Super Bowl Sunday

4.II.14
Kristen says...

I love Super Bowl Sunday.

It's the best.

Really, what's not to like?! There's football, friends, food...awesome!

When I was a kid I always looked forward to Super Bowl Sunday because almost always my family was either invited over to someone's house, or, as we got older and our TV got larger, my parents would invite other people to our house to watch the big game.

I've always really liked my parents' friends, so this was a big treat for me--in fact, I don't ever remember going to one of my friends' houses for the game because I always liked going with my parents...weird, I know. :) But they have a lot of fun, giving prizes for those who guess the scores and who wins, etc. Who wouldn't want to be there?!

Of course, doing what we do, now we end up being out of the country most Super Bowl Sundays (the past 4 years, in fact)...four years ago I was watching a former teammate of my brothers playing for the title from Honduras when we got the call that my Grandmother was quite ill; that was the saddest Super Bowl I remember, but last year was a lot of fun when I got to Skype with my parents and their friends at their yearly event.

This year, however, was particularly interesting. This year I watched the Super Bowl with members of an actual American Football team...in Russia.

Yep, believe it or not, there is an American Football team here in Vladivostok!

And, for lots of fun, they joined us at the Consulate to watch the big game and tell us about their team on Sunday. You can see photos of the event on our Consulate Facebook Page.

Watching arguably one of the most American events with a group of Russians who are passionate about a wholly American game was really interesting...even though most of them didn't speak a lot of Russian, they were really into the game and enjoyed it (even though it was something of a total blowout...).

It also brought into sharp relief the importance of the much discussed (and maligned) Coca Cola ad with "America the Beautiful" sung in many languages:

Sitting there watching the Super Bowl with a group of people whose first language was not English and then hearing one of the songs that best represents our country being sung in a variety of tongues was really poignant for me. And then I got home, and read all the ridiculous backlash.

My Russian is really not great. I studied, yes, but my Russian grammar is abominable and my vocabulary is less than that of a kindergartner...I don't understand the majority of the words that are spoken to me on a daily basis here. Yet, I have lived in this country for over a year and not one time have I been lambasted by a citizen of this country for not "really" speaking Russian. On the contrary, I have received nothing but patience and attempts to communicate on almost every front.

It seems unfair to me to assume that every person in a given country will speak the "mother tongue" of that country...I know people who were born in the US, have lived in the US for their entire lives, and speak with far less English proficiency than some who have recently moved in from other countries. To be so closed minded as to be upset that a song praising the US is sung in different languages is to me, totally and absolutely unforgivable, and against everything the US has stood for.

I love that a major (and worldwide) company would want to create an ad that would include all those who call America home. I thought the ad was a wonderful tribute to the amazing melting pot that the US is. I don't even like Coca Cola (I'm a total Pepsi girl!) and I thought the ad was amazing!

Frankly, I thought this ad was way more offensive:


But that might be because I was watching with a bunch of Russians?

KF

It was one of those days you would never have in your home country...

11.VI.13
Kristen says...

 Today was a weird and wonderful day. It was one of those days that makes you happy and uncomfortable all at the same time. And yes, it was one of those days you could only have in a foreign country.

 Normally I would be working my usual 4-hour schedule on a Tuesday, but this week I had to adjust my hours and take an extra day off...I say extra because tomorrow is also a day off, thanks to "Russia Day," also sometimes called Russia's Independence Day (although, as my Russian friends point out, as Russia has never been taken over by another country, so it would never need to gain its independence...).

 I took advantage of not having to work by sleeping in (something I love love love to do) and then kind of bummed around the apartment (washing dishes, tidying up, walking the dog, etc.) The weather today, in my opinion, is absolutely beautiful (75 and sunny), so being outside was something fun.

 While Pip and I were walking around the building I noticed something that made me so happy, I almost cried:

I love peonies!

 When I was a little girl we had peony and poppy bushes near our house, and I loved to watch the ants crawl on them and couldn't wait for them to open. When Chris and I got married (7 years ago this month!) our friends and family showered us with peony petals that my mom and I went all over town to gather and then my sister and mom spent the night before the wedding plucking from their stalks...

So finding peonies in Russia really made my day!

 There are many other flowers around where we live, some I recognize and some I don't. Since I had the day off today, I took some time to go around and smell them (and take pictures of them, too!)

Even dandelions are a welcome sight after all the snow of winter! :)

 After visiting the flowers, I decided to head downtown and visit a couple bookstores I have been eying for the last few months. We live probably 2-3 miles away from downtown, not an unreasonable walk, but farther than I wanted to go...so I took the bus.

 I have actually been taking the bus regularly to work, something that speeds up my morning commute but does nothing for my fitness, so it was no trouble to get on the bus and get downtown. I have to say that I purposefully avoided riding public buses in Des Moines and London, and clearly couldn't ride the unsafe buses in Teguc, but here the buses are pretty handy.

 There are two bookstores in downtown Vladivostok, and both are pretty good if you want books for the local Russian schools, Russian classics, or children's books...but pretty low on books translated from English, and only one of the two carries books with English-language text...and when I asked for that section, I found that in the whole two-floor bookstore, only one half of one shelf had books in English...still, better than nothing.

 After asking for the section, I thought I couldn't very well leave without picking something up (although to be honest, most of the available books were classics I can get for free on my Kindle or books I really had no interest in). Luckily they had one copy of an Agatha Christie book--in my oodles of free time I've watched all the1980s BBC Miss Marple movies and most of the 2000s remakes on Netflix, so I'm kind of "into" Christie at the moment--so, I bought it.

Isn't that the most hideous book cover you've ever seen!? If it hadn't been a Christie book, I would never have bought it. Yes, I judge books by their covers... :)

 Upon closer inspection this is a really cool copy of the book, though:

The box at the top says (roughly translated) "Кead in the Original"

Within each chapter there are endnotes, which lead you to the commentary at the back: commentary that translates words and phrases that might be hard to understand for a non-native English reader. Sweet.

  After the triumph at the bookstore I was feeling pretty good about things (all my questions were asked and answered in Russian) so I decided to push my luck and try to find the Russian post office. Last week I bought some postcards and I wanted to get them mailed. I could have mailed them using US stamps from the consulate, but I thought that the people who were receiving them might like Russian stamps, so I went back to the place I bought the cards from to ask where to mail them from...

 Which turned out to be right next to the bookstore. Le sigh. At least I got my exercise!

 After visiting the bookstore and mailing the cards I decided it was time to head home. We were going out to dinner and I wanted to let Pip have some out of his kennel time before we left him again.

 If you remember, a few months ago I mentioned the Methodist Church located not far from our apartment. The bus stop closest to our house is not far from the church, and as I was getting out I noticed that the door to the church was open...a few years ago the Methodist Church as a whole had an ad campaign Open Hearts. Open Minds. Open Doors. so since this door was open...I decided to go in.

This is where the wonderfully weird part starts.

 Inside I found rows of chairs, an alter, even information (in Russian) about the history of the Methodist Church...and four women taking part in a Bible study.

 Of course, the were startled to be interrupted, but they were very welcoming once I told them that I was a Methodist and had just wanted to check out the church. They were so welcoming that they invited me to join them.

 I guess they were pretty much done with the Bible study part (or decided to be done when it was clear that my Russian was not up to Biblical discussion) because they all started closing their books and putting them away.

 The leader of the group, the youngest of the four, explained to me that after their study they danced and then had tea. She asked me if I liked to dance, and I, not understanding, said I didn't (which is true), that I liked to read and things...but she invited me to dance anyway, and so I did...which was totally hysterical, because we were doing the Russian-style dancing where you shuffle in circles and raise your arms and...ok I can't describe it, but it was pretty funny/fun.

 We only danced one song, which I'm not sure was because I was there so everyone felt awkward, or because everybody just wanted tea, but either way, after that one song we sat down and had tea with Russian bread, a carrot-butter-garlic salad, and chocolate. Mmmm.

 And after that I went home, to write this blog and think about the weird day. And while yes, any of the above could have happened in the States, remember that while I am telling you about it in English, 96.8% of the day happened in Russian...probably incoherent Russian at times, but Russian.

Win.

KF

Small Victories

15.V.13

Kristen says...

Sometimes I need a reminder about why I want to live this lifestyle.

You know, besides just waking up in the morning and realizing living in another country is actually pretty exciting. :)

I was feeling a little down this morning...I got up when Chris left for work, checked my e-mails and found out one of my favorite people in the world is moving to Des Moines! This, of course, makes me so, so happy...except now I have another friend there while I am here!

 Next I walked on the treadmill, something that would ruin any day!

Then I talked to my sister and two nephews, which in itself isn't depression-inducing, but it did make me see all the fun things I was missing out on (the temperature was in the 90s in Iowa today, and there were water tables to play with!)

We will also "celebrate" the 4-month anniversary of our arrival in Russia this week, with no return trip to the States planned in the near future. 

All that, coupled with missing Mother's Day and a family wedding this past weekend, plus the upcoming Memorial Day, a traditionally-family full day was getting me kind of down.

Anyway, Pip needed to go to the vet to get an annual vaccination, and Chris didn't drive to work today, so I decided to take Pip to the vet. Not only did I successfully drive alone through Vladivostok for the first time ever, I was able to get across what I needed with the minimum of problems. Yay.

But that is not what actually lifted my spirits.

After the vet I decided I needed some cookies (we have found these amazing butter cookies with chocolate glaze here...soooooo delicious!) so I stopped off at the grocery store.

After I'd grabbed some Diet Pepsi and cookies (the essentials, you know!) I was walking toward the milk section when a woman walked up to me and asked if I could help her. In English. 

Surprised, I said yes.

Then she asked, "Do you speak English?"

Of course, I said, "Yes."

Next, "Do you speak Russian?"

Ah. "Yes, a little."

Basically she needed help identifying an item in the deli case, and the woman behind the counter didn't understand what she wanted.

So, I helped.

I asked the understanding and patient woman behind the counter if the food was fish (it was), if it was salted (it was), and if it needed to be cooked (it didn't).

I only had to look up one word during the exchange, which I thought was a good thing.

Turns out the woman was Chinese but had studied English in Canada...what she was doing here I don't know, but I do know that she made my day, because she asked me to help, and I was able to.

And that is why I am here. I very highly doubt that experience could have been had in Des Moines, Iowa (if for no other reason than I would not have learned any Russian if I was still living in Des Moines!)

I miss my family and my friends every minute of every day, but I really treasure the experiences I'm having here, too...which is the point of it all, really.

KF

Russian Pop Concert!

13.II.13
Kristen says...

Last night we had one of our most cultural Russian experiences yet...we went to a concert!

Probably the only Russian act you can think of right now is t.A.T.u. ("All the Things She Said"), and, if you watch the news, possibly Pussy Riot (sorry, it's their choice of a name, not mine) but you probably haven't heard of МакSим (MakSim) (I hadn't...)

Anyway, we were given the opportunity to go to her concert last night, and we decided it would be fun, so we went...and it was!

Here is the link to her YouTube channel, if you're interested in listening to her music.

I especially like the tune of the song Весна (Spring):

This one (Ветром Стать) is a little more ballad-y, but she kept showing this video during the concert so I assume it's a favorite...

She sounds pretty good, although I wish I actually understood what she's saying... :)

Anyway, there were four of us in our party; Chris, me, one of Chris' co-workers, and his friend, who was Russian and therefore the only one who really understood everything that was said and sung. (Funny story, I asked her if she knew all of Maksim's music, and she said she knew it but didn't really like most of it...)

The boys picked me up from the apartment and I got my first taste of "rush hour" traffic, Vladivostok style...

I have to say, from the passenger seat I think this place has nothing on Teguc for traffic issues, but I'm sure once I am the driver I will be annoyed plenty of times while on the road :)

It was an entertaining ride, though, especially given a few of the things we saw:

Obama Sushi!

It's hard to tell, but it's a police car being towed by a truck using a long rope...

огнеопасно means flammable (огне meaning fire, опасно meaning danger)...also notice all the duct tape holding things onto the back of the truck!

Oh well, we made it safely enough, and made our way to the place where the concert was being held...

the Ocean movie theater

Don't let the time on the poster or ticket (below) fool you...the concert didn't start until well past 19:00 (7:00 pm)... :)

Movie theater/concert hall

 Apparently Russian artists aren't so picky as US artists about cameras and such at their concerts, as we (and everyone else) had our iPhones out the entire time...I even saw some nice big cameras.

The movie screen was well-used to project her videos behind her as she sang..

Except when there were technical difficulties

The band was really good, especially the guitarist. And the keyboardist was really getting into it!

Many, many people came up to her during the concert to give her bouquets or elaborate flower arrangements...apparently it's a thing with her

Within 15-20 minutes of the start of the concert people were out of their seats and in the aisles, crowding the stage. It was funny to watch the bouncers because she seemed to be inviting them to come closer and they kept kind of pushing them back

After the concert we went outside to visit the random metal tiger outside the theater

 And then out to a German restaurant for dinner/a "midnight" snack (people keep WAY different hours here than I'm used to! Much more European than Midwestern US...)

All-in-all it was very fun, and a good experience. Apparently she gives a concert here once a year, so before next year's concert I'm going to listen to her music so I'm better able to enjoy it!

KF

T Minus 1 Week and Counting!

6.I.13
Kristen says...

Well, we are in the final stretch. Within a week, we will be in Russia.

HOLY COW!!!

We still have so much to do!!! (Chris just came in and disagreed with this statement (I am glad he is confident), but I stand by it...)

For example, this week alone includes pre-packout, actual packout, getting the car serviced and ready to go, buying the rest of our stuff to ship, Pip's final vet visit, and a "quick" trip to Richmond to get his documents signed by the USDA, sorting our stuff, packing, etc...

And that's on top of all the other things we have already done, which include multiple calls to the airlines to make sure Pip will be on all three of our flights, e-mails back and forth with people on the ground in Russia, researching...

Oh, and my Russian Language test, which was last Friday.

I was so nervous!

I had the choice to take the test either before we went to Iowa or after, and I chose after, because the whole point of me being in the "long course" class was to be studying for as long as possible and finish as close as possible to the time that we left...still, I'll never know if taking from the 21st of December to the 2nd of January "off" (at least off of 8 hrs a day of study) possibly took its toll on my score...

When I was trying to explain my score to my family, I found that this website does a nice job of explaining the different levels. My final score was a 1+ in speaking and a 1+ in reading, which is, again, according to that website, "Elementary Proficiency." But lest you think I am disappointed by these scores, I will just pass on some information that was shared with me. After 16 lessons of the course I was taking people are "supposed" to be at a 2/2...so being at a 1+/1+ after just 7 lessons is nothing to sneeze at.

So obviously all the weeks (20!) of Russian work paid off. I am very happy with my score, and it gives me slight confidence heading into "all-Russian all-the-time" mode...emphasis on slight.

So even though the next week's tasks will be 99.5% conducted in English, I am still slightly overwhelmed with all that must be done between now and our departure. I'm not sure if I will have another chance to blog before we go to Russia, or how long it will take us to get Internet capability once we get there, so who knows when this will be updated again...


So let's just say, "До скорой встречи!" (See you soon!) and hope it is so! :)
KF

The Little Things Add Up...Time is Ticking!

14.XII.12
Kristen says...

First of all, for any readers in Connecticut, or anyone with small children, my heart bleeds for you in light of today's tragedies...not only did horrors occur at a school in Connecticut, but children were also slain outside a school in China...as a teacher and an aunt this truly concerns and saddens me...

Also, I apologize (again) for the long blogging hiatus. We are getting closer to leaving, and so are getting busier trying to fit things in.

Among the things we have done recently: Shopping!!
I can't believe how much "stuff" we "need" to go to Russia...food, clothing, a happy lamp...

Yep, we got a happy lamp. If you close your eyes and sit real close, you can imagine that you are on a warm Caribbean beach...it's lovely! (and will probably be really lovely in Vladivostok!)

I also (FINALLY) got a new coat (which you can see in the pictures below)...also, the handsome man standing with me (the non-statue) is my dad, who came to visit this past week!

(If these pictures are giving you déjà vu, don't worry; yes, Chris and I went to Monticello a few months ago...but Dad had always wanted to go, so we went!) :)

Pip also got a new coat! Lucky dog!

We had some other fun times with Dad, among them visiting the Smithsonian Museum of American History, and watching my "Russian Spectakle" today...

On the very first day of Russian, even before we started learning the language, the heads told us about the Новый год (New Year) party and film festival, and we have been working on it ever since. That event was today, and I was really happy both Dad and Chris were able to come watch!

In order to really get into the spirit of the even I joined the choir...I got to learn Russian songs and I also got to dress in a fun Russian outfit!

 Not only did I sing, but my classmates and I also made a fun video which was one of 14 shown at the festival: (Don't worry...the movie is in Russian but there are English subtitles throughout! Also, it's only four minutes long!)

And even better...we were voted first place by the attendees of the event!! We won the Golden Pinecone!! :)

So Russian's not going too badly...it's still not really fun, but most days I feel like I am getting somewhere...

I also took a progress test a few weeks ago, and got pretty positive results--at least, I tested better than I thought I would, so that was exciting! I take my official language test after the Christmas holidays...And then we're off!

So soon...

Other than that, life is just tripping along so quickly! Basically we have just the holidays, my test, and then we will be packing out and off to Russia...I am so excited for this new adventure, but nervous as well...it's going to be VERY interesting! What an adventure! :)

KF

Veteran's Day Weekend in DC (and surrounding areas!)

17.XI.12
Kristen says...

Hello again!

I have really had a veterans-filled last couple of weeks! Of course, I had the delightful visit from my veteran Grandpa (and my mommy!) when he came on his Honor Flight in October, and this past Monday we had the day off to celebrate the sacrifices of those veterans on the Veteran's Day holiday!

Thank you Veterans!!

We celebrated the weekend with friends and on our own...

On Saturday a group of Chris' classmates and we went to the Air and Space Museum's "companion facility" out by Dulles Airport...it was the first time I'd seen that museum and it was pretty neat! I especially appreciated it since my Grandpa was in the Army Air Corps during WWII and they even had the type of plane he flew at the museum! They also had historic information about the War and the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the first of the two atomic bombs on Japan.

We also saw more recent airships:

So big!! I had to go way high just to get most of it in the picture. It had a really interesting texture--it looks like a patchwork quilt!

We were all bemoaning the loss of the Concorde and thinking about how much more quickly we would get to post if they were still flying!

We also had a little bit of fun in the Gift Shop...

The next day we decided to go to Annapolis, MD, mostly because Chris wanted to drive our NEW CAR!! (see below) and because neither of us had been to Annapolis before. So we went!

Annapolis is a beautiful city! And very pedestrian and dog-friendly. We had a nice breakfast and bought an apple and apple cider at a small farmer's market near the wharf, and were treated to patriotic displays by midshipmen from the US Naval Academy:

Later we walked over to the US Naval Academy and went through the Visitor's Center there. It was during that stop that Chris and I heard a small group of people speaking...ПО-РУССКИЙ! (RUSSIAN)! :)

I told Chris that I kind-of wanted to say hi, since I can kind-of speak Russian, and he encouraged me to do so, so I did...and I kind-of sounded like a moron, (I said, (I think) "Excuse me, are you speaking Russian?) but we had a nice, short English conversation with a nice man from the Ukraine who was, indeed, speaking Russian with his friends. :)

They were looking at this...

...which is the name tag on the suit worn by one of the astronauts aboard the Мир (Mir) Space Station.

So that was not as successful as I wanted it to be (as we were walking back to the car I kept saying to Chris the things I should have said instead of what I did say) but at least I tried.

Anyway, on the way to Annapolis, I made the suggestion that Chris and I go to Hershey, PA "on our way home" (haha it was two hours north of Annapolis, so it was a random way to go home!) and he agreed, so we did!

We had a great couple hours at Hershey World; we took a "factory tour," saw a 3-D film with dancing chocolate, and even got to make our own custom bars:

Mine was milk chocolate with semi-sweet chips. Chris' was milk chocolate with pretzel bits. They were delicious!! We also purchased two HUGE peanut butter cups and some bite-sized candy...and we even have a bit of of it left! :)

We saw something really cool when we left Hershey, something I hadn't seen before:

If you've never seen it either, I'll tell you what it is...it's a car-charging station!! Way to go Hershey!

Of course, neither of our two Veteran's Day trips would have been possible without this little beauty:

Our NEW CAR!!!

We purchased it (it's a Toyota RAV4, in case you're interested) the Saturday before, and we have had so much fun being able to drive it around!!

Chris also had another milestone this past week...he "graduated" from school (even though he still has a few more weeks of class!)

Isn't he handsome?

I also bought a new coat! It's black, hooded, and supposedly "waterproof"...I'll believe it when I see it...

So that's what's been happening in our neck of the woods...

I continue to take Russian classes 5 days a week...I feel that it is going pretty well, but we'll see. I scheduled my final test for a few days before we leave to go to Russia, so I will be interested to see how well that goes...luckily I only have the pressure I am putting on myself to do well, and not the pressure of having to preform for a job! :)

I hope your Veteran's Day weekend was long and relaxing! :)
KF