8-27-2009
It seems I’ve found myself in Russia.

After some twenty-four hours of travel, in addition to another twenty-four of sleepness anxiety, I’ve somehow wound up in a very comfortable dorm room belonging to Slavyansk State Pedagogical Institute in Slavyansk-Na-Kubani, Russia. I remember the plane, bus, and car trips that brought me here, but for whatever reason, they still don’t seem to add up to answer the puzzle of my actually being here.

I think the shock of having moved to another country, which I had never been to before, hasn’t quite hit me yet. I have to pause before trying to pick up my phone (which doesn’t work here) to call Tyler or home, my regular move whenever I reach some destination. But I think it is just part of the process of going through the motions of being somewhere new and of doing something different. And so far, at least, there has been no question or panic (likely due, however, at least in part to the mind-and-body-numbing exhaustion).

There was the doubt this morning, when we dropped Tyler off at the train station to make his way to Harvard Law School, when I panicked over whether this is really the right thing to do. I think this must have preoccupied me until I actually boarded the flight to Moscow, because it wasn’t until we were speeding down the runway that I had that “oh, shit!” moment and suddenly realized that I m issed my opportunity to take Susie’s suggestion, made to me earlier in the day, to hop on a flight to Vegas instead (Susie, I hope you didn’t have your hopes set on that one!). But now that I’m here, it’s not too strange.

All of my flights were very smooth and perfectly punctual, which eased my traveler’s anxiety some (with great apologies to all those who have had the misfortune to travel with me). My only real complaint is the lack of adequate sinage in the Sheremetyevo airport—I searched all over the damn place until I saw the tiny 8½ x 11 sheet that told me how to get from Sheremetyevo 2 to Sheremetyevo 1. I did finally make my way there, though slightly irked and with tired arms. Alas, alas…

I have to admit, I was very surprised at the speed with which I was able to get through passport control and customs in Moscow. It was worse coming back from San Jose than it was here, at least in terms of time spent waiting and wandering.

I was met in Krasnodar by my host contact, Anatoliy, and a very sweet girl named Katya who recently graduated from the Institute and now teaches there. She is my age and has been assigned to be my guide in the town. Everyone is very nice and incredibly helpful. They drove me from Krasnodar to Slavyansk-Na-Kubani and told me about themselves, the town, and the Institute (speaking primarily in English because of the awful state of my Russian compounded by my lack of sleep and consequent lack of normal brain function). If our brief meeting tonight was any indication of what my experience will be here in the coming weeks and months, I think things will go very well. The Institute, from what they told me, sounds like a great place for English learners and teachers, and the town, though small, seems to have a lot going on. In the next few weeks there will be at least two festivals, one for the town and one for the institute, so that should be a neat way to get oriented here.

It’s kind of ridiculous how much my Russian langauge skills have deteriorated from lack of use in the past three months. It’s my own fault for not studying as much as I should have, but I don’t regret actually enjoying my summer, my last few weeks before going away for months, with those closest to me. Sure, I’ve spoken more Spanish than Russian in the past month, but hey. I’ll work on it. I’ll have to.
And of course, now that I’m actually in my own bedroom sitting on a nice, comfy bed, I don’t think I can sleep. What luck!

9-1-2009
(Written on the morning of September 1st: I am still without internet in my dorm—увы!—so I’ll post this when I have better access)

The lack of internet is my only real complaint so far. I haven’t had much time to get to the main campus to send emails back home, and I certainly can’t use Skype or anything there because of the disturbance to other people, not to mention the time difference, so I’m going to see if there is any way I can get some sort of personal internet access in my dorm room, via phone or usb or anything. I think that homesickness would be less of an issue if I could talk to people, let alone contact them on a regular basis. I’ll work on it.

From Russia With Love communication troubles aside, I think that the settling in process is going as well as could be hoped for. I’ve been very lucky, I think, insofar as I have an extremely kind and helpful guide in Katya and a very useful resource in Anatoliy Andreevich. They have answered all of the questions that have come up so far, have begun to introduce me to the town and to the community at Slavyansk State Pedagogical Institute, where we will be working together, and have even started showing me around the area more generally. Suffice to say, it’s been a busy couple of days.

Friday was a day of settling in and getting organized. After breakfast, a tour of a local primary school, and a walk through the town, Anatoliy Andreevich and Katya took me to the main campus, where I saw the library and the principal building and began the process of getting registered in town. Katya and I then dropped off the registration papers in town, where the rather jolly and enthusiastic registration officers seemed to really enjoy joking around with the token American. I have to say, it’s kind of fun being the only American around for miles (er, kilometers). We were told at orientation that a lot of people would be very curious about visiting Americans, because they don’t get very many (if any) and would have tons of questions, and it’s turned out to be very true. I don’t know, though, if I’m actually as interesting and exciting as everyone seems to think (or hope)… but, you know, no pressure.

Anyway, as Katya said to me that day, it was a day of waiting in lines. We waited for my papers at the institute, again at the registration office, and then at the store where I bought a cell phone. After that, we went back to her apartment where I met her roommate and drank tea, an activity that I think I’m already getting used to (I’ve never been a tea-drinker, but that is going to have to change this year—I tried to say “no thank you” once and got so many horrified looks that I think I’ll just t have to say yes from now on). The next day, we visited the building used by the Faculty of International Languages (English and German), where I got to meet the men and women who will be my colleagues this year. They all seem to be wonderfully nice people, and I’m looking forward to working with them. The only slight issue is language—they are worried about speaking English with me and I am worried about speaking Russian with them, which is silly on both sides (mostly mine, admittedly, since I do have to speak Russian to, you know, live here), but is hard to overcome. I’m working on building up my courage.

After a meeting, we celebrated the birthday of one of the women on the faculty, and I got my first taste of a Russian celebration, complete with wine, tea, and toasts. It was a pleasant way to get to know everybody.

I got home that evening and, after unpacking, promptly fell asleep at 5pm. Earlier that day, I had been so proud of myself for beating jet lag, but it seems that I was just lying to myself. Oh dear.

It was good that I got a lot of sleep that night, however, because Sunday turned out to be a very long day. When A. A. and Katya picked me up from the airport on Thursday, the fact that I study classic Russian literature—including, for example, Lermontov—came up. A.A. mentioned that in a town not too far away (by Russian standards—it was maybe two hours away) called Taman’, there is a Lermontov museum. So on Sunday, we all piled into the Lada and headed out to see the Lermontov museum and the nearby attractions in and around Taman’. Taman’, it turns out, is on the Black Sea—in fact, the Lermontov museum overlooks it. It was quite beautiful. In Taman’, which, it turns out, is a very old city that had been inhabited by the ancient Greeks and Romans, we also visited an archaeological museum. Taman’ is also a rich agricultural center (A.A. said that there are three seas in the area—The Black Sea, the Azov Sea, and the Wine Sea, poking fun at all the vineyards in the area)—that is, the entire region is a rich agricultural center (the “California of Russia”), but this town in particular is known for its wine. So, of course, we went wine tasting, followed by lunch at a restaurant overlooking the sea.

After lunch, we drove to the Azov Sea, to visit a volcano there. On the way, I got to see a lot of the Kuban region, including, as A.A. pointed out to me, the beginning of the Caucuses, which was quite exciting. We soon arrived at our second seaside of the day, where Katya pointed out something very interesting—all along the shore, there were people walking around covered, and I mean completely covered, head to toe, in mud. I was watching, curious, when A.A. told me to put on my bathing suit (we had all brought our bathing suits) and to follow him. I did, and where did we end up? In the volcano’s mud pit.

Now, anyone who knows me knows that I hate to be dirty. The idea of a mud bath creeps me out. And here I was, standing in front of a lake of mud, where everyone from children to old men was swimming and laughing, and I was expected to get in (apparently, it’s good for the skin). Well, I thought, I am here for the cultural experience… I compromised and went in up to my knees, but when I started to get splashed on by passing bathers, it got a little too muddy for me, and I got out. One thing did strike me though, in the children there—one little boy was happily splashing about, gleefully covered in mud. Meanwhile, a little girl was slipping along the muddy platform that surrounded the pool, crying and trying not to fall and not to get muddy. I definitely recognized myself in that second kid and my sister in the first. It was funny.

Well, we did take a dip in the Azov Sea to wash off after that, which was nice. The water was very calm and very warm—it made me think of a warm Lake Michigan (of course, Lake Michigan is never really warm). Finally, we drove home, stopping on the way once to buy some fresh fruit from the side of the road and once to try some Tamanskii Kvass. It certainly was a day of Russian experiences and excursions. I came home exhausted, but very happy to have seen and done everything that I saw and did that day.

Yesterday, we had another faculty meeting in the main assembly hall, after which I had lunch and tea with some of Katya’s friends/colleagues. I have to say, I think that the experience of just sitting around a table talking with people has been the best for my language practice so far, as well as my confidence. There’s a lot of pressure in a shop or an office, say, to come up with the right word and the right construction fast, but in a more relaxed atmosphere with people who understand that this is not my first language and that it can be difficult, it’s much nicer, and I even think I can understand more when I am relaxed than when I’m trying so hard. I hope I’ll have more opportunities like this in the first few weeks and months I’m here, while I’m still really trying to learn as much as I can as quickly as I can.

Today is September 1st, the official first day of classes in Russia. I still am not entirely sure what I will be teaching, but I’m sure that I will know soon enough. Today, however, I think will be another day of errands as I finish registering and maybe finding a few more things I need to be settled here. I have to say, even though I don’t yet feel like I’m “at home,” I do think I have a pretty nice home base set up here, and once I get a chance to talk to the people I miss back home, I think I’ll be quite happy.