It's what's for dinner

Living alone, I cook for myself every day. Fortunately, I have a kitchen right down the hall from my apartment. I share it with other people who live in this section of dormitory number 4--the "hotel" section which is reserved for guests of the university--but, in general, we don't fight over who reigns in the kitchen at any particular hour. Now, this kitchen did come stocked with one pot and one pan, some cutting boards and a spatula. But, I decided to get a few things for myself. I felt good about shopping around for some sturdy domestic ware that will last me the year. Every night, with items piled high in my arms so that I make the fewest trips, I walk to the kitchen with ingredients, cookware and some sort of plan.

Tonight, I had two plans. So, I made two trips and ate two dinners.

First, I wanted to use the cloudberries that a friend gave me last week. Cloudberries look like orange blackberries and grow in the north. They have a nice delicate flavor that I can't really describe. Yesterday I bought a delicious loaf of white bread from the store (I think it might be made of barley) as a break from the hearty black bread that it seems most everyone eats. So, french toast it was--with loads of a strawberry homemade jam that was another Russia-warming gift and cloudberries sprinkled on top. De-licious.

Second, I wanted to eat some greens. Greens have been a little bit hard for me to find. But, yesterday I found a package of frozen spinach, and the day before, frozen broccoli. I made a dish with spinach and added kidney beans. Canned beans, although not very difficult to come across in grocery stores, are fairly expensive and, I think, not often used. I've been using them, though. I've made sure to buy the cans with a pry-open top (I still can't figure out how to use the can openers here, let alone do I know if the tool I'm thinking of is, actually, a can opener). So, with my spinach and bean dish made, I pulled out my bag of potatoes. When in a grocery store, potatoes and carrots can be pretty similar looking. They are covered in dirt, so much that it can be hard to see the carrot's orange color. I'm not quite sure why they are still covered in dirt, but I guess that this practice keeps the weight (and thus price) up a fraction, and, hey, maybe it makes the consumer feel a little closer to the agricultural process when they can still see the dirt (defetishizing the commodity, anyone?).

My second dish was a baked potato, covered with those beans and spinach and topped with that chanterelle cheese I was so ecstatic about earlier. This, too, was delicious.

One more thing about shopping for food or other items. Some stores are set up exactly like I am used to: you walk in, shop around and then go to a cash register, items in hand, on your way out. Others, however, add a step: you might need to lock up the bags you've been carrying around in free lockers before walking through the metal gate that lets you into the store. Others, still, don't let you touch any items, but instead have you look at what you want through glass or over a counter and then order from a cashier. For me, the most confusing of this kind of store has the following system. First, you have to find everything that you want. Then, you add up your total cost, go to another counter where you pay a cashier, and then go back and give your receipt to the person standing behind the first counter. This person will then give you your items. This system took me a little while to get used to.

Somehow, I've managed to get all the items I need for dinner, though.

For those of you learning Russian

A few tips:

1. When people say щас (shas), they are not saying час (chas, meaning hour), but сейчас (sei-chas, meaning now). They're sckrunching the word into one syllable. Don't let this confuse you.

2. Штука means thingy or thingamajig or doohickey. I actually learned this this past week, while teaching a class about the differences between American and British English. Among my many examples of different vocabulary used in the US and in the UK, I taught the words thingy, thingamijig (US) and wotsit (UK). The students translated it into Russian for me. Perfect timing: in a conversation last night, I think someone used штука almost every tenth word.

3. If your professors of Russian language gave you a good chart to learn the Russian verbs of motion, hold on to that chart forever. Memorize it. I brought my worksheets with me from my freshman year of college. I still don't have them memorized, but it sure feels good to have a handy guide to look at when I go home. Also, be okay with the fact that people will probably laugh at you when you say things like "I arrived in Ukhta last week" and you by mistake used the wrong root verb, meaning that you arrived by foot. When that happens, just fix your mistake or ensure them that, yes, indeed, you traveled from the US to a northern town in Russia, walking the whole way.

Chanterelles--a quick salute

Dear Finland, thank you for selling your dairy products internationally. A few moments ago, I searched through a grocery store in northern Russia both hungry and curious. This dangerous combination of desires led me to the dairy section of the store, where I happened upon Valio spreadable cheese next to the saran wrapped kind from Russia. Upon first glance, this product was of some comfort, just out of brand familiarity. It's not too common that I know of other brands of dairy products so far from my home in the US. Looking further, I realized that the cheese was mixed with my favorite mushroom. For those of you who may know, I love chanterelle mushrooms (лисичка, kanterelli--for those who may be curious). They are orange and delicious, and in America, few and far between. Any chance I get, if they aren't way too pricey or totally bruised, I'll purchase them. Better yet, I'll find them in the woods, where I first fell in love with these mushrooms. (I'd pick with help of local experts of course--I'm not ready to pick mushrooms myself).

Next to the peach juice, kefir, tomatoes, sweet crackers that are called Jubilee and a whole bunch of cloudberries that my friend picked and jarred, this cheese spread has found a nice home in my mini fridge.

Children

Yesterday, I stood in front of a room full of 3rd grade ten-year-olds.

A woman I met at the visa registration office in town was excited to hear that I am in Ukhta to teach English. So, she invited me to her daughter's English class. I waited in the hallway for the class to begin and heard the bell ring. A bunch of students with red bands around their arms (designated cleaners for the day) ran into the hallway where I stood and immediately began scraping their feet against the floor. They were removing black marks! What an interesting duty. When class started, I walked in and all the students stood and said, together, "Hell-o Sa-ra and Na-dej-da." The room was full, one boy and one girl sitting at each double desk. They were so excited. For some reason, all the adults in the room left for a few minutes and I was left sitting in this small chair in front of all the students. They piled together and came up to me to check me out and start to practice their English skills. "What is your favorite color?" "How are you?" I answered in English and they'd revert back to Russian. 

After I found out that a few students also loved green, the teacher and Nadya came back in and we started class. I was there to answer questions, and these questions never ran out. They started with "Do you have a mother and a father and sisters and brothers?" but then escalated to "What kind of rivers do you have near your town?" "What type of tourist attractions are there in your area?" "Have you ever seen the building that looks like a big ATM machine?" Every time the girl in the front row asked a question, she stood. She, the leader of the class, is the starosta (старoста). She's a top-noch student who is responsible for carrying the grade book from teacher to teacher. (And, don't think she has special privileges to seeing those grades in the book. Anybody can go check them out.) Groups of students in Russia stay with each other all day, every day, for as long as the students are in the same school system. Even the university-level students go to each class with each other. So, Louisa, this starosta, will probably be the leader of all the students in this class for a while. I've heard that at an older age, the starosta is responsible for making sure all the students know where classes are and if they've been cancelled due to a holiday or something else. I hope they let me know, too.

Nadya decided to ask the students about their hobbies half way through class, so that I could learn about them. Number one hobby: swimming (despite the affects cold weather can have on a wet body, there is a good sized pool in town). Number two: English lessons outside of school proper. Number three: modern origami. Way to go, students! They don't let any activity slip by them. 

At the end of class, Louisa stood up on last time and gave me a very big thank you from the whole class. She also presented me with a Chukcha (Чукчa) doll and magnet (the picture of the doll is at the top of the post). The Chukchi (Чукчи) are a group of people who live in the very north of Russia (I'm not sure exactly where). I guess this doll is a symbol of the Komi Republic. Next, a girl in the back row stood up and wished me the best of luck for the year, both in my language learning and my teaching. (Remember, these students are just 10 years old.) Everyone then pulled out their fancy camera phones and took pictures of me. A boy came up to me and handed me this drawing to the right. Both flags, represent. He understands.

I think I might be going to more elementary schools.  

My first day at school

Today was my first day of teaching. A young teacher who is still invested in her own studies in another city is taking leave for the next month. So, I am taking over her classes. Well, some of her classes. So far I've scheduled only 2 per week for one hour and twenty minutes each. Not too much. These classes are in Ukhta's State Technical University (USTU), my host institution. As of now, I'm teaching first year public relations students simple grammar. Basically, I just want to warm them up to speaking English. There are ten in the class, so it's a pretty comfortable size. Today we talked about families (I have two parents. My father is older than my mother, etc.) where we're from, and I asked them about Ukhta, hoping they'd give me some good hints about hot spots around town. It's clear they like clubs and cafes. After an hour, they seemed a little more comfortable with chit-chat, despite their requests in the first hour that I translate for them. As we exited to the entrance hall of the school building (where everyone picks up their jackets from the coat-checks) a few of the students waved to me. I think that's a good sign.

What do I do with the rest of my time? Well, this week I've been exploring, mainly with the help of some friends that I found. Rather, they found me. I know, so fast. Right? Last weekend, my first in Russia, I spent most of my time in the forest. On Saturday, Valeria, who heads the international department at USTU, took me along with her husband, her 5-year-old son, two other couples and their sons to the forest to relax and eat sausages. Delicious really, but, man, is my stomach in transition mode from vegetarian to meat-eater. We made a fire that lasted for hours while with sat with tons of very thin, stick-strait pine trees surrounding us and the boys running around. On Sunday, I was with ringleader Marina and friends I met through her: Vova (nickname for Vladimir), Marianna and Ilya. We went to a mountain bike competition in the hills right outside Ukhta. The picture at the top of my blog is the view from the top. The bikers raced over jumps made of birch branches nailed together. Wooo, scared me. To escape the cold (yes, that day it was hovering on freezing) we picnicked with tea and open-faced sandwiches in the back of their "extreme" car: a purple 1994 Lada named Sparrow. The car sat not too far from a huge abstract portrait of Lenin on the hillside.

Since then, Marina has walked with me arm in arm around much of the town, explaining buildings and taking me through doors that I would not have known were entrances to shops or grocery stores. Today she carried a Russian-English dictionary with her so that we'd both have one to reference. (She speaks only a little English, but likes languages, German especially). I think we understand each other fairly well.

In the weeks to come I'm guessing that the English department at USTU will ask me to give presentations about my life and life in America. Maybe I'll get a few more classes and start up English clubs. I'll have to see how everything rolls out. For now, I'm getting ready for a 3 day bounce into Moscow for an orientation. Back to the big city.

A Train Ride to Ukhta

After months of anticipation and preparation and after a long journey with too much luggage, I arrived in Ukhta Wednesday night. I came together with Ukhta's first snow (indeed, a warm and location-appropriate welcome). Nadya, with whom I've been in contact all summer, waited for me outside the entrance to my railroad car and took me in with a smile. I waved goodbye to the woman who shared my sleeping compartment. She stayed on the train for one more day, till she reached the last stop: Labytnangi (way up north). I, on the other hand, had made it to my destination!

For anyone who may not know, this school year I will be living in Ukhta as a English teaching assistant. I am here with Fulbright, a program for international educational exchange sponsored by the US government. The program, like others I tend to connect to, aims to increase mutual understanding between people of different nations. This blog will be my public journal, so follow along if you'd like.

Ukhta is a central city in Komi Republic, a region in Russia's Northwestern Federal District. The picture to the right highlights the region (This picture file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.) To get to Ukhta, you can take a plane, train or car (I think) from Moscow. Coming from New York, however, I took two planes, a commuter train, a taxi, some subways and finished with a 27.5 hour train ride that carried me 975 miles from Moscow. In terms of Russia's extensive territory, this train ride really isn't that long. But, it's the longest I've experienced. And honestly, it was great.

I boarded car #11 at Yaroslavsky Train Station in Moscow. This station serves as the western bookend for the Trans-Siberian Railroad, the longest railway in the world. My car had a skinny hallway with windows on one side and four-person sleeping compartments on the other. Galya, a middle-aged woman, was already in the compartment when I got there. I introduced myself as "Sara who can speak Russian (but only slowly) and who has never ridden a train before." She gladly helped me fit my luggage into the storage spaces under our beds like puzzle pieces. We read, relaxed and chatted, every now and then passing my small dictionary back and forth across the small table between us. No one else joined us in our compartment, so there was some extra room above us. As we stopped in different towns along the way, Galya filled this free space with items she bought from vendors using the backs of their cars as markets. She brought in a large sack of potatoes, 2-liter soda bottles filled with cranberries and lingonberries (I think), jars of jam, and bunches of oak, birch and pine sprigs (each to be used to exfoliate skin in the hot banya).  After seeing Galya with all her treasures, I immediately hopped off the train in search of food (I had assumed that the train would have a restaurant car, or at least someplace to buy snacks. Unfortunately, I was wrong). A couple vendors and small shops with corner-store type items lined the edge of the railroad in Kotlas. I bought and then stuffed myself with carbohydrates when I got back on the train. It was already dark for hours before I got off the train in Ukhta. Galya stayed up to help me maneuver my luggage and get off the train safely. I found a lot of comfort in this.

Getting off the train into Nadya's old Lada was a very quick transition from travel to get-acquainted-with-your-new-home. I've been here for four full days now. I've taken in so much, so much I want to talk about (and so much that will come in my following posts).

For now: spokoyny no-chy (спокойной ночи!). Good night! I'm off to bed.