March Madness

So, it's been a while since I last posted anything. That's due partly to a somewhat strange combination of reasons. I haven't done too much that is particularly noteworthy or exciting, but I have also been very busy. Unfortunately, one consequence of waiting this long means it can be easy to forget what happened. As a result, I have no idea what I did in the last five days of February. In this post, I'll just highlight what I've done in March thus far.

On March 3, Katya and Ira invited me over to Ira's apartment for the afternoon. We spent several hours eating cake, drinking tea, and playing Scrabble. It was Ira's first time playing, sort of makes her my third convert to the ways of Scrabble after Sasha and Katya. The first game did not start particularly well for me. I had more trouble with spelling and took a few extra risks. Nevertheless, I made some solid plays and made a great comeback to win! If you count complete and incomplete games, this makes my record 5-0. But then, to my surprise, they wanted to play again. I can't remember if I've ever played back-to-back Scrabble games before. Usually people are too exhausted of sitting quietly and racking their brains for that long. This game, however, proved to be end of my reign of terror. Katya had a huge play that set her out ahead of everyone else early-on and we couldn't recover. I took second place and my first loss. I can't say I'm surprised. It was bound to happen eventually. But as long as I have a winning record against Russians in Russian Scrabble, I'll consider that a victory.

March 4-6 was the first half of last week and it was extremely busy. I had about two one-and-a-half-hour classes each day, which is pretty typical. The real work this time, though, came from the textbook. Irina (my boss) and I put a lot of hours into the book over these three days and it wore me out. This was honestly my first taste of what a real 40-hour per week job must feel like. I was at the university from 8 or 9am until 5 or 6pm each day, which is very different from my normal teaching schedule.

On March 7, Pavel asked me to help with a video-conference that some law students were having with a law professor from the United States. This professor was visiting the U.S. Consulate in Yekaterinburg was willing to tell us about herself and answer questions that Russian students had about the American educational system in law schools. I was there basically as a mediator and to provide a little extra English support. Now, I am not a law student, but because so many of the students were shy, I had to come up with a few questions to keep the ball rolling. All in all, it was a successful conversation and it was generally interesting. I will say, though, that the professor's tone lost me a few times and I found myself spacing out a little.

March 7 was also the day before the holiday International Women's Day. This holiday is also known here as just the 8th of March and it is very widely celebrated. In fact, I believe I heard or read somewhere that International Women's Day is more popular in Eastern Europe than anywhere else. Anyway, on the 7th, our language department held a party. There were probably around 20 or so people in attendance and plenty of delicious food. Jyun-lyan, a Chinese teacher, made a Chinese dish that everybody loved. I even prepared some fudge the night before. Apparently, fudge is Western thing and nobody had heard of it before. I got the recipe from another Fulbrighter and it couldn't have been easier. I just melted a bunch of chocolate bars, mixed it with a small can of сгущёнка (sugary condensed milk), and voilà. Everybody loved it and demanded the recipe. Also, another common tradition is to make toasts and let just about everybody say a few words. I, of course, had my turn. My toast was in Russian and not super elegant, but it got the job done.
Normally, on this holiday, women receive candy, flowers, and other gifts. It's very similar to Mother's Day in the US, but this one targets all women. The day is also taken off from work, which is why we held the party on the day before.

On March 8, since it was a holiday, I had no work. At the party, some of the teachers told Jyun-lyan and me about a meat festival that goes on in the center of town on the 8th. At first I thought Women's Day and the meat festival were somehow related, which made no sense. I later found out that they just schedule it then because they know nobody is working. Anyway, we decided to check it out. There were a lot of vendors selling beef, pork, fowl, venison, milk, and even horse meat. We couldn't find any place that sold cooked meat to snack on. I think it was more like a market with only raw products. In any case, there were a ton of people and the lines were all very long. There was also a small cultural element to the festival. At one end, they played Russian folk music over the speakers and performed some dances for kids. It's at moments like these, when I get hit with a big reminder that I'm still in Russia. We didn't stay long. We just walked the length of it twice and chatted. I was pretty shocked to find out that Jyun-lyan has already been teaching in Tyumen for seven years! As it turns out, his wife and child still live in China, but he just works here because he can make more money for them in Russia than he can in China. That and there are also a few more opportunities for him here. I imagine it must be very difficult for him to stay away from family for so long.

Later that night, I was invited by a new friend/acquaintance to hit the town a little. His name is Lomyan and he's from Turkey. He's already studied here for four years and his Russian is extraordinary. We got acquainted because he's friends with Ken, the Fulbrighter in Tyumen from a couple years ago. We didn't do anything crazy, but he took me to a few popular spots: Cafe 37 and "In the USA" (Ин Да ЮСА). The name is actually pretty funny because it's written in Russian but meant to sound a little like English. It looks like "een da USA" but most people say "een da yusa" which just makes the whole thing sound even weirder. Anyway, it's a pretty neat place with a bunch of American memorabilia on the walls, like license plates, clothes, golf clubs, and so on. Of course, because it was a holiday, it was jam-packed full of people. Still, that didn't bother me too much. It gave the place a little more energy.

Over the weekend, I added to my workload, but did so knowing that it would be a great experience. I was already slated as an organizer for the Tyumen Model United Nations but I also decided to become a participant. I applied to become the delegate for the Russian Federation in the Security Council (English-speaking). I found out almost right away that I got it. So, with teaching, textbook-writing, and the Model UN, March is proving to be a very busy month. I basically have two weeks to learn my country's position and get prepared to present on it at the council. The goal of it all is to write a resolution on a particular issue. This year's issue is the conflict on the Korean peninsula.

On Monday, I visited a different teacher's class to help with their activity. They were practicing work interviews in English and I stepped in to help as a second interviewer. It was fun to work with another group of students and spread my English around a little. Sometimes, I feel a little bad that my groups are so small and not many students get to practice English with me. I hope to correct this by sitting in on a few more classes like this one. I'm going back Thursday to continue with interviews. They also promised me blini (pancakes) in honor of another holiday, Maslenitsa. In my own classes, I'm starting to get back into the flow of things. At the beginning of this semester, it was kind of hard to get going and to think of lesson plans, but my creative juices are starting to flow again. This week, I drew a comic strip and their assignment was to write a story based on the images. I could have found something online more easily, but I think the students get a kick out of it when they know I made something myself.

I'm going to be pretty busy the next couple weeks, but I'll do my best to keep this blog updated.

Scrabble & Burgers: Am I Back Home Already?

The last two weeks have felt like an awakening from hibernation. What I mean by that is I haven't done much real work for the last two months and now it's time to get going again. The textbook project with my boss, which I expected us to finish in early January, is still in progress. That said, we've taken some large strides recently and it's finally starting to come together. I've mostly been editing existing materials in the text, writing exercises and text, finding photos, and voicing opinions on how the book should be organized and formatted. In addition to the textbook, classes have finally resumed and I'm trying to get back in the groove. Teaching feels the same, but waking from my stupor to prepare materials and exercises for classes has been more of a challenge. Due to some scheduling issues, I only had four classes this last week. There are still a number of kinks to work out and we might have to fill out some of the groups a little more. The last bit of "work" (if you want to call it that) that I've done recently was preparation for the English Language Olympiad. Apparently, there are foreign language olympiads that take place on the university level, then regional and national levels. I don't know the purpose of the olympiads beyond the fact that they show foreign language competencies from different Russian universities and they give some students more reasons to train and practice their language skills. I spent some time this last week giving a handful of students conversational tips and practice. Two of the three top place finishers are my students and they'll compete at the regional stage pretty soon.

Lately, I've also tried to expand my culinary repertoire. Sasha came over one night and we decided to go with an idea that I'd been pondering for some time already. We made cheeseburgers. We made our own ground beef patties, sliced our own cheese, added fresh red onion and lettuce, and put it all on the closest thing to a hamburger bun that I could find at the store. After eating at McDonald's twice in Moscow, a homemade burger reminded me why burgers got so popular in the first place. They were ridiculously delicious. It was a complete success and I'm already looking forward to the next time. Also, you know you did something right when it tastes better without condiments. My second food story was almost another home run, but I messed up the basics. I decided to make chicken teriyaki stir-fry by myself and it was almost another fantastic success, but I messed up the rice. Granted, it was my first time ever making rice in my life and I was only going off of a 5-minute YouTube tutorial. I ended up with a pan of rice mush. On the other hand, the chicken, sauce, and vegetable part turned out pretty great. I didn't follow any particular recipe and just threw in what veggies I had available, which included: red onion, yellow bell pepper, and radishes. Even with mushy rice, the entire meal was very satisfying.

'Murica 

A few days ago, after hearing about this place a few times, I finally made a trip to anti-cafe "Freedom." This is the only anti-cafe I've ever been to, but I really enjoyed it. In a nutshell, it's a place that charges by the minute (2 rubles or about 7 cents) and offers all you can eat cookies, coffee, and tea. In addition to that, they have a number of tables, chairs, and couches for just hanging out, getting on your laptop, or playing board games. There are also a couple rooms with big flat-screen TVs and PlayStation 3 game consoles attached. It's a pretty nifty place. I went with Dasha, a student at my institute who I helped practice for the Olympiad. Once we got there, we met with Lera, a student from one of my groups who actually works at Freedom.

Yesterday, February 23, was actually a Russian holiday: День Защитника Отечества (Day of the Defender of the Fatherland). Obviously, it's a Memorial Day-type, military holiday. However, since generations have passed since the World Wars and many veterans have passed away, this holiday doesn't carry as much weight as there are very few people left to recognize. Now it is primarily recognized as a sort of "Men's Day." On Friday the 22nd, our foreign language department held a small party/gathering to celebrate it. We had food, cake, juice, and some sort of rice vodka that a Chinese teacher brought. All of the women took the opportunity to make wishes for the men in the room, including Ivan, a Chinese teacher, another Russian guy I still don't know, and me. All of us men also received some flash drives as gifts. As someone from a country without a "Men's Day," I was very pleased.

Finally, it's time to tell of my favorite part from the last two weeks. As an avid scrabble fan back in the states, I've always wanted to play the Russian version. I managed to do this once in college, but we didn't even finish the whole game. While shopping at the huge supermarket Metro recently with another teacher, I strolled through the game aisle and found it! Russian Scrabble! Of course I bought it and ended up playing it the very next day with Sasha. It was his first time playing, but nevertheless, I expected to get torn to pieces playing against a native speaker. As it turned out, I actually won! I beat a Russian at Russian Scrabble! Now, of course, there's more to Scrabble than just knowing a lot of words. I understood how to manage the board, look for possibilities, and, in general, how to execute strategy better than he did. Additionally, luck plays a role in which letters you get. Still, I knew enough good Russian words to blow a Russian out of the water. But that's not all! After playing some video games at anti-cafe Freedom, I played a game of Scrabble with Dasha and Lera. We didn't actually finish the game, but decided to add up final scores after getting about 70% of the way done. Who had the most? I did! I can't really count it as an official win since we didn't finish the game, but I'll take it. And just two days ago, Sasha and I had a rematch. Knowing that he was more familiar with rules and strategy, I thought my time for celebration was over. And, in fact, it was very bleak for the first half of the game. Luck was on his side and I fell behind early. However, the tables turned and I made one hell of a comeback to obliterate him once again! I can't even think of the last time I had a comeback in English Scrabble. I've played against Russians three times now and I remain undefeated. As inflated as my ego is right now, I know this string of victories won't continue for long. It's only a matter of time before my smaller vocabulary or a total lack of luck finally does me in. Still, regardless of the result, the game has proven really beneficial for picking up new words. I'm learning about 3-4 new words per game and they're sticking for the most part.

Sweet Victory! Final score - Jared: 286 - Sasha 217

Vladimir & Moscow: Seeing Old Friends

As I write this, I've been back in a state of relative inactivity again. Granted, I've had a cold ever since I got back to Tyumen a few days ago, but there's not much point in talking about that. My trip to Moscow and Vladimir was huge success. I saw the people I wanted to see and squeezed in some sightseeing. First off, I flew into Moscow on Jan. 23rd, hopped on an Aeroexpress train from the airport to a metro station in the center of town, took the metro to Ken's neighborhood and met him there. Ken is a former Fulbrighter who also taught in Tyumen and now lives in Moscow. He was my host for a day before I left for Vladimir. He had something come up, so I was on my own for the afternoon to get a few things done. I went to the Kursky train station first to get my ticket for the next day to Vladimir. No problems there. After that, I went to the Moscow Art Theatre to pick up a souvenir for Jeff back home. And, actually, before I continue, if anybody reading this blog has any requests for Russian souvenirs, let me know. I'm more than happy to try to pick things up for people. Anyway, I went there and asked the box office folk where I could find theatre souvenirs and gifts. They told me they don't exist... However, as I've learned over my time in Russia, if someone tells you one thing, always get a second opinion. You should probably even ask the same person the same question in a different way. Which is what I did. Eventually, I found out that they sell some things during shows on the main stage (which I learned later is not exactly true). At this point, I considered my attempt a failure. However, a random woman suggested that I go to the show on the 29th, because she had seen it and highly recommended it. Well hey, why not? That sounded like a legitimate suggestion, so I bought a ticket.

St. Basil's Cathedral

After that, I had one more stop for the afternoon. I went to Red Square to see if I could finally get inside the famous St. Basil's Cathedral. In my life, I had already been to Red Square a handful of times. I've been inside the Kremlin walls, gone inside GUM, the super ritzy shopping center, and I even saw Lenin's embalmed corpse inside his mausoleum. But I had never been inside the iconic cathedral until that day. I piggy-backed on a tour inside and learned some interesting things. For instance, it's actually a complex of about nine small churches. From the inside, I felt like I was in a castle with thick brick walls and tiny windows. It really was an impressive place and I'm glad I finally got to see it. The only things I haven't hit on Red Square now are the historic armory and the history museum. There's too much to see in Moscow, let alone on Red Square! Before heading back to the apartment, I decided to get a bite to eat. I went to the same McDonald's near Red Square that I visited two years ago. It was jam-packed as usual. I eventually found a seat and it wasn't long before I had to share my table. A couple Azerbaijani girls sat down. After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, I finally said something and their eyes lit up at the sound of my obvious accent. They didn't expect me to be foreign because they said I look Russian, which is actually something I disagree with. I get plenty of looks all over Russia that lead me to believe I stick out more than I'd like to think. We had a good conversation in Russian and shared a little bit about ourselves.

One of many views of the inside of St. Basil's.

Later that night, a little while after arriving back to Ken's place, we finally did something together that I wasn't expecting to do on a trip to Moscow. We went to the gym to lift weights. When I think of it now, it's like: "What did you do in Moscow?" "Oh, you know, pumped some iron. Typical vacation stuff." Apparently, he has a membership to a weight room that's a part of a local university. I was expecting a rusty heap of outdated weights and machines, but I was pleasantly surprised with the quality and cleanliness. After getting huge, we stopped at a grocery store and had a pretty quiet night back at his place.

The next day, I had to be out of his place by about 10:00 am, but my train wasn't until about 2:00 pm, so I had time to kill. He directed me to a monorail that goes to an old Soviet exhibition center called ВВЦ. It's actually more like a huge outdoor complex full of exhibition halls, food stands, statues, and fountains. It was a really neat area with great architecture, reminiscent of a grandiose Soviet style. I got the feeling the place still got visitors, but it's not exactly in its heyday anymore. A number of the halls housed standard Russian fare, such as barbers and pawnshops. The weather was great. A little snow and not very cold. That said, I still got pretty hot because I was hauling around my luggage throughout the entire stroll. On my way back to the metro to get to the train station, I walked by the cosmonautics museum which has a really impressive rocket monument displayed outside. It would have been interesting to actually pay the museum a visit, but that'll have to wait for a different trip.

I still had to kill a little bit of time once I got to the train station. I've got to say, public transport establishments are not exactly my favorite places to hang out. The air is just so stale and who knows when the seats were last cleaned (if ever). Also, you've got to pay for the bathroom. I really try to avoid public restrooms in gas stations and train stations just out of principle, but they add insult to injury when they charge you $0.30 to a $0.90 just to use it!

The train ride itself was nothing spectacular and actually pretty relaxing. I just looked at the snow-covered countryside and towns I've never heard of before for three hours while listening to music. I did my best to block out the magazine vendors. When we started pulling into Vladimir, oh man, that was when the nostalgia really started to kick in. I saw the city perched up high, overlooking the river. I could see the gold domes of the cathedrals I had walked by so many times. If any passers-by caught me at the right time on the bus stop outside the train station, they would have seen an inexplicable smile on my face. I think it was at that moment that I really grasped the fact that I was back in a familiar city that I was never sure I'd see again when I left two years ago.

The second wave of nostalgia hit me on the bus. It took me down the main drag that I'd gone down a hundred times before. I saw Cathedral Square, Assumption Cathedral, Golden Gates, and all of the other familiar locations in the center of town. The only two changes I detected were a new McDonald's and Traveler's Coffee. I wondered how long Vladimir could last without a McDonald's. Looks like it only took two years. I foresee lower revenue for Mister Hamburger.

Zosya!

Getting to my host family's apartment was pretty great too. Iya, my host mom, greeted me on the first floor and we went up to their place on the seventh in the new elevator. I guess the landlord decided it was time to replace the old plywood elevator and put in something with more metal (and an unnecessarily loud and obnoxious buzzer that goes off way too often). I put my things in my old room that looked almost unchanged. I saw Zosya, the cat, and she was even cuter than I remembered! She was also much smaller than I remembered, which confused me a little bit. For dinner, Iya prepared golubtsy (stuffed cabbage rolls). They were delicious. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the rest of the food she prepared during my stay. Honestly, I don't know how I survived there for four months before. I'm not saying her cooking is inherently bad. It's just that it's a mix of my picky tendencies and some aspects of Russian cuisine I may never get used to. Also, before I continue with any more bouts of nostalgia, it should be pointed out to my readers (or my future self) that Iya and Vladimir, her husband, weren't exactly giddy with my visit. I'm not saying they were upset. It's just that they treated it like like nothing special. But really, this needs context. They're in their mid-seventies, with fading memory, and they've hosted 18 Americans in the last six years. After learning this, I was less surprised that Iya asked me in the elevator if I was Jared or Jack. Still, they wouldn't have invited me if they hadn't wanted to see me. Finally, I was half-convinced the sheets in my room weren't totally clean. But, at that point, what was I really going to do? Nothing can ever be exactly how you want it or expect it when you're in Russia.

The next day, I met up with Judith, a fellow Fulbright English teacher who studied in Vladimir the summer before I got there. We coordinated our trips to Vladimir so we could see our teachers at KORA together. After picking up coffee at Traveler's, we took the old path to school that I hadn't forgot a step of. The chat with our teachers was fantastic. I'll admit, I kind of treated like a test for my Russian skills. I was a bit worried beforehand that my Russian hadn't improved well enough from two years ago. I know it's not the same for everyone, but for me, detecting my language progress and having self-confidence with my skills has always been so difficult. As it turns out, I talked like a champ and they were impressed with how I've come along. Actually, I think one or two of them was more impressed with the fact that I kept talking, which contrasted my more subdued behavior in class. We talked about some of the other students from my group, what they're up to, and how I've been liking my Fulbright in Siberia thus far. They were actually expecting a new group of Americans that same night, so they were also in preparation mode for the new semester. We had lunch in the cafeteria, which felt the exact same except that it was undergoing some remodeling.

After that, Judith and I went to meet up with one of her study abroad pals who works in Vladimir at a place called American Home. They've got around eight or so Americans teaching English there, all of whom are in their early twenties. The house is actually a little piece of America I can guarantee it's the only ranch-style house in the entire city. The main difference is that on the second floor and in the basement it's full of classrooms. After having dinner back with the Reyutts, I went back out again with my fellow Americans to hang out downtown.

Prince Vladimir and Assumption Cathedral

The next day, I stopped by a cafe called Potato Papa (Картофельный Папа), my old weekly refuge for chocolate banana blini and the internet. They weren't so reliable this time and I had to go without the internet, but it was really nice to see some more familiar surroundings. I then went to meet up with Nastya, a tutor and friend from my earlier time in Vladimir. First, we walked around the center of town a bit near Assumption Cathedral and got some tea in the mall. Next, we went ice skating on a soccer field the city converted into a skating rink for the winter. It was twice the size of a normal rink which made someone with no skating skills, such as myself, feel much more comfortable maneuvering around. I probably went to Traveler's Coffee a few too many times over break before coming on this trip. Knowing this, we decided to go to Traveler's anyway. It would seem I can't escape their grasp. This particular Traveler's had one major drawback though: no cinnamon rolls. All in all, I had a great day with Nastya. In general, my trip to Vladimir was big success. I was flooded with nostalgia. There was even a moment when I forgot that I now live in Tyumen. It's that easy to get sucked right back into old routines and surroundings.

Overlooking the river, train tracks, and a part of Vladimir.

On the 27th, Judith and I took a bus back to Moscow. A bus is a good alternative to the train. It costs about the same and takes about as long, but they leave much more frequently. We had a good conversation and got some shuteye. Sometimes I squirm when I speak English in public because I don't like to draw too much attention to myself. But every now and then, I actually enjoy it. I don't really know why. Anyway, this was one of those times I had no problem spewing out English in a bus full of Russians. It was also cool to see all of the other Fulbrighters again. We shared experiences and stories. Some good and some not so good. The hotel decided to take away free internet from the rooms and only provide it in the lobby and conference room. This resulted in a heap of Americans loitering by the front desk the first night. There was no free internet in the lobby for the rest of the trip... Kristen and I caught up and had dinner at a Teremog (Russian fast food) in the local mall. I thought our experiences were actually very similar in terms of living and teaching, with some minor differences. It's good to have that knowledge that a lot of other people are experiencing similar issues but also experiencing a lot of great new things.

On the 28th, we had day one of presentations that went until about 4:30 pm. Some English teachers gave some short presentations, but I was most intrigued by the presentations from the Fulbright research fellows. Some of them were doing some really fascinating studies. It was also very refreshing to hear talks from all sorts of spheres, such as linguistics, history, neuroscience, sociology, and geology (actually, some of these topics were on day two). The rest of the day after the seminar was pretty tame. A small group of us went out to Muchacho's for Panchero's/Chipotle-style burritos and nachos. Man, did that hit the spot.

Outside the theatre.

Day two of the seminar went well with nothing exceptional to report. The real treat of the day was going to going to a play at the Moscow Art Theatre. I didn't have much time so I donned my theatre clothes and set out. Where does one go for dinner in nice slacks before a night at the theatre? You guessed it. McDonald's. I would've felt worse about it since I already had McDonald's once that week and I'm in Moscow where there are so many other choices, but I had little time and I was alone, so it didn't really bother me. At least it wasn't the Red Square McDonald's and I had a change of scenery. First things first, when I got to the theatre, I picked up a program for the night's show: Primadonnas (by Ken Ludwig). I then soaked in the atmosphere for a bit and walked around looking at their wall of fame with pictures of their most accomplished academy graduates and actors. I had one other goal though and that was to get Jeff a souvenir. I asked some of the ladies who work there and one of them told me the only souvenir-type items were in the museum. Fortunately, she took me there, unlocked it, and showed me what they had. The selection was... lacking. The theatre itself sells absolutely no memorabilia and the museum only has a few postcards and books (all of which were in Russian with the exception of one). I got him the only book with any English in it (and you had better like it Jeff!). The coolest moment of my conversation with this lady was in the beginning. She asked me if I was an actor or director. She thought I was some hotshot foreigner. Boy, was she wrong.

So the theatre has three stages: main, small, and new. The show I went to was on the main stage. I had a seat in the front row of the balcony, which was great, and had a good view of the whole place. It was beautiful and all but it looked like it hadn't been changed since the early 1970s. I didn't live in the '70s, but I imagine it looked just like this. The show itself was amazing! It was extremely high-energy, colorful, and pretty damn funny. Because it was high-energy, most of the actors spoke very quickly and I couldn't pick it all up. Fortunately, I understood the majority of it and the rest was understandable just because of the context. During intermission, I walked to the cafe attached to the theatre with all of the other spectators. There were long longs for wine, salmon, and champagne. I just ended up paying way too much for a bottle of water.

After the play, I decided to pay a little night visit to Red Square to see it under the lights. I made a little loop to St. Basil's Cathedral and back and snapped a few pics. Red Square is impressive by day, but magical by night. They do good work with their lighting. Then again, almost any kind of light reflecting off cobblestones looks pretty fantastic.

Left: Gates leading to Red Square. Center: History Museum.

Ice skating on Red Square.

The 30th was a day for English teachers only and it consisted of basically a refresher training course. I picked up a few new ideas and was reminded of a few key principles any good language teacher ought to know. This was also the last day in Moscow for all of us. Some even leaving that night. Kristen was scheduled to leave in the evening, so she, Helen (a Fulbright alumna), and I went out for dinner at an Uzbek restaurant. We had ginger and lemon tea, the likes of which I have never tasted before. It was strong, but wow was it unique and delicious. Also, I'm not quite sure how it happened but we all managed to independently pick the same thing from the menu which was a sort of lamb and rice dish with some really good bread. We also ordered some sort of cheese and tomato croissant-type thing on the side. I finally made it to a real restaurant while on this trip!

January 31st was basically just a travel day. I took the metro to get to the Aeroexpress train for the airport. Paranoid as usual, I gave myself plenty of time to get there and through security which resulted in some time to kill. I talked to a lady selling fancy tea near my gate for a while. She is one of the few pleasant vendors I've ever talked to in this country. The flight was fine. I had the same chicken and rice meal I had when flying in. Luckily, I got Nadya and her husband to pick me up at the airport fairly last minute. She said my Russian had noticeably improved since we last spoke. Since I had just spoken English for three straight days, I didn't really see how that was possible. Language is a weird thing.

Since the trip, I've been fairly lazy again. However, much of my laziness was validated because I had a cold for several days. It was a good excuse to kick back and drink a bunch of tea. More recently, I've started to get back into the swing of work. My schedule is getting finalized and I have more work for my boss' textbook to complete. Here goes the second semester!

January Break

Ever since my trip to Nefteyugansk, things have been pretty quiet. It’s been very relaxing and stress-free, but I’ll admit that a part of me is a little disappointed that I didn't travel anywhere else between Jan. 4 and Jan. 23. I had plenty of time (and still have some) between my Nefteyugansk and Vladimir/Moscow trips but I opted to stay in Tyumen. I’d love to see more of this country but, at the same time, I don’t really like trip logistics and having more than two trips in one month would get to be a little much for me. Anyway, with that said, I've still had some fun in Tyumen over the last couple weeks. I can give a rundown of some of the things I've done other than the copious amounts of sleeping, computer game-playing, reading, and tea-drinking.

First off, my boss/coworker, Irina, invited me over to her place for dinner and to discuss some issues with the textbook we've been getting ready for publishing. If I forgot to mention it before, the textbook is for graduate students who need to learn legal English. Anyway, she made classic Russian salad (which has a totally different name in Russian than it does translated in any other language: оливье or “olivye”) and she made stuffed bell peppers. All of it was really good and we topped it off with tea and leftover New Year’s desserts. Before working on the textbook, she showed me around a bit and showed me a few pictures from her son’s recent wedding. Also, for the road, she gave me a jar of her own gooseberry jam, which I haven’t yet tried (I’m waiting for my raspberry jam to run out).

The next day, Irina, Svetlana (my colleague who takes me to Metro for groceries sometimes), Roman (their acquaintance), and I went to Yalutorovsk (Ялуторовск) for a for a little half-day excursion. We went for a few reasons. First, the town is only about an hour away from Tyumen so it was easy for Roman to drive us there. Second, the town is small by Russian standards (between 50,000 and 100,000) and has only one site worth seeing: a Tatar fortress museum. Third, that day was January 7^th which is the Orthodox Christmas. The drive was really beautiful. About a half of the way there, the highway was lined with snow-covered pine trees and I had this sudden urge to go for a hike. The other half was wide open fields which were… less beautiful. Anyway, when we got there, we had to ask a few pedestrians for directions to the fortress. On two occasions, the people who helped said either right or left at one point but indicated with their hand the other direction… Nevertheless, we eventually found it.

In this image: wooden tower, spiked wall, wooden sculptures, and church
just outside the walls.

We bought our tickets and had an excursion throughout the entire complex. We walked up into the gate-tower, saw a model of what the fortress actually looked like in its entirety, visited a workshop where they make small cloth dolls and toys, stopped by a view exhibits that displayed what life was like hundreds of years ago in the area (huts, medieval weaponry, etc.), and had really delicious, yet unusual tea in a replica Russian home from a couple hundred years ago. While the tour was pretty interesting, I've been on a few similar ones in my time in Russia over the last couple years. The most interesting part was just to see all sorts of neat wooden architecture.

The central square inside the fortress museum.

We were told that there would be some sort of performance and we only had an hour to have lunch. We got some advice from a museum worker where we could go that would be good and fast. We ended up at a fairly nice looking place. It was clean, had nice tableware, and was reasonably well-decorated. The one oddity was a stripper pole in the corner. Then again, it isn't all that odd. I’m in Russia after all and their words for cafe, bar, club, and restaurant are a little looser than ours in English. The thing that bothered me the most about our lunch though was that we broke one of my golden rules: “You don’t mess with the people who handle your food.” I wouldn't say anyone from our group was explicitly rude to our host/waiter, but we were definitely a handful. When I say “we,” I mean Svetlana and Irina. Roman and I were a little more laid-back. The two ladies were just trying to make sure that we had the right balance of necessary drinks and food and that it would be quick enough to return in time for the performance. It resulted in badgering the guy a little bit to make sure he did his job as effectively as possible. We all had pelmeni (dumplings) and they were good but not outstanding. I don’t know for sure if he spit in our tea or anything, but I really doubt that he did. So we ate our lunch pretty calmly but we were late by about 10-15 minutes. It didn't matter too much (being late in Russia never really does) and we still got there during the start.

The final part of the children's program.

As it turns out though, the performance was specifically for children, which is not what we were promised. We paid attention for the first ten minutes or so and then kind of just walked around and took more pictures. Nevertheless, it was nice to have some music and liveliness in the background, even if it was childish. There was a wooden slide that they cover in ice in winter and we took a few trips down that. It was a little lopsided though and I found myself grinding against the wooden railing a couple times. We also stopped in the souvenir shop and we all got our obligatory magnets (the most popular and cheap souvenir in Russia). That brings my magnet count up to three. They also had one tradition in this fortress. If you walked around the central square three times, your wish would come true. So we all had a go with that too. Finally, it was time to go.

Getting back into town, Roman, Irina, and I decided to continue our day at Casa Mia, an Italian joint that I visited once before with Nadya, her husband, and two others. Since Roman smokes, we sat in the smoking area of the restaurant. In general, smoking is much more popular in Russia than in the US and I've experienced a noticeable amount more second-hand smoke than I’m used to back home. Anyway, my first experience in this restaurant was average. That is, I ordered some sort of fettuccine alfredo last time and I wasn't impressed. This time, however, we ordered everything to share as a group and the food was fantastic. We had thin-crust margherita pizza, lamb, raw salmon with pesto, and lasagna. It completely changed my opinion of this place for the better. The conversation was great and I picked up a few new words. Although, as I write this, I can only recall one of those words. Really, it’s pretty difficult for me to retain as many new words as I encounter. I know I've made progress in some respects, but it’s disappointing nonetheless when I realize how many knew things I’m taught and how relatively few I actually remember.

Ice sculpture of train

On one of the colder days recently, I decided to finally go out and get a new sweater. It’s winter in Siberia and having a choice between only two sweaters is just not satisfactory. I had plans to go to the a couple of the main shopping centers in the middle of town and, along the way, I walked through a center plaza by the circus. This is where the city puts up its big ice sculpture display for the winter. I strolled through and was impressed by the all of them! I know it's nothing specific to Tyumen. I saw similar ice sculptures in Yalutorovsk and Nefteyugansk, for example. However, it's something you don't see in the united states as widespread as it is here. They know that once they finish the sculptures in December, they'll stand tall and avoiding melting for months. Also, the amount of ice they use is pretty incredible. Then again, they are not in short supply in Siberia. I see it as a way for the city to get festive and to give kids something to do (see slides below). I snapped as many good pictures as I could before the cold finally got the better of me and forced me inside. I browsed in ЦУМ, which is basically a mall of high-end, formal clothing stores and overpriced home décor. I didn't find my sweater there. I then searched around in the area a little bit for a shopping center that I visited once with Niklas and Nikolai. This building is approximately four stories with a bunch of small clothing shops crammed together. The choice was much bigger and more reasonably-priced here. I only tried on sweaters in one store but I found the right fit for me. The sweater was just what I was looking for. I had a short chat with the girl in charge. She was intrigued that I was an American teaching in Tyumen and told me a little about her English education. I think I even got a discount, but I’m not really sure.

Ice slides in the center of town

Recently, I also met back up with Nikolai and he introduced me to a couple of his graduate student buddies. We went to a bar/restaurant called Yermolaev (Ермолаевь), which is actually a local chain of breweries. They’re students of history, religion, and politics and the conversation, therefore, often followed one of those topics. At times, I understood and contributed. Sometimes, I was completely lost. Part of this was undoubtedly due to the fact that they knew more than me about many of these topics, but also because, as Nikolai often pointed out, they spoke with very conversational and unclear Russian. Again, this was great practice for my Russian. The restaurant itself, like I said, has a few installations throughout the city. This one in particular is in a kolkhoz theme. In other words, the theme of Soviet farms. Given their education, this location made perfect sense. It was also pretty cozy, but like in Casa Mia, I got a bit more second-hand smoke than I would've liked.

A few days ago, I also had my first experience in a coffee shop called Maxim (Максим), which there are also a lot of in the city. Pavel, my primary contact here, invited me out for food and coffee and to discuss my upcoming role in the Model United Nations club this spring. I had a fairly tasty Caesar wrap and the coffee was good, but the real highlight was the warm apple strudel with vanilla ice cream. Without a doubt, I’ll have to get it again. It also reminded me of one of my favorite scenes from the film “Inglourious Basterds.” It’s the scene when the main Nazi antagonist (not Hitler) is in a restaurant discussing a movie premiere. Anyway, the plot isn't important. In that scene, he has strudel and ice cream and every time I see it, I get a strong urge for some of my own. Maxim got it pretty close. I have no doubt that it’s still better in Germany or France. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed it.

Something else to note. This is about the fifth day now without internet. On the one hand, I've probably made some better use of my time lately. I've been reading more (in Russian) and I've gone out to a few cafes by myself to read, have coffee, and check my email. On the other hand, it means I've also spent more money eating out, communication between friends has become more complicated, and it has put more job search temporarily on hold. Going to cafes has its allure though. I've always been a sucker for baked goods (see strudel paragraph above) and coffee and this has been a good opportunity to get out of the house to try different coffees and desserts. Regardless, I’d like to have the internet back in the dorm sooner rather than later. I now have just one week remaining of downtime in Tyumen before leaving for Vladimir and Moscow for a week.

A Russian New Year

I've got a lot of ground to cover with this post, so I'm hoping my memory doesn't fail me. I'll start with Christmas Eve. At the economics/management building they held a Christmas festival with different groups of students representing different international Christmas traditions, songs, and food. Among the different countries represented were the United States, Germany, Russia, Mexico, China, Italy, France, and Cuba. Most groups presented in Russian, but some were brave and did some parts in the native language, like France and Germany. Ours was in Russian (even though about half of the things I said were in English). Oddly enough, the Italian group decided to present in English. I didn't really understand their logic. Our group basically just set up a small skit with a typical American family and their Russian guest and used this scenario to describe some common American Christmas traditions. It was my job to play the role of Santa Claus and to help introduce a game for the audience. We had six volunteers come up to have a present-wrapping race... while wearing mittens. I handed out a few candy canes that were actually made of clay and not candy (a couple of the students made them since you can't find real candy canes here). With a couple students, I also reenacted the M&Ms television commercial where Santa and the M&Ms bump into each other. Finally, we sang "The 12 Days of Christmas" and held up some hand-made posters depicting all 12 gifts. Finally, once all of the groups presented, it was time for people to mingle and eat all of the different dishes. In our group, one student recruited their grandmother to prepare a whole chicken (not quite a turkey or goose, but close enough) and pumpkin pie, which was my idea. I'll admit, I was a bit worried that the pie wouldn't turn out right since Russian don't make pumpkin pie. My worries were only partly in vain. It didn't taste quite like typical American pie, but it was really really delicious nevertheless.

A Russian dance at the Christmas festival

After the festival, some of the other teachers and I had a small Christmas Eve party in one of the offices. I wasn't the only foreigner either. Anthony, the American English Language Fellow, and David, a professor from England, were also there. We had champagne, cookies, and caviar. I'm beginning to learn that I'm not a huge fan of caviar. Also, the teachers even had a few gifts prepared for us. I got a beautiful tea cup and saucer of a wintry Tyumen. Today was the first time I ever saw David since arriving in late September. It's because of this that I was surprised to find out he lives in the same dorm as I do.

Christmas morning. Another typical morning. A part of me found it unusual to wake up and not celebrate Christmas morning like usual with family. On the other hand, it wasn't all that strange because it simply didn't feel like Christmas. Knowing that everyone around me treated the 25th like a normal day and waited for New Year's Eve with anticipation extinguished my typical Christmas cheer. As such, I treated it much like a normal day. I was invited to sit in on a first-year class that celebrated the 25th with holiday songs and cake. After lunch, I had one of my own classes. Look at me, working on Christmas! But really, it wasn't work at all. I went to a cafe with two students who came, Olya and Anya. We had coffee and talked about all sorts of things. Like the last time I was at Traveler's Coffee with both of them, I had a good time. We talked for much longer than the class was scheduled to last. I just remembered that some random woman walked by and said something very unexpected. I already can't remember what she said but it was something along the lines of "I love you," "I love America," "You're the best," or something like that. I got the feeling she wanted to use the few English words she knew as soon as she recognized I was American. That kind of stuff happens.

A trio singing a Christmas song in the class I visited

On Thursday, I had my final class of the semester with a group from the economics building (for real this time). Only three students came, Tanya, Mila, and Margo. I was pleasantly surprised when I realized they brought tea, cookies, and cake. It was my last class but it was also the first time one my classes turned almost completely into Russian. More than half of the conversation was in Russian. I didn't know if I should slightly push for English or just practice my own Russian. As a result, I flip-flopped a lot and just threw out Russian and English at random. When we decided to wrap-up, they got out a singing Grandfather Frost figurine (the Russian Santa Claus) and sang with him. They then gave it to me to keep as a gift.

On Friday, we had a New Year's teachers' party at the economics building with the entire foreign language department. We had champagne, juice, pizza, and fruit. I also added my own spin to the party by bringing some of the salsa I prepared the day before. The salsa, by the way, turned out great. Everybody liked it and I got one request to reveal the secret recipe. The only male teacher in the department besides me dressed up in a classy Grandfather Frost costume, led a few games, and passed out gifts to everyone. Everybody pulled a slip of paper out of a big to determine their random gift. My "random" gift happened to be a Tyumen-specific wooden container. What a strange coincidence that the foreigner got a Tyumen gift... It's actually pretty neat though. My collection of gifts seems to be piling up at this point.

Later that day, after the party, I had to make sure I was ready to leave by 3:00am for our train. I went out to buy a gift and card for the Gruzdovas. I also wanted to pick up a little Christmas present for myself. I went to the book store and browsed until I was satisfied. I ended up picking a book of short stories by Robert Louis Stevenson... in Russian of course. After that, I just had to make sure I got everything packed and all of my trash thrown out. I had to have a few cups of coffee to make sure I stayed up until about 4:00am. After that, I was free to sleep on the 12-hour train ride to Nefteyugansk.

We all took a taxi to the train station around 3:00am. I had a couple bags and some food for the ride. The food included some leftover chocolate cake, leftover crackers, and the salsa for the family. They turned the lights on for us inside the train for a little bit so we could make our beds. For those who don't know, we rode in плацкарт which is like one of the cheaper ways to travel long distances. Everybody is given either a higher or lower "bunk" which functions as a seat but can be converted into a bed (they give a pad, pillow, and bed sheets). Since it was late, we all went to bed right away. We woke up with a few hours left so we had some food that Ira brought, such as bread, sausage, and cheese. We also played a very popular Russian card game called "Fool" (дурак). I'm still getting the hang of it. Since Nefteyugansk doesn't have its own train station, we stopped in Пыть-Ях which is a smaller city. From there, one of Marina's friends picked us up in his car to take us the last hour of the trip (Marina = Ira and Katya's mom). He's a typical male Russian driver. He likes to go fast and he's fairly aggressive. Fortunately, since I'm writing this, it's clear he didn't kills us. When we got to town, I was a little disappointed that the trees weren't quite as small as I had expected. Some were still pretty tall but they were clearly shorter, narrower, and weaker than the trees in Tyumen because of the northerly climate. Also, I should note that everything everywhere is covered in a healthy layer of snow. For the last three hours of the train ride, we saw nothing but snow-covered pines and birches.

From the start, I was never underfed. Marina always provided an abundant supply of delicious food (not to mention fairly consistent access to candy). Some staples, such as bread, sausage, and cheese, were frequently available. During my stay, she made a few different soups (mushroom soup, borsch) and a potato and beef casserole-type dish among other things. I'll detail a few of the key events of my trip, but it's also important to mention that a large portion of our stay was lounging around, watching television, and just general relaxation.

One of the first things I did was help Sasha put up the artificial Christmas tree and then help the girls decorate it. I suppose this makes up for my absence and lack of help at home this year. We also went to the city's primary market. I'll tell you what. You don't see markets in the US like you do in Russia. Or at the very least, they're not as widespread in the US. Some of the vendors are indoors with small shops containing toys, home improvement materials, to fresh produce. Some vendors also set up shop outside near the primary buildings. When you're this far north, I imagine operating one of those booths isn't exactly a pleasant experience. I went with Marina, Ira, Sasha, and a family friend and we spent most of our time in the meat and cheese area. While Marina stood in line I kept myself entertained watching the butchers hack apart frozen cows and looking for weird items like cow tongue and cow tail. Actually, Marina did prepare cow tongue one night, but I never tried it...

On the 30th, we went to the movies to watch С Новым Годом, Мамы (Happy New Year, Moms) which is like this year's primary holiday feel-good film. Since it was a family movie, the script wasn't too complicated and I understood practically everything! It wasn't a great film by any means and they even overdid a few scenes, but on the whole, it was still a decent holiday movie with some heartwarming and/or funny moments. We also blatantly brought in outside food and drinks. I mean, we had to hide it in purses, but it wasn't hard and we busted all of it out as soon as we got it with no worries of getting caught.

On the last day of 2012, much of the day was spent preparing all of the dishes for the big New Year's Eve dinner. Marina did most of the work with the two girls frequently helping a little more than Sasha and I did. I peeled some potatoes and cut some cucumber so at least I didn't feel like a complete slouch. We made enough food to last for about a day and a half after the 31st and there were a lot of different dishes: fried salmon, raw salmon with cheese, spicy Korean noodle salad, red caviar, jerky, pork, mandarin oranges, and a couple other casserole-type salads. I'm probably leaving out a few things, but this is the majority of what we had available at the table. Speaking of the table, we moved it from the kitchen to the living room and put it in front of the TV so we could watch the New Year celebrations and the presidential speech. As the current President of Russia, Vladimir Putin recorded a small New Year speech in which he talked about loving one another and looking forward to a new year full of opportunity. Unlike the ball-drop in New York, the countdown sign of the new year is watching and listening to the big clock on Red Square ring twelve times. Also, like everyone else, we brought in the new year with champagne and a toast. After that, we promptly put on our winter gear to go outside and watch fireworks. There wasn't any city firework show, but instead it's much more common for people to buy their own fireworks and set them off themselves from the parking lot, yard, or roof. This was an extremely impressive and memorable moment for me. There were constant displays of fireworks from each micro-neighborhood of apartment complexes for at least twenty minutes. We could hear the fireworks immediately overhead loud and clear while also watching different fireworks going on around us from all directions. We then went back inside for gifts. This was the first time in my life I got a present with Дед Мороз (Grandfather Frost) written on it instead of Santa Claus. After getting three gifts, I felt a little bad for only getting them a little cat figurine and a card. Nevertheless, I think they really liked it. I got a much-needed warm scarf, socks, stocking cap, toothpaste, a t-shirt, and a book of Christmas stories and poems. Since I never seriously celebrated New Year's Eve in the US, this might just qualify as the best New Year's Eve I've ever had. At the very least, it's among the best to date.

Since we were up until about 4:00am, we all slept in as needed. As it happened during the whole trip, Sasha and I got up before the girls did. Also, before they ever went anywhere, they had to pretty themselves up. As a result, Sasha and I were pretty restless on New Year's Day. We experienced some unusual and pleasantly warm weather (around 29-30 F). We decided it was a perfect opportunity to walk around and see the city. We went to the center of town and saw a bunch of ice sculptures and slides made of ice for kids. I waited in line with a few kids to get my picture on an ice throne between Grandfather Frost and Snegurochka (his helper). We also walked to near the river's edge and saw some old-style wooden buildings and some churches. On our way back, we got a little turned around and had to ask for help. We waited for a bus but after waiting a bit impatiently, we continued back on foot in the general direction of our neighborhood. Even though it wasn't that cold, I was starting to get pretty chilled and ready to get back in the warm apartment. Once we finally got back, we got a couple cups of hot cocoa and rested. Later that night, the four of us (Sasha, me, Ira, and Katya) played a word game in which you had to get your partner to guess as many words as possible from a list of words. I actually did better in Russian that I thought I would even though we my team still lost (both times we played).

On the throne between Grandfather Frost and Snegurochka

Ira, me, & Sasha

On January 2nd, we went to a recreation area / park called Парус (Sail) to go sledding. The sledding hill is basically a snow-covered embankment that leads down to a frozen-over river. We rented a three-person inflatable sled and went down several times and, on occasion, narrowly missing people climbing back up. When we had our fill, we set off to look for Marina and her friend in a cafe in the park. On the way, we stumbled on a small zoo within the park that I didn't even know existed. Before I knew it, I was looking at a couple African lions. It was an excellent, unexpected surprise. We also saw sheep, wild pigs, bears, foxes, and wolves. This was only the second time in my life I heard a lion make noise. I'm always impressed by how far the sound carries without any effort from the lion. However, for the first time in my life, I heard a wolf howl. It was amazing and eerie at the same time. After strolling through the zoo in the dark, we finally found the cafe and sat down for tea and shashlik, which is basically just super delicious grilled pork with onions. That night, we watched some holiday movies. Although I don't remember exactly on which days we watched certain movies but I do remember what we watched. We watched some Russian movies like Ёлки 2 (Christmas Trees 2), Брат 2 (Brother 2), and Ирония Судьбы (The Irony of Fate). We also watched some American movies, such as Happy New Year and Christmas Vacation. That night we also played a game of charades where we had to act out films.

Looking back up the sledding hill

January 3rd was the last day for me and Sasha. We didn't have a full day either. We had to leave around 6:00 or 7:00pm. This was a very low-key day. I packed up, lounged around, and watched some TV. The girls escorted us back to the train station with our overly-aggressive driver. The train ride itself was much worse than the trip to Nefteyugansk. The train car was hot and this time I had a top bunk, which is considerably tighter and less comfortable. I also didn't sleep consistently like I did last time. This resulted in being kind of rested but also achy and a bit drowsy at around 7:30am when we arrived. Because I had no almost no food and most of my clothes were dirty, about the only productive things I did were making a trip to the store and doing laundry. Other than that, I was very lazy.

I consider this trip a huge success. We had great food, watched good movies, relaxed, and played games. Also, I got more consistent practice speaking Russian than I normally do. And finally, they had a cat named Кузя who made the trip ten times better. He's a cute orange softy who likes to talk. I had been without the company of a cat for too long. As I write this, I'm back in Tyumen and it feels like life is more or less back to normal even though I'm still technically on break. In general, I had a fantastic time in Nefteyugansk and a wonderful holiday.

Christmas Approaching: Time with Friends

Well hey, I guess the world didn't end on Friday. It looks like I'll get to celebrate a Russian New Year after all. This week was my first week of informal classes with some of my students. Not everyone came which was fine since it was even more optional than usual. We basically spent the time talking about anything and played a few games. I taught them one game called "Ghost" that, as it turns out, is also really good language practice. It requires thinking of a wide range of words and emphasizes the importance of spelling. I did that with my groups on Tuesday and Wednesday. Later on Wednesday, I worked quit a bit with Irina on her textbook. We're trying to get all of her materials finalized by January 10 so she can get it sent in for publication. I was promised that my name would be included somewhere as a contributor, so I'm pretty excited about that. We spent a couple hours organizing different units in the book to find out what was still lacking.

Thursday was another day of "Ghost" with some students but more interesting is what I did after class. On Wednesday, I got a text message from Pavel saying they really needed me on Thursday. Apparently, some participants of Tyumen State's Model UN club set up a video-conference call with a US Vice Consul at the US Consulate in Ekaterinburg. Pavel told me ahead of time that I would essentially act as a moderator. I agreed of course, but since I didn't really know any details or how the Model UN program works, I was also pretty nervous. Luckily, the video-conference was much more relaxed than I expected. It turned into a conversation about cultural differences between the US and Russia and a lot of the conversation was guided by questions from the Russian students. I wasn't really a moderator, but instead basically just served as a second American voice and gave my perspective cultural and educational differences between both countries. Since Coca-Cola was a sponsor of one of the university's cultural events, after the call, Pavel gave me some free stuff. I got a nifty glass Coca-Cola glass, a really cool little globe (in Russian), and a world map that can finally cover up at least a part of the bare walls in my room.

Friday. The end of the world. I was up late the night before so I knew the world didn't end at midnight. However, I was told by one source that the world was supposed to end at lunch. Since the world didn't blow up at lunch, I went to class for some more conversation practice. I was told by another source though that the world wouldn't end until 10:00pm, so I had some more waiting to do. Friday night was Niklas' second-to-last night in town, so Niklas, Nikolai, Sasha, and I decided to go out. First, we went to Subway for a bite to eat and watched as the clock passed 10 and the world didn't split in two. After that, we went bowling. My first game was less than impressive but I think we all felt comfortable knowing that we were all terrible. That said, my second game went significantly better (even though we didn't get to finish the last couple frames). After bowling, we stayed in the same building "Бриллиантовая Рука" (Diamond Arm) to play Russian billiards. Boy was that tough. Even though they had standard pool, I wanted to play Russian billiards because it was new to me. I'm guessing a little bit with these numbers, but the table is probably about 50% bigger and the pocket-sizes are practically 50% smaller. The competition was to see who knock in the most balls. We played for an hour and only knocked in about 6... It was clear that we were all as bad at billiards as we were at bowling. Of course, our talent didn't matter. We all still had a lot of fun.

Random picture on the way to American Corner

Saturday. Day 1 Post-Apocalypse. Even though, I never usually have classes on Saturdays, this Saturday we had one that we moved from our typical 8am Friday time-slot. Again, we had some discussion and another round of "Ghost." After class, I went straight to American Corner where we watched another movie. This time, we watched "The Onion," a film based on the fake news source "The Onion." It's a really silly (and sometimes even stupid) comedy that gives a lot of social commentary. After American Corner, I rode a horribly overcrowded маршрутка (mini-bus) with no room to move back to the dorm. I guess that's what happens around dinner-time and it's -20 outside. Niklas was hosting a final get-together before his departure on Sunday. Here's who came: Niklas, me, Sasha, Nikolai, Dima (Niklas' roommate), Raya, Lyusya (two Chinese students), Ira, Marina, and Anton(?) who are all Dima's friends. We had some sort of French-style meat/potato/cheese dish which was pretty delicious. After dinner, some people sang songs, we played a couple rounds of "Mafia" (another popular game here), and Lyusya, Raya, Niklas, Sasha, and I stayed late to just hang out and talk.

Niklas' farewell party (left to right: Nikolai,
Sasha, Raya, Lyusya, Niklas)

Sunday was, of course, the big day for Niklas and sad for everyone. A number of us gathered around 12pm to see him off. I had a lot of fun hanging out with him, so it's really unfortunate that he left. I guess that means I'll have to spend more time with other Russian friends which, when in Russia, makes sense. Later that afternoon, I met with some students from a different class to help them prepare for a Christmas celebration that's going to be on the 24th (today). I went to one their apartments (which was really nice, by the way) and we worked on the script for a short skit, an American Christmas song "the 12 Days of Christmas", and some artwork/decorations. I inherited the role of Santa in the play so... we'll see how that goes. It starts in a few hours so I've got to get ready soon. Details will follow once it's all done. I'll tell you what, today sure doesn't feel like Christmas Eve. And tomorrow? Christmas? It sure doesn't feel like it. On the other hand, I'm still excited about spending the holidays Russian-style. I leave for Nefteyugansk in about five days.

On a side note, it's -30 F today. Apparently, this is the coldest winter Siberia has seen in about 50 years and my city has had it easy compared to a few others farther east. I guess you could say I'm lucky.

First Semester Coming to a Close

Well, as I write this post, it is -28 F outside. But hey, at least there's no wind chill today, right? Actually, I've been fairly "lucky" lately with the weather if you compare my situation with some of the other Siberian Fulbrighters. Some of the others farther east have already had to deal with temperatures in the -30s. Our recent week of temps around -5 and -10 has looked mild by comparison. I don't have any work responsibilities today; however, I still have to go outside for a couple errands. I'm in need (and have been in need for a couple weeks) of a haircut. I also have very little food left, so I need to stock up. I won't lie. I'm a little nervous about the haircut. My plan is to just show my passport picture, say I just want "everything shorter," and hope for the best.

In other news, today is Monday, but last week was technically my last week of classes for the semester. My "boss" had me end classes two weeks before New Year's break, so last week with all of my groups we talked about American Christmas and New Year's Eve. I also gave a quiz and a survey about the course. I don't plan on grading the quiz very strictly since it was based on topics from the whole semester and we had some newcomers in almost all of my groups. One quick and interesting side note: Russian students don't seem to have any problem asking each other for help and getting on their cell phones during quizzes. Most of my students in all of my groups were guilty of this and it caught me a little off-guard. I constantly reminded them that helping each other and looking at cell phones was prohibited. Of course, any behavior like this was unacceptable during a quiz or test of any kind I was in college. So there I was, imposing our American quiz-taking etiquette on a bunch of Russians who are used to talking to each other during quizzes. Even though I was more strict than usual (which is never), I felt justified. I mean, what's the point of a quiz if everybody helps each other? I didn't want to know the group's knowledge. I wanted to test individuals. The most important thing though was the survey in which I found out how my students liked the course, what they would like to change, what topics they want to cover, etc. I'm supposed to spend the next couple weeks helping Irina more with her textbook project but, as it turns out, most of my students didn't want to end my classes yet. I admit, that was a pretty great feeling. My students actually want to come to class! We decided to keep meeting but we agreed that I wouldn't need to prepare my typical lessons. We're going to use that time to pretty much just chat and play games. I'd like to watch some shows or movies or something too, but I don't really know how to pull that off yet given the facilities we have at our disposal.

Yesterday (Sunday), I went with Katya to pick up some New Year's decorations for their place in Nefteyugansk. We went to a mall called Goodwin (Гудвин) and browsed a little bit and then ate a cafe with Russian cuisine. I finally had shashlyk for the first time in Tyumen which was as delicious as I expected (not like those horrendous shashlyk-flavored potato chips). After the mall, we went to Ira's place (Katya's sister) because she recently got a cat. It had been too long for me without any affection from a cat. He was really shy at first but he warmed up to me pretty quickly and even sat on my lap a few times.

On Saturday, I had American Corner as usual and this time we actually managed to watch a full movie. One of our usual participants brought the American movie "The Great Buck Howard," a comedy that came out four years ago about a mentalist. I was a little surprised that I had never heard of it before, especially because it has some big names in it. I enjoyed it too. We had a short discussion afterwards about mentalists/hypnotists and about the film in general.

Since I finished my lesson plans for the last week pretty early, I had quite a few free evenings during the week. Niklas, Sasha, and I decided to have a Star Wars marathon throughout the week. We met three nights in a row to watch the newest Star Wars films and watched Episode 4 (the oldest) a couple days ago. We still have two more to go. Other than Star Wars, sharing a few dinners, and having classes, not much else happened this week.

Wow ok, so just after finishing this post I had a pretty great experience. I did my laundry today and also swapped out my bed sheets for some clean ones. Shortly after taking the clean ones upstairs, I got a knock on the door from the lady who just gave them to me. She told me that she needed to give me some different ones because the sheets she gave me were for students. I was supposed to get the "guest" sheets or sheets for teachers. Now, of course, I had to ask what the difference was. She told me that since the ones for students are exchanged much more frequently (as most of the people living here are students), they aren't cleaned as thoroughly... This is one of those times when I am perfectly happy having special privileges.