Monday, July 27, 2009

I have to admit, last night I was beginning to feel really depressed about being in Russia. As I mentioned, Karina was hung-over and sleeping all day, I hung out with Tanya, and I really hadn’t done much of anything all week. She finally got up at about 9 at night and seemed in better spirits. She started to make borsht and watch “Dom 2 (House 2).” I was feeling really down and then my mom called me and I got to talk to her for the first time for any extended period since being here. She finally got a calling card that was very affordable and it was really amazing to not have to count every second that we were speaking.


When I got off the phone after about an hour Karina had finished the borsht. It was amazing and I ate a big bowl even though I wasn’t hungry because it was so delicious. It made me feel a little better just having Karina awake and walking around so I wasn’t just wandering aimlessly around the house. Then the two Russian girls that I met last weekend called Karina and asked if I could go for a walk with them today. I wasn’t really looking forward to it because it didn’t seem like they spoke much English from our first meeting. They came to get me today at 10:30 in the morning and took me directly to a cafĂ© and handed me a cocktail menu. We each had a beer (definitely my only morning drinking experience to date) and then walked up to the heath resort again. I actually had an amazing time with them though. Their names are Irra and Anya and they are both maybe 24 or 25. They were very interesting to talk to and with their limited but combined English and my limited Russian we managed to converse pretty easily. Also, they were so excited to practice their English, which made me feel a little less useless here.


Unfortunately Irra lives in Biysk, so I can’t see her very often. Anya lives here though and she asked me to come over and see her house next Sunday. She also seems to be trying to set me up with her 21-year-old brother. I can’t tell if it is a platonic set-up or a date-y set up, but they seem to sort of giggle when they talk about introducing us. Luckily, if he wants me to marry him and take him back to America I will only be here for another two weeks and I can probably dodge it.


Anya and Irra said two hilarious things when we were walking around. Last week they had met Brett and Ted, two of the other volunteers, and so I asked them if they thought that the boys were handsome. They said, “Oh yes!” and proceeded to say that Ted looks like a Georgian. Anya said, “He is very black,” which I took to mean that he has dark features and dark hair. Then she said, “He is so hairy and he looks like a koala bear, but it is good.” Then, as we walked by a bouncy house, which Brett had talked about liking the week before, Irra points to it and says, “It is Brett’s house!” Oh, Russia.


Today Karina and I are going to begin a lesson about Michael Jackson with some of her students. It was most definitely not my idea, and I thought it was hilarious that Karina brought it up. I was talking to Matt before I left about how I hoped that people in Russia wouldn’t be as upset about MJ’s death as they were in America. I personally thought they were insincere responses since most of the country thought he was a child-molester up until his death. Anyway, we are going to sing a Jackson Five song, which I am very much okay with, and then have the students find out information about MJ’s life for homework.

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