Ekat, whaaaat?!?! [Said with the intonation of B-town, whaaaat?!?!]

At long last, I have arrived at my new home.

I don’t quite know where to begin. First things first, I guess: I survived the train ride. The first 20 hours were actually quite enjoyable, as Jacob (my ETA buddy) and I had a lovely couple of Russian boys in our kupe. They spent at least 5 hours grilling us in Russian about life in America, which led to my first Russian conversation about feminism and just what exactly it is that I am doing here. Misha, age 20 and from the city of Perm, told me that he didn’t understand why American women got offended when men offered them their seats on the bus. After a long description of how and why this bothered him, he turned to me and said, “well, what do think? What is your feminism?” I took a deep breath and decided to tell him that my focus is violence against women, which to me had always seemed a more significant problem than the seat issue. Misha agreed with me and then spent another 20 minutes going back and forth between speaking about how much violence against women pained him and how he still didn’t understand the issue of the seats on the bus/opening doors/carrying bags/why feminists hate men. Again, I took a deep breath and opened my mouth; I said that there were a lot of different forms of feminism in the states and that the idea that all feminists are man-haters is a common misconception [spasibo Rush Limbaugh]. Seeing his reaction to this, I decided to go for it and continued to say that based on my own definition of feminism, I thought that all women and men should consider themselves feminists, as a matter of respect for themselves and their relationships with each other. Assuming I had pissed him off for the rest of our trip, I sheepishly looked up at his [gorgeous] eyes, at which point Misha smiled and said “ah, I see. I guess this American feminism isn’t so scary after all. I’ll be sure to tell my friends.” I still don’t know whether he actually meant it or if he said it politely in order to change the subject, but nevertheless, I was glad that my first conversation about feminism didn’t end with silence or swearing.

I rolled into Ekaterinburg on the evening of the 29th. “The American” from my university] met me at the train station. Her name is Jen and—you’re not going to believe this—she’s from Minnesota and played hockey for the Minneapolis Novas. It is a small, crazy world : ) During the past 48 hours Jen has shown me the wonder of what happens when Minnesota nice and Russian hospitality combines: she has been taking me around the city, helping me get everything in order with my university, introducing me to people everywhere we go, and taking care of me in general. She has been living here for the past four years, which means her Russian is amazing and she knows the city inside and out.

Right now, I am living in the dorm, sharing a room with Jen and a common area with a combination of international and Russian students. I had always planned on moving immediately into an apartment, but the dorm, which is pretty nice and has free internet as well as a kitchen, only costs 900 rubles a month (about $35). So I am torn between saving money (which I can then spend on more during the next year and summer) and feeling like I have outgrown the college dorm atmosphere (people here don’t party like American freshman—although my Swedish roommate did just walk in with a bottle of vodka as I typed that—but there is something strange about sharing a room, bathroom, kitchen, etc with all sorts of people). I am also concerned about speaking too much English here…For now, I think I will stay put for the month and try to scope out the other options in that time.

My first impressions of the town: the Economist didn’t lie—Ekat is on the rise! There are cranes everywhere and it seems like half the town is under construction. It is an interesting mix of Soviet buildings from the 1970s, beautiful old buildings with columns reminiscent of Petersburg, and shiny new buildings that seem to be shooting up all over the place. As predicted by everyone I met in Moscow, the provincial sidewalks and roads are about as level as the Ural Mountains and promise to be covered with mud as soon as it rains. But for now, the city is sunny, warm, and in that beautiful prefall season which is perfect for wandering the streets. It is strange to be looked at everywhere I go—but whereas in Moscow and Petersburg I generally get the feeling that I often annoy people as a foreigner, here it seems that people are much friendlier to foreigners and way more willing to cut us some slack.

That’s the latest report. I am going to spend the weekend walking the city until I am comfortable with all the roads by foot…and then hopefully use the next week to tackle the bus, tram, and trolleybus systems. I am testing for language placement at the university on Monday, but they are not expecting classes to start until September 11th. For the time being, I am hoping to get in contact with the women’s organization I would like to work with and then set out on the ever-daunting task of making Russian friends…

Miss you all! I hope you all have a happy labor day!

One last thing: I know have a cell phone and address—if you want them, shoot me an email and I’ll send them to you.

P.S. The fullet does not appear to be as fashionable in Ekaterinburg—good thing I decided to hold off!