June 11, 2007 || First Day of Host Families/Testing

June 11, 2007

It’s after midnight again and I’m just lying down to sleep, so again this will be short. All of us had fun stories at class this morning—Chris’s “brother” took him out to get drunk and see a metal concert; KK’s whole family welcomed her home with cake, flowers, and wine; and 2 girls who live a floor apart from each other (Liz and Stephanie), their families played a game together. Curtis can hardly understand his grandmother, but feels that she is very like his own babushka, in America.

We had placement tests all day today, and for the oral part I spoke with a woman who was familiar with Michigan, Wilde, Swift, Platonov, and Bulgakov, so I feel like I did pretty well there—but for the written part, I left at least 10 spaces completely blank, because I didn’t even know how to start answering the questions; then again, it wasn’t as hard as I expected either, so maybe I didn’t do TOO bad.

Bought a phone card; called Mom and Curtis (après which Я, конечно, плакала чут-чут). Miss them lots—mom seems so long (time difference) and far away.

Marina is almost as good a teacher as a regular professor—adding vocab (my mind CANNOT make words stick, so day-to-day, poor Marina will probably repeat herself often with me) and breaking words down. We had our first real “talk” about music, of all things, and how groups and singers nowadays are poor musicians, and how it’s all a business anyway, and on TV this morning Marina watched a young rich wife show off her apartment, cars, etc. – and she didn’t get these things by working hard or at all, but because she married a футболисть (footballist/soccer player). Considering that an apartment in St. Pete’s costs around $300,000, (one room, plus kitchen and bathroom), I can understand why Marina finds this offensive. I almost mentioned Paris Hilton, but I was afraid that if I did, Marina would go off like MY grandma.

There’s an international film fest in town for the White Nights, and Balabonov made the evening news (he’s coming out with a new movie). I recognized his имя (imya/name) and asked Marina about him… it didn’t seem like she really liked him (she kind of frowned and mentioned something about a Russian version of America’s war in Iraq), and I wanted to talk about it, but it IS only day 2 in my new family and I don’t have the words. And RIGHT AFTER, of course, Президент Буш (President Bush) came on TV. У вы (Oo vui/Oh well)!

Saw lots of dogs today, big and small, wild and not. Really want to know what the name of that Russian-looking dog (the one who refers to his friends as “comrades” in Lady & the Tramp) is. Also I want to ask what noises all the animals in Russia say, like you would ask a child about farm animals.

Ate lots, of course, again—leftovers but also chicken and pasta (макароны). So блыны (blini/pancakes), чай (chai/tea), борщ (borsch), и овощи. (ovoshi/vegetables)

KK and I were practicing how to say “I don’t eat beets” during our first day here, and what’s the first thing Marina Nikolaevna makes for me? Борщ (borsch/beet soup). Surprise!—It’s actually pretty good.

There’s a lot I want to write, but I also need to sleep, too. Just day-to-day still wipes me out. Maybe it’s this living in a whole new country thing. J

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>Success! That Russian-looking dog is called a Russian Borzoi. =)

>In Russia, this is what the animals say:

Dog: Гав-гав “Gav-gav” (but it sounds more like Gaff-gaff)

Cat: Мяу-мяу “Me-ya-oo me-ya-oo” (said quickly, it sounds just like “meow”)

Bird: Кар-р-р / Чирик-Чирик / Гуль-гуль “Car-r-r” / “Cheer-eek cheer-eek” / “Gool-gool” (only for pigeons, which hang out on our windowsills often)

Cow: Му-Му “Moo-moo”

Horse: Иго-го “Ee-go-go” (gotta do a half-whinny sort of thing for this one)

Pig: Хрю-хрю “Khryoo-khryoo” (this one’s hard for Americans to pronounce; we just don’t train our vocal cords to make the Russian “x” … the more you try to pretend you’re hacking something up, the closer you’ll be to sounding right J)

Frog: Ква-ква “Kva-kva”

Sheep: Мее-е-е “Myeh-eh-eh” (sounds kind of like “Maa-aa)

Chicken: Ко-ко-ко “Koh-koh-koh”

Chick: Пи-пи-пи “Pee-pee-pee”

Rooster: Ку-ка-ре-ку “Koo-ka-ryeh-koo”