final has been done, and we had a final party. So we practiced this Russian dance like crazy and it didn't come off super well, but it worked when we performed it. It was an emotional week. Last goodbyes to everyone. We said goodbye at the final party, where we saw the last of all our friends. After that we had a couple days left in Nizhney Novgorod and left at the train station. They say that the platforms are wet in Russia because of the tears shed in train stations. It was good, my host family was really sad to see me go. After that it was an overnight ride to Saint Petersburg formerly Leningrad

Uhm i dunno even what to title this

So kids, it's been fun.  I'm finally to the point where all the odd things here seem normal, and everyone is talking about the end.  Sad face :(.  Right now I'm trying to balance finding where and how to do the final paper.  There's alot of things that will happen over the next few weeks, so I think I'm going to try to get alot of the paper done early, if this is early I dunno.  It's been cool, but I feel like I need to get some serious work done. I put up pictures of kazan on my facebook, I have alotmore than i put on there.  I've come to the realization that I wont speak Russian well while I'm here, I don't think I have enough time to do it well, but I do have a functioning mastery of it.  It's not pretty but i can get my point accross.  Well I'd better get to work. Later kids.

So here I am

So I'm with a russian family now.  My host father says i don't talk much, probably because I don't.  It's really hard to speak this language.  I can get about half of what is simply spoken to me now, but still that doesn't quite seem enough alot of the time.  I can say things in Russian now, and I can get my point across with only words if it's a simple question.  That was interesting actually, A japaneese man asked me in russian why I chose to come to nizhney novgorod to study and not moscow and I was able to understand his russian and answer him.  I was really proud of that. Good time.  The food here is good, everything is natural.  I think I'll end up eating rye bread, and drinking whole milk when i come back to the states. You never know.  Everything is cool.  There's also a niece that comes around frequently, the first three days she was here, and I think she spends the weekends here, it's a rather nice appartment.  It's really cool being here, we go to Kazan this weekend.  That'll be fun, I've been busy writing liturature papers and I need to start on my research project in earnest.  Sorry i haven't updated consistantly.

talk to you all when i got more to say... laters

can't hold me back

So this week was very interesting. I had quite alot happen. Well I had agreed to represent Gabon(some random african country) in a Model UN. I felt very underprepared, but they wanted me because I was a native English speaker and the proceedings were in english. Well I did this and it was rather interesting. Those are so professional and I felt so outclassed. Either way I participated and was invited to thier performances, so I got to see alot of traditional dances. I saw a Cossak dance, and some Caucaus region dance, it was really cool. New people moved into the profolactory and one of them was the Chechen that did most of the dances, I got a picture in his traditional uniform, it's sweet. Well other than that we met our host families. So I'm living with a 17 year old brother and a 6 year old sister. My host mom was really nice when I met her, and they spoke entirely Russian. I felt lost, but I understood about 1/4 of it. That'll be interesting. So I now have a mullet, they are totally popular around here. I'm going to have to work on the paper due next week and pack today, but I thought I'd write this now, but I know I'm not very good at keeping up with this thing...

crazyness

So last week when I forgot to write an entry not too much happened during the week. We have alot of random work, but it's not worth mentioning. Only thing that was of mention is that I cut my beard. So ever since we went to Vladimir the boys were wanting to go clubbing. So we finally went clubbing, the only issue is we got to the club at 10:45 and we got a call. So a little background info, the profolactory where we stay closes the door at 11 and will not open it untill morning, unless you have approval by higher powers. Our friends supposedly cleared it for us to return around 3. This was not so, and the Komandant was very angry we were going out. So we were presented with a situation. Party all night or run like crazy back. Myself and a couple american friends had absolutely no problem with that. A good deal of the Russians and the rest of the americans booked it back. So we spent quite some time at this tiny club, got bored, walked around the city at 3 in the morning and went back untill around 4:30. Then we went to the only place to eat that's open 24 hours in this city: a Pizza place. I dunno why they are 24 hour here, but they are the only ones. So we chilled there and ate some pizza, and came home and crashed. It was cool. They met another American friend at chruch, which I had slept through, and I got to meet her at Harley's(director) appartement, where we all spend sunday afternoon with each other and our friends that we've made. Party all night in Russia. One more off the bucket list.

Valentines day

So I can't quite remember the last time I wrote an entry. This weekend we observed our valentines day because we were in valdimir on valentines day. Oh by the way vladimir was really cool, it was a bunch of super old churches, and they let us take pictures inside because some weren't still in use, so I finally have pictures from the inside of orthodox cathedrals. yay. We also celebrated some russian holiday where they eat blini(pankcake/crepey thing) and at the end burn a scarecrow. It's a week long fat tuesday like thing cause lent is right after it.
Back to the valentines day celebration.... It was very interesting. We entertained each other with skits. It was kinda hard to organize these skits because we were very disorganized after valdimir. Me and my roommate lipsank(?) to Mulan's a girl worth fighting for. It was fun. Me and my roommate also got all the girls chocolate and got each one a flower. It was fun. Also I cut my hand trying to make props for our skit, that was interesting, but there are nurses in the place where we stay. I dunno if I said this before but we are staying in a profolactory, where the sick recover, so there are doctors here. I also sprianed my ankle pretty bad getting off the bus. So Ima just recover for a while.

Snowboarding and otherstuffs

Snowboarding was rad. They don't really use chair lifts here. the first place we went was basically just behind a park, with one short somewhat steep hill. Basically not enough room to do much, but teach those who couldn't snowboard. The next day we went to a proper place. There WAS a T-lift, but basically only skiiers used it and we didn't want to pay. So we boarded there. I constantly overestimate my boarding skills, and I had some trouble on the steep run. I've got to learn to carve better. Either way we had a great time boarding. We are going to Vladimir and Suzdal today. Vladimir is a former captial along time ago. Should prove to be interesting. Other than that, everything is going fine. Just rocked out a 4 page paper for school. Wondering how well I did on that. Anyways I'll try to keep this updated. Later all.

Scholastic endevours

So I feel like we are actually diving into the language. I'm learning new stuff, and it actually takes some concentration now. I still don't feel like I can say too much to people in passing to the point of a full conversation, but I like that I can properly say small phrases of my own creation other than, I have, I want and so forth. Late tonight is ice skating, and tommorrow is snowboarding. I think I'm going both days, because we have to rent boards for essentially two days, but I'm the only dude going, so basically I go both days, cause no chick could fit into my boots. Bascially we are renting like 6 boards and having like 10 people go, like 5 on one day and 5 on another shareing boots and boards. W/e I needed to say I boarded in Russia and I needed to board this winter. Either way should be fun. I'm starting on some of the contemporary Russian literature that we need to know, actually it's a very chaming little book(master and margarita) and it's a fun read. Other than that, learning, loving, living, you know the usual.

After

So yeah really regretting that whole pushup thing, my arms hurt, and then I went cross country skiing for the first time. That's interesting but I still don't have it down. More strain on the arms. Then we played badmitton. See i forget that badmitton is a legitimate sport in other countries. I played against my american counterparts and pretty much rocked. Then they had me play a girl on the badmitton team and I got spanked so hard. I lost 1 -15 and the little girl was so ultimately shocked when I got a single point on her. That was an intense game regardless of how bad I lost. I was going to play a dude for Sushi, but I guess that'll have to be postponed. Went to a Banya, which is a russian sauna where you go in jump into ice cold water, maybe run into the snow, but like when your in the sauna they hit you with leafy birch branches. It's an interesting experience. I'm glad i went buy my arms are killing me.

before

ell today was interesting. Yesterday we went on a bus to a place that did Traditional
russia folk songs. Most of them were atleast 400 years old. This place is so much older
than anything in America. The first day here, Alexander said "this is a newer monastary, it was
built in 1820" Laura laughed next to me. It's just crazy, new in america is 40 years at most.
Anyways I captured a few of those on my camera, and they sound good enough. On the trip back
we crammed into a bus like sardines. I ended up bear hugging one of the shyer girls, and I hope
she didn't mind it. All the girls kept giggling and the Russian just kept glaring at us.
Today was interesting, we went to a "pedestrain street", wish is basically 4-5 blocks of a brick
road that basically only poeple walked on, no cars, and just one solid bock of storefronts
if the storefronts stopped there were market stands. I'll end up buying a few things from
this city specifically, but I think I'll do that later. I played some card game of manliness
with the Russian dudes. Each suit was a different kind of pushup and you had to do as many pushups corresponding with the hight of the card. I was first out. WE arm wrestled after that, and my roommate kept screaming german when he arm wrestled, it was hilarious. It was katya's birthday today.That was interesting. We had a good time, sweats everywhere. I feel like I'm on a constant sugar high in this country, and the girls wonder why I make fun of them buying chocolate.

last one didn't have a title?

Well it's sunday, we went to chruch. It was a calvary chapel service in english.
It was nice, but I think I'll enjoy going to an eastern orthodox chruch here. I planned
on switiching off eastern orthodox and calvary chapel, but they want us to stay with
a chruch. I don't know if I'll fight the power and do as I want religiously, or play
along. It's hard for one to put rules on how I observe The Faith. It remains to be
seen. I enjoyed today, I had a good time with everyone I was with today. Alot of small
tibits of one on one time with people today that I liked. I miss people from back home...
0 connectivity bites. I live here, and here is where I want to be, but I want 30 min at the end of the day to write letters or talk with friends back home. Meals are where we meet Russian students, those have been kinda awkward. I'll feet better when I'm stumbling in broken russian,
instead of making others stumble in broken english. This all is so surreal. I can't speak
in an unknown language here. I still only catch about 5 percent of anything spoken here.
I'm learning about this country and learning about myself. That's all i could ask for,
but I have to remind myself that everyonce in a while.

So we arrived in Nizhney Novgorod late last night. Laura said that this truely feels like
we are in Russia. I agree. In Moscow it felt as if we were American Tourists that are just passing through. Now that we get to Nizhney we are here on campus to acutally study. We actually begin studying next week, but it feels like we have really arrived. We had a banquet, where the Russians welcomed us. We had skits and performances to entertain each other. We did line dancing and some skits and they sang and danced for us. After this we had a Disco running, and we all talked alot. If you haven't seen me dance, know that I like to dance. It's a different side of me than normally comes out. But there was this "dance" where everyone would couple up and hold hands and that made the cealing of a little tunnel that you would run through. Everyone would be holding a hand and one person would go into the tunnel and take the hand of anyone in the line he wanted and travel to the end. The person who was partnerless would go to the beggining of the tunnel and choose someone again, making a continous flow. I liked that alot. Then they just busted out the techno ish stuff and we danced. I also
met alot of cool Russians. Hopefully I'll get to know more. I bet a Russian 50 rubles I would beat him in badmitten. Also I thought it was funny that an aquantince of mine there, said, "I know who is American here, but on the dance floor I don't know the difference." I thought that was deep. Slow danced with a girl for the first time. I danced with Katya, and that was nice, but i was nervous and a little awkward at first. These people are so glad to have us here, and I'm overwhelmed at thier hospitality.

Meetings, Greetings, and some restrictions

So, I ended up meeting with Great Uncle Johnny at a Baptist seminary here. Me and the director looked an a christian academy before we met Uncle Johnny and got to tour that, so I feel like I got a good view into protestant education here in Russia. Very small modest buildings with few (70-20) students. We had a nice chat all three of us and went on our ways. We saw the church of Christ our Savior on Epiphany. That was interesting, I do enjoy these eastern orthodox churches. We also saw a modern art gallery, and Tolstoy's winter house. All interesting things. I also on the day I met uncle Johnny I was told to call my friend who currently resides in Moscow, Alex(I met her as an exchange student in the States). So tonight we met and ate together. I had caviar for the first time with her and her friend Sasha(they are both named Alexandra, Sasha is short for Alexandra). It was a very interesting conversation and Hopefully I will meet with them both again before I leave. They mentioned that they might meet me in St. Petersburg at the end. I head to the university now. The internet there is very low tech. I get 300 meg upload and download per month, so I don't think I'll be video chatting anytime soon. If you really want to get in on the video chat I may have to find some sort of internet cafe, and that might be a little awkward. Either way I don't think I'll have internet for a week or so as we get set up at the university. I am neither excited or nervous about studying. I'm just perplexed at how to function with that little connectivity and confused at the point that they want us to become well involved with the Russians while they try to shelter us severely. As of now I'm jut more confused than anything.

Bolshoy

So over the past couple of days we did some interesting stuff. We went to an art museum. Actually it's a very interesting story behind the museum. There's a religious sect here called "the old believers" Basically they opposed certain church reforms and embraced old Russian ways. Because of this anything of antiquity became of importance and one of these such people collected Russian art and now it's the museum. It was interesting, some very nice paintings. We also went to the Bolshoy theatre to watch swan lake. I would say it was interesting, but ballet is not my cup of tea. BTW tea is a must here. Everyone drinks tea, I'm still trying to like it. But the performers were excellent. People clapped for them in rhythm though. It was a little odd. We went an saw the inside of the Kremlin. Russia has a massive history of Religious affiliation, that I think most people don't really know about, because of the atheism of the soviet era. But we went into like 3 different churches inside the Kremlin. The churches here are amazingly beautiful. Almost everything is in gold leaf, and they have wooden painted "Icons" that are thought to have healing powers. During church everyone stands. There are no chairs. They sing in harmonics with no instruments. They do litanies as well and then do a message. It's very interesting. I liked the service I went to.
Tommorrow I should be meeting with a couple friends that happen to be here, that should prove interesting

the next couple days

So yesterday we went to red square and saw a bunch of stuff from afar. We went to see Lenin in his mausoleum. One of the guards yelled at me to take my hat off. That was interesting. But we spent the rest of the time hearing what all the basic landmarks of red sqaure meant and the history behind each piece. I came back and I found my roommate. Interesting fellow. It seems as if everyone here is more well read than me, and he would be the most well read out of all of us I would say, well most well read that isn't a lit major. Either way spent the rest of the day orienting. Today we went to Pushkin square and saw some scenery that is the start of the novel, Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. Honestly I'm not much for Russian literature, and I suppose I'll be glad i went to these places after I learn all this Russian literature. I tried to be as traditional Russian as I could with my meal. I had borshch, some fish thingy and drank kvas with it. Kvas is an interesting drink, I can see why people dislike it, but I think it's rather good. After that we walked down some massive storefront walkway but I was tired and didn't really go into any stores. I'm having fun, still figure stuff out, and still trying to meet with a few friends here.

First entry

as of right now the only thing to describe Russia is pure chaos
wonderful orchestrated chaos. So I thought with standing in line to get bread
these people would have a great ability and respect for standing in line
Yeah in Russia there are no lines. You stand in what appears to be a line
but you can basically go anywhere in that line with no boundarys
you are in a group close the the beginning of a line, that's about it
No one really gets pissed if you cut them in line, but then they cut you.
getting out of the airport cars were everywhere and there was no organization
to anything, just one police officer that would yell if people got too pissed
or the line got too big. Lots of chicks here with me, no roommate yet, the other dude
didn't get his passport on time, so it was just me and the chickas today
we had a hot german waitress and would laugh at every 5th thing said in german
fun day, except the fact that I was waiting or traveling almost all of it.

still no one knows a lick of Russian and I'm still trying to hold out like
I don't know any. That might change soon. later kids