Russia's Government

I went to the post office today and mailed off my stuff. I sent my invitation letter and one copy of my guarantee form to the travel agency. The other copy of the guarantee form and a letter went to my exchange coordinator. I didn't overnight the stuff to the travel agency. I went with priority. Maybe I should have gone with overnight. I'm having regrets but it's too late now. It should get there Tuesday or Wednesday.

I became a little nervous after reading This article that my dad sent me. I've decided that it's definitely good that I'm not going to be spending the year in western Russia, Even though I'm far away from Moscow, it still makes me nervous, yet at the same time, I'm intrigued by the obviously changing political climate in Russia. I've been telling mom and dad for months that the way Russia is heading they're going to close up again. So maybe it's a good thing that I'm going. You never know what the future might bring.

It's here!!!

Was sitting at the table reading Harry Potter part VII when a truck with the word up in the plural pulled into the drive. Being still in my pajamas, I ran and hid upstairs while mom answered the door but I know exactly what had arrived. It was what I'd been waiting for since my host family told me they were ready...My official stuff from Russia. Whooo! That's right. I got my guarantee form in the mail! As well as my very spiffy looking thingy from the russian government that says I can enter the country and stay for ten months. This means that I can overnight the stuff to the travel agency and get my visa started! YAY!!!

Rotary Meeting

I went to a Rotary meeting yesterday, it's the club that's sponsoring me. Anyway, It wasn't nearly as boring as I thought it would be. It was actually kind of interesting. The district governor spoke. I found out that this particular Rotary club is going to help put in a skate park in the city. That's a pretty cool thing. I met a bunch of people whose name's I won't remember, but everyone was really friendly and wished me good luck. I got about five banners to take to take to some clubs in Russia. (And I probably get Russian banners to bring back) I think I'm going to try to go back another time or two before I leave.

I hope my guarantee forms come soon. My host sister said they were going to send it on the 20th. I can't wait, because I want my visa. I know I have to have my visa to get into the country, but the reason I really want it is because once I get it, I'll know when I'm shipping out. I have things that I need to plan, but It's hard when I don't know when I'm leaving. Besides, once I have a date people will stop asking when I'm leaving. The same people will stop asking when I'm leaving.

Абигель Рено Фауст

Абигель Рено Фауст
Абигель Рено Фауст
Абигель Рено Фауст
Абигель Рено Фауст

Oh, my goodness, oh my goodnesss AHHHH AHHHH AHHHH!!!! I'M GOING TO RUSSIA!!!! I'M GOING TO RUSSIA! EEEEKKKKKKK! AHHHHHH! *JUMPS UP AND DOWN SCREAMING* WHO'S GOING TO RUSSIA? I AM! I AM!

*breathes deeply*

okay, okay I think I'm good now. See I had a really exciting moment right now. Basically I got an e-mail from my host sister. Another one. Included with it was a copy of my letter of invitation, my official documents and my rotary guarantee form. School starts september first. The Cyrillic that's in the title of my post and is repeated about four times above is how the Russian government decided to spell my name. Now that the ball is rolling I really feel like Russia is coming! I'm actually going!

I found out a little more about where I'll be. I'll be living in an apartment with my host mom. who is an economist and works for some diamond company. They have a poodle. I like dogs, they're nice de-stressers. My host sister said that she would be sending me pictures soon.

Now I just have to send them my address here and they will send me the actual documents. When I get them I can send them to the travel agency and get my visa! whoo hoo! One thing my host sister said I wasn't sure about. I'm not sure if I'll be studying at the university or not because on my guarantee form the seal from the school is from a high school and my hos sister said that they'd decided that I would study in school but then she said I'd be in a humanities program where I'd do lots of Russian. So I'm not really sure where I'm studying. I guess I'll figure it out when I get there. Oh my word I cannot wait!!!!

First Contact

My Russian host sister finally e-mailed me back. Even though her message was short, I learned quite a bit. I found out first of all that my letter of invitation is done and they are going to send it out on the 20th. That's a good thing because I need it to get my visa. The only thing is I don't know if they're sending it here or to my rotary district or directly to the travel agent. I guess I'll figure it out eventually.

The second thing I learned was about my school. The wording was something like this: "As we understood you will be learning in our university, what faculty have you chosen?"

That is about the coolest thing ever. I am going to be studying at the university in Yakutsk. It won't count, but it's still really cool. I think they're putting me in the university because of my age. Most of the Russian students graduate from high school at like 17 and then start university. So that's probably why they're going to have me study there. The answer to her question about the faculty (Which is kind of like a major) is "It's news to me, I have no idea."

Dream

The other night I had a dream. It was so real that at one point in it I stopped and went "wait is this a dream?" I dreamed that I was living with one of my Russian host families. Two parents, three daughters and me. They were speaking Russian and I couldn't understand a lot of what was going on. I spent a lot of time in my room reading Russian magazines. Some times I would talk to my youngest host sister (Who was just adorable). I can't figure out if the Russian being spoken was real Russian or not. It sure sounded like real Russian. I finally realized that it must be a dream because I couldn't remember my last few weeks at home and I couldn't remember the plane ride over.

Everything I do now seems to be centered around Russia in some way. I was at the movies last night with some good friends and I realized as I watched the previews that I won't be here when most of the advertised movies are released. I'm understanding that I won't see my friends for almost a year and that when I get back They'll be different people and so will I. I'm realizing that they are going to do things and have things happen that I won't know about because I'll be in Russia. But then it's the same for me. This time next year I'll be back home, getting ready for college, I wonder how I'll see things. Will it be surreal, coming back home? Probably. I guess I'll find out when I get back.

Behind

but then can you blame me? I just got back home. I spent two weeks in France, one on a mission trip and one visiting my brother in Minnesota. I wanted to see him before Russia. Russia, it's looming closer, but first, France.

If you ever have a chance to travel, do it. If you ever have a chance to live with a family in a foreign country, even for a short time, do it. I spent one week traveling all over France, and one week living with a family in St. Cyr which is near Versaiiles. I had a love/hate relationship with the exchange part of the trip. One thing it did do, was it taught me a lot about what Russia's going to be like. I know that doesn't seem like it makes sense, but it does. In France A lot of the time I had no idea what was going on. I understood more than they thought I did sometimes, but they treated me like I was stupid. Not all the time, but sometimes. I learned about homesickness, I learned about the way people view each other, and it was really interesting to see the cultural differences. I learned a lot about language. Not just French, but my own native language. I came to the conclusion that all my life, I've been ethonocentric and never realized it until I spent that week with a family in France.

Six weeks.
That's all that's left.
I can't believe the thing that I've been waiting months for is almost upon me. I'm not going to lie. I'm scared. I'm leaving everyone and everything behind to go live in a strange country for a year. I was sitting down with my mom, cousin, and grandparents for a lunch in a restaurant today and I thought "Soon I'll be doing this in Russia. I'm comfortable knowing how to order and the customs heres, but soon it'll be different, so much different..." It was a sobering thought.

Six weeks.
I'm starting to feel time pressure. Yeah, I started saying my goodbyes months ago, but now it's different. Now it seems real. My friends from Rotary, the other outbounds are getting ready to leave. Some of them leave in less than a month. I pray their years go well.

Six weeks.
When I was in France and going to and from St. Paul I practiced reading the flight information boards. But I don't know what to do because when I get off the plane in Moscow or St. Petersburg, everything will be in Russian. What if I can't read it?

That reminds me. The travel agent said they're sending me through Europe, not Asia which means it's going to probably take forever to get to Yakutsk. I hate airplanes. It's not that I'm afraid of flying, it's just so uncomfortable. Airports are my favorite though. I love watching all the people coming and going, heading home and on vacation, listening to languages and jet-lagged kids and I'm not being sarcastic either.

France

So I know I haven't really mentioned it because I've been preoccupied with Russia, but I'm gonna be in France the next two weeks. I'm pretty excited. I'll let you all know how it went when I get back.

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.