Welcome To Russia and A Funny Phone Call

The welcome to Russia part of this entry is because once again I have had the pleasant experience of running into Russian Beauraucracy. Again. It's an epidemic here. Here's what happened. I had to pay for my art class as I hadn't paid for a couple of months and was therefore behind. I hadn't paid before, I'd given Raisa the money and she'd taken care of it. But it was no problem. I pulled out the money I needed and headed to the main office of the art institue. I figured I'd tell them that i needed to pay, give them the money and bam, it's all good and I'd be all paid up. There was just one problem. I forgot I'm now living in Russia. It would've been that simple if I'd been in America but I'm not, I'm here. The result it that i went in, said I need to pay, and the scary lady is like "Oh no, you don't pay here." I'm sorry...WHAT? "That's right, you have to go pay at a bank."

So I'm there, freaking out because I have no idea how to pay for this thing and I want to pay so the lady will stop telling me that I need to pay, and so on and so forth, and i was worried that i was going to have to get a hold of Raisa and figure out what i was doing. Thankfully there was a woman there who said she'd help me out, and sometimes, you just have to rely on good samaritans. She helped me fill out the form I needed, and then we headed to the bank.

two and a half hours and three banks later, we got my self paid and my little receipt stub to give to the scary lady today. you've gotta love Russia.

Probably the most interesting thing that happened this week (other than the amazingly warm weather we've been having) was that my parents called me. This in itself wouldn't normally be an event I would mention on here but it was what occured during said conversation that was interesting. First of all, came the answering of the phone. My parents are lucky because i almost didn't answer. but I did "Allo?" I asked in the traditional way we Russians answer the phone. A voice on the other end answered in broken russian "zdrastvii, abigail doma?" I knew at once it was my father and I was so excited that I automatically answered "Eto ya!" which means "it's me" as soon as the words left my mouth I thought "oops, they don't understand russian." So then I switched to english. except throughout the entire conversation I would have moments where I forgot english. I never thought messing up my native language would feel so good. At one point, Elena Ivanovna came home, and I paused in my conversation with mom to tell her that her tableclothes were back (long story) my mom remarked that my russian sounded more russian and that I was just blurting it out. heh. that made me feel good about myself.

It's true though. My Russian has gotten better the last month or so. It feels more natural now. I don't know if it's just being immersed for so long, or what. I think a part of it is the whole changing families thing. while I'm still not one to talk your ear off in Russian, I do talk more than I did at Raisa's. At least it feels like I do. I'm not saying I'm a native speaker, or nearly fluent, but I'm certainly more fluent than I was. And it feels pretty good.

Жизнь Прекрасно!

Oh man, This past week has been absolutely awesome! It started with Olonho on Wednesday. Olonho, for the majority of you who don't know are epic yakutian stories. Or rather it's the all-emcompassing name given to the stories. From what I can tell, it's not just the stories, but the art form in which they are told as well. Anyway, on wednesday evening we had an invitation to go to the cultural center and watch a dance that told part of a story from the middle world section of the stories. see, in Yakutian legend there are three worlds. upper, lower and middle. we live in the middle. Anyway, I had no idea what we were going to see and was afraid that i wasn't going to be able to understand it. Fortunately, it was a dance with minimal speaking. Let me say it was pretty awesome too. The story was about this hunchback who through a little bit of magic becomes a great warrior and saves a beautiful maiden. unfortunately, we only saw part one which ended just before said warrior was going to go save the beautiful maiden from the evil demon. I want to go back and see the second part.

I really enjoyed the performance and typical of me, i got caught up in the story and didn't take any pictures. will try to remember if/when we go back. The dancing was awesome. it was like a combination of ballet and traditional yakutian dance. i learned that there's a difference between the way you dance a horse and the way you dance a reindeer. very cool.

Another good thing that happened this week was on Friday night we had a night of Poetry reading at school. This was pretty cool, and Olga Yurievna who's like one of the kind of in charge people at school had asked me to come and read something in english. I didn't read. I recited. The poem I chose was my typical performance poem. Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll. I chose this piece because I have it memorized, and even though it has nonsense words, it's still a coherent story, one that's discriptive enough that i can act out.

So when my turn came, I threw myself into it. And the kids enjoyed it. I had a few people afterwards come up and tell me i did a really good job, and that they could follow the story well. Good, that was my point. What I admired were my classmates who got up and read poems they'd written themselves. That takes a lot of guts.

Continuing on in my week, the next good thing happened on Saturday. Saturday i skipped school completely. Instead, i went and visited Elena Ivanovna's class. Elena Ivanovna is a teacher and a lot of times teachers are kind of in charge of a group of students. I had met some of her students before but this was the first time I met them all together. It was an interesting experience as her class is mostly made up of boys. I gave my presentation about America, my first time giving it in russian. they class asked lots of questions and there was some general bantering and what not which was really fun. I enjoyed myself. Afterwards, I went to my khomus lesson, which was just awesome because i love playing the khomus.

Finally, the coolest thing ever happened on sunday. I took the phone call that I'd been dreading for over a week. The call that Raisa was home. Blin! I don't want to go back there! But fortunately She had some news that was good for me though not for her. First of all, she told me that our Orientation in Vladivostock is going to be on the 22-23 of March and that our trip to Moscow and Piter is going to be right after. That was pretty exciting. Then she told me that we should talk to elena Ivanovna about me staying with her. and I thought Oh yeah! unfortunately, Elena Ivanovna wasn't home when raisa called, so I had to wait. when Elena Ivanovna did get home I told her raisa called. She called back, and talked for a couple of minutes. When they got off the phone, Elena Ivanovna looked at me and goes 'so you're going to stay here?" and I asked "Can I?" And she said "Do you want to?"
'oh yes! very much so!" and she was like "Okay and gave me a big hug. SO i get to stay!

And that's basically my awesome week!

Sick and Almost half-way

So I got sick this last week, nothing major, just a cold. I'm doing better now. I didn't go to school on Friday or Saturday and I didn't go to church on Sunday. Like I said, I wasn't that sick, but they take even light sickness here very seriously. You know, it's nice to be able to stay home from school for two days and not have it matter. I was also given permission to show up late/go home early the next couple of days if I want. i'm thinking about taking advantage of that too. especially since I didn't sleep real well last night.

Anyway, in other news. Just general information but for those of you who contact me through facebook, sorry but I won't be able to get on there until furthur notice as the school computers have decided to block the site.

Okay and now on to the real stuff. For those of you who don't know I completed my fifth month here on february first. February 10th is my official halfway point. i.e. Half-way through my exchange. wow. back in september I never thought I would make it and here I am already.

Since my fifth month is here, I decided to set some goals for myself while starting this sixth(!) month. Goals for the rest of my exchange. 10 goals and they are as follows:

1. Read More in Russian

2. Speak More (To random people)

3. Be More Outgoing

4. Not Care What People Think of Me

5. Visit/Explore More Places in the City

6. Not Think About Home So Much

7. Enjoy the Freedom I Have Here.

8. Not Worry About the Future

9. Write More in Russian

10. Work Harder on Better Grammar

I'm becoming Russian. Okay so I'm like not a citizen of Russia or anything, but you spend so much time around a group of people and their attitudes, the way the talk and act start to rub off on you. This is most evident in the conversations I have with myself.

Yes. I talk to myself and I'm not bothered to admit it. It's just what I do. The other day I went to the store to pick up some things because I knew that Elena Ivanovna wouldn't be letting me out of the house for three days. In Russia, when you go to the grocery store, they don't automatically bag your stuff for you. You either bring your own bag or you ask for one, and pay for it. After I came back from the store I was having a glass of juice and thinking about the fact that here you have to buy the bags and wondering if it was going to freak me out when I got back to America that they automatically bag your stuff and then the two sides of my brain had the following conversation;

Side 1: Why do the bag our stuff for us in America anyway?
Side 2: So we can carry it home. Duh!
Side 1: Why don't we just use our own bag?
Side 2: ...

Later, I was thinking about this conversation and all of a sudden it hit me. The attitude I have about the shopping bags is Russian. And it just makes more sense to me to use my own bag in a store. Just like it makes perfect sense to have a Garderob where you hang your coat in a lot of places you go and just like the little cubbies you put your stuff in while you shop make perfect sense. Why don't we have this stuff in America?

The Cold Part 2

So at the request of my mother, and because I've been meaning to do it for a while, here's a second installment about the cold here. So here you go. All teperatures are Celcius unless otherwise noted.

First off, from what I've heard, some of the other siberian cities such as Irkutsk, are experiencing record breaking cold with temperatures hitting -55. I would just like to say that here up north in Yakutsk, we're still experiencing a warm winter. From what I've heard, the coldest the temperature's been so far this winter is -48 which for Yakutsk is pretty warm.

There is a major temperature difference between the -30s and -40s. It's like somewhere between -35 and -45 it goes from being "Just really really cold" to being "oh my word it's so cold I can't stand it." When the temperature is in the latter you don't want to be outside. If you have to walk even short distances you can feel your nose going numb and your skin stings. And if there's any wind at all, you'd better pray.

I remeber there were times in Ohio where I'd be standing outside, waiting for the bus, or walking to russian class and I'd be freezing my butt off and be thinking "Oh man, it would be so much warmer if we didn't have this wind!" Thankfully, we don't get a lot of wind here in Yakutsk. But if you think the wind chill gets bad in Ohio, imagine how bad it is when it's -40 and there's wind. NOT FUN!

We have another interesting phenomenon here that I've probably mentioned before. You see when the temperature hits a certain point of coldness, snow can't fall. It's just too darn cold. But you still have moisture in the air. So what happens? Well you get this thing called туман the english word for it is fog. This ain't your momma's fog either. This is like really uber thick fog that hangs in the air you know that saying about "fog so thick you cut it with a knife?" Well this fog is thicker. And it doesn't really burn off when the sun comes up. Hence the reason why even when it's light out, it sometimes doesn't feel very light because it's foggy and the sun is hidden.

Speaking of which, As soon as the polar nights were over (Jan 20th if you remember) it started getting lighter, and I mean lighter. Over the winter, it wouldn't start getting light until after 9am. This morning I was walking from the bus stop to school, it was about 8am and already the sky was lightening. I was pretty excited because earlier when it was eight o'clock, it would still be pitch black.

I've had two people tell me that the worst of the cold is over, and I believe it. You see there's no difference in temperature, but there's a difference in the air, it's like the air isn't so sharply cold, I find myself being able to be outside with less layers on, though part of that might come from the fact that I've been living in a colder house and therefore it's easier to stand the cold outside. This morning there was a bit of a wind, but to my shock and amazment it wasn't freezing cold, in fact, it felt rather warm.

I'm not saying that we won't have a few more cold snaps, I'm just saying that I think spring is going to be showing up soon.

ATTENTION--ВНИМАНИЕ

For anyone who is interested in going to Russia I thought you might want to be aware of the following.

1. Visa Restrictions
Russia has recently changed it's visa restrictions and the types of visas you need to stay in country. for example a cultural visa (which I have) is only good for three months. If you are interested in coming to Russia, please double check with your travel agent/advisors about what type of visa you need/would be best for your type of travel.

2. Packages
It has come to my attention that certain Russian cities are restricted and you cannot send international packages to them (Yaktusk is one of these cities) if you are looking to send a package to Russia from another country, you might want to double check the city restrictions.

The Baptists

So I've titled this post "the baptists" because that's probably the most exciting thing that's happened to me this week. Well, other than the fact that I'm still loving where I'm living now, and Raisa called and said she'd most probably be gone a full month, which made me really excitied.

Anyway,the baptists. For those of you from Church who read this blog, I'm not sure if this post will make you feel better or worse about my religous life, or lack of it, here in Russia. But it went something like this.

I was sitting in Obshest and paying attention because it's basically my favorite class. We've started a unit on culture and the various aspects of it. One of the things we were talking about is Freedom and how freedom in your life is a good things. One of the things the teacher, Anastasia Simonovna, mentioned was Religous freedom. She said something like "You have the freedom to chose what religion you want, we have a lot of churches here, the orthodox, catholic, baptists..." and I didn't hear anything more after that, or the rest of the lesson for that matter because I was like "Oh my gosh, there's a baptist church here? seriously? Baptists are kind of close to Church of Christ, at least in America. I wonder if she knows where they meet" and on and on and on the rest of the lesson. It took me about thirty seconds to decide to ask about it after the lesson.

So I did. I said "Anastasia Simonovna, you mentioned the Baptists in your lessons, do you know where they meet?"
And she said "No, but I can find out, the move around, but I know who to ask and I'll try to let you know tomorrow."
That was friday.

Saturday at school, She told me that there is a girl here at school who's father is the pastor of the Baptist church. Anastasia Simonovna introduced me to Anya and we sat and talked and I explained that no, I wasn't baptist but my church sort of resembles a baptist church and Anya drew me a map and gave me information and so I basically had decided to attend the baptist church on Sunday.

Church started at 10am. I left the house at 9:30 and though I had a map and a vague idea of where I was going, I was afraid I was going to be late, mostly because when I got off the bus it was 10 til 10 and I still had a ways to walk. So I ran part of the way. Anyway, the good news is that when I walked in they hadn't started yet, in fact the pastor and his wife, Anya's parents had gotten there just before me. As soon as I walked in this guy goes "You must be our guest" and I was like "yeah, that's me." He introduced himself as Valintin, Anya's dad and pastor of the church. I was also introduced to his wife, but don't know her name. They were really welcoming and Anya's mom was like "you can sit with our family" which was really nice of her.

The church is located in a little wooden building across the pond (literally) from the university. The only thing that designates it as a church is a metal cross on the top of the building. The service itself was and wasn't like home. They used a piano, but it wasn't really that bad. Some of the songs they sang where the same, but in Russian such as Amazing grace and What a Friend We Have in Jesus. They also sang some really cool songs in like this minor key. it was awesome. The pastor gave a mini lesson where he talked about Jesus' baptism and a little bit later there was a longer lessons, which I had some difficulty following as I don't have good church vocabulary. What else? at one point, some lady got up and read something from the pulpit. she wasn't preaching, she was reading, but I didn't understand so I have no idea what. The song books have just words, no music notes.

We started a little after ten and finished around noon, and then I walked with Anya and another Anna and Anya invited me over on Saturday after school and then to the weekly youth group meeting they have where all the kids from the different Baptist churches here (yes, there's more than one. there's even a couple that preach exclusively in Yakutian) get together, so I'll most likely go to that.

I guess that what I have to say is that even though it wasn't like home, in some ways it was and I thouroughly enjoyed myself and felt like I was walking around surrounded by a ray of sunshine the rest of the day. After attending church, the day didn't seem so grey and cold.

When I got home, I ate lunch and then dozed on and off for about four hours. Thus discovering that concentrating on church makes me really tired.

What else can I tell you? Well, I lost my key to the apartment and felt really really bad about it, but Elena Ivanovna was awesome about it and told me it was no big deal, she'd get another one made.

I made some little girls' day by talking to them and answering their questions. They thought it was really cool. Today they were in the Garderobe at the same time I was and are like "Do you remember us?" and I go "Of course" and they were like "who are we" and I go "you're the girls who were asking me questions." They then asked me to translate a bit of a song for them, which thankfully wasn't too difficult. That made them happy.

Time has seemed to be going pretty fast lately. I don't know if it's because I'm living in a different place, or what. I think that's part of it. I find myself being more social and wanting to be more social when people aren't telling me I have to be. I love sitting and talking to Elena Ivanovna while she's making dinner and she's really good about tolerating my horrible russian grammar, and helping me speak. She also makes me feel like part of the family which makes me feel good.

So I guess that's what you need to know. I'm really really enjoying myself right now, and my time here. This place is absolutely awesome, and even though sometimes I forget how cool it is here because I get down, things always look up again, and each time I come through a bad patch, the good things look better, and I feel happier longer. Hurrah for adjustment!

Sigh of Happiness

I feel so good, and it's not just because my computer teacher just told me that i didn't have to learn Pascal which basically leaves me two periods to use the internet at my leisure. I feel better than i have in a long time. I think a good part of it is the change in atmosphere.

I'm already settling in well to living with Sasha and Elena Ivanovna. In fact I have to be careful because I really am enjoying where I'm at now, and I might not want to leave.

The apartment is smaller, and so is my bed. The dog is a lot bigger, but still a crazy russian dog. and I think the change of atmosphere was really good for me, because once I got over my nervousness at having to adapt to a new family I settled right in and I'm loving it.

Both Sasha and her mother, Elena Ivanovna, like to talk, and I find myself opening up more, and starting conversations and joining conversations, not because I have too as an exchange student, but because I want too. I feel like they actully care what I have to say, or if not, they do a good job pretending.

Yeah, life is different here. I had to get used really quick to the fact that I went from basically having free reign of an apartment, to having people around me basically all of the time, but once I did, it's all good.

There's no internet there as it's broken, but the nice young male teacher who works at Sasha's school and occasionally shows up to eat dinner with us, is going to come with a new modem on Tuesday. I don't know how much, if at all, I'll use the internet there though. my school principal here told me i could use the internet a couple of times a week after school in this one classroom, so i might just do that.

Elena Ivanovna cooks. We have kasha for breakfast which is like cereal grains cooked. The last two days it's been oatmeal type stuff. Tasty. she also makes really good dinners. it's soo tasty! So much for loosing weight.

I've decided that the most important thing i've learned so far on exchange (minus the language and cultural stuff) is how to adapt. I've discovered that yeah, there might be things here that bother me, because my American cultural ingraining has told me that we do things a different way, but here, it might be different, and since I'm here, in this culture, it only makes sense to do things the way that is normal in this cultural context. So sometimes in order to not let things bother me, I have to mentally push what my brain is telling me to the back and ignore the voice in my head.

It's an interesting experience. there are a lot of differences between houses, but that's okay. for example, at raisa's I always woke myself up in the mornings, here, Elena Ivanovna does. E.I. also makes breakfast, at Raisa's i was responsible for it myself. Not just that, but other things as well. Raisa has a drying rack for the clothes, and here Elena Ivanovna hangs a clothesline across the main room. she told me the other night that she had a drying rack, but the dog kept taking the clothes off it. So she uses the clothes line.

I find that only four days after coming to my new home, temporary as it may be, I'm already used to life here. It seemed to take forever for me to get used to life at Raisa's, but maybe that's because I was also adapting to a new culture, and now I have a better handle on the culture, it's a lot easier to fit into the life. In some ways, i never felt completely comfortable at Raisa's. Don't know why. It's not horribly bad, it's just different.

I'm happier than i've felt in a while. That's a good thing.

Change

So it's definitely come faster than I thought it would. heh heh heh. Yesterday, Raisa came home from work (It was the first working day after the holidays) and she goes "I'm going to be going on a business trip the day after tomorrow." and I'm like okay. Because she's gone for the weekend before and it's no biggie. So I go "For how long?" The answer was "Two weeks." oh. Well, that's interesting. So I asked what I was going to do and she was like "Oh, we're just going to leave you by yourself." And I thought "Wow, cool!" Before I realized that she was joking. She told me that she'd called Maria the club president to see if someone else in the club could take me for two weeks on very very short notice.

They were having trouble finding someone as a lot of people had a lot of stuff going on with work and whatnot. Finally, they found a couple people who said they'd take me. One woman lives in "a really big house" (That's what I was told) but she lives outside the city and it would be really hard to get to my lessons and stuff. So for the next two weeks I'm going to be living with next year's outbound, Sasha, and her mom. I said I wanted to see what it would be like to live with a different family and I guess I'm going to get that chance sooner than I think. So it should be an interesting cultural experience. Though I am a bit terrified, because as with any new place you have to work out logistics and all, but it's only for two weeks, which in the grand scheme of things really isn't that long at all, but at the same time, it's a good chunk of time, because it'll take me through the end of the month of January. I think they have a computer there, but I don't know how much I'll be using it or anything so I don't know how much I'll be updating the next two weeks.

In other news, I must be feeling better because my cultural awareness and the continous anthropological commentery I have in my head has come back. This morning I was standing in the shower thinking about the things here I've gotten used to. Like the Russian thing about not telling you stuff until the last minute, or how you get used to the water being finicky and not always being hot enough, or have the temperature drastically change while you're in the shower, and how occasionally a tv channel you're watching will just randomly go off air for a bit, usually at the most exciting part of a movie too. It's all just part of living here, and you just get used to it after a while, and stop thinking of it as an inconvenience, just as part of life.

Anyway, if I get a chance, I'll do my best to let you know what life is like with my temporary family. Now however, I have to go and pack.

Huston, We Have a Problem

"You haven't been yourself."
"Eh, I've been feeling kind of down, but it's all good."
"No, you seriously haven't been yourself, we can tell from your blog."

And I don't want anyone to get the impression that I have a horrible host mom. Because she's actually really cool, and I've done my best to try to express that through this blog. IT's just sometimes when you get down, it seems like there's nothing good around you.

My parents called me last night because they were worried about me. I really must not be sounding like myself. Mom told me that she thinks it's more than just regular homesickness. Perhaps it's the lack of light, and you know what, maybe it is. After I wrote that blog entry yesterday, and after I wrote and e-mail to my parents, and had myself yet another good cry. It was like I suddenly started to feel better. I went outside and I took a walk and it was like I felt alive. More alive than I have in a long time. Maybe days, maybe weeks, maybe a month or two. I walked on the River because I could and I ran for the pure joy of running in the siberian cold.

I had SMSed my friend Vika and she got back with me and I invited her over for chai, which made for a good evening. And I think we're going to hit the ice rink today and try some skating. So by the time my parents called me, I was in a pretty good mood. I explained that it was the weirdest thing because I suddenly felt really really good and really really happy. The call from my parents was cool. I felt bad for making them worry, but it's nice to know that they care.

My problem was that I'd started on a slide and couldn't stop. Usually when I get down, I talk myself out of it by thinking that "Don't worry, it's not permanent." and self pep-talks and such. I also throw myself into stuff to stay busy and that helps too. But my problem this time is that I feel like I'm having trouble pulling myself out of it. Like I was doing better yesterday evening, but when I woke up this morning it was like I was back to where I was yesterday morning.

Maybe part of it is because it's holiday. We don't have school again yet, so it's hard to throw myself into that. Maybe part of it is that I've hit the mid-year slump, maybe a lot of it is that the lack of light has given me a bout of something akin to Seasonal Affective Disorder

I don't really know. What I do know is that I have to try to keep busy until school starts back up again. My mom told me to exercise more, eat less sugar, eat more fruit, maybe get out in nature if I can. So I'm doing my best to fill up the rest of vacation doing stuff with people. Perhaps ice skating tonight. I'm planning on going bowling tomorrow, that sort of thing. I've got to just keep on moving.

Even though it's not the end of the polar nights until January 20th, it is definitely starting to get lighter out. Like the light is longer. Not much, but it is. Hopefully, I can get myself feeling better and then maybe my objectivity and my joie de vivre will come back.

January 20th

Do you know why this post is titled January 20th? Do you know why I'm really really looking forward to that date? Because I found out that starting January 20th the light starts to come back and I'm really really excited about that. Mostly because it means spring will be coming along, and spring means good things. Spring has become a kind of symbol for me, like maybe it's going to be the best part of exchange, though right now, it doesn't really feel that way.

I've been feeling really down lately. Just kind of blah. Apparently, I'm not being social enough which is what people keep telling me. My host mom, my host sister. In fact yesterday I had a conversation over dinner that went something like this:

Me:"What do you want me to talk about?"
Raisa: "Oh anything"
Guest: "Life here...are you bored?"
Me:(Forgetting that the words for "boring" and "To miss" are similiar)"Very bored"
Raisa: "You say it's boring here, but you never call your friends and go do anything. you sit at home and do nothing"
Me:"Oh, no! I'm not bored, I meant to say that I miss my family."

And then somehow Raisa made arrangements for me to go ice skating with my host cousin this afternoon which I'm really hoping falls through. Not because I don't want to go ice skating, but I just don't want to go with him. I'd rather go with one of the girls I know and have actually hung out with and had a conversation with. Please don't make me go with my host cousin and his friends. Please! And I couldn't say "no I don't want to go" because that would've just reinforced the fact that I'm anti-social.

I think I'm failing as an exchange student. Recently I really have been trying to make an effort to call people and hang out with them. But apparently, it's not enough. I've really been missing my family lately. Actually it wasn't the holidays that set it off, it was Aita being here.

Having here here was both a good and bad thing. Like there were times I really enjoyed it, and times that I didn't. sometimes, I'd be sitting there with Raisa and Aita and I'd feel like part of a family, which was a good feeling, because I miss that feeling. Yet at other times I'd feel completely isolated, like I was just this random extra person in the house, just kind of there. Like Raisa and Aita would be having a mother-daughter moment and I'd feel awkward, like I was intruding. The other thing that was really hard for me, was the fact that they'd like go do things together, even mundane things and not even ask if I wanted to go. Like the other day the dog did something to her leg, and they were taking her to the vet and it was like, "we're taking the dog to get her leg checked, we'll be back later" and leave, not even thinking that maybe I would've liked to go and seen if and how taking the dog to get her leg checked was different than in America. Or maybe I would've liked to go, just to go.

Maybe that's my problem. Maybe that's why I sit around the house so much. I was trying to think of what I do in america. I mean, yeah, I hang out with my friends, but I do that in America less than you'd think. I realized part of the reason that I spend so much time in the house here is because I don't do any family function type things. Like in America I might go shopping with mom, or go do something with my parents, or grandparents. Here, I don't. It's kind of like Raisa and I are just two people who happen to be living in the same apartment, but we have our separete lives. Which is cool in some ways. It gives me a lot of freedom. Yet, I miss that feeling of family, because back home, my family is huge and obnoxious and they're a big part of my life, and I love them.

But then, maybe I am just anti-social and a bad exchange student. How would I know? It always makes me feel better when I hear that other exchange students are having the same social problems I am. It makes me feel less like a failure.

I talked to Raisa last night and I think I'm going to see about getting a new family. Not because Raisa's a bad host mom, but because I want to see how other families function and what's cultural, besides, I think that the change might do me some good. I'm hoping that the club can find me a family with some kids at home. I think I'd like that.

So once again, I'm playing the waiting game. I'm waiting for school to start back up, for my friend Nina to come back from her trip to Moscow, for my feelings of "blah" and cruddyness to go away, like I know they will eventually, waiting for spring, because I feel like everything will get better in the spring.

C новым годом

Well, We successfully rang in the New Year on the night of December 31st. The pictures are up on my flickr account. The link to which is at the top of the page. The family came over. There were nine of us, which made the apartment feel tiny. It was fun though. I hung out with my host sister, Aita, and our host cousins. This basically involved sitting at the computer exploring the collection of old school video games that my host cousin had on his Flashka. i.e. Flashdrive. The two funniest games were Michal Jackson's Moonwalker, and a really bad Japanese version of a Harry Potter game where Dudley looked like a Sumo wrestler.

At five minutes to midnight, we gathered around the TV for President Putin's annual speech which I heard none of as we were taking pictures. We toasted the new year with Champagne, and several people wrote down a wish on a piece of paper and swallowed it with some champagne so that it will come true in the New Year.

Right after the new year rang, the fireworks started. People from all over the neighborhood were shooting off fireworks. It made for a really awesome display. We watched from the windows of our apartment. I loved it! seeing the fireworks, seeing the people. It was just really cool.

A little while later, we did the presents. There weren't a ton, but it was nice. I gave apple butter and postcards to Babushka and Dedushka, and my aunt and Uncle. I gave the "kids" comic books/magazines in English, and I gave Raisa a blanket with sights from my city on it. It was pretty cool. I got a jewelry box from Aita, an assortment of Yakutian souveniers from my aunt and uncle, and Raisa gave me a really pretty bracelet.

We ate a lot of course. I had Yakutian ice cream, fish, potatos, russian salads. I tried holodets which is really really nasty. It's kind of like peppery chicken flavored jello. Icky! There was also an assortment of cold and frozen fish in the Yakutian tradition. I don't mind the frozen fish, but I hate dealing with the bones. I like frozen meat better.

The family all left around two or after, and we did some minor clean-up and hit our beds around three.

And I guess that's my Russian new year. I enjoyed myself, was glad that I got to experience it.

It's weird to think about it, I've suddenly already started my fifth month. I'm on the downhill part of my exchange. AHHHH! I'm terrified! Before I know it I'll be getting off a plane and hugging my parents (Which I'm looking forward too) yet it scares me because as I've mentioned before, I've kind of got this thing for Russia. What am I going to do when I can't speak Russian anymore? When my friends tell me that I need to speak english because I'm not in Russia anymore. What will I do without amazing ice cream, and the drama here, and the russian bureaucracy? I know, it's seems early as I still have five and a half months, but I've learned how fast time goes, and these five months are going to fly. Especially when spring rolls around and trips and stuff start happening. AHHHH! I don't know what to do with myself!

Cleaning Brings You Together

Yesterday, Raisa decided that it was time to do a major clean-up of the apartment. My guess is it was because one, New Year's is coming, and Two, Aita comes home tomorrow. I did the dishes and was sitting in the kitchen watching TV and I felt kind of bad that I wasn't helping so, I got up and got up the nerve to ask Raisa if she needed any help.

My first job was to spritz the plants in my room with water. Having completed that, my next task was to sweep the floor of my room. It felt really odd to be sweeping a floor with a vacum when there's no carpet on it. A lot of Russian Apartments don't do the carpet thing. In our whole apartment we have two squares of carpet. One under Raisa's bed, and one under the couch. Following the sweepage, I dusted my bookshelf and re-arranged things.

Honestly, I didn't mind the work. It felt good. Do you know how much exercise you get from working? It's amazing what muscles I stretched and how many calories I probably burned. And since my room wasn't that bad off to start with, it's not a problem or a big issue to straighten it up.

Basically when I finished my room, I asked Raisa what else needed to be done. She told me she could do the rest herself, but I did help her dust some hard to reach places. It's nice being tall with long arms. :)

Tyotya Lena called and brought us some apples and mandarins for a New Year's gift. A big box of mandarins and A huge box of apples. So I helped Raisa carry those in too. Since Raisa told me that she could handle the rest herself, I plopped down on the couch and ate some fruit while watching our Russian soap opera. (Ah, the drama!) While I was doing said activity, Alex called and Raisa answered the phone.

One of the people I've been hanging out with lately is a guy named Alex. I met him though my tutor at the Ped Akademia, which is the teaching college here in the city. He spent six months doing work and travel in California last year I believe, and wanted to meet me and keep up his english skills, so we occasionally get together, pit' chai, and talk.

Raisa has never met said friend and him being a guy and all, I was a little worried that she'd like freak out or something. Especially since this is the second time she's answered the domashnee phone when he's called. However, she merely handed the phone over to me, and I chatted for a bit, and she made some calls of her own on her sotovii, or cell.

When we both got off the phone, the Spanish Inquisition began. I knew it was coming, but I was really nervous.
"Who was that?" Raisa asked.
"Uh...A friend from the Ped Akademia. He's one of Lena's Students."
"What does he study?"
"English. He lived in California for six months."
"When?"
"Last year I think."
"What's his name?"
"Alexii."
"What year is he?"
"Fourth."
"Is he tall?"
"What?"
"Is he tall or is he little."
"Uh, tall, taller than me."
"Oh that's okay then. You can hang out with him if he's tall."

And we laughed, and it was hilarious because I learned a new colloquial word which means "to hang out" and I don't know it was just really funny because she was like "Oh he's okay, you can hang out with him." And it was just funny. And so with that, and the work, I came out feeling closer to Raisa and it was a good feeling.

Raisa's daughter in America changes families on the 6th or 7th of January. I don't know if I'll be changing families here after the holidays or not. When Maria, the club president talked to me at my birthday about changing families I think she said something about changing in January. So I suppose that I'll have to ask again. If they leave the choice up to me, it'll be really hard because I like it here with Raisa, but at the same time it would be cool to see how another family works. Who I'd really like to live with is Maria, but she has a little baby (For those of you who've seen the flickr pictures) so I don't think that would happen. Who knows though. I'm not going to worry about it right now. I'll deal with it after the holidays.

Speaking of the holidays, my friend Nina invited me to meet the new year with her and her family. It was really cool and I was honored that she asked me, however I refused, because I've been planning on meeting the New Year with Raisa, Aita, and the family for a while and I don't know, I just felt like I should keep to my plan. Perhaps it was not good, perhaps I should've met the new year with Nina but I'm not. Nina wasn't insulted when I turned her down. At least, I hope not.

I do believe that 2008 is the year of the Rat according to the chinese calender? How do I know this? Because there are mice suddenly appearing everywhere. tree ornaments, decorations, stuffed animals, as the TV channel ТНТ's logo thingy. It's interesting how much that influences the celebration here.

I was planning on going to a random Targovii center today. Maybe randomly riding a bus or something. Raisa called a little bit ago and is like "Be home around five because you're going to a corporate dinner with Maria." ooh. Okay. I have no idea what I'll be doing (if anything) there or even who will be there. I just know that it's at a restaurant (thouh I don't know which one) and that I have to wear my Tufli (good shoes). It starts at five I guess. I'm praying it's over before ten because Love Actually is going to be on TV tonight and I want to watch it sooo bad. I've been in the mood to see it for weeks. It's one of my favorite movies, and my all-time favorite christmas movie!

Edit: By the way, for those of you who check my pictures, I've recently updated with some pictures of the trees in various squares around the city. Check it out!

The Exam

Today we had an exam at school. It was the stupidest exam I think I've ever taken in my life. I don't see how it's supposed to judge how smart you are. It's actually worse than a standardized test.

The first thing that happened was they gave us a little sheet of paper with a bunch of math problems on it (Though it was fairly basic math) and told that we had one minute to complete the problems. After wasting 45 seconds figuring out that : meant divide I successfully completed one problem. (I also wasted time trying to figure out what they wanted us to do)

The other kids all seemed to do it fairly quickly though.

The next task was that we were given a sheet of paper with a text on it and had one minute to write as much of the text by hand on our answer sheet as we could. I wrote one sentence.

Then we had the rest of the hour and a half time period to answer questions.

It took me forever because I had to look up words. One of the parts was like "look up in the 9th grade physics book the following things" and I was like "Whoo hoo! I'll be able to do that!" So I get one of the four (There are like six or seventh 11th graders and they have four physics books) books and I go to look up the words they want the definitions of. There's no glossery in the back. Okay, fine, I can deal with this. So I hunt for the index. Nope. Not one of those either. What kind of textbook has a table of contents, and no index or glossery?

there was also a part where you were given a paper with a text and had one minute to read as much of the text as you could outloud.

I tried to do my best on the test. I put effort into it and all. NOt that it matters because I don't get grades anyway.

I'm just having trouble seeing how an exam like that shows your true potential, and really shows how smart you are. All it does is show that you're a fast writer, or reader, or mathmetician. HOnestly even the part of the test that took longer wasn't a good evaluation of knowledge because it was heavy on the science questions.

It was an interesting experience, to take said exam, but I don't think it was a very good exam. I think there are better ways of testing knowledge.

Friends

First off, Raisa told me on Saturday that it was the longest day of the year and that we have gained one extra minute of sunlight today. WHOOO! and I'm not being sarcastic at all. I'm being entirely serious. one extra minute of sunlight means that spring will soon be here. Sure, I still have to get through the coldest months, january and february, but I don't think about that. what i do think about is that soon it will be april! whoo!

Anyway, on to my real topic of the day.

The consensus from the several fellow Russian Inbounds I'm incontact with and from what i've heard from the russian rebounds, it's incredibly hard to make friends in Russia. one of the main topics of conversation I have with said fellow inbounds is about how our social lives are coming. It's an interesting Phenomenon. I say this because from what i've heard, and infact experienced, Russians are some of the warmest, most hospitable people in the world.

Unlike many exchange students who, the minute they step off the plane in their host country they have made a whole ton of new friends, the Russian inbounders often wonder why, at several months into the program they may have met a ton of people without actually having made any real friends. I think part of this is explained by the fact that the Russian Inbounders have a unique problem.

you see, for most exchange students, one of the first things that happens when they get to their host country is that they meet the other exchange students. This surrounds them instantly with a cushion of friends because everyone knows that the bond inbounders share with each other is unique and no one quite understands you like your fellow exchange students. Now, I'm not saying that the other exchangers are bad always hanging out with eacher other. They might not see each other all the time, but in most other countries, if you don't have another exchanger in your school or town, it's not to hard to hop on a train and go see the ones in nearby towns. That's Russia's unique problem.

As most of you know, Russia is a big country. spanning two continents and 11 time zones. There aren't usually a ton of exchange students wanting to come to Russia and because RUssia is so big it's usually a 'one exchange student per city' kind of thing. Not only that, but it's not very easy to 'just hop on the train and go' take where I am for example. The nearest exchange student to me is in a city called Nirungry. This city is even in the same Republic as yakutsk. Nirungry is a relatively close city by Russian standards. This means that it's only a four hour plane ride away. So right there is our problem. The Russian exchange students don't have a roaring social life because we're so far apart.

not only that, but even though Russians are some of the nicest people in the world, you still have to break through that tough Russian exterior which in itself takes a while to do. It can be very frustrating because just when you think you've made a friend, said friend backs off and you have to keep trying.

I realized the other day that though it was unintentional, I tend to gravitate towards people who've done traveling. And I don't mean just tourist traveling because everyone in Russia does that. I mean people traveling like I am. people who've seen what it's really like in said country. The people I've gotten to know better than just a preliminary meeting learning about them are all people who've done traveling traveling. I take Khomus lessons with a guy who traveled and did a homestay in germany, I've hung out with last year's outbound who spent her exchange year in germany, Vika spent time in malta practicing her english. The guy from the ped akademia who I occasionally hang out with spent six months in California doing a work and travel program, and my closest friend here, Nina, has spent several summers in England.

They're all native Russians so that's cool. I just think it's interesting that these are the kind of people I gravitate towards. It's not intentional, I promise, I just think it's interesting. Perhaps an subconsious understanding that these people will understand where I'm coming from better than others.

The point is that I've almost completed my fourth month, and even though the friend thing got off to a slow start, it's getting better. My social life is starting to take off and I can only hope that it will keep getting better and better!

A Slice of Life

It's December 22nd. All of you will be celebrating Christmas next week. I have three more days of school before break.

The dog is back visitng again. I don't mind her so much when she's not freaking out whining that Raisa's gone. She seems to have accepted me as more a part of the family.

As of this writing, my parents are either on a plane to, or have landed in Minnesota where my brother lives. They're spending the holidays there. I was only slightly disappointed about this, as I figure being in Yakutsk is a once in a lifetime opportunity and while I may in the future come back to Russia, who knows if and when I'll make it back to Yakutsk specifically. Besides, I can't wait to see what the holidays are like here.

My Russian grammar, both spoken and written is horrible. Yet, I've found that I'm now able to express myself more in Russian. I finished the journal I brought with me two nights ago, and I've started a new one. Officially, it's bilingual, but you'd be surprised and impressed at how much of it is in Russian, and how much of my inner thoughts I'm able to express.

My host sister comes home the morning of the 28th. That evening we're having a concert and discoteka at school.

Our homework in Literature is to learn and recite a Poem by Ecenin. This is a normal thing that the kids do here. A typical assignment. I mention it though because on monday, I too will be reciting a poem by Ecenin. Which for some reason I'm really nervous about.

I feel like I do a lot of waiting here. At first, I was waiting for december because I know back in September that if I could make it through the holidays, I'd be okay, and make it through the rest of my exchange year. Now that december's here, I'm waiting for April. April is spring. Spring is warm, Spring means the end of school is coming up. April is also when we have our big tour of the country. As I told my journal today, when April finally rolls around, I'll probably be waiting for July so I can go home. I hate the fact that I feel like I'm always waiting. First I was waiting to come to Russia, now I'm waiting more. I don't like the feeling and want it to go away.

I've made myself answer the phone so many times that I'm not afraid of doing it anymore, and often can have conversations with the people on the other end of the line.

Most all of the food here tastes better than in America. Is fresher and less processed. The two exceptions to this are Milk and Snickers candy bars. Both of which are pretty nasty.

My favorite breakfast ceral here is called "Little Pillows"

You can tell how cold it is here recently, by how much fog is outside.

I've discovered that if you eat about fifteen minutes before making a journey outdoors, you stay warmer.

When you live in Russia, it forces the OCD out of you in regards to food. They are a lot less weird about food sitting out and stuff. Raisa often puts Piroshki with meat in them, in the bread box. And There was one time, I accidentally left the milk out all day and Raisa was like "oh, it's fine, just stick it in the fridge." So I've stopped thinking/worrying/wondering about where the food's been stored, and hopefully I'll take that back with me to America.

Stuff that I do here that I hope to take back with me:
Slang
Drinking uber hot tea
Being more responsible
Independence
eating jelly right out of the jar

It really irritates me when people treat me like I don't understand Russian. It also really really bothers me when people talk about me in Russian, and don't address me directly, thinking I don't understand. The other thing that bothers me is when people translate for me. I'm here to learn Russian, I've been here for four months, I started learning before I came. I'm not a complete idiot!

okay, I'm done now.

Saw

The fourth saw movie just came out here. I imagine that it came out in the states too. I don't really know as I don't pay attention. I was sitting with a group of students in the Cafeteria of the Teaching College yesterday, just chatting because some of them enjoy practicing their English. (good for them, Bad for me) And the subject of movies came up and the movie Saw came up and I was like "yeah, I've only seen the first one, and it scared me to death, but was really really good."

Then someone told me about a joke. I asked the word for "saw" in Russian. It turns out that said word is пила. Пила not only is the word for "saw" but also happens to be the feminie past tense of "To drink" i.e. She drank.

So the joke is that "Oh yeah, that's the movie about that drunk girl"

Personally, I thought it was pretty funny and I thought you all would appreciate it.

Our winter break starts next week. We didn't have school today. We have school tomorrow and then monday through Wednesday. After that it's two weeks of freedom! whoo hoo! Although I will admit that I've come to enjoy school if nothing else it gives me something to do everyday, and now that I'm making more of an effort to participate, and I have people I talk to, it's gotten a whole ton better. Yet at the same time, I don't mind vacation one little bit and so I'm looking forward to the two weeks of holiday.

I had to ask my parents last night when I chatted with them online, which day was christmas on. I just don't pay attention to it here. Seeing as it's on Tuesday, I wish you all a merry christmas and happy new year and all of that sort of thing. I hope it's a good one.

well, I think that's about all I've got for now, just another small piece of what my life is like here.

You know what's interesting? Even three and a half months in, I still occasionally wake up, or lay in bed and think "oh my goodness, I'm in Russia. That's kind of cool." And at the same time, it's also kind of a freaky feeling. Russia has been my goal for a couple of years, and to actually be here, living my dream, well that's just a cool feeling.

Speaking of Everyday Speech...

So Yesterday, I mentioned that whole thing about wanting to know how the ordinary people speak, and that sort of thing. Well, I had an adventure in that today, and learned something quite interesting.

Last night Raisa and I were watching our nightly soap opera "Tatiyanin den' " Most Russians roll there eyes when you mention the name of this program, and yes, it's a soap opera and that includes all the obnoxiousness that goes with it, but in some ways it's very good at displaying Russian life, and I kind of got used to watching it, and once you get started, you kind of get involved. My life does not revolve around the serial though and if I miss a night or two I don't cry and have a spaz.

Anyway, so we were watching our program and Raisa, referring to one of the character's suddenly goes
"He's a rag!" And I do a little double take.
"What?"
And Raisa replies.
"Do you know what "rag" means?"
"Uh..." I thought I meant "rag" but apparently it had a different meaning "No."
"So look it up."
I start paging through the little dictionary that we keep in the kitchen for just such emergency's then suddenly I go.
"Wait isn't it like..." And I point to my napking and make a swiping motion.
"Yes, but it can be used for people to."
I found this to be very interesting. Raisa then proceeded to explain to me that since the character on the show, Serge, had a thing for like three different women, he was therefore what in English we'd refer to as a jerk, or a player, or a variety of other names, and in Russian Apparently one of the words they use to denote such a man is "rag."

If you think that's all, it gets better.

Today I was talking about some good and bad points of guys, with Nina. Suddenly, I saw an opening to try out this not particularaly knew vocabulary word, but the word in a new context so I casually go "Yeah, You don't want a guy who's a rag" and Nina looks at me for a second and busts up laughing.

I wasn't insulted as I occasionally get this type of reaction when I try out words in a new context that I've learned (Such as the word 'cotton' which is a slang term for 'boring' it's always entertaining when I try that out on new people) so I go "Can I say that?" And she's like "Yes! That's awesome!" and so that made me feel really good about myself. and I had to explain where I learned the way to use the word, and it was quite cool. Nina told me that it's a word that ordinary people use and I was like "good, because that's what I want to learn."

And apparently, I'm working on it!

Russia Update #4

I know this is late. I'm not going to apologize for it because first, Sometimes I tend to loose track of the time, and second, I've been putting it off on purpose. Although why those aren't reasons to apologize, I don't know.

I've been trying to think how best to sum up my third (and now over half of my fourth) month here. My last e-mail, as you all know, was full of inner wonderings as I was trying to figure out how to fit in here, and that sort of thing. It's not that these last few weeks havn't been full of inner wonderings, it's just, they've become harder to express.

The good news is that for the most part I'm doing really well here. Yeah, I have my occasional melt-downs and freak-outs and irritations, but they're becoming less common now. Sure, I sometimes get tired of wearing underarmour everytime I want to go out, not having the all american "convenience foods" and so forth, but I have all the basics here that I need to survive, and that's good. The rest are just nice. Besides, I've discovered that a lot of the stuff I think I "need" can be found here, but maybe in a different form than in America, or possibly I have to look a little harder for it. The only thing that I haven't been able to find here that would be really nice, is more solution for my contacts (I wear hard,) but that's an entirely different story, and not really for this e-mail.

I've made a friend at school. Which is about the best thing ever because school goes so much faster when you have someone to talk too. Even though I don't get grades, and don't always turn the work in, I still make an effort to do it, because it's one thing that helps keep me sane sometimes, just having something to do.

I've been here three and a half months, and it still takes me a long long time to do my homework. Wow, three and a half months, when I say it like that, it doesn't really seem to be that long, but in someways, like stuff I've learned, it seems like forever. I got off that plane a long time ago.

While homework still takes a while, the good news is that my language is coming along great. I'm getting better at being able to say exactly what I want. I don't have to pantomime nearly as much, and my listening vocabulary is pretty big. I follow other people's conversations, I have some slight difficulty, but am working on people who monologue. i.e. newscasters and such. The thing I have the most difficulty with is when people talk directly too me, but even that's getting better.

As I was walking home from school today, a lady was like "You're the foreigner eh?" and I said "yeah" and we stopped and had a little conversation. In Russian. I mean, how cool is that? And how many people can say they can do that.

The weather here isn't too bad. It's been colder these last couple of days, and in fact, it's supposed to be in the 40s (That's negative) all week. So far the cold hasn't hit me too hard because once you get used to it, it's not so bad. You just bundle up well.

For those of you who read my blog, you heard about my slight visa problem. Apparently it's a pretty common thing, as one of the other rotary exchangers in Russia right now was also having problems with hers. For not very long, maybe an hour, I thought I might have to go home, and you know what? That thought terrified me, made me angry. In that moment, it hit me how much I'd come to love it here. I guess you don't notice how used to things you get until they might be taken away from you.

I keep a paper journal as well as my blog, and I write in it every night. One of the questions I've been exploring lately is "what will it be like to go back?" It seems to me that exchangers are from two schools when it comes time to go home. They either don't want to leave the country and would stay forever if Rotary and their visas allowed, or they're sick of the country and ready to go home. I'm not sure that I'm going to be either one. The thought of going home now, makes me want to dig my heels in and stay because, well, I'm not finished learning yet. I think when the time comes, I'll be sad, but ready to go. Because then, it will be time.

Perhaps it seems odd to be thinking about this when I'm only half-way though my fourth month, but suddenly july doesn't seem so far away anymore. Back in september I was sitting here thinking "Oh my word! July is such a long time away!" Yet, at the same time, in the back of my head, I knew it really wasn't. I have a feeling that it's going to go quickly.

Sometimes it feels like I'm living in a dream here. I'm afraid that I'll wake up and will be in a college dorm, or back home, and have never come to Russia. What scares me the most is the idea that after I get back, me being here might be the part that feels like a dream, and I don't want to forget about these people or this place.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about growing up too. Because I realized that when I get back home, I'll be starting college and suddenly have all these responsiblities. Adult responsibilities that I'm not sure I'm ready for because a part of me likes being a teenager. But then I suppose you can't stop time, and everyday is a new adventure, da?

OOh, so I just realized I found my philosophy vein again. I'm sorry that it always seems to happen when I'm writing these e-mails, but it's like all the inner stuff that I write and think about over the month, just bleed out onto the screen infront of me. Odd.

Well, in other news (Not to kill the mood) New Year's is coming up very very quickly. We have school monday through friday next week and then we get a two week holiday to celebrate. Christmas here is on the 7th of January as it's still celebrated on the day of the old calender. Raisa's oldest daughter is flying in on the 28th, and from what Raisa's said, the whole family's coming over on the night of the 31st to celebrate. I'm planning on giving everyone a little something and when I mentioned it to Raisa she said that I didn't have to do a bunch of big presents, and I said, it's not, just a few small things. Because a few small things is all I've got.

I've decided to begin my souvenier shopping for various people after New Year's. It'll give me something to do in the dead time between New Year's and Spring. Ooh, I'm not looking forward to that. we have a span between New Year's and Spring break where as far as I know there are no holidays. It's going to be a long haul. Yet the good news is that when Spring break rolls around I'll be heading to the orientation in Vladivostok and then to Moscow and St. Petersburg. After that, we have district conference the first week of June, Ysakh, the Yakutian new year at the end of June and then two weeks later I hit home, so I think that part's going to go fast. It's just keeping busy during the winter stretch that's going to be hard. Perhaps it would be a good time to visit some other sites such as the permafrost institute.

Oh, I forgot. The reason that I started the above paragraph before getting distracted is if there's anything relatively small (I only have two suitcases remember) that people want from here, please send me an e-mail and let me know. I'll see if I can work something out for you.

Okay, I guess that's all from here. My next update probalby won't be until the middle of january, after the holidaying has ceased (Unless of course, I get lazy or have trouble figuring out what to write.) Until then, I hope and pray that you are all doing well.

Anekdoti

Since I don't know what to write about, I thought I'd think back over the last couple of weeks and just share some little stories with you, as I probably don't do that enough. I hope you enjoy them.

I'm one of those people who's like "I want to learn the way that real people speak," so naturally, I'm always interested in the slang and what the kids here say as much as they are interested in what the american kids say. So I make every effort to learn and to teach.

One day I was at a cafe with my friend Nina. we weren't really talking about anything, just random stuff and I was like 'ooh, let me tell you about this game my friends and I play. For those of you who've seen "whose line is it anyway," you will recognize this game. It's called "If you know what i mean" Basically the way we play the game, is after we say something, we add the phrase "if you know what i mean" after what we've said and it makes the sentence sound kind of bad, it can get pretty funny.

So I was telling Nina about this game and I was like "The phrase doesn't translate really well into Russian, but..." And so I explained how it worked and everything. And Nina thought it was pretty cool. In fact, she's started using it. Since the phrase doesn't translate well into Russian, she does it in English, but we speak russian, so we'll be talking and she'll say something in Russian and then in english go "If you know what I mean." The other day, she pulled a really good one and I laughed for a long time.

we were talking about how we sometimes just sit at home alone, and don't do anything. And Nina goes in Russian "I like it when I'm home alone because then I call up a friend and say 'hey, come on over to my place and have some tea' If you know what I mean." And I just laughed. It's not nearly as funny in translation because part of what made it awesome was the fact that we were speaking in russian and then she bursts out with "If you know what I mean" in English.

While I'm on the subject of colloquial speech, I was at a cafe once with some classmates. One got a couple of beers in him and started opening right up. ha ha. Anyway, he asked me whether in English we "read" rap or "sing" rap. It didn't take me long to think about it before answering "Neither, Rap is a verb. I rap, you rap and so on and so forth." He thought that was pretty cool and then I was like "And what is it in Russian." I was then told that in Russian they don't have the verb "to rap" so Russians "читать рап" or "read rap." So I found that to be very interesting.

Finally, My computer class teacher just came up to me and told me that you have to watch in the cold that your cell phone doesn't freeze and that even your cell phone should have a little шуба or fur coat. Ha ha ha. Sometimes the conversations I have with people here crack me up.

well, other than that I'm doing well. I had a slight slump the last couple of days where i was just generally irritated with just about everything, but I'm dealing with it so that's good. The other day I also realized that I'm halfway through my fourth month here and I was like "wow, already?"

This is our last full week of school before the holidays so that's awesome. Raisa's older daughter flies in on the 28th which I'm pretty excited about. I can't wait to meet her. Yay! Heard back home they're having a snowstorm. sounds to me like the weather there's been worse than it has here.

Scientific Experiment #1: Online Translation

I love it when the kids here use online translators to translate something for an english class. Why? Because the grammer constructions are absolutely hilarous. I can always tell when someone's used an internet translator, just like I can tell when someone's taken something straight from the internet. So to enlighten you about the amusment that comes from online translators, I've decided to conduct a scientific experiement. For this experiement, I will be using the first two sentences from the book The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.

Here are the first two sentences in English:
Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy. This story is about something that happened to them when they were sent away from London during the war because of air-raids.

And now, the first two sentences from the Russian version:
Жили-были на свете четверо ребят, их звали Питер, Сьюзан, Эдмунд и Люси. В этой книжке расскаэывается о том, что приключилось с ними во время войны, когда их вывезли из Лондона, чтобы они не пострадали из-за воздушных налетов.

And now, let the scientific experimenting begin. I have no idea what tranlation tool the kids here use for their english projects, but I have chosen to use FreeTranslation.com. Having that said, here's goes nothing.

Part 1: English to Russian to English
For the first part I have taken the english text above, changed it into Russian, and then back to english. The original is above. The translated Russian version is as follows:
Однажды было четыре ребенка, названиями которых был Питер, Сьюзен, Эдмунд, и Люси. Эта история - кое о чем, что случилось с ними, когда они были отосланы из Лондона в течение войны из-за воздушных налетов.

As you can see, even those of you who don't know Russian, the above translation doesn't match the translation of the official Russian version of the book. Actually the above translation is much more of a literal translation. And now, back to english:
Once there were four children which names were Peter, Susan, Эдмунд, and Lucy. This history - which about what, that happens with them when they have been sent from London during war because of air strikes.

Doesn't really match the original, though not bad. I was surprised at how well it did considering. If you'll follow me, we'll move on to part two.

Part Two: Russian to English to Russian
We will now do what we did above in part one with the Russian text.
Lived-were on light of four children, them called Peter, Susan, Эдмунд and Lucy. In this book расскаэывается that has happened to them during war when them have taken out from London that they have not suffered because of air strikes.

Even for those of you who can't read russian, I'm sure that you can still see that the translator doesn't do nearly as good of a job going from Russian to English. It has some trouble with grammar. And now, back to Russian:
Живший - были на свету четырех детей, их назвал Питера, Сьюзен?????? и Люси. В этой книге?????????????? это случилось с ними в течение войны, когда их взяли из Лондона, который они не перенесли из-за воздушных ударов.

Ha ha ha! I have no idea, this is just what the translator spit out for me.

Conclusion
Well, the conclusion I came to from doing this experiment basically confirmed my hypothesis which is that Online translators aren't really the best option out there. It's always better and preferable to do it yourself, and don't think the native speakers won't know. Some ways I could improve this experiment are by testing more than one online translater.

Keep Your Eye on the Bear

See this guy? I bet you fifty roubles that when the march elections roll around he's going to be the next President of Russia. Why do I think this? Possibly because he's the canidate running for Единая Россия.(announced yesterday.) For those of you who don't know, that's President Putin's political party. My host mom doesn't like this guy. (his name by the way is Dmitri Medvedev) She say's he's really young, hasn't really done anything. I was like "How ironic, we have a canidate like that too. Barak Obama." We had a conversation about it at dinner. Want to know what the Russians know about current american politics? They know that Hillary is going to try to run.

Anyway, the point of this post is just to tell you to keep an eye on this guy. Knowing what I know about Russian politics there's all likelyhood that you'll be hearing his name a lot more in March. If you'd like to read more about him, you could always check out good old Wiki Though there's not a whole whole ton of info in the english version.

День Самоуправления

Today was a sort of holiday type thing at school. День самоуправления. This is another one of those cool Russian "Let's take two words and combine them to make one" things. The second word comes from the words for "Self" and "Administration" (Goodness, I feel like the father from My Big Fat Greek Wedding) Anyway, in English we'd probably just call it "Be a Teacher day" or something because that's what we were doing. When I found out about it, I really wanted to participate because I realized even though I don't really know enough Russian to teach a class, I know enough English to teach an english class. So I talked to some people and they got me all set up, and today I taught two classes. Both 9th grade.

My day started out with a mad sprint to the school because I was running late. Everytime we have a late start, the time throws me and I tend to run late. Today was not a good day to be late. Fortunately, I wasn't too horribly late, and it all worked out and no one was angry or anything.

The ninth graders have been talking in their english classes about shopping and famous stores in Britain. So my job was to talk about Shopping in America. I focused on several stores. Abercrombie and Fitch, Macy's, Wal-Mart, The Mall of America, and a Giant Eagle Grocery store. I taught in a very not Russian style because I don't know how to teach Russian style. Though I did incorperate some russian things i.e. "Write this down." But I tried to get the kids to interact with me. It was very interesting.

I told the first group I had one rule (The second group I added another) But I basically have one rule and that is when I ask a question, answer it because then I know you're not sleeping and at least pretending to pay attention. My other rule is usually Don't talk while I'm talking.

Anyway, since I didn't really know what they were talking about I asked "What have you been talking about?" It took some tooth pulling but I finally got the groups to answer. The first group told me "shopping" and when I asked if in England and what stores they gave me some answers. When I asked the second group they finally answered shopping and I go "In Britain? Or what?" And this girl goes "It's on page two hundred and..." And I'm like "I don't have a book. That's why I asked." And she goes "oh." I found it rather amusing. The second group was also the one where when I asked if there were any questions after the presentation this girl goes "What are famous stores in america?" And I'm standing there thinking "Devushka, where have you been for the last twenty minutes?"

I was worried that my presentation would be too short as it was only five or six slides long, but after the introductions and speaking slowly, it was just right for the forty minute period. At the end of my presentation, I made up a slide with some little quiz questions on it, to see who was paying attention. I gave out some Ohio state quarters as prizes which the kids thought were really cool. Though I didn't bring enough. The lesson was just long enough in the sense that we didn't get through all the questions on my last slide before the bell rang. Excellent.

After my two teaching periods, I went to my classes. We only had a total of four lessons today. The last two were Physics and Astronomy. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but we were taking tests in both (Somehow I missed the memo) and as I'm always a bit fried after I do a presentation I really really didn't feel like taking the physics test. The kid who was teaching got after me, and so I pretended to work, and then stopped, and then the real teacher got after me, so I pretened to work some more. I ended up translating one question on the Physics test. When I finally understood what it said it was something like "What is the historical significance of " and then some guy's name. I had no idea who the guy was or was even aware that we'd studied them (Just because I take notes in class doesn't mean I always understand them) so I wrote something like "I have no idea who this guy is, but I imagine that his historical significance is that he did or discovered something important to physics." Then the bell rang and they took the test sheet away and so I didn't get to any other questions.

On the Astronomy test I answered two questions. One was "Why can't you find the position of planets on a star chart." Once again I had no idea so I was like "You can't find the position of planets on a star chart because planets move and also because it's a star chart, not a planet chart" heh heh heh, sometimes I love being an exchange student.

After school, Nina and I had made plans to go to the National Museum. First though we decided to hit a cafe, Margarita's. There we dined on pizza, Chai, and Tiramasu and talked. Finally, Nina was like "are we going to go to the museum?" oh. yeah. Right. So off we went. Except today is tuesday. Apparently Tuesdays are выходные days at the Museum. i.e. It's closed. So we walked across ploshad Lenina and admired the New Year's tree because it now has lights (For those of you who've looked at my flickr recently, you can see the tree, I'll be taking more pictures of the tree with the lights in the next couple of days.) then we waited for my bus at the bus stop until Nina's mom randomly showed up and offered to give me a ride home. So they dropped me off, and that was my day. Despite the rough start, I think it was a good one. I'm really enjoying myself right now! Life is awesome!

School

Yesterday's blog didn't turn out how I originally thought. Funny how that works. How my fingers just kind of follow my brain. Anyway, once again it's monday and I'm sitting in computer class not doing what we're supposed to be doing and have no idea what we're supposed to be doing because I wasn't listening. Then I decided to update because I've been meaning to do a detailed entry about what school's like so why not do it now?

Please excuse lack of capitals and occasional spaces because as always, the computer I use here has a horrible keyboard. Also please excuse that this is in no particular order, as I'm just typing as I think.

School here is different than it is back home. I mean there are some things that are the same such as some of the classes, but it's a lot different too.

For starters, how many school districts do you think are in Yakutsk? The correct answer is zero. There isn't one or two school districts were all the kids in the city go. Instead, there are a ton of smallers schools all over, and you go to one. THe highest school number I've heard of is 33 though I'm not sure that there's every single number in between.

I go to school number 8 as most of you probably already know from me mentioning. School number 8 is a gimnasium. (Prounounced with a 'g' like in the word "gum") from what I hear, a gimnasium is a school for smart people, not the smartest people because there's a separate school for them, but still fairly smart people.

I do not go to a high school. There is no such thing as "high school" here. My school holds the littlest grades, up to the last grade. There are some differences in the way grades work too.

First grade is about the same age as first graders in america. The last grade is 11. There is no twelfth grade and from what I understand there's no fourth grade either. students graduate when they are 16/17.

I change classes, but I have the same people in every class. There are three "tracks" you can choose here. One is a Math/Science track and most of your classes are like algebra, chemistry, bio, etc. The second track is a literature track where you take more Russian/literature/language classes, and the third track is the Law track and most of your classes are like History/social studies. I am in the Literature track. This means that I sit in Literature class five days a week. That's every day but tuesday.

SPeaking of which, for those of you who don't know, I go to school six days a week. monday through saturday. I am required to wear "formal" clothing to school. This means that I wear black pants, a white blouse and a black sweater though occasionally i wear my rotary jacket when my sweater is in the wash. Saturday is cool because we don't have to wear said "formals" and can wear what we want. At first I didn't like the "uniform" thing but I've gotten used to it and it's kind of nice to already know what you're going to wear for the day. plus, it makes washing clothes easier.

At first, I had to look at a schedule to figure out what classes i had each day because they changed. After a while though, the schedule became fixed and now i basically have the same classes on the same days every week.

school starts at 815 in the morning and goes until 1:10 or 2:00. It depends on the day. On Mondays, and Fridays, I have seven lessons blocks and so I get done about 2. Tuesdays and Thursdays i have 6 and I get done about 1:10. Wednesdays I go to the rotary meeting so I get out at 12:20. Saturdays I have five lessons and the time schedule is different so i get done at 12:15.

Having 7 lesson blocks doesn't mean i have seven classes. hence the reason i call it a block. an example is today. today is monday so i have 7 blocks. two blocks are computer class, two blocks are literature, one block is Algebra and the last two blocks are history. and that's how that works.

There is like no truant policy as far as I understand, and no policy that says you can only miss so many days of school. there's one girl in class who's missed like 3 weeks of school. A while back she was sick for a week. then two weeks ago she wasn't at school, she came one day and then was gone last week too. i have no idea if she's back now or not.

we occasionally have holidays at school. Russians are really big on celebrating random things. hence, the night back in october celebrating day of teacher, and tomorrow which is like 'be a teacher for a day' day.

The highest grade is a five. the lowest is a one. The class has a grade book that someone is responsible for making sure it gets to the teachers. often grades are read outloud.

Everyone in class takes turn 'being on duty' this varies from watching the halls, to erasing chalkboards, to who knows what else.

NOw I must go because i actually have an assignment I"m supposed to be doing, so I'll have to continue this later.

Lackadazical

Actually, it's not that I'm lackadazical, it's just that the past few days I honestly haven't felt like getting on the computer. So I haven't. So maybe that makes me lackadazical. I don't know. It's not that I don't care about what's going on at home, it's just that lately I've been feeling rather what I call "abstract" about stuff. Like Home. i.e. The people and the building back home in the states is there, but in an "abstract" way.

Ooh, just a random thought, but you know that guy with the cat in the box? Schrodinger? Maybe? And it's like while the box is closed up the cat doesn't exist because it can't be seen? My question is since I can't see the people back home does it mean that they don't exist? But they e-mail me so what does that prove? And what's more since they can't see me does that mean that I don't exisit either? Then why am I sitting here in Russia typing this?

Okay, enough philosophy, back to the entry. Maybe the best way to describe these feelings is sort of a lack of emotion. Apathy? no, that's "I don't Care" there's a word for it, but I forget what it is. I've been noticing that about other stuff too. It's like I'm not happy, and not sad, I just am.

Another example is the holidays. They're coming up. In America I guess that there's like two weeks until christmas. I'm not excited about Christmas because it's not a major holiday here. New Year's is. Yet, I'm not really excited about New Year's either. It's just like, I am.

The good news is that I've discovered that I really do enjoy my time here. Remember how I mentioned the deportation thing in my last blog entry? I mentioned it because we went to finish getting me registered in the city and the guy told us I had the wrong kind of visa, that mine was only good for three months and I was going to have to leave in two days. When he said that, I was ready to dig my feet in and start fighting. Because doggone it, my departure date is July 11th and I'm not leaving a moment before. The Rotary club here has been amazing with helping me get that straightened out, and so it turns out there's nothing to worry about.

SO yeah, I'm more content here, My language is going well. I even had a dream worth remembering in Russian. That was pretty exciting! I'd been talking with Raisa about speaking up during class and then that night I had a dream. In it we were having history in our english room (Which we sometimes do) only my english teacher was teaching it. And my deskmate asked me if there were questions I had about what we were going over, so I raised my hands and asked questions. The funniest thing was that in my dream, my russian was as broken and ungrammatically correct as it was in real life. Heh heh heh.

What else can I report? Well, I'm pretty sure I'm going on the trip to China. I found out that it's technically not a rotary trip, but the woman who's running it is the rotary youth exchange coordinator for our district. The only thing is that I have to ask her a question about Muti-entry visas.

My question of the day is why in English can't we combine words to make new ones? it's really frustrating. Like in Russian the word госплан which we were talking about in history class. I'd never heard/seen that word before but knew immediately that it was state-plan. See? there's like no good translation for it. It's a combination of the word for "state" and the word for "plan" or I was reading the newspaper the other day, and in a political cartoon the guy said something about "многопартиность" (I don't remember the exact word) once again, I'd never seen the word before but I took the parts and came to the conclusion that it was "Many parties" or something like that. Again, it doesn't translate well.

Speaking of the newspaper, I know that news on TV here and the TV channels in general are basically state run, but I'm not sure about the newspapers. When I was reading the paper yesterday there were several articles that seemed to be criticizing Putin. The political cartoon had a man asking a shadowy figure "What happend to 'multi-parties' " and the shadowy figure replying that "it drowned" (Or maybe didn't succeed as the verb means both) and the title of another article was "Not 'state' duma" (It's hard to convey the tone in english) so I think that maybe there's still some freedom of the press here.

I read a newspaper article once about how putin said that in the news, the United States should be portrayed as an enemy. So since I've been here, I've been trying to see if that's the truth. Honestly, I have no idea. I will say that most of the times they report on the United states, it's in a not very good light, but then doesn't the news always report on the bad things? They did have a news story on the Christmas tree that was going to be put up in Rockefeller center so isn't that a positive thing?

I don't know it seems to me like I'm trying to find truth when there is none. I mean if you think about in America don't we do what Russia's doing in our own way? I mean everytime we learn about Russia in history class, it's always in a negative light. That doesn't mean I'm excusing Stalin, but how many schoolkids in America think that all russians are communists? And most of the news articles you read about Russia in the newspaper are negative too.

It doesn't mean that I'm all in love with the Motherland. It doesn't mean that I'm un-american. I don't think the Russians are right about everything either. I'm just an observer of this world, wondering how do you define truth, when it seems like there is more than definition?

To All Potential Outbounds, exchange students

Dear Potential Outbounds,
I am writing this letter to any of you who may happen to stumble upon, or regularly read this blog, because I know that the time is coming soon (if it hasn't already) for you to pick your top countries. The country where you will spend ten months of your life.

As you may or may not know, I have chosen to spend ten and a half months in the country of Russia. At the risk of sounding negative and rude, I do not encourage all exchange students to apply for Russia. Yet I have a good reason for this.

Being a future exchange student, you probably realize that exchange students are a rare breed of people. They are ready for anything and they like a challenge. They want to meet new people, learn new things, and learn more about themselves and the world around them.

Yet I do not encourage all exchange students to apply for Russia because spending a year in Russia is not for the faint of heart. It is for the rarest of the rare. i.e. it is for the exchange student who wants to go above and beyond the above and beyond. An exchange to Russia is not your grandma's exchange. If you're looking for a year of parties and good times, then you should pick Brazil or Spain, if you're looking for a quick language learn, then you want Chile or Belgium. If you want to meet a lot of other exchange students then go for Germany or Taiwan.

For those of you considering Russia, this letter is not meant to scare you off, I just want to let you know what you're getting yourself into. Russia has a unique set of exchange challenges not to be found in any other country. This includes Good, old Russian Bureaucracy (Read: occasionally not being allowed into libraries, having the threat of deportation over your head, filling out eight copies of official papers by hand, that sort of thing) A difficult language (read: six cases, and about a thousand verbs of going), and icy cold winters (Layers are not an option. Neither are thick coats and fur hats) just to name a few.

For those of you, who are still considering Russia, good for you, you've probably got what it takes. It's a hard country, that's no lie, but Like many extra difficult things, When you come out of it, the learning and growing you have done will be worth it.

I hope this letter has given you a bit of insight before making your choice. Whichever country you decide to choose, I wish you luck in your year abroad.

Sincerely,
Abigail
Yakutsk, Russia
December 2007

No Hanging Chads: Experiencing the Russian Vote

Today was December second. Do you know what december second is? If you said the second day of my fourth month here, then good job, but that's not the answer I was looking for. The correct answer is today was voting day. How do I know this? Mostly because for the last few weeks the TV has been advertising two things. 1. The new season of TV shows starting, and 2. that December second is voting day 2007.

I had said something to Raisa about a week ago about going with her to vote. I didn't get to go with her, but her sister, Lena, was working the polls today and so basically, Raisa made a phone call and I went and sat and watched people for a couple of hours. I know, you're probably thinking a couple of hours, are you nuts? But as an exchanger, and a not very social one sometimes, a couple of hours was no biggie. Besides, it's not like I had anywhere else to be and a couple of hours gave me the chance to really see how things worked. So that I can know make a detailed report to all of you.

Voting over here is one thing I was particularly interested in. Probably because I have this thing about voting. It's like a really big deal to me. Probably because I've been going to the polls with my parents and watched them vote since I was like five and every time, they'd tell me (Especially dad) how voting is an important right granted to us under the U.S. constituion and it's important that we exercise that right. I will never forget when I got to vote in my first election. That was exciting stuff!

Anyway, enough reminicing, let me tell you how it works here. (Mom, I even made notes while I was watching so I wouldn't forget anything)

I went and sat at school number 33 which is the school located in my neighborhood, 202 mikrorayon. (That's dvesti ftoroi, not two hundred and two :) ) The first thing I notcied is that you vote based on your korpus. For those of you who don't know, the korpus is the apartment building you live in. So rather than having a big spread out area that's like "district one" they have signs up that say "Korpus 17" and such.

When you first arrive, you find where your korpus is located and you stand in line. When it's your turn you show your passport (A passport here not only allows Russians to move from country to country, but also serves as their main form of ID within the city/country) The workers look at your passport and then write your name down on a list. They do not have a book with the names already written down in Alphabetical order like we do in the states, they just write your name down as you come in. After they write your name down, you sign by it, just like in America. They then give you your ballot and you're ready to go.

They do not vote electronically here. I think in some places they are just starting too as there was something about electronic voting machines on the news tonight, but here they use a paper ballot. And when I say paper ballot, I mean paper. This is not like our old ballot system with the punch cards. Basically you go into a curtained little voting both, take a little pen and check off the issuses. There is one box for each issue. I imagine that if you check the box you vote yes, and to leave it blank means no.

When you have finished your vote, you leave the booth, fold your paper up and drop it into a slot in a big huge box. After that I have no idea what happens to the ballots. In Russia, as in America, the voting age is 18. If you are a first time voter, when you've completed your vote, you go to a special table and say "I'm a first time voter." You then get a special little pin that says "First time voter" in Russian, and a little present in the form of a little address book, or calender. They tell you "Congratulations, the next vote is March 2nd"

One interesting thing is for each little voting section, there is a group of people sitting kind of off to the side. I asked Lena why, and she said that they are there to make sure that the vote is done right. Hmm...interesting.

I also found out that in Russia, the law says you have to vote. I'm not sure if I agree with making this a law. I vote in America because I have the right to choose to vote or not, and since I have the option of having a voice in my country, I chose to use my voice and I vote and I feel special because I feel like I've made a difference in my country. I don't know, making people vote just seems. Not backwards really, but it seems like making people vote defeats the purpose of being able to vote in the first place.

But then you don't have a small percent of the people making the majority of the decisions either. I guess I can see both sides to it, but prefer the fact that in America there is no law forcing me to vote.

Oh, incidentally, today's vote was for the State Duma, which is kind of like a parliament/congress thing. You can read more about it on Wiki. Also, the people elected a new Mayor of Yakutsk today.

Oh and for those of you who don't know a lot about Russia and still think they're all communists, yes, there is a communist party, but there are other parties too.

Actually, one interesting thing about communism that I've noticed. In America when we learn about the cold war era, and we talk about Communism, there are always these jokes and stuff about it. The Russian kids make the same kind of jokes that american kids do when they learn about the Cold war/Communist era. Just thought you'd all find that interesting.

So I think that about covers it. If there are any questions, let me know.