Small Victories

Yesterday was a day of small victories. I didn’t sleep very well the night before and felt completely drained still when my alarm went off at 7:20 this morning. I thought that I would head to campus, take in a class or two, then head back home and take a nap. One thing I’ve noticed about living in a foreign country is that it’s extremely exhausting. The little things that are just a part of everyday life at home become tasks or events in and of themselves here. Just the act of listening to people and trying to communicate is a chore. It’s a little less intimidating now than it was when I first got here, but I have to say, I’m incredibly relieved when I crawl into bed at night (much earlier than I would at home, too).

At any rate, I did stumble out of bed and walk the half mile or so to the bus stop. Small victory #1: I realized that I can now recognize my stop at the main campus (all of the street corners outside the city center look the same, and the marshrutki drivers drive very fast) and, moreover, have finally worked up the courage to call out “Na ostanovke, ostanovites!” (“Stop at the bus stop”). It seems silly to think that just being able to get to the place I go every day is an achievement, but it feels like it is.

As per usual when I arrive on campus, I went up to the second floor and checked out today’s schedule. And, as per usual, the actual schedule turned out to be nothing like the posted one. I asked one of the girls in the fourth course about this, and she says it’s true—the schedule changes more or less every day, which is very inconvenient for someone without a steady “kurse” or a group. Fortunately, this girl (who has been very helpful over the past two weeks, I should add, though communication has been a bit tricky) was able to lead me to a lesson a different group was having—first years, I think. It turned out to be a class on syntax, taught by the Dean of the Philology Faculty, on some of the same topics that I was taught in Elementary Russian. Much like most native English speakers, native Russian speakers often know how to speak without necessarily knowing the rules behind the language—hence courses like syntax. Luckily for me, having studied these topics before (basically, how words are governed in a sentence, how some verbs can take different cases, etc.) meant that I understood a good deal of the hour-and-a-half-long lecture. Victory #2: I was able to answer, truthfully, that I “more or less” understood what was said when the dean asked me at the end of the lesson.

I headed down to the library after class to check my email and take care of some business online, as usual. I did get one rather exciting email today: I’ve successfully completed and passed the online TEFL/TESOL course I started in the spring, and am now officially TESOL certified. Victory #3! Here’s hoping it will help me get a job for next year, maybe as an ESL teacher?

Still exhausted and with a bit of a headache, I decided not to brave the Philology halls for the afternoon classes without a guide to help me navigate the non-schedule, and instead boarded a marshrutka home. I got off in the city center again to restock on bananas and to search for cleaning supplies so that I could hand-wash some clothes. I do have access to a washing machine, but rather than bringing three weeks worth of clothes down to the friendly and helpful babushkas who work here (and have really been looking out for me, I have to say), I thought I would take care of some of the smaller items myself. I picked up some detergent and a bucket and headed home. On the way, I passed through a little open market and found, to my great delight, a little knife. I haven’t been able to find a small, cheap knife yet, so I was thrilled. I gladly handed over 50 rubles for the opportunity to cut my cheese with a knife rather than a fork! Ура! Victory #4.

When I got back to my dorm, I had a quick lunch of raspberry-filled blinochkis, peach juice (absolutely delicious), and a banana, and set to work. Victory #5: I cleaned a few items of clothing by hand. Again, it sounds small, but I had never done it before. I also have to admit that I don’t think I did a very efficient job. If anyone has any tips about washing clothes by hand, I’d greatly appreciate it...

I sat down to relax in front of some mindless TV for a little while, but around 3, looking out the window and realizing that it was the first truly nice day all week (the weather had warmed up quite a bit, too), I felt silly wasting it lolling about inside. Besides, I had long had a plan for just such a day. Changing back into my clothes (I had put my pajamas on in anticipation of a nap), I grabbed my Russian-English dictionary, my notebook, and a pen, and headed out. There’s a bookstore about a block and a half from my dorm—that was my first destination. I had been there once before with Katya, in search of a book of fairytales, and had noticed a whole wall of classic Russian literature. I walked straight to that wall at the back of the store today. I spent a good ten minutes just staring at my options, while perhaps the tiniest puppy I have ever seen followed me around and licked my toes (her owner was busy on his own search). I had the Brothers K. in my hand and even read the first page without the aid my dictionary, but ultimately decided on something a little easier to read for my first endeavor, and settled on a collection of Anna Akhmatova’s poetry and prose. I have a bilingual book of her poetry at home, but this has much more (and is much prettier). Victory #6: communicating with shopkeepers and finding what I wanted.

Lovely new book in hand, I headed out again. This time, my destination was the little cafe (Cafe Little Red Riding Hood) in the park I found on my walk on Sunday. As a side note, as I was walking there, I noticed that the leaves on one of the trees (but only one) were turning yellow, and it made me very excited for the coming changes and cool weather. The town is going to be gorgeous when all of the trees are red and orange. But I digress. I made it to the cafй and sat down in the outdoor pavilion with my tea and my Russian literature. It was quite nice.

It began to get cooler out around 5, as usual, so I decided to return to the dorm, having forgotten to bring along a jacket. I stopped at the market to pick up something for dinner and have spent the rest of the evening so far just relaxing. I think I’ll go to bed early tonight. Here’s hoping I have a little more luck staying asleep (what a victory that would be!).