Summer Fun

I have been sitting around Ekaterinburg for the last couple weeks and trying to figure out how to chronicle my summer adventures. I guess we can just jump right in:

After getting back from my travels with Midori way back in June, I started to tackle the next task on my summer to-do list: teaching at orientation sessions for FLEX students—Russian high school students who are leaving for America for a year-long cultural exchange program. I taught at 2 sessions that each included about 35 15-year-old Russian munchkins who had amazing English skills and who were very excited about their upcoming trip. The hilarity involved in teaching about American culture and life from a Russian perspective is unimaginable. We talked about everything from culture shock to host families to the fact that Americans don’t always take off their shoes indoors and can get offended if you are late [this one I took particular pleasure in describing to a Russian audience]. It was a great opportunity to get to do fun “American” things with these energetic kids, such as teaching them to throw a Frisbee or starting every lesson with some sort of icebreaker or energizer, which—to kids who have been educated in the formal Russian system—was both very bizarre and fun. Perhaps my favorite moment was when John, the director of the program in Ekaterinburg, looked up at the “new words” list on the wall of my classroom, and saw that we had written only “ethnocentrism” and “barn”. Enough said.

I finished up the FLEX fun on July 3^rd and on July 4^th I was already back on the train. This time I was headed to Ufa, where I worked as a volunteer for an English camp that is sponsored by the US embassy in Moscow. This camp had about 100 kids with varying levels of English. The camp is modeled like an American day camp, which meant that every day I got to teach something like “English through sports” [yes, we learned baseball!] or “English through arts and crafts,” etc. Although at times both challenging and exhausting, it was an amazing and hilarious experience. After my Concordia Language Villages experiences, it was fun to be a guest native speaker at an English camp, to teach the kids English songs and phrases and words, and just to be surrounded by cute little munchkins with so much energy and who are so excited to get to practice their English with “a real American.”

While in Ufa, I lived with a host family—namely, Gulnara, the director of the camp. She was wonderful! She is 25 and has perhaps the best English I have ever heard in Russia. She and her family took me in for the 2 weeks that I was there and made sure that I got all the possible cultural excursions while I was in Bashkir [the republic that Ufa is located in]. We got to go camping one weekend and for the first [and to date the only] time all summer, I got to go swimming! We camped at a lake that was at the bottom of these gorgeous mountains. For a girl who is accustomed to the relatively flatlands of the Midwest, it was unbelievable. I swam in a lake with a clay bottom for the first time and I spent hours just laying on a raft, looking up at the hills and mountains in awe. During the weekend festivities, I taught the entire crew to throw an American football, instantly gaining the respect of the Russian men, who were quite confused as to why a GIRL could throw a spiral and they couldn’t.

After Ufa, I came back to Ekat for a few days and then hopped on a plane to St. Petersburg, where I met Jodi Wu for the next adventure! She and I spent 10 eventful days in St. Petersburg and another week in Prague. While Petersburg will never lose its place in my heart, I think that Jodi best summed up our stay there by saying “It was at once so amazing and so awful.” Russia was in tourist season, which meant long lines everywhere, which was, of course, matched with that outstanding customer service that the country is so famous for. In the course of the week, I got into a verbal fight with a customer service agent at the Hermitage, Jodi was screamed at by a middle-aged Russian woman on a marshutka, and we both witnessed a museum worker punch/shove a female Australian tourist. Russia, in short, was not at its best. Nevertheless, we had fun. We saw an amazingly dramatic ballet at the Marinskii, took a detour to Novgorod [one of my favorite Russian cities], and got to watch the Rolling Stones do a sound check outside the Hermitage.

From Petersburg we flew to Prague, where we spent five amazing days relaxing in what I would now call European luxury. We got to stay with Heather Keyes, which was for me an amazing Bemidji connection and who showed us outstanding hospitality. From castles to concerts to churches to a tour of a 14^th century mine, this trip was full of beauty. The city is truly gorgeous and I must admit, I think I had goose bumps when we first walked down the cobblestone streets and looked up at the main castle in the distance. We, of course, also indulged in the famous Czech beer, along with dumplings and sausages and lots of meat and gravy. Although filled to the brim with tourists, the city manages to supply enough tiny outdoor cafes to always have an open table for anyone looking for beer or coffee, which Jodi and I took advantage of every day.

And now I am here, at this place that I will only call “home” for another week. I have been doing a little work for the crisis center, enjoying time with Jen and her sister who is visiting from Minnesota, and reflecting on what has been an amazing year. More on those reflections to come in the next [last!] blog. For now, know that I am so excited to come home and can’t wait to see so many of the faces that I have missed so much this past year!