Weeks 24-25: Taking responsibility, a lesson in grammar

In grammar class, we are learning about how using passive voice and impersonal expressions is a good thing. In the Russian language, you are supposed to put the blame on an invisible, mystical (neuter gendered) something. The Star Wars “Force,” if you will. (And no, it’s not God, for God is male in the Russian [...]

Holiday: It’s beginning to look at lot like New Year’s. . .

To properly describe my experience in the realm of the Russian “holiday season,” if such a concept actually exists as a period defined apart from the general conception of everyday life in this country, then I should go back to my Thanksgiving holiday here. Walking out of a delightful evening of intercultural dialogue (conversation over [...]

Weeks 14-15: Take two

I’ll blame my lack of posting on a few things. First, wrapping up finals season always comes with alternating bouts of productivity and extreme laziness, meaning that when I was working, I was burning the midnight oil, and when I wasn’t working, I really wasn’t. Second, Ryan got into Irkutsk two weeks ago, so between [...]

Tradition: ‘It’s Happy Thanksgiving’

“. . . Thanksgiving, hooray! / We’re going to dinner / at Grandma’s today,” is the little stanza from Jack Prelutsky’s collection of Thanksgiving-related children’s poetry that I end up recalling every year about this time. Obviously, I’m in Russia, and obviously, in Russia, American national holidays are not observed. So this year was a [...]

Quotable: Divine wisdom, and calls from higher-up

This country seems to have a perhaps larger-than-average volume of it’s defining idioms, riddles, etc. (note: I base my “average” off of my knowledge of English, French, and Russian). Accordingly, I’ve concluded that this volume comes from the country’s general quotability. Accordingly, I’ve decided to share a few instances of the basis of my reasoning [...]

Week 8: Mongolia, Home-stay 1

Day 4-5 (Tues.-Wed., Oct. 27-28): Out on the Mongolian steppe Nomad hospitality. A mentally tumultuous hour after our arrival in Sansar, Bulgan Province, we were received into our first ger. Climbing out of the jeep with our stuff, the mother and daughter, having come out to greet us, helped us get our stuff inside the [...]

Week 8: Mongolia, Day 4

Day 4 (Tues., Oct. 27): But. . . there was no lady with a cap. . . I consider myself someone who’s ok just “going with it,” “easygoing” as it were. But, when in a country, of which you don’t speak the language, when you find yourself half-stranded at a bus stop in a town [...]

Week 8: Mongolia, Day 3

Day 3 (Mon., Oct. 26): Dollarpower Dundundundun, dundundundunDUNdun–Downtown. Multiple people had recommended going to the black market in Ulaan Baatar, despite the long walk there and the so-called best pickpockets in the world that hang out waiting for unknowing tourists. Stopping at the post office along the way to pick up postcards with the famous [...]

English town (Russian lessons included)

Speaking English in Russia is weird. I don’t do it often, namely, talking on the phone or Skype with people back home, and writing emails/blog updates. But being in the whole “immersion” experience for so long, when asked/required to switch to English, you’re really pushed off balance. A few places to watch out for. . [...]

Week 2: Baikal’s big, snow’s small. . . ‘S all good

Admittedly, I felt the down-points of the “culture shock” wave more than I expected–the frustration of little inconveniences, getting on wrong busses, the language barrier, missing home and Middlebury–, but, I’m still reeling on how great of a week this turned out to be. Baikal adventure no. 1 Last Saturday, the Midd group, along with our [...]