well, i'm in st. petersburg and i remember how much i love this city! it's so great and unique! it's not like the rest of russia, but it's such a fun place. i'm in mcdonald's right now using free wi-fi! astrakhan' didn't even have wi-fi! haha! before we left a-town our professors threw us a going away slash graduation ceremony and then our last weekend they set us up in a baza-otdykha where we relaxed and swam. i only stayed one day because i want the time to be with my host family and do last minute shopping and packing. our trip up here was fine, and yesterday i went to the hermitage. after that, my friend gary and i met up with our friend masha and went to a cafe downtown for pizza and wine and then hung out the rest of the evening. we went back and i got to bed at like midnight.
thus ends the good stuff. today i found out that lufthansa is on strike and our flights from germany to america were canceled. just canceled! so i don't know when i'll be back...it shouldn't be more than a few days but who knows! i'm so frustrated and just want to get home. i haven't heard anything else so we'll see.
31 July 2008
24 July 2008
I'm almost done with my summer here! It's very weird. I'm excited to go home for sure and go back to Baylor, but I'm gonna miss Russia too. Last Tuesday our group was invited to a mosque in town and toured around there. A man from Egypt who prays there showed us around and talked to us about the history of the mosque and of Islam in Russia. The people who make up the mosque are mostly Tatars. I haven't really managed to find out who the Tatars are. I think they're decended from Mongols, but I'm really fascinated by them. They're one of the major Muslim groups in Russia and mostly live in the south. Their capital is the city of Kazan southeast of Moscow.
After the mosque we were invited over to the Imam's house for tea. The Imam is the equivalent of a Muslim pastor. He leads all the prayers and therefore is a really good singer. His house was one of the old wooden houses that are all over Astrakhan'. My host family says a lot of them are almost 200 years old. They set us up in the dining room and filled us with these Tatar fried pastries filled with beef and tea and cookies and the best cake i've ever had in my life. It's made from honey and almonds. The Imam sang a prayer for us to listen to and it was beautiful. I had no idea what he was saying because it was in Arabic, but it sounded nice. All the Muslims in the room sang with the Imam when he sang "Alla-u akbar"--"God is great," and then afterward everyone ate a pinch of salt. It was really interesting because I know virtually nothing about Islam, and our hosts seemed really excited to have us over since there's a lot of tension right now between America and the Muslim world.
Last Wednesday I went over the my friend Maksim's house with my host brother Ramil' for Maksim's birthday. Maksim lives outside the city in a subburb of Astrakhan', but when I say subburb don't think of pickett finces and school buses...I mean cows in the middle of the road, houses that are a hundred years old, and everyone grows their own vegetables and has chickens in their back yard. His house backs up to the Volga so after dinner we went fishing and I've never experienced so many mosquitoes in my whole life. I didn't know that many mosquitoes were possible in one area. Needless to say, we didn't stay out long before we went back inside.
That weekend I got sick which was no fun but I'm starting to feel better now. Good ol' activated charcoal...seriously, it's my new favorite medicine. I'm buying a bunch and bringing it back with me to the States. Nevertheless, I still went over to Maksim's again with Ramil and his cousin Marad over and went fishing again but this time very early in the morning. We stayed out all morning and fished and swam and played rugby in the water. It was so much fun! I didn't wear any sunscreen so I got pretty burned. Maybe now I won't reflect the sun, however...
Sunday I went to the church near my university and ran into a girl in a program there, so that was nice! Afterward I just went home and then that afternoon I went out into the city with my host family and bought some souvineers for some of yall. ;)
This week's our last week of school and today we had exams all day. Tonight we're having a goodbye dinner. We have to sing and dance...haha! oh well! This weekend we're going to a place called a baz-otdykha. it's where you go to relax and be in nature. It should be pretty cool because we get to go on row boats into the delta of the Volga and maybe see the Caspian. It'll be nice. After that we fly to St. Petersburg and spend two days there and then back to America! This will probably be my last entry while i'm in Russia, so I'll write a post trip entry and upload pictures when I get home. Hope you've enjoyed reading all these! See many of you soon!
After the mosque we were invited over to the Imam's house for tea. The Imam is the equivalent of a Muslim pastor. He leads all the prayers and therefore is a really good singer. His house was one of the old wooden houses that are all over Astrakhan'. My host family says a lot of them are almost 200 years old. They set us up in the dining room and filled us with these Tatar fried pastries filled with beef and tea and cookies and the best cake i've ever had in my life. It's made from honey and almonds. The Imam sang a prayer for us to listen to and it was beautiful. I had no idea what he was saying because it was in Arabic, but it sounded nice. All the Muslims in the room sang with the Imam when he sang "Alla-u akbar"--"God is great," and then afterward everyone ate a pinch of salt. It was really interesting because I know virtually nothing about Islam, and our hosts seemed really excited to have us over since there's a lot of tension right now between America and the Muslim world.
Last Wednesday I went over the my friend Maksim's house with my host brother Ramil' for Maksim's birthday. Maksim lives outside the city in a subburb of Astrakhan', but when I say subburb don't think of pickett finces and school buses...I mean cows in the middle of the road, houses that are a hundred years old, and everyone grows their own vegetables and has chickens in their back yard. His house backs up to the Volga so after dinner we went fishing and I've never experienced so many mosquitoes in my whole life. I didn't know that many mosquitoes were possible in one area. Needless to say, we didn't stay out long before we went back inside.
That weekend I got sick which was no fun but I'm starting to feel better now. Good ol' activated charcoal...seriously, it's my new favorite medicine. I'm buying a bunch and bringing it back with me to the States. Nevertheless, I still went over to Maksim's again with Ramil and his cousin Marad over and went fishing again but this time very early in the morning. We stayed out all morning and fished and swam and played rugby in the water. It was so much fun! I didn't wear any sunscreen so I got pretty burned. Maybe now I won't reflect the sun, however...
Sunday I went to the church near my university and ran into a girl in a program there, so that was nice! Afterward I just went home and then that afternoon I went out into the city with my host family and bought some souvineers for some of yall. ;)
This week's our last week of school and today we had exams all day. Tonight we're having a goodbye dinner. We have to sing and dance...haha! oh well! This weekend we're going to a place called a baz-otdykha. it's where you go to relax and be in nature. It should be pretty cool because we get to go on row boats into the delta of the Volga and maybe see the Caspian. It'll be nice. After that we fly to St. Petersburg and spend two days there and then back to America! This will probably be my last entry while i'm in Russia, so I'll write a post trip entry and upload pictures when I get home. Hope you've enjoyed reading all these! See many of you soon!
14 July 2008
I'm gonna work backward on this one because i'm starting to forget everything since my last entry. So, yesterday was awesome! my family took me into the country and we had a picnic by the river all day. We left in the morning around 10 and drove for an hour or an hour and a half and had to cross the river on a ferry boat with our cars and then drove through a field and parked on the river bank. we set out blankets and cooked shashlik (russian shishkabobs) for lunch and we swam in the river. we played volleyball and soccer and swam some more. we fished and then grilled shashlik again. and just relaxed until about 7 and then drove back home. at one point i fell asleep on the blankets and woke up and had forgotten where I was. It was a really cool sensation. The whole day was really perfect and relaxing. I want to bring this tradition home with me.
Saturday our group drove 4 hours east to this autonomous republic called Kalmykia. Kalmyks are actually Mongols left over from the invasions in the thirteenth century and so they're Buddhist. It was so crazy because all the archicture in the capital was east asian and the people looked east asian, but they were speaking Russian and all the signs were in Russian. It was great! The city was so nice and clean and the roads weren't torn up and the central park was beautiful! There was also a Buddhist temple there that we went to. It's the largest Buddhist temple in Europe and it was beautiful! I've never been to a Buddhist temple before and go figure my first one is in russia! Inside there was this huge statue Buddha and benches and incese is burning and there's this chanting music playing in the background. It was really peaceful. The temple had like 7 floors but normal people are only allowed on the first two, which actually take up like 70% of the temple. The top 5 are reserved for monks and the top floor i think is reserved only for the Dalai Lhama. Anyway, it was really interesting. Then we went to the City of Chess. Yes, a city devoted entirely to the game of Chess. However, the museum was 800 rubles per person which is like 32 dollars which is outrageous for here, so we used the toilet/hole in the ground with walls and left. The drive was really nice because it was through the steppe and there is nothing for miles and miles. i'm talking, maybe a bush and some cows. I think it's beautiful.
Friday I went to the beach on the Volga with my friend Maksim and these two girls, Anna and Lyena. That was really great! I'm really enjoying my time here now. It's been difficult, but now that I've figured out the place and the people and am making friends, I really love it here. It's such an interesting culture. There a huge Muslim influence and then a huge Orthodox Christian influence and a lot of communist influence, but I feel like Russia is more influenced by Islam and Orthodoxy than communism.
Last week we went on a tour of the religious buildings of Astrakhan'. We saw three Orthodox churches, a mosque and a Catholic Cathedral. That was for sure interesting. Tomorrow we're going to a big mosque and having a Tatar dinner at the mosque. Tatars are muslim people i think of either Turkic or Mongol decent, and their food is delicious, so i'm excited. Last weekend we had the whole weekend off and my host brother and his girlfriend and I walked around the city.
I've only got 2 weeks left in Astrakhan' and i'm excited to go home, but I'm also sad. I like it here and I'm going to miss my host family. Hopefully I'll have more time to write this week. I won't miss school, that's for sure...I'm so tired of it.
Saturday our group drove 4 hours east to this autonomous republic called Kalmykia. Kalmyks are actually Mongols left over from the invasions in the thirteenth century and so they're Buddhist. It was so crazy because all the archicture in the capital was east asian and the people looked east asian, but they were speaking Russian and all the signs were in Russian. It was great! The city was so nice and clean and the roads weren't torn up and the central park was beautiful! There was also a Buddhist temple there that we went to. It's the largest Buddhist temple in Europe and it was beautiful! I've never been to a Buddhist temple before and go figure my first one is in russia! Inside there was this huge statue Buddha and benches and incese is burning and there's this chanting music playing in the background. It was really peaceful. The temple had like 7 floors but normal people are only allowed on the first two, which actually take up like 70% of the temple. The top 5 are reserved for monks and the top floor i think is reserved only for the Dalai Lhama. Anyway, it was really interesting. Then we went to the City of Chess. Yes, a city devoted entirely to the game of Chess. However, the museum was 800 rubles per person which is like 32 dollars which is outrageous for here, so we used the toilet/hole in the ground with walls and left. The drive was really nice because it was through the steppe and there is nothing for miles and miles. i'm talking, maybe a bush and some cows. I think it's beautiful.
Friday I went to the beach on the Volga with my friend Maksim and these two girls, Anna and Lyena. That was really great! I'm really enjoying my time here now. It's been difficult, but now that I've figured out the place and the people and am making friends, I really love it here. It's such an interesting culture. There a huge Muslim influence and then a huge Orthodox Christian influence and a lot of communist influence, but I feel like Russia is more influenced by Islam and Orthodoxy than communism.
Last week we went on a tour of the religious buildings of Astrakhan'. We saw three Orthodox churches, a mosque and a Catholic Cathedral. That was for sure interesting. Tomorrow we're going to a big mosque and having a Tatar dinner at the mosque. Tatars are muslim people i think of either Turkic or Mongol decent, and their food is delicious, so i'm excited. Last weekend we had the whole weekend off and my host brother and his girlfriend and I walked around the city.
I've only got 2 weeks left in Astrakhan' and i'm excited to go home, but I'm also sad. I like it here and I'm going to miss my host family. Hopefully I'll have more time to write this week. I won't miss school, that's for sure...I'm so tired of it.
01 July 2008
As you may have noticed, it's been a while since i've written! well, a lot has happened! so from the top!
After our Kazakh weekend, we had a normal week of class. Class is getting easier because I'm getting more adjusted to speaking and hearing only Russian. We also went on excursions during the week. One was to a black box theatre to see a play some students from the university put on. The play was really good and I enjoyed it, however, the black box was on the fourth floor of a building (keep in mind there isn't air conditioning in Russia) and it was around 95 outside and the small room was filled with over 30 people. That I did not enjoy. Our other excursion was to the local newspaper called Volga. We toured the press and the part where the journalists write. We also met with some of the journalists and asked questions. That evening it poured rain and the entire city flooded. Astrakhan' is 450 years old, but for some reason, in those 450 years, no one built a drainage system. So on my way home that evening, water was literally up to the doors of my host brother's car. He told me to watch the floor to make sure water wasn't spilling it. Cars were stranded in the streets because they had flooded and the drive that usually takes us 15 minutes took us an hour and a half. I also ran through puddles that were to my mid-shins! It was so much fun! The next day, Friday the 20, we were leaving for Volgograd, and that's when the fun ended.
Public transportation in Astrakhan' is all done on what's called marshrutkas, which are basically privately owned minivans that drive routes around the city and you just tell the driver to stop when you want him to. I haven't had any problems until this time. Somewhere between getting off the marshrutka and walking to my apartment, my wallet was stolen. For some reason, I didn't put it in my school bag that zips, but i put it in my grocery bag. The marshrutka was really crowded and i couldn't fiddle around with my bag to open it, so I figured my wallet would be fine in the grocery bag that was in my hand. But no. In the 2 minutes I wasn't overly cautious between the marshrutka and home, i lost my wallet. Needless to say I was very upset. I made a bunch of phone calls and then had to get on the train to go to Volgograd. And then when I got to the train station, I realized I forgot my passport. Does this sound like a fimilar Ross story, because it should! So my host brother drove back home to get it, while I got out and talked to the Russian militsia with a woman named Lyuba who works at the university. I had to report a stolen wallet (all in Russian) to the scary Russian police who we are advised to avoid at all costs unless we absolutely have to talk to them. They're the people you usually have to bribe, but they didn't bother me which was nice. My brother came back with my passport and then I got on the train with the rest of my group.
The train was an overnighter and was somewhat interesting. We got to Volgograd at like 8 in the morning and then got breakfast at this nasty place we ate at when we flew in to Volgograd. After breakfast we walked around the city with a tour guide straight out of the USSR (which i've really grown to love!--Soviet tour guides, not the actual USSR...). Volgograd is a beautiful city! I loved it! It was very clean and modern and had a drainage system! ;) (my host mom says Astrakhan' is a big village, not a city...it's true) I would love to go back to Volgograd.
Volgograd's first name was Tsaritsa, which means empress (like the Tsar's wife), but well after the October Revolution (1917) during the reign of Stalin, he had the city renamed to Stalingrad. After Stalin's death, the Soviet Union under Khruschev underwent a de-Stalinization period trying to erase the cult of personality surrounding him. So, in turn, Stalingrad was renamed Volgograd. During the Second World War, Stalingrad was the turning point for Russia. The Nazis had invaded and had made it all the was to the city and besieged it for over a year. At one point, the Nazis held all but a few blocks in the center of the city, but Russia eventually drove them out of Stalingrad and then out of Russia and were the first to reach Berlin. If you've seen the movie Enemy at the Gates, it takes place in Stalingrad and is about a famous sniper named Vasiliy Zaitsev. Interesting side note: when talking about WWII, Russians don't call it WWII, they call it the Great Patriotic War and the don't refer to the invaders as Germans, they call them Fascists, which I appreciate because it wasn't Germans who decided to do all that, it was the Nazis and Germans today face huge adversity in overcoming the stigma of Nazism.
Sorry for the history, but it's important to understanding Volgograd. So, there was communist paraphanelia and war-glory artwork everywhere. There is this famous monument we saw in Volgograd called the Monument of the Motherland. I'm not sure if that's what it's called in English but that's the Russian name translated. This monument was by far the most amazing monument i've ever seen. It really made you feel how awful the war was and all the thousands of people that died. More people died in Stalingrad than anywhere else in WWII including Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The monument is a complex of statues and ponds and there's a rotunda with the names of the Soviet soldiers who died in the battle carved into the walls. The rotunda is maybe three stories tall and emmense. There's an eternal flame lit in the middle with soldiers who guard it around the clock. The centerpiece of the complex is a statue of the motherland. It is the largest statue in the world, and I can't describe to you how magnificent it is. It's an incredibly dramatic statue of a woman running toward the Volga with her head and left hand turned back behind her calling her sons to battle, and her right hand is holding a sword pointed to the West. Google this so you can see it or click on the link on my blog to the blog of this girl named Shelley who is also in Astrakhan'. She has pictures of it. Unfortunately, my camera died... :( There was also a memorial church built after the collapse of the Soviet Union to commenerate the dead.
After the Motherland, we went to a museum dedicated to the War and poked around there for a while, and then we went to a planetarium. Why they thought going to a planetarium after a full day of walking around was a good idea is beyond me, but I slept through the whole thing. At lunch, the resteraunt served us all livers so i didn't eat and neither did anyone else. I'm a very adventurous eater but I refuse to touch liver. I physically cannot chew it and swallow it.
That night we got back on the train and rode back to Astrakhan'. We got back at about 6 am and i slept until noon. The week was normal with class. Friday a group of us went to an outdoor cafe after class for a beer and shashlik. Shashlik is like Russian shishkabobs, and they're amazing! They're my favorite food in Russia.
This past weekend we had another excursion, however, this one sucked. We left the university at 9 and then drove for two hours, told to get off the bus and walk up a dirt path in 90 degree heat. 30 minutes later we walked up a hill looked around and then walked back to the bus. Then we drove to an old dacha that was the summer house of someone famous. It had been converted into a museum and the upstairs was packed with as much Soviet things as possible: statues of Lenin, picutres of Stalin eating caviar, war propoganda, blah blah blah. I've had my fill of socialist art for a while! Then we drove a bit more and were told to get out again and walked for 30 minutes to look at the stepe and pick up scraps of pottery that were hundreds of years old. I took some with me because I figured I earned it for having to go on this dumb field trip. Then we went to a museum that was dedicated to the history of fishing...that was invigorrating. There were stuffed fish, boats, nets and pictures of people fished everywhere. This museum was in a village called Ikranoe which means caviar village, so what did we have for lunch? Not caviar, but room temperature fish that was not fresh and fish and noodle soup...Pretty bad. Haha! It's funny now though!
Sunday I went to church in the morning at this church in a predominatly Tatar neighborhood. My host mom wanted to go the the Tatar Bazaar, so she rode with me on the marshrutka and shopped while I was at church. I was ready to go on time just to the church near our apartment, but she insisted so I was an hour late! Haha! That's normal in Russia. The rest of the day I rested and did homework and then this week class again! Next weekend we don't have any excursions so my family wants to take me to the country to fish and cook shashlik and they also want to take me to this place on the Volga where we can watch the lotus flowers open up and night. It should be really cool! This Friday for 4th of July, our group is going to the beach on the river to hang out and I'm cooking my family an "American" meal. The problem is, I only know how to make foreign food! Haha! I'll figure it out! Until next time!
Ross
After our Kazakh weekend, we had a normal week of class. Class is getting easier because I'm getting more adjusted to speaking and hearing only Russian. We also went on excursions during the week. One was to a black box theatre to see a play some students from the university put on. The play was really good and I enjoyed it, however, the black box was on the fourth floor of a building (keep in mind there isn't air conditioning in Russia) and it was around 95 outside and the small room was filled with over 30 people. That I did not enjoy. Our other excursion was to the local newspaper called Volga. We toured the press and the part where the journalists write. We also met with some of the journalists and asked questions. That evening it poured rain and the entire city flooded. Astrakhan' is 450 years old, but for some reason, in those 450 years, no one built a drainage system. So on my way home that evening, water was literally up to the doors of my host brother's car. He told me to watch the floor to make sure water wasn't spilling it. Cars were stranded in the streets because they had flooded and the drive that usually takes us 15 minutes took us an hour and a half. I also ran through puddles that were to my mid-shins! It was so much fun! The next day, Friday the 20, we were leaving for Volgograd, and that's when the fun ended.
Public transportation in Astrakhan' is all done on what's called marshrutkas, which are basically privately owned minivans that drive routes around the city and you just tell the driver to stop when you want him to. I haven't had any problems until this time. Somewhere between getting off the marshrutka and walking to my apartment, my wallet was stolen. For some reason, I didn't put it in my school bag that zips, but i put it in my grocery bag. The marshrutka was really crowded and i couldn't fiddle around with my bag to open it, so I figured my wallet would be fine in the grocery bag that was in my hand. But no. In the 2 minutes I wasn't overly cautious between the marshrutka and home, i lost my wallet. Needless to say I was very upset. I made a bunch of phone calls and then had to get on the train to go to Volgograd. And then when I got to the train station, I realized I forgot my passport. Does this sound like a fimilar Ross story, because it should! So my host brother drove back home to get it, while I got out and talked to the Russian militsia with a woman named Lyuba who works at the university. I had to report a stolen wallet (all in Russian) to the scary Russian police who we are advised to avoid at all costs unless we absolutely have to talk to them. They're the people you usually have to bribe, but they didn't bother me which was nice. My brother came back with my passport and then I got on the train with the rest of my group.
The train was an overnighter and was somewhat interesting. We got to Volgograd at like 8 in the morning and then got breakfast at this nasty place we ate at when we flew in to Volgograd. After breakfast we walked around the city with a tour guide straight out of the USSR (which i've really grown to love!--Soviet tour guides, not the actual USSR...). Volgograd is a beautiful city! I loved it! It was very clean and modern and had a drainage system! ;) (my host mom says Astrakhan' is a big village, not a city...it's true) I would love to go back to Volgograd.
Volgograd's first name was Tsaritsa, which means empress (like the Tsar's wife), but well after the October Revolution (1917) during the reign of Stalin, he had the city renamed to Stalingrad. After Stalin's death, the Soviet Union under Khruschev underwent a de-Stalinization period trying to erase the cult of personality surrounding him. So, in turn, Stalingrad was renamed Volgograd. During the Second World War, Stalingrad was the turning point for Russia. The Nazis had invaded and had made it all the was to the city and besieged it for over a year. At one point, the Nazis held all but a few blocks in the center of the city, but Russia eventually drove them out of Stalingrad and then out of Russia and were the first to reach Berlin. If you've seen the movie Enemy at the Gates, it takes place in Stalingrad and is about a famous sniper named Vasiliy Zaitsev. Interesting side note: when talking about WWII, Russians don't call it WWII, they call it the Great Patriotic War and the don't refer to the invaders as Germans, they call them Fascists, which I appreciate because it wasn't Germans who decided to do all that, it was the Nazis and Germans today face huge adversity in overcoming the stigma of Nazism.
Sorry for the history, but it's important to understanding Volgograd. So, there was communist paraphanelia and war-glory artwork everywhere. There is this famous monument we saw in Volgograd called the Monument of the Motherland. I'm not sure if that's what it's called in English but that's the Russian name translated. This monument was by far the most amazing monument i've ever seen. It really made you feel how awful the war was and all the thousands of people that died. More people died in Stalingrad than anywhere else in WWII including Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The monument is a complex of statues and ponds and there's a rotunda with the names of the Soviet soldiers who died in the battle carved into the walls. The rotunda is maybe three stories tall and emmense. There's an eternal flame lit in the middle with soldiers who guard it around the clock. The centerpiece of the complex is a statue of the motherland. It is the largest statue in the world, and I can't describe to you how magnificent it is. It's an incredibly dramatic statue of a woman running toward the Volga with her head and left hand turned back behind her calling her sons to battle, and her right hand is holding a sword pointed to the West. Google this so you can see it or click on the link on my blog to the blog of this girl named Shelley who is also in Astrakhan'. She has pictures of it. Unfortunately, my camera died... :( There was also a memorial church built after the collapse of the Soviet Union to commenerate the dead.
After the Motherland, we went to a museum dedicated to the War and poked around there for a while, and then we went to a planetarium. Why they thought going to a planetarium after a full day of walking around was a good idea is beyond me, but I slept through the whole thing. At lunch, the resteraunt served us all livers so i didn't eat and neither did anyone else. I'm a very adventurous eater but I refuse to touch liver. I physically cannot chew it and swallow it.
That night we got back on the train and rode back to Astrakhan'. We got back at about 6 am and i slept until noon. The week was normal with class. Friday a group of us went to an outdoor cafe after class for a beer and shashlik. Shashlik is like Russian shishkabobs, and they're amazing! They're my favorite food in Russia.
This past weekend we had another excursion, however, this one sucked. We left the university at 9 and then drove for two hours, told to get off the bus and walk up a dirt path in 90 degree heat. 30 minutes later we walked up a hill looked around and then walked back to the bus. Then we drove to an old dacha that was the summer house of someone famous. It had been converted into a museum and the upstairs was packed with as much Soviet things as possible: statues of Lenin, picutres of Stalin eating caviar, war propoganda, blah blah blah. I've had my fill of socialist art for a while! Then we drove a bit more and were told to get out again and walked for 30 minutes to look at the stepe and pick up scraps of pottery that were hundreds of years old. I took some with me because I figured I earned it for having to go on this dumb field trip. Then we went to a museum that was dedicated to the history of fishing...that was invigorrating. There were stuffed fish, boats, nets and pictures of people fished everywhere. This museum was in a village called Ikranoe which means caviar village, so what did we have for lunch? Not caviar, but room temperature fish that was not fresh and fish and noodle soup...Pretty bad. Haha! It's funny now though!
Sunday I went to church in the morning at this church in a predominatly Tatar neighborhood. My host mom wanted to go the the Tatar Bazaar, so she rode with me on the marshrutka and shopped while I was at church. I was ready to go on time just to the church near our apartment, but she insisted so I was an hour late! Haha! That's normal in Russia. The rest of the day I rested and did homework and then this week class again! Next weekend we don't have any excursions so my family wants to take me to the country to fish and cook shashlik and they also want to take me to this place on the Volga where we can watch the lotus flowers open up and night. It should be really cool! This Friday for 4th of July, our group is going to the beach on the river to hang out and I'm cooking my family an "American" meal. The problem is, I only know how to make foreign food! Haha! I'll figure it out! Until next time!
Ross
18 June 2008
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
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
11 June 2008
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
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
03 June 2008
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!
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