Amanda Goes East (and other stories)

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What's happened lately? Если честно, I've kinda forgotten. So, sometime ..........
Alright, this is funny. I'm sitting in the university right now and this kid is dancing to Georgian (or perhaps Azerbaijani, considering that's what his shirt says) music that's playing on someone else's cellphone. For real dancing too, he actually knows the moves and is jumping and such. The girl who's playing the music seems to be his dance teacher. That was somewhat unexpected. The dancer was at Chat Hour on Monday, but I told him hello and he looked at me blankly and said привет, so perhaps he's forgotten who I am.

Where was I? Ah, yes. So, sometime this month, in the vicinity of 2 weeks ago, I went to Moscow for my Fulbright orientation. It didn't really orient me, but it was a nice break from work. This lecturing stuff is tiring. I'm getting pretty tired of talking about family, hobbies, and where I'm from.

Now the girl is dancing too. They seem like fun.

So in Moscow, when I wasn't waiting in security at the American embassy or learning about English grammar, I was exploring the city. By the city, I mostly mean the metro. On the first day I tried to go to red square, but it was closed for Putin's birthday. He is so inconsiderate. If he was going to close Moscow's biggest attraction on the only day that I had a lot of free time he could have at least had the decency to invite me to the party. Gosh.

Additionally, the girl is dancing in 6-inch heels and holding the cellphone. Takes talent.

On the way to and from Moscow I took the train. It's 18 hours, but not too bad since about 10 of those hours are at night. This time I was in a full женский coupe, which means only women and mostly older women. I think next time I'll just go with the general platzcart. However, I was pleased that I managed to both find my way to and from the train station in Tolyatti, which I hadn't had to do yet. The solution was pretty simple: a taxi. I wouldn't quite say that I'm a pro at taxi calling, but it's not nearly so intimidating as it used to be. Nothing is quite as intimidating as it used to be. One day I even went by myself to meet up with a realtor and look at an apartment. Yeah. I'm so brave.

Speaking of apartments, I finally have one! It's hideously expensive for this area, so it's costing me a whole $330 a month (depending on the value of the ruble). However, it was recently remodeled, so even though it's small, it's pretty nice. I've spent 2 nights there, and I'm starting to get used to it. The first day I was completely disoriented and without internet, so I dejectedly yet determinedly walked to the grocery store and bought food. I intended to make a celebratory frozen pizza since I now had my very own oven. When I got home I turned on the oven to preheat, and when I came back after about 10 minutes it wasn't even warm! Now, this oven/stove duo is a fairly modern gas variant that has a starter button for lighting it. Great, right? Yeah...the button is broken. The landlady discovered this the other day and left me matches for the stove. No big deal, lighting a match and holding it next to the stove isn't particularly troubling or challenging. There is something that I didn't think about and that she didn't mention though: the oven. In general, I just turn the magical knob to the number that I want and wait a few minutes. However, while I thought that I had mastered the whole oven-using thing, I found myself with no heat in the oven, no pizza, and a fear that I was filling the entire apartment with gas. So, I quickly shut it off, turned on the fan, opened the window, and sulked for a little bit. I really wanted that pizza. My internet also wasn't working so I couldn't consult it to figure out how to make this pizza night work. After waiting long enough that I was certain I wouldn't blow up the entire apartment block, I made french toast instead for my first meal. Satisfying, but not as much as pizza. I also had to sacrifice a bit of my coveted maple syrup that I found in Moscow. Syrup, by the way, is not something widely available in Russia. Neither is peanut butter or tortilla chips. Or regular lettuce. Stop and think about this for a second. Here is what I usually make when I'm in charge of feeding myself:

-French toast

-waffles

-nachos

-peanut butter and jelly sandwiches

-salads

-spaghetti o's

-grilled cheese

Uhh....yeah. So, I've been making a lot of grilled cheese, and I brought along a jar of peanut butter. I guess it's time to learn how to make new (some might say "real') food. The landlady is coming over tonight with some other things though, so I'll mention the oven then. She seems like the type of person who can get things done, so maybe she'll have someone come over and fix it. I really don't fancy having to crawl into the oven and light an elusive pilot light every time that I want to bake tasty things.

I also have a washing machine! However, at the moment I'm completely intimidated by it and try not to touch it when I'm in the bathroom. Russian washing machines have a sort of mystique surrounding them. They are usually the most prized possession of any babushka lucky enough to own one. Usually foreigners aren't allowed to touch them. In Irkutsk I could use the washing machine, but only with babushka supervision. They are extremely fragile beings. Generally there is a draining tube that hangs over into the bathroom when you want to use it, but mine doesn't seem to have this. I think mine might actually be connected to the wall. I will verify this tonight when the landlady comes. Along with not blowing up my shiny new apartment, I also don't want to flood it.

Today I'm going with a friend to see about setting up some new internet. It will probably take a while to get set up, and I'm not sure how I go about paying for it (since mailed bills here don't really seem ideal), but it's good internet and I want it. I'm talking good enough to start a movie online and watch it all the way to the end without having to stop and wait for it to load. Right now I have to wait 30 minutes to watch a youtube video. I've been fantasizing about this kind of internet ever since I got here. Which, by the way, was only a month and 10 days ago, which seems impossibly short. If you think about it though, the longest amount of time that I've been in Russia was one semester (3/3.5 ish months), so I'm about halfway through the longest time that I've ever been in Russia. Thinking back to Irkutsk, after a month and 1/2 I was feeling pretty settled, so I guess it is a respectable amount of time. I'm ready for an America break though. Mostly I just miss people.

I've met a fair amount of people, but so far not many that I think "Hey! We're going to be lifelong friends!" I miss close friendships, after college I got pretty used to it. It's always hard having to start from scratch someplace new. University students here are so young.

However, Moscow was really nice because I got to see Kendra! It was both odd and normal to see her in Russia. I really enjoyed just having normal hang-out time. Being the token American makes me really miss normalcy. Kendra has a pretty nice apartment way out in the middle-of-nowhere, Moscow. However, it could be worse. In honor of Canadian Thanksgiving (who knew there was such a thing?) we went to another teacher's apartment. This teacher really does live in the middle-of-nowhere. She doesn't even have a metro stop! After much trial and tribulation we finally found her apartment, which was full of many other people who apparently had no troubles at all with directions. Most of the food was gone, but the company was nice. So many English speakers in one place. I was having culture shock.

When it came time to get home we were in for even more troubles (primarily thanks to a tardy pumpkin pie. I don't even really like pumpkin pie!). The last bus from the apartment to the metro leaves at about 11. So, at 10:55ish when I was attempting to drag Kendra and the pie out of the kitchen, I asked one of the guys who lived there which buses we could take. He told me the numbers, and then said that one of them had just left. Weeelll...we went to the stop and took our chances. I consoled myself by thinking that even if we had missed the bus we could still just take a taxi to the metro station. If any taxis would stop, which they wouldn't. Apparently out of the 3 of us waiting we were all woefully inadequate at waving down taxis. There also weren't any of the usual taxi ads plastered to the sides of the bus stop or written on massive billboards. Even the sketchy taxi just hanging out on the side of the road near us ignored us. After 10 minutes of this we gave up and decided to go to a different bus stop on a slightly more major road. To get there we had to pass a stop light. Stopped at the red was an empty taxi, which I pounced on. Not literally, but almost. We all jumped in and I asked how much to the metro. He said 800 rubles, and so I looked him in the face and just told him НЕТ and then we got out of the taxi. While we were waiting dejectedly at the other bus stop an unmarked black car glided over and parked near us, obviously wanting our attention. I pointedly ignored it (because I'm distrustful), and so he backed up. I sighed and went over. The conversation was something like this:

Driver: Where do you want to go?

Me: How much to the metro station?
D: *hears accent* Where are you from?
M: That's not important, how much to the metro?
D: Where are you from?
M: Maybe I'll tell you when we get to the metro if you give us a good price.

D: Why won't you tell me where you're from? How much will you pay me?
M:....400 rubles?

D: 400? I'll do it for 200.

M: ok! *we all get in*

Along the way I chatted with the driver, and eventually revealed that we were a group of American English teachers. He wanted to know what would bring us to Russia, and particularly this area, so I told him. Then he wanted to know what was interesting about Russia, so I told him that too. Kendra is of the opinion that I buttered him up a little, but I still maintain that everything I said is my honest opinion. Russia is one of the most interesting places in the world, it's the biggest country in the world (and thus very important), and I like the people and blini best. After about 15 minutes we arrived at the metro, and when I got out 200 rubles to pay him, he told me to keep it. So..while I was kind of irked by missing the bus over pumpkin pie and our taxi troubles, we did save 50 rubles by not taking the bus (transportation in Moscow is ridiculously expensive, by the way!).

This week my clubs are starting up and my Russian lessons too. This means that I'm about doubly as busy now. I need a weekend! Sadly, Fridays are my longest days. I start at 8:30 and end around 6. There is a break in there, but it's more annoying than anything since I don't just live across the street now. So, there's a random 2 hour break. I probably will just waste the dollar it takes to go home and take that time to eat lunch. I don't know, we'll see. Life is starting to get a lot more expensive. Oh, about Friday though, Fridays are so long in part because they involve Movie Time. While this sounds fun, and it is mostly, I still have to do work for it. This week we're watching The Beverly Hillbillies. This is mostly because all I have are the movies that were on my ipod, so my choices are sort of slim. I think they'll like it though! Last week we watched The Truman Show. They were particularly amused by the bathtub man. It's always interesting to see which parts make people in different countries laugh.

This is getting pretty long, but there's still another important bit of news that I found out about yesterday. One of my teachers from Русская Школа, Елена Николаевна Щепина, died this week. She got sick in the middle of our program and had to return to Russia, but I was hopeful that she was getting better. She's one of the nicest and sweetest people ever and even though she was always tired and in pain I'm glad that we got to have her for a couple of weeks of classes. RIP Елена Николаевна.

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Well, here we are, the 1st of October already. Perhaps "already" isn't quite the word that I'm looking for. Time has actually been going by pretty slowly. However, I have the sneaky suspicion that things are about to start going considerably faster. I'm just finishing up my 3rd week here in Tolyatti, and I'm starting to feel relatively settled. I looked at my first apartment on Wednesday, but I'm not especially excited about that one, so I'll hope that there are better apartments available. I am, however, excited about having a place of my own. When you're in a foreign country especially you need something of your own. Some little corner that you can claim for America...or at least pay to borrow for America. I have my rooms at the dorm, but it's still not quite "mine." One of the things that I'm going to miss the most and be the most thankful for is not being quite so easily accessible to people.

One of the biggest annoyances to me right now is having to switch back and forth between languages all the time. When I'm in class (logically) I speak English. A lot. This means that anytime anyone at the university tries to speak to me in Russian my reflexes and comprehension are pretty slow since my mind is set to English mode. Then in the evenings at the dorm I speak Russian with my friends. After I've had a few minutes to get readjusted I do just fine...but until that point it's pretty bad. I stumble, I'm slow, and of course I have an awful accent. I've never really thought that I had that bad of an accent, but I guess I'm usually around Russians who are more used to foreigners. They say it's "interesting," but all the same I'd like to try to minimize it. I haven't gotten a straight answer about if it's a pleasant accent or not...so I'd guess it probably isn't. Russian accents aren't usually considered particularly musical in English either though, so I guess it wouldn't be fair if American accents sounded great in Russian.

Next week I have orientation in Moscow, which should be much more enjoyable than the orientation that I had in July. First of all, I actually want to go and I won't mind being away from Tolyatti nearly as much as I minded being away from Middlebury, and second of all....well..that's probably about it, actually. I doubt that it will be the most exciting thing that I've ever done in my lifetime, or even this month, but it's a vacation from work and I'll get to see some friends. I'll also get to eat well...which I hate to admit I have not been doing lately. I promise I'll do better when I get my own kitchen! Also, my tolerance for sandwiches will probably run out fairly soon.

I'm starting to get the hang of this whole presentation/public speaking stuff. That's pretty much what I do. I don't really do any "teaching" at all because I don't see the same students very often. I have 2 groups that I see every week, but the remaining 7 groups or so I probably see every 3 weeks. Actually, aside from the regular groups I haven't seen any of the groups more than once. This is both good and bad. It's good because it means that I can recycle presentations now and then, but bad because sometimes it doesn't seem right to just jump into a topic without working up to it. I'm also starting to get really good at just talking a lot. It seems to me that the usual strategy is to just put me in a room with students and make me stay there for 1.5 hours. What I do during that time is up to me. Very often there are far too many people to interact with individually, so I just have to talk and ask questions every now and then. My favorites are the smaller advanced groups because we can actually do stuff. Very often this involves me drawing things on the white board (my method of choice). It amuses me, and generally them as well, so we all win. Bigger beginner groups usually just get power point...which isn't as interesting for any of us. The only plus is that it involves pictures.

Today was kind of odd though. I was told to only prepare something that would take up 20-30 minutes. It was the first time when the teacher actually had their own lessons plans, and I actually felt a little rushed. Generally I spend a lot of time stalling and trying to speak slowly and ask questions to take up time. Today I just went in, talked about some stuff, and left...and now I'm sitting bored in the teacher's lounge. I actually would have liked to have stayed and talked longer with this group because they seemed cool, but the teacher was watching his watch pretty closely, so I made a speedy exit. I would have particularly liked to have talked to one girl more...she spent the summer in Seward, Alaska. Seward! How random is that? Unfortunately, she did not know the Chases...but still, Seward is pretty awesome. I wanted to ask her what she thought of it.

The weather is starting to get colder, which annoys me. Let me set the record straight again: just because I'm from Alaska and I like Russia does NOT mean that I like the cold. I actually hate it. I just know what I have to do to endure it (which is maybe why I hate it?). My room in the dorm is always really cold too..which makes me glad that I won't be there during the winter (although I've been told that once they turn the heat on it will be really hot..typical dorm). After the unbearable heat this summer I thought it would take a long time before I complained about a room being cold again. Well, the current cold is far less miserable than when I had to sleep with no blankets, minimal clothing, and a fan pointed at my face...but it still makes me pouty when I have to get out of my warm bed in the mornings. My feet get cold!

Besides this not a whole lot has been going on. It's a pretty quiet town. Next week I should start taking Russian lessons. The grant says that I have to have 10 private tutoring hours or 20 hours of group lessons...and I am choosing the 10 hours. Where I will fit them all I don't really know, but I will certainly be busy. It's also hard because my schedule changes at random every week..so finding 10 hours when I'm never in class might be a challenge. I'm excited about continuing with Russian though!

No pictures yet, but that's the internet's fault. It really is bad. It does alright for checking e-mail, and it's a million times better than no internet at all...but anyone who has tried to have a regular conversation with me in the last few weeks knows that it is extremely flaky and volatile. It likes to play mind games too. Sneaky, sneaky internet. I have plans to replace it after I get back from Moscow though. The guys down the hall (who have great internet) have already agreed to help me. Can't wait!

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Well, week one has come and gone. Most weeks probably won't be like this, which is both good and bad. The good part is that I've hardly been working at all because people have been giving me time to get settled and teachers don't know their regular schedules yet. The bad part is that I really haven't known what I'm doing. It's taken a week to try to figure out just what sorts of things I should be talking about and what my position is -- am I just a lecturer, am I a teacher, am I just supposed to lead discussions, or is there something else? Well, I don't QUITE have all of this figured out yet, but I think I'm something in between. I'm supposed to think of America-specific topics, share my knowledge, and then try to get the class to talk as much as possible...which means that I need to start brainstorming games and other such sneaky teacher tactics. The hard part is that with the exception of 2 groups I won't be seeing the same students regularly. This means that I have to overcome my innate desire to introduce myself every time I see a new class. I will also have to get over my love of logical progression as far as themes go.

Tolyatti/Togliatti (I like Tolyatti because that's the name in Russian, but on most maps it will be Togliatti) is a big town as far as numbers go, but little when it comes to the atmosphere. A huge contributing factor is that the town is actually physically split up into 3 sections (with woods in between...bizarre, but sort of nice). While it's bigger than Irkutsk, the transportation system doesn't seem as advanced...if one could call Irkutsk's transportation system advanced. I've seen a few buses, but these seem to be the exception rather than the rule when it comes to getting around. Mostly people rely on either their own cars or marshrutki, which are generally yellow ~15 seater vans that zip around at breakneck speeds and more or less have regularly marked routes. In Irkutsk I generally avoided them because 1) it cost more, 2) you have to know exactly where you're going so that you can tell the driver to stop, 3) you had to yell out the name of the stop that you wanted...and there's a lot of pressure involved with that! Here they're pretty unavoidable unless you want to take a taxi everywhere (even though they're very cheap..about 50 rubles/$1.60 to go from one part of town to another). Tolyatti marshrutki have taken a small step toward atoning for any discomfort/confusing that they may cause though. Rather than yelling in an uncivilized manner each row of seats is equipped with a buzzer to let the driver know when to stop. You can now pass the entire trip in complete silence! Some of the seats face backwards though, so there is still plenty of awkward eye contact to keep you busy.

Today I didn't have any classes, so I took my first solo Tolyatti marshrutka trip. Luckily technology is catching up to Russia and you can now look on the internet and find out which marshrutki and bus numbers go to the area that you're trying to get to. Additionally the map has all of the stop names on it. This will only help you when it comes to making sure you get in the correct vehicle. The only place that you'll ever find the names of stops written is on maps and on the sides of buses and marshrutki. It's up to you to figure out where the stop is...which can be accomplished either by asking fellow passengers or, my preferred method, gut instinct. Luckily everything went smoothly, and I now know how to get to the mall. My mission for today was to find winter boots and a medium-weight coat. My predecessor left behind a full-length winter coat that fits bearably well. However, it's starting to get a bit chilly, and I wanted something to wear for those days when it's not -25. After about an hour and a half of looking in every store that had coats I finally found one that will suit my needs. As I learned in Irkutsk, for a coat to truly fit in in Russia there must be fur present somewhere on it. Well, this one has a massive fur ruff, which means that I can now fit in. I will probably feel too awkward to wear it anywhere besides Alaska in the US (PETA fanatics everywhere and whatnot), but I may have to since I'll be coming home for 2 weeks in the middle of winter and taking my Russian clothing with me.

I know you're curious to see, and since blogger still won't let me upload any pictures, go HERE.

What do you think, do I look Russian? If you ignore the pajamas? I am obviously way too cool to ever consider looking at the camera.

Unfortunately, I did not succeed in finding boots. After much agonizing I finally found a pair that I intended to buy, only to notice a tag saying that they were the last pair...and not my size. Shopping for size 8-8.5 shoes is like shopping for big foot in Russia. Seriously, it's ridiculous. There is NO way that all the 6'2" women have smaller feet than I do. I think that there must be a secret back room or something where they keep the real shoes. Russia is also one of the few places in the world where fully lined boots can have 6 inch spike heels.

It's really odd being in Russia basically by myself. I'm really used to having at least a small group of other foreigners with me to rely on and hang out with. I'm not completely abandoned because there are still plenty of people to help me get things done, but this first week has been fairly lonely. I think that once my clubs (chat hour and movie time..woo) start up my social life will as well. However, the other day during one of my midday bored naps I got woken up by a knock on my door. It was O. from down the hall (I'd thought that this was mostly just a dorm for visiting professors). It turns out that hiding under my nose are at least 10 students. Well, O is an incredibly chatty and curious girl, and she introduced me to everyone that she knew. Later that night she, S (a guy who lives down the hall) and I went for an evening walk around the town. This seems to be the cool (only?) thing to do. It was very nice, and involved a great deal of Russian. I haven't seen her around since...although to be honest I haven't really looked. I needed time to recover from all of our previous conversations! I will definitely see her again this week though, because coming Monday is a group of Italians that she is especially keen to meet...who, unfortunately, don't know any Russian and must rely on English to communicate here. Sadly, O's English skills are mostly confined to weather observations, so I suspect that I will be sought out as a translator. Should be fun. I've been told by the people at the international office that this will be a great chance for me to learn about Italian cooking. Later tonight, if things go as planned, I've been invited to walk around with one of the other teachers once she finishes work. She's super nice, so that should be good too. I have to say, after several multi-hour walks I know everywhere within walking distance pretty well....but I could always stand another walk. With all the walking that I've been doing I will probably be in great shape by the time that I come home. I will also be spectacular at giving presentations. Both useful skills.

Sunday I'm going to meet up at the mall with another American who's in town. I actually already know her since she was in St. Petersburg with me 4 years ago..I will probably get to know her a lot better though. She's also teaching English somewhere, but I don't know the details. Unfortunately, she's in another section of town and about and hour away by marshrutki...so she might as well be in another town entirely. I suspect that we'll get together from time to time though.

Hopefully in about a month's time I should be completely settled in. I'm currently just hanging out in the dorm because I have a month where I can stay here for free, so I might as well save some rent money. I'm really looking forward to having a permanent place though...more particularly a fully-equipped kitchen. There is a kitchen here, but it's rather sparse when it comes to pots/pans/other useful things. I did, however, find out an address that I can use for getting letters. If any one is interested, just ask. Serious inquiries only though, so if I give you my address you had better send me something. I've also been told that it's a Russian custom to dance before you get your letters, so perhaps I'll come home with some improved dancing skills also.

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I'm here!

My trip was fairly devoid of adventures until the last leg of my flight. I spent the majority of it trying to politely avoid having my translation skills put to work translating a heated complaint from my neighbor about one of the stewardesses. It seems that there were some issues when it came to the segregation of business class and economy bathrooms, which resulted in my neighbor getting deeply offended.

Once we landed in Moscow (2 hours late!) the line to get through passport control was tremendous. I spent the next 45 minutes or so inching my way up to the counter, and luckily by the time I was finished my bags were already on the conveyor..and more importantly in Russia in general. After that I quickly found an ATM and spent about 15 minutes following signs for the aeroexpress train that takes you from the airport to the metro system. All of this went pretty smoothly and after 45 minutes I found myself let loose in the Moscow metro system with about 60 pounds of luggage. As I hauled my bag up and down stairs and kept a wary eye on my backpack I was reminded again how much I hate traveling with a lot of things. Aside from the crowds I found my way to the train station without incident. However, somehow I wound up in the basement of the train station and after asking directions from 2 different people (with completely opposite answers) I finally found my way up to the surface. I had a slight moment of panic when I noticed that it was already 3:50 and I was supposed to have met the lady from the Fulbright office who had bought my ticket for me at 3:30. This panic only heightened when I couldn't find her and I wasn't entirely sure what she looked like. After 10 minutes of running around the train station (which luckily isn't very big) I found her standing next to the train to Tolyatti. Let me remind you that it's now 4 and the train leaves at 4:10.

After a minute or two spent clearing my documents I staggered aboard the train in sweaty jubilation. I lugged my backpack and suitcase down the narrow aisle and greeted my coupe mate by misstepping and standing on his foot for more time than is really socially acceptable. I stowed all of my things and sat down to rest and think about my near miss. Soon the train started to move and it turned out that there were only going to be 2 of us in the 4 person coupe. After about 10 minutes of silence I figured that that was how the entire 18 hours was going to be. However, S (as I'll call him since I'm not really supposed to use names...more rules) turned out to be a fairly sociable man in his mid 30s and we talked for an hour or 2. He's a police man in Tolyatti and gave me his address and phone number with instructions to call him if for any reason I run into trouble. He also said that he and his wife would be happy to have me to dinner sometime and I promised to let him know about any English clubs.

Around 6 pm I couldn't stay awake any longer and I went to bed. I tried to add a picture of my train, but my internet wasn't too keen on that idea. After sleeping a solid 10 hours and waking up at 4 am I spent the next 3 hours sleeping fitfully and worrying about missing my stop. I didn't though.

When I got off the train I was met by my coordinator and her husband. I had to stand around for about 2 minutes though mildly wondering if I had a ride because I don't look like my passport picture. So far everyone that I've met has been super nice. L and L took me to a pizzeria and then immediately helped me get a new SIM card for my phone. After that we took a quick walk around the main part of town, and then I got dropped off at the dorm where I'll be staying for the next couple of weeks until we find a regular apartment. The room that I'm staying in is nicer than the regular rooms because it's mostly used like a hotel for visiting teachers. I have a living room, bedroom, bathroom, refrigerator, tea pot, iron, tv, and vacuum cleaner. If it had a kitchen it would be pretty tempting to just live here. The main problem is a lack of good electrical outlets. There's one really nice one that the refrigerator has taken over, and the others range from ok to scary. The one over my couch is kind of hanging out of the wall and I can see arcs of electricity whenever I plug things in...so I've decided that it's off limits.

I had all afternoon to myself, and I intended to spend it exploring the neighborhood, but instead I took a nap. Then I ate dinner with L & L and their son and 2 of their friends. Tomorrow I'm getting picked up at 2 to be taken on a tour of the town by 2 more people that I think work at the school. I start doing official things Monday. From what I understand the way it's going to work is that at first I'll just be helping lead segments of classes, and once I'm comfortable with that I'll be given my own classes. My first topic is appearance...more specifically attraction. That should be interesting!

It's really late.

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9/9/10

I don’t know when I’ll get a chance to post this, but since I am trapped on an airplane for 6 more hours, this is probably a good time to write all about what I’ve been doing lately. Since I don’t have internet I’m not sure where I last left off, but I’m certain that it was quite a while ago.

As perhaps you’ve guessed by the fact that I’m on a plane to Moscow (and ideally will be in Russia by the time that I post this), my visa came! The Russian Consulate in San Francisco is extremely efficient and I highly recommend them as well. From the date that I frantically sent off all of my paperwork (so frantically in fact that I left a section blank) to the date that I got my visa back only 8 business days had passed. Now, those 8 days were completely tortuous and I was just sure that I was going to have to change all of my plans and lose all of my money, but luckily none of my worst fears happened…yet. I won’t be in Tolyatti for another 30 hours or so, so there is still plenty of time for things to go wrong. That’s not an invitation though.

Things are starting to sink in a little that I’m actually on my way, but it seems like no matter what there’s always something more pressing to think about. For instance: will I be able to survive another 6 hours of just sitting? Walking already seems like a thing of the past. When an older Russian lady snuggled up to my back while I was waiting in line I did start to feel a little bit more like I’m in Russia though. Goodbye personal space! I’m also starting to get some of my fighting spirit back when it comes to waiting in line too. I may or may not have done some jostling when it came to getting on the plane.

Back to last week. After I got my visa back I basically just spent a day or two gazing lovingly at my visa and feeling intense relief. Around Thursday my parents started to realize how close I was getting to leaving, so I put off packing to do touristy things. Friday we went on a family date to the zoo, a movie, and Olive Garden. We hadn’t done anything like that for a while, and it was fun. Sort of made me feel like a little kid again.

Saturday I had to be serious and pack, and it sucked. It’s no secret that I despise packing. Someday it would be nice to stay in one place long enough to have all of my things handy and in one location, but knowing me that will never actually happen. The good news is that I’ve packed enough that my routine is pretty automated now. The Fulbright office has been kind enough to give me my own personal library of English teaching materials, and I’ve added about 10 books of my own, and I’m definitely looking forward to lugging all of these around the Moscow metro! The good news is that all of these get to stay in Russia, so that should free up roughly 1,000 pounds of space in my luggage.

Sunday passed by pretty quickly. I went to church, came home, packed some more, napped, packed, and went out to dinner. I’m not quite sure what happened to all the time between dinner and 1 am, but somehow it all disappeared, which left me very tired when I had to wake up at 3:45 am to go to the airport. What’s worse is that I couldn’t actually fall asleep right away either. I’m not sure what the cause of this insomnia was, but it was probably a combination of the fact that I hadn’t been to bed before 3 am in a week and I was pretty excited to go to Kansas and see Brian.

There’s a new rule that your visa has to be issued a minimum of 5 days before you can enter Russia, which left me with some days that I just needed to hang around the US. So, I spent 3 of these on a well deserved trip to Kansas. Monday from 12:30 am to 10:00 am Thursday went by in warp speed. Unfortunately, time has a way of doing that when you’re with people that you like. But, even though it was over way too quickly, it was definitely a worthwhile and very enjoyable trip. I recommend Kansas. They do have wolf spiders and brown recluses though, which is a minus. The same minus applies to Arizona.

This brings us to today. Since 10:30 am (approximately 12 hours ago) I’ve been doing absolutely nothing. I had short layovers between all of my flights, which worried me a bit, but there aren’t a whole lot of flights going to Russia. Luckily both of my connecting flights got to the airport about 30 minutes early. This greatly improved my opinion of United Airlines. Until of course my flight to Moscow got delayed 2 hours and they ran out of chicken. However, as long as we don’t get to Moscow too late for me to catch my train my experience will still be on the favorable side. My luggage also needs to make it there in a timely manner. I’m real particular about that.

Maps that chart the progress of your flight are the most depressing thing ever. So are people in front of you who put their seats back. Just thought I’d throw that out there.

Once I’m in Russia my schedule should look something like this:

1) Go through customs

2) Get baggage

3)Check to see if there’s time to use the free wifi that my neighbor says is in every Russian airport (He’s a pretty interesting guy. He says that America should be ashamed of itself for not providing enough food for us on the airplane. He was pretty heartbroken over the fact that he had to eat pasta instead of chicken too.)

4) Locate the airport express train that takes me to the metro system

5) Enter the metro and acquire a ticket

6) Somehow carry all of my stuff

7) Locate the correct train station

8) Meet Oksana, who will give me my tickets for the train

9) Remember how trains work

10) Ride 18 hours on the train…ideally spending about 12 of these sleeping

11) Find my contact in Tolyatti

12) Hope that there’s a place for me to sleep and internet

I could go on, but I think you get the picture. Basically I’m going to be busy. This is my first time being mostly just let loose in Russia, and it’s a little intimidating. Generally there’s a group leader who takes care of all things travel and lodging related, or at least friends to consult with, but this time I’m going solo. I suppose it’s a good thing to know how to do though.

Weeeeellll…..that’s really about everything that I can think to write about. Airplanes aren’t very good at conjuring up inspiration for writing. I deeply envy everyone who can sleep on planes.

Posted by Amanda comments (0)

First of all, I am typing this on my netbook's insanely small keyboard, so any mistakes should be attributed to this. I don't really have anything to say, and I'm not really in a mood to write, but I wasn't doing anything productive...so this seemed like a reasonable pastime. Additionally, I love spellcheck. While once a pro speller, the Russian language and a pronounced lack of time to read for fun (thanks college!) have taken a huge toll on my comprehension of spelling rules. Not that English really has any.

Currently I am hanging out in Arizona simultaneously worrying about and trying to forget that my passport is in San Francisco allegedly being processed for a visa. There are also a massive number of details looming over my head regarding to my impending journey to Russia. Funny how this seems to be everyone's favorite conversation topic. For future notice: if you see me and think "Gee, Amanda looks like she wants to talk about how it's getting really close to time to leave, the whereabouts of her visa, all details regarding her living situation, or anything that might have any connection to paperwork" your intuition is probably misguided. The correct approach would be to stop, rethink, and start a conversation about something completely unoffensive and relaxed like kittens or the weather.

On a completely non-Russian-related matter, yesterday I got back from an epic AKA/Cottonwood adventure. Well...I suppose it wasn't quite "epic" since it didn't involve scaling volcanoes or something of that magnitude, but it was still pretty fun and a nice change from ultra-suburban Sahuarita.

On Wednesday I ventured 2 hours north to Tempe, AZ where Amanda #2 goes to school. Kim met us there, and I was pleased to note that despite not seeing each other for several months, our internal clocks are still perfectly aligned. Without coordinating our departure times we both managed to get to Amanda's dorm at exactly the same time and wound up across from each other at the 4-way stop next to the parking lot. Additionally, we had both decided to wear blue-green dresses that day (have I mentioned that this summer we both met Brians at our summer programs? Eerie). Amanda's intuitions were a little rusty and she showed up in shorts...we made her go back to her room and change. After everyone was appropriately dressed and Amanda's whiteboard calendar had been sufficiently altered, the 3 of us headed down to the local mall to do what girls do -- eat, try on fun dresses, and take pictures. I haven't decided yet if I regret that those all inevitably made it to facebook. At around 5:30 Amanda had to go do lame school stuff, so Kim and I drove up to Cottonwood. This drive (2 hours) probably would have been a whole lot more interesting had we been in the same car.

Cottonwood appears to still be Cottonwood. You folks who have lived there know what I'm talking about. The thing that seems to have changed the most is my dear (sarcasm) Mingus Union High School. They've done some remodeling, painted it a rather unbecoming reddish orange color, and encircled the whole thing with a fence. I'm glad that when I went there the security was markedly lax...especially since now you can't use the tennis courts or the track anymore thanks to that oh-so-secure 6 ft chain link fence that protects the property. The tennis courts were definitely the best part about the school (aside from a few students and teachers), and it used to be fun just to walk to the football stadium for heartfelt talks. I'm a big fan of empty football stadiums (or soccer or lacrosse or anything else involving bleachers and solitude).

On Thursday Kim had some things to attend to at the bank, so I took over her house and her computer for the morning/early afternoon (since these things always take longer than expected). After that we ate a particularly late lunch at...Murphy's Grill? I honestly can't remember what it's called. It's always interesting to eat there, because it will forever be associated in my mind with senior prom...and rotisserie chicken. Curiously enough it was completely abandoned at 4 pm. Not a popular lunch hour, I gather. Then we journeyed up to Jerome, which has always been a favorite of mine. We got there just in time to watch the door of the candy shop being closed, but we were not too late for ice cream (a fact that we took advantage of)! Second to abandoned football stadiums on my list of "good places for deep talks" is the picnic table looking out over the Verde Valley in Jerome's park. Nothing goes better with talks than ice cream, so Kim and I used our fortuitous location and food situation to talk for an hour or so about recent events, concerns, fears, hopes, philosophies, prophecies, and anything else that might come to mind. The return trip consisted of a jam session in Kim's car and the promise to find other bad pop music to sing to online when we got home.

On Friday we went to Sedona with Kim's mom. We spent a lot of time looking at fish at a plant nursery, I tamed a stone elk, and Kim and I discussed the merits of various hot tubs. Then we had another late lunch, and went to a once happening (but now mostly abandoned) strip mall. I did, however, find a shirt at the Gap outlet store there. Sedona is a very strange and very pretty place..that's about all that I can say about that.

Saturday I woke up late, watched some swimming, realized how late it was, and drove home.

Ok, I am officially out of things to write about.

Posted by Amanda comments (0)

Friday, August 13th, 2010: Day 2 since the end of the language code

Mood: coherent/shocked
Hours of sleep: 11
Location: Sahuarita, AZ
Hours of homework done today: 0

So, once again life is back to "normal". I currently find myself back in my usual position, which is on my bed glued to my computer. However, I can't help but feel vaguely unsettled by all of this. I feel like I've had so many wonderful and bizarre experiences in the last few weeks that my brain is still working on processing them all and hasn't had time to catch up to the present....which just leaves me mildly confused. It certainly doesn't help that within the span of 48 hours my life has gone from one extreme to another.

At this time 2 days ago I had just finished my final exam. I was in bed attempting to get in a nap before lunch because the night before, and every night for the past 4-5 weeks, I had gotten far too little sleep. If I was awake at this time, I would have been thinking about what I would have for lunch, when I was going to see Brian, and what I wanted/needed to do that day. These thoughts also probably would have been in Russian.

Actually....come to think about it, those thoughts aren't very different from what's going through my mind at the moment. The only differences are that they're in English and I've already had lunch. The point that I was trying to make though is that a whole lot has been going on lately.

I spent the majority of this summer back in Middlebury, VT enduring their 9-week summer language program. This is the same program that I did 2 years ago, and I really hadn't had any intentions of repeating the process because 1) It was hard, and 2) The people were such a huge part of it that I really didn't think that I could do it again and have similar results. BUT, for some reason (caprice, fate, boredom, forethought..I don't know, I can't explain it) back at the end of the school year I decided "Hey! I'm going to do a language program." So I did...and boy am I glad. Of course it can never replace all of those times with Jasmine, Jared, Jordan, and all of those other people with J names, but I have to say that this time was absolutely amazing. First of all I met this pretty wonderful guy (who I hope by now knows who he is) who, as Kendra sagely pointed out, is perhaps the only person known to man who has the capability of making me sacrifice massive quantities of sleep for extremely prolonged amounts of time. The people were also fantastic. I had many a great night playing billiards in The Grill(e?), dancing in every discoteka available, wanding aimlessly around Middlebury at every hour of the day, going swimming, playing volleyball, putting off homework for as long as possible, and other such variations of hooliganism. This time around I was in the 7th level (the highest) as opposed to the 4th, which meant that I understood pretty much everything and was considerably less intimidated by the Russian language. Overall this summer was amazing, and I'm going to really really miss everyone. Thank God for facebook, skype, telephones, planes, cars, letters, smoke signals, and every other possible form of communication or transportation available.

There are some pluses to being home though...especially the pronounced lack of homework and the ability to express myself fluently. Also the food is better.

My current plans are: finish visa applications today and go to Russia sometime soon. Also, A.K.A. needs to have a reunion immediately. I am sorely overdue for picnics, Dutch Blitz, girly movies, and T-Pain.

That's all I can think of to say at the moment. More to come later, probably.

Amanda Goes East (and other stories)

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