I was privileged enough to have the opportunity to travel to Russia this summer, and I am so glad I di
d. The trip started with a two-day orientation in New York City, where seven UGA students and about 10 other students from around the United States met to learn about what to expect when in Russia. Soon after arriving in New York, the group geared up for a 10 hour flight to Moscow. I must explain something about the Russian way of life. People in Russia operate on a much different time schedule, i.e. things happen when they happen i.e. usually at a much slower pace. This being known, our flight was delayed about two and a half hours, which made our total time at JFK international airport about 8 hours. Hey, at least we all got to know each other pretty well. There were games of charades, arm wrestling, etc. The flight over there was rather uneventful. I tried in vain to sleep for more than 5 minutes at a time, I attempted to choke down some airline food (not very vegetarian friendly!), and I tried not to freeze my ass off in my shorts and t-shirt. Who knew you should w
ear long underwear on an international plane ride?Moscow Never Sleeps
We arrived Moscow to be greeted warmly by the CCUSA program director Valery Kostin. This guy is amazing. Check out the photo of him at our welcome dinner at the hotel! After not sleeping for roughly 30 hours and experiencing an 8 hour time difference, it was extremely difficult to stay awake our first few days in Moscow. I did my best and finally adjusted to the time difference after about a week. The group stayed in Moscow for two days and did some serious city touring. We checked out Red Square, inside the Kremlin, the Moscow circus, St. Basil's, Moscow State University, one of the largest Russian Orthodox Churches in all of Russia (can't remember the name!), Victory Park, and the list goes on and on. The CCUSA folks really treated us right, always going out of their way to make sure we had a complete Russian experience. I also started trying out some Russian cuisine. I really enjoyed pilminy (sort of like tortellini pasta, but boiled and filled with something yummy) and bliny (pancakes stuffed with anything you could imagine - my personal favorites were potatoes and mushrooms and in a different bliny - berries and sour cream). I was not so much a fan of the pretty much raw herring - a very fishy fish if you've never tried it. Russia has a very meat-oriented cuisine and this proved to be a challenge for this peskitarian throughout the trip. After all our sight-seeing, it was time to say goodbye to the CCUSA folks and the other students we met (from USA, Zimbabwe, Britain, Australia, Canada) and head to our respective camps. The UGA folks would all be in the Republic of Mari El, just at different camps. This meant a 16 hour train ride to Yoshkar-Ola. This also meant not sleeping at all because the 98 degree temperature on the train triggered my asthma which had me coughing up a lung all night, keeping everyone in my train car awake whether they wanted to be awake or not! But we made it safe and sound and met our new camp directors and interpreters at the station. From then on, it was me and Kirby, my fellow UGA student, at Camp Dubinina.
Camp Dubinina ~ The Russian summer camp experience
Camp life was great, this was not a new thing for me since I have been at summer camps all my life. One of my assignments for the journal I was to keep all summer was to write about the similarities and differences between Russian and American cultures and Russian and American summer camps. Seriously, the first thing I noticed was how quickly they ate their food. As soon as we arrived in camp, we grabbed a quick shower and then headed to the dining hall. Those kids ate their food in less than 5 minutes. We are talking about a big bowl of buttery porridge, two or three pieces of bread and cheese (smothered in butter before adding the cheese), all washed down with a cup of sugary coffee. I was still trying to work on my first bite and they were already finished. Since we are already on the topic of food, let me tell you about what I ate at summer camp. You already have a good idea about breakfast, but there are four other meals that I have not mentioned. That's right, the Russians eat 5 meals a day.
Now that I am back in the states, I realize 5 meals a day might not be the best idea for someone trying to not have a "bru-ha" (big belly). Anyways, breakfast at 9 am, lunch at 1 pm (consisting of a meaty soup of some sort, plus a big bowl of buttery pasta or buckwheat, hot tea, and of course bread), second lunch at 4:30 (cookies and fruit with you guessed it - hot tea!), supper at 7 pm (either a pasta dish with a meat sauce or sometimes mashed potatoes with a big hunk of meat on top!), and lastly second supper (usually a home made roll with a glass of juice). Oh and I forgot to mention tomatoes and cucumbers, you usually had anywhere from 2 - 4 of these fruits added to your plate at both lunch and supper. The meat got to be an issue. I tried my best to eat around the meat, trying not to gag, most of the times I failed, therefore ingesting some sort of meat product. Some days I would not realize I had ingested meat but I would smell so bad (I'm talking flatulence here), that I knew I had been slipped some meat. Luckily Kirby and Ruzilia (my interpreter) were understanding of the way I smelled most of the time!Okay, enough about food, let's talk toilets. I was lucky enough to have my own room and share only a toilet with Ruzilia and Kirby. Our toilet was deluxe (i.e. it flushed, was clean, and you could sit down on it like a normal person). The other camp staff and the campers were not as lucky. They had what I would call turkish toilets, meaning they went to the bathroom with two of their best friends (3 separate cubbies but no doors!), squatted down, and pretty much aimed for the target. As we all know kids and their aiming abilities, these were not the cleanest toilets. I only had the pleasure of using those facilities on three separate occasions. I made the walk back to my room whenever nature called. Now in our toilet, we did have what Kirby affectionately
named "the lurking turd." This thing would not go away, no matter how many times we flushed. Sometimes it would be replaced with a different turd, but a turd nonetheless. Nothing like sharing everything with your friends!Another one of my favorite parts of camp was the music. And by music, I mean dance music, club music, techno. The music started blaring at precisely 8 am when the campers woke up and never stopped until the night disco was over, usually around 10 pm. This may sound particularly painful to some of you out there, but you get used to it and you come to enjoy it. I recently downloaded a bunch of techno and started blaring it in my apartment because I missed it so much. Who knew I liked techno? Now the disco-teque is something we had EVERY night at camp. Around 7:30, all of the kids would migrate to the disco-teque building and for 2.5 hours, dance their little hearts out. No wonder none of the kids in Russian are overweight, they are burning 500 calories an hour dancing for at least two hours every night for three straight weeks. Maybe some kids in America should start dancing every night. I must say, I began a fan of the disco. I tried out dance moves I would never dreamed of trying in the states. Kirby and I brought back dance moves such as the sprinkler, the shopping cart, the mower, and the list goes on and on. We rocked it out and every night, one or two of the campers would come up to us saying we were good dancers. Definitely the first time in my life I have been called a good dancer.
The language barrier was not so much an issue. Yeah I don't speak much Russian and the kids there didn't speak much English, but we got alone fine. I had the interpreter to help out some, but mainly I loved the challenge of trying to communicate with the kids. Now some kids understood the fact that I didn't speak much Russian much better than others. When I would say "Ne penne mia Ruskie" (meaning I don't understand Russian), they would not act out what they wanted or try to find someone that could explain what they were saying. No, they would just speak the same thing
in Russian slower and louder. Now I know how it feels to be hearing impaired. Doesn't matter how slow or loud you speak, I still don't understand. It got to be pretty comical. My favorite line was "seriously ne penne ia Ruskie!" Just like I learned some Russian phrases while I was over there, they learned some English ones. My personal favorites would be when they would say "okay" but instead of sounding like okay, it sounded more like "o-kiy" (rhymes with sky) and also "what a great pity." I even have two of my counselors saying that on video - so funny! I pretty much spent most of my life over there acting out charades. I have tried acting out what I need at a restaurant here in America and the restaurant owner did not think that was very funny. What, its a different way to communicate!Some of favorite memories at camp were having late night tea parties with my fellow camp counselors. We would show photos of our friends and loved ones, drink tea, eat ungodly amounts of food, play cards, and they would video tape our adventures around camp. The funniest thing we have on videotape is me giving my impression of what Russian sounds like and them giving their impression of what English sounds like. Hilarious, hopefully I can get that video from them and share with all of you.
These stories are some of my fond memories of Russia. I know I tried to be funny about all of our cultural differences, but I truly loved all of my time there. The campers touched my heart everyday whether they were trying to tell me about their family, dragging me off to the next activity, or simply holding my hand as we went towards the dining hall. I hope to one day go back to Russia and see all my friends again. For now, I just want to spread the word of how great a country it is, how welcoming and accepting the people are, and how even worlds apart, we are all still the same. Until my next crazy adventure....
