Thinking of home…

So the last week has brought me the first real pangs of homesickness since I’ve been in Novosibirsk. This is right on schedule according to “those people who research these kinds of things”, says my american friend Todd. Apparently it is common for homesickness to strike round the 3 month period. There have been a couple of key factors which have caused me to long for home, family, Norman, Portland, Not Russia, etc, the greatest of which was Thanksgiving.

There’s nothing in the world that could make me more homesick than reading my mother’s email in which she summarized the Thanksgiving festivities that recently took place at home. Especially this part: “We had a smoked turkey and a roasted turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes and mashed sweet potatoes, greens with bacon, cornbread chorizo stuffing, sourdough-artichoke-chard stuffing, arugula-beet-apple-pecan salad, herb rolls, and broccoli and cauliflower casserole, and cranberry-blueberry sauce”. I mean come on Mom! What are you trying to do to me!? I’m ready to move home now just so that I can be there for next year’s thanksgiving feast.

It’s been 5 years now since I’ve spent Thanksgiving at home, and every year around thanksgiving I miss my family… To make matters worse, this year I did thanksgiving dinner with the only other American guy I know here, but he’s a freakin vegetarian! So no turkey dinner for me! Not that I really have any idea how to go about cooking a turkey, nor do I believe that the crappy little ovens in Russia actually have the heating capacity to cook a decent sized bird. But we made some tasty pumpkin stew, had some tasty cheeses, and lots of red wine. I made a very simple apple pie, which was quite tasty. But all the same, it was no replacement for the annual Nelson family thanksgiving massacre…

Thanksgiving also reminds me of good ol’ american football. In my homesickness, I have also begun paying closer attention to the wide world of (american) sports. I was excited to see that our sooner boys gave those rednecks from texas tech a good whooping. Lets just hope that they can break out of their bowl game slump. Of course they have to beat OSU first.

Oh yeah, so a crappy thing happened to me last weekend which sort of sparked my slightly less cheery mood for this week. I went to a cafe, where I skyped away with friends and family, and when I arrived home I realized that my little passport holder, where I keep documents and cards and stuff, was not in the inside, breast pocket of my jacket where it should have been. There’s no way that someone could have pulled it out of my jacket while I was on the metro, and I definately had it when I went into the cafe. So the only thing I can imagine, is that some sly bastard, hearing me talk to the waiter noticed I was a foreigner, watched where I hung my coat, and managed to grab it out of the pocket of my coat, which was hanging on a coat rack right in front of me. I’m just lucky that I didn’t have my passport with me. I did, however have 2,500 rubles stolen (about 100 uncle sam dollars), my library card, my dorm pass, and most importantly, my ATM card. So now I have to have a new one shipped to me in Russia which could take a while and in the meantime use Western Union to get cash. It’s quite an annoying thing to have happened, and of course it pissed me off to no end. But really it’s my own damn fault for letting my guard down for even a second. Really I should just be thankful that I didn’t get mugged…

On monday it’s going to get really cold here. -12 celcius (about 10 uncle sam degrees) is the high! Brrr… but I’ll finally get to wear my new winter coat!

Okay, well I’m gonna go buy some groceries now, and then go watch some Soviet movies…

I miss you all

Pics from Tatarsk

Tatarsk

Wow, it’s been quite a while since I wrote anything! Sorry everyone for not keeping up. I at least hope that you enjoyed the pictures from Halloween. I’m not exactly sure what I’ve been doing since that time that has kept me so busy. Obviously teaching, but really it seems like time is disappearing almost too quickly.

 

Well certainly the most important thing that happened since I last posted was Obama’s victory in the presidential elections. This is probably actually the most important thing that has happened since I’ve been born. I want to first of all congratulate everyone back home. It’s so f’in amazing! On the day of the elections, (actually it was already the next day here in Novosibirsk) I woke up at 6 a.m. and went to my American friend Todd’s apartment where we watched the news coverage of the elections on the internet. It was really an amazing thing watching the events unfold, and I found myself overcome with emotion for the rest of the day. I walked around the academy that day smiling uncontrollably and excitedly told the news to everyone I knew. People here are generally happy that Obama won the election, but I think it is difficult for many of them to understand, first of all, the significance of Obama’s victory in American history, and secondly, the significance of the victory to all the Americans who supported him. I really wish I could have been in the U.S. to experience and celebrate this historic moment with my friends and fam… As I told all my students and coworkers, I’ve never been so proud to be an American (and then of course I sang that song “Im proud to be an american, where at least I know Im free, something something something, And I’ll proudly stand up next to you, and defend her here today, cause I’m proud to be an American, God bless the USA”).

 

 

This weekend Nick and I took a two day “business trip”, as we called it, to this small town called, Tatarsk (татарск). We were invited there by a woman who runs the local pedagogical institute in Tatarsk to give presentations to their students and teachers. Nicholas and I agreed as it appeared at the very least an opportunity to see what the heck life in a Siberian city of 20,000 is like. It was definitely interesting. Our host, Natalya Ivanovna, showed us some real Siberian hospitality. We were put up in a surprisingly new and nice hotel with a mini-fridge stocked with vodka and snacks. The beds were nice and the water was hot, although it smelled like farts… The first day of our stay we gave talks/presentations to the students of this institute, which as far as I can understand is located somewhere on the Russian education hierarchy approximately equivalent to a professional or trade school in the U.S. This place was training future teachers. Their English was in general much poorer than that of our students here in Novosibirsk. They were nice kids though. On this day we also got to see a bit of a performance at the local cultural center where they were celebrating the “day of farming and agriculture”. There were some pretty wonderful songs sung by old women as well as a couple of great accordion/voice duets. Then we did more presentations, after which we were asked to be part of the jury for what was basically a bunch of silly games and contests between students carried out in their gymnasium…  The next day we did some more presentations and then went to a really great museum (see pics below).

 

The only negative part of the trip was the fact that our host was constantly pressuring us to eat. We ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner with her in her office both days, and every meal consisted of nearly the same amount I usually eat in one day. In Russia it is considered quite rude to not eat absolutely everything offered to you, and when either Nick and I attempted to protest that we were already quite full, Natalya Ivanovna became upset. It was of course very nice of her to feed us, but who eats potato soup, a huge plate of mashed potatos, chicken, fish, bread, fruit, and tea just two hours after their previous meal. I mean come on! I never thought I would react so negatively to free food, but after two days of constant feeding I was very happy to get away from this woman.

 

The other strange thing about this trip was that I often felt as if I was some exotic creature being displayed for the amusement of the rural Russian citizens. If I’m somewhat of a celebrity figure at SibAGS, I was as good as an alien creature at this school of about 300 students. Walking through the halls, Nick and I were stared at by everyone, and asked to take fotos with every pimple-faced fifteen year old girl in the damn building. When we went into a store to buy beer, the stares of the other customers reached an unforeseen level of discomfort.

 

What made this trip wonderful, though, were the many moments of hilarity shared by Nicholas and I as our friendship was strengthened in this strange and hostile environment…

Pics coming soooooon

Halloween

Last Friday, Nicholas and I hosted an American Style Halloween party at the Academy. We had cake, tea, wine, candy, jack’o lanterns, scary stories, the Monster Mash, one zombie, one pirate, and a bunch of Russians. For almost all of these kids, it was the first time they had celebrated Halloween in any form. Our friend, Masha, took some great photos which I will now share with you all. Enjoy. Go Obama!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!