As many of you know, I am back in Russia for a second stint of teaching. This year I am in the wonderful city of Vladivostok. The new blog is called Rule the East!, and let me tell you, it is gonna rule. So get your butts over there and check that shit out!

ruletheeast.wordpress.com

xoxoxo,

-Matt

At the beginning of June, having completed my first year as a teacher, I set off with good ol’ red-blooded Americans on a short little trip to a wondrous place called Altai. This is the region of Siberia located directly south of the Novosibirsk region which straddles the borders of Mongolia and Kazahkstan.  In the south of this region one can find the Altai mountains, a remote area known around here for it’s natural beauty, indigenous Altai people (who are ethnically/culturally/linguistically related to Mongolians), and it’s “energy”.  But anyways… with Novosibirsk as our point of lift off, Abbie, Jason (see previous blogs for more info about these two young rapscallions), Jason’s girlfriend, Rusana, and I took a train/car/bus to get to the gorgeous Lake Teletskoye.

The lake, surrounded by mountains, is one of the deepest in Russia and apparently holds enough water to sustain the earth’s population for 10 years! It is an absolutely massive lake, and during our time there we really only saw like 1/10000000 of it… Before we had left, Abbie and I, having done some interweb research, got in contact with Nina, a woman who lives with her family near the lake where she has a wonderful garden, two small wooden houses that she rents out to tourists, an awesome little gazebo, a banya, and the absolute coolest dog ever. So for five days we stayed at this wonderful little place with Nina, who was convinced we were German despite our many efforts to explain to her otherwise. We went on many wonderful hikes, collected poisonous mushrooms, took a boat trip on the lake, drank fresh milk and ate tvorog (cottage cheesy stuff), barbecued, and relaxed to the max. The dog accompanied us everywhere, and seemed to know everyone in town.

After this wonderful adventure, we all went to Tomsk where we kicked it for a delightfully delicious couple of days. Then it was time to part for good with my Fulbright buddies, who I will miss dearly. It’s pretty darn neat that I became friends with two of the coolest Americans ever while in Siberia!

So that more or less brings us up to the present day with a few omissions for the sake of brevity/laziness. So now I’m in Novosibirsk where I’ve been tying up loose ends, saying goodbye to students and friends, and getting more and more excited about coming home.

And now that my year teaching in Siberia has come to a close, I suppose it’s time for a bit of reflection…

So what, in the end, have I taken from this experience?

Have I actually learned anything?  Doubtful.

Have I grown as a person?  Even more so.

But seriously, this year has been great, and I think that I have learned and grown A LOT. I certainly feel more capable/comfortable as a teacher, as well as a public speaker.  There is still so much to be improved upon in my teaching, but I think I now have a much better feel for handling a classroom of students, and I feel comfortable leading classes. I have a good idea for what students find useful/helpful/interesting, but I have also learned that every group of students is completely unique and what works for one class may crash and burn with another. I’m excited to begin anew next year, already knowing what I know and having the confidence I now have.

I’m also very happy with the strides that my Russian language ability has taken. The difference in the ability to communicate between pre-Siberia me and present me is shocking. But I guess that’s what you expect after a year living abroad, huh? But anyways, I’m pumped to no longer have to feel slightly embarrassed for having a degree in Russian without being able to speak well! And next year I think my Russian will open many new doors for me to do some things I’d like to do (take classes in Russian, volunteer with a Russian NGO).

As for things I have learned that are not skills, I believe I’ve learned a lot about Russian-American relations, Russians attitudes towards Americans, the importance of diplomacy, and why the Fulbright Program works. I would like to briefly quote from my Fulbright renewal application, which says it all in prettier language than I can,

            During my time in Novosibirsk I have been blessed with endless opportunities to learn about Russian culture through direct interaction and discourse with Russians of all ages, backgrounds, and orientations.  My position as a teacher has provided me with a unique opportunity to interact with hundreds of people and through these interactions I have come much closer to gaining a true understanding of the always enigmatic Russian mentality, while simultaneously leaving my own imprint.

            It is this imprint, the impressions that I leave upon those I interact with, that lies at the heart of the most valuable lesson I have taken from my experiences thus far.  That lesson is a very simple one.  It is merely the realization that my interactions with the people here really can have a lasting impact. Simply by spending time with people, be it a short chat with the overly curious security guard, or an entire semester sharing stories with a student, I influence the way those people perceive the United States, it’s residents, and the seemingly great distance between our two nations.

            The most rewarding moments of my time spent in Russia have all come when students of mine have told me that because of the time they have spent with me, they want to study English, or travel to the United States. This speaks not about me, my abilities as a teacher, or knowledge of the United States, but is merely testament to the diplomatic power of familiarity, of putting a human face on an abstract other.  As soon my students see how similar we are, how much we share in common, they begin to question many of the preconceptions they hold about our country and our people.  This is the most striking thing I’ve learned; the possibility to shape people’s opinions by merely being myself.

I have also, strangely enough, gained a new appreciation for the United States and have developed a surprising (for me) sense of patriotism which is in most ways disconnected from politics. These new feelings for my country have, to a large extent, inspired by the many presentations on American culture, history, current events, etc. that I have given throughout the year.  These presentations have helped me to realize that there really is so much awesome stuff to see and do in the United States, so many interesting places and people, such an interesting history, and it really is a nice place. So yeah, next time you see me, I’ll be driving to the big football game in an F150 with a “Freedom isn’t Free” bumper-sticker, eating freedom fries and blasting Toby Kieth. GO SOONERS!!! GO AMERICA!!!

Well I suppose that’s as a good a place as any to end this only moderately wild ride known as mattinsiberia… dot com. It’s been a great year. I could probably say much more, but then I wouldn’t have anything to tell those of you who I’ll see this summer.  Thanks to those of you who read the handful of posts I wrote, and thanks to the American government for picking up the bill, and a special thanks to Supertramp for providing the soundtrack. T-shirts available soon.

I hope to see many of you in the months to come!

xoxoxo

(p.s. this entire post was copied from wikipedia)

Here’s what’s new with me… you know, if you’re interested or whatever…

Today I took the first half of my qualification exam in Russian. Today I had the writing, grammar, and reading comprehension tests – all of which went tolerably well – and on Wednesday I take the oral and listening parts. So wish me luck!

A couple of weeks ago I partook in the celebration of a very important Russian holiday, Victory Day, which marks the end of World War II. This day is celebrated here as the Russian victory over the German “fascists”. In Russia in general there is a tendency to downplay the role of every other country who fought in the war and to see the “victory” as a feat of the Russian army. Surely, Russia does have the right to claim a large amount of credit for the defeat of Nazi Germany, with much of the war being fought on it’s own soil, and with Russia losing more soldiers and civilians than any other nation which was involved in the war. However the downright rejection of the role of the allied troops, and the effort of all the countries involved is sometimes a bit alarming here. The war itself is one of the most commonly met themes for Americans living in Russia. So many times I have been asked the question “who do you think World War II”. My diplomatically neutral response is almost always met with a scoff and the steadfast assurance, that no, it wasn’t the allied troops who won the war, but Russia. Many times I have been told that the U.S. only joined the war when it became clear who would win, and under different circumstances would have just as soon joined the side of Nazi Germany…

All such complications aside, the holiday is a cool one and I thoroughly enjoyed the festivities of this day. I would compare it to Independence Day in the United States. It’s an incredibly patriotic holiday which includes all the makings of a true summer celebration – parades, fireworks, music, flags, and consumption of alcoholic beverages. I went to the early morning parade on the central square to find that about 50,000 people had come to watch an event at a place where there are probably no more than ten good spots for viewing. So I basically stood for two hours, in a veeeeeery crowded crowd, and barely saw a thing that was happening. All the same it was neat. Russian parades are the exact opposite of our parades back home. Rather than floats, fun music, smiling and waving people, and candy, here they have a bunch of military dudes march around for a long time and then roll through a bunch of huge tanks and then call it a day.

 The best thing about this holiday is that all of the center was closed to cars and the streets were packed full of people. It’s been really nice the last couple of weeks to see the city come alive as the weather heats up. People have come out of their winter hibernations to walk around at night, hang out in the parks, play soccer, drink beer, play guitar, etc… At night there was a nice fireworks show and I think just about the entire population of Novosibirsk came to the square to watch. O

n Sunday I went to the Novosibirsk zoo and saw a LIGER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (zoos suck)

Big news for those of you who don’t know – next year I will be living and working in Vladivostok, the major seaport on the Pacific coast. The city is very close to the borders with China and Korea, and is also just across from Japan. I hear that it is a hilly city, with a mix of historical and industrial buildings. It’s not as cold there, but certainly a bit more rainy and gray. I’m majorly stoked to have been placed in this city for my second year of Fulbright teaching and I really hope to have the opportunity to do some traveling in the nearby countries. It’s great that I’m getting the opportunity to see so many wildly different parts of Russia. I’ve already lived in the European part (Petersburg) as well as Siberia. Now I’m off to the far east.

Of course, before heading east, I will be taking a couple of months to enjoy the sweetly familiar embrace of the motherland. I’ll have approximately two months to soak up as much America as I can.

(Why is it so difficult to upload photos?????????????)

1)      Nothing interesting or extraordinary has happened to me during this time. Everything in my life has been pretty routine and there hasn’t been much to report.

2)      Having lived here for 8 months already I have ceased to be surprised by things that once seemed quite novel or strange to me, and have therefore lost some of my ability to make interesting observations.

3)      I’m lazy

So to bring you up to date, it is now mid-April, the Siberian frosts have gone, the snow has melted, my winter boots and jacket have been stowed away, and yesterday, for the first time since September, I left my dorm without a jacket. The longest winter of my life is FINALLY over, and I couldn’t be happier!

In other news, I have decided to return to Russia next year to continue doing what I do now. I have been accepted for a renewal of my grant and will be teaching in an as-of-yet unknown location in Russia. A good idea? Who knows…  At least I don’t have to think about trying to find a job in the U.S. now!

I will be returning to the home in the second half of June and will spend most of the summer in the states. I plan on visiting as many of my friends and family members as possible, and trying to soak up as much America as I can in two months. I will be spending time on both coasts and in the heartland, so if you’d like to see me please let me know where and when you’ll be, and If you’re lucky I’ll choose your name in the live random drawing which will be broadcast world-wide on the latino music cooking channel. (Five second place winners will receive consolatory prize t-shirts).

As for the remaining two months of Novosibirsk… I am studying for a standardized test in Russian Language which I’ll take in May. I’ll be done teaching at the end of May and will perhaps take a short trip at the beginning of June. Other than that, I plan to spend as much time outside as possible while the weather continues to improve, and I plan on buying some sandals.

Now I’m preparing to embark on another weekend journey, this time to the spectacular city of Tomsk, where fellow ETA, and downright chiller, Jason, lives. We have a 3 day weekend because Monday is the Defenders of the Motherland day, or something like that. So woo hoo! Then on Tuesday I’ll be giving a presentation somewhere in Tomsk about Appalachian music…. Then back to work.

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve sat here in my tiny room in Novosibirsk, and I must say that after a month of travel with my awesome American friends across Europe, it’s quite difficult to readjust to my solitary Siberian lifestyle. However, now that my wonderful adventure is over and I begin to regain some resemblance of regularity in my life, I will have more time to spend on such activities as updating my blog! So I suppose now is the time to stop neglecting all those pleading emails from my mother and post about my trip. The trip began when my buddy, Jason, teaching in the neighboring Siberian city of Tomsk, met me in Novosibirsk, and the two of us hopped on a train for Ekaturinburg. Here, in the capital of the Ural Mountains, we met our fellow Fulbrightnik, Abbie. The three of us spent three wonderful days hanging out in her apartment and seeing the sights of Ekat. Some of the highlights included an awesome pizza we made using fluffy, crispy pastry dough, visiting the church where the Romanov’s were killed, walking on the frozen, “smelly-dog” river, drinking Jaguar energy/alcohol drinks and then dancing like maniacs around the giant Christmas tree in the ice sculpture city as children slid down man-made hills and disco music blared from the heavens, teaching Abbie’s Russian friends how to play “King’s Cup”, and studying German, with Jason as our teacher, from the book, “German Through Pictures”. After all this, we hopped on another west-bound train which took us across the Urals (although we never saw them and their actual existence is questionable at best) and into the European half of Russia. When we arrived in St. Petersburg we were greeted by the tropical European weather that we were to experience, and cherish, for the rest of our trip. Days of 2 degrees Celsius felt to me like summer in Oklahoma coming from Siberia. In St. Petersburg we were put up by Abbie’s friend, Lauren, who is a Fulbright grantee doing research on artist books and printmaking in the city. She has a sweet flat in the center of Petersburg, just off the main drag, where we stayed for five days. The day we arrived, we also met Olga, another of Abbie’s friends, who is a masters student at the European University in Petersburg. Olga, who was born in Russia but grew up in Cleveland (also Abbie’s home town), greeted us with delicious home-made blini (Russian pancakes). These two wonderful ladies joined our holy trinity and the fabulous five was born, set to smash our way across Europe, leaving nothing but destruction in our wake. During our time in Petersburg we went to many museums including: The Hermitage – the largest and most famous art museum in Russia. It was once the Imperial winter palace. The Russian Museum – basically an amazing art museum that houses many of the most famous works of Russian art. The Nabokov House Museum – As the name implies, it’s where Nabokov used to live… Other fun things we did in Petersburg: ate American fast-food, drank champagne and ate cake in some park late at night on Russian old new year (they changed from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar decades ago, but still celebrate the old new-year as well as the new one), smoking hooka in Lauren’s apartment (my favorite flavor – two apples), seeing my friend Sybil (a fellow LC Pio), as well as seeing my friend, Yana, who I met in Novosibirsk, making borscht and Jason’s special tuna melts… Yum! It was really great to be back in Petersburg for the first time since I studied there two years ago. It really is such a cool, vibrant city, not to mention full of beautiful buildings, churches, monuments, etc. Our journey out of Russia and into the land of banana milk and honey began with a sleepy-eyed, early morning flight to Amsterdam. As soon as we landed we could feel the difference between Russia and Europe. Everything there felt more familiar: people spoke English, they were friendly and helpful, and they even smiled! Amsterdam was beautiful, clean, and cute almost to the point that it felt like being on a movie set or in some artificial fantasy world. Factor in the various forms of diversion and entertainment available in the city and it truly felt like Disneyland for adults. The greatest thing about our time in Amsterdam was the great amount of bicycle riding that accompanied it! Never have I seen a city with so many damn bicycles and with such a developed system of bike lanes! Renting bikes was an obvious measure for our crew. Cruising around aimlessly on bikes through one of the most beautiful cities in the world, blasting music from Lauren’s portable ipod blaster – this was heaven for a boy who, after four years of biking everyday, hadn’t sat in the saddle since leaving the U.S. in August. Other highlights of Amsterdam were the Van Gogh Museum, the Rijkes Museum, the Sex Museum, the Cat Museum, making burritos, drinking tasty beers, and listening to Dutch. Our next stop was the German capital of Berlin, a city which I had heard so much about from many of my friends. Needless to say, it lived up to the hype. The night that we arrived in Berlin, we checked in to the hostel, threw down our bags, and rushed out to catch the band Animal Collective play a show just down the street (the hostel had been chosen because of its strategic location near the venue). The show was sweet once we were able to push our way to the front. It was really cool to see one of my favorite bands playing in Berlin, but I was a bit disappointed by the level of energy and excitement in the crowd. I guess hipsters in Germany are more or less the same as those back home! Berlin, more than any other city we visited, captivated me with its rich and conflicted history and sparked an unforseen interest in German history and language. Jason and I visited one especially extensive German history museum where we stayed for two hours, yet when we had to leave to meet the rest of the group I hadn’t even made it out of the middle ages! Berlin also differed from the other cities in that it offered so much more to do and see than we could have possibly accomplished in our five days in the city. Although I think all of the best museums we saw were in Berlin, there were still many things we didn’t get to see, or that we had to cut short due to time. The Jewish Museum was perhaps the most interestingly designed and put-together museum I’ve ever been in. There were so many different exhibits, in many different mediums, with all kinds of interactive stuff, and cool art installations. It was a shame that we only saw about half of it. We also saw an incredibly extensive exhibit of the works of German artist Paul Klee, which I really enjoyed, and another museum, the name of which I forget, whose charm is now escaping my ability to describe it… We also hit up some cool bars, book/art stores, delicious Indian food, and did our normal amount of wandering. At the end of our stay in Berlin our two wonderful companions from Petersburg left us, and the original triumvirate continued onward and eastward into the Czech Republic. I don’t have a whole lot to say about Prague, except that it’s a very beautiful and charming city that reminds me a lot of the baltic capitals I visited a few years ago, only much larger and prettier. The Prague castle is one of the more impressive structures I’ve seen in my life. That being said, beyond the aesthetic beauty of the Czech capital, I found little to be impressed with. It’s just too much of a tourist city, with a tourist atmosphere to appeal strongly to me. I think it’s definitely worth visiting, but I don’t think it takes more than two or three days to do. One of the cool things about our stay in Prague is that we sampled a lot of traditional Czech food, which includes lots of dumplings and sauerkraut, as well as roasted duck! Yum… Prague marked the end of our European vacation, but not the end of our trip. All of us Fulbrighters in Russia were required to attend a conference in Moscow at the end of the month, so the three of us set off together for Moscow in a most roundabout way. Because flights from Prague to Moscow were so outrageously expensive, we decided to take a train to Vienna, where we had just enough time to get breakfast at the famous “Central Cafe”, where I guess a lot of famous people used to dine (Trotsky), and then caught our flight to Moscow. In Moscow it was nice to see the other English teachers and researchers and hear how their lives in Russia were treating them. My time with my wonderful travel buddies was capped with an evening at a wonderful restaurant, payed for by Fulbright, full of singing, laughing, spiked punch, and all kinds of antics. After an entire month of living so closely with these amazing people, sharing all kinds of new and interesting experiences, sharing so many inside jokes, sharing a level of understanding that is only possible when speaking with other Americans, it has been tough to come back to Novosibirsk. I believe I’ll soon readjust, especially once I become busy again with work and study. So all in all, it was a sweet trip, one of the most fun and exciting months of my life, and I’m sure that I’ve left out a ton of things in my recap, but oh well… I’ll try to get some pics up soon as well…

I would like to say something about my new year celebrations, but it seems that Json’s bus has arrived a bit early so I gotta jet!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope it treats you well

Merry Christmas from Siberia! Well actually while everyone back home is celebrating Christmas, I am doing nothing special on this, the 25th day of December. Why is this? Well it’s because Russians celebrate Christmas on the 7th of January. Apparently they don’t understand that it is absolute, proven fact that Jesus Christ was born on the 25th! Duh, everyone knows this, just like everyone knows he shares his birthday with Santa Claus! Well actually they celebrate on the 7th because the eastern orthodox church still follows the Julian calendar in spite of the proven superiorty of the Gregorian version 2.0.  So anyways, nobody else here cares that tomorrow is the 25th of December. In fact tomorrow I’m giving a test!

But all the same the holiday spirit is alive and well here in Siberia, although it doesn’t quite compare with the orgy of consumption and christmas lights of back home. I have been invited to many new years parties and am excited to celebrate new year’s eve ala russki, because this is their most important holiday. But most of all, I’m looking forward to the 3rd of January, which is the official start to my month of travel across half of Russia to Petersburg, then on to Europe with stops in Amsterdam, Berlin, and Prague, and then to Moscow and once again into the heart of the beast called Siberia.

Some other tasty nuggets of news from siberia:

Last week our academy hosted their 9th annual “Festival of Foreign Song” which mainly  consisted of students singing along, and dancing, to American, German, and French pop songs. I contributed a song on my banjo and even sang, making my voice sound as “country” as possible in order to cover the fact that I suck at singing. The festival as a whole was a big success, and I got many compliments for my performance, (mostly praising its originality rather than its quality) . There were quite a few talented singers, but my favorite performance was by a group of students who did a live cover of the Ghostbusters theme song on guitar, bass, and accordian.

Last week Nicholas and I also hosted a Christmas party which was disguised as an English Club gathering but in reality was just a party with lots of food and wine. I made waffles, which are not the same thing as american waffles.  You make them in a wafflenitsa similar to our waffle makers, but you make them really really thin and then roll them up into little cylindrical waffly crispy guys and eat them with your fingers.  Yum!

I realized the other day just how much I miss high fives…

I will soon have pictures, and maybe even a bit of video from the music festival

Sorry about my flagrant blog negligence, I promise I’ll be better. Soon it will be a new year, and my resolution is to be a better blogger ))))))))

On Saturday I went ice-skating with a few of my students. We went to the central outdoor skating rink which is Enourmous and packed full of people. It’s been quite a while since I skated, but I got the hang of it quite quickly and soon enough I was busting out the backwards skate. I must say that ice skating in Russia is a bit more treacherous for the lack of zambonie-peticured ice and crazy teenagers attempting to jump over stacks of old car tires!

Last weekend I witnessed a strange thing on the metro… My friend and I were riding along, minding our business, when two guys got on the train and started tossing a tennis ball back and forth. Then one of them motioned to me, and I, not being one to shy away from a good game of catch the tennis ball, joined in their little game. Then they got another guy involved, and then this middle-aged lady, and pretty soon there were about 7 people on the train playing catch and laughing. The guys got off at the next stop and we rode on…

So I’m sure there were other things I wanted to write about but I don’t remember… typical…

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