So much has happened in the last week and i can't remember what i wrote about last time, so if i start retelling stories, I'm sorry. But if you know anything about me, you'll know that I constantly retell stories anyway! Friday evening, I went out with my host brother, his girlfriend, and his friend Maksim. We went downtown and had coffee at a cafe, and then walked around. Nothing exciting but still fun.
Saturday, however, was incredible! Our group went to this town outside Astrakhan' called Altynzhar. It is a Kazakh town, and we went to this museum complex that was built near the tomb of the most famous Kazakh composer, Kurmangazy. His tomb was beautiful! It is white marble and has the typical Muslim round dome that ends in a point. On the outside there were floral carvings into the marble, and above the wooden door was a carving of a winged horse. Inside were colorful floral mosaics. The land around the tomb looks exactly like Texas! It's very strange. It looks like the drive between Austin and Waco. Haha! After we walked around the tomb, we walked through the museum and learned about Kurmangazy and Kazakh history in the Astrakhan' area. Then, we went outside and then into a yurt. This was awesome! A yurt is the traditional tent Kazakhs live in. Before we went in, we washed our hands and took off our shoes. Inside there were dozens of carpets and colorful fabric hung everywhere. There were tables covered in food! We sat on the ground and ate lunch for like 2 hours, and there were these women singing and playing on this Kazakh guitar, and then they were dancing and made some of us get up and dance with them (including me)! It was the best lunch I've had in a while.
Sunday I went to church at this Orthodox church near my university that I can't remember the name. It was Orthodox Pentecost and the church was so packed with people that it was at least 90 degrees inside. But it was a beautiful church. Someone told me it was the only church in Astrakhan' that was allowed to function as a church under the Soviet Union. Other churches were turned into museums or bus stations or cafeterias for workers. You can definitely see the remnants of the Soviet era more in Astrakhan and other smaller cities than in St. Petersburg. My family, for example, only has positive things to say about the USSR. They tell me about how much better their lives were then, which I can believe. The former Soviet republics have suffered tremendously in the past 17 years and there's still a long road to recovery. All the wealth of the country went straight into the pockets of business men who are known here as oligarchs after the state lost control of the wealth. It's a very sad and difficult situation, and provencial towns get far far less resources from Moscow and the private sector than do places that go boost tourism. There are abandonned train tracks everywhere in Astrakhan' that road has just been built over, and former factories were turned into apartment buildings. Downtown is very nice, but outside of that it's very decrepit.
This week we went to a play at a small black box theater. I enjoyed the play, but there was no air conditioning in the small room packed with people, so the girl I was sitting next to and I took turns fanning eachother with the program. We all died. This weekend we are going to the city of Volgograd north of Astrakhan'. It used to be called Stalingrad and was the turning point in WWII for Russia. More soldiers died in Volgograd than anywhere else in the war. It is Russia's pride. If you've seen the movie Enemy at the Gates, the city they were fighting in was Stalingrad/Volgograd. I'm very excited! There is an enormous war memorial there of Mother Russia calling her soldiers to battle with one hand and pointing her sword toward Germany. I've heard it's amazing. Unfortunately, I can't upload pictures, so maybe I'll email a bunch when I get back. Hope everything is well with you all!

Ross

I'm in Astrakhan' now and i'm starting to get into a rhythm finally! After we left DC is was constant travel and no sleep. We had a two day orienatation in St. Petersburg and also had free time. I met up with some friends and we went to a theme park on kryestovskoye island. I got sick on the way to russia so a russian woman suggested i get activated charcoal at a pharmacy, which i did. no big, i've eaten charcoal! haha! it helped too! they are these little black tablets and you're supposed to eat one for every 10 kg you weigh so i ate six and it turned my tounge black. on saturday, we had to leave the hotel at 3:30 am to fly to astrakhan' so i just went out with some friends who are from st. petersburg and didn't go to bed. it was a long day of travel needless to say. we flew out of st. petersburg at 6 to moscow. we flew from moscow to volgograd and got to volgograd at 11ish in the morning and then we found out our luggage didn't make it...so then we drove 8 hours to astrakhan'. (the astrakhan' airport was closed for repairs.) finally in astrakhan' i rested and did nothing until monday when we started classes. since then, we've had class everyday and last night we went to the theater to hear a philharmonic concert, which was nice.
my family is great! they're wonderful and take such good care of me. there's a mom and a dad (but he's never around), an uncle, and a son who's 25 named ramil'. they're kazakh but their ancestors have lived in Astrakhan' for centuries. (the city is over 500 years old). they are constantly feeding me until i feel like i'm gonna explode! i typically eat two dinners every night. last night, i had 3. my host mom thinks i'm about to die of malnutrition and so every spare moment she's putting food in front of me. and if i'm insistent about not eating (which you have to be in russia, it's costumary to offer things pretty aggressively three times) then she tells me to drink some tea. i drink on average 7 cups a day. if i'm not engaged in consuming some sort of edible substance, my host mom worries. haha! and ramil' tells me where not to go and how to not get into trouble and he takes me to university and picks me up everyday, so they're more than what i could have asked for.
the city is ok. it's like any russian city outside moscow and st. petersburg, meaning you have to renounce any level of convience or comfort you might expect! Astrakhan' is a very old city and was settled my mongols. there's tons of different nationalities and religions here, for expamle my family. culturally they are muslim but ramil' says he's atheist. it's a very diverse city. there's even a buddhist monastery here, in addition to tons of orthodox cathedrals and monasteries. aside from the culture, the city is incredible hot! ugh! it's just like texas! i thought i'd be escaping the heat but it's in the 90's and unforgivabley sunny every day. and in russia, it's strange for adults to wear shorts, so it's suggested we wear pants or jeans and NO sandals. one girl on our trip tried to wear shorts and her host mom wouldn't let her go to class wearing them and made her change! and there's thousands of these little flies and mosquitoes everywhere! you can't escape them! but in two more weeks they'll all be dead everyone tells me. the area around astrakhan' is flat for miles and miles and miles. it looks exactly like what you'd think the stepes would look like. we also saw the kremlin in astrakhan' the other day. in almost every old russian city there's a kremlin in the center of town. kremlin (кремль) just means fortress and theres always a cathedral and other churches and monasteries and government buildings inside. the center of town is really nice with shops and stuff. this weekend we're going to a town called altynzhar to be introduced into kazakh culture and food! it'll be awesome! so unitl then!
до скорого!
Росс

I'm in DC right now and we had orientation all day. It was all really good but long...a bunch of different people spoke to us: some from the state department, some alumni of this program, and then the people in charge of the program went over logistics. the director on the russian side did his whole speech in russian which was our first experience with the russian only pledge. by the way, we signed an agreement saying we'll only speak in russian. afterward i went out with some people to see some monuments. we just walked around the mall and saw Congress, Washington Memorial, and Lincoln Memorial. tomorrow afternoon we fly out for Russia!!!!!!! now i'm tired and going to bed. споклоьный ночи!