Happy Birthday ReloD!!

Hello everyone! I am so sorry that I haven't posted in a while, but I'm back!

On Saturday I went to a birthday party for a company owned by my rotary club's president. ReloD (Russian English languages open doors) teaches Russian and English to people in hopes of bettering communication. The company turned 17 this weekend and we "went to nature" for a party. It was like the state parks in Oregon. Lakes and green grass, surrounded by pine and birch trees. At one point I took a short nap and looked around and I thought I was back home.

Let me tell you something about Russians. They know how to eat. I ate some meat and picked through the food until I was full and everyone kept piling on more food.
Russia doesn't have pickles, but they do have pickling cucumbers and they eat them just speared. Of all the food I ate, there wasn't much that I didn't try. I ate oiled mushrooms, a tomato and horseradish-like mix (I of course took a huge bite when they said it was spicy. I think my calm reaction scared them a little), a delicious carrot salad, a cabbage-like salad thing and meat. The only thing I didn't eat was the anchovie/sardine things. Because just no. I love fish, but no.

There was also one of my favorite things at this party. Dessert! The Russian sweet tooth is so strong that even I couldn't keep up with them. There was a traditional cake that was a layer of meringue, a layer of creamy frosting, another layer of meringue another layer of creamy frosting, another layer of meringue and then the entire thing was covered in vanilla buttercream frosting. Yeah. Amazing. There was also chocolate cake and way more candy than I knew what to do with.

I have always loved coffee and tea. And in Russia, I am very happy. While this party just had Lipton, everywhere has amazing tea. I love it so much!

After we ate and

chatted, made
almost a million toasts (I went through two glasses of orange juice and a cup of tea) we had some fun. This is Dima and a boy who I think is named Daniil, but I just call him No-Fish rapping about ReloD (I think.) Dima has some mad dance skills doesn't he!
No-Fish is so named because he doesn't speak English. All he knows is "No fish?" and "Panama Beach!" Needless to say, our conversations were thrilling. "No fish?" "I don't understand." "No fish? Panama Beach!" Then we would laugh and it was great. He knew Spanish but between level one Spanish on my part and a Russian accented probably not castajano spanish, we didn't understand each other. He asked if I knew French and I said not really and he said J'taime, to which I responded in my best Russian, I understand. The entire van full of people on the way home busted up laughing. It was hilarious. We also took some pretty awesome selfies too.

This is No-Fish, Dima, My tutor-Anna, Katya(Sister of No-Fish and I)

No-Fish, Katya and I

Katya and I

People of ReloD

Yeah. I'm short. I know.

 Anyway, that's all I have for you today! I hope to share more with you again soon. And as always,
                                                     пока пока,
                                   Piffy

English Teachers

I have found that in every school I have ever gone to, I have found one teacher that I saw as mine. In elementary school it was Mrs. Mortlock, my 3rd grade teacher. In 6th grade (which I sort of see as separate from the rest of middle school) it was Ms. Rivera. Then in the rest of middle school it was the fabulous Mrs. Swartzendruber. In my American high school it was Mr. Gorman. And you know what all of these teachers have in common? They were all my English teachers. So I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise that here in Kirov, Irina Anatolevna, my English teacher, is also my favorite teacher. We learn together. For instance, today she taught me the word “баба” (ba’ba) which is a Russian term for a homely, peasant girl. One with meat on her bones and rosy cheeks, who can do anything on a farm, from milking cows to butchering one. I taught her the term “rad/radical.” I am translating Russian folk tales and short poems in an attempt to pick up some words before my official Russian lessons start next week and the story of Alladin rhymed rad with Baghdad. Irina then went on to use rad to describe everything, from her students to the weather to her plants.

Without Irina, I think that my exchange would be very different. She is my advisor at school and she allows me to stay in class with her rather than go to boring classes like biology, physics, or maths, so that I can help speak English and learn Russian from her students. The girls in her class are very kind and she encouraged them to ask me questions which led to the discovery that all of the 9th form (grade) listens to the same music as I do. There was even one girl---shy-Lissa, who excitedly spoke to me about music and books---that Irina didn’t know understood English. Of course, happy-Lissa, my guide and (I think) friend, is always very helpful. I am helping her with her English and she is helping to teach me Russian. She and I exchanged phone numbers and we are going to go to the “кафе и синема” (ka’fe ee sin’ema) which is of course, the cafe and cinema, together with a few other girls in my English class.

Irina also took me to the cafeteria, which they call the canteen due to the fact they learn British English, for lunch today. It is one small room with only two rows of tables and a very short line for food. All of the food is prepared by a very sweet woman who cooks all day to provide fresh food for the school. She is very funny and said that she considered her the most important woman because she has the tallest hat.

So I think that the lesson I have learned today is no matter where I am in life, I can trust my English teacher and a good cook!

Пока Пока!

               Piffy

A Short Update

So much has happened since my last post. I was given one city, only to end up in another. I discovered that Russian Tea Cakes are actually Lithuanian(What? Why? How? I don’t know.) I had an interesting experience with my tickets and visa.. but I am tired and I will cut to the chase. You can expect a more in depth/well written post tomorrow.

Today was my first day attending school number 28, one of the best schools in all of Kirov. Kirov is a city of half a million people, so everything is huge. I have to walk 7 flights of stairs to get from my apartment to the ground, and then almost all of my classes are on different floors as well.

For most students, classes vary day to day. My first day I was supposed to have an English class, a Russian class, a Biology class and then two Russian Literature classes. However, the Russian class was in all Russian, plus I detest Biology, so I stayed with my English teacher. It was such an amazing experience. Her first class was around 15 incredibly behaved students who were all very kind to me. Then she had a class of 6 or 7 students who were her “slackers,” but she was very surprised and pleased that they understood me. I think she is too hard on them, they were all very bright in my opinion. And then my favorite class of all, the second formers.  School in Russia is divided into Junior classes- first form through fifth form, and Senior classes-sixth form through eleventh form. After senior classes, students go to College and then University. Forms are essentially grades. So my third class was teaching a group of second graders the alphabet (I also taught my English teacher the word squat, which she pronounces squad.)

I really like my host family, and my “mama” Irina is very kind. She doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak Russian, but we are learning to meet in the middle. I learned “хорошо” (khorosho) which means good/well/okay and she learned good. Most of our conversations are “да, нет, *hand gestures* *sigh* IVANNNN.” But today she spent about five hours with me, teaching me to read from Ilya’s books. Tomorrow I am going to translate fairy tales from Russian into English. I will also write a better blog post. But it is late and I am afraid that jet lag and a long day of a foreign language wore me out more than I expected it would. I am too sleepy to revise this so it may disappear after I write a new blog post tomorrow.

Пока Пока,

Piffy