A day in the life....

так (so), you want to know a normal school day for me? Here goes!
Every morning I wake up between 6:30 and 6:45, pick out my clothes for the day, and go into the far bathroom in the house to shower. Julia and Arthur like to use the bathroom right by my room. It is smaller, so I think the only reason it is used is out of convenience. I get out of the bathroom (clean and in my clothes for the day) at around 7. I then go into my room, put my dirty clothes somewhere, and go into the bathroom to brush my teeth. After this, I go into my room and do my makeup.
Around this time it is 7:15, so I go into the kitchen and eat breakfast. This is usually bread slices with fried salami-like meat and cheese. Almost a sandwich. Or it can be Bliny, which are very similar to Swedish Pancakes.  At 7:45 I leave for school, usually throwing everything in my bag in some kind of whirlwind manner, slip on my shoes, almost forget my keys (grab them really quickly when I am halfway out the door), and walk to school. It is around 15 minutes until I get to school, at which I frantically (inside- I try to maintain a stoic demeanor on the outside) look for one of my schoolmates also arriving to school. If I don't see anyone, I go into the coat room and put up my coat and scarf. Usually by then I spot someone and follow them to my first class. I will never be able to navigate around my school or be able to know the schedule- it is different every day with consistencies lying within weeks and not days.
If math class is first (many times it is) I try to understand what is going on, because the teacher has actually given me the tests (but it isn't frequent). I never understand what is happening, but I do try. The rest of the day I follow the other students (or walk with friends) to the next class. In the classes I study Russian vocabulary or just listen to the teacher speak the intimidating version of Russian. It is almost Germanic sometimes! :) In English I just do the work fairly quickly or am excused from it all together, because I really don't need to learn the English language any more than I do (at least for this teacher's standards- I am sure that some people in Southern Oregon would beg to differ). It is really funny to be in this class because the teacher is enthralled with my English and the students are taught the Queen's English. This is actually much different than my American English. The teacher actually has this weird hybrid accent between British and Russian. She also kind of talks between the languages, echoing her sentences with the translation into the other language.

Then, at the end of the day, I walk home. Usually I walk with a girl named Lena. She has really awesome English. I think she has a knack for it. I never get the feeling that she is just agreeing with me because she doesn't understand what I am saying. Her apartment building is near mine, but we get to mine first so I don't really know for sure. 

I then have to use this metal-magnet key thing (almost like a hotel key) to get into my building. Once inside, I walk up about 7 stairs and round a corner to the elevator. I ride it to the 8th floor (but I have to press the "7" in the elevator because the buttons start at "0"), unlock the door the the apartment (3 keys, different amount of times I must turn each), put my things down by the door, and take the dog outside to go to the bathroom. When we return I wash her feet, take off my shoes, and put my things away. I never have any homework from my school, at least that is how much I do. I can never understand it if they do say in class what work to do at home. :/ Unless it is homework from the University, but those days (twice a week) look completely different from a normal school day. Usually I study my vocab a little more, eat lunch (I get home around 1:30 or 2), read/write emails, and watch an American movie dubbed over in Russian on the TV. Or I watch some old kung fu movie dubbed over into Russian. Yesterday I watched a very old Jackie Chan movie this way. 
My Мама gets home at 5 or 6, and so that is when I turn off the TV and computer and visit with her. When she gets home she always changes out of her work clothes into "house" clothes. After she changes I sit at the kitchen table while she is doing different things. Sometimes we chat, while other times I ask about different Russian traditions. I usually have to keep the computer on (located on the kitchen table) and open Google Translate. Come to think about it, I should just start doing this automatically when she gets home. We talk and she prepares dinner (I offer to help periodically, and am told "I am a MOTHER! I am used to doing these things!"), and usually are able to eat before Arthur gets home. He can get home anywhere between 7:45 and 9.

As soon as Arthur walks in the building (there is an alarm that tells us when he uses a code to get in), Julia or I go to the door, unlock it, and crack it. When the elevator doors open Belka (the dog) runs to the door, opening it all the way with her nose (I am always impressed, as it is a big heavy door and she is on the smaller side) and then starts jumping on Arthur. He is in a really nice expensive suit, so he is always lifting his briefcase and waving his arms at the dog, trying to not let her touch him but still trying to get her to go away. He is always quietly shouting BELKA (to not disturb the neighbors, but it is still so stern sounding it feels like he is shouting) as he does this. Then Julia or I rescue him and call the dog and hold her by the collar until he is in the house with his shoes off. He then goes and changes into his house clothes and then comes to the kitchen table to eat dinner. After he eats there is usually some kind of hidden last course that one of them brings out, like grapes or a melon. I am always super full at the end of the meal, and then Arthur usually makes me eat some of this last course, so when I go to bed at around 9-9:30, I am stuffed! 

A Note From Grandma

Granted, this is a little girl holding one flower. But I added a visual aid.

I recieved an email from my Grandma about how she was visiting my cousins on their ranch. Something precious happened with the 3rd youngest (Jeremiah) that was too sweet not to share. This is what she told me:
" We were sitting on the front porch watching the various kids ride motorcycles and he  picked 2 little flowers and gave them to me. When he gave me the first one he said 'this one is for you' and then when he gave me the second one he said 'this one is for Arielle when she comes back.'"
Isn't that so pickin' adorable? My mother will probably post other things, like what I have emailed her about my exchange, but I wanted to share that with you all. I think that even though it didn't exactly happen to me, you would all like to read about it. It made my day as well as gave me a serious case of the warm fuzzies; hope some pass on to you!

Riding the train to Barnaul

The train was basically like a plane ride that took forever; but I could lay down, so it is okay. We had a layover in Novosabeirsk (idk, but that is what it sounds like to me). It was 4 hours. Julia told me that we would leave the train and walk around a little bit in the city, but we weren't able to. We just sat there in the unmoving car. The city was huge, with over 3 million people in it. When the train finally pulled out of the station it seemed like the city just went on and on.
The toilet on the train was also really interesting. At first when I was on the train, I wondered why the US doesn't have passenger trains as much, because they are really practical. If we wanted to go to Yellowstone, we could just go in the train for a couple days or so and get there for less than it would cost to drive. And then I used the toilet and realized why the US doesn't have them. The toilet is normal(ish, as in you could sit on it if you wanted to and there was toilet paper as well as water in the bowl), but when you flush it it just opens up to the rail road. How unsanitary! I felt such guilt every time I used it for littering on the rail road.

I didn't really take too many pictures today of the stuff I should have. I mean, the scheduled orientation I took pictures of, but the barbeque get together at a rotarian's huge house I took no pics. They always say something when you bring out your camera and are less willing to do interesting things around you.

One kind of weird thing is that over and over again different people assume I speak Russian. Even the Russians that speak English sometimes try to speak Russian to me. They always tell me that it is because I don't look foreign. Not that I look Russian, but not American. I look very European- or so I have been told a few times. This makes me happy.But is also makes me wonder what an American looks like. By people's reactions when I ask them to describe to me a typical American, it is not a pretty thing. No one ever does describe one though, so I can't know for sure.

Learning Russian...with some help from a new friend

At the University there is one Chinese girl that decided that she really likes me, and wants to be my friend even though she has very little English and even less Russian. Her name is Yu-Yuting, and she is very sweet. She tends to do very well in the Russian class, even though some of the Phonetics are pretty much impossible for the Chinese palate (particularly words ending in hard consonants and the Russian letter р, which is like the Spanish rr). Today she came into class late, and when she sat down and pulled all of her papers out, she gave me a piece of paper. On it, in English, was a guide on how to conjugate Russian verbs. I was so shocked. She said they haven't covered this in class yet. Still, most people seem to know how to conjugate and it will be good to study now. I couldn't believe she did that for me. It must have taken forever to translate, put in a cognitive order, and write examples, too. I couldn't thank her enough, and she was thrilled that I was so happy and just THANKFUL! I am excited to study this sheet of paper, as it even has the exceptions (grr, why can't there ever be just a solid rule?) and how to properly conjugate those.  I never would have expected anyone to go out of their way like that and do that for me. She even printed all of the Russian, because I told her that I can't read the cursive yet.

Things I have learned since my first day in Russia (including Moscow)

• Russians all feel like they have horrible English. Sometimes this is true, but usually it is much better than what they claim or make me think.
• A lot of Russians smoke, compared to those in the U.S. 
• One stereotype of Americans is that we all smile all the time with our white, straight teeth (can I prove them wrong when I have had some orthodontia and smile when nervous?)
• School is canceled if the temp is below -35C; not because that is dangerously cold, but because some schools aren't heated very well (or at all).
• Russians don't have to pay for higher education (just books and living expenses).
• Russians have no idea where OR is, but if you tell them where it is in relation to CA, they can figure it out. :)
• Hammer and Sickle are still in a lot of the emblems and symbols.
• Russians have two passports. One for in-country travel and one for international travels.
• A favorite thing to drink with a meal is a watery yogurt-like drink.
• Monks created the Cyrillic Alphabet, modeling it after the Greek alphabet.
• No one really likes the police here, not because they write tickets, but because they are more corrupt. 
• Russians have large servings (although everyone looks like they are starving), and tend to eat meals later than the traditional American mealtimes.
• Since there are 30 Rubles to the Dollar, there is no need to have parts of Ruples, or "cents." 
• A beloved thing to do on a Sunday is go for a walk. 
• Tea? Russians love tea, and water (unless it is sparkling) is not a beloved drink. 
• There are many old traditions. When you break a plate, for example, you say "FOR HAPPINESS." And there is an old story about a house elf thing that I need to look into more.

Topics of Interest

Tomorrow I go to Barnaul for my Orientation. I doubt that I will have access to a computer, and would like to put something that all of you would actually like to know. Do you have any questions that you would like me to answer about my homelife, the exchange process so far, Russian customs, ect? Comment on this post and I will try to answer them to the best of my ability!

New friends and the river Mona..

Today I stayed all day with a group of very pleasant people. It was travel agents and their families mostly, but there was a woman from Julia's work there. That is how I got invited. I went with the woman from Julia's work (Irina), and her son to this party/social gathering. Julia was very excited to tell me yesterday that I was invited to go to this part of Krasnoyarsk. It was waaay outside of town, by a feeder river (it was as big as the Rogue, but it goes into Yanisek, so that makes it small). It was very nice and there was a lot of bbqed meat, so add the fun and it was a wonderful day! There was a little girl named Sasha that just cracked me up.We would make faces at each other and some other things. Her mom really liked that and thought it was really cool that we could interact without language. :)

Some excerpts from emails about school...

I have school six days a week, arriving there at 8 and going home at 1 or 2. I have six classes and they last 45 minutes, with a 15 minute break between each and sometimes a 20 minute break. School was short, but still felt really long. There is no set schedule for all of the days. Every day at the end there is the schedule with the classes for tomorrow posted on a pillar, and all of the kids shove their way up to it to take a picture of it on their phone so they can write it down later. Since it was the second day of school most just talked about their expectations of the class and talked about themselves. Or that is what the girl next to me told me. There were about 3 girls that speak great English. They (my schoolmates) were all nice. I have a safety class where the teacher talks about what to do if there is a fire and a bunch of other stuff. Well, I was sitting there looking at the posters in the class and I turned around to look at the back of the room and there were shelves lined with gas masks. That isn't in our first aid classes in southern Oregon! Also, the mullet is alive and well here. Like one in every 20-30 people have a mullet, so I see them a lot. There is also this hair style that is like a mullet, only they just cut their bangs really short, so the face is framed. I would still consider it a mullet, but there is hair over the ears so I guess technically it isn't. Julia will also go with me to the University one last time, which isn't so bad getting there, it is getting back from there that is difficult. The bus ride is an hour long each way and it is like driving on a bus in Peru. I would actually describe Krasnoyarsk as a mixture between Queens NY and Peru.

Moscow Airport

Moscow was actually really easy because customs was way less intense than I thought. I went to the "I have nothing to claim" area (I learned that if you have more than 10,000 dollars you then have to claim it).-Fun fact interjection here! I was behind rapper Ice Cube in the stamp-your-visa line. He flew first class on my Moscow flight! It was so weird seeing him and his two bodyguards LOL.- They did search my checked bags, but they don't do that in front of you. I just gave it to the lady at the "I have nothing to claim"desk and she sent them back. I can only tell my bag was searched because the tops of all my chai boxes were broken off. The Moscow airport was much smaller than I thought it would be- they only had 20 gates in the domestic flight area (I think- maybe it's 20 all together). I had to take a bus to my plane, but there was no way I could get lost because once I gave the lady my ticket I went through the doors and there was a bus, not a plane. And, of course, everyone else got on the bus that was going on the plane. The flight to Krasnoyarsk was actually nice. It was very odd though, because my seatmates spoke NO English and neither did the stewardesses. I could tell the stewardesses I didn't want anything though, so I didn't look completely lost. Only when the girl next to me tried talking to me or asked me questions did I have to say "yeah, I don't understand Russian. . .(in Russian of course)." 

Oleg did meet me at the airport with his son Constantine. They both spoke really good English. I went through customs before I even got to them, so what they were actually going to do was show me around Moscow! But it was the city day ( the anniversary of the day it was founded) so all the major roads were shut down and traffic was way worse than the usual big-city traffic. So pretty much we sat at a cafe and they practiced their English for a while with me. I learned a lot from them, like the Russians won WWII with some help, I look European, school is canceled when it is below -35C because some schools have no central heating system, college is free here (and all you have to do is pass an exam to become a doctor- Constantine was 25 and already an MD.  Russians have no idea where Oregon is (we guessed that though), and most Russians smoke. I say it was a very productive few hours. 

All the appliances here are (I think) are funny because they seem to be just the opposite of what they appear. I almost took a cold shower because I put the water thing all the way over on the "red"/hot side and freezing water was coming out. Then I wondered why I had to turn the nozzle thing all the way from the  blue/cold side and thought "Maybe its backwards?" Yup. It was. :)

Дома

So, I would just like to say that I arrived safely. I will admit, it was a really emotional exit on my part. It wasn't because I was nervous or had second thoughts about leaving. More about all of my pent up anxiety and excitement and ambition all coming out of me at the same time. I am going to miss my family, and already do. It isn't in the sense that I thought it would be though. It is coming home and being able to use expressive language and having people understand me, and being to tell the people that raised me all of the wonderful things that are happening in person that I miss. I am not sure what I thought missing someone would really be like, but I guess not that.
When I arrived, it thankfully was on a Sunday morning (no school). My host parents, Julia and Arthur, met me at the airport. Julia handed me a rose, and it is in my room still in a vase. When we arrived about 20 minutes later at the apartment (here it is a "flat"), we put my suitcases into my room.
Julia then asked me "Well, do you feel like you have just arrived home?" Funny thing is, I did.
My mom from the 'States will post more from e-mails I send her. It will be more "newsy" portions. In the meantime I will be learning Russian, adapting to this wonderful new culture, and developing relationships with great people. In a few weeks or months, maybe I will post again myself.