Conversations with my Host Mom

(An add for “Slumdog Millionare” comes on TV)
Vika: Did you see that film in America?
Me: Yeah, it was really good you should watch it. It won an Oscar.
Vika: Yes, especially since I don’t get to see a lot of Indian people in Russia.
Me: .... Yeah….
Vika: Do you see a lot of Indian people in America?
Me: Yeah
Vika: That is good. They seem very happy. (Points to the TV, which shows the last scene where they all dance.)

(My host mom knows very little English, but she knows the word “bread”)
Vika: What is “bread” a nickname for? Why would you call someone bread?
Me: What!?!
Vika: You know “bread” like hleb (bread in Russian)
Me: I really don’t know what you are saying.
Vika: You know, like “Bread” Pitt…Benjamin Buttons.
(Then I understood)

(Watching “The Fifth Element”)
Vika: Did you know that Bruce Willis just got married?
Me: No, but I think this is like the fifth time.
(Pulls out tabloid and shows me a picture with Bruce Willis and a very young woman)
Vika: He is so handsome. I love him, but it is terrible she is so young, just like you.
Me: That’s what celebrities do…
Vika: All of the women in America must be so upset.
Me: … Yeah

(I come back from the banya with wet hair)
Vika: You can’t be outside with wet hair. That is horrible, Mariss (yes she calls me Mariss.)
Marissa: Yeah, I am sorry. I didn’t have time to dry my hair or a hairdryer.
Vika: That is horrible. You can’t do that. Do you know what meningitis is?
Marissa: Yes, but that is a virus. I can only get the cold or flu.
Vika: You get the virus from having wet hair.
(Vika is not a doctor)

(I don’t get to see the news if I don’t wake up early enough so Vika likes to paraphrase for me)
Vika: Obama did something wonderful today.
Me: (excitedly) Really? What?
Vika: I tell you, I like him so much better than Bush. The world is a better place now.
Me: I agree, but what did he do?
Vika: He played tennis with the people who work for him.

(And here is one with Pasha, my host brother)
Vika: Did you know that the man on the first floor has ten cats?
Me: No! Oh my God! That’s why the first floor smells so bad.
Vika: Do you have people like that in America? Crazies? (Ed note: “Crazies” was in English)
Me: Yeah, of course.
Pasha: Yes, but they all live in the South.
(I did not disagree with him)

Hey I finally took some pictures...

Today, I woke up and I could actually see the sky so I decided that it would be a good day to walk around and see the sites. I actually was able to see a lot before my cold got the best of me and I was forced to grab a bus home before I collapsed. however, I get get some pretty decent pictures and you can see them if you are friends with me on facebook. As I as going around taking pictures it was strange because I am staring to see this place as my home and I usually don't go around taking pictures of my home, wherever it happens to be at the time. On the other hand, it is absolutely gorgeous here so if you can get to them I suggest you take a peek.

A conversation about tea.

Russians like to put an obscene amount of sugar in tea. This conversation with a cashier at a cafe is a prime example of awful Russian tea and an easily frustrated American. The following took place in Russian:

Me: Large black tea with sugar to go please.
Cashier: (pointing to giant sack-like packets of sugar) How many sugars?
M: One.
C: Two?
M: One.
C: Two.
M: Okay... Two.
C: Three.
M: NO
C: It is a big cup... Four?
M: Two please.
C: Okay
(Puts four packets of sugar in cup)

...Ten minutes later on metro

Me: I think I have had sugar cubes that were less concentrated with sugar than this.
Friend: It has taken on the chemical properties of sugar.

Какие новости?

One of the strangest parts of being in Russia has been the fact that I left America only three days after a new president was sworn in (two days if you count the mistake by chief Roberts.) Luckily, I have been able to keep on the news with the help of my overwhelmingly liberal and news-obsessed fellow travelers and the occasional ability to connect to the internet and look at the New York Times for three minutes.

Every Tuesday, I go to a Russian-American discussion group and we are given a topic that e talk about in English for 45 minutes and then Russian for 45 minutes. The title of our talk last night was titled, “Obama and Menvedev: New Presidents, New Policy?” As an admitted cynic I was curious to hear the typical Russians’ view of polities after months for enduring 24-hour news networks and watching my fellow liberals generally freaking out and embarrassing themselves.

The result was I learned that I would lose every time in a cynicism competition to pretty much any Russian. When we asked them what they thought of their new president they would shrug their shoulders and stay, “I don’t really know anything about him. Putin is still president as far as I am concerned.” Then when we tell them stories of American criticism of Putin comparing him to a new dictator they would just mutter, “Yeah, that sounds pretty true,” and then shrug once again.

This apathy was sharply juxtaposed by the outright giddiness of the Americans talking about Obama. The concept of putting so much hope and faith in a politician was completely foreign to them. Towards, the end of it I almost felt foolish as we all laughed as we talked about how we became teary-eyed while watching the inauguration. One guy flat-out asked us, “but he is still a politician… right?”

I think that the difference in attitudes might come from the fact that Russians have never really had a connection to politics as Americans have. They never really feel that they have taken part in the process. They just go on with their lives and try to get by and be happy and hope that the politicians are doing what they are supposed to be doing. When I was in America I was mystified by the emotional reaction that people had to the election of Obama, but now I understand\. Even when we elected Bush two times in a row it was a representation of what the people wanted, regardless of the outcome.

Lost in Translation

Today, I was inspired to write a post about my language troubles when an elderly woman asked me directions for how to get out of the metro going a particular way. I knew the answer to the question, but I forgot the word for "straight." Therefore my advice to the old woman was, "don't go left and don't go right, and then go up the escalator." She understood me, and I was proud, but once I got on the metro I realized how absurd that must have sounded. I thought about what I would think if someone said that to me in America. I would have thought that they were some failed poet who could only express themselves through random encounters with strangers. Luckily, I think my strong American accent exposed the real reason for my unconventional speech patterns.

However, the conversation in the metro was one of my more pleasant experiences with language mix ups. The strangest thing is, majority of my problems comes when I try to say words that are the same in English. The place this is most apparent is McDonald's. (I know that I already mentioned McDonald's once, I swear I hardly ever actually eat there.) When I have to say McNuggets eight times it starts to get a little frustrating, but this happens at all restaurants. There are some days that I have no problem and then others where I want to sit down and cry after I order my food.

My new motto is, "If I hear a single person in America complain about people not knowing English when they live in America, I will stab them in the face." I have been learning the lanuage for almost two years, but when someone says something to me outside of a classroom I almost always have to ask them to repeat themselves. The worst thing is how I freak out when people talk to me on the street. Russia isn't the safest counrty in the world, so when I am walking late at night people are most likley saying, "Do you have a light?" and I assume that it is, "I am going to take you behind this building and disembowel you." It may be frustrating, but I am already starting to realize that there are things I say to people that I wouldn't have the confidence to when I got here.

I must give a lot of credit to the Russian side of my dilemma. No one has been outwardly mean or frustated with me. In fact, most of them are intrigued by me and are excited that I am learning thier language. People are really fast to engage me in converstation and help me along. The people I meet in bars and in my Russian-American discussion group are honestly interested and helpful. Unfortunately, I hate to think that they would not get the same treatment upon coming to my home counrty.

"The New Soviet Woman"

Sorry that I have not written in about a week, but the wireless that I had in my apartment has decided to stop existing. Therefore, I am now forced into working at McDonald's or internet cafes (and yes I understand that there is some irony behind spending all of my time in McDonald's while living in the former Soviet Union.)

Even though my apartment is without internet, the experience of living in a host family has been wonderful. I am very much getting the whole Russian experience and at the same time realizing how different my living experience would have been just a few years ago. I am living with my host mom, Victoria, her 15 year-old son, Pasha (Pavel,) her dog, Lala, and her cat, Tihan. So far living with a host family as taken away any feelings of homesickness I may have.

The apartment is very typically Russian. It is located in a large group of Soviet era apartment buildings, directly outside of the center of the city. Vika is the incredibly overbearring mother that I never had. For example, yesterday, she did not see me eat breakfast and then I left to watch a movie at a friend's apartment. She proceeded to call me three times to make sure that I ate because she counted the yougurts and thought that I had not eaten one. At the same time, she is very modern in many ways. She is divorced from Pasha's dad and he lives with his dad on the weekends. This arrangement is pretty bold in its own right, but so was the reason for the divorce. She told me that she just didn't want to be her husbands possiension anymore, which is something that many American women refuse to accept every day. She runs a hair salon out of our kitchen and has a boyfriend who comes by a few times a week. His name is Victor and he is a real Russian bear, but is also very nice. Although, all he ever ants to talk about is American hockey, a subject I am not all that knowledgeable about. One night at dinner I was only able to come up with, "Wanye Gretsky is Canadian and played when I was little."

I also live with the aforementioned 15 year-old Pasha. I would compare him to an American 15-year old, but I have never spent an extended with one so I don't really know ho to do that. He plays computer games a lot, but I think kids in America do that to. He is very nice to me and his mother which is apparently a really big deal here because I hear that most 15 year-olds here are chain smokers and already have a few kids. So I am lucky to be living with such a good egg.

I am happy to be living with a family that is so uniquely Russian and modern at the same time. Plus, the adorable kitty and puppy don't hurt either.

Why I came to Russia....

I have been in Russia for about two weeks now and I decided that I have finally settled in to my surroundings enough to start blogging. I honestly could have started it earlier, but I was having an awful time trying to figure out what I wanted to write my first post about. Finally, I came to the conclusion that I would use my first post to try to answer the question that people have been asking me for months: "Why Russia?"People always wonder why I want to study Russian when, 1. It is seemingly useless 2. Russia is cold and 3. According to them, I will most likely die when I am there. However, 1 and 3 hold almost no truth and it frankly hasn't been much colder than Massachusetts since I got here.

Today, the NYT published an article about a speech just given by Joe Biden on the necessity of building a relationship with Russia instead of simply ignoring their feelings towards weapons expansion. The article and VP Biden prove a point that I have been trying to explain or a while now. That the cold war with Russia may not be as over as we think it is and in the next few years relations between Russia and the US are going to be critical in terms of the economy, military action in the former Soviet countries and a number of other issues. However, the practicality and the polotics of it are not the reasons why I study Russian and eventually came to Russia. The reason is the people.

The history of Russia is possibly the most intriguing of any counrty in the world and throughout that history there has been an amazing group of people behind it all. The realtionship between the Russian people and thier history is unlike any other in the world. When radical changes are being made all around these people they hold thier own idenity. When Catherine the Great was spending all of the money in Russia, the people held thier own thourgh thier culture and thier daily lives. The same hapened as the Soviet Union came and went. Of course, there were major changes in the lives of the people, but they always remained uniquely Russian. Whereas, I can think of no other counrty where the government does not represent the people and people do not represent the goverment and, most intresetingly, everyone is oddly content because they have all been thorugh it before.

For the next four months, I will be living with a host family in St. Petersburg and will get to experience a little bit of this life. My host mom makes her own juice from berries that she got from the dacha and makes every Jewish mother sterotype I have even seen on TV look tame. Even now, when I go out to the bars, the Russians surround me and tell me that this isn't Russia and that I need to go out and see a real Russin town.

So to answer the question, I would say that I study Russian because there is nothing else like this counrty in the world and there is no other place where the people and the language are so arbitrarily connected to the history and the polotics. Also, Rasputin and Vladimir Putin are really badass.

P.S. In the furture I promise I will not be so serious. I still have fur, techno and Russian teenagers to talk about.