The Long-Awaited Update

Hello Everyone,

Well I definitely did not think that the word “lazy” from my last entry would translate into me not writing for two months. Oops. In any case, LOTS has happened, which is why I haven’t found five minutes to sit down and write.

In mid-April I attended that post-Soviet trade union conference I talked about several entries ago. It was fascinating intellectually, but also overwhelming in a lot of different ways. To begin with, I got to meet some academics whose books and articles I had read (and cited!) in college. If you think of it as meeting THE “celebrities” in the trade union academia world then you can imagine how I felt. I was slightly star-struck. Alongside these notables, there were trade union activists from increasingly unusual and cool countries: Moldova, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Krygyzstan to name a few.

Given that this was my first academic conference and that I was (overly in my mind) preoccupied with the “famous” folks in the room, it was wonderful that Professor Christensen was able to be there too. Besides introducing me to people, he helped me make sense of certain exchanges that occurred and made me feel less self-conscious about not contributing much to the discussion. But I must say, everyone at this conference (and there was only about 30 in total) was incredibly friendly and nice. I bonded with this great woman from Moldova and am still in contact with an Italian professor who specializes in Polish trade unions. All around it was a worthwhile conference, even if I felt a little out of my element.

I also had a wonderful time just visiting with Professor Christensen. I got to meet some of his old Russian friends from back when he was here in the 1990s and I introduced him to my favorite places and people in Moscow. I personally thought that in some ways it was like going full circle: I got to chill in Russia with the professor who is/was directly responsible for sparking my interest in the country. How cool is that?

After the conference was over and Professor Christensen left (this would be the end of April I think), I headed next to visit Heather (a friend from BC and another Fulbrighter) for a week in Bulgaria. Bulgaria, just so you know, is an AWESOME country. I was all smiles even as early as the descent into the airport in Sofia because the nature looked just BEAUTIFUL. And Bulgaria did not disappoint from this standpoint. Hands down, it is one of the most beautiful natural environments I have ever been in. In other ways, it reminded me of Poland: a small, under-appreciated country, with wonderfully warm and friendly people. It was also cool to see that I could understand a lot of Bulgarian (spoken and written) because it was so close to Russian.

Heather has a great apartment in central Sofia and I mainly just chilled with her and traipsed around Sofia. I met a few other Bulgarian Fulbrighters and then we headed by bus to Veliko Tarnovo, the old capital of the country, for a few days. Interestingly, neither Heather nor I liked Veliko as much as Sofia – and this because we thought it looked too “western”! While visiting Heather I became addicted to Bulgarian feta cheese (I took a kilo back with me) yogurt, challga music (was I supposed to admit that?), shopska salat and donners (yes, they’re the same thing as the donners in Germany and Turkey, and the kebabs in Poland).

So, I absolutely LOVED Bulgaria and would recommend that it be added to everyone’s travel list. It was even cooler that I got to be there when they formally joined the European Union. A historic moment for sure.

After I left Bulgaria, I had a one-week reprieve before my parents and sister descended on Russia. All things considered, I think they enjoyed the trip (at least that’s what they said after they left!). By all things considered I mean that they enjoyed it in spite of Red Square being closed, a terrible tour guide in Moscow and back problems plus rain in Petersburg. In lieu of a tour of Red Square (no amount of bribery attempts or batting of the eyelashes convinced the probably fourteen-year-old soldier to let us go through; trust me I TRIED), they got to see an impressive Victory Day parade from their apartment window on Tverskaya and were probably as close to 56 world leaders (including Bush and Putin who were pretending to be best friends again for the occasion) as any of us will ever get. After Victory Day celebrations, frolicking in Gorky Park, Russian food at my favorite restaurant, and a night at the Moscow circus we headed to Petersburg where our super cool tour guides made up for my Mom’s evil back, rain and the mosquitoes (honestly these were KILLER mosquitoes).

My verdict on Petersburg is that it ROCKS. The people there are unbelievably friendly (indeed, someone stopped to help us when she saw me struggling with a map – this doesn’t happen in Moscow – and one of our tour guides waited with me at the airport since I had an hour to kill after my parents’ plane took off) and they speak the BEST RUSSIAN EVER. I alternate between despairing that I will never speak Russian or never speak it without drinking copious amounts of vodka, and in Petersburg I am happy to report that I felt neither emotion. Everyone spoke very clearly and precisely and I (almost) thought that I might have learned something while living here! The city is also very beautiful; for obvious reasons it reminds me a great deal of Amsterdam. All in all I was sad to say goodbye to the city and to Zhenya my favorite St. Petersburg tour guide but I’m sure I’ll get back there some day. For their part, my parents and Sam said they “liked” Russia so I guess you can say their trip was a success of sorts. I was just very happy to see them.

By the time my family left Russia it was mid-May and I had yet another conference to attend. This time it was an impossibly large conference (500+ participants) sponsored by the American and Russian governments on the theme of increasing Russian-American exchange programs. By far, the highlight of the two-day conference was the chance to meet the US Ambassador to Russia and the Minister of Education of the Russian Federation. I have to admit though that the conference was not as constructive or substantive as I wanted it to be so I ended up skipping the “dinner” at the Ambassador’s residence. I did, however, get to connect with some interesting folks in the Russian-American exchange world and may even get a job out of it so it wasn’t a complete disappointment.

Just about the entire “Who’s Who” of the Fulbright world and IIE more generally was at the conference too so the Moscow Fulbright office treated them and all current and past Fulbrighters (Russians who went to the US and Americans who went to Russia) to a night boat cruise on the Moskva river. It was VERY cool. I had a fun time meeting some of the Russian Fulbrighters and chatting with the president and vice-president of IIE. For anyone who is really curious, remind me to tell you about one particular attendee who made the conference, boat cruise and post-conference time rather “interesting” (and sadly, not in a good way).

And so now it’s June 1st and I have exactly one month left in Russia. I am feeling strangely sad about the whole prospect of having to leave. Even though I have said repeatedly that one year here is enough for me, I have started to feel like I could actually stay longer. Of course, this may be because the sun is shining - which has put everyone in a fabulous mood. Indeed, in the last three weeks I have been told:

1. At least three different times to tie my shoelaces (thank you Moscow babushky).

2. That all “real” women should dress like me (admittedly, this comment came from a slightly crazy mid-40ish woman in the metro who liked my skirt).

3. That a woman as beautiful as me should never be kept waiting (while I agree of course, this was unprompted and from the overly flirty, maybe metrosexual, maybe gay coat-check man at the conference center).

Dude, even the trainers at the gym I go to EVERY DAY are finally talking to me! Six months later and success at last! Although, I have to admit I’m slightly freaked out about one of the front desk girls who seems way too into my first name. Every time I check in at the desk she either makes a comment about how beautiful my name is or finds an excuse to use it (“how are you Melanie,” “here’s your card Melanie” …). But I digress.

Of course it figures that just when I get “into the groove” I have to go. C’est la vie I suppose. Maybe Fulbright should be two years instead of one? Vanessa, one of the other Fulbrighters has already left, and others will follow soon so I know the time has come. Nonetheless, I have a great couple of weeks ahead of me: Elisabeth from Novosibirsk will be visiting me on her way back to Germany (remember her?!) and Heather will be here for a week as well. Then I’m back in the US of A and have to find a JOB. Think happy thoughts for me!

Melanie/Mel/Malinka

Parties galore and linguistic gymnastics

Hello everyone,

I have become extremely lazy about writing in my blog. I'm not so sure why except to say that in some ways life in Moscow is much less entertaining then it was in Novosibirsk. In any case, my 23rd birthday came and went and it was quite nice. I had a huge party of Russian and expat friends and got some very "creative" gifts (you can ask Natasha about those). There were tons of toasts, which got longer and stupider as the night went on. My personal favorite was one about me being the "sun" in someone's "long, Russian winter." It's cheesy in both languages, trust me.

My birthday party was followed a week later by Michael's 23rd (he's another Fulbrighter, studies trains and knows everything; honest) about which I remember very little because I was fighting the start of what turned out to be the death stomach flu (or "nash grippe" as Michael's babushka put it). I've just finally recovered and if I get sick again - any kind of sick - someone is going to get hurt. It's interesting how I was (almost) never sick in Novosibirsk and now I'm picking up EVERYTHING in Moscow. Bigger city, more germs I guess. :)

Other then the parties and flu I am starting to get back into the swing of my research. The Moscow papers have started to write more about trade unions over the last few weeks so I have had to do a lot of reading. I've also been following the events in that Central Asian state I can never spell correctly, which interestingly, is causing all sorts of arguments between the political talking heads here and internationally. I personally don't think it's a revolution nor should it be classified as one alongside those in Ukraine and Georgia, but I'm curious to see how it will turn out nonetheless.

Not too much else to share except that I wanted to pause and well, rant, about some "issues" I'm having with the Russian language...

Now, everyone knows Russian is a hard language. Duh, especially for Germanic and Romance-language speaking people. If it isn't the case endings then it's knowing which motion verb to use: Are we going in one direction or coming back? Do we make this trip often or is this a one-time journey? Is it on foot or in some moving vehicle (bikes count!)? Are we going up, down, sideways, perpendicularly (is that a word?), across or.... the list goes on. All this being said, however, the above characteristics make Russian a very descriptive and precise language. I can know exactly where a person is going, how they're getting there and when they're coming back - all via a particular verb and/or case.

Or, so I thought Russian was precise because I have recently discovered (or, more accurately, fallen victim to) some interesting "exceptions".

Example 1: "В Принципе ето Возможно."

The dictionary, direct translation of this is "in principle, it is possible." When it is voiced in Russian by a Russian in Russia, however, it is never meant to be understood as vaguely as it sounds. A more accurate translation would be:

"in principle, it is possible.... for the enterprising-willing-to-be-creative-maybe-bribe-maybe-bend-a-law-maybe-just-ask-again-while-flirting soul."

Basically, I have learned to never accept this phrase outright. If I did, nothing, in principle, would be possible. And nothing (nothing I want or need that is) would also get accomplished.

Example 2: "Я не доволен/на."

The dictionary definition of this statement is, wait it's not in the dictionary because it's not proper Russian (or at least not proper as far as my teacher is concerned). The "sense" of the phrase is "I am not satisfied" but there is an actual verb to use if someone wants to say this and the short form of the verb, well it doesn't even look like the above.

But once again, if someone uses this phrase it means... umm.... nothing. Or at least nothing helpful or as precise as the overall Russian language normally is. As best as I can figure it out, this is one of those beautifully vague expressions meant to help certain individuals (read: mostly men because they are the ones I most often hear saying it) avoid answering/doing a particuarly uncomfortable question/act. Because, who - whether Russian, American, male, female, old, young - is ever truly "satisfied"? Clearly, this all-purpose phrase is just not going to cut it. And guys don't need any additional help in being vague or in developing new avoidance tactics. But THAT is a story for a different time and place.

So, with my slightly tongue-in-cheek language tirade now over, let us revel in the precise inpreciseness of the wonderful language that is Russian. The day I actually can speak this language fluently will be a historic moment. :)

Mel/Melanie/Malinka

Random thoughts

Hi Everyone,

So I haven't written because absolutely nothing of (serious) interest has occurred this past week. After the hospital visit and the abysmal failure of the "Дорогой Медбрат, как раз, Он Врач" adventure (if you HAVEN'T heard about this, call me) I have been actually trying to do some work. I have a trade union conference in Moscow in mid-April that I need to write a paper for and like the good, just out of college, student that I am I have been procrastinating. Maslenitsa just ended this past weekend too so I have no excuse. Maslenitsa is a yay spring and pre-Orthodox Lent celebration rolled into one long, week-long holiday where you eat nothing but bliny (pseudo crepes/pancakes made to look like the sun - think spring thoughts - with various surprises in them: jam, caviar, etc). It's a great holiday except for the fact that it snowed and has been unbelievably cold all week. So much for spring I guess...

Apparently my 23rd birthday is this Friday - honestly I totally forgot up until like three days ago - and since this is such an unremarkable number to turn I have decided to attempt to have the largest birthday party Moscow has ever seen (or at least ever seen this week). This has meant that I am inviting just about everyone I know in the city, which surprisingly, is a good number of people. My no alcohol ban has been lifted so I think this should be a fun party. :) We'll see.

Well, that's about it. Hope everyone is doing well. And happy #22 to Sasha/Grisha!! :)

Mel/Malinka/Melanie

I'm ok, moving in, visitors and more politics

Hello everyone,

I just want to start out by saying that I am fine, and am now home in my apartment after an unscheduled few days in the hospital. I don't feel it necessary to go into details but suffice it to say that I was in an American hospital, with my own room and a shower with free shampoo (like a hotel!) and everyone from the doctors and nurses to the kitchen staff took good care of me. I'm still feeling a bit overwhelmed about the whole thing, but I feel tons better and am soo happy to be out and about again.

Anyway, to back up a bit. I am all moved in and it is sooo nice to have my own room/place. It turns out that Hilary is almost never there - she works from like 10 to 9 or something insane like that - so I pretty much have the place to myself. It is fully furnished so apart from internet and buying food I don't have to spend too much additional time or money on fixing the apartment up. It's close to everything important for me, so I have managed to make Moscow - the unwalkable city that it is- into a walkers paradise. :) It will take the better part of a month to get internet hooked up so be patient with me please!

Two weekends ago I had an awesome time because I had unexpected visitors - Ksenia and Claire (a former French exchange student at BC) took the train from Peter (as in St. Petersburg) and spent Saturday running around Moscow with me. We explored the Kremlin, Red Square and even managed to get to the Tretiakov Gallery where Ksenia gave me quite the icon lesson. All in all it was great and I was rather sad when they left. Anna from Novosibirsk (my super cool German friend, remember her?) visited this past weekend on her way back to Germany but needless to say we didn't do much sightseeing. It was great to see her again though!

Other then the visitors I just wanted to mention that last weekend I yet again got caught up in two major protests. One was an anti-Putin demonstration organized by the main opposition forces and the second can only be described as an all hail Putin parade. It was organized by Putin's political party, United Russia, and not only were people bussed in from the regions to participate but members of the military where ordered to take part. Sneaky huh? I should mention that I keep getting inadvertently involved in these protests because of where I live (it's terrible being in the center of the city isn't? :) ) not because I'm like a demonstration groupie and actively seek these things out. :)

Oh, last week on February 23rd was Defender of the Motherland Day (or maybe Fatherland I can't remember exactly). It's an old Soviet holiday, the name of which I also can't remember, but basically it is part Veteran's Day, part let's celebrate men day. They had a big military parade downtown and there were discounts for men in various stores, etc. And, this coming March 8th is International Women's Day - another old Soviet holdover that I remember from Poland and think is just brilliant. Actually, I think the government thought this holiday made men feel left out so that's why they decided to turn their Veteran's Day into an overall celebration of men as well. :)

Well, that's all for now. Classes have started and I'll be volunteering at a civic center soon so life should be pleasantly busy.

Mel/Melanie/Malinka

The country of Georgia, a.k.a. "Why politics in formerly Soviet countries is never boring"

Privet!

Before mentioning the exciting personal event that occurred over the weekend, I have to pause and point out that while some people think I'm nuts for being so interested in Central and Eastern Europe (ok, it's slightly obsessive, I'll give you that) one has to admit that it is NEVER boring politically here. In October Putin decided to do away with elections of regional governors, in November the Ukrainian PM was poisoned, in December Putin made another unpopular decision which sparked widespread protests of retirees, and now the Georgian PM has died in mysterious, as yet undefined circumstances. Quite an eventful few months, no?

Georgian authorities claim the PM died due to carbon monoxide poisoning from a malfunctioning gas heater (possible given that most Georgians use portable gas heaters in the winter because central heating is unreliable), but since certain details surrounding his death are questionable already other politicians in the country are blaming it on everyone from Russia (potentially plausible but not likely) to the US (also not likely, but who knows these days?).

In any case, these latest events have not changed my desire to study Eastern Europe, travel to Georgia and Ukraine or stop going to the kick ass Georgian restaurant near my friends' apartment. But they have made me read the papers regularly! On Monday I also got caught up in a protest of Moskvichy pensioners - which was absolutely the coolest thing to witness (note to parents: this was by ACCIDENT, I was not protesting myself). Unfortunately, I couldn't take any photographs (this in spite of being really really nice to the policemen who were guarding the metro station) so I'll/we'll just have to do with the memory.

But the exciting personal event this weekend was that at long last I found an apartment - and even a roommate to share it with!! Yay! I'm not paying exactly what I wanted to be paying, but the place is perfect: close to the main archives I'll be using, my gym (just joined one!), classes and my favorite coffee shop (yes, this is Самый Важный). There is a beautiful Orthodox Church on the street as well as the Slovenian embassy (Nadia where are you?).

My roommate is named Hilary and I got in touch with her through a Moscow Craig's List type website. She's about 35, originally from Hawaii, just got engaged and is actually a former Fulbrighter (to Norway). I've signed the lease and will move in this Sunday - all very exciting primarily because I will no longer be sleeping on a couch. Woohoo!

Other then the political intrigues and apartment success, which is really a big accomplishment in Moscow, the university opened this week so I'll be starting Russian classes again on Monday. I can't say I'm terribly excited about those (straight language courses are just not my thing) but it has to be done.

What else to tell you? Oh I saw a man bleeding profusely from his head on the metro (I mean PROFUSELY, I wouldn't mention it otherwise) and was randomly bit by a dog while looking at apartments on Saturday. Isn't that nice? I'm convinced the babushka who owned it trained the dog to be an attacker: picture little ole me and a realtor walking through a corridor in an apartment, babushka opening her door to see who is out in the hallway, dog lunging... you get the idea. Fortunately, the bite didn't break the skin, but I have a bruise that really is very ugly.

Well, that's it for now. Miss you all!

Mel/Melanie/Malinka

ps. Ok, so seeing that I was excited enough about BC basketball to post an article on my website about their 20-game winning streak, WHY DID THEY LOSE yesterday? Oh wait. They didn't just lose. They lost to NOTRE DAME!!! Sigh... that's all I'm saying about this.

Back in Moscow (again) & my photos are ONLINE!! At Last!

Hello all,

So, I'm back in Moscow again. After three flights to and from this fantabulous city in the last two weeks, I can now say that I am the master at navigating its airports (and I even took the express train from Domodedovo; how cool is that?). I have nothing new and exciting to report except to say that I'm STILL apartment hunting and.... drum roll please...

MY PICTURES ARE POSTED ONLINE!!!

I'm really proud of myself, seeing as several people were ready to kill me for not doing this many months ago. In any case, just click on the "photos" link on my website and enjoy. I should warn you, however, of two things:

1. There are 12 albums with roughly 200 to 300 pictures in each. This translates to слишком много or way too many photographs - I would not advise trying to see all of them in one sitting!! This is a disclaimer, so don't say I didn't warn you.

2. I have not finished labeling each picture. All of the individual albums are labeled, but since I already said I took too many pictures this means that I haven't even finished going through all of them myself. So, things are only half way done - but I didn't want to wait any longer and continue to torture the friends at home who have been bugging me incessantly to post my pictures. ВОТ!

Happy Picture Viewing!

Mel/Melanie/Malinka

Jet lag + Apartment hunting in Moscow = NOT fun

Hello Everyone!

Ok, so I probably should have updated my blog while I was home for the holidays but I ended up having too much fun in Stamford and Boston and laziness got the better of me. In any case, I'm back in Russia, in Moscow now to be exact, and just realized I need to change the name of my blog since I'm no longer in Siberia. As you saw from my last entry I actually was a bit sad to leave Novosibirsk so in spite of my general, somewhat less than thrilled feelings about Siberia I did enjoy myself. My teachers gave me a send off party, which included yummy tort and a free NSU tee-shirt, and Anna and I had a joint farewell party the Friday before I left for Moscow (Anna left the day before me and poor Robbie had to go to the Novosibirsk airport twice in one weekend). All in all, it was hard to say goodbye and I know that even though I might not have been crazy about the city itself, the people were absolutely wonderful to me. Hopefully I'll be able to visit Novosibirsk sometime this semester.

At the moment it is 5am in Moscow and I'm awake because I can't seem to beat the evil jet lag. This, coupled with the various apartment adventures I have had over the last two days is making me rather annoyed (dare I say even a little grouchy?) this morning. I just can't understand why it is so hard to find a reasonably priced-but-not-out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere apartment in Moscow. Yesterday I looked at two apartments - one was an excellent price but out in the boonies (boonies being not in the center which is where all the spoiled expats live. I, however, have no choice but to live there since all of my classes and research are in the center) and the other was in an awesome location - Stary Arbat - but way over-priced.

Now, I realize that Moscow is the second most expensive city in the world. BUT most of the other Fulbrighters have managed to find inexpensive, centrally located apartments so I know it is possible. And despite having a grant, I refuse to pay $800/month for a studio. That's twice the price of a cheap BC Comm Ave apartment!

In total I have looked at five apartments and perhaps I need to have more terpeniya (patience) but it is kind of driving me nuts. The friends I'm staying with told me I can stay as long as I want to but I feel very guilty taking over their living room. Anyway, I'm looking at another one today and am also going to try to find a roommate on Moscow's version of Craig's list - expat.ru. - Hopefully, two-rooms will be better than studio's. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

On a somewhat happier note, I have uploaded all of my photos onto Yahoo, so once I have finished labeling them I will post the link on my website. Finally, you'll be able to see some awesome pictures of Siberia!

Mel/Melanie/Malinka