so for the first time in 16 years, Im not in the US on one of my favorite holidays... thanksgiving.. none the less.. heres what happened in the last few weeks.
my host mother lena took me out to go see a Checkhov play at the checkhov center. it was interesting as the group came all the way from moscow to perform. the play was called "чайка" about a bird or something. after the play i gave flowers to my favorite actors.. a comedian who made everyone laugh.
the next day, our school was visited by 2 college scouters. one from Oregon state university and one from london. they were trying to convince Russian kids to come to their schools. of course only 4 people in the audiance understood them "roxane from France, 2 kids who visited america for a year, and me" they were shocked to see me however. "so how many of you want to study in america" "I do!!!" "well just to study right?" "no to live" "really?" "well im from america actually" "wow, then come down here and help me out". it was really neat. as the london man did have an accent :D. after the presentations roxane and I stopped to talk to them. "so where are you from?" "the other OSU" "ahh, yea you probably find more results for that OSU when you google OSU" "yea, well my brother just got accepted to OSU (congrate Ryan)" "oh really, i wish him luck". meeting these 2 english speakers instantly made out day worth while and enjoyable. as it was cool so meet another foreign national 6,000 miles away from home. also in school, in my english class. the teacher said she had a new desktop background for her computer. so i decided to look at it, and wat do i see? "Altair about to assassinate a person". "you know Assassin's Creed!!!?" "no, it was one of my students who made a presentation about it" and for part of the class, we watched assassin creed trailers. i was happy :)
now this next part will be scary, but mom, your worst fears have been realized, I am an english teacher now. and to make it worse, a one on one tutor. i walked into the library one day and the receptionist asked me if i was interested in teaching. and as Exchange students always say yes, I said "yes". it is my job afterall. so now twice a week I tutor a russian girl in english language at the library. i am excited because it also gives me some insight into Russian, as people who arent familar with a language tend to try to make it sound like their own for comfort.
so in other news. Lena and Sasha had their 10th anniversary this last week. and they both liked the presents i got them and had a giant party at a hotelю before the party we all did go bowling, where I lost twice on botched calls. only to get 2nd place. it was fun though. and everyone enjoyed themselves.
speaking of parties, Karsakov rotary club had their 10 year anniversary of foundation. for it, the 3 exchange students on the island (lilian roxane and I) all recited peoms or speeches. my speech was long but it was recorded. so when i feel like emberrassing myself, I will post it on facebook. along with the speech. we all did a song "we are the world" by Michael Jackson. roxane CAN SING.. Lilian who doesnt know english.. CAN SING.. me, however CANT SING. just watch the video on facebook. you will see! well the party was good and big. and everyone was happy.
also in other news, i have been looking into restarting the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Interact and Rotaract club. a long process that I hope goes somewhere in the near future. (not to try to match Greg Miller of course)
so, anyone who knows me, knows I LOVE FOOTBALL. so I couldnt help but celebrate when the New England Patriots beat the Steelers and Colts. but probably the thing i miss most is football. ive gone into relapse. im noticing im starting to play all my sports football style.
during basketball in gym class. one of my team mates throws the ball to me. only he throws it high over my head. well i catch the ball (one handed over my head) (everyone says "woah"), I come down with it, secure the ball, trot to the goal and plop the ball in the endzone- i mean basket. for my 10th point of the game. so I guess you could say, I am improving greatly and football helps everything.
also, my host mother just walked in and said that she wants me to say that she is proud of me. and that I miss my mother and love her. thanks for the presents mommy :) they look good in my stomach.
happy thanksgiving everyone :) now watch the Patriots beat the lions. GO PATS!
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Sunday, November 14, 2010
I pull a semi Greg Miller in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia
so as the title says, i too have my own little story involving Russian Public transport.
this wednesday is my host parents 10th anniversary, so i went to the local (huge) shopping conter in the city called "citi moll" or "city mall" translated. to buy them an anniversary gift. I was really happy that I knew enough Russian to be able to manage slaes on my own. and while I was in the mall it did start to rain. well the city moll offers free public transportation to and from themselves. so everything was fine going there, I got on the bus to Yuzhno (alone) then waited and got on the bus to City mall (alone again). i figured i would take the 1:30 bus back to my house after i get back to the station in Yuzhno. however on the way back from City Mall. because the snow had picked up so much, they canceled the free transport. "ahh great.. host parents are at work so now what?" then i did over hear some people say that a bus stop existed across the road, so I then go over there to see it and soon realize that It's true. only I dont know the bus routes. I had done all my bus route managening out of the station in Yuzhno. nothing about city mall. luckily for me the Bus has signs of where it will go. yet unluckily for me i dont know half of them. so it starts to rain and snow (dont know how that was possible) and im getting kinda cold as you can imagine. and more busses come up that dont lead to where I need (mainly because i dont know where they go). however I did see that one bus was going to the Checkhov Center (anton Checkhov is a famous writer who visited Sakhalin) a theatre establishment in Yuzhno that ive passed most days when I go to listen to russian folk songs at the local music school ethnoc. I thought "ok, ive missed the 1:30, so ill just make the 2:40. naturally, I took the bus. yet at the time, I didnt know it to be the Checkhov center. I just knew that the building i was thinking about had a picture of Anton Checkhov on it. so im still nervous. it didnt help when most of the bus route went a way i have never seen before. yet out of no where I see (to my reflief) I saw the hugу face of Anton Checkhov on the building and the driver stopped. I got out and walked the rest of the way to the station. which wasnt really far from the Checkhov center. when I arrived at the station, my bus pulled up that takes me to my house everyday. I couldnt help but smile and be happy that i knew I could survive in Russia when I didnt know the language. it would of been the first day when people didnt know I was foreign, but when I got off the bus at my house a man got off also who talked to me so quickly that I had to ask him to speak slower and then he says "ahh youre foreign, where are you from?" but I was still happy about the day. and soon Ill know if my host parents liked the gifts or not. I got Sasha (host dad) a flashlight/torch/tripod flashlight. and Lena a bag that depicts the dangers of alcohol abuse. and both of them cards. so besides the Gift part of my story. Greg Miller, I tip my hat to you ;)
this wednesday is my host parents 10th anniversary, so i went to the local (huge) shopping conter in the city called "citi moll" or "city mall" translated. to buy them an anniversary gift. I was really happy that I knew enough Russian to be able to manage slaes on my own. and while I was in the mall it did start to rain. well the city moll offers free public transportation to and from themselves. so everything was fine going there, I got on the bus to Yuzhno (alone) then waited and got on the bus to City mall (alone again). i figured i would take the 1:30 bus back to my house after i get back to the station in Yuzhno. however on the way back from City Mall. because the snow had picked up so much, they canceled the free transport. "ahh great.. host parents are at work so now what?" then i did over hear some people say that a bus stop existed across the road, so I then go over there to see it and soon realize that It's true. only I dont know the bus routes. I had done all my bus route managening out of the station in Yuzhno. nothing about city mall. luckily for me the Bus has signs of where it will go. yet unluckily for me i dont know half of them. so it starts to rain and snow (dont know how that was possible) and im getting kinda cold as you can imagine. and more busses come up that dont lead to where I need (mainly because i dont know where they go). however I did see that one bus was going to the Checkhov Center (anton Checkhov is a famous writer who visited Sakhalin) a theatre establishment in Yuzhno that ive passed most days when I go to listen to russian folk songs at the local music school ethnoc. I thought "ok, ive missed the 1:30, so ill just make the 2:40. naturally, I took the bus. yet at the time, I didnt know it to be the Checkhov center. I just knew that the building i was thinking about had a picture of Anton Checkhov on it. so im still nervous. it didnt help when most of the bus route went a way i have never seen before. yet out of no where I see (to my reflief) I saw the hugу face of Anton Checkhov on the building and the driver stopped. I got out and walked the rest of the way to the station. which wasnt really far from the Checkhov center. when I arrived at the station, my bus pulled up that takes me to my house everyday. I couldnt help but smile and be happy that i knew I could survive in Russia when I didnt know the language. it would of been the first day when people didnt know I was foreign, but when I got off the bus at my house a man got off also who talked to me so quickly that I had to ask him to speak slower and then he says "ahh youre foreign, where are you from?" but I was still happy about the day. and soon Ill know if my host parents liked the gifts or not. I got Sasha (host dad) a flashlight/torch/tripod flashlight. and Lena a bag that depicts the dangers of alcohol abuse. and both of them cards. so besides the Gift part of my story. Greg Miller, I tip my hat to you ;)
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Снег, Anniversaries, and Patriotism
well it's almost been 2 months since I left my home in the US and started my Russian journey. since the last time I have a lot to talk about. my school "Gimnazia number 1 of A.C Pyshkin" celebrated 20 years of the school. I could only help but laugh, as my school in the US is at least 50. but it was nice to skip out on some classes to watch the celebration. and the dances that the school had for students (which I didnt go to :p). it also started to snow in Russia, in late october, and last night. theres something about the Russian snow that makes you feel all excited and happy to be here in Russia. along with the school anniversary, the Rotary Club of Yuzhno Sakhalinsk is also celebrating its 13 year of service with a celebration (also with karcakob rotary club.. so LILIAN! :) )
When I came to Russia, my job was to improve relations between the 2 countries. well seeing as everyone here loves america, I feel my job is already done, yet I still find myself doing presentations for groups of people in school. 3 times I did a michael Jackson presentation for english class, where I sang half his songs and danced beat it and thriller in front of and audiance, after my dignity flew out the window. I was asked to do a series presentation about the USA for a serious english class. which is tomorrow. so my and the French Exchange student Roxane will both have to go to school during the holidays to talk about France and the US.
despite the english language presentations. my Russian is improving, its just hard to get people to sit and talk to me because it seems that a foreigner in Russia means nothing to my classmates. they compliment my language when I speak but nobody seems to mind the fact an american and a french girl are sitting right next to them, which is really great, but hard to be embraced. out of all the teachers, only 2 embrace Roxane and me. the mother/english teacher, and the Physics teacher (no idea why). but my grammer is improving and I know enough now that my host family lets me be alone in the city, actually ive been left alone in the city before since week 2. but the coolest thing happening right now is that im starting to forget english, although I know my writing is a grammer nightmare, I dont know how to correct it and I had to ask Roxane how to write the letter Q in english. so the first step is happening.. forgetting english D: although language is tough, the hardest thing I see for myself is not the language, but is explaining myself to people. nobody here in Russia seems to have that independent personality we see in the US. they seem to be all slides of the same tray. nothing really original with anybody I see. (thanks Communists). yet I still love the people here, they are a lot niсук than american people. with the exception of little kids, Russian kids are a lot nicer, theres no talking back to teachers or anything. yet american kids are much more well rounded and witty than Russian. just by seeing this change I can see how lucky I was to be born in the US. traveling abroad is the best way to see how lucky you are, or unlucky. and I think I can truely say now that I love the US. tears almost come everytime I hear my National Anthem or patriotic songs.
now a little about whats happening, every 4 days my host family has me cook the meals. and of course Im totally new to this so Ive always needed help on it. well now last time, where they requested american food. and I found cow meat.. and anybody who knows me knows exactly what I was thinking at the time. "hamburgers" soon I realized, to make hamburgers required different meat, and I instead made extremely toughmini steaks. i cant help but feel they only ate them because there was nothing else. but Russian here tend to eat a lot of stuff with Mayonase. and garlic, I asked them why the garlic and they said "to keep the vampires away". and I have to admit, ever since they had garlic in meals I have not seen one solitary vampire in Russia. and if we take the garlic away, we might make vampires again.. and on a totally different statement. my host father Casha, has joined the list of people who have out ate me. soon him and Mr. Hawk will duke-it-out. one day when we hat meat, he told me to try this Russian sauce. so i dip a bit of my meat in it and try it, next thing I know I'm crying and my mouth turns red and im needing water like crazy.. then i ask "WHAT WAS THAT?" "wasabe sauce" D: then my host dad takes his whole piece of meat, dips it in the sauce, puts it all in his mouth and eats it starting at me.. >.> its not often im beated.. but I will remember this..
America is the capitalo of mass media in the world, and after coming here I believe it. because people take seeing old american movies on TV here really greatly. and they have a lot of them. while here ive watched some old movies on TV and DVD. like "Back to the Future", "Iron Man" and the "Spider Man" series. good movies people here think are awesomer then they are. speaking of entertainment, Nothing gets inbetween me and football. i can find college games on ESPN AMERICA.. right here in Russia. and hopefully, in February, the superbowl.
as for school life, it is interesting, the only classes I can fully participate in are English and Sport. yet the interesting stuff is in English. we got our first english test results back. even though the teacher took the american variants.. i got (ready for this mom) an A!!!!!! minus. i point from a B. so i did beat my mom. yet on the second test, I got 1 point from an A. so i got a B+. i really am forgetting english, and this is proof. (took me 4 tries to spell that word right).
Russia does seem to fufill to winston Churchill's description. as Russia is a contradiction. the nation has 1/4 of the worlds fresh water and is the energy superpower of the world, yet gas here costs more than in the US 4 years ago and everyone is worried about saving power and taking 5 minute showers.
the only rule I wish i broke was the laptop rule, as internet can go down here with no word of return...... so great. by following the rule im limited :p. but it is holiday here. until monday. so I will have time to learn more Russian. and play with my pets.. half of which the dog ate.= and we gave away. i only have 1 dog and 2 cats now. the kitten thinks its a ninja also.
it also appears that if youre sick here. you stay out the week at school. so you dont get anybody sick at school. which I like because who wants to go to school anyway. the Russian system is not as great as the people here think. the American system in much better. in america "im gifted in science" "ok advanced science classes, follow your gift" in Russia "im gifted in Science" "ok, stay with these people, doing the same thing, no special classes to improve your gift".
internationally. the president Medvedev is in the Kuril islands now negotiating with Japan over issues. the japanese want some of the Kuril islands that Russia controls. mainly because fish trabel inbetween these islands a lot and you know the Japs and fish. but Medvedev holds strong and tells them no all the time. speaking of Japan, my Rotary club has asked me to write a paper about how I found myself in Russia which they will put on their website, once I get the link ill post it for you all to read. in Russia you dont drink the water out of the faucet, becasuse its not filtered and cleaned. although that doesnt stop me from drinking out of the faucet all the time... because my family has a filter :p. along with Russian disadvantages, Toliet Paper doesnt seem to exist anywhere outside my house >.>...
i also received my first package, my host family told me that everything sent they have here in Russia, but i still ate all the contents within a day. they also play a game called Russian lottery. with real money, its like Bingo only if you win depending on what row you filled. and if you fill the last one then you win the money in the pot. and people get sad when they lose rubles and when i see the amount i laugh and think to myself "id lose more money if I threw a dollar out the window".
When I came to Russia, my job was to improve relations between the 2 countries. well seeing as everyone here loves america, I feel my job is already done, yet I still find myself doing presentations for groups of people in school. 3 times I did a michael Jackson presentation for english class, where I sang half his songs and danced beat it and thriller in front of and audiance, after my dignity flew out the window. I was asked to do a series presentation about the USA for a serious english class. which is tomorrow. so my and the French Exchange student Roxane will both have to go to school during the holidays to talk about France and the US.
despite the english language presentations. my Russian is improving, its just hard to get people to sit and talk to me because it seems that a foreigner in Russia means nothing to my classmates. they compliment my language when I speak but nobody seems to mind the fact an american and a french girl are sitting right next to them, which is really great, but hard to be embraced. out of all the teachers, only 2 embrace Roxane and me. the mother/english teacher, and the Physics teacher (no idea why). but my grammer is improving and I know enough now that my host family lets me be alone in the city, actually ive been left alone in the city before since week 2. but the coolest thing happening right now is that im starting to forget english, although I know my writing is a grammer nightmare, I dont know how to correct it and I had to ask Roxane how to write the letter Q in english. so the first step is happening.. forgetting english D: although language is tough, the hardest thing I see for myself is not the language, but is explaining myself to people. nobody here in Russia seems to have that independent personality we see in the US. they seem to be all slides of the same tray. nothing really original with anybody I see. (thanks Communists). yet I still love the people here, they are a lot niсук than american people. with the exception of little kids, Russian kids are a lot nicer, theres no talking back to teachers or anything. yet american kids are much more well rounded and witty than Russian. just by seeing this change I can see how lucky I was to be born in the US. traveling abroad is the best way to see how lucky you are, or unlucky. and I think I can truely say now that I love the US. tears almost come everytime I hear my National Anthem or patriotic songs.
now a little about whats happening, every 4 days my host family has me cook the meals. and of course Im totally new to this so Ive always needed help on it. well now last time, where they requested american food. and I found cow meat.. and anybody who knows me knows exactly what I was thinking at the time. "hamburgers" soon I realized, to make hamburgers required different meat, and I instead made extremely toughmini steaks. i cant help but feel they only ate them because there was nothing else. but Russian here tend to eat a lot of stuff with Mayonase. and garlic, I asked them why the garlic and they said "to keep the vampires away". and I have to admit, ever since they had garlic in meals I have not seen one solitary vampire in Russia. and if we take the garlic away, we might make vampires again.. and on a totally different statement. my host father Casha, has joined the list of people who have out ate me. soon him and Mr. Hawk will duke-it-out. one day when we hat meat, he told me to try this Russian sauce. so i dip a bit of my meat in it and try it, next thing I know I'm crying and my mouth turns red and im needing water like crazy.. then i ask "WHAT WAS THAT?" "wasabe sauce" D: then my host dad takes his whole piece of meat, dips it in the sauce, puts it all in his mouth and eats it starting at me.. >.> its not often im beated.. but I will remember this..
America is the capitalo of mass media in the world, and after coming here I believe it. because people take seeing old american movies on TV here really greatly. and they have a lot of them. while here ive watched some old movies on TV and DVD. like "Back to the Future", "Iron Man" and the "Spider Man" series. good movies people here think are awesomer then they are. speaking of entertainment, Nothing gets inbetween me and football. i can find college games on ESPN AMERICA.. right here in Russia. and hopefully, in February, the superbowl.
as for school life, it is interesting, the only classes I can fully participate in are English and Sport. yet the interesting stuff is in English. we got our first english test results back. even though the teacher took the american variants.. i got (ready for this mom) an A!!!!!! minus. i point from a B. so i did beat my mom. yet on the second test, I got 1 point from an A. so i got a B+. i really am forgetting english, and this is proof. (took me 4 tries to spell that word right).
Russia does seem to fufill to winston Churchill's description. as Russia is a contradiction. the nation has 1/4 of the worlds fresh water and is the energy superpower of the world, yet gas here costs more than in the US 4 years ago and everyone is worried about saving power and taking 5 minute showers.
the only rule I wish i broke was the laptop rule, as internet can go down here with no word of return...... so great. by following the rule im limited :p. but it is holiday here. until monday. so I will have time to learn more Russian. and play with my pets.. half of which the dog ate.= and we gave away. i only have 1 dog and 2 cats now. the kitten thinks its a ninja also.
it also appears that if youre sick here. you stay out the week at school. so you dont get anybody sick at school. which I like because who wants to go to school anyway. the Russian system is not as great as the people here think. the American system in much better. in america "im gifted in science" "ok advanced science classes, follow your gift" in Russia "im gifted in Science" "ok, stay with these people, doing the same thing, no special classes to improve your gift".
internationally. the president Medvedev is in the Kuril islands now negotiating with Japan over issues. the japanese want some of the Kuril islands that Russia controls. mainly because fish trabel inbetween these islands a lot and you know the Japs and fish. but Medvedev holds strong and tells them no all the time. speaking of Japan, my Rotary club has asked me to write a paper about how I found myself in Russia which they will put on their website, once I get the link ill post it for you all to read. in Russia you dont drink the water out of the faucet, becasuse its not filtered and cleaned. although that doesnt stop me from drinking out of the faucet all the time... because my family has a filter :p. along with Russian disadvantages, Toliet Paper doesnt seem to exist anywhere outside my house >.>...
i also received my first package, my host family told me that everything sent they have here in Russia, but i still ate all the contents within a day. they also play a game called Russian lottery. with real money, its like Bingo only if you win depending on what row you filled. and if you fill the last one then you win the money in the pot. and people get sad when they lose rubles and when i see the amount i laugh and think to myself "id lose more money if I threw a dollar out the window".
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