The Passport Saga

Yes, that's right. It really was a saga. You see I applied for my passport the first week of March. The nice ladies at the office said that I would receive my passport in ten weeks at the most. They said I'd have it in plenty of time before my trip to France. I was thinking that this would be good, because frankly I was hoping to get it in time to send my stuff to Bokoff-Kaplan to start with my Russian Visa before going to France. It's not going to happen though because I received my passport on Saturday. We leave June 9th.

You think that's all to my story? You've got to be kidding! I said this was a saga didn't I?

I waited and waited for my passport and it didn't come. I found out you can track them online. So I went to the happy little website and I typed in my information and do you know what the little screen told me? "your passport is being processed." so I tried to call the hotline, so that I could tell the people at the passport office that I needed my passport so I can start with my Russian stuff. Wouldn't you know it? I couldn't get through! I had to sit through a whole big long recording about the high volume of Passport requests. Then I had to pick a number to talk to a live operator. After a brief message about how the operators are busy and would I please hold, I had to listen to another recorded message about how "Due to the high volume of passport requests, all operators are busy at this time." I didn't believe it for a minute. I looked at my parents and said "I don't think they have live people to talk to"

Needless to say, I kept trying different things, and was having a difficult time because I needed my passport and I couldn't get through. Finally Madame, bless her heart, told me to try calling the state rep's office and see if they could help me out. I gave them a call and the lady was absolutely wonderful. She told me that the passport centers were not taking calls. (So I'd been right!) and that she would send them and e-mail to see if she could get it expedited. Thankfully, they said they would and I received the passport on Saturday. You have no idea how excited I was, and now I can go on and get things going for Russia. Hooray!

Movies and Goals

When I first started taking French, one of my goals was to read "The Little Prince" (Le petit prince) by St. Exupéry in French. Mostly because my freshman French teacher told me that it was hard to read in French. Four years later and I'm fulfilling that goal. I'm very proud. We're reading it in AP French and every day I think "Wow, I've met a goal." YAY!

Okay now on to movies. Our latest from netflix was the 1994 film Burnt by the Sun. For those of you who've never seen it, it's a Russian film that is very symbolic and sort of satirizes the Stalin era. I'm not going to lie, for some inexplicable reason, the film scared me. It's not the horror slash and burn Texas Chainsaw Massacre sort of horror or anything like that. I think it was just the fact that the movie reveals how nasty the Stalin era actually was. Burnt by the Sun is not the best movie I've ever seen, but it was an eye-opener that was worth seeing once.

Tonight there was a Russian film on TCM. It was made in the fifties and was really well done. It was called "The Cranes are Flying" It's about a girl in WWII who is waiting for her love to come home from the war. It's actually more complicated than that, but that's the basic idea. Mom found it and it was about half-way through, so technically I haven't seen the whole movie. What I did see was excellent. Especially the was it was filmed. This is definitely a film you all should see.

Sorry Please Mister

Mom and I were talking about how when I go to Russia and first start speaking, I'll probably have really bad grammar and not make any sense. The things that I say I'm probably going to say are pretty amusing. We have one Classic though.

The nice lady who works at the travel agency that helps Rotary Exchange Students told us not to wait until we get to the country to learn some of the language. She said that we especially need to learn enough to be able to tell someone we missed a flight and need to get on the next one. I realized that I didn't know how to say this and so if I miss a connecting flight in Russia, I'll be in trouble. I kept thinking about it, trying to figure out if there was a way I could say something like "Excuse me, but I've missed my connecting flight, would you be so kind as to put me on the next one?" And I finally figured out that I can say something sort of like that. The sentence has horrible grammar and doesn't use the right verb, but loosely translated it would be something like.

Sorry, Plane went by foot one direction without I

I told mom and she laughed and said that if someone said something like that to her in English in an airport, she'd be able to figure out what they meant. Hopefully I can fix up the sentence and make it sound better. In fact I probably will since now that Russian Class is over, I need something to amuse myself while still practicing.

A quick Russian lesson

Complements of travellinguist.com through YouTube.

For those of you who hear me say those random Russian words. Here are some possibilities of what I might be saying. I make no guarantees, but at least if you meet a Russian, you can say hello.

Lord of the Rings Meets Vodka

Honestly, when I saw this I laughed. A lot. In case you can't figure it out, it's a vodka ad.

Another E-mail

I wrote a response e-mail to Nina, the Yakutsk youth exchange coordinator. She e-mailed me back and gave me more information. The most exciting thing she told me was a little about my first host family.

I'll be living with three different host families while I'm in Russia. My first hostess is named Raisa. She has two daughters. One is in St. Petersburg studying at University, and the other is 16 and from what I understand will be in Michigan at the same time I'm in Russia. Nina gave me her e-mail address so we could share experiences and stuff. I'll probably e-mail here as soon as I figure out what I'm going to say. (I want to write both in English and Russian.) Anyway, I'm really really excited! I can't wait to go!

E-MAIL!!!

Firstly though here's another cartoon for you. Complements of YouTube. (Have I mentioned how much I love YouTube?) In this cartoon the best has to be the sheep/goat thingy. He's like a poet. anyway after you check out the cartoon, I'll get to the meat of the post.




Okay, the meat of the post is as follows:

I GOT AN E-MAIL FROM THE EXCHANGE COORDINATOR IN RUSSIA!!!!!!!

She told me some things that I already knew but it's all good because at least I had contact. I hope my passport gets here soon so I can start my visa application and everything!

Nina (the exchange coordinator) told me she was glad to hear that I've been studying Russian. She said that the more I know before I come, the easier it will be. That was encouraging. When I wrote back, I said that even though my Russian class is over for the semester, I'm going to be reviewing lots of vocab and grammar before I come. (Which I am.) The only thing left in Russian class is our translation portion of the exam which we're taking on Thursday. I'm excited because I bought a nice Russian dictionary at Border's a week or two ago and I get to use it on the translation because Marina said we could use our books and dictionaries. AHHH! I can't wait to go to Russia!!!!

That's all I've got for now. I'll keep you updated.

Russia's Winnie the Pooh-Винни Пух

Actually I think the Russian version is cuter than Disney's version. Plus it's in Russian so it's much more interesting. Anyway, I've decided that I absolutely love YouTube because not only can you watch Russia's vinni Puh, but you can also watch a whole host of other Russian Cartoons. Hopefully I'll be able to share some over the next few days. Just as something a little different. Me putting This video in the blog makes me feel so special. I feel like the blog has just had a technology update. Hee hee hee!

The Oral

Today was my oral exam in Russian. I was pretty nervous because it meant sitting in Marina's office speaking Russian for fifteen minutes. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Plus she made me feel good. She told me that it's okay that I make mistakes when I speak, the point is to just keep speaking. She says she still makes mistakes in English all the time.

She did freak me out a little bit because she goes. "I Don't think you're going to get an A in this class." Immediately I was thinking that it was probably a B and though I'd be sad, I could deal with it because it is better than a C after all. Then she goes. "If you do okay on the grammar test, you'll probably have an A-" She was serious too. I think she thought I'd be sad with an A- but personally I as like "Whoo Hoo!" Friday is our grammar test and then next Thursday is the translation portion. I really need to get out and buy a Russian dictionary.

The District Conference

Got back this morning from the District Conference. It was an entertaining time even if I didn't see the light of day for 48 hours. I arrived there about 9:15 Friday morning and was helping with some set-up stuff. It was a pretty fun weekend actually. Let me just start by saying the main thing we outbounds did was train. Intensive training is a better word for it. We had blocks of several hours where we discussed, debated, and were lectured on a wide variety of topics that included, but were not limited too American foreign policy, Gun Control, American Education System, Capital Punishment, and the way Americans look at the world. It was a trip, let me tell you what.

Probably the highlight of Saturday was the Talent show. This talent show was put on by the Inbounds and it was pretty much awesome! It featured a wide variety of dances including Chilean, Chinese, and more modern. Several people singing or playing the piano, a juggling routine, and a comedy sketch.

Both Friday and Saturday night was spent just hanging out chatting, playing random games. It's pretty entertaining to watch a bunch of teenagers playing Simon Says and Duck Duck Goose. (Yes, I participated, I am not ashamed of it. It was pretty awesome.) We also played Mafia, which was interesting in itself just because it was played with youth exchangers. (Everything is more interesting when you play it with In and Out bounds.)

At one point on Saturday I realized that Rotary does a one to one exchange. How could I forget that? I talked to a My country contact, asking if there was someone coming to our district from Russia next year since I'm heading there. She said yes, there was a Russian girl coming. That's pretty sweet, though I won't get to meet her because I'll be gone, but I really hope that she enjoys it here in Ohio.

Some Good Yakutia Sites

Yakutia is the region (Obviously) of which Yakutsk is the capital. Anyway, While touring Google Earth to get a bird's eye view of the city where I'll be spending the next year, I found a nice little link that took me to a site about Yakutia and from there, I found another site. Both are in English for those of you who'd like to learn about my adopted country. (Hee hee hee). Hope you find them interesting.

Yakutia Travel
Yakutia Today

Якутск

This is the city I'm going to be in. District 5010, Russia, Yakutsk Rotary club (For those of you who don't read/speak Russian. LOL!)

We had a parent orientation today. Basically we sat around with our parents and the other outbounds and heard a bunch of stuff about all things Rotary exchange. It wasn't all that exciting except for the fact that I got to see my outbound friends which was nice. I had talked to my country coordinator about if she'd heard anything from the Russian contact yet and she said no. This evening I got on the computer, checked my e-mail. Lo and behold, there was an e-mail that said:

"Congratulations! In checking my e-mail after the Orientation, I received a note from my Russian contact. You will be placed with the Yakutsk Rotary Club. I checked the area out on the web and it looks absolutely fascinating."

Incidentally, it is a fascinating place. The average winter temp. is -42.8C (-45F). Yet in July the temperature can be as high as 32.2C (90F). I think I'm going to die! AND I'M SO EXCITED ABOUT IT! Yakutsk is also home to the Mammoth museum and it is the largest city built on continuous permafrost. If any of you are interested in learning more about the city that is to be my home for the next year, you are welcome to check it out on Wikipedia. Now, if you'll all excuse me I must e-mail my country coordinator with my passport status.

Later

I was indeed able to add some of the words to the youth slang post. Check them out!

100!

sorry, had to name this post 100 because it is officially the 100th post in this blog. Isn't everyone proud of me? Also, in case anyone cares to date (or at least since I installed the stat counter) I've had 1,060 visitors to the blog. Hooray! Okay now on to the official blog on topic stuff.

Yesterday our Russian Week Seminar was a panel discussion about Russia with some grad. Students. It was about the best thing ever. Especially since Justin, who's American gave us lots of "tell-it-like-it-is" insight into what Russian culture is really like. One word of advice he gave us?

"Don't try to compete with Russians because you will lose and probably die. The only thing you can beat them at is English. Don't try to beat them at sitting in the banya and don't try to outdrink them."

There was lots of other interesting tidbits that we learned yesterday but I can't remember them at the moment.

Tonight's seminar was all about Russian drinking culture. While there were some informative things in it, it wasn't nearly as exciting as the other seminars have been this week. I still need to update the slang post with things I learned. Except right now I don't have the time so it'll have to wait another day.

Russian Youth Slang

I'm at a college class and so I don't have my handout from yesterday's seminar. When I get home, I'll update this post with some of the words we learned. Yesterday was, of course, the seminar on Youth Slang. The participants got to hear all about culture of the high schools and universities in Russia. We also learned about Cheat Sheets. Apparently, Cheat Sheets are a cultural thing in Russian schools. Technically you're not supposed to have them, but everyone does. Kids get pretty good with making them and keeping them hidden. It also seems to be a cultural thing that everyone helps everyone else. I guess in class the better students help the worse students. It's kind of a comunal thing. Everyone makes sure that everyone else succeeds. It's a really interesting attitude.

пара- Class at university, also the grade of F
универ- University
шпора- Cheat Sheet
контроша- Test
Аллё гараж- lit. Hello Garage. Used to check if someone's paying attention
Мне до лампочки- I don't care, Whatever
Чайник- dummy, beginner, newbie
зачетка- grade book
Вечеринка- Party

The above are some of the words that were on the hand out we received at the seminar. Interesting, no?

Russian Week, and More Understanding

So this coming week is the yearly Russian Week at college. Basically what happens is the Russian department organizes a series of seminars every night of the week. This culminates in a food preparation workshop on Friday followed by a Russian party Friday night. There are all kinds of seminars (Tomorrow's is Youth Slang) and an Essay competition (Which Marina is making us compete in) and just cool stuff in general. Hopefully I'll be updating every night this week with all the cool stuff I'll be doing.

In other news, last week I was so proud of myself again! I was sitting in class working on something when Nastya asked a question. Now when Marina speaks to us, she speaks slowly. Nastya is Ukrainian and so she is, of course, amazing at Russian. She basically is fluent. Anyway, I wasn't really paying attention to what Nastya asked, but then Marina started answering her question in very fast Russian and I realized I understood a good portion of what she was saying. She said something about all verbs ending in a soft sign, and stuff that I don't remember now, but understood at the time. I was so excited! I guess it just keeps surprising me how much Russian I actually understand. Okay, that's all I've got for now, like I said there will hopefully be lots of updates this week and stuff. For now, I have to write a Russian essay about my health and re-write and edit a French essay. It feels so good to be able to write essays in foreign languages!

Class

I have come to look forward to Russian class every other day. I can't say the same about Phonetics and Diction, but I love actual Russian class. Maybe it's the people in it, maybe it's the teacher, most likely it's a little of both. It's so much fun and I feel like I've just been inhaling the language in a way. I'll probably be frustrated with it again in a few days, but for now, I love it, and I realize how much I understand and how much I'm able to say.

The other day we did a partner activity and talked and I realized the words that my friend was saying were Russian. I mean duh, it's Russian class, but it was like I was understanding what she was saying, but at the same time hearing it as if I wasn't able too. It was an odd feeling, but I was so proud of myself. "Hey, we're speaking Russian, and I'm understanding it." It's a good feeling.

BYKI and Spoo

Today in French class I said the word "ecrire" but fake rolled the first "r" Kind of like I do with Russian. (I can't really roll my r sounds but if it's in the middle of a Russian word I can usually fake it.) As soon as I did it I thought. "Gee, I just fake rolled an r sound. That's interesting." The next time I said the word I was very conscious of making myself not do it. THE RUSSIAN IS TAKING OVER! Good. Okay and now onto the real reason I decided to write this post.

I'm really behind on links. When I get a chance I need to update my template and include all of the lovely new links I've found. I might even start a specific section for just links in and about Russia because lately I've amassed a huge collection of them. Today though I just want to put in a plug for a great website called Before You Know It. It's a nifty site where you can build vocabulary in just about any language you could ever want. And it's absolutely free. I encourage all of you to check it out!

Chita

So I just got back from another amazing Overnighter. Since I've described in a lovely essay in a previous post what is great about Rotary Youth Exchange Overnighters (see 16 Hours) I'm not going to talk about that. Instead, I'd just like to say one thing.


Siberia

Yup, you guessed it. That's where I'm heading. And you know what? I'M STINKIN' EXCITED! I mean think about it. How many tourists to Russia actually go to Sibera? It's awesome! The city that my District people are hoping to send me to is called Chita (Чита). From what I've read so far, it sounds like a neat city. I'm hoping I'll end up there.

I also believe that the district I'll be in in Russia, is the only Rotary district that covers three countries. It covers Russia east of the Ural mountains, Canada's Yukon, and Alaska. Pretty sweet eh? I think I need to change that little clock up there in the left hand corner. While I'm at it, I think that I will also change the language of the blog so it displays the date and stuff in Russian. I cannot wait to go!

EDIT: For now I'm just going to leave the clock as it is. I did change the dates for the posts, but I have to work on the clock thing later.

Transliteration

The other day, Dad and I went to Borders after a lovely little college thingy I had to go to. Naturally, I ended up in the section I usually live in when I go to Borders--The Language Reference, the Russian section in particular. It was there that I discovered something really interesting.

It was in a copy of (and I'm not joking) Russian for Dummies. I thought I'd take a look and so I opened up the book and to my dismay, I realized after about five seconds that the book did not teach cyrillic, rather, it used transliteration to teach words.

Now, normally, I'd have nothing against transliteration, but I've come to realize since beginning my study of Russian that in short, transliteration stinks. It's much easier to pronounce Russian when you actually see the cyrillic letters and furthur more, the alphabet, in all honesty isn't all that hard to learn. But I digress.

It was about ten seconds after I realized that the words in the book had been transliterated, that I had the most shocking of revelations. I couldn't read it! And I'm only slightly exaggerating. I was looking at the English letters. I even knew what the English letters were supposed to sound like. But for the life of me I had the worst time trying to figure out what the words were supposed to be in Russian. It was actually more effort to sit there in Borders and squint at the words, trying to figure out what they were supposed to be, than to sit there with the cyrillic and figure that out. It was a real interesting, eye opening experience. One that I personally, found rather funny. My parents did as well.