Well well well, after nearly 4 months in good old Mother Russia, I've gotten some adventure down and a good sense for more adventures. For this reason I've decided it's about (freaking time) for a mission statement, for the remaining 5 months )))
Get to Denmark n back without Vulcano issues for Christmas
AGAIN Iceland has some crazy vulcanoes about to go crazy - for this reason I've had to request my Icelandic fellow volunteer to please get the message to the others on Iceland to keep this under control 'till I get back to Russia after Christmas!
Get presents w. me to Denmark/get all presents before flight in 3 days!!
I think this is pretty selfexplainatory )))
Be English teacher in Russian Uni
I already got offered (and accepted) this job, but as it is with all things Russian, you can't be sure it will happen, before it's actually happend!
Get Medvedev portrait in Sankt Petersburg
"...a couple of years ago, I got really drunk in a bar in Saint Petersbourg. It was the night before the elections when Medvedev was candidate the first time. The owner of the bar gave me his Putin-Portrait as a present because he said he need to buy a Medvedev-Portrait anyway. I still have this mildly smiling Putin at home" a story I just got from a former volunteer. Now, in just 3 month, this will have happend 4 years ago, as the next election takes place in March 2012. Since we all know Putin will "win", I figure this bartender will have to switch portait again, and I'm gonna be there when he does!!!
Iceskate on Volga with Vodka bottle!
Do I even have to explain myself here??? In just a month or so it will be safe (read: minus 20) to walk on the Volga river´s ice. When that time comes you know where to find me ;)
Snowboard in Russian mountains
Unlike most vest Europeans I've never been skiing or snowboarding (Denmark might be in the North, but we have no montains). I think it's 'bout time. Besides, how often do you get the chance to snowboarding in the Russian mountains really?
See Sankt Petersburg
.. Get drunk, get Medvedev portrait, (meet friends, enjoy the city).
Write ONLY in Russian smilies whenever possible!
In Russia smilies have been cut down to just the brakets. It took me and my roomies quite a while to figure out all the text messages full of "))))"'s, but appearantly it translates into some along the lines of ":) :) :) :)". As this is about as annoying as LOL, ROFL and LMAO, I have to start learning!
Horseride in snow with Russian hat! //w.picture for facebook
Ever seen doctor Zhivago? If so you don't need to ask - if not GO SEE IT!!! ;)))
SPEAK SOME GOD DAMN RUSSIAN (((
Because I still fucking don't, Блядь!
Sunday, 18 December 2011
Saturday, 3 December 2011
3 December: An Unofficial Education
Just a short update. After 4 months here, I have experienced a lot of good as well as bad things here. Unfortunately the worst has continuesly been my job :( I was prepared already from home, that this job would certainly not be the easiest, but what I did not expect is just how untrue my job description was. Fact is I'm not assianting the primary caretakers of the downsyndrome children, I'm am the primary and - for the most part - only caretaker of these children. I do at least 3 trained peoples jobs alone, without any traning. I never got even the slightest information/instruction at work, ever. Unfortunately it is the rule, rather than the exception here in Russia that mentally handicapped people - be they children or adults - are just treated as inconvinient "things" that needs to be storraged the cheapest possible place, and held down as much as possible without any consideration to the longterm effects, or their emotions.
Any and all other bad experiences I've had in Russia I can deal with, and they do not give me the desire to go home. Even the really bad ones. This one does, and as if right now, after several empty promisses of help/change/fair treatment for the staff/assistance, I have decided that unless something significantly changes in terms of my work/my work is changed, I will not stay here for the remaning 5 months. I will not sacrifice my mental and physical health for another 5 months, nor will I be part of the Russian way of treating downsyndrome chilren - I am put in situations which I can not possiblely have the resources to handle and at this point, I sometimes act in pure fustration. The result means that I do become part of this Russian way, and I can slowly but steadily feel my integrety being knocked overboard.
I have shortly read up on downsyndrome both before and after I came to Russia for my job, but tonight I have decided to do an extensive research on downsyndrome children in hoping that, what might become my last couple of weeks here in Russia, I will have all possible knowledge that I can gain on my own, on how to handle downsyndrome children in the best way for both them and me. I doubt that it will make my work manageable, but as my mother always say to me "Lidt har også ret!", which basically means that "A little is better than nothing!". It's funny how, the older I get, the more I realise the true wisdome to many of the things my mother told me as a child - Russia is certainly speeding up this process.
Any and all other bad experiences I've had in Russia I can deal with, and they do not give me the desire to go home. Even the really bad ones. This one does, and as if right now, after several empty promisses of help/change/fair treatment for the staff/assistance, I have decided that unless something significantly changes in terms of my work/my work is changed, I will not stay here for the remaning 5 months. I will not sacrifice my mental and physical health for another 5 months, nor will I be part of the Russian way of treating downsyndrome chilren - I am put in situations which I can not possiblely have the resources to handle and at this point, I sometimes act in pure fustration. The result means that I do become part of this Russian way, and I can slowly but steadily feel my integrety being knocked overboard.
I have shortly read up on downsyndrome both before and after I came to Russia for my job, but tonight I have decided to do an extensive research on downsyndrome children in hoping that, what might become my last couple of weeks here in Russia, I will have all possible knowledge that I can gain on my own, on how to handle downsyndrome children in the best way for both them and me. I doubt that it will make my work manageable, but as my mother always say to me "Lidt har også ret!", which basically means that "A little is better than nothing!". It's funny how, the older I get, the more I realise the true wisdome to many of the things my mother told me as a child - Russia is certainly speeding up this process.
Saturday, 12 November 2011
12 November: All Quiet on the Western Front
It’s been nearly a month since Denis moved, and nearly 2 months since Clara moved from this apartment. Sabrina and I have finding our own rutines, and is making this “home” bit by bit. I must say I have come to like it. A 3 roomed apartment (excl. kitchen), just for the two of us, is not bad for two volunteers. Although we only use Denis´ (messy) room for things in our rooms we don’t like, such as a mid90s tv in the middle of my room. And after overcoming our better judgements we’ve managed to clean/disinfect the bathroom and the toilet, and even better: we’re nearly done cleaning/disin.. the entire kictchen! Cleaning this apartment after Denis´ yearlong neglect must be the biggest cleaning project in memory of mankind!
Luckily the weather has gotten better since last: From -12°C and harsh wind to 0°C, snow and mild wind, hurrah! Nevertheless that hasn’t stopped me from going out and getting myself some winterboots. Fluffy, warm and pretty they are best pair of shoes I’ve ever had! I also invested in some winterfriendly tights. So a total of 4000 Rubbels spent in the last week on keeping me warm. Speaking of which, the kidney and throat inflammations are starting to wear off. 5 days more on medicine and then I should be back to health.
We had a bit of issues (according to Anastasia) with Denis´ mother, but they seem to have been solved now. Previously we thought that Denis´s mum lived with his brother next door, but apparently she does not. Up on ‘till 1pm this day we thought Denis´ mum was the old lady (approx. 65+ years old), who regularly often visits Denis´ older brother and his wife next door - so you can imagine our surprise when a women in her early 50s rang our doorbell today and introduced herself as “Denis mama!”, and thereafter spend 10 minutes grabbing some of her winterclothes and sowing stuff like she did this every Saturday. But not to say that she was rude or uncomfortable, she wasn't.
It feels like I can finally say I’m starting to pick up a bit of Russian (not thanks to my host organisation, but) thanks to Alexa and “Rosetta Stone”, which is a brilliant program to learn languages. I have also started to use Rosetta stone to get some proper German skills (Danes a taught a little German in middle school), and I must say learning Germans goes fast!
Work is still a bummer, and I’m still used as 3 professionals rather than 1 volunteer. I’ve only been to work once since I got sick. The first thing I did after that day (Tuesday) was to call in sick for the rest of this week.
Oh, and speaking of reflection, I’ve decided to rename this blog into something that felt more fitting: “Glamorous Retrospect”, from the quote “Travel is glamorous only in retrospect” by Paul Theroux, Which couldn't be more true.
But yes, for now, all quiet and calm for us westerners occupying southwestern Russia.
Luckily the weather has gotten better since last: From -12°C and harsh wind to 0°C, snow and mild wind, hurrah! Nevertheless that hasn’t stopped me from going out and getting myself some winterboots. Fluffy, warm and pretty they are best pair of shoes I’ve ever had! I also invested in some winterfriendly tights. So a total of 4000 Rubbels spent in the last week on keeping me warm. Speaking of which, the kidney and throat inflammations are starting to wear off. 5 days more on medicine and then I should be back to health.
We had a bit of issues (according to Anastasia) with Denis´ mother, but they seem to have been solved now. Previously we thought that Denis´s mum lived with his brother next door, but apparently she does not. Up on ‘till 1pm this day we thought Denis´ mum was the old lady (approx. 65+ years old), who regularly often visits Denis´ older brother and his wife next door - so you can imagine our surprise when a women in her early 50s rang our doorbell today and introduced herself as “Denis mama!”, and thereafter spend 10 minutes grabbing some of her winterclothes and sowing stuff like she did this every Saturday. But not to say that she was rude or uncomfortable, she wasn't.
It feels like I can finally say I’m starting to pick up a bit of Russian (not thanks to my host organisation, but) thanks to Alexa and “Rosetta Stone”, which is a brilliant program to learn languages. I have also started to use Rosetta stone to get some proper German skills (Danes a taught a little German in middle school), and I must say learning Germans goes fast!Work is still a bummer, and I’m still used as 3 professionals rather than 1 volunteer. I’ve only been to work once since I got sick. The first thing I did after that day (Tuesday) was to call in sick for the rest of this week.
Last but not least I bought a ticket home (a return ticket!) so that I can spend Christmas with my family back home. The prospect of this break in my EVS really makes the bad things seem easier to overcome: In the middle of my 9 months here I will now have 2 weeks of normalcy. I look forward to going home for 2 weeks. While I don’t have problems with being far away from friends and family - Skype (which is a Danish invention btw!) doesn’t exactly make it easier to miss people - I do however miss the convenience of my life back home: No language barriers, to know the system, to know the mentality, to know people all over the country, quality public transport (and my recently sold car!) and being able to go where I please. But I asked for different, I asked for new perspective and I asked for adventure, and I got it! So I’m not complaining, I'm just reflecting.
Oh, and speaking of reflection, I’ve decided to rename this blog into something that felt more fitting: “Glamorous Retrospect”, from the quote “Travel is glamorous only in retrospect” by Paul Theroux, Which couldn't be more true.
But yes, for now, all quiet and calm for us westerners occupying southwestern Russia.
Sunday, 6 November 2011
6 November: Father Frost arrives
Saturday, 29 October 2011
26 October: De-Denisnasation and Other Good Things
(I know that in some of my posts - incl. this one - the date in the title does not match the date in the bottom. This is simply because many of my posts are writting while my internet is down, and are therefore posted a while after they are written).
What a difference a day makes! Finally Denis has left the build (and Russia)! After Clara moved the Denis only got worse and worse to live with. He’s been telling us off for the strangest things (for example, our desire to dry the dishes after we cleaned them, instead of putting them in the wooden cupboards soaking wet). His attitude went from friendly but insecure (.. as well as illogic and ignorant) to snooty, un comfortable and bigheaded. Clearly he expected to housemaids worshipping him, and not two EVS volunteers with brains. One thing living abroad has taught be about myself is that Danes are much better at being outspoken about issues to people's faces (also known as better at stepping up and being the "mean boogieman/mummy"), so obviously when Clara left I was a little on my own, as Germans are much more quitet and suttle and conflictshy, leaving me to take charge of the uncomfortable conversations with Denis. Luckily for me Sabrina has, since she got here about 1½ month ago, been a little Danishfied in terms of conflict by yours truely. So now, while she is certainly still very different from me, I am starting to appreciate her as person and as a flat mate.
So what else is new? Well first of all, another Dane has arrived in Samara! After over 10 years of existence Clara and I were the first Danish volunteers our hosting organisation has ever had, and now!, half of their volunteers this year are Danes. Unlike the rest of us volunteers here this Dane, Johannes, is a guy. He lives approx. right between Clara´s place and mine. His host “family” is a friend of Clara´s mentor. I have been at this place twice now. The first time was with Sabrina and Katja, nearly two weeks ago, to watch Lord of the Rings in German and eat our first Russian pizzas. The second time was a few days after, to meet Johannes, who had just arrived. The first time was slightly awkward as we were left there alone by Katya for the first long while and didn’t know these guys (however there was one slightly “interesting” couch surfer visiting them from Skt. Petersburg, a rather talented photographer). The second time was quite cozy, we all played “Village” a funny group game, and through that broke much of the ice with both Johannes/his mentor/Katya’s friends. A+ for that evening! (..to be continued)
29 October: Continued..
Additionally I finally settled on a name for this blog (The EVS Adventure!) and now I am boggling my mind to come up with a suitable design. It’s a bit difficult to find time to blog as you can see on the time between my last couple of posts. One thing that did however help going back to blogging is the being sick from work for about 2 weeks now, that would be thanks to a pair of kidneys that apparently doesn’t appreciate the Russian weather, so for nearly 2 weeks (after I was forced to the hospital despite insisting “IT’S JUST THE FLU!!!” to everyone) I have now been heavily medicated, low on energy and so faint that I have been outside only 4 times (excl. trips to the hospital), 3 of the times was just 20 meters to the market to buy food. The last time was when going to the ballet I mentioned in my previous post (by the way, Russian ballet = MUCH RECOMMENDED!).
So as I mentioned before Denis has just moved, and we have now started a project (which we had been looking forward to start for what feels like years!) of “de-Denisnasation”, as I call it, of the apartment (Nikita Khrushchev had “de-Stalinasation” I figured we’d have “de-Denisnasation”). This “de-Denisnasation” represents 3 aspects of change:
1) The most important step is CLEANING! This apartment is the dirtiest thing I’ve ever seen in my life (and I’ve seen some really nasty things), and everything must be scrubbed and disinfected! Since Sabrina and I keep getting sick we decided to start with the kitchen as it is where we storage, prepare and eat our food. Every item in the entire kitchen is literally sticky and dirty. The cleaning has been going for 4 days now, and we’re not even halfway through!
2) Redecorating: The whole apartment just looks gloomy and depressed, and after living here for nearly two months both Sabrina and I have had enough, and started to spot small things that can make a world of difference, for example, the curtains in the kitchen was pinned together so you never saw an inch of daylight in the room. After Denis moved, we no longer have to concern with the fact that he insisted the curtains stays closed, and we now have daylight and a view uplifting the whole room. The redecorating has also called for some investments; we have been out buying things such as a new tablecloth (this was also partially for hygienic reasons as the old one wasn’t just ugly but impossible to clean properly).
3) Introducing a system: “Anyone can control order, it takes a genius to control chaos” is one of my favourite saying, but in Denis´ case there was no such control of the chaos, just pure laziness. And the last of system in this apartment is really both scary and frustrating – so Sabrina and I have decided to create system as we go on the cleaning! It’s now starting to become possible to find what you are looking for (and without touching something sticky!).
Next to me is sitting this nice and newly baked banana cake (in a pie form we discovered while cleaning the kitchen – also the only ovenproof dish in the apartment). This cake is the first thing that’s been baked in the oven since we moved here – and my first time using a gas oven! To make me even prouder, the cake is baked on what we in Denmark refer to as “gefül”, meaning that it is based on estimates rather than aquracy. We have no measuring jugs or anything else of that kind so I’ve been looking up German translations of grams in to cups (not the UK/US measurement units but real cups), only I has no idea what size the Germans expects your cups to be.. and I don’t really understand much German. Nevertheless the cake has come out great! :D
So I’m afraid you’ll have to excuse me, I have a cake to eat!
Пока! :)
What a difference a day makes! Finally Denis has left the build (and Russia)! After Clara moved the Denis only got worse and worse to live with. He’s been telling us off for the strangest things (for example, our desire to dry the dishes after we cleaned them, instead of putting them in the wooden cupboards soaking wet). His attitude went from friendly but insecure (.. as well as illogic and ignorant) to snooty, un comfortable and bigheaded. Clearly he expected to housemaids worshipping him, and not two EVS volunteers with brains. One thing living abroad has taught be about myself is that Danes are much better at being outspoken about issues to people's faces (also known as better at stepping up and being the "mean boogieman/mummy"), so obviously when Clara left I was a little on my own, as Germans are much more quitet and suttle and conflictshy, leaving me to take charge of the uncomfortable conversations with Denis. Luckily for me Sabrina has, since she got here about 1½ month ago, been a little Danishfied in terms of conflict by yours truely. So now, while she is certainly still very different from me, I am starting to appreciate her as person and as a flat mate.
So what else is new? Well first of all, another Dane has arrived in Samara! After over 10 years of existence Clara and I were the first Danish volunteers our hosting organisation has ever had, and now!, half of their volunteers this year are Danes. Unlike the rest of us volunteers here this Dane, Johannes, is a guy. He lives approx. right between Clara´s place and mine. His host “family” is a friend of Clara´s mentor. I have been at this place twice now. The first time was with Sabrina and Katja, nearly two weeks ago, to watch Lord of the Rings in German and eat our first Russian pizzas. The second time was a few days after, to meet Johannes, who had just arrived. The first time was slightly awkward as we were left there alone by Katya for the first long while and didn’t know these guys (however there was one slightly “interesting” couch surfer visiting them from Skt. Petersburg, a rather talented photographer). The second time was quite cozy, we all played “Village” a funny group game, and through that broke much of the ice with both Johannes/his mentor/Katya’s friends. A+ for that evening! (..to be continued)
29 October: Continued..
Additionally I finally settled on a name for this blog (The EVS Adventure!) and now I am boggling my mind to come up with a suitable design. It’s a bit difficult to find time to blog as you can see on the time between my last couple of posts. One thing that did however help going back to blogging is the being sick from work for about 2 weeks now, that would be thanks to a pair of kidneys that apparently doesn’t appreciate the Russian weather, so for nearly 2 weeks (after I was forced to the hospital despite insisting “IT’S JUST THE FLU!!!” to everyone) I have now been heavily medicated, low on energy and so faint that I have been outside only 4 times (excl. trips to the hospital), 3 of the times was just 20 meters to the market to buy food. The last time was when going to the ballet I mentioned in my previous post (by the way, Russian ballet = MUCH RECOMMENDED!).
So as I mentioned before Denis has just moved, and we have now started a project (which we had been looking forward to start for what feels like years!) of “de-Denisnasation”, as I call it, of the apartment (Nikita Khrushchev had “de-Stalinasation” I figured we’d have “de-Denisnasation”). This “de-Denisnasation” represents 3 aspects of change:
2) Redecorating: The whole apartment just looks gloomy and depressed, and after living here for nearly two months both Sabrina and I have had enough, and started to spot small things that can make a world of difference, for example, the curtains in the kitchen was pinned together so you never saw an inch of daylight in the room. After Denis moved, we no longer have to concern with the fact that he insisted the curtains stays closed, and we now have daylight and a view uplifting the whole room. The redecorating has also called for some investments; we have been out buying things such as a new tablecloth (this was also partially for hygienic reasons as the old one wasn’t just ugly but impossible to clean properly).
3) Introducing a system: “Anyone can control order, it takes a genius to control chaos” is one of my favourite saying, but in Denis´ case there was no such control of the chaos, just pure laziness. And the last of system in this apartment is really both scary and frustrating – so Sabrina and I have decided to create system as we go on the cleaning! It’s now starting to become possible to find what you are looking for (and without touching something sticky!).
So I’m afraid you’ll have to excuse me, I have a cake to eat!
Пока! :)
Thursday, 27 October 2011
26 October: Showing good faith: Part I
A funny thing happened this evening. Funny things have been happening a lot lately – I guess it comes with moving 3000km away from home. But I must say, this one was a little different from the rest. Us girls – volunteers in our organization – was meeting up today at theatre in Kiubyshev square to watch a ballet by a famous group of dancers from Saint Petersburg. Me and my flatmate, Sabrina, arrived 20 minutes too early at the square (this is what I would call being on anti-“Russian time”). It was freezing cold and windy outside so we decided to wait in inside the theatre in a small room right before the main hallway. Three other girls where standing there speaking in Russian. As Sabrina is German and I Danish we mainly speak in English (although I try to refresh my German with her). Suddenly one of the girls turned to us and asked very excited “Excuse me, are you speaking English??” in a very American accent. Surprised to bump into a person speaking perfect English we told her “yes” we were indeed, and we ended up in a conversation with her and one of the other girls. Shows up, they were in fact Americans (only way too many young Europeans speak with American accents these days).. missionaries from the Mormon Church to be exact.
I was surprised by their sincere friendliness and we started to talk about religion. Being honest I told them that I am Danish and in Denmark (although we are officially protestant Christians) very few actually practice religion, and I myself don’t. I took the chance to ask them about their relationship to their religion, and “how it works” for them, although I am not interested in practicing religion, I am certainly interested in the theory behind religion. As a result of me taking an interest in their religion they invited us to pray with them – right then and there. As I have never said a single prayer in my life, I openly admitted to them that I would need instruction on just how to “pray”. I was a little concerned about how they would react to this, but they did not seem to dwell on this, but simply told me to close my eyes and say “amen” at the end with them, and offered that they could just say prayers this time and I could hear and participate silently so I could familiarize myself with what people usually say. I took them up on this offer and in this small room we prayed together. One of them – the one from Colorado I think – who also spoke the most, after asked me if I felt Gods presence. I said I honestly wasn’t sure what I was supposed to look for in the feelings so it was hard to say if I did. She asked me if I felt calm – and I had to admit I did (I had ever since I came out of the cold actually) – she said that this is the holy spirits presence.
Now I will not pretend, I DO have already an opinion about religion, god and Christianity, and it is, that I don’t believe in it. I believe in science and what can be proven to be true. But fact is (no pun intended) that the scientific way of proving (or disproving) things is this: 1) Ask a question. 2) Do background research. 3) Construct hypothesis. 4) Test with and experiment. 5) Analyze results – draw conclusion (hypothesis: true or false?). Truth of the matter is that so far I can only have said to have finished the first 3 steps as far as the religion of Mormons goes. As a good little atheistic agnostic I must accept an invitation to do the last two steps or acknowledge myself as a hypocrite.
What is always the keystone of science, and what makes science so great, is the objectivity! The scientific approach to (prayer and) religion is the same as for everything else: To try it THEN form your final opinion about it.. in other words: Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it! I now have a chance to do this, and I will seize the day (Carpe diem I think they say). So as a firm believer in facts and science it therefore is my finest duty, to show up this Sunday at the local church of Mormons, and participate in a church service on the invitation of these two Americans. After this service we three will sit down and have a nice conversation to answer all questions I may have about their religion. Sabrina is also invited, but I doubt that she will go. Unlike me (and my fellow Danes) she actually seems to have some real protestant faith going.
I was surprised by their sincere friendliness and we started to talk about religion. Being honest I told them that I am Danish and in Denmark (although we are officially protestant Christians) very few actually practice religion, and I myself don’t. I took the chance to ask them about their relationship to their religion, and “how it works” for them, although I am not interested in practicing religion, I am certainly interested in the theory behind religion. As a result of me taking an interest in their religion they invited us to pray with them – right then and there. As I have never said a single prayer in my life, I openly admitted to them that I would need instruction on just how to “pray”. I was a little concerned about how they would react to this, but they did not seem to dwell on this, but simply told me to close my eyes and say “amen” at the end with them, and offered that they could just say prayers this time and I could hear and participate silently so I could familiarize myself with what people usually say. I took them up on this offer and in this small room we prayed together. One of them – the one from Colorado I think – who also spoke the most, after asked me if I felt Gods presence. I said I honestly wasn’t sure what I was supposed to look for in the feelings so it was hard to say if I did. She asked me if I felt calm – and I had to admit I did (I had ever since I came out of the cold actually) – she said that this is the holy spirits presence.
Now I will not pretend, I DO have already an opinion about religion, god and Christianity, and it is, that I don’t believe in it. I believe in science and what can be proven to be true. But fact is (no pun intended) that the scientific way of proving (or disproving) things is this: 1) Ask a question. 2) Do background research. 3) Construct hypothesis. 4) Test with and experiment. 5) Analyze results – draw conclusion (hypothesis: true or false?). Truth of the matter is that so far I can only have said to have finished the first 3 steps as far as the religion of Mormons goes. As a good little atheistic agnostic I must accept an invitation to do the last two steps or acknowledge myself as a hypocrite.
What is always the keystone of science, and what makes science so great, is the objectivity! The scientific approach to (prayer and) religion is the same as for everything else: To try it THEN form your final opinion about it.. in other words: Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it! I now have a chance to do this, and I will seize the day (Carpe diem I think they say). So as a firm believer in facts and science it therefore is my finest duty, to show up this Sunday at the local church of Mormons, and participate in a church service on the invitation of these two Americans. After this service we three will sit down and have a nice conversation to answer all questions I may have about their religion. Sabrina is also invited, but I doubt that she will go. Unlike me (and my fellow Danes) she actually seems to have some real protestant faith going.
Wednesday, 26 October 2011
17 September: Feeling fainthearted?
(I know that in some of my posts - incl. this one - the date in the title does not match the date in the bottom. This is simply because many of my posts are writting while my internet is down, and are therefore posted a while after they are written).
Okay, so the beginning of today and the ending of yesterday was quite a bit dramatic. First yesterday, Clara and I leave the apartment to find the Italian restaurant with visited with my mentor, to celebrate our Danish government change. The restaurant is on the other side of Samara, so we expected about an hour of transport each way. We took tram no. 5, the same as we take to our organizations office, as we know it stops on the street next to the restaurant. But in short, it did not. After about ½ hour in the tramp, it´s really dark outside even though it’s still early evening, we start discussing that we have trouble recognizing the road outside. Shortly here after I recognize that this tram is on the way in its garage for the night. I have experienced this a few days before when I went on my way home from my talk with Anastasia about my work. I will tell this other story later, but for now, just know that I recognize this situation, on this time the ticket lady is not in our part of the tramp to let us out. The tramp slowly starts turning off the road, I explain Clara quickly what happened to me the last time, and we both start to panic: Knocking on the door, hanging out the window, trying to figure out how not to get lock in the tram for the night. By the time the tram is off the road complete right next to it’s garage like building, I put my head out the window, hoping the tram will stop first, and ticket lady will come out so I can yell for help to her (even if she doesn’t understand English she would know we need to be let out). Clara is by the door, trying to find a way to open it. And like a miracle, and for no know reason, the door suddenly, a few meters before judgment day, hell and what not the door opens, and let us storm out breathless. I still not know why this door opened. It is doubtful that the tram conductor heard us as she was in a opposite end (it was two trams stuck together, and we were in the latter). Perhaps it was a safety procession, but I doubt it, and generally I don’t expect to find much of those here. Maybe she saw me hanging out the latter tram in her side mirror? But that would also be luck beyond all expectations. But either way, we got out.
If we thought the worst bit of the evening way over now, we were only right by millimeters. We are not sure on our direction when we get out, or which end of the city we’re in. We walk for a good half hour, following the tram tracks on the road, before finding out where we are - close to freedom square. We then wait for approximately 20 minutes for a tram no 5. Eventually Clara insists we start walking (as we now know we need to go straight until we’re far past Kruibyshev Square). We are quite frustrated that we don’t know the public transport system any better, as it rules out the options of taking mashrutkas or busses. Mashrutkas are special Russian minibuses, by the way, where you need to tell the driver where to stop for you. After walking for quite a bit, we suddenly see the tram no five, the first in about an hour going our direction, passing us by! We try to run to the next tram stop, but unfortunately missed the tram. When we get to the next stop we agree to wait for a 20 or 22, which we know is the right direction for the next while. We manage to actually catch another 20 after a little while, and we’re able to take it until Kruibyshev square where after it goes in the “potentially” wrong direction. What one has to understand about Russian trams apparently, and what we had understood by now, is that just because the number is the same does NOT mean that it actually takes the same road. This was also the case for this tram. When we got off I insist that (unlike our tram) we need to continue to go straight, Clara insists that we need to go right. We take Clara´s road for about 10 minutes, at this point it starts to rain heavily, ‘till I say stop: from my issues with the transport a few days earlier I know that we would end up at the Polish church if we kept going this direction, which we both know would be the wrong direction. I manage to convince a very complaining Clara to backtrack and try my direction. It shows up to be the right direction and after a while we catch a tram 5. We get off too late again, because Clara was not sure about our stop being the right one, so again we have to spend about 10 minutes backtrack in heavy train (Samara by the way, has no draining system for rain, meaning that all the rain stays on the streets – imagine what my shoes and socks looked like!), and finally we get to the right street. Now we just have to find the little side street where the restaurant was. Again, it is easier said than done, as Clara lead us in the wrong direction first, again. By the time we finally found the restaurant it is more than 3 hours since we left home and got on the first tram. We sit down finally, and have our dinner. This restaurant, unlike the others we’ve been to so far, has an English menu AND English speaking staff!
We stay for about an hour and a half. By the time we know we’re leaving, we ask the waiter the way to revolution square, which is close by and where my mentor sent us home by mashrutka the last time. He explains us the way and ask us where we’re going, and gives us the name of 3 mashrutkas stopping by our apartment, going in the opposite direction of the Revolution Square. When we leave we head for Revolution Square hoping to catch the 50, the mashrutka we usually take home. After 30-40 minutes at the revolution square there is still marshutka no 50, and barely any mashrutkas at all. Clara wants to take a taxi home, but I am not very comfortable with this idea, as it is late, we barely know the way home from here, and we speak no Russian at all. So we head for the other stop where the waiter told us about 3 other mashrutkas we could take. We also wait there for about 30-40 minutes and no one of them shows up, 15 minutes before the mashruktas stop going for the day, we give up and decide to take a taxi home. We agree in advance with the (only Russian speaking) driver to pay 280 rubles, I realize this is overpriced, but nevertheless so cheap it doesn’t matter much. For the first 30 minutes of the drive we’re both quite nervous and keeping an eye on the road, spotting familiar places. Luckily for us it looks right. The last 10 minutes is spent with the drive pointing different places, asking “Da?”, and us going “Nyet!”. The driver did not know the address with showed him properly. Luckily we did. Finally I spot the main road in front of our apartment and say “Tham!” point on to the road, and the driver goes there. Luckily stop is the same in Russian, and we manage to get him to stop right outside our door. Finally, at about 30 minutes past midnight we’re home again. What should have taken about 3 hours, took nearly 6 hours. But despite the way out and back again, and despite feeling sick and rather tired, finding the restaurant at the other end of Samara and finding our way back again, despite all the obstacles, left me with a feeling of achievement, success and above all, capability.
Today, after a good night’s sleep, I wake up feeling very sick with the flu. I feel very fever tired, it hurt like hell to speak and I feel pretty nauseous. I stayed in bed past noon sleeping, Clara is watching one of my movies next to me on her computer, when suddenly my phone is ringing. Feel quite crashed I pick it up. It’s Sabrina our flat-mate, also my co-worker, who asks to get picked up in the mall, I don’t really catch up on the rest. I am all too sick to go anywhere so I tell her “Sabrina I am sick, I will give you Clara, maybe she will go and pick you up”. Quite tired of Sabrina often acting as a little princess (Clara expresses it when we talk about it), expecting others to do part of her job, I must admit I did not take her call particularly serious, and seeing as I was too sick to go out after her anyway I didn’t really pay much attention to it. Clara gets the phone and after about a moment I hear her say “Of course I will be there as fast as I can!”. Shows up Sabrina nearly fainted at the mall, and the staff was calling her an ambulance. Clara rushes to the mall and I stay in bed. At first I feel bad for not really taking Sabrina’s call too seriously. Then I start realizing that Sabrina spends so much time letting me and Clara do her job because she expects others to things for her, that she created the effect of “the boy who cried wolf”. How was I know, she did not tell me anything about nearly fainting or ambulances, and with her behavior since she got here, I had little chance of guessing. She does not take responsibility for herself, and even sometimes seem to expect others to pay for her. It is not our job to be her nanny. Even with Denis (our host person/flat-mate) Clara and I always have to take up the discussions with him, being the “boogiemen” while “sweet little Sabrina” never complains…to him. I cannot count the number of times she’s said “oh we should tell Denis this, we should ask Denis to do that”, always expecting that if she says this to us, we will do the dirty work and take up the discussions (which is turning more and more into polite fights, rather than discussions), so she does not have to get in trouble with Denis herself. And this does not paint a bright future for me; with Clara moving on Monday, I will be living for a month with Sabrina and Denis alone! Fuck my life.
After an hour Sabrina and Clara arrived back home. The doctors from the ambulance had not seen anything wrong, and said it was safe for her to go back home. Our mentors had been informed, and not long after they came home, and Sabrina had gone to bed to rest, her mentor (which is also mine) calls Clara and tells her that her friend Sasha, who lives nearby, is coming over to check on us to see if Sabrina and I are okay. I think by this point Clara nearly pull out her own hair in frustration, and I do not blame her. As the only healthy person she would be the one forced to talk to this Sasha guy, and frustrated about the fact that my mentor (AGAIN) makes agreements on our behalf without checking if we’re okay with it first. There was no point for this Sasha guy to come, both me and Sabrina was in bed resting, and both just preferred peace and solitude. After a while this Sasha comes by, he talks with Clara for a while, and says hello to me and Sabrina. He was sweet but his presence in the apartment was completely misplaced. He was however thoughtful to bring us oranges and chocolate, which we enjoyed after he left (Clara was actually polite enough to invite him for tea, but he declined, and seemed aware from the start that he was misplaced). Note to self: oranges are great presents to sick people.
..And now? Well I continue to rest. Denis said he would only be gone for today, but has yet to return, luckily. We hope that he will take his time, as all three of us girl feel quite a lot better when he is not here.
So how am I feeling this evening? Continuously sick as hell, I am resting with lots of tea, trying to get healthy for work on Monday. I am not sure how well they will take it, if I call in sick Monday, after I was getting Friday off because of the stress. Tomorrow we will also have to get to the railway station to get our tickets for Nizhny Novgorod (near Moscow) where our On Arrival Training will start on Wednesday. Everybody meets up tomorrow at 1pm to buy the tickets, so we will meet the two new volunteers. Katja (Clara’s mentor) told us just a few hours ago. What’s with Russians and giving unreasonably short notice? Hopefully I am feeling great again by then, 10-15 hours in a (Russian!) train is no good when you’re sick.
For now I will stay in bed resting with my fever, while Sabrina is burning up in the other room, and Clara is trying to help her without getting further worn out after her week and work. Welcome to the house of exhaustion. I won’t lie, I feel a bit bad for Clara.
‘Till next time, coughs and infectious hugs,
Cate
Okay, so the beginning of today and the ending of yesterday was quite a bit dramatic. First yesterday, Clara and I leave the apartment to find the Italian restaurant with visited with my mentor, to celebrate our Danish government change. The restaurant is on the other side of Samara, so we expected about an hour of transport each way. We took tram no. 5, the same as we take to our organizations office, as we know it stops on the street next to the restaurant. But in short, it did not. After about ½ hour in the tramp, it´s really dark outside even though it’s still early evening, we start discussing that we have trouble recognizing the road outside. Shortly here after I recognize that this tram is on the way in its garage for the night. I have experienced this a few days before when I went on my way home from my talk with Anastasia about my work. I will tell this other story later, but for now, just know that I recognize this situation, on this time the ticket lady is not in our part of the tramp to let us out. The tramp slowly starts turning off the road, I explain Clara quickly what happened to me the last time, and we both start to panic: Knocking on the door, hanging out the window, trying to figure out how not to get lock in the tram for the night. By the time the tram is off the road complete right next to it’s garage like building, I put my head out the window, hoping the tram will stop first, and ticket lady will come out so I can yell for help to her (even if she doesn’t understand English she would know we need to be let out). Clara is by the door, trying to find a way to open it. And like a miracle, and for no know reason, the door suddenly, a few meters before judgment day, hell and what not the door opens, and let us storm out breathless. I still not know why this door opened. It is doubtful that the tram conductor heard us as she was in a opposite end (it was two trams stuck together, and we were in the latter). Perhaps it was a safety procession, but I doubt it, and generally I don’t expect to find much of those here. Maybe she saw me hanging out the latter tram in her side mirror? But that would also be luck beyond all expectations. But either way, we got out.
If we thought the worst bit of the evening way over now, we were only right by millimeters. We are not sure on our direction when we get out, or which end of the city we’re in. We walk for a good half hour, following the tram tracks on the road, before finding out where we are - close to freedom square. We then wait for approximately 20 minutes for a tram no 5. Eventually Clara insists we start walking (as we now know we need to go straight until we’re far past Kruibyshev Square). We are quite frustrated that we don’t know the public transport system any better, as it rules out the options of taking mashrutkas or busses. Mashrutkas are special Russian minibuses, by the way, where you need to tell the driver where to stop for you. After walking for quite a bit, we suddenly see the tram no five, the first in about an hour going our direction, passing us by! We try to run to the next tram stop, but unfortunately missed the tram. When we get to the next stop we agree to wait for a 20 or 22, which we know is the right direction for the next while. We manage to actually catch another 20 after a little while, and we’re able to take it until Kruibyshev square where after it goes in the “potentially” wrong direction. What one has to understand about Russian trams apparently, and what we had understood by now, is that just because the number is the same does NOT mean that it actually takes the same road. This was also the case for this tram. When we got off I insist that (unlike our tram) we need to continue to go straight, Clara insists that we need to go right. We take Clara´s road for about 10 minutes, at this point it starts to rain heavily, ‘till I say stop: from my issues with the transport a few days earlier I know that we would end up at the Polish church if we kept going this direction, which we both know would be the wrong direction. I manage to convince a very complaining Clara to backtrack and try my direction. It shows up to be the right direction and after a while we catch a tram 5. We get off too late again, because Clara was not sure about our stop being the right one, so again we have to spend about 10 minutes backtrack in heavy train (Samara by the way, has no draining system for rain, meaning that all the rain stays on the streets – imagine what my shoes and socks looked like!), and finally we get to the right street. Now we just have to find the little side street where the restaurant was. Again, it is easier said than done, as Clara lead us in the wrong direction first, again. By the time we finally found the restaurant it is more than 3 hours since we left home and got on the first tram. We sit down finally, and have our dinner. This restaurant, unlike the others we’ve been to so far, has an English menu AND English speaking staff!
We stay for about an hour and a half. By the time we know we’re leaving, we ask the waiter the way to revolution square, which is close by and where my mentor sent us home by mashrutka the last time. He explains us the way and ask us where we’re going, and gives us the name of 3 mashrutkas stopping by our apartment, going in the opposite direction of the Revolution Square. When we leave we head for Revolution Square hoping to catch the 50, the mashrutka we usually take home. After 30-40 minutes at the revolution square there is still marshutka no 50, and barely any mashrutkas at all. Clara wants to take a taxi home, but I am not very comfortable with this idea, as it is late, we barely know the way home from here, and we speak no Russian at all. So we head for the other stop where the waiter told us about 3 other mashrutkas we could take. We also wait there for about 30-40 minutes and no one of them shows up, 15 minutes before the mashruktas stop going for the day, we give up and decide to take a taxi home. We agree in advance with the (only Russian speaking) driver to pay 280 rubles, I realize this is overpriced, but nevertheless so cheap it doesn’t matter much. For the first 30 minutes of the drive we’re both quite nervous and keeping an eye on the road, spotting familiar places. Luckily for us it looks right. The last 10 minutes is spent with the drive pointing different places, asking “Da?”, and us going “Nyet!”. The driver did not know the address with showed him properly. Luckily we did. Finally I spot the main road in front of our apartment and say “Tham!” point on to the road, and the driver goes there. Luckily stop is the same in Russian, and we manage to get him to stop right outside our door. Finally, at about 30 minutes past midnight we’re home again. What should have taken about 3 hours, took nearly 6 hours. But despite the way out and back again, and despite feeling sick and rather tired, finding the restaurant at the other end of Samara and finding our way back again, despite all the obstacles, left me with a feeling of achievement, success and above all, capability.
Today, after a good night’s sleep, I wake up feeling very sick with the flu. I feel very fever tired, it hurt like hell to speak and I feel pretty nauseous. I stayed in bed past noon sleeping, Clara is watching one of my movies next to me on her computer, when suddenly my phone is ringing. Feel quite crashed I pick it up. It’s Sabrina our flat-mate, also my co-worker, who asks to get picked up in the mall, I don’t really catch up on the rest. I am all too sick to go anywhere so I tell her “Sabrina I am sick, I will give you Clara, maybe she will go and pick you up”. Quite tired of Sabrina often acting as a little princess (Clara expresses it when we talk about it), expecting others to do part of her job, I must admit I did not take her call particularly serious, and seeing as I was too sick to go out after her anyway I didn’t really pay much attention to it. Clara gets the phone and after about a moment I hear her say “Of course I will be there as fast as I can!”. Shows up Sabrina nearly fainted at the mall, and the staff was calling her an ambulance. Clara rushes to the mall and I stay in bed. At first I feel bad for not really taking Sabrina’s call too seriously. Then I start realizing that Sabrina spends so much time letting me and Clara do her job because she expects others to things for her, that she created the effect of “the boy who cried wolf”. How was I know, she did not tell me anything about nearly fainting or ambulances, and with her behavior since she got here, I had little chance of guessing. She does not take responsibility for herself, and even sometimes seem to expect others to pay for her. It is not our job to be her nanny. Even with Denis (our host person/flat-mate) Clara and I always have to take up the discussions with him, being the “boogiemen” while “sweet little Sabrina” never complains…to him. I cannot count the number of times she’s said “oh we should tell Denis this, we should ask Denis to do that”, always expecting that if she says this to us, we will do the dirty work and take up the discussions (which is turning more and more into polite fights, rather than discussions), so she does not have to get in trouble with Denis herself. And this does not paint a bright future for me; with Clara moving on Monday, I will be living for a month with Sabrina and Denis alone! Fuck my life.
After an hour Sabrina and Clara arrived back home. The doctors from the ambulance had not seen anything wrong, and said it was safe for her to go back home. Our mentors had been informed, and not long after they came home, and Sabrina had gone to bed to rest, her mentor (which is also mine) calls Clara and tells her that her friend Sasha, who lives nearby, is coming over to check on us to see if Sabrina and I are okay. I think by this point Clara nearly pull out her own hair in frustration, and I do not blame her. As the only healthy person she would be the one forced to talk to this Sasha guy, and frustrated about the fact that my mentor (AGAIN) makes agreements on our behalf without checking if we’re okay with it first. There was no point for this Sasha guy to come, both me and Sabrina was in bed resting, and both just preferred peace and solitude. After a while this Sasha comes by, he talks with Clara for a while, and says hello to me and Sabrina. He was sweet but his presence in the apartment was completely misplaced. He was however thoughtful to bring us oranges and chocolate, which we enjoyed after he left (Clara was actually polite enough to invite him for tea, but he declined, and seemed aware from the start that he was misplaced). Note to self: oranges are great presents to sick people.
..And now? Well I continue to rest. Denis said he would only be gone for today, but has yet to return, luckily. We hope that he will take his time, as all three of us girl feel quite a lot better when he is not here.
So how am I feeling this evening? Continuously sick as hell, I am resting with lots of tea, trying to get healthy for work on Monday. I am not sure how well they will take it, if I call in sick Monday, after I was getting Friday off because of the stress. Tomorrow we will also have to get to the railway station to get our tickets for Nizhny Novgorod (near Moscow) where our On Arrival Training will start on Wednesday. Everybody meets up tomorrow at 1pm to buy the tickets, so we will meet the two new volunteers. Katja (Clara’s mentor) told us just a few hours ago. What’s with Russians and giving unreasonably short notice? Hopefully I am feeling great again by then, 10-15 hours in a (Russian!) train is no good when you’re sick.
For now I will stay in bed resting with my fever, while Sabrina is burning up in the other room, and Clara is trying to help her without getting further worn out after her week and work. Welcome to the house of exhaustion. I won’t lie, I feel a bit bad for Clara.
‘Till next time, coughs and infectious hugs,
Cate
16 September: Roomies and Russians
(I know that in some of my posts - incl. this one - the date in the title does not match the date in the bottom. This is simply because many of my posts are writting while my internet is down, and are therefore posted a while after they are written).
ARG!! So many new things since last! First and foremost, I have started work. But that is quite a story so I will get back to that another day. Yesterday it was 10 days since Clara and I started sharing a room. Something ng we agreed with Anastasia to do in hopes of getting to share an apartment together, instead of being separated, as was the original plan. On this 10th day I went to talk with Anastasia about something else (I’ll get back to that) and we also ended up touching the subject of the living situation. Just to refresh the situation, Clara and I was moved into the apartment of a Russian 27 year old guy, Denis, on the night between September 1st and 2nd. The organisation refers to him as our “host brother”, to me this term seems misplaced, just as it was to tell me I would live with a host family when I live with one random dude. But now that I know, it doesn’t really matter what they call it anymore. But it would have spared me a lot of frustration in Denmark to know, that when they said “host family” they used the term “family” very loosely.
Back to the point, Anastasia informed me yesterday that perhaps it could be an option to move me to the apartment Clara will be in and let me which place with one of the others. Either way Clara would have to be moved to this apartment. She did however not like the idea of moving me as well, and it would give me at least an hour more to work every day. I explained to her that I would then leave home at the same time as if I was going to school in Denmark, so it wouldn’t really be a sacrifice I wouldn’t be willing to make. Especially because it would mean I would get out of the suburbs and into Samara (near downtown). And I was “lobbying” for this option until a very important fact came to light: moving me would mean that Clara and I would be sharing a room for 9 months! The apartment Clara will be moved to will be hosting 4 girls, all volunteers, as I understand it – in only 2 rooms. Anyone who lives in that apartment shares a room. This is because of the EU decided that when EVS volunteers live with a host family they have to have their own room, but when sharing an apartment solely with other volunteers they can share a room with others. This latter option is clearly the cheapest solution for a host organisation, and it’s not uncommon for them to choose it. In the pre-camp in Denmark, we also met several former EVS volunteers who’d share rooms with other volunteers.
I won’t lie, I would personally rather die than share a room with anyone for 9 months. Whether it was my closest family, my best friend or a complete stranger makes no different. For that reason I also told Anastasia straight up I’d prefer to stay in Denis´s apartment without Clara – call me selfish, but I see no reason we should both suffer. No but this will (for now) be the end of the mysterious case of our living situation. There is a small chance Clara or some other volunteer will be moved into the third room when Denis moves next month, but that is completely uncertain!
And yes!, Denis is moving in the end of October! Already within the first few days it was very clear that Denis hates his life, and blames Russia for everything bad in his life. Granted, it’s not easy to live in Russia, but it IS perfectly durable. Denis isn't necessarily a bad person, but is he is lazy, he is pessimistic and he never takes any responsibility for himself and his life. He has been out of job for 3 years, but we are also starting to doubt he applied for any jobs in that time. For that same reason, we did not take him very serious when he said he was moving the week after our arrival. We were however quite shocked when he announce last week that he has bought a one-way plane ticket to Argentina for the end of October! He and his mother (who owns and pays for the apartment – and lives next door!) had agreed that we could continue to live here after he moved. I’m pretty sure this apartment is not for rent but bought – his mother would otherwise not be able to afford to let Denis have his own apartment, and we know that his entirely family lived here together when he was a child.
I think I can speak for all of us when we say, that by the end of the day, we’re glad to get the apartment to ourselves. Denis is not exactly good at keeping house. He does not live very hygienic, and tends not to do his own dishes or clean his own mess. He stopped buying necessary supplies since we got here (e.g. toilet paper), and lets us buy it without paying his share. Despite the fact that he gets money for his expenses for letting us live here. It does not seem fair to then push these expenses on to us – who only get money for food. He tired yesterday to trick us into paying for his internet, despite the fact that we barely have access to it at all. We have now (on my suggestion) made a deal with him, that we pay half and he pays half – and that this would also mean that half of the time, the internet is ours – a fact I made unmistakeably clear. He seemed stressed and confused that we would talk back to him, and not let him trick us, and stutteringly agreed.
Yesterday he announced in the early afternoon that he would be leaving for the next two days, and left a few hours after that. Since he left it has been 10 times nicer to live in this apartment. To not get told off for drying dishes after I wash them, or getting lectures about the wonder of keeping things tidy (what the hell does he know about this anyway!?). Since we have arrived here the apartment has gotten a 1000 times cleaner and tidier. Just last Saturday Clara and I spent nearly 4 hours nonstop cleaning our room. The further we got the more obvious it became: our room had not been cleaned since Joseph Stalin was still alive! So yeah, I can’t wait for the end of October now that I know that I'll live here for all 9 months. Neither can the others - or, in Clara’s case, could: She has just been informed she will move to the other apartment on Monday. And, as for the bad news ‘bout her sharing a with another girl for nearly 9 months? I had the doubtful pleasure of informing her, as Anastasia and the organisation did for some reason not see the reason to tell her themselves. I think Anastasia is sweet, competent, helpful and trustworthy, but as for informing us, it is the Achilles heel of both her and the organisation, and we've been feeling under-informed regularly since we had the projects approved in May. Especially Clara has been suffering under this. I have often ended up asking for the information myself or been told as I was contacting them for something else. Clara has not.
But on the bright side, I was election day yesterday! The historic election that Denmark has been waiting for all year! Clara and I have both been looking forward to this day, and hope for a government chance (for the first time in ten years). It is also the first time we have the vote for a government election. Neither of us were sure exactly when it started, so at 7ish o’clock (5ish Danish time) we went online and found DR1 online – the Danish governmental channel – where they announced that there was now 1 hour to the final results came on. Where excited and nervous we waited for the next hour. After an hour a countdown suddenly came on the screen where after a result with the opposition in power came up! Clara and I both freaked out and started jumping around over joyful. So it was one of the worst moments ever when it was suddenly announced that they were still waiting for the final results. Apparently they have started making countdowns for each new prognosis!? For the next 5 and a half hours we waiting as more and more percentage of the voted were being counted, while excitement turned into anti-climax and tiredness. But 12.30 am Clara decided to go to bed. Unlike me she had not been given the day off today. Watching all the parties meet and all the get-togethers and familiar places on the screen make me feel homesick and misplaced for the first time since I got here. Our side won in a close tie. This victory is in so many many ways a historic moment. I have myself been waiting for this moment since I was 10 years old. Literately half my life. And when it finally happens I’m not there and not even a resident in Denmark. It was a sad and lonely feeling. I couldn’t even call my mum because it is so expensive from here. For the first time I really wished myself home immediately.
But away from the sadness and politics! Clara and I are going out tonight to celebrate the election, but also to have a chill time just the two of us, and to cope with her bad news about her living situation. Last week my mentor, and her boyfriend (my semi-mentor), showed us this great Italian restaurant. It’s about an hour away, but we agreed that we should go tonight. I think we really deserved it. So as I am finishing up this I am actually next to sleeping Clara who needed a nap before we go, giving me a bit more of the free day I was promised: I was giving the day off work today because I was so run down, so with Denis gone until tomorrow, and Clara and Sabrina having to go to work I expected my own personal free day at home without obligations, the first moments alone since I’ve gotten here. But no! In some interesting coincidence Sabrina, who work the same place as I, decided that she was sick today for the first time, there goes my free moment. On top of that my mentor, who I currently feel quite a bit overrun by, also contacted me today as she had decided I was going to my work with her for some time today despite calling in sick. Luckily for me I did not hear her phone calls, and when I saw her next I decided I could not possible handle going to work today (without a mental and/or physical breakdown).
I must confess, I feel like my mentor has been trying to run my life lately. She makes agreements on my behalf with both herself and others without my consent, and considers everything I do her business. Yesterday I had to sent her a strict but polite message that I would make my own appointments with Anastasia, and call Anastasia myself. She did not answer that this message. Today was the same, when I sent my reply to another message, again a polite but not submissive reply; she just stops answering. It is sweet that she invites us for something every weekend, and wants to spend time with us, I do not have a problem with this, it's kind. But what I do have a problem with, is her trying to run my life for me, and ignoring me when I do not tell her exactly what she wants to hear. I am starting to hope not to hear from her this weekend. When we first got here, Denis told us about a previous volunteer who had had serious issues with her mentor, because the mentor was trying to run her life, but he refused to tell us who this mentor was. I start to have the feeling this volunteer and I share the same mentor.. fuck my life.
But look at the time! It’s now 5.10pm so it’s time to wake up Clara and go have some Italian food.
Cheers from Russia!
ARG!! So many new things since last! First and foremost, I have started work. But that is quite a story so I will get back to that another day. Yesterday it was 10 days since Clara and I started sharing a room. Something ng we agreed with Anastasia to do in hopes of getting to share an apartment together, instead of being separated, as was the original plan. On this 10th day I went to talk with Anastasia about something else (I’ll get back to that) and we also ended up touching the subject of the living situation. Just to refresh the situation, Clara and I was moved into the apartment of a Russian 27 year old guy, Denis, on the night between September 1st and 2nd. The organisation refers to him as our “host brother”, to me this term seems misplaced, just as it was to tell me I would live with a host family when I live with one random dude. But now that I know, it doesn’t really matter what they call it anymore. But it would have spared me a lot of frustration in Denmark to know, that when they said “host family” they used the term “family” very loosely.
Back to the point, Anastasia informed me yesterday that perhaps it could be an option to move me to the apartment Clara will be in and let me which place with one of the others. Either way Clara would have to be moved to this apartment. She did however not like the idea of moving me as well, and it would give me at least an hour more to work every day. I explained to her that I would then leave home at the same time as if I was going to school in Denmark, so it wouldn’t really be a sacrifice I wouldn’t be willing to make. Especially because it would mean I would get out of the suburbs and into Samara (near downtown). And I was “lobbying” for this option until a very important fact came to light: moving me would mean that Clara and I would be sharing a room for 9 months! The apartment Clara will be moved to will be hosting 4 girls, all volunteers, as I understand it – in only 2 rooms. Anyone who lives in that apartment shares a room. This is because of the EU decided that when EVS volunteers live with a host family they have to have their own room, but when sharing an apartment solely with other volunteers they can share a room with others. This latter option is clearly the cheapest solution for a host organisation, and it’s not uncommon for them to choose it. In the pre-camp in Denmark, we also met several former EVS volunteers who’d share rooms with other volunteers.
I won’t lie, I would personally rather die than share a room with anyone for 9 months. Whether it was my closest family, my best friend or a complete stranger makes no different. For that reason I also told Anastasia straight up I’d prefer to stay in Denis´s apartment without Clara – call me selfish, but I see no reason we should both suffer. No but this will (for now) be the end of the mysterious case of our living situation. There is a small chance Clara or some other volunteer will be moved into the third room when Denis moves next month, but that is completely uncertain!
And yes!, Denis is moving in the end of October! Already within the first few days it was very clear that Denis hates his life, and blames Russia for everything bad in his life. Granted, it’s not easy to live in Russia, but it IS perfectly durable. Denis isn't necessarily a bad person, but is he is lazy, he is pessimistic and he never takes any responsibility for himself and his life. He has been out of job for 3 years, but we are also starting to doubt he applied for any jobs in that time. For that same reason, we did not take him very serious when he said he was moving the week after our arrival. We were however quite shocked when he announce last week that he has bought a one-way plane ticket to Argentina for the end of October! He and his mother (who owns and pays for the apartment – and lives next door!) had agreed that we could continue to live here after he moved. I’m pretty sure this apartment is not for rent but bought – his mother would otherwise not be able to afford to let Denis have his own apartment, and we know that his entirely family lived here together when he was a child.
I think I can speak for all of us when we say, that by the end of the day, we’re glad to get the apartment to ourselves. Denis is not exactly good at keeping house. He does not live very hygienic, and tends not to do his own dishes or clean his own mess. He stopped buying necessary supplies since we got here (e.g. toilet paper), and lets us buy it without paying his share. Despite the fact that he gets money for his expenses for letting us live here. It does not seem fair to then push these expenses on to us – who only get money for food. He tired yesterday to trick us into paying for his internet, despite the fact that we barely have access to it at all. We have now (on my suggestion) made a deal with him, that we pay half and he pays half – and that this would also mean that half of the time, the internet is ours – a fact I made unmistakeably clear. He seemed stressed and confused that we would talk back to him, and not let him trick us, and stutteringly agreed.
Yesterday he announced in the early afternoon that he would be leaving for the next two days, and left a few hours after that. Since he left it has been 10 times nicer to live in this apartment. To not get told off for drying dishes after I wash them, or getting lectures about the wonder of keeping things tidy (what the hell does he know about this anyway!?). Since we have arrived here the apartment has gotten a 1000 times cleaner and tidier. Just last Saturday Clara and I spent nearly 4 hours nonstop cleaning our room. The further we got the more obvious it became: our room had not been cleaned since Joseph Stalin was still alive! So yeah, I can’t wait for the end of October now that I know that I'll live here for all 9 months. Neither can the others - or, in Clara’s case, could: She has just been informed she will move to the other apartment on Monday. And, as for the bad news ‘bout her sharing a with another girl for nearly 9 months? I had the doubtful pleasure of informing her, as Anastasia and the organisation did for some reason not see the reason to tell her themselves. I think Anastasia is sweet, competent, helpful and trustworthy, but as for informing us, it is the Achilles heel of both her and the organisation, and we've been feeling under-informed regularly since we had the projects approved in May. Especially Clara has been suffering under this. I have often ended up asking for the information myself or been told as I was contacting them for something else. Clara has not.
But on the bright side, I was election day yesterday! The historic election that Denmark has been waiting for all year! Clara and I have both been looking forward to this day, and hope for a government chance (for the first time in ten years). It is also the first time we have the vote for a government election. Neither of us were sure exactly when it started, so at 7ish o’clock (5ish Danish time) we went online and found DR1 online – the Danish governmental channel – where they announced that there was now 1 hour to the final results came on. Where excited and nervous we waited for the next hour. After an hour a countdown suddenly came on the screen where after a result with the opposition in power came up! Clara and I both freaked out and started jumping around over joyful. So it was one of the worst moments ever when it was suddenly announced that they were still waiting for the final results. Apparently they have started making countdowns for each new prognosis!? For the next 5 and a half hours we waiting as more and more percentage of the voted were being counted, while excitement turned into anti-climax and tiredness. But 12.30 am Clara decided to go to bed. Unlike me she had not been given the day off today. Watching all the parties meet and all the get-togethers and familiar places on the screen make me feel homesick and misplaced for the first time since I got here. Our side won in a close tie. This victory is in so many many ways a historic moment. I have myself been waiting for this moment since I was 10 years old. Literately half my life. And when it finally happens I’m not there and not even a resident in Denmark. It was a sad and lonely feeling. I couldn’t even call my mum because it is so expensive from here. For the first time I really wished myself home immediately.
But away from the sadness and politics! Clara and I are going out tonight to celebrate the election, but also to have a chill time just the two of us, and to cope with her bad news about her living situation. Last week my mentor, and her boyfriend (my semi-mentor), showed us this great Italian restaurant. It’s about an hour away, but we agreed that we should go tonight. I think we really deserved it. So as I am finishing up this I am actually next to sleeping Clara who needed a nap before we go, giving me a bit more of the free day I was promised: I was giving the day off work today because I was so run down, so with Denis gone until tomorrow, and Clara and Sabrina having to go to work I expected my own personal free day at home without obligations, the first moments alone since I’ve gotten here. But no! In some interesting coincidence Sabrina, who work the same place as I, decided that she was sick today for the first time, there goes my free moment. On top of that my mentor, who I currently feel quite a bit overrun by, also contacted me today as she had decided I was going to my work with her for some time today despite calling in sick. Luckily for me I did not hear her phone calls, and when I saw her next I decided I could not possible handle going to work today (without a mental and/or physical breakdown).
I must confess, I feel like my mentor has been trying to run my life lately. She makes agreements on my behalf with both herself and others without my consent, and considers everything I do her business. Yesterday I had to sent her a strict but polite message that I would make my own appointments with Anastasia, and call Anastasia myself. She did not answer that this message. Today was the same, when I sent my reply to another message, again a polite but not submissive reply; she just stops answering. It is sweet that she invites us for something every weekend, and wants to spend time with us, I do not have a problem with this, it's kind. But what I do have a problem with, is her trying to run my life for me, and ignoring me when I do not tell her exactly what she wants to hear. I am starting to hope not to hear from her this weekend. When we first got here, Denis told us about a previous volunteer who had had serious issues with her mentor, because the mentor was trying to run her life, but he refused to tell us who this mentor was. I start to have the feeling this volunteer and I share the same mentor.. fuck my life.
But look at the time! It’s now 5.10pm so it’s time to wake up Clara and go have some Italian food.
Cheers from Russia!
Monday, 26 September 2011
5 September: On Arrival
Finally I found some internet (more specificly McD)! And holy **** where the hell do I begin!? The planeride was just a tini tiny bit harsh, and by the time we arrived in prague to switch planes, we were so delayed we only had 10 minutes to run to the other end of the airport to catch our plane. We just made it through security (who always hates me, and insisted on checking my shoes twice, eventhough I did not beep in the metal detector for the first time in ages!?). As soon as we were through security the staff started boarding for our plane to Samara! The flying in itself was however pleasant enough. There was a bit of turbulens on the second one, and right after we passed by Moscow we could see alot of lightening in the skies beneath us. The second flight was very long, and esspecially Clara suffered under this, and by the time we landed and were waiting to get out, she was borderline to nuts.
But anyhow, we FINALLY arrive at Samara airport at 03:30 am local time (01:30 danish time), completely mashed and very nervous. The airport in prague was like pratically all other airports I've seen. Samara airport is NOT. It is very very little (as in, even smaller than Aarhus airport, which looks likea minituare airport), and solely has the essentials, absolutely nothing fancy. Forget about Copenhagen airports luxerious modern design, they many screens, and the userfriendlyness. The arrivalhall was at the size of my last apartment, with very old green tapet on the walls, and no fancy screens, computers or new system. The luggage track was also tiny and there was only this one (but hey, they at least you can find your luggage for once!). No but anyway, we arrive and get in line at the que infront of the passport check. We it's our turn the very strick and angry looking guard makes a guesture to show that you can move ahead to the check point (our first meeting very the very authority based system here. At home you would be trust to que yourself and know when to move ahead, in Russia your are generally never trusted to think for yourself). Clara is right before me, and at the guards guesture she going to the passport checkpoint. I was a bit surprise by the fact that the guard looked so strict despite his young age - I later learned that this is far from unusual here in Russia, they all have eyes like steal (it's very much "shut up, do as we say and keep up!" over here). When Clara moved to the check point she is about half a meter from where I can see her, but it's pretty clear something is wrong when I loud hear an upset and scared clara say "WHAT??!" and the guard who hears his walkie and runs over there like there's a murder on the loose. I swear I almost got a heartattack, because what the hell do we do if we get seperated or she gets arrested, NOONE in this entirely airport expect me and her knows english! But after almost a minute (which felt
like 10 years) of struggle I see the guard comming back with Clara. Shows up we forgot to fill out the migration cards, which the guy at the checkpoint was relatively pissed 'bout. Yeah but shit happens, we fill out the migration cards (it wasn't always easy to understand the papers translation of the questions into english, but like good students we discussed and evalutated the questions). Ironically when we get back in line, the guard (who had been sending Clara mean looks since we moment
we arrived) decided to try and flirt with me.. in Russian.. just another interesting experience in my perlrow of experiences my mum would say.
Finally, close to heart attack, we get through the checkpoint without further issues. The guy who checked and stamped mine didn't exactly seem to love his job, but the job he did. We get a hold of our bagage relavtively quickly, and start to look for the people picking us up while we walk through the small airtport. When going through coustums we coun't find out whether or not we actually had anything to declare. But the two guards in costums - who are so far the only relaxed guards I've seen in Russia - just waves us through the "nothing to declare" entrance. I guess we must have looked very harmless? At this time the local time was about 4am. Our welcoming team was nowhere to be seen. After trying to look for them throughout the small airport (which was pretty much impossible because of the non-english speaking non-friendly security personal) we sit down right outside the main door, and try to relax with a cigarette or two, while we make a plan. I think it would be a gros understatement to say I went Ego Olsen on the situation. We managed to make a very structed plan B, C and probably also D before some man comes over and asks us if we're from Denmark. When we say yes he seems incredibly reliefed, and loud says "thank god!" - he is appearently our driver, Sergei. At this time its almost 04:40 am. We drive for almost an hour. We are given Russian simcrads for our phones, and are told that our mentors will call us tomorrow evening (all volunteers in ICYE Russia/
Lastoshki gets one), and until then, we just need to rest from our flight.. we are after we ask him where the hell we're actually going!? Appearantly we are on our way to my host family. They use the term family very loosly in this context. My host family shows up to be a random 27 year old Russian dude, Denis, who lives alone in his mothers apartment.
But anyhow, we FINALLY arrive at Samara airport at 03:30 am local time (01:30 danish time), completely mashed and very nervous. The airport in prague was like pratically all other airports I've seen. Samara airport is NOT. It is very very little (as in, even smaller than Aarhus airport, which looks likea minituare airport), and solely has the essentials, absolutely nothing fancy. Forget about Copenhagen airports luxerious modern design, they many screens, and the userfriendlyness. The arrivalhall was at the size of my last apartment, with very old green tapet on the walls, and no fancy screens, computers or new system. The luggage track was also tiny and there was only this one (but hey, they at least you can find your luggage for once!). No but anyway, we arrive and get in line at the que infront of the passport check. We it's our turn the very strick and angry looking guard makes a guesture to show that you can move ahead to the check point (our first meeting very the very authority based system here. At home you would be trust to que yourself and know when to move ahead, in Russia your are generally never trusted to think for yourself). Clara is right before me, and at the guards guesture she going to the passport checkpoint. I was a bit surprise by the fact that the guard looked so strict despite his young age - I later learned that this is far from unusual here in Russia, they all have eyes like steal (it's very much "shut up, do as we say and keep up!" over here). When Clara moved to the check point she is about half a meter from where I can see her, but it's pretty clear something is wrong when I loud hear an upset and scared clara say "WHAT??!" and the guard who hears his walkie and runs over there like there's a murder on the loose. I swear I almost got a heartattack, because what the hell do we do if we get seperated or she gets arrested, NOONE in this entirely airport expect me and her knows english! But after almost a minute (which felt
like 10 years) of struggle I see the guard comming back with Clara. Shows up we forgot to fill out the migration cards, which the guy at the checkpoint was relatively pissed 'bout. Yeah but shit happens, we fill out the migration cards (it wasn't always easy to understand the papers translation of the questions into english, but like good students we discussed and evalutated the questions). Ironically when we get back in line, the guard (who had been sending Clara mean looks since we moment
we arrived) decided to try and flirt with me.. in Russian.. just another interesting experience in my perlrow of experiences my mum would say.
Finally, close to heart attack, we get through the checkpoint without further issues. The guy who checked and stamped mine didn't exactly seem to love his job, but the job he did. We get a hold of our bagage relavtively quickly, and start to look for the people picking us up while we walk through the small airtport. When going through coustums we coun't find out whether or not we actually had anything to declare. But the two guards in costums - who are so far the only relaxed guards I've seen in Russia - just waves us through the "nothing to declare" entrance. I guess we must have looked very harmless? At this time the local time was about 4am. Our welcoming team was nowhere to be seen. After trying to look for them throughout the small airport (which was pretty much impossible because of the non-english speaking non-friendly security personal) we sit down right outside the main door, and try to relax with a cigarette or two, while we make a plan. I think it would be a gros understatement to say I went Ego Olsen on the situation. We managed to make a very structed plan B, C and probably also D before some man comes over and asks us if we're from Denmark. When we say yes he seems incredibly reliefed, and loud says "thank god!" - he is appearently our driver, Sergei. At this time its almost 04:40 am. We drive for almost an hour. We are given Russian simcrads for our phones, and are told that our mentors will call us tomorrow evening (all volunteers in ICYE Russia/
Lastoshki gets one), and until then, we just need to rest from our flight.. we are after we ask him where the hell we're actually going!? Appearantly we are on our way to my host family. They use the term family very loosly in this context. My host family shows up to be a random 27 year old Russian dude, Denis, who lives alone in his mothers apartment.
Tuesday, 16 August 2011
16 august: What the EVS!?
Okay, so it took me a little longer to get back to the blog than I expected. What´s new? Well the biggest news I recieved just ten minutes ago; appearantly I will be having a hostfamily in Russia (along with some German girl). I have never before meet (or heard of) any EVS person who have had a host family, so I am quite shoked to say the least. At the age of 20 I am perhaps also a bit skeptical of the idea, as I feel I am too old. But, I will try to make the most out of it! So many new questions I cannot have answered until I get there!! Will they be strict? Will I have curfews and other (teen-related) rules? Can I smoke in my room? Will they be expecting me to join them for chruch etc.? Will I be expected to live according to their religion??? How much will they be able to respect my culture, and how much will I be able to respect theirs??? I immediately freaked out and called Clara, to hear if she had any news on how she will be living. She did not, but decided to find out now, so I am eagerly waiting for news from her. I won't lie, best sennario for me was to share an apartment with her.
In really good news, I picked up my new BEAUTIFUL computer which I am currently blogging from, yay! It's a samsung RV511, and it is everything I wanted.The hunt is now on for a cannon camera! I was at the embassy to apply for the Russian visa which went smoothly. The counsulat isn't exactly placed where they said it would be, but it only took me a few minutes more to find it. I shall be picking up my passport with a russian visa on the 22nd. I wasn't entirely happy about leaving my passport to strangers. After travilling so much the past year my passport has really become by best friend and ally, and I like to keep it with me at all times.. but I need the visa and they need the passport to make my visa. Luckily the embassy approved all my papers without problems, and helped my fill out a few questions on the application I wasn't able to figure out for myself.
I have also started sending the vaccine receipts back to my sending organisation. We have to put down the money for the vaccines and then get them refunded by sending our receipts, and it's about time I do this, I am seriously starting to run out of money!
Finally I have also been able to reach the Danish authorities and make an agreement on the taxes I owe them (I still haven't figured out the Danish tax system!?), and figure out the exact rules for moving out of the country despite my student loan. Last but not last the office for foreign affairs had some very nice information on bringing medicin into other countries. So far so good. Now if only I hadn't slept past my doctors appointment today I could have gotten the documents for my medicin, but too little too late for do anything about that now.
I am stressing out soooo much about the host family situation at the momment, so I think I will go out and chainsmoke (don't try this at home, kids..) my troubles away.. not that it every really works.
'Till next time cheers and best wishes
Cate
Ps. How the hell did anyone EVER learn Russian!? Beautiful langauge, impossible to learn!
In really good news, I picked up my new BEAUTIFUL computer which I am currently blogging from, yay! It's a samsung RV511, and it is everything I wanted.The hunt is now on for a cannon camera! I was at the embassy to apply for the Russian visa which went smoothly. The counsulat isn't exactly placed where they said it would be, but it only took me a few minutes more to find it. I shall be picking up my passport with a russian visa on the 22nd. I wasn't entirely happy about leaving my passport to strangers. After travilling so much the past year my passport has really become by best friend and ally, and I like to keep it with me at all times.. but I need the visa and they need the passport to make my visa. Luckily the embassy approved all my papers without problems, and helped my fill out a few questions on the application I wasn't able to figure out for myself.
I have also started sending the vaccine receipts back to my sending organisation. We have to put down the money for the vaccines and then get them refunded by sending our receipts, and it's about time I do this, I am seriously starting to run out of money!
Finally I have also been able to reach the Danish authorities and make an agreement on the taxes I owe them (I still haven't figured out the Danish tax system!?), and figure out the exact rules for moving out of the country despite my student loan. Last but not last the office for foreign affairs had some very nice information on bringing medicin into other countries. So far so good. Now if only I hadn't slept past my doctors appointment today I could have gotten the documents for my medicin, but too little too late for do anything about that now.
I am stressing out soooo much about the host family situation at the momment, so I think I will go out and chainsmoke (don't try this at home, kids..) my troubles away.. not that it every really works.
'Till next time cheers and best wishes
Cate
Ps. How the hell did anyone EVER learn Russian!? Beautiful langauge, impossible to learn!
Wednesday, 10 August 2011
9 august: Introductions
Finally the last preparations for Russia are about to fall in place. I arrived back home after the EVS preparation camp two days ago. I have a visa application time for the Russian embassy in two days, and my new computer has finally been picked and ordered. But before I start going on and on about this, I should probably introduce myself and this blog, in case anyone stubbles by it for long enough to read.
I am Cate and I am a 20 year old Dane. I recently graduated and was awarded my International Baccalaureate diploma. In just 23 days my plane will leave Copenhagen airport and bring me to Samara Russia. I have been fortunate enough to get the opportunity to work 9 months as a volunteer in Russia through the European Volunteer Service program (EVS). My job will consist of 30 hours as a caretaker for Down syndrome children in an orphanage, and 10 hours at Samara University participating in discussion and multicultural clubs. It is this EVS experience which will be the focus of my blog. The blog is sort’a and extension of my other blog (click here to see it), a more personal and perhaps less light blog about my life. The idea is that the other blog deals with the generalisations and broader aspects of (my) life, where as this one will deals with my experiences in a more personal manner.
The camp I just finished is the ICYE camp for Danes who are about to leave the country to be a volunteer and foreigners who just arrived to Denmark to be volunteers in Denmark. In short the camp was great. It lasted for 3 days, and while the program was pretty long (approx. 8am to 11pm), the atmosphere was great and the program was mostly fun, education and at times both. The camp was also the first time I meet Clara, the only other Dane I will know in Russia. She is also going as an EVS to Samara for 9 months. Luckily for the both of us, we got along great! About the same age (she also just graduated pre-university school), we also seem to have somewhat the same background, and both former members of the alternative(ly dressed) environment in Denmark, although you’d never have guessed by looking at either of us now.. quite a coincidence and quite a pleasant surprise. So far I have nothing but praise for her personality.
Clara wasn’t the only good person I meet at the camp. Everybody was very easy going, and a group of us decided to form a private facebook group for all of us to share our volunteer experiences across the world for different organisations through different programs, which I hope will be a source of comfort and encouragement for all of us.. in fact it was kind’s a comfort already now to be able to be introduced to others in the same position as myself.
As far as the Russian language skills goes, I have had little success until now. Samara is not an area with many English speaking people, so our host-organisation advised us to learn some Russian before we arrived in May. After much searched I have found only few Russian courses through the library, and have attempted to use them with limited success. The latest addition to my collection is the “Russian for Dummies” book, which I hope will be more helpful than the (crappy) CD programs. But I haven’t quite gotten though it yet. Luckily a vacation in Poland in July/August helped my inspiration, as the opportunity to refresh the Polish I know made Russian seem a little less impossible, because quite frankly, Russian has felt really impossible lately.
Anyway, other than that I need to learn Russian here’s the current “to do” list:
Pick up the new computer on Thursday: I just ordered the Samsung RV511 laptop today! Woohoo!! Spend almost 20 hours online figuring out how to get the most on a small budget. My current computer will not survive a long trip to Russia, as much as I love it, it won’t.
Get visa at the Russian embassy, also Thursday. I have my visa invite from the university, so the rest is basically technicalities I think. I also need passport pictures, the printed and filled out visa application, the time confirmation and money for this occasion.
Figure out how to bring enough things for 9 months in a just 23kg bag!? I have no idea how the hell they want me to bring 9 months supply of EVERYTHING within 23 freaking KILOS.
Say goodbye to friends and family, I have no idea when I am planning to do this!?
Get visa at the Russian embassy, also Thursday. I have my visa invite from the university, so the rest is basically technicalities I think. I also need passport pictures, the printed and filled out visa application, the time confirmation and money for this occasion.
Figure out how to bring enough things for 9 months in a just 23kg bag!? I have no idea how the hell they want me to bring 9 months supply of EVERYTHING within 23 freaking KILOS.
Say goodbye to friends and family, I have no idea when I am planning to do this!?
On the bright side Clara and I finally got a bit more info on our stay today, after we forwarded quite a questions list to our sending organisation. I got a (pleasant) schedule for my time at the orphanage/kindergarten, and apparently I will get about 90 Euro pr month in allowance, which I think is pretty fair considering the purchasing power in Russia (according to various independent websites I searched through today). I am however still missing my contract, which would be nice to have by now.
There are a few more thoughts and concerns I would like to share today, but it’s almost 11.30pm here and I’m quite smashed, so I will heading to bed now, and continue as soon as possible..
‘Till then, cheers and best wishes,
Cate
Ps. I apologise for the look and name of the blog as it is at the moment. I haven’t quite figured out a name or the look yet. I assure you this is just temporary.
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