Wednesday, September 3, 2008

long post

Thanks for all the comments, friends. It is a little cheap to ask for them, but I'll take them regardless. I like comments.

Well, TB may like the off the cuff style, but I'm going for a slightly more polished version today. I have nearly an hour til my next class, so maybe I can accomplish that. Right now I'm at the computer lab of the institute, on one of their computers with an old school keyboard. Which is okay, but backspacing can be hard and capitalizing is a pain. But I'm getting used to it. They apparently have wi-fi, so at some point I'll bring my laptop in and post pictures. But until then I'm afraid it's all text. So if you have a short American attention span (ha) and don't want to read my writing, leave now.

So, where to start. From the beginning. We'll pretend my last post didn't really happen. I am living with a host family consisting of a mother, Elena Borisovna, her daughter Nona, and their dog Nora. Yeah, they have a dog. Don't laugh. She is pretty old and docile and hasn't bothered me at all. She just putters around the apartment and mournfully watches us while we eat. I'm thinking it will be fine, though I can't yet bring myself to speak to her in Russian. It just feels weird. I don't know why. Nona is a public relations student at the institute. Elena Borisovna is a widow of four years, and teaches theater at the institute. I'm thinking she is pushing 60 years old. Nona is only 20, but she has a 37yo brother. Elena Borisovna has dark hair, wide green eyes, and a pointy nose. She is very thin, dresses stylishly in dark clothes, walks fast, and smokes thin cigarettes. Her face is starting to wrinkle up and her shoulders show signs of a coming stoop. She has a wonderfully soothing low, smooth voice. Nona has inherited the deepness, but her voice is more flat and open. I don't talk to them a whole lot, and they mostly just ask me if I am hungry. The apartment set-up is not very good for interaction between rooms, and I keep my door closed to keep the dog out, as instructed. But so far everything has been fine.

I don't know if it's jetlag or new surroundings or an uncomfortable bed, but I have been experiencing strange sleeping patterns. I get tired really early and then usually wake up for a while in the middle of the night. On Monday morning I woke up at 3:30 and couldn't fall back asleep, so after five hours of reading or trying to sleep, I finally got up and got ready for school. That night I fell asleep at 8 and slept for 12 hours. Last night was more normal though I still woke up in the middle of the night. Normally I sleep really soundly, but not here. But. I have been having very vivid dreams here. I usually don't remember my dreams. But I've had weird ones, usually involving odd combinations of friends. The other night two friends died. Other things have happened that I am not remembering. It's weird.

Before school started on Monday I basically spent most of each day wandering around the city. Not truly sight-seeing cause I just kept to the streets, but I guess exploring and learning my way around. And I have been walking SO much. I mean, obviously I walk places instead of driving, but recently it has been even more than just that much. It makes my feet ache and I was sore after the first two days. But it will get better I guess as I spend several hours of every day walking and get used to it. Plus, I am not Becky so I can't complain. (Sorry, Becky, I had to)

Monday was the first day of school and we were told to come at 10 to take our Russian placement tests. Then I met the other two OU students that are here (the fourth one unexpectedly left before school started), Megan and Paul. After the test we were herded off on an "excursion" where they loaded all the first-years onto a bus and kept us captive there for three and a half hours while we drove around the city and a woman told us about what we were seeing. Which was okay for a while, but soon became way too much. Plus she had an annoying way of talking, though her verbosity and fluency was pretty impressive.

Yesterday we chose our classes and classes began. I won't be in a Russian class, but just chose 6 regular courses to take, and went to the first one. It was in the Translation/Languages/Linguistics department, and was about irregularities in Russian, gender of foreign and ambiguous words, word number, etc. Kind of hard to explain, and hard for me to grasp as it is just outside my level of knowledge. After class we americans decided to go see the Peter and Paul Fortress. Since I am the only one with a map, I was navigating, and managed with my immense talent to take us in completely the opposite direction, to the other end of the island. Unfortunately none of this area made it onto my map (my apt is on there either). We finally got there in 2 hours instead of 20-30 min, and it was a bit of a disappointment as part of it is closed for restoration. Pictures later.

Then today I had a print journalism class that only has 10 students. So I felt very noticeable and the prof kept asking me questions I couldn't answer. Both classes I was in were continuations from the previous year so the teacher says "okay, look back in your notes and tell me where I left off last semester" and then we continue from there. Hm. But this class was easier to follow cause the subject matter is more simple and familiar, and I think I will enjoy it.

Russia is doing strange things to me, my friends. I have started talking to myself sometimes. I dress differently. I cross the street probably more recklessly than the Russians. Odd words and phrases in both languages pop into my head for no reason. Yesterday I was going from the kitchen to the bathroom when the phrase "cult classic" suddenly came into my head, translated literally into Russian. I'm sure they don't say that and I have no idea why I thought of it. I am perfecting my clueless, I-am-a-foreigner stare. That worked well in class this morning. But also I think my Russian self is less shy than the American one (you know that you have a different personality in a different language, right?). So far, at least, I think. We'll see how that holds up. But I guess I feel a bit more confident because in general I speak better Russian and am more competent than is expected of the average American.

And also, I am finding humor in many situations. This is not a new thing, I guess. An example: to get into the school building you have to go through those rotating bars like in a metro (do you know what I mean?). Students have cards that beep them through, and there is an old lady there supervising. I haven't gotten one of those cards yet, so I have to have her beep me in every time. Monday morning I arrived and walked up to the bar. Nothing happened. I looked over at her expectantly and she looked back, expectantly. Finally, feeling kind of hostile, I said "what?" She answers back with an equally hostile "what?"
"Can I get through?"
"Who are you?" she asks, of all things
"A student...?" (what else would I be?)
"are you a first year?"
uh...how do I answer this..."Yes. I don't know."
She is confused and asked me something else, then it clicked and she says "are you a foreigner?"
"Yes," I replied thankfully.
She immediately let me through with a "you should have said that at the beginning!" I guess I hadn't realized that "I am a foreigner" was the password to get in the building, but sure enough, it worked the next day. Who knew. But today I'm getting the card so that won't be necessary. Ha. This place is crazy.

I'm running out of things to say, and this is getting long. I think I am doing well. Things can be fun, though I don't know what I'm going to do to fill my time, because classes only meet an hour and a half per week. I'm looking into opera/ballet/theater/philharmonic tickets. That should be good. And I'm hoping to find a church this week. Overall it's a lot of new and weird things, which can sometimes be overwhelming, but I am glad that I speak the language. And new and weird can be fun and exciting, so sometimes it is. But I miss Norman and sometimes feel very out of the loop and isolated. So we'll see. I have been hanging out with Megan and Paul some, but I am not sure how much I should invest in these two new friendships, and how much I should try to make this an immersion experience. I don't know. Also they speak much less than me so I'm working on not translating for them and making them speak Russian around me, and not making their problems my problems.

I don't know. That's it. Lastly, ten points for the reader with the best translation of the Russian word подробно (podrobno). I haven't looked in a dictionary but I was thinking that that is a hard word to translate.

4 comments:

Becky Myers said...

That shout out was a bit gratuitous, no? :)

Sorry about your bad dreams. That sucks. Praying for your sleep.

If I wasn't a Calvinist, I definitely would say your host family having a dog was some sort of karma.

Keep settling! Missing you terribly here, but glad that you are discovering passwords to buildings, being kidnapped in buses, getting lost, etc.

Good luck finding a community!

Anonymous said...

po moyemu, podrobno=in detail

Clint said...

Russia is doing strange things to me...

capitalize on this. expand it (especially into the social sphere). blog the results.

Anonymous said...

hi sally. love reading your blog. be nice to that dog. it has a rough life!

love ya.