After staying up too late last night blogging in excruciating detail, getting up this morning was difficult. The pace of everything has been so quick since we arrived, and particularly after Moscow I think everyone in our group is feeling pretty drained.
This morning, like usual, Lena and I had a Russian lesson. We briefly reviewed some words and phrases--she actually cheated and started quizzing me while we were still on the bus, asking me to name hard Russian numbers!--before she challenged me to write an introduction about myself in Russian. I know words, not so much grammar, and my spelling is atrocious--as I've mentioned before, during this short-term trip, if I want to remember stuff, I have to be able to visualize it, and I don't want to waste any time, so I'm just visualizing things phonetically rather than how they're actually written in Russian. She wrote her own page-and-a-half introduction about herself in English, which was really good and witty...maybe I'll share it later...(GLEB!)
Also, maybe I'll share a picture of mine later, so anyone familiar with Russian can laugh. Apparently I made up some words, though she said one word was Polish (points for crossing into another language?), and unsurprisingly my spelling was not so good. It's hard to say what the stupidest thing I wrote was, because it was all pretty lame and basic and random, according to what words/phrases popped into my head at the moment, but I did make a cultural reference to a song about Putin, which I think I've mentioned in a previous post (if not, I surely will in the future), so that also won me some points back. Overall, Lena gave me a 5- which is equivalent to an A-. We aren't actually getting grades--and we were having a lot of fun, especially Lena!--but I think I did pretty well for only having two weeks of Russian under my belt. I was actually surprised that I was able to write so much, to remember so many words, and to remember the letters I needed to form the words--even if I did make up a letter or two of my own along the way. :P
Following the lesson, it was tea time, and then we had a lecture given to us by two Russian girls who study English at Vladimir State University with Aleksey Leovich. They talked about Russian phrases and homophones, words that sound the same but have different meanings and often altered spellings. For example, one phrase is dangerous because, depending on how you say it, you're either conveying, "We can be on a first-name basis now," or, "We're married"!
The group then went to lunch, though Abby frantically took the bus back home because she was afraid she'd left her hair curler plugged in and wanted to make sure she hadn't burnt down her host's apartment. While she panicked, we ate a typical, three-course "business lunch." The salad* was really good; the soup was good; the main dish was ok, but it was fish, which I don't care for. Also, it's a joke amongst Russians that Americans can't handle eating the fish here because fish is served with the bones. Considering Kevin literally gave up eating and admitted defeat after one big, bone-filled bite--and Mack, too, after not too long--this seems like an accurate assessment. Lilly, the debutante (for-real) of the group, managed to eat her fish with no problems. But after we left, David told us that the woman working in the restaurant had been staring out from the kitchen door, watching and smirking while Kevin and Mack struggled to eat bone-in fish. Apparently, it's yet another one of the many arts and sciences of daily Russian life.
As we finished working at the dog shelter yesterday, today we had a new project at a local kindergarten/preschool. Allergy-ridden Kevin didn't tag along, but went home to sleep it off instead. While at the preschool, we painted a bunch of things out on the playground, and at one point a class of kiddos came out to play, so it was fun to see them running around and to listen to them speaking Russian a million times better than us. ;)
I then got recruited, along with Mack, to go inside and work with some girls who are students at the local art institute, who were drawing and painting murals inside one of the school rooms. The girls were so sweet, and despite the language barrier we had really good conversations. One girl said I spoke really good Russian; I'd only really introduced myself--which is about all I can do--but I'll take the compliment! :P
As it turns out, the girls are studying to be art restorers--professionals who have the great honor and responsibility of caring for and repairing the centuries'-old art found around town, including the delicate iconography for which Russian churches are so famous. So, they are really talented, and it was an honor just working with them, knowing what they'll go on to do. Because I wrote icons for a couple years during high school, I have profound respect especially for that part of their training and work, and I can't imagine having the skill to do that kind of stuff. Really neat! Also, really cool because that's not a course of study that I've ever heard of or met someone from in the US.
Following this, during which time I was painting in yellow stars drawn on the wall, we all stopped working and rejoined the other members of the Vandy group to have tea, compote, and sweets and to get to know each other. We were all kind of quiet and shy, but we eventually started talking and laughing, and it was so much fun! One of the women who works at the preschool took a video of our interactions, and then of Lilly and Abby each playing a little something on the piano. Aleksey Leovich had me read my introduction that I'd written in Russian earlier today with Lena, and--just as Lena had done--one of the Russian girls took a picture of my writing, because she found it entertaining. I got a lot of laughs, some intended, some definitely not intended but not altogether unexpected, given my poor Russian. :P
We were presented with a certificate for our work and contributions there, which was a surprise, because we only worked for a couple hours and hadn't done a great deal. The women were very grateful for whatever help we provided them, though, and then Abby and I presented some gifts from America to one of the women for the children and teachers of the preschool. Abby brought some mini Beanie Babies, and I gave some postcards of Nashville (representative both of my hometown and of our Vanderbilt group) and some homemade candy sticks I picked up from Cracker Barrel before I left. One of the women got this on video. I don't think any of us quite understands how or why, because we feel we haven't really done much work at all. To us, it's nothing, but to the locals we've been helping, apparently, it's been a big deal. Even though it's hard to fight the feeling that, "All we did was X; we could have done more!" the gratitude and warmth with which our work has been met has been really humbling and rewarding. Maybe a little bit really can go a long way.
Tired and headachy from inhaling paint fumes all afternoon, we went to Mack's host family's house, where we watched Mamma Mia! in English and then ate a tasty dinner cooked for us by Mack's host mom, Tatiana. After dinner, the group went to meet up with Mack's host brother, Anton, to go bowling, but I was too tired, so I called it a night, came home, had some tea, and took a shower, though I'm still splattered with blue and yellow paint. Bedtime!
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