In Russia, Finally

It has been several days since I arrived in Belokurikha but I haven’t had the internet… here is everything I have written since I got here:

Saturday:

I have dreamed about going to Russia since my Junior year in high school and it is mind-boggling an wonderful to finally be here. I am writing this at what I think is 6 AM in the morning after arriving in Belokurikha. It is hard for me to wrap my head around the last few days, but I will try to describe it.
My trip began very unfortunately with me missing my flight to Moscow. Needless to say, it was a fairly major crisis and Delta was both mean and unwilling to help me in any way. The Delta terminal of JFK was more or less in chaos when I arrived 2 ½ hours before my flight and every single line that would give you any access to an actual human employee was very long and barely moving. By the time I finally figured out where to go and eventually neared the front of the line it was already one hour before my flight. They would not let me check in because I was 9 minutes past the mark for check in time, according to them, the system locks you out and there is nothing they can do. After crying, pleading and yelling at a number of truly unkind Delta employees, I had to go to rebooking while frantically calling Brett (the program director), another LE staff member and finally my mom. The line for rebooking had about a hundred people in it, all with pretty similar situations to mine, pretty much definitively proving that Delta is a terrible, terrible airline. In fact, after waiting for an hour in the rebooking line I found out that my original flight had been delayed an hour so I would have obviously made the flight if they had let me check in.
Anyway, long story short, rebooking was not going to happen in time (when I got to the front of the line, two of the three people working at the counter just left). The LE staff member and my mom helped me find another flight that I NEEDED to make if I wanted to reach Moscow in time to catch the train with the group. I barely made that flight (another long story), but I did and that is what matters. It cost an obscene amount of money, but it was worth it. I ended up flying on the Russian airline called Aeroflot, which I had been warned against but that I actually really enjoyed. All the signs were in Russian, the flight attendants spoke Russian, etc. It was definitely not the greatest airline though. One of my favorite things was the map of our progress that they showed on the screen because the cities that they chose to label seemed both strange and counter intuitive. For example, as we took off the map showed New York, New Haven, the Hudson River, Trenton and nothing else.
I met the other LE volunteers at the airport and we all got along right away. We made our way through the Moscow Metro to the train station, which was uncomfortable because we were carrying a lot of luggage but fun because the Metro is very interesting. It actually feels a lot like the subway in New York, so in that way it was kind of comforting to be there. However, it is very, very deep underground and much more architecturally interesting than most New York subway stations. I will take pictures when I am back in Moscow at the end of my trip.
We finally got to the train station and settled ourselves in our sleeper cabins. Most of the stories from the trip are better left for another time, mostly because there are A LOT of them. It was an incredible trip and probably the most unadulterated fun I have ever had. I think I slept about 10 hours total between Monday and Friday, but it actually wasn’t too bad. Mostly we just stayed up all night because we were jetlagged and then we would take naps during the day and sleep too long and not be able to sleep the next night. We drank vodka with a rather creepy man from Kazan named Ranad, made friends with a woman who sold food on the train and had a number of metallic crowns in her mouth, drank cognac with some men from the Russian military, made friends with a little girl from Spain, did the Macarena in the hallway of the train car, played human Jenga and there was even an instance of a certain young man taking a nasty fall off of the top of a bunk bed. Also, the Trans-Siberian railway doesn’t have showers, so we all were greasy and disgusting for most of the trip.
Actually, I should tell you a little about each of the other volunteers because all of them are absolutely amazing. Brett, our program director, is just about as wonderful as I thought he would be from the many emails we exchanged before the trip. He is from Wisconsin and he likes cheese. He made me laugh the whole trip and constantly amazes me with how many things he has done in his life and how passionate he is about them. In fact, after we return to Moscow he is going right back to Siberia to teach in a university for a year.
Devon and I hit it off right away. She goes to Georgetown and is one of the most impressively social people I have ever met. I really like her confidence and ability to talk to strangers without embarrassment. She befriended the little Spanish girl I mentioned before and, within half an hour, the little girl was hugging her and saying, “I love you!”
Sarah is from London and studies Classics at either Cambridge or Oxford (I can’t remember). She comes off as being rather shy, but she is an extremely sweet person and has a very nice British accent. She got Brett to speak in a British accent for an entire night and is actually very outgoing giving the right situation.
Alfred goes to Brown and is pretty awesome. He was on the flight I missed and, when I told him that I didn’t know if I would make it to Russia, he insisted that I not only needed to but that I would. When I got off the plane he gave me a big hug and made me feel at ease right away. He was the first of us to meet the Russian soldiers and apparently made such a good impression that the soldier gave him a patch from his uniform.
Wilson, or Vilson as I like to call him, just sort of graduated from Stanford but is staying on for another year to get his Masters in Japanese. Needless to say, he is brilliant and speaks Russian fluently. He says “hella” sometimes, but I don’t even mind because I like him so much. The first morning we were both awake at about five in the morning and just looked out of the train windows and talked about Russian literature
Finally there is Ted, or Teddy Bear, who just graduated from Georgetown. I think he may be the smartest person I have ever met. Not only does he speak Russian flawlessly, he seems to know about 50 other languages and plays the mandolin. I loved just sitting and talking with him on the train and more than once staying up all night and having adventures.
We are all in different cities and towns, but I will see them all again for a midpoint break and a trip in the Altai Mountains. When we arrived in Biysk we were all met by our host families and went our separate ways.
My host “mother’s” name is Karina Baykulova and she is amazing. She is about to turn 28 and is an English teacher here. She and her friend Tatyana and Tatyana’s father picked me up at the train station and brought me nice snacks for the ride. Tatyana is 20 and I think that she came along so that I could meet someone my own age. She seems very nice and goes to school in Barnaul, which is a big city not too far away. Her English is fairly good and we managed to communicate.
When we got home, Karina made a huge meal and I took a very long, very needed shower. We went to the store and bought vodka and beer and then ate dinner and drank. The dinner was about four different salads, herring, and then a delicious chicken dish with potatoes and sour cream. She made a nice toast and said how glad she was that I was here and told me that in Russia you fill the first shot to the top and drain it to the bottom but after that you don’t have to. Karina has a cat named Shlyopa and he is very cute and very playful.
Today I am going to school with Karina and I am not entirely sure what we will be doing. After school Tatyana invited me to take an “excursion” and as far as I understand it, we are taking a ski lift to the top of a mountain.

Monday:

This blog entry is just going to be super, super long because I still haven’t found the internet. Writing in English feels very awkward, not because I have been speaking Russian a lot, but more because I have been trying to simplify my English when talking to my new friends. On Saturday I went to class with Karina and met the children. They were all very nice and asked me lots of questions about America. One little boy seems to be in love with me and kept handing me the ball when we were playing in the schoolyard. I taught the kids Duck Duck Goose and they taught me games as well. I thought that there would be lots of different classes and age groups but there is just one group of children who all don’t really know English at all. They like to sing karaoke and they want me to sing today. I am not particularly excited about it.
After class I talked to my mom on the phone for the first time, which was very nice. Then Tanya (Tatyana) and her father picked me up and took me on a tour of Belokurikha. Honestly, I am a little fuzzy on the details of where we actually went because the tour guide spoke in very fast Russian and Tanya couldn’t translate everything. We did see a beautiful church and took a ski lift up to the top of a mountain where the God of the native Altai people was supposed to have lived. There were giant bugs that bit us and it was very hot, but it was still beautiful and interesting.
I stayed at Tanya’s house for the night because Karina needed to stay at her mother’s house to help her with yard work. Tanya and I went in the banya, which is basically a Russian sauna, but they beat you with birch branches. They have been boiled so they are soft and it feels very nice.
On Sunday Tanya’s sister, Vika, took me riding on her horse. I can’t remember the horse’s name, but Vika calls him the Russian word for “son.” It was an amazing ride… we both rode one horse and I sat behind the saddle, which was kind of scary. When we galloped I was pretty sure I was going to fall off, but luckily I didn’t and I am still alive. Then we went to Karina’s mother’s house and ate lunch/dinner. I wasn’t hungry but the food was so good that I was able to eat enough to be polite. All the meals here are huge! I haven’t been very hungry since I got here any my stomach feels weird, but everyone makes huge meals for me because I am a guest so I have to eat. Karina got a small bottle of vodka and then her friend came over and brought beer, then we walked back to her house and stopped at another bar on the way. It was quite a lot of alcohol but it was very fun.
Today I went to my second day of school. It is really just summer camp though so I haven’t really been doing much teaching. Today I showed some girls how to play hangman and then taught everyone how to play Red Rover but it turned out that they have pretty much the same game in Russia. Lots of the children gave me little presents, which was very cute. Lots of the kids and teenagers have very dated hairstyles like rattails and mullets.
Anyway, if any of you miss me enough to call me my number is +7 (963) 572 8136. The call will be free for me, but probably far from cheap for you. I think it is 14 hours later here than in California and 11 in New York.

Wednesday:

I finally have a slightly better internet connection but I can't seem to upload photos. I will try again later!