It has been a very enlightening week here in Yaroslavl'. I feel like this week, more than any other so far during my time here I've done what studying abroad is all about – conversing with people, with real live Russians about topics that are important to my conceptions about Russia as a country, and the people as a whole. Oh, and seeing bears. That's also what studying abroad is all about. But before I get to all of that, I'll recount what I've done this week, for those who require a day-by-day account of my activities (my Mom). After an entirely unexciting Monday, of which the highlight was successfully uploading my pictures to Shutterfly, on Tuesday we had yet another trip to the Nekrasov library with my Politics class in order to pick out an article that deals either with Viktor Zubkov, the new Russian Prime Minister, or with the upcoming parliamentary elections. Olga Ivanovna (name and patronymic are used when addressing professors and other people in older generations), or Politics professor, showed us the various political magazines and newspapers in Russia, all of which are controlled by the state, as far as I can tell. Anyways, she wanted us to choose an article, and then describe it to the class. My article was about the members of Zubkov's cabinet that are expected to continue to be a part of the government, and which aren't. It was interesting, but at times hard to decipher what the article was saying. On Wednesday we went to the Monastery of the Transfiguration of the Saviour with my Culture class, and saw the exhibit on “The Song of Igor's Campaign,” which is a Russian epic poem that all Russian students study, and which was discovered at the monastery. After walking around and looking at old Russian artifacts, we went and saw Masha the bear, who lives in a cage on the monastery grounds. I had never seen a bear before in real life that I could remember, so this was a strange experience. Masha was rather listless and depressed looking, though once someone offered her some fruit on a long pole she got up and showed some life. Masha did not dance, and thus did not quite fit the stereotype of Russian bears. Perhaps I'll go to the circus sometime in the next month to see their “bear show,” so as to fulfill my need to see large, sad looking bears dancing and riding motorcycles. Anyways, Wednesday evening I went with a friend to play some pool with the two Russian guys we met last weekend. They speak about as much English as we speak Russian (or perhaps less), so the conversation was about half in each language, I would estimate. After beating them handily in both games of our pool hall reenactment of the Cold War, we sat down and talked for a bit before going home. But I will get back to this later. First, the rest of my week. I have no classes on Thursday, so I went and hung out with some friends in a cafe before we decided to go sit by the Volga and chill out there. At 4:30 I left with Rhiannon, another American student (and one who also goes to Macalester) to go to IMKA (Russian YMCA) where they were holding another meeting for potential volunteers (it seems they don't have enough for all their programs). Anyways, we spent an hour and a half there, doing what Vitya, one of the leaders, called “cross-cultural communication.” I will also get back to this, once I finish recounting my week. Friday was not terribly exciting, consisting of nothing out of the ordinary. On Saturday we hopped on a boat headed up the river towards the Tolgsky Monastery, and had ourselves a picnic in a field next to the forest. This picnic was organized by Alina, the same person who arranged the hockey game I went to last weekend. We had ourselves a wonderful picnic, with bread, cheese, fruit, wine, cookies, and the like. It was really nice. We even played some silly games. Dasha, a friend of Alina's, decided to play a getting-to-know-you game called “The Train Choo-Choo,” which was a mix of ice-breaker and conga line. It was strange. And then someone else decided we needed to play a different game, which was very difficult for me, as it involved rhythm. After our picnic we walked through the monastery (which I've decided is one of my favourite places in or around Yaroslavl', and then took the boat back to the city. Then we went to a cafe, which was decorated to resemble a castle, or maybe a dungeon. It's a really cool, tiny place, with brick and stone walls and ceilings, and very hefty wood furniture. I foresee myself going there fairly often, especially considering they are purported to have very tasty soups. On Sunday I attempted to go to the one laundromat in the city to clean my clothes pre-Kaliningrad, but failed, as they are closed on Sundays. Then I attempted to go to the traveling seal and dolphin show, held on a boat on the Volga. In this too, I was unsuccessful, as we apparently underestimated the demand for mobile animal shows, and the tickets were all sold out. So instead of dolphins, we went to a cafe called “Vanilla Sky,” where I had the first spicy food I've had since I left home more than a month ago. It was awesome, if a bit expensive. Then, I spent the rest of the evening either doing homework or washing clothes by hand, as everyone in Russia seems to do. It's possible that the thing I miss most (apart from family and friends, of course) is easily accessible washers and dryers. Washing clothes by hand sucks.
This coming week we are going as a group to Kaliningrad, which I am very much looking forward to. For those who don't know, Kaliningrad is the little bit of Russia that is separate from the rest of it, on the Baltic Sea between Poland and Lithuania. It is actually a whole region, though the most important part is the city, which shares its name with the region. The city of Kaliningrad was a German city called Koenigsberg, which was flattened in WWII, and taken over by the Soviets. The Soviets got rid of all the Germans, and turned it into a distinctly Russian city. It is named for Mikhail Kalinin, who was one of Stalin's henchmen. He is known best for ignoring a massive famine in Ukraine in which millions of people died, and for ordering the execution of thousands of Polish officers during WWII in a forest near Smolensk, which was then blamed on the Nazis. What a guy. We leave Yarloslavl' at midnight or 1 am Monday night, for a 7am flight out of Moscow, and then get back here on the 5th or so.
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