Observations:
I very rarely have true conversations in Russian (aside from school and home) which is where I seem to spend all my time so that opening sentence is in fact completely false. Anyways, people always want to speak english with me and so we end up having this brutally mutated discussion using both english and russian words and grammer rules. For example, why not use the genetive plural of friend so it will become friend-ob or if you are trying to say girl but it is a feminine word so it becomes girl-a.Also there is this very strange phenomenon, (maybe it is just a personal problem and not a wide spread phenomenon, but I'm not sure) that I speak very poor english when I try to speak with Russians. I sort of take on the awkward word choice and weird accent and I am very embarassed of my inability to speak. It seems more comfortable to speak bad russian because I don't have to cringe at every mistake I make (where as I do when I speak english).
Also I think that they mainly teach british english (b/c I looked at the textbook at this school where I am supposed to go teach english in less than an hour) and they were having discussions about their "favourite" things. Also it is written just as awkwardly as the russian textbooks we have to read. Also this guy kept talking about his "flat" when we were discussing where he lives, and I had no idea what he was talking about. I understood the conversation just not what word he kept using. Then it finally dawned on me, except he says "flat" with this strange british/russian accent. So it is awesome.
These are some of the rules for a telepone conversation from the earlier mentioned textbook:
Say "Hello"
Tell who you are
Tell what you want
Give the person time to answer
Don't speak very loud
Don't talk very long.
Listen to what the other person says.
Say something in answer.
People, it's a telephone. It's not like they don't have telephones in Russia. They do. And actually my 74 year old бабушка has instructed me that if I am going to be late, I can just text her and she will wait to have dinner with me.
Apparently all Russians know the english word "butterfly" which is entertaining because the russian word for butterfly is бабочка which is like 10 times more awesome than "butterfly."
They also know the words "bear" and "beer" although the girl I was hanging out with yesterday made me repeat both words many times so she could hear the difference because people always
thought she was talking about beer when she was trying to talk about a bear.
Also I told her that we have shoes which we call sneakers and she laughed very hard and told me they had a chocolate bar called that. Then I realized she was talking about snickers and I was talking about sneakers.
We also had a discussion about how it is very strange that religious icons and icons on the computer are the same word, because well religious icons are important and computer icons are not important.
This is a very dull and boring post and for that I am sorry.
Also, this is an awesome story: yesterday on the bus this woman started talking to me. I don't know what she was saying. Then she pointed at the roof emergency exit thing. Then I mumbled back to her and ignored her. Then I realized she was telling me it was too hot on the bus and I was supposed to open the roof emergency exit door/thing so that it would not be so hot on the bus. What?
This is a really unorganized/scatterbrained post.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Saturday, September 22, 2007
встречи на улице
While I was wandering around killing time this fine Saturday afternoon (it is my new Saturday/weekend hobby to wander aimlessly about the city taking various modes of public transportation to various locales, wandering about, returning, getting lost, getting found, returning home...) anyways the whole 4 hours I spent doing that today, I was trying to think of something to write about here. There's so many tidbits of daily life that are impossible to accurately describe in any language (and translation into english especially ruins them).
Anyways, this afternoon 4 different people on the street stopped me to ask various random questions. That is awesome! Maybe I don't look like an absolutely cluesless American wandering the streets. The first lady asked me something that I didn't understand, actually I didn't really understand she was talking to me until the conversation had ended. So I just said "I don't know." and sort of stared at her. The second lady asked me if this was the number 9 bus. I said yes just because I didn't really know what to say immediately and then I realized that we were in fact on the number 9 bus, so that was a good answer. Then the third lady asked me what time it was. This is perhaps the worst question ever to be asked in Russia.
Let me explain my basic understanding of time in Russia: they use both the 24 and the 12 hour clock. So if you are trying to say that it is 4:30 for example, you have several ways to say it. You could say "four thirty." You could say "half of five." You could say "sixteen thirty." You could say "half of seventeen." It is very confusing. Anyways, I was lucky enough that it was exactly 4:30 because if it had been 4:15 or 4:40 there are like 800 other ways to say those time. Anyways, I replied it is "half of five" and she said "thank you" and we parted. And it was awesome.
Then the fourth woman asked me something like "Are we going on the correct path" and I said "I don't know." Then I finally ended up at the internet center.
Also I just finalized my schedule (after deciding on the mainstream "fairy tale" class) so that is good. I am taking Grammer, Phonetics, Politics, Conversation, and Fairy Tales...
Anyways, this afternoon 4 different people on the street stopped me to ask various random questions. That is awesome! Maybe I don't look like an absolutely cluesless American wandering the streets. The first lady asked me something that I didn't understand, actually I didn't really understand she was talking to me until the conversation had ended. So I just said "I don't know." and sort of stared at her. The second lady asked me if this was the number 9 bus. I said yes just because I didn't really know what to say immediately and then I realized that we were in fact on the number 9 bus, so that was a good answer. Then the third lady asked me what time it was. This is perhaps the worst question ever to be asked in Russia.
Let me explain my basic understanding of time in Russia: they use both the 24 and the 12 hour clock. So if you are trying to say that it is 4:30 for example, you have several ways to say it. You could say "four thirty." You could say "half of five." You could say "sixteen thirty." You could say "half of seventeen." It is very confusing. Anyways, I was lucky enough that it was exactly 4:30 because if it had been 4:15 or 4:40 there are like 800 other ways to say those time. Anyways, I replied it is "half of five" and she said "thank you" and we parted. And it was awesome.
Then the fourth woman asked me something like "Are we going on the correct path" and I said "I don't know." Then I finally ended up at the internet center.
Also I just finalized my schedule (after deciding on the mainstream "fairy tale" class) so that is good. I am taking Grammer, Phonetics, Politics, Conversation, and Fairy Tales...
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
I wrote this a long time ago, but the computer wouldn't post it...
Yesterday evening, while eating dinner, I was watching some russian version of Judge Judy where they conduct a trial with all sorts of attorneys and defendants and witnesses, etc. I wasn't completely concentrating on understanding, but I felt that I understood a fair amount of what was going on. This man was being charged with murdering some unknown dog and all of his neighbors in the housing complex were testifying against him. From what I understood all of the witnesses were absolutely crazy. They would all just begin yelling at each other at random points screaming "yeah, but what about this...." or doing overdramatic hand motions to show their disgust at the whole event. Finally it went to commercial break right before the verdict was read. All of the witnesses had been so out of control, everyone contradicting everyone else's version of events, there were lots of shady acquantainces (I think one woman spent a month in the hospital because she was homeless and one of her friends who worked at the hospital arranged for her to become a patient...). Anyways, I just knew that with all of these loons just being loons, the defendant would be proven not guilty. We come back from commercial break and the judge reads the verdict (which I didn't understand, but I'm going to blame that on all of the legal jargon). Then Margarita explained to me that he had been sentenced to 10 years in jail. WHAT???
That is my life.
In other news, I succesfully put 200 rubles onto my mobilnik yesterday. It sounded like a fairly basic exchange that needed to occur. First I realized that I didn't know how to explain that I wanted to put money on my phone. My conversation teacher told me to use the verb "to place in a laying down position one time (положить)." With that handy piece of advice I set off in search of an MTS store. There is one fairly close to the university but the last time a girl from our group went there the sales guy kept texting her the next day, so I decided to steer clear of that one. Then I was walking to where I thought another store was located. I realized I had no idea what is the normal amount of money to place onto a phone at one time. If I only put on 100 rubles, that is sort of ridiculous because then I will have to go back next week and do it again. However, if I put on 500 rubles, does that mean that I am a rich American who just has too much money. I finally settled on 200 roubles. I walked into the store. There were 4 different counters (ahhh). I proceeded to browse through the free brochures on the wall while I tried to figure out what to do. The security man kept giving me weird looks. Then I approached a counter. I began to speak. The woman gave me this eye look and just stared at me. I'm going to tell myself that the weird look was only because I appeared so russian she was suprised at the small American accent and not her pure disgust at my slaughtering of the language. Anyways, she said "to pay" and I said "yes" and she pointed me to a different counter. Then the new woman asked me what my phone number was. I recited it as fast as I could. Keep in mind, I spent the entire walk to the store reciting my number as fast as I could. It's only hard because if the number is 915, you're not allowed to say "nine one five" you have to say "nine hundred and fifteen" which is a lot harder. Then she asked how much money I was putting on. I said "200." She didn't give me any weird looks, so I assume that is a good number. Then I left. It was all around a complete success.
The third piece of news is my lack of success with mainstream hunting. I'm getting tired of writing about the damn mainstream so I'm sure everyone else is equally tired of reading about it. Anyways, there was so much optimism the last time I posted about it. Meghan and I had found a list of maybe 4 or 5 classes which all had a lot of potential. I went to the first one on the list last Friday morning.
It was supposed to be a small "spets kours" about museums taught by a female professor, except the room was full of 30 people and a male professor. I went back to look at the schedule. A new room number had been written over the old one. Then a woman showed up and talked about merchants and not museums for 90 minutes. Then at the end of the lecture, she said "Well see you all in November." I have no idea what I attended, and I just ran away.
Last night (Monday) was supposed to be the second one on my list. But I decided to skip it and go play pick-up hockey at the Lokomotiv arena instead, which was definitely the better decision. It was awesome. The less I speak, the more competent I seem, although I think it was fairly shocking that a girl was there to play pick-up. And I scored two goals.
Tonight I shall try again in the mainstream search. It is supposed to be a course about fairytales in different cultures. I have already decided that this is the class I am going to take, which is probably not the best plan, but I'm tired of looking. It meets just on Tuesday nights, so Mondays and Thursday are open for both hockey and hopefully the girls basektball team I am joining (first practice this Thursday...I will report back). It also has an exam in December, so I would not be required to stick around
Also, if I don't respond to your emails, please don't hate me. I don't have that much internet time, and half of it is spent sifting through all of the damn e-mails from SNG at Midd.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Important Things to Write About...
I titled this entry, in the hope that it would inspire me to think of important things to convey to my dedicated readers. However, I'm still coming up empty.
1. It is already very cold in Yaroslavl. Like yesterday I wore two pairs of long underwear. And it's also this rainy cold where you can never achieve any sort of warm-ness. I heard that they turn on the heat in the city when they get 3 days in a row when the temperature doesn't get about 8 degrees.
2. Last Friday, I went to go coach (or try to coach, or stand there looking like a loon) a youth boy's hockey team. The coach described a hockey playing girl from America as "exotic." I think I more impeded the practice as I stood there looking like a loon and every once in a while saying such useful words as "молодец, давай, быстро..." Oh yeah, high quality coaching skills. Then after practice the boys wanted to know what place I (and my team) had recieved in the world championships. At least, I think that's what they were asking.
3. On this same excursion I was also told that all of the passerbys just assumed I was carrying the hockey stick for my son.
4. The search for a mainstream course may not be as hopeless as initially believed. Today I went with Megan to look at the politics and history schedules and found some classes which both fit in my schedule, have only зачёт, and have nice professors whom I can understand. Tomorrow I have to go to one of them to try it out, but we don't know the subject matter. It is in the "museum" department. So it will surely be quite interesting, or just very strange. Regardless, it will be better than the Chinese history class.
5. Oh also this weekend, Margarita gave me charcoal tablets when I complained to her that my stomach hurt. It was very strange. But I suppose they sort of worked. She was amazed that they didn't sell them in the U.S. because they are so useful.
6. Also I really enjoy how the computer is underlining every word I write because it is doing Russian spell check on them all.
1. It is already very cold in Yaroslavl. Like yesterday I wore two pairs of long underwear. And it's also this rainy cold where you can never achieve any sort of warm-ness. I heard that they turn on the heat in the city when they get 3 days in a row when the temperature doesn't get about 8 degrees.
2. Last Friday, I went to go coach (or try to coach, or stand there looking like a loon) a youth boy's hockey team. The coach described a hockey playing girl from America as "exotic." I think I more impeded the practice as I stood there looking like a loon and every once in a while saying such useful words as "молодец, давай, быстро..." Oh yeah, high quality coaching skills. Then after practice the boys wanted to know what place I (and my team) had recieved in the world championships. At least, I think that's what they were asking.
3. On this same excursion I was also told that all of the passerbys just assumed I was carrying the hockey stick for my son.
4. The search for a mainstream course may not be as hopeless as initially believed. Today I went with Megan to look at the politics and history schedules and found some classes which both fit in my schedule, have only зачёт, and have nice professors whom I can understand. Tomorrow I have to go to one of them to try it out, but we don't know the subject matter. It is in the "museum" department. So it will surely be quite interesting, or just very strange. Regardless, it will be better than the Chinese history class.
5. Oh also this weekend, Margarita gave me charcoal tablets when I complained to her that my stomach hurt. It was very strange. But I suppose they sort of worked. She was amazed that they didn't sell them in the U.S. because they are so useful.
6. Also I really enjoy how the computer is underlining every word I write because it is doing Russian spell check on them all.
суперлига-локомотив
Last night I went to the opening home game of the Yaroslavl Locomotive Hockey Team. They play in the SuperLeague (Russian NHL). We won 4-1. It was awesome.
Sporting events seems to cross cultural boundaries. There was very loud music (both english and russian selections...the english included Cotton-Eyed Joe and Now, I'm a Believer), all sorts of concession stands selling beer, popcorn, (and miniature cups of tea), the "wave" which took a while to get started but finally made it all the way around the system, large cheers including "шайбу, шайбу, шайбу....which translates to puck, puck, puck," goals, penalties, fights, and other general awesomeness.
I continue to struggle to find a mainstream course which is understandable. My attempts failed again last night when I found myself in a class on Chinese history. I couldn't tell the difference between unknown Russian words and random Chinese place names or people's names. I'm becoming very frusterated in this mainstream search.
Monday, September 3, 2007
....и я попробовала купить шампунь
Whenever I am walking around the city or sitting at home, I promise myself that I will write a very composed and thoughtful and introspective and maybe not insane blog post. But then I become so frazzled just trying to get to a computer and enter a code and click two times here and three times there, that by the time I get on the internet I am already worried that I have wasted all of my 30 roubles. So then I just start frantically reading e-mails and replying to 6 at the same time, and then trying to post on my blog.....
Yesterday I tried to buy shampoo and soap and various other items. First of all I should preface this that the day before I tried to buy these things and entered a store that sold "продукты" but apparently they only sell food there. Then yesterday I went to a real store where I could purchase such items. Except they all sit behind the counter or under the glass shelf and I have to ask some woman to pick them out for me. I think it might be important to explain that it is impossible for me to purchase shampoo at home becuase I get overwhelmed and stand there for like 30 minutes and then just go with the kids shampoo that smells good. So there was a huge wall of shampoo, in Russian, and I was supposed to somehow convey which kind of shampoo I wanted. This was also necessary for the purchase of toothpaste, soap, various other items. So instead I ran away and didn't buy anything. Maybe today I will try again.
Real school started today. And we took both a written and a spoken exam. One of the other girls tried to explain to her family that we were taking an оральный тест (oral test) but was told that "oral" only refers to sex. Maybe that's not appropriate for this family minded blog. Oh well.
I have the afternoon free after the two classes, so I decided I should wander around. Except I still don't understand the weather forecasts and warnings that my babyska tries to give me every morning. So my coat is about 1 billion times too warm for the current weather. Except walking about in short sleeves seems to be sort of a faux pas as I haven't seen any women doing it (which is great since I brought so many short sleeve shirts...not joking...I just threw all my summer school clothes into a suitcase...bad idea). So then I went to the рынок which is just this ginormous, crazy place where they sell everything and there are stalls everywhere. And I bought this green jacket thing, which I shall be wearing upon my exit from this fine internet cafe establishment.
This morning when I was speaking with one of the teachers I told her I liked to play hockey and was interested in politics. She gave me this LOOK and said something like well that's interesting aka strange. Apparently those two interests don't mesh in Russia.
I am also going to try to go to a mainstream history class this evening from 6:30 to either 7:50 or 9:20. The schedule just pretty much baffles me.
Also in the market area, I just keep saying да which is a very bad solution. I also told these women I was from Canada because it seemed like a better answer. Then they just kept asking me why I was here studying like I had lost my mind coming here. I may be beginning to agree with them.
Once again, the blog post is just pure insanity. Well next time we will hope for composure and wise insights into the russian psyche.
Yesterday I tried to buy shampoo and soap and various other items. First of all I should preface this that the day before I tried to buy these things and entered a store that sold "продукты" but apparently they only sell food there. Then yesterday I went to a real store where I could purchase such items. Except they all sit behind the counter or under the glass shelf and I have to ask some woman to pick them out for me. I think it might be important to explain that it is impossible for me to purchase shampoo at home becuase I get overwhelmed and stand there for like 30 minutes and then just go with the kids shampoo that smells good. So there was a huge wall of shampoo, in Russian, and I was supposed to somehow convey which kind of shampoo I wanted. This was also necessary for the purchase of toothpaste, soap, various other items. So instead I ran away and didn't buy anything. Maybe today I will try again.
Real school started today. And we took both a written and a spoken exam. One of the other girls tried to explain to her family that we were taking an оральный тест (oral test) but was told that "oral" only refers to sex. Maybe that's not appropriate for this family minded blog. Oh well.
I have the afternoon free after the two classes, so I decided I should wander around. Except I still don't understand the weather forecasts and warnings that my babyska tries to give me every morning. So my coat is about 1 billion times too warm for the current weather. Except walking about in short sleeves seems to be sort of a faux pas as I haven't seen any women doing it (which is great since I brought so many short sleeve shirts...not joking...I just threw all my summer school clothes into a suitcase...bad idea). So then I went to the рынок which is just this ginormous, crazy place where they sell everything and there are stalls everywhere. And I bought this green jacket thing, which I shall be wearing upon my exit from this fine internet cafe establishment.
This morning when I was speaking with one of the teachers I told her I liked to play hockey and was interested in politics. She gave me this LOOK and said something like well that's interesting aka strange. Apparently those two interests don't mesh in Russia.
I am also going to try to go to a mainstream history class this evening from 6:30 to either 7:50 or 9:20. The schedule just pretty much baffles me.
Also in the market area, I just keep saying да which is a very bad solution. I also told these women I was from Canada because it seemed like a better answer. Then they just kept asking me why I was here studying like I had lost my mind coming here. I may be beginning to agree with them.
Once again, the blog post is just pure insanity. Well next time we will hope for composure and wise insights into the russian psyche.
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Ярославль
Well everyone, I made it to Yaroslavl. Last night I was dropped off at my host family (бабушка). I got my whole room set up and even managed to watch some made for tv movie about the life and death of Princess Di with my Margarita Petrovna. The concept of my vegetarianism came up where we talked about the fact that I don't eat meat and she replied well good, here is some chicken for you and we will have fish tomorrow. Whatever, it's sort of a necessity in Russia to eat meat and I can deal.
Today we are still doing orientation stuff and just generally wandering about the city trying to figure out how to find a mainstream class, where/how to buy phonecards, cellphones, various other necessities. It's nice to feel a general sense of being settled in one place for the next several months and I'm hoping that the honeymoon phase of culture transition will continue to last and I won't dip into frusteration and culture shock too soon.
I'm not sure when our actual classes start at the university (probably Monday or Tuesday). Right now I'm planning on taking the 3 required Midd classes, the one спецкурс по политике (politics) with the Middlebury program and then one mainstream (with like REAL russian students) maybe history or politics or something.
I think my time is running out...
Today we are still doing orientation stuff and just generally wandering about the city trying to figure out how to find a mainstream class, where/how to buy phonecards, cellphones, various other necessities. It's nice to feel a general sense of being settled in one place for the next several months and I'm hoping that the honeymoon phase of culture transition will continue to last and I won't dip into frusteration and culture shock too soon.
I'm not sure when our actual classes start at the university (probably Monday or Tuesday). Right now I'm planning on taking the 3 required Midd classes, the one спецкурс по политике (politics) with the Middlebury program and then one mainstream (with like REAL russian students) maybe history or politics or something.
I think my time is running out...
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)