Travel Column

November 21, 2009Last Thursday was our last day of classes! Next week we hand in our research project papers, take a Russian language test, and an everything-else-about-Russia-that-we-learned test. I did mine on the Young Pioneers, the children's club that essentially all 9 to 14 year olds were a part of during the Soviet Union. It taught communist/Marxist ideology and good morals. I interviewed some adults who were in it and it was a good way to hear opinions on socialism and the Soviet Union, etc. It's so interesting how in America, during the Cold War, Russians were the enemies. The Russians that were alive back then don't consider themselves the enemies. How strange.

Schools in the city are closed for 10 days because many kids have the flu. (Not Swine Flu, just a flu). Apparently they can just close schools like that if they want. For the last service project we still went to the school. There were no kids, of course, but we had tea with the two English teachers, both of whom I had already interviewed about the Pioneers. We started at 9 am and didn't leave the classroom until 2 pm: five hours of chai, cream puffs, and candy, and talking about everything under the sun. One reason I came to Russia was to have tea with the locals, so it was a good time! I gave Galina, one of the teachers, a book full of propaganda pictures of Alberta landscapes. Mwa ha ha ha.

I went to a Bible study with linguistic-majoring-English-speaking Russian student Christian girls. (In Russian, Studyentka, to communicate "college female students.") It was encouraging to hear their enthusiasm and experiences with God. When people across the world have the same feelings about Jesus you know that you can't be just wrong and crazy. It was cool to sing songs first in English, and then to hear them in Russian. The five girls all speak really good English, and some are fluent in French and German too. Crazy. The apartment we were in also had a keyboard, and I played the piano for the first time in 3 months! I don't know if you can understand the significance of this unless you're a music nerd.

November 27, 2009

Russian Oddities:
-Universal Hs are pronounced Gs. For example: Garry Potter and Gitler.

-Only males shake hands, (never females). When a male enters a room, he will shake all the other men's hands, never the female's hands.

-Russians have 3 names. The first name can always be shortened. For example, I am Maria, my short name is Masha. Depending on the meaning connected to 'me', it could be masheee, mashye, etc. It is weird that the endings of names actually change. There's a host of Katyas and Anyas. My endearing name would be Mashinka.
There is no middle name. Only your father's name with an ending. For example, I would be Maria Garoldovna Toews. My brother would be Jason Garoldovich Toews. IF I were a person in authority my inferiors would call me Maria Garoldovna, rather than Miss Toews.

I have taken my Russian exam (easy)and Russia Seminars exam (super hard, and I am not exaggerating.) But that's that. Yesterday the RSP students had American Thanksgiving all day long, and it was lovely. I made cranberry sauce and was quite proud of the chemical experiment that went into it. Today was the closing ceremonies, where the important people and Rector of the university and such spoke to us in Russian and I understood most of it! And tonight is the end party where we will all do Russian dances that we have been training for, and humiliate ourselves. We are also singing and acting out the Sound of Music "So long, Farewell" song, and that pretty much makes my day. Last night I watched the Sound of Music in Russian (except for the songs) with my Russian sister, so I think her life is complete now.

And if you're still interested in the itinerary of my life, next we go to Moscow for 10 days.