Crystal in Russia

My New Home

So now I'm living in the dormitory. I'll get to the whole story in a moment (it's really not very dramatic). First, some pictures and a quick summary of the week. This is St. Issac's Cathedral and a playground. One is a tourist attraction, the other is a resident thing. They're very close to each other physically.




















This is Sennaya Ploschad or Hay Square. In Crime and Punishment, it was called the Haymarket, where Raskolnikov walked around a lot. It's very busy with kiosks and stuff. Notice these people are eating outside McDonalds. The only thing Russian about the McDonalds here is that the menus are in Cyrillic. If you went in and ordered in English with a Russian accent, you would get your Happy Meal. The fries taste exactly the same, but my McFlurry was tiny. The "Big Tasty" was huge but the meat was sketchy. And it was super crowded.

Overview:
Monday 6-26: Russian TV is great--they have the People's Court, except it's real court cases (I don't understand what's going on, but Neil said he saw a murder trial). They also have Deal or No Deal (?!Sdelka!?), and the Nanny (both the Fran version and the supernanny version). My favorite show is on MTV Russia, and it's called Club. It's a series about these people who go to this club and their glamourous lives. In other words, nothing like real Russian life.

Tuesday 6-27: My tutor Katya took me to the zoo, which I told not to go to. It is really terrible. The cages are tiny, and they have asphalt bottoms (instead of dirt or grass). Animal rights activists would die. Then I went with Robyn and her tutor Misha to see a Czech movie with Russian subtitles. Czech sounds a lot like Russian. It was still hard to understand even with the subtitles, plus the plot was very odd.

Wednesday 6-28: We had an excursion to the Russian Museum. I didn't say anything about it in my journal, but it was okay. I like it better than the Hermitage. Then we went to see Dream of the Ridiculous Man, which was a play staged in an apartment. It's a short story by Dostoevsky about this crazy student (aren't they all?) But he has a dream where he's taken to a planet where everything is perfect, and he realizes the key to life--love everyone as yourself. I really liked the idealism of the story. The apartment was made up like the 19th century, so it was lit only by candles and really small. The actor basically did a monologue while moving about the room, mostly ignoring us as we sat along the walls. It is one of my favorite things about Russia now. Really great literature, and a really creative way to present it. I wonder if they have shows like that in the US. Then we went to a jazz club to see a "post-folk" band. It was everything you think of when you hear "post-folk"--yes, strange. But entertaining.

Thursday 6-29: We had a shortened third class because of the holiday (Ivan Kupala). Our teachers dressed up like fairy tale characters and made us do little challenges. My team won, and we got chocolate. It was strange. Then I talked to Neil and moved out of my host family's apartment (more later). Then I went to McDonalds and had a Биг Тейсти (Big Tasty), fries, and a McFlurry. I haven't had that much fat, sugar, and salt since I got to Russia. It felt like home.

Friday 6-30: I'll get to what happened in class that afternoon. Robyn and I went to an Indonesian restaurant. We were sitting beside this big window, and a Mini was parked outside. Then this group of people with a photographer came out and started taking pictures around the car. We have no idea who owned the car, because no one ever opened the door or anything. They just posed with it. Then they went away and the photographer came back with an entirely new group. Just another day in Russia. Then I went out with some people to a Russian bar and had my first drink in Russia. It was vodka and peach juice. The juice here is so good because it is usually 100% and no preservatives. The only thing is it goes sour easily. The bar was fun and I didn't go home until 2. I walked with Robyn, so we were okay.

Saturday 7-1: I went to the Hermitage with Robyn, Julia, and Robyn's tutor Misha. That place is huge. I realized how uninterested in art I am. Then Robyn and I went to the Museum of (Orthodox) Religion. They dedicated a room each to ancient Greek, Roman, and Egyptian religions, Protestantism, and Buddhism/Hinduism. The rest was icons and saints. Robyn and I cooked since her host family was gone. Then we found Juila again at a club. I drank my second drink in Russia, also vodka and peach juice, but the vodka was a lot stronger and I didn't even finish it. This was a bar, not a club, but people danced a little. It still felt like high school--white kids just kind of moving their arms and hips, but it was fun. We left earlier.
Sunday 7-2: Went to a church my former host mother talked about. They are Baptist missionaries and very conservative. The only bright point was that the sermon was in English and simultaneously translated into Russian, so I understood it and was able to pick up a few Russian religious terms. Then I went to the ACTR picnic, which was a Russian/American gathering. The Russians were cool. One guy really liked rap music and sung some of his favorite raps to me. He thinks Russian rap is terrible, though. I told him I thought it was funny. He wanted to see me again, so I gave him Robyn's number. Then Robyn and I went to the World of Water museum. It looks more American than Russian.

Sorry if that seems really short. I have to dedicate most of the blog to what happened Thursday and Friday. So I wrote about how my host mom was never at home. I saw Galina about 3 hours total last week. Thursday after I class I sat down with Neil and he basically said it's time to go. At 7pm he and I took the bus to my apartment. I packed, and we took a cab back to the dorm. No one was home, of course, and Natasha (the home stay coordinator) dictated a note for Neil to leave for Galina. It basically said I'm going to live in the dorm now and that he or Natasha would give her keys back. I'm not sure if they got in touch with her that afternoon or not. She was at the dacha and she has a cell phone. Anyway, I was expecting to never see her again.

I was wrong. Friday morning I get up and go to class--the only thing that's different is I don't have an hour commute. I went to Дикси (Diksi) and bought some bread, meat, cheese, and juice to last me a few days. So we were in my second class when Galina knocks on the door and pokes her head in. I was shocked, but figured she had called Neil and he sent her to get the keys from me. I had them in my bookbag and gave them to her. Then class ends and we leave for lunch. Galina is waiting out in the hall! Almost two hours had passed! She asks me if I have Natasha's cell phone number. I do and give it to her. She says a few more things, and the one thing I caught was that she wanted me to call her. She was acting as cheerful and bright as she usually is. I was freaked out. Then Robyn and I hung back in the hall, and she left the building. After a few minutes we walked out, and she was in the courtyard! Apparently she had called Natasha. She said as we walked to the hotel lobby, "I'm going to the dacha now." Robyn asks, and the sarcasm is completely lost in Russian: "Is it a good dacha?" Galina raved about how she loves it. She finally left for good and I found Neil in the lobby. He had no idea she had been there, so I told him the whole story. So he and Natasha got together, and I'm not sure what happened.

It was really strange for her to come all the way to the university like that. I have a feeling she won't be hosting again. When Natasha first wrote about her, she said she was one of the best families. I'm sure she is when she's at home because she cooks well and she likes to talk. I think she's hosted a black person before because she told me how she was really excited to have me. In that same conversation she talked about how strange and bad Chechens (who they call "black people") are. In conclusion, Galina is a little prejudice, but not in a mean way. It just made me more willing to leave.

That's another thing. Most of the American students do not bring up race. I've only talked to two people about how I felt being black in Russia. However, Russians and Americans who live in Russia are not politically correct. They will point it out. It's always in a nice way--oh, you should be careful because there are a lot of skinheads--but I'm not used to being singled out that way. Yes, I'm aware that I'm the only black person in the room, but people usually do not bring it up in conversation. So far people have stared at me, tried to take a picture of me (whether I know it or not), or talked to me about Africa or skinheads. Fun times.

In conclusion (as Russians say, конце концов--konsay konsof) I am fine, not feeling sick, just a little tired, and very amused by Russia.

posted by Crystal @ 7:20 PM