Adventures At the Waterfall and Buluus

I thought it would be fun to do this post mostly in pictures. Hope you all enjoy.




Crossing to the other side of the Lena River




The main Road out of Yakutsk. This is the one that goes to Nirungry. Looks fun doesn't it?

Our little group of adventurers minus Egor's nephew who's taking the picture.




The Hazards of the road



Wait, Where is the road?




At the Waterfall at last!



The Wild Abigail creeps through the forest of Russia's Far East



Random Ponies in the Road. Actually, horses. Yakutian Horses




What happens when you blow a tire in the middle of nowhere? The menfolk change it!



We Finally arrived at Buluus where the snow never melts!



What is this?



That's right! It's SNOW!



I can now say I've made a snow angel in June!



The Wild Abigail in her natural Habitat. Captured here while drinking from the stream.



The view from the top.

And that was our adventure!

Quickness

I don't have long. Feel like I haven't updated in forever. I'll try to do a couple of longer more detailed updates when I can. Basically the upshot is after district conference, I got sick in a major way. Not fun. Especially since Emmaline, my lovely Canadian exchange friend was going to be showing up here. So I did my best to get better and was mostly so by the time she came.

We had many adventures. Some of which I will follow up in a later post in more detail. Some of which you may never hear. The upshot though is that I've now seen Ice in June, Drunk water straight from a creek, seen the main road out of Yaktusk, Been underground surrounded by permafrost, Seen most of a play in Yakutian and talked about various boys in English without them understanding a word. Yeah. Life it good.

Oh and we had Graduation. I'll tell you about that too in more detail when I get a chance, but honestly, it wasn't nearly that big of a deal. Last Bell was much more interesting and exciting Culture-wise. This past week went really fast thanks to our visitor. It was nice. Now, I've got twenty days left until I get home. It's weird to think that three saturdays from now I'm going to be sitting down to a home-cooked meal with my entire family. Surreal. I want it to feel like I'm going home soon but it doesn't. I have my tickets, I'm going to be packing. Why doesn't it feel real? But then, I had the same problem coming the other way too. It didn't hit me that I'd be spending ten months in Russia until I actually got here.

Anyway, that's all for now as my internet time is limited. Look for more updates in the next few days.

One Month

I am leaving this city in One month. One month. That's four weeks, or thirty days. That's not long.

For those of you who don't know, I spent friday through monday in Khabarovsk for the district conference. In some ways it was so much fun! It was great to see my exchange buddies again and I got to meet some Rotarians that I'd heard about, but had never met.

But Khabarovsk wasn't as amazing as the trip in March. I mean, the city was beautiful and all (What I saw of it anyway,) and it gave me more funny stories, but it was different than the other trip. For one we weren't all there. For another it almost felt like the carefree days of our previous trip were over. We're leaving. Becoming rebounds. Some of us have already left, some of us are getting ready to leave, and others are stretching out the time as long as possible.

It was like there was this unspoken thing hanging above us the entire weekend. There were a lot of tears. It was the last time some of us were going to see each other. It was tough. Especially when we had a meeting as students with some guys for the district, it was great because we talked about where we'd been and exchange and where we were going, and then we started talking about going home, and I just started crying. Because I'm scared. It's so hard to explain why. I never thought going back to friends and family, the place I came from would be scary. But I'm terrified. I can't really say what I'm scared of, but I'm terrified that everything's changed and nothing has. I'm terrified that no one will understand, no one will listen. Part of me just wants to go home and hide. Yet at the same time, I want to find places to speak and people to talk to, ways I can share my experience and let people know what life here is really like.

I had another revelation while we were there. For the first time in my life I felt an age gap between myself and other exchange students. I think I'm ready to move on, but at the same time the fact that exchange is ending means that I have to go home, have to be an adult. Have to be responsible for things and deal with things such as college. In short, I'm terrified.

Anniversary

June first was my nine month anniversary. As time has been going on, I've found that the days that are my month markers have become less significant. But I remembered June first because it's my second to last month marker. Why am I writing a blog about it? Because it's frustrating in some ways. I feel like it's only been in the last month or so that I've actually gotten comfortable with my life here, and the language. I mean It's great because I'm not afraid of the language or the culture anymore, But in 38 days I'm going to be getting off a plane in Cleveland, greet my family and probably feel like a foreigner among my own country-men. Why? Well because let's be perfectly honest. I've spent the last nine months and two days trying my best to not be American. I've tried to adapt to this culture, and this life and this language, and I've finally done it. Now I'm going to be going home.

38 days. When you say it like that, it's not very long. One thing I've learned is how fast time goes. I mean really. In some ways this has felt like the longest year of my life and in others, it hasn't. I don't know. I think for the most part, I'm excited to be going home. I'm ready to see the Family. In other ways, I'm scared because even though I don't know exactly how, I know I've changed. I was reading my first journal the other day. The one that covers september to December and I laughed because I'm not that person anymore. I look back and just think "Wow, I was so Naive. I didn't know anything." And in some ways, I still don't know anything. But in some ways, I know so much more than I ever thought possible. I can't describe the feelings I've been having the past few weeks. Sometimes I just feel disconnected from this place already. Sometimes it feels like I'm living in a dream and one day I'm going to wake up and be back home. And In a sense, I guess that I am.

Esperanto Part 2

Okay, I'm sorry guys, I just have to adress this and then I'm done with this subject.

My post was intended to show that English is a current international language. As Far as I know they don't have to sing in english because many eurovison groups were not. And for the record, I'm not trying to "Force people to Learn my language" I find the fact that they learn and use English interesting. I am very much about people learning other people's languages to better communicate. I mean part of the reason I came to Russia in the first place was to learn Russian better and communicate better with people.

Okay, Having said that, I'm done now.

My First Yskah

On saturday, I got invited to go to a tiny Ysakh with Raisa and some friends and family. For those of you who don't know, Ysakh is the Yakutian New Year. It's a chance to celebrate the coming of warm weather, to meet people and generally hang out. It usually takes place in June, around the solstice. How it works, is that they start small and one weekend you have village Ysakh, the next weekend you have them for the Ulusses or counties and then the weekend after the solstice, there's a city-wide Ysakh.

Anyway, so now that you have a basic idea of what Ysakh is, here's how my first experience with it went. By the way, I'll edit with pictures when the internet at the apartment decides to work again.

So we went to this field out in the middle of nowhere. There were these flags set up in a big s

(A/N For some reason, this post was never finished...))

More Polar Days

Both of these pictures were taken from my window at about 1:30am on the day I watched Eurovision which was...May 25. So actually it was the morning of May 26th but that's being Technical. Anyway, it was actually lighter than shown in the pictures. Sorry about the bad quality my camera takes bad pictures of slightly dark and indoor settings but I figured a bad picture was better than none right? It's actually lighter than this now since we're coming up to the Solstice soon. I love the Polar Days!

Addressing Esperanto

There's nothing wrong with English, but I would like to argue the case for Esperanto as the international language. It is a planned language which belongs to no one country or group of states. Take a look at www.esperanto.net

Esperanto works! I've used it in speech and writing in a dozen countries over recent years.
Indeed, the language has some remarkable practical benefits. Personally, I've made friends around the world through Esperanto that I would never have been able to communicate with otherwise. And then there's the Pasporta Servo, which provides free lodging and local information to Esperanto-speaking travellers in over 90 countries.

Maybe Eurovision would be more interesting if the participants sang in their own language - or even in Espertanto!

This comment was left on my post about Eurovision Normally, I do not adress comments really, I read them and move on leaving them where they are for others to read or not as they so chose, however I felt like addressing this comment. Why? Well...Let me just start by saying that There's nothing wrong with Esperanto, but I would like to argue the case for English.

Back home in America we were told that we should all learn Spanish because so many people speak spanish. I decided to take French. In French class we learned that a lot of countries speak French. I took French because I thought it would be more of a challenge and after I started taking it, I decided the usufulness of knowing it in a european setting outweighed the usefulness of knowing spanish in my opinion. What does this have to do with English? Well even though both Spanish and French teachers were quoting statistics to me about the usefulness of knowing either of those languages, I heard other rumblings about how English is becoming an international language. Now, it's not that I don't trust my country's news, but coming straight from home, things are going to be a bit prejudice. So I figured, yeah, English is becoming an international language and some people are learning to speak it. I never realized that English is already an international language. I just didn't realize it until I got here.

I can't tell you how it became an international language. Will have to watch the BBC's Story of English and then tell you. But I can definitely say for sure and not just because I'm a native speaker, that English is a world language. I have seen it countless times here. Not just because Eurovision was broadcast in it either. For example, remember when I had to go to Korea? Well something interesting that I didn't tell you was this. I had to arrange with a travel agent to get my tickets set up. She was helping me find a hotel. So this Russian speaking travel agent calls to the Korean Speaking Hotel and what does she say? "Hello, I am calling from Russia and would like to know how much one night at your hotel would cost." And no, I'm not translating that from Russian. She was speaking English. And the Korean people were answering In English! It's not just that that proves my point either. It's the fact that all airlines use English. It's the fact that international airports give announcements and post flight listings in both the native language and English. It's the fact that the kids here start learning English in preschool. My seven-year old host brother knows more words in English than my 19 year old friends back home know in Russian. I mean for pete's sake the kid can sing "The Alphabet Song" complete with British accent. (It's adorable actually because it's like this Psudo brussian accent but I digress.) It's the fact that the kids here don't swear in their native language because swearing in English is cooler. It's the fact that they listen to American singers, and writing on clothes and back packs is done in English. I mean if you step outside the U.S. and take a look around, it's an English world out there.

Oh and another thing, The English education doesn't stop with high school. The kids who go on to college take special English classes with vocabulary related to their fields. i.e. Doctors learn "English for Physicians" Future Economists learn "English for Economists" and yeah, most of them are probably never going to use what they learn but it's just the fact that they have to learn it in the first place.

The good news is that I've actually heard of Esperanto before this comment was left for me. If you ask, a lot of people probably don't even know what it is. Not that I'm trying to bash Esperanto, it's just personally, I don't know anyone who speaks it. Or reads it, or basically knows it. I guess that's what my point is, it might have been started as an international language, but it doesn't have nearly the range as English. It's not nearly as available. How many of you have heard a famous Esperanto rapper on the radio? Or seen t-shirts with things written in Esperanto across them? My point exactly.

So I guess that about wraps up, what I think may have turned into a rant (Forgive me if it did.) Sorry if I insulted any of you Esperanto speakers out there, but take a look around. Maybe you should try English.

Oh and for the record many countries in the Eurvision Final did sing in their Native Language. Such as the Armenian group, The Turkish guy and the Guy from Isreal. Not one person sang in Esperanto. Funny though, how quite a few groups chose to sing in English...

If you'd like to learn more about Esperanto, the history, word base and that sort of thing you can do so at Good Old Wiki

Straight From the Horse's Mouth

I opened up my host sister's english textbook to a random page and was very entertained. Here are some examples of dialogues:

-Hi, Dick! What a surprise! Your hair doesn't smell.
-I haven't been smoking since last year. I feel much better now

-Nick, You really look better now.
-I have been taking Coldrex for 2 days. I feel better.


-Hello, Mary! You look so slim!
-I have been eating only low-fat food for 5 months


Hope you enjoyed as much as I did.

Things I'm going to Miss About Yakutsk

1. Speaking Russian
2. Hearing Yakutian
3. Friendly People
4. Being American=Being a Celebrity
5. Priozhki
6. Salo
7. 6r ice cream
8. Blini
9. Plov
10. The food here in General
11. The big sky
12. The fact I can walk anywhere
13. the kiosks
14. Sweet Cheetos
15. Lack of responsibilities
16. free time
17. The people I've met
18. Yakutian culture
19. Russian Tv
20. nasha russia
21. my host siblings
22. nature
23. dachas
24. the juice
25. "having chai"
26. The fact that I can say "chai" and everyone knows what I'm saying
27. The fact that I can speak russian and people understand
28. bookstores
29. Reading in Russian
30. Cell Phone Kiosks
31. Babushkas
32. The cleaning ladies
33. The lack of drama
34. The fountain on Ploshad Lenina
35. Polshad Ordzhonikidze
36. Watching the kids play in the fountain
37. sitting on the ploshadi

That's all I've got for the moment more to follow as I think of them

okay that's all I got for the moment. Will

Eurovision 2008

Guess who won Eurovision 2008?

Wait? What do you mean "What's Eurovision?" Where have you been living? Under a rock?

Actually, don't worry about it because up until a few days ago, I too was in the dark. This is the conversation I had about it with my host sister.

Me: What are you Watching?
Natasha: Eurovideniya (The russian word for Eurovision)
Me:...
Natasha: Do you know what Eurovideniya is?
Me: Nope.
Natasha: How can you not know? It the biggest song competition in Europe!
Me(thinking): Well, that explains it. I'm not from a european country.

Natasha then went on to explain all about Eurovision which I will now enlighten you about. Eurovision is the biggest song competition on this side of the world. It involves over forty country and takes place every year. It's a competiton where artists from various countries compete for the title and the right to host Eurovision the next year. There are several levels of competition. The goal is the finals. The groups and artists who make it to the finals do a performance, after which voting is opened up to all the countries. For fifteen minutes people text message their votes from over forty countries. The top ten countries are awarded points. tenth through fourth get 1-7 points depending on where they ranked. 3rd place gets 8 points, 2nd gets ten and first gets 12. Naturally, the object is for your country to get the most points. Whoever has the most points, wins. Oh but there's a catch, you can't vote for your own country. It's like American Idol on Steroids

Okay, so having said that, back to my original question.

Guess who won Eurovision 2008?
take a wild guess?


Figured it out yet?


I'll give you a hint.
He has a funny haircut.

Need another?
He's a very popular singer

Still don't know?
He's Russian...

Oh that's right! Everyone's favorite artist, Dima Bilan, Swept away Eurovision 2008 with his song Belive. He scored 272 points leaving second place Ukraine in the dust. If you would like to see the song that won him the title and Russia the right to host next year's contest here it is. I have no idea of the quality of this video because I'm at the computer center and the flash player isn't working so I can't watch it, just imbed it. Oh and be sure to watch for the unneccesary ripping open of Dima's shirt. What is that anyway?



By the way, wondering about the random violin player and skater? Well, they aren't just background dancers. They're famous too. It was a big deal because they hauled in the little ice thingy for them.

Personally, I have mixed feelings about this victory. On the one hand I'm happy because this contest has been going on for fifty years and this is the first time Russia's won. They came pretty close two years ago. Dima Bilan got beat out by "Some guys in scary masks" as my host sister put it. So I'm glad for Russia.

However that fact that it's Dima Bilan is eh...

Personally I didn't like his song as well as the song from say, Armenia. Personally, if I'd been casting a vote, I would've done so for Latvia The group was called "Pirates of the Sea" and the song "Wolves of the Sea." I basically laughed my head off when they performed yet at the same time loved the addictiveness of the song, and I really want to cough up two euros and download it. Unfortunately, they were a little to "odd" for the rest of the countries' tastes and in the final they took 12th place out of 25 with 86 points.

The Greek team got a lot of votes with a Britney Spears wanna-be singing an obnoxious song about her "Secret Combination." The Greek team was giving good ol' Dima a run for his money for a while. Okay, so maybe him winning was preferable to the Greeks. Though his song is only slightly less obnoxious than hers was.

I basically enjoyed watching the Eurovision Final. I think it's an awesome thing that brings this side of the world together. Actually, I really want to save up some money and come to Moscow for it next year. How cool would that be.

Through watching this, I came to realize, once again how much English is an international language. Though the competition was being held in Serbia, The entire broadcast was done in English. There were some parts done in French, but it was basically all English which was cool.

If I can't make it to Moscow next year, I'm planning on at least finding a way to watch the finals. Because Eurovision is just so cool!

If you want to know more about Eurovison, you can check out their website at Eurovision.tv

If you have the time and inclination and would like to watch the entire broadcast of the Final, you can do so at This Link. It really is worth the watch. Eurovision also has its own Youtube Channel

50 Things I'm Looking Forward to Doing When I get Home

In no particular order

1. hug my parents
2. Hug the rest of my family
3. Taco bell
4. Swimming in my Cousin's pool
5. getting ready for college
6. Starbucks
7. Free Refills
8. Slushies
9. Those giant sized drinks for cheap at gas stations
10. McDonalds
11. Chinese take out
12. American Pizza
13. Ice in Glasses
14. sharing my silly exchange stories
15. sleeping in minimal clothing
16. Wal-mart
17. Taco Bell
18. Talking with fellow rebounders
19. Mexican food
20. Playing my dulcimer
21. Herding goats
22. Chilling for the summer
23. Seeing my redecorated room
24. Church
25. Seeing the new church building
26. Reconnecting
27. Teaching people cool russian words
28. Yelling at obnoxious drivers in Russian
29. Being able to drive again
30. pet the dog
31. decompress
32. General Fast food
33. the fact that there's stuff around.
34. going to the library and catching up on reading in English
35. sleeping in my bed, in my room
36. Being part of my family
37. Trips to the grocery store
38. All of our convenience food
39. People not making up their own driving rules
40. Steady water
41. Movies being in English
42. Catching up on my TV series
43. seeing if and how I've changed compared to home
44. Steak and Shake
45. Chili
46. The farm
47. Going to see my brother
48. Did I mention Taco Bell?
49. Going to anyplace with an all-you-can-eat buffet
50. Breakfast out with the family

What I Do

I had a dream last night that I had just gotten home, and I mean just. That was so real. It was like the changes that had happened at home, that people've been telling me about happened, but deep down everything was still the same. Unfortunately real life doesn't work that way. hee hee. Or does it? I suppose I'll find out when I get home.

Anyway, the most common question I get, now that I'm done with school is what do I do? I mean I thought I had free time before but now it's gotta be really bad right? Actually to tell you the truth, I'm enjoying myself more now, than ever before. I'm also actually less bored because I don't have to sit through school.

I usually get up about 9:30 or 10. I do my morning routine and then I usually study, check my e-mail or practice my Russian typing for a while. What do I study? Grammar of course! Sometimes I'll chat with my parents and friends online. Anytime from 12-2 I get ready and leave the house (It depends on how long I'm on the computer or studying or how fast I get antsy) After leaving the house I usually just stroll up and down Prospekt Lenin for a couple of hours. I kill time in bookstores (standing there reading entire books in English. I'm bad, I know) I often will grab myself something to eat and sit on the Square. I like Ploshad Lenina because there's a fountain there that's open now and so it's always interesting to watch the people there.

I feel like I have new adventures of some sort everyday. Whether it's going to a movie by myself for the first time in Russia, talking to a scary Tadjik guy who tried to get my cell phone number, or trying to open a jar of fruit. Life here is always interesting. I've not only had these experiences the past few days, but I've also been to another Yakutian dance performance, met Raisa's downstairs neighbor, (I didn't know I'd be meeting him until I got there. Gotta love Raisa trying to hook me up with the little Yakutian boys) seen a mammoth head and made plans with my friend Jen who's also an inbound and is coming to see me in June. Oh, and I found a Foreigner in the Polar Star Hotel. So life is actually moving along quite nicely. In fact, in some ways it's going really fast.

I'm really happy though even though I'm having mixed feelings about the end of the exchange. I have friends here. I have a life here. I love the fact that my Russian is good enough to interact with people. The past few weeks, I've come to realize just how much better my russian has become. I can follow and have conversations. I can ask for help, I can buy things at kiosks and stores, I can chat with random people, and sit and listen to what their cpnversations are about. I can read. I can write. I can understand songs. Yeah, life is pretty awesome!

The Break-Up

So I told you I'd get around to it eventually. Count yourselves lucky that you didn't have to wait longer. I've just been lazy lately. hee hee hee.

Okay, so sunday afternoon we spent the whole afternoon at the dacha. We got back to the city after 7. We found out that the ice in the river had officially broken up and was moving and so we set off for the village of Tabago to see it. Incidentally, Tabago is where we had our May 9th picnic. One nice thing about the polar days is that even though we set off at like 7:30-8ish we had no need to fear the lack of street lights. It was still really light out.

When we got there, we first drove up a mountain. All over this mountain were these yello flowers that are the first of spring. In Russian they're called Podsnezhniki Literally this means "Under snow" I don't know what the english word for the flowers is. There were all these flowers and Natasha and Tolya picked bouquets while Misha took pictures for me.

From the mountain, we could just barely see the river and the ice floes so it wasn't a very good picture spot. After filling our flower and photo desires, we piled back into the car to find a more picturesque spot. actually, one of the best places to see the ice on the river was through the windshield of the car as we were driving down the mountain. It was so cool! We drove down the mountain and found a spot where there were lots of cars parked, so we got out to see what there was to see.

In Yakutsk, there's no good place to really stand on the bank and watch the ice. We were on a hill and there were trees in front of us. Behind us was a moutain that people were climbing part or all the way up to get a better view. Now, before you think I was doing some extremem mountain climbing I need to explain something.

You see, if I had to use one word to describe the landscape in Yakutsk, it would be prairie. Because that's what it really looks like. The nature around here is not mountainous. You want mountians, go to Vladivostock. That place has Mountians. We do have mountains here, but it's not a dominating landscape feature. It's not like hills all over the place. Instead, it looks like somebody walked across the plains and randomly dropped some loaves of bread. That's the shape of our mountains. They aren't rocky either. They're grassy like the appalacian mountains. So when I say that these people were climbing mountains, I don't mean extreme sports.

We kids decided to climb partway up the mountain for an improved view. Oh my gosh it was a lot harder than it looked! I was hurtin by the time I got to a level place. The upshot is that we sat there for a bit watching the ice, I took some pictures and then we headed back down.

When we got back to the car, we drove to a place on the bank, to see what we could see there, but the view wasn't very good. After that, we finally decided to head home. And that's bascially how the break-up went.

But Abigail? Why Have You Written This Post?

I know, I should update you about going to see the ice breaking up, because that's what you really want to hear. But After my last post novel, I couldn't bring myself to write about it. Mostly because it takes more concentration than I'm willing to give right now.

What I did want to tell you is something I've been meaning to for a while. And that's this. I want you all to know that there is a life after exchange. We all have to come back at some point. When I started this blog back in 2005, it was as a record of my language learning, and has evolved and grown with me. For example, right now it's a travelouge. So many students end their blogs with their exchange year. The good news (Or maybe bad for some of you) is that I will not be ending this blog in July? Why? Well mostly because the process of coming back and fitting into my "native" cultural again, is as much, if not more fascinating to me as fitting into a new culture in the first place. That's why I'm asking you readers to keep on reading, because when I get back I'm going to be talking a lot about what life is like after exchange, which is almost as unheard of blog-wise as and Exchange Student in Yakutsk.

That having been said, I've created this post to give you a brief idea of what I will be faced with when I get back to the states in 7 weeks and one day. Okay, I won't be faced with it Immediately, but fairly quickly and namely, this lurking monster is College! Or as we say here in Yakutsk University Either way, it's a little scary.

Starting in August, I will be attending a lovely urban university not too far from home. I affectionately call it Satan's Personal University or SPU for short. No, it's not because I hate the school, I actually think it's a decent school, but the name comes from a joke I have with a good friend about the fact that it's a state-run school.

I will be starting as a Freshman in the fall, but thanks to my lovely Post Secondary Courses, I will be a sophomore by December.

I'm in the honors college which, I will admit the only reason I wanted it was because they have nice dorms. Yes, I will be living on-campus, yes I'll be rooming with someone and yes, I've already tried getting in touch with Roomie. We'll see what happens. I figure if I can handle living in a foreing country, I can handle having a roomate.

I (so far) will be taking 18 credit hours I say so far because i'm not yet schedulded for a Russian class and there's no way I'm not taking a Russian class next semester.

I will be taking such mentally stimulating courses as:
-How We Came From Monkeys I
-Where In the World Are We?
-Learn to Deal With College
-Comparing Politics
-You Must Take This Since You're Honors and Need One More English

and my personal favorite (not)
-Algebra, The Final Math.


So that's where I stand. If you're like "yeah, who cares." Then fine. Don't read this post and stop reading whenever I go home, but you'll be missing out. Because I know that you really want to know what happens when a former exchange student is hit with Reverse Culture Shock.

I will now return you to your regularly scheduled Yakutsk posts...

Russian Last Bell Ceremony

I feel like I'm behind on this blog all the time. It seems like even though I'm done with school (Officially now) I've actually gotten busier in some ways. Oh well.

Before I start the main body of this post, I wanted to share a few pictures with you.



This is the view from my bedroom window. The water you see is in the dam and is actually considerably higher now. This picture was taken on May 16th at about 6:30pm.




And this is a picture of the same view on the same day. Except this was taken at about 10:30pm.

Now you know what the polar days are like. Hee hee.

We had our Last Bell Ceremony (Последний Звонок) on May 17th. It started at about 11am. We got done sometime after two. It's kind of hard to describe everything in the order it happened in because I was having emotional issues at the time. Okay, I'll admit it. I was crying. Which I found ironic because when I graduated from American High School last year, I didn't shed a tear. I was ready to get out of that place man. Get out and get to Russia. Here I cried, I think for a number of reasons. First because it was kind of depressing not having anyone i.e. Family there to support me. My parents have always been into coming to my stuff. Even when I didn't always want them too. I miss that. Secondly, It was hard because I realized that I'm leaving soon (Seven weeks and one day) and who knows if and when I'll ever see some of these people again. Let alone this city. So yeah, but enough of my emotional swamp. Let me tell you how the whole thing went.

When I first got to school, I was given a banner that said the Russian word for "Someone who's graduating." I then spent the rest of the day trying to figure out what the english word for this was, or if we even had one. I was settling on just saying "Graduator" (Though I also thought maybe "Graduee" would work) until last night I was writing in my journal and I was like "Wait, isn't the word for this "Graduate?' " I'm still not so sure about that.

Anyway so I wore my little banner along with the rest of my class and the two parallel classes and we all hung around on the second floor of the school until it was time to go into the auditorium. when entering the auditorium we walked across the stage and then to our seats. No, this was not like in American High School (From now own will be referenced as AHS) we just kind of went quickly and sat down.

The first thing that happened, is some announcer people from the 10th class announced the names of some teachers. These teachers then came up on stage and announced peoples names for various things, and you got to go up on stage and get a certificate. I was enjoying cheering for my classmates, when they called my name. Well that was a surprise, but I was very excited. I got up on stage, shook the lady's hand and recived a certificate for "Active Participation in the Artistic Life of the Gimnasium" or something like that. I call it affectionately my "I'm Foreign Award." I then went and sat back down to listen to the other awards.

The next part was the "Growing up" part. Here, the teachers from the first class got up and shared some memories of the kids in their classes and handed out little folders with some work the kids had done. Then, The Leading Teachers from fifth through ninth class got up, called up the Leading Teachers for 10th and 11th class and the five of them all made speeches. Naturally, I bawled when our Leading Teacher, Alexandra Nicholaevna, gave her little speech. One thing I learned is that we were her last class. After us, she's not going to Lead anymore. It's ironic but I've found out quite a bit about the school I've been attending the last 8 months in the last few days. For example, we are seriously listed as one of the best schools in Russia. How cool is that?

When that was finished, we had a "parents part" this was like the parents saying thanks you to the teachers and school. Flowers were given to basically every teacher, and there were a lot of them. On each Bouquet was a rhyme that included the name of the teacher it was for. Naturally every one of these had to be read. We kids stood up and clapped extra loudly for our favorite teachers.

After that, it was finally time for the part I'd been waiting for. Each of the three 11th grade classes, got up and did a little something. I'm a little prejudice, but I think ours was the best.

First up was 11А, the Mathmatics group. They had two people sing a song, while the rest did a dance thing. It was kind of boring. Sorry, but it was. Next, was us, the Humanitarian 11Б. We did a little sketch. Basically it was "The Adventures of A Foreigner" Bet you can't guess who was the Foreigner? I basically said some stuff in English which my classmate Dima, "translated". I got to say some stuff in Russian too. The rest of the class would do little things in the background. For example one thing I talked about was how the puddles around our school were so beautiful, deep, and majestic that they almost resembled Lake Baikal, my classmates all made swimming motions. It was a funny sketch and the audience laughed a lot. The only glitch we had was when it came time to sing our song at the end. We had this sentimental song about how the sun shines and the grass grows but a new door is opening and how they say we're adults now so everything's different. (Yup, that's basically the translated version of the chorus.) One girl, Anya was supposed to play the guitar for us but something happened and the guitar didn't get to her so we sang part of the song acapella. Bad Idea. It was horrible. But we made it through and got off the stage.

Then the last class, Universal 11В was up. They had two girls singing while the others came and put toys all lined up across the front of the stage. It wasn't bad, but ours was better. lol.

After all of this, it was time for the official ringing of the last bell. All the 11th graders were called up on stage. This little first classer took this bell and was carried of the stage, across the front of it and back up by two guys in my class. She rang the bell the whole way. Then, the bell was passed along the line of 11th graders who all took turns ringing it. (Unfortunately I didn't get too since I was in the back, it kind of missed me) When the last person rang it it was like "Yay!" but at the same time not.

And that's the ceremony itself.

When that got out, we were all congratulated by different teachers and parents and friends and all. Then, our class met in Alexandra Nicholaevna's room where we ate Chocolate and she presented everyone with little silly awards. I got a nomination for speaking "Rusofranglish" and was given three or four mini fairy-tale books in both Russian and English. So that was exciting. When that meeting broke up, we all headed for the park which is apparently the traditional place to go when you graduate. Our park here, isn't just a green park. There are like rides and stuff. So I Figured that's what we'd be doing. Nope. Basically a good chunk of the 11th class all showed up to stand around, drink and smoke. Now, drinking is a part of the youth culture here, and while I don't participate in it, I can often tolerate it to some extent. That day, I was really not in the mood to deal with it. So I was thinking about just going home, and relaxing when I ran into a group of girls who also didn't want to participate and were going to go get sushi. One of them was Anya from church. So I was like "hey, can I go with you guys?" And they were like "Of course! You need to!" so I went and we ate sushi and had a good time and I felt like I fulfilled my social obligation. Seriously though. I enjoyed it.

After that, I went home and crashed. And thus is the story of The Last Bell. SO I'm officially done with school here now. Basically have time until Graduation in June which I don't know anything about. I was going to write about our trip to see the ice in this post as well, but this has turned out to be really long so will have to save it.



Городская Классическая Гимназия -2008-

General Update

I feel like I haven't given you a real update on what I've been doing lately, so buckle up 'cause here it goes.

May 9th was a big holiday here. Vicotry day. It is a rememberance of those who perished in WWII (Like one of every two people. And I'm only slightly exaggerating) as well as a celebration of the millitary might of the motherland which successfully overcame the evil Fascists. Never mind that they originally started out on the same side.

It was an interesting celebration. In the morning the family and I went out to Ploshad Pobedy i.e. Victory square. There, the street in front of the square had been closed off and turned into a pedestrian walk. There were all sorts of tents set up selling everything from toys, balloons, cakes, drinks, and the russian version of hot dogs (Can you say Kapusta(Cabbage) and lots of mayo?) We stood around for a while, and we were introduced to some Business partners of Misha's from Taiwan. The one guy spoke english really well and had an interesting chat with him.

The main reason we were standing around in the middle of the street is we were waiting for the parade to start. Now, when I say parade I don't mean like The parade we have in our city every august with the floats and the bands and the candy and all that. This is a military parade, where the ranks of Yakutsk's finest march through the street. There was no orderly queing up on the sides of the streets for this parade. Instead we all stood milling around, waiting for the parade to start and hoping to be towards the front. How did the parade get through you ask? Well...It was preceeded by a few police cars and the police themselves basically shoving us back and going "GET BACK! GET BACK!" It was a really interesting experience. Thankfully, I was in the front row which was interesting because I literally had people packed tight around me on three sides. The fourth side being where the parade was so I couldn't go forward. The parade itself lasted all of five minutes. Actually, it was probably less. There were like for or five groups of military people, including my boys. They marched past, yay, and then we went home.

The afternoon was spent having a barbecue on a mountain overlooking the still mostly frozen Lena River. It was a party thing going on with the taiwanese people, some Yakutian people and our family. I ate too much, but couldn't resist as Shashlik is just so tasty. I've seen enough made by now, and know enough about it that I may try and make it for people back home when I get there. The views were beautiful, I hung out with Natasha and did some translating between Russian and English. Learning something in the process. It was a fun afternoon.

Let's see, what else have I been doing...Well...The other day I went with Raisa to a violin concert. It turned out to be a really fun evening and we even got tasty ice cream from Buon Appetito.

The 12th was Nina's birthday. In the evening she had some friends to a restaurant called "Chicago" which is labeled (in English) as a "bar&grill" So the cheese sticks weren't exactly like America but when you haven't had cheese sticks in a while you take what you can get. Oh and we had salads. Like real salad with lettuce. Not russian salad. I was pretty excited about that. The evening was rather entertaining. There was the awkward moment when I got orderded a Martini and didn't realize it was for me until it came and I was like "uh...I don't drink..." but other than that. it was a good time.

Our last official day of school is today. We have last bell, which we've been preparing for, on Saturday morning. Then we're officially done. Oh and I have to come in tomorrow and return all my textbooks. I brought them today but forgot that the school library is closed on Wednesdays. There's no way I'm hauling them all home, so I'm leaving them in the garderobe and going to come in sometime tomorrow morning.

The weather here's been gorgeous. The puddles have basically evaporated and it's been basically hot (at least in my opinion.) The morning temperature is +11 (yeah, we're positive now) in the afternoon it ranges between 15-20 and the evening it cools down again. I've basically stopped wearing a jacket and hoodie. The other day I was leaving school and wearing just my t-shirt and Nina's like "aren't you cold?" and I'm like "are you nuts?" because if I'd worn a hoodie or jacket I would've been dying of heat stroke. The other thing is that since we've got the polar days going on, it doesn't get fully dark until almost midnight. Yeah. I mean the sun goes down, but the sky is this blue color, not black, and if you look in the west, you can see it's still light. Pretty cool, except when you try to sleep in and the sun's blaring. It comes up really early. One morning a few weeks ago, I woke up and it was already really light out. For posterity I looked at my watch. 4:30am. I've taken to closing my curtains before bed so the light doesn't blare quite so much. But honestly, I love it. Better than it being dark all the time.

Well, I feel better now that I've given you all a better update of my life. I'll shut up now and let you get back to your lives. heh heh.

Why I Love Being An Exchange Student: Part 53

The door to the Obshest room was locked. So we went to the computer room. There were practice State Exams on the desks. I was like "great, I'm going to have to sit through this." So I decided to ask if I could use the computer while my classmates suffer. (heh heh) I go up to the teacher and say "Are we taking a practice test?" And the teacher goes "No, just instruction. You don't need it so you can use the computer if you want." Ha ha ha ha! I love my life.

Okay. So today is the second to last day of school. We come tomorrow and then for me that's it. Exams start Friday I think but I don't take them. Saturday, we have the "Last Bell" ceremony. Each 11th year class is doing something and I'm not sure what all we do, but it's basically the end. I can't believe it. Wasn't I just sitting in class thinking that may was such a long way off? Apparently not as far off as I thought.

I've been stressed lately. Called another inbounder and was just like "What's wrong with me?" Sometimes I feel like I just can't deal with being here anymore. With these people, with life in General. Lately I've just felt like I want to go home home. Sometimes I think I say that I don't want to go home, because that's what you're supposed to be saying at the end of your exchange right? "Oh I loved it and I just don't want to go home." The thing is, I think I'm ready to go home. Sure, I've still got some things to finish up, some things to see, but I think I'll be ready to get on that plane. That's not to say I'm not going to miss things about life here. For example, I think I'm really going to miss speaking Russian and some of the food. But I don't know, I'm really looking forward to seeing my family.

There goes the bell and I didn't get to finish telling you about the last couple of days. Oops. have to get to it later...

Another Picnic

We had a picnic with Grandpa Kostenko today. It was on a mountain, overlooking the entire city of Yakutsk. Did I mention that Grandpa's dead? Okay, all joking aside. Today is some kind of memorial day. The Russian equivalent anyway. I think it goes hand in hand with victory day (which is on the 9th) but that's just my opinion. Anyway, Misha told me that they were going to be gone all day today because they were going to the cemetary. I asked if I could go along.

I felt bad once we actually got there, because I felt like I was intruding, but it really turned out to be an interestind cultural experience. First, we drove to the cemetary. The drive itself was uneventful but you could tell when we were getting close because all of a sudden there were these roadside stands with all these people selling insanely bright colored fake flowers. And I mean bright. I'm talking like flourescent flowers. Flowers that could very easily light up a darkened room. And I'm only slightly exaggerating.

City Cemetary Number Two (The Russians are very creative at naming things when they have more then one. Take Schools for example. The 8th school, the Thirty-Third school and so on...) Is located outside the city. It's actually not too far out there. It's located on a mountain. Actually it's a really good view because you can see the whole city as well as the Lena River far off in the distance. I would've taken pictures but it would've made me feel a little awkward.

So Misha dropped off me, the other kids, Oksana, and his mom and we started on the hike while Misha parked the car. The grave was really back in there. We slogged through the mud and passed many other graves on the way. Russian cemetaries are different than American cemetaries. For example, each grave is surrounded by a fence and I'm pretty sure it's the family's responsiblity to keep the grave site pretty since some of the graves were pretty overgrown with weeds. (No eternal care here lol)

Eventually, we got to the grave and that's when I started feeling awkward. I kind of stood off to the side and watched. We'd brought some food with us, and they made up a little plate of some trail bologna, blini, and a shot of vodka which they placed on the grave. Then, they poured drinks, and we poured a bit around the grave before drinking the rest and eating a blin, or some cheese and meat. It was less of a meal than a ceremony of sorts.

Other people in the cemetary were also doing the same thing, with slight variations. Some people were cleaning up gravesites, some people were toasting vodka, some people were having whole meals with their dead relatives. Some people were a little tipsy from having too many drinks with said relatives.

We didn't stay at the grave too long. Long enough for Misha's mom to wipe off the grave stone, long enough to plant the fake flowers, long enough to have two toasts. Then we cleaned up, left the rest of the food for the bums (No, I'm not making this up. Oksana was like "Misha, should we take this stuff with us?" and Misha said "no, leave it for the bums") And then we headed out. While we were at the grave, it started to snow, big huge wet flakes. I think it's something I'm never going to forget. Standing there with the snow coming down, The city spread below us, and a grieving family.

Afterwards, they brought me back home, and went to another place. I have no idea where, but I imagine it's going to be the same kind of thing and am kind of glad they brought me home. They'll be returning this evening sometime, so in the mean time. I've got the apartment to myself, which is nice for a change.

Philosophy Part 2.

I don't understand it, so when it comes, I just kind of ride with it. It's just one of those things. It seems to me that every once in a while here, I have to sit down and have myself a good cry. But it's strange because a good part of the time, I don't have any reason for being sad. It's just like I have this thing inside me and occasionally, it needs to come out. And when I cry, it's like I cry for everything. I cry because I want to see my parents, I cry because I can't believe I'm living this dream come true. I cry for my friends and their decisions, I cry for the decisions I have made and will have to make, I cry for the future and what it holds, I cry because I love it here, I cry because sometimes I feel so alone, I cry for the things back home I've missed, I cry because the beauty of just being here is absolutely overwhelming. I cry for the people here who I've met and befriended, but who I may never see again. I cry because I've grown up, and I cry because I've seen things that others would never even imagine. I cry because God is so good to me and I don't even deserve it. It's hard to describe, it's just one of those things I do here. I hardly ever cried back home. Wonder if this is a permanent thing or not.

The other thing is the restlessness. It was really bad right after I got back from my trip, and only recently has settled down a bit, but when it starts up, I can hardly stand it. And it tends to hit me at random moments. In the bookstore for example. I was just hanging around, looking at books, when all of a sudden I got really restless. I didn't want to be in the store, but I didn't want to go walk around the city. I didn't know what to do with myself. Sometimes it's so hard because I want to be free, and I am, but I'm not. I want to see everything, feel it, be it. But I can't. At the same time I don't. Sometimes I feel like I'm larger than life, like nothing can touch me. Other times, I feel so insignificant and that I'm just one of a billion people. Sometimes I feel like this apartment is going to suffocate me, so I go outside, but when I do, the city feels like it's going to suffocate me. I want to be here, but I don't. I want to see my friends, and my family, but at the same time, I'm afraid. Afraid of what I'll find when I get home. Afraid that I won't be able to settle down because it'll feel too small after being here with the huge sky and the river and the town that is just a tiny dot in the middle of a wilderness. And I don't know what to do with these feelings...

Freaking Out and a Picnic

So I'm completely freaking out. I don't know what to do. I realized that last weekend was a holiday. This coming up weekend is a holidy. Victory day. Next weekend we have Poslednii Zvonok which is "Last Bell" which is where we have this little thing for the 11th graders. Then I'm done with School seriously. I am completely freaking. It wasn't that long ago that I thought May couldn't come fast enough, it seemed like I'd be stuck in this school forever. It seemed like...I don't know, but it's scary. Soon it'll be time for distrct conference, then Ysakh and then I go home. My exchange is winding down. How scary is that?

In other news, we had a three day weekend. Celebrated "Day of Spring and Work" Don't ask, it's just Russia. Yesterday was the last day of this three day weekend. Actually, can you really call it a weekend because it started on Thursday, went through Saturday and Sunday (Today) is a regular working day. I had school. Anyway, Yesterday I decided that I was tired of being lazy and chilling out at home. Which is basically what I did all weekend and really enjoyed it. So I got up, got ready and told the family I was going for a walk. I had some errands I wanted to run and figured I'd probably spend the rest of the afternoon bumming around the city as usual.

Bless his heart, my little brother Tolya said "Abigail, where are you going?" and I said "I have to go to the ATM so I'm going to the post office." I think he wanted to come with me if I were going somewhere fun. Anyway, I grabbed my stuff and headed out. I stopped at the bank and grabbed some money, put some of said money on my phone. On my way, there was a street vendor selling some cool stuff that I bought to bring to my peeps back home. lol. Having accomplished that, I was wandering up Prospekt Lenina eating an ice cream cone (Man it's gonna be hard when I can't buy 6r ice cream cones anymore!) I decided to go to a book store at the other end of town. On my way, I decided to explore a Shopping center that I'd passed many times but hadn't throughly explored. I was wandering through the toy store when Misha called.

"We're going for a drive."
"where?"
"Just a drive"
"oooh, I wanna come. Can you meet me at Ploshad Lenina?"
"Okay"

I took off at a run, met the family, hopped in the car and off we went. We went to Buon Appetito a restaurant near the university to pick up a couple of pizzas and a couple of salads. I figured we were going to take them home and eat them, but we didn't. Instead, we drove outside the city (Not hard since this is Yaktusk after all) then, we drove off the road and across this little field thing. We found a dry spot, parked the car and unloaded. So I'm sitting there eating pizza and drinking juice and thinking "How cool is this? I'm sitting on permafrost having a picnic in the middle of Russia. Awesome!" I mean seriously, how many people can say they've done that?

Apparently the ice on the Lena has started to crack up. (Literally) Misha said in a couple weeks, we'll drive down and see it. I'm looking forward to it.

We messed around and hung out and enjoyed the really warm weather (we're positive now) and basically just had a good time. We left after a while since the baby was getting fussy. I loved it. Not just because it was so cool, but because I felt kind of like part of the family which I haven't felt for eight months. So that was awesome too.

In The Navy

I had a bad day today. First, I thought that I was supposed to do my Rotary presentation because Maria told me last week that I would be doing my presentation about myself. So last night I double checked my power point, and I got my stuff all together and I even wore my Rotary jacket. And then we had different speakers and so I didn't get to give my presentation. And so by the time I got home, I was in a bad mood. I was in a bad mood because I didn't give my presentation, and I had to haul my stuff around, and the waitresses at the restaurant sniggered at my jacket, which looks much better than it did when I left by the way. And I was tired. Tired of slush and mud and wet puddles that are basically little lakes. And I was tired of having a bad accent when I speak, and my friend telling me not to say "Чё" Because it's not really a word. Even though basically everyone says it but her, and I was just irritated and tired in general. And restless again (But more about that in my second philosophy post)

So I got home, unloaded my stuff, changed and immediately decided that if I stayed in the house, I would die a slow and painful death of suffocation. Okay, not really, but that's how I felt. So I threw some stuff in my bag, called to Oksana that I was going to take a walk and headed outside.

The first thing I did was buy some ice cream. I love Russia. I can get a decent sized ice cream cone for like 6 roubles. What a great country! Anyway, so as soon as I started eating my ice cream cone, I started feeling better. Russian ice cream is amazing! I then made my way to Ploshad Pobedy which is Victory Square. I've decided it's a good place to be. I enjoy sitting there and just watching the people. Now that the weather's warmed up, it's pretty busy and so fun to be there. In some ways, it's more exciting than the other squares though I can't really explain why. So I'm walking along, eating my ice cream, and at the far end, there's these millitary guys all marching around, and I'm thinking that's cool, they're probably practicing for May 9th. May 9th for those of you who don't know is a big deal. It's "Den Pobedy" or "Victory Day" big millitary demonstrations and whatnot. Anyway so these young guys are marching around and I decide to watch them while I'm eating my ice cream.

Okay, I'm going to be perfectly honest. I was hoping to see some eye-candy. Mostly it was the fact that they were mostly ethnic Russians. When you see so many Yakutian people, you get a little desperate. So I'm standing there, eating my ice cream and watching the boys march past and I was rather depressed because they were all like 12. Fine, maybe a little older, but still too young. That was depressing, but it was fun to watch them march. I finished up my ice cream and wandered around a bit. By this time, the marchers had a break and they're all standing around having a smoke and chatting. There's space on this bench where an old guy's having a smoke, so I move toward it but and cut off by some twelve-year olds in unifom. This irritates me and so I wander around a bit more, feeling rather awkward when the old guy vacates his spot. I plot down own the bench next to the boys, pull out my paper journal, dig for my trusty pen and begin to vent my frustrations. I was writing away, only paying slight attention to the boys next to me, when all of a sudden I hear "Americans, English" The Russian word for "americans" is like a buzzword. Everytime I hear it, it catches my attention. So I look over at the boys, one of whom begins to act like and idiot and talk about all kinds of random stuff about america. I chuckle at their silliness, and give an ironic smile. After a few minutes, they went back to line up. On the way, the silly boy was like "I am Russian! I am Russian!" I thought about answering with "And I'm American!" But that would've involved screaming across the square and that would've been neither attractive nor appropriate. Probably would've offended people.

So I go back to my writing, feeling better about my day, when all of a sudden a column of boys marches over and stops right in front of me. It took me about ten seconds to realize that this column of boys contained the boys who'd just been sitting by me. Ah, the irony. I happened to make eye contact with the silly one from before, and that got them started. The silly one goes "America!" really loud and I look up, and go "yeah? and what?" in Russian. A moment later I hear in german "Do you speak german?" I don't know German, but this is one phrase I do no. So I look at them and in Russian I go "No, I speak English." Then, realizing that I'm speaking to them in Russian I add hastily "And russian." Well that got them started. It's like a rule in Russia that as soon as someone knows you speak English Natively, they start practicing all their english phrases with you. It's especially fun when you get a group of boys. Today, I got everything from "What's your name" to "Kiss me" I just laughed.

Then, I hear one kid talking to another and I didn't hear the whole conversation, but I think the one asked how they knew I spoke English. The second kid was saying something about me writing in English. Ah, that explained it. So them starting to talk about America wasn't a coincidence. The kid who wanted to know how they knew then gets out of line, comes over and glances at my journal quickly before returning to his place. I go "Hey, look, it's in English" and hold up a page. The silly guy asked me what I was writing about and I'm like "you guys." They then started asking me real questions. They wanted to know if I was British and I said that I was American. Then someone asked what I was doing in Yakutsk (Always a fun question) but before I could answer they got yelled at by a superior and went off marching again. I continued my journaling.

The next time they had a break, I was surrounded by basically the whole company since those who hadn't participated in the last conversation had at least heard it. They asked me a bunch of usual questions. What I thought of Bush, Why was I there, What was my name, Why did I come to Russia, How long would I be in the city. I asked why they were marching around (though I thought I already knew) and they told me because of May 9th. They also told me that they go to this Navy Training School thing and when they get done, they go on boats. I didn't quite understand it, but it sounds like a millitary school and then they just go right into it. One unusual question they asked was if in America our navy wore the same kind of uniform and how many stripes were on it. I said I was sorry, but I didn't know. One guy handed me this little pin that says "Yakutsk River Flot." I thought it was really cool and it found a special spot on my Rotary Jacket when I got home. After a little bit, they had to go back to marching. I finished up my journaling and by the time I did, they'd gone.

I guess the point of this story and all the details is that I felt really happy after this encounter. It's one of those stories that I'll keep close to my heart and is hard to tell when you get back because to be sitting there with your friends and go "One time in Russia I talked to these kids from the military school" Doesn't make much of a story. And really it's not that exciting of a story, but the reason I'm telling it here, and telling it with such detail is so that you all back home can understand. This is what it's like being an exchange student. It's having a completely crummy day, and then having something as small and insignificant as a 10 minute interaction with some boys, make your day 100% better.

Philosophy Part 1

I have to go to my Russian lesson in a bit, but I wanted to take a moment to reflect. My mother says we all have these feelings and as a writer, maybe I can take them and put them in some sort of order to make people stop and go "Yes, I understand, that's me too." Or something like that. I'm paraphrasing.

I think I'm an adult. I guess technically I became an adult when I turned 18. But I never felt like an adult. Not really. I think the fact that I've become an adult is something I've been aware of for a while. I just didn't want to admit it to myself. I was chatting online with my brother today and I said "I'm an adult" and just like that I knew it was true. I'm not sure when it happened, exactly, but I know it's happened sometime in the last eight months. Maybe it was the day I got off the airport in Yakutsk? Maybe it happened when I spent a month running around various russian cities with friends? Or maybe it's just happened in the day to day stuff. I don't know, but what I do know is that part of what I've been feeling are the feelings of adulthood.

Sometimes it scares me. I'm going to be perfectly honest. Sometimes I sit on my bed and just want to cry. I want to cry for my childhood and the fact that it's gone. When I was little, they'd always tell me to enjoy my childhood because it's gone so fast. And I did enjoy my childhood. It was a happy one. But only now am I realizing how right they were.

Yet, at the same time I don't know what to do with myself. Feeling this way has got me all confused. It's like buying some new clothes that aren't my typical style but they make me look good. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with this yet. Although, there's not much I can do about it. I don't think I'd be happy being a kid forever anyway. Because I can know use my powers of being an adult to influence people, and my life and that's a cool power. But how can I handle this? I'm 19 years old? I don't know anything about being an adult. I don't know much about tax forms and 401ks and work, and responsiblity. When I was a kid, I always thought that one day you just wake up and know all about these adult things and that's when you become an adult. I thought it was a magic process.

I do love the fact that because I'm 19 years old, my host families generally let me do as I please. I love the fact that I'm hanging out in a foreign country. I love the fact that I can go do things on my own, like see museums. But I'm scared. Terrified. When I go back next summer, I have to get ready for college. That in itself isn't scary. If I can handle a foreign country, I can handle a college dorm easy. I'm scared because as an adult, I now have to figure out how to pay for college, I have to get a job, I have to find a place to live, I have to feed myself, and determine what I do with my time. Which I do to some extent now, but college is different.

I guess there's no real point to this entry, really. Just thought I'd share my feelings on this with you all, not that you care. I'm also afraid because I feel like I've learned so much here. I don't mean just stuff about Russia. That's a given. But I feel like I've learned so much about life, and the nature of people, and how things work, and it's all in my head trying to get out, but I don't even know even how to begin to describe it. Which is really bad considering words are my specialty. I guess that I'll just have to keep working it out in my head, and when it straightens out, I'll write it down. For now though I need to go, or I'll be late....

Easter

So, Yesterday we celebrated Easter here in good old mother Russia. As you may already be aware, the orthodox church still runs on the old calender. Hence the reason we're only now celebrating easter while all of you celebrated it weeks ago. Anyway, thought you all might like to know how it went down. I didn't go to my Baptist church because my host dad told me that we could go to the Orthodox church. My day started around nine with this random banging sound. I came out of my room to find the family all gathered around the door to one of the bathrooms. Misha was trying to fix the doorknob, and Dennis was banging a screwdriver on the floor. heh heh heh. It struck me as hilarious. I prepared for the day. i.e. Put in my contacts, got dressed and we sat down to breakfast. We had Pirozhki with potatos and some with egg in them which were interesting to try and not too bad. We had put these little plastic decoration cover thingies on hard boiled eggs the night before (no one had egg coloring). Apparently there's a tradition where you whack the end of your egg against someone else's. The one who's egg cracks, looses. Naturally, my little host brother Tolya had great fun with this.

After breakfast Misha said he'd take me to the Orthodox church. Tolya and Natasha came too. I was rather disappointed that we missed the service, but found out when service times are and so will hopefully be making a trip to actually see an orthodox service in the near future. We did look around the church a bit, light a few candles, and Misha was explaining some stuff about Orthodoxy too me, even though they aren't Orthodox. They aren't church people. While we were there though, Misha saw an aquaintance. He asked said aquaintance to explain to me the orthodox church. What followed was a twenty minute lecture on the history of sin (Could've done without that) a history of church in general (Also basic stuff I knew) and then when he finally got to the good stuff, I was having trouble concentrating. Even after almost eight months sometimes it takes a lot of concentration to listen and understand. I did learn that Orthodox Church here is based as much if not more on legend as it is the Bible. For example, the aquaintance told me this story of why the Orthodox Church uses Icons. Apparently, the first icon came about when Christ wiped his face on a towel (Possibly after his baptism? I don't remember.) and it left an image. Personally, I was reminded of "Forrest Gump" But I digress.

When we finished our expedition to the church, we returned home and prepared to go to the dacha where we were going to have shashlik. For those of you who don't know what Shahlik is, it's basically barbecue, but without the BBQ sauce. You could I suppose also translate it as shishkebob since the meat is cooked on skewers. I was in such a good mood while we were there. First, I helped carry stuff to the dacha (We've started opening it up so we can stay there in the summer), then I helped dust a bit, then Tolya, Natasha and I made snowpeople which was really fun. The only dowside is that by the time we were done, they'd already started to melt. I was very proud of mine because I carved out face, arms and her dress. I'll have to get some pictures up.

After a bit of a wait, we ate. By the end of it, I was absolutely stuffed, but it was so good. I love shashlik. With it we had little roasted potatos, pepper, tomatos, and this stuff that's like a tortilla but has a different name. So so good. For desert, we had cookies and traditional easter cake which I thought was rather dry.

After a couple hours and a nap, we headed back home. I hung out with my host siblings. Watched a movie, that sort of thing. All in all, I really enjoyed the day and was feeling good at the end of it.

New Family

Just a quick update. Can do more later as I know have better internet access at home. Anyway, for those of you who don't know, I have officially moved to my third family. I'm now living with Misha, Oksana and there three children. Natasha-14, Tolya-6 and Baby Dennis who I'm not sure how old he is. He's walking, not talking, has one tooth and is afraid of me. You can figure it out from there. heh heh. Anyway, they live in a large apartmen (Two bathrooms!) in the neighborhood where I lived at the beginning of exchange, but a different apartment block. I arrived here yesterday (sunday) and so far it's been interesting. I love my little brother Tolya even though he drives me crazy. He talks to me and I was wrestling around with him last night. Not that the rest of the family doesn't talk, just haven't ever gotten to have a little brother before. Or any little siblings for that matter. Oh by the way, this family is ethnic Russian so it's going to be interesting. Actually, I think it's going to be fun.

In other news, I was told expressly not to go to school today since the 11th graders were all taking a practice test for the state exam in Math. I was like "forget that" so instead, I spent the day walking (literally) all over the city and mostly buying souvenirs for some of you lovely people back home. Although I will admit I did buy a few things for myself, such as a new notebook for my paper journaling, a pin for my blazer, and a new khomus. Nothing huge. The gifts I bought for people back home, I think I'd better wait and just show you. Heh heh heh. Why did I buy a new khomus? Well, because I wanted one that sounded different from the one I have now. The one I bought is tiny. And honestly, that's about all I've got from the land of Sakha-Yakutia. Look for more updates soon as, like I said I can now access the internet from home. Now I've got to go write an essay for my tutor that I've put off too long.

"Russian Idol" Reaction

Sorry guys, but this having a Russian theme, I just had to repost and comment. First of all, I want you to know that this wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. There were some things I found funny. I was worried about it because having lived for over seven months in Russian culture, I thought I would hate it and think it entirely sterotypical. So here's Abigail's analysis.

Have you watched the video? Good then what I'm saying will make sense. The first thing I'd like to say is that Robin Williams has a bad Russian accent. A really bad Russian accent. It got slightly better by the end of the sketch, but it was still pretty bad. Secondly, for those of you who want to know. Most of the song he's singing isn't in real Russian. He says something like "I only...you..I love you" and then the rest of the song is nonsense. I was sitting here listening to it and my ears were trying to make sense of it before I realized that it wasn't anything. What did I find funny? Well, the whole "so you think you can drink" Thing was pretty funny. Oh and I loved the fact that he pronounced "Hollywood" as "Gollywood." That's actually how the Russians say it. The song title "Babushka, use my woman now" was mildly amusing just because babushka means grandma. I found it interesting that the Beetles were mentioned, not because of the whole Lenin/Lennon thing but because the Beetles are actually pretty popular here. The Lennon song "Yesterday" in particular. I can see what would be amusing about the whole Lenin/Stalin thing to an American audience but I didn't find it funny. Nor did I really care for the whole women looking like men thing. Anyone who knows Russians knows that Russian women are known for dressing up. All the time. Even in Siberia. Oh and the gay thing. Didn't find it funny at all. Maybe because Russians are weird about gay people. Maybe because it added absolutely nothing to the point of the sketch. I'm not sure. Oh and for reference, if anyone cares. "Russian Idol" in Russian is Fabrika Zvyozd Which is like "The Making of a Star" or something to that effect.

The Trip Part 2

so before I continue on with my story, I thought I'd say a few things. First of all, they raised the price of our bus fare which made me rather irritated. I went to the center this morning to catch my bus, and realized it was two roubles more. Don't worry, I had enough money, but it was still irritating. 12 roubles. come on. Also, it snowed yesterday. A lot. and now we have calf-deep drifts all over the city. Which is funny considering everything previous to the snow had basically melted away.

Having said that, on with my story. It's kind of hard to sort everything out in my head. A lot happened, and I'm still working on sorting it out, but it was an amazing trip. I tried to relax and just enjoy myself. And I did. A lot. From getting right off a train at 5am and seeing Red Square in the early morning hours, to body mod in Vladivostok, the trip was interesting, awesome, scary, and sometimes depressing. I'm going to share some pictures with you all on here, as the stupid school computer won't let me get on Flickr. Hopefully I won't be having this problem much longer as I'm supposed to be changing families at the end of the week and I'm hoping the new one has internet access at home.

Here's how the trip worked. We flew from Vladivostok to Moscow, then from Moscow we took a night train to St. Petersburg. We stayed in Peter for five days then took a night train back to Moscow where we spent four days. From Moscow, most of us flew back to Vladivostok and dispersed from there, with the exception of three or four. I think my favorite time was in Peter. Just because of the hanging out, and some of the stuff we saw.

I loved the way our program worked because we had excursions in the morning (But thankfully not to to early) which finished around three or four. We then had the rest of the day to explore and do stuff on our own. This meant shopping, exploring, and hanging out.

I should really give you the highlights since I keep talking about how awesome it was but haven't given you any details.

In St. Petersburg, we went to Tsarskoya Celo which is where this palace for Catherine the Great was. I saw was because it was pretty much destroyed in WWII. (Leningrad Blockade anyone?) Fortunately, a good portion of it has been replicated and you can see the how the palace would've looked Back in the Day. In all it's overdone splendor. Yeah, that's right. I personally thought that the palace was completely overdone. Too lavish for my tastes. Though the reconstruction of the Amber room was cool.

One of the best places I went in St. Petersburg was not on an official "excursion" a couple of the other kids and I decided that since we were in the west, we might as well take the opportunity to see some things that our guidebook (Yes, we all have the same one, go Lonely Planet for making a guidebook that includes Eastern Russia.) said were interesting, but that weren't on our official itinerary. So one day a group of us decided to go see the Memorial to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad. If you ever get to Petersburg, this memorial is a must see. Not only is the outside moving. There's a statue and music playing and a huge oblesk, but the inside is moving as well, featuring Murals, little displays, lights that look like bombshells accompanied by the eerie sound of a metornome which is apparently all that the Leningraders heard on their radios during the war.


We were there for like an hour, just looking around and taking in the atmosphere. I haven't been that moved since the first time I went to the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial. It was amazing. When we were done looking at the displays, one of which included a tiny piece of sawdust filled bread that was a ration for the Leningraders, the Babushkas played a short video for us. It was film clips from the war years, starting with young men going off to fight, covering the years of hardship and famine and ending with Liberation accompanied by music.

It was just amazing.

Peter itself was an interesting city. People here have told me it's like the Paris of Russia since Peter the Great wanted it to be a very Western city. Having been to Paris, going to St. Petersburg was an interesting experience. Because, yeah, I could see how some of the architechture resembled Frances, but at the same time it's its own city with a distinctly Russian flair.

One thing you should definitely know about Moscow and St. Petersburg. They are different cities. Not from each other. I mean that's obvious. What I mean is that they're really different from where I'm living. Different from Eastern Russia. As soon as we got to Moscow and Peter, I looked around me and said to myself. "This is a different world." because it is. McDonald's abound, (I ate Micky D's six or seven times during the course of the trip) the buildings are different, the people are different. It's really hard to describe unless you've been to both Western and Eastern Russia, but it's like there's a different atmosphere surrounding Moscow and St. Petersburg. I wasn't sure I liked it.

One of the best parts was finding people who speak English. Not many people in Eastern Russia speak English. They're everywhere in Moscow and Peter because that's where all the tourists are. I'll never forget our first day in Peter. We were walking along, and we go past some people speaking english. One guy is like "Hey, Foreigners" and I was like "yeah." then it was like "wait, we're foreingers too." Funny how technically i'm a "foreigner" but i don't feel like one anymore. Yeah, I was being a tourist in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but I felt more like a Russian tourist than a real foreigner. Just like I felt more Russian than American when flying to Korea. I love those times.

I have so many stories, of my trip. Stories I don't have time to post here, some stories that probably aren't appropriate to post here, but I wanted to give you some hightlights, show you some pictures, and let you know that I had an awesome time.

When I got back to Yakutsk, I had a shock though. I got back and saw that the ice on the river has started to melt. I saw that the land itself is not nearly as frozen as it was. I found out that I have one month of school left, and realized I'm almost done with my exchange. Do you realize I now have less than three months? It's a scary thought. I've only now realized how comfortable I've become here, how much I'm enjoying myself, and how much I'm going to miss it when I have to get on a plane and don't know if I'll ever be back.

I'm Not Dead Yet

okay, so it might take a couple of entries to tell you all everything, but basically I left you guys in korea. The good news is that the rest of my time in Korea, which wasn't long went really well.

When I got back to Vladivostok, I hung out for three days before I finally finally got to meet some other inbounds. And it was a really interesting first impression too. I will never forget walking into a cafe and there's three inbounders and my host sister. I walk up to them and greet them in Russian "Hi Everyone!" As soon as the words leave my mouth, this blonde girl goes "Don't speak Russian, we don't speak it. If you speak it, we won't talk to you" How's that for a first impression. It completely blew my mind.

Thankfully though we were on an island, neutral territory for orientation and we all got past our first impressions. There were fourteen inbounders. Well fifteen originally. One girl we never met because she was getting sent home, and the kid from france didn't meet with us until Moscow. So there were thirteen of us on the island.

It was interesting. We spent the first few days just comparing our various experiences. It was amazing how similar our experiences are, even though we all are so far apart. Maybe it sounds weird to say that, but it's just that Russia's such a diverse country. Our shared experiences pulled us together, and started our friendships. It was a jumping off point.

And Now I must leave you all in suspense as I've been online a while, and am paying for it since I'm at the internet cafe. I will update more in the next couple of days.