Jenny -
Best
The 8th of March, International Women’s Day, turned out to be a very interesting day for us. A group of us were interviewed by the television station, Russia Today, on our thoughts and opinions regarding the holiday. It was a unique experience and we received flowers and candy from the TV station as a thank-you.
Worst
Overall, everything on the trip has been going very well, so the only negative aspects have been sickness and injuries. Food poisoning, hospital visits, flu-like symptoms, injured knees and ankles have been a part of our experience, but all of this has been successfully overcome.
Laura -
We have been in Russia for about five weeks now, and I can’t believe how fast each day goes by. I have probably seen more plays in Russia than I have in my entire life before now. Usually we read the plays in English before going to see them, but I decided to try an adapted Japanese play that I heard was good with very little idea of what would happen. It actually ended up being very comprehensible because it was interwoven with a Chekhov play we have studied, and all the women were fighting for the position of the actress I have played in class. Some things still weren’t clear but it is amazing how much music, lighting, and acting all combine with the dialogue to convey the meaning of the play. One of the most memorable experiences I have had was my short taste of Russian high society, when I was invited into the VIP room of a downtown restaurant only to find myself at a party for the Moscow soccer team that had won that night. Money was clearly not an issue, there was an entire lamb being carved for them in the corner of the room while we drank bottles of wine each worth many hundreds of dollars. Though it was pretty exciting to hang out with the athletes, this absolutely extreme end
of society doesn’t really appeal to me, I noticed how little of a role women played, really only serving as decorations for the man they were with. No really awful experience stands out to me, every time I get frustrated I try to appreciate the different aspects of Russian culture. The other day during rush hour one of the escalators was closed and everyone was being crushed as we all tried to get down. The man behind me actually put his forearm across my back and just pushed me through the crowd and I got spun around in the process but made it to the escalator pretty quickly--I guess he thought I would be easily visible. I think it’s better to ride the metro with my violin, if people cut me off I can just “accidentally” hit them in the knees and keep going on my way. The Russians have a soft spot for musicians, the only times I get smiles from strangers are when I am carrying my violin around; all the old people especially look at me like they might hug me. It’s pretty exciting to know I can survive day to day life here even with my minimal language skills and I can’t believe our trip is half over in just a few days.
Christina -
After almo
st five weeks in Russia, I started to have a new found love for the city of Moscow. It has everything I love about city life as well as ‘culture.’ The only problem that I have encountered is that we never have enough time to enjoy living here because we are so busy with classes and homework. Also, we don’t have enough time to learn the language which is frustrating for me. Before I came to Russia, I thought this program would be a ‘Russian language program’ rather than the ‘Russian culture program’ that we have right now. It is true that my Russian is improving day by day, but the result so far is not satisfying (yet), but I hope that by the end of the semester our Russian will get much better and be enough to communicate and to read Dostoevsky in Russian, which has been my dream in learning the language.
Robert -
The biggest problem that I have run into is both a blessing and a problem. The program actually keeps us so busy with school, plays, and activities that we don’t have a lot of free time to explore Moscow ourselves and do things that are not related to the theater world. When we do have free time we are always so exhausted that we don’t have the energy to go out. The blessing of this is that we are completely immersed in the theater world we are studying, and therefore learning a lot.
Noam-
Russia is a strange country in that it seems to bring to the surface problems that nobody realized were there . I could be referring to its effect on people on our trip, or on its own populace for the last thousand years but whatever. My personal belief is that before we all become underground men (and women) there will be a great catalyst for change and our "russkaya handra", or "angliski splin" , perhaps even our "bulgarski peretz" will be cured by the emergence of that great shining object around which our world revolves ... no, not Maria Corrigan, but the sun. So in essence, everyone's problems are pretty minor issues which will probably ..hopefully go away.
David -
Dostoevsky’s underground man, living alone in a Petersburg garret, describes in his famous notes how he finds himself repeatedly ramming his head against a brick wall, knowing that it will never give way to him. This anti-hero and I may have little in common; I live in a second floor dorm room with a good friend, and my liver, thanks, perhaps, to my aversion to vodka, seems well. However, a formidable barrier stands before me, and, at times, I cannot help but feel that my efforts are Quixotic at best. My problems, unlike those of Dostoevsky’s character, are more linguistic than spiritual, but, then, not being able to express oneself, for whatever reason, can be an exhausting and even depressing business. True, ordering sandwiches and coffee has ceased to be terrifying, but to have communication limited to casual exchanges regarding the simplest of issues highlights my separation from this culture and the people I see everyday. My ability to understand Russian has improved significantly over the past few weeks, and I gain a great deal of confidence when I sit down to read a play without needing to constantly make reference to a translation. I even understand much of what is said around me. The real disappointment is understanding others without being able to say much, and this is my most significant problem. The gap between my levels of speech comprehension and production has rea
ched its greatest extent. This makes conversation very difficult. I can sympathize with others when they do not believe that I have understood what they have said. After all, I could not, in many cases, repeat their words without sounding like an exotic bird, minus the exciting plumage. My impulse is to not speak, but this will simply exacerbate the problem. So I do need to continue my charges at the wall, which right now seems as thick and sturdy as those of the Kremlin. This is not a joyless task, and being able to sit and understand much of a wonderful production of Gogol’s The Inspector General, for example, was a fantastic reward, though not the only. That experience gave me a taste of what I hope to enjoy later. My task now is to speak Russian not only as a quiet consumer, stammering co-student, or anonymous reader, but as myself. Only by doing this will I be able to bring not only my bags and body from America, but also my mind and spirit. So, I suppose that this linguistic problem is also, to some degree, existential. My liver is really fine, though.
Maria -
99 Problems . . . But Prof. Corrigan Ain’t One
Maybe it’s because this is not my first time living in Russia, but I have not encountered many problems over the past month of our program. There is, of course, the usual lethargy I associate with the changing weather, the difficult choices to be made when one lives in a c
ity that has a lot of good theater, movies, and music going on every night (as well as bad theater, movies, and music), and the fact that if any one is too noisy or messy on our floor, our Russian floormates immediately blame the Americans. All of this, though, is not very difficult to deal with - especially because the city is presently melting and the sun shines a lot more than it did when we arrived.
Walker (a.k.a. Vova, Vovchik, Yasha, and Volk) -
Here's a little story about going to the hospital in Russia:
Sunday afternoon, I met with my professor (Elena) at a coffee house. I had some coffee and a really sketchy chicken sandwich. That evening, we went to a play. I had diarrhea at the play, so I decided to play it safe and go home early. The next morning, I woke up with feverish-style chills and severe nausea accompanied by yet even more loose stool. I made the decision not to go to class. Instead, I tried to get some sleeping done. I was awakened by a phone call from Elena, who wanted to know why I wasn't in class that day. I told her about my symptoms, and she began to freak out and demand that I go to the hospital. I didn't put up a fight. That might have been a mistake. She came over to the dorm with some guy in a car. She said it would be better for us to drive to this hospital. After about an hour and a half of being stuck in traffic and getting lost a couple of times, we arrived at the hospital. It honestly would have taken less time for us to walk there. I go in, and an English speaking doctor sees me. He asks all sorts of questions about my illness, and Elena keeps insisting that the chicken sandwich is the cause of all my problems. After some x-ray action, the doctor concludes that I most likely have a bacterial infection due to something I ate. He then tells me that he'd like to keep me in the hospital overnight and put me on an antibiotic drip set. I'm not inclined to argue, so they cart me off to the ER, where they start an IV on me and prepare to take me off to my room on the second floor. I get carted off to a room with 5 or 6 beds to be looked after by some nurses that don't speak a word of English. Fortunately, nobody else was in any of these beds at the time, so I got the room to myself. This also meant that I didn't have to share the one bathroom with anybody, which turned out to be fantastic news. By the time they had me in my room with the antibiotics working their way into my blood, I was getting pretty hungry (I hadn't eaten anything since that chicken sandwich). I asked about when I could eat and was told that I wasn't allowed to have anything to eat due to the nature of my illness (or something along those lines. Remember, these nurses didn't speak any English). Eventually another (English speaking) doctor came in to tell me that she'd read my medical report and she knew all about my illness. She then proceeded to ask me the exact same questions the first doctor had asked. Eventually, I was left alone in order that I might sleep. That was impossible, as I kept waking up every 45 minutes or so from the pain in my arm due to that damn IV or because I needed to poop or both. Twice in the middle of the night, I needed to press the nurse call button. The first time I called for a nurse, I got a very grumpy woman who didn't seem to much like her job. Here's how that went:
(NOTE: conversation in Russian)
HER: (in a somewhat angry sounding voice) "What happened?"
ME: (timidly and frightened) "Uh, could I get some more toilet paper in the bathroom?"
HER: (sighs angrily)
Well, she did give me more toilet paper. That was good. I pressed the call button again, roughly two hours later. I was very frightened and thirsty. This time, a different nurse showed up. This one also spoke no English, but she was very nice. Here's how this conversation went.
HER: Can I help you?
ME: Could I get some more water?
HER: Of course!
I liked that one better. So the next day (yesterday) is kind of a blur to me, as I kept falling asleep. I did eventually recieve some good news that I would be able to leave with some antibiotics which I have to take for the next week. I was getting ready to leave the hospital, when Elena called to tell me to wait for her to come get me. I waited another two hours. She then called to tell me that she wouldn't be able to make it, and I promised her that I would be able to get home safely. I Then went on to walk home (which did indeed take less time than the drive over). After the walk, I arrived feeling not so well. I tried to sleep last night, but my sleep was regularly interrupted again. At least I don't have that IV in my arm anymore. As it stands, I still have yet to eat anything since that chicken sandwich, and I still feel as though I wouldn't be able to hold anything down if I did eat it. At least my fever's gone down, and I'm pooping less.
Ginger -
Likes:
I really like the amount of exposure we have to Russian, through plays and class. We see a lot of plays and even if you did not particularly enjoy the plays, through exposure, they help improve your Russian. Naturally, I also really like the city of Moscow.
Dislikes:
This isn’t particular to Russia, but I don’t like the uptight attitude of MXAT. It results in everything becoming a bigger issue than it really is. Missing class, being late, and forgetting things are often blown out of proportion. That is the only thing that has given me a negative perception of the program, but perhaps it is our fault after all.
Best
The 8th of March, International Women’s Day, turned out to be a very interesting day for us. A group of us were interviewed by the television station, Russia Today, on our thoughts and opinions regarding the holiday. It was a unique experience and we received flowers and candy from the TV station as a thank-you.
Worst
Overall, everything on the trip has been going very well, so the only negative aspects have been sickness and injuries. Food poisoning, hospital visits, flu-like symptoms, injured knees and ankles have been a part of our experience, but all of this has been successfully overcome.
Laura -
We have been in Russia for about five weeks now, and I can’t believe how fast each day goes by. I have probably seen more plays in Russia than I have in my entire life before now. Usually we read the plays in English before going to see them, but I decided to try an adapted Japanese play that I heard was good with very little idea of what would happen. It actually ended up being very comprehensible because it was interwoven with a Chekhov play we have studied, and all the women were fighting for the position of the actress I have played in class. Some things still weren’t clear but it is amazing how much music, lighting, and acting all combine with the dialogue to convey the meaning of the play. One of the most memorable experiences I have had was my short taste of Russian high society, when I was invited into the VIP room of a downtown restaurant only to find myself at a party for the Moscow soccer team that had won that night. Money was clearly not an issue, there was an entire lamb being carved for them in the corner of the room while we drank bottles of wine each worth many hundreds of dollars. Though it was pretty exciting to hang out with the athletes, this absolutely extreme end
of society doesn’t really appeal to me, I noticed how little of a role women played, really only serving as decorations for the man they were with. No really awful experience stands out to me, every time I get frustrated I try to appreciate the different aspects of Russian culture. The other day during rush hour one of the escalators was closed and everyone was being crushed as we all tried to get down. The man behind me actually put his forearm across my back and just pushed me through the crowd and I got spun around in the process but made it to the escalator pretty quickly--I guess he thought I would be easily visible. I think it’s better to ride the metro with my violin, if people cut me off I can just “accidentally” hit them in the knees and keep going on my way. The Russians have a soft spot for musicians, the only times I get smiles from strangers are when I am carrying my violin around; all the old people especially look at me like they might hug me. It’s pretty exciting to know I can survive day to day life here even with my minimal language skills and I can’t believe our trip is half over in just a few days.
Christina -
After almo
st five weeks in Russia, I started to have a new found love for the city of Moscow. It has everything I love about city life as well as ‘culture.’ The only problem that I have encountered is that we never have enough time to enjoy living here because we are so busy with classes and homework. Also, we don’t have enough time to learn the language which is frustrating for me. Before I came to Russia, I thought this program would be a ‘Russian language program’ rather than the ‘Russian culture program’ that we have right now. It is true that my Russian is improving day by day, but the result so far is not satisfying (yet), but I hope that by the end of the semester our Russian will get much better and be enough to communicate and to read Dostoevsky in Russian, which has been my dream in learning the language.Robert -
The biggest problem that I have run into is both a blessing and a problem. The program actually keeps us so busy with school, plays, and activities that we don’t have a lot of free time to explore Moscow ourselves and do things that are not related to the theater world. When we do have free time we are always so exhausted that we don’t have the energy to go out. The blessing of this is that we are completely immersed in the theater world we are studying, and therefore learning a lot.
Noam-
Russia is a strange country in that it seems to bring to the surface problems that nobody realized were there . I could be referring to its effect on people on our trip, or on its own populace for the last thousand years but whatever. My personal belief is that before we all become underground men (and women) there will be a great catalyst for change and our "russkaya handra", or "angliski splin" , perhaps even our "bulgarski peretz" will be cured by the emergence of that great shining object around which our world revolves ... no, not Maria Corrigan, but the sun. So in essence, everyone's problems are pretty minor issues which will probably ..hopefully go away.
David -
Dostoevsky’s underground man, living alone in a Petersburg garret, describes in his famous notes how he finds himself repeatedly ramming his head against a brick wall, knowing that it will never give way to him. This anti-hero and I may have little in common; I live in a second floor dorm room with a good friend, and my liver, thanks, perhaps, to my aversion to vodka, seems well. However, a formidable barrier stands before me, and, at times, I cannot help but feel that my efforts are Quixotic at best. My problems, unlike those of Dostoevsky’s character, are more linguistic than spiritual, but, then, not being able to express oneself, for whatever reason, can be an exhausting and even depressing business. True, ordering sandwiches and coffee has ceased to be terrifying, but to have communication limited to casual exchanges regarding the simplest of issues highlights my separation from this culture and the people I see everyday. My ability to understand Russian has improved significantly over the past few weeks, and I gain a great deal of confidence when I sit down to read a play without needing to constantly make reference to a translation. I even understand much of what is said around me. The real disappointment is understanding others without being able to say much, and this is my most significant problem. The gap between my levels of speech comprehension and production has rea
ched its greatest extent. This makes conversation very difficult. I can sympathize with others when they do not believe that I have understood what they have said. After all, I could not, in many cases, repeat their words without sounding like an exotic bird, minus the exciting plumage. My impulse is to not speak, but this will simply exacerbate the problem. So I do need to continue my charges at the wall, which right now seems as thick and sturdy as those of the Kremlin. This is not a joyless task, and being able to sit and understand much of a wonderful production of Gogol’s The Inspector General, for example, was a fantastic reward, though not the only. That experience gave me a taste of what I hope to enjoy later. My task now is to speak Russian not only as a quiet consumer, stammering co-student, or anonymous reader, but as myself. Only by doing this will I be able to bring not only my bags and body from America, but also my mind and spirit. So, I suppose that this linguistic problem is also, to some degree, existential. My liver is really fine, though.
Maria -
99 Problems . . . But Prof. Corrigan Ain’t One
Maybe it’s because this is not my first time living in Russia, but I have not encountered many problems over the past month of our program. There is, of course, the usual lethargy I associate with the changing weather, the difficult choices to be made when one lives in a c
ity that has a lot of good theater, movies, and music going on every night (as well as bad theater, movies, and music), and the fact that if any one is too noisy or messy on our floor, our Russian floormates immediately blame the Americans. All of this, though, is not very difficult to deal with - especially because the city is presently melting and the sun shines a lot more than it did when we arrived.Walker (a.k.a. Vova, Vovchik, Yasha, and Volk) -
Here's a little story about going to the hospital in Russia:Sunday afternoon, I met with my professor (Elena) at a coffee house. I had some coffee and a really sketchy chicken sandwich. That evening, we went to a play. I had diarrhea at the play, so I decided to play it safe and go home early. The next morning, I woke up with feverish-style chills and severe nausea accompanied by yet even more loose stool. I made the decision not to go to class. Instead, I tried to get some sleeping done. I was awakened by a phone call from Elena, who wanted to know why I wasn't in class that day. I told her about my symptoms, and she began to freak out and demand that I go to the hospital. I didn't put up a fight. That might have been a mistake. She came over to the dorm with some guy in a car. She said it would be better for us to drive to this hospital. After about an hour and a half of being stuck in traffic and getting lost a couple of times, we arrived at the hospital. It honestly would have taken less time for us to walk there. I go in, and an English speaking doctor sees me. He asks all sorts of questions about my illness, and Elena keeps insisting that the chicken sandwich is the cause of all my problems. After some x-ray action, the doctor concludes that I most likely have a bacterial infection due to something I ate. He then tells me that he'd like to keep me in the hospital overnight and put me on an antibiotic drip set. I'm not inclined to argue, so they cart me off to the ER, where they start an IV on me and prepare to take me off to my room on the second floor. I get carted off to a room with 5 or 6 beds to be looked after by some nurses that don't speak a word of English. Fortunately, nobody else was in any of these beds at the time, so I got the room to myself. This also meant that I didn't have to share the one bathroom with anybody, which turned out to be fantastic news. By the time they had me in my room with the antibiotics working their way into my blood, I was getting pretty hungry (I hadn't eaten anything since that chicken sandwich). I asked about when I could eat and was told that I wasn't allowed to have anything to eat due to the nature of my illness (or something along those lines. Remember, these nurses didn't speak any English). Eventually another (English speaking) doctor came in to tell me that she'd read my medical report and she knew all about my illness. She then proceeded to ask me the exact same questions the first doctor had asked. Eventually, I was left alone in order that I might sleep. That was impossible, as I kept waking up every 45 minutes or so from the pain in my arm due to that damn IV or because I needed to poop or both. Twice in the middle of the night, I needed to press the nurse call button. The first time I called for a nurse, I got a very grumpy woman who didn't seem to much like her job. Here's how that went:
(NOTE: conversation in Russian)
HER: (in a somewhat angry sounding voice) "What happened?"
ME: (timidly and frightened) "Uh, could I get some more toilet paper in the bathroom?"
HER: (sighs angrily)
Well, she did give me more toilet paper. That was good. I pressed the call button again, roughly two hours later. I was very frightened and thirsty. This time, a different nurse showed up. This one also spoke no English, but she was very nice. Here's how this conversation went.
HER: Can I help you?
ME: Could I get some more water?
HER: Of course!
I liked that one better. So the next day (yesterday) is kind of a blur to me, as I kept falling asleep. I did eventually recieve some good news that I would be able to leave with some antibiotics which I have to take for the next week. I was getting ready to leave the hospital, when Elena called to tell me to wait for her to come get me. I waited another two hours. She then called to tell me that she wouldn't be able to make it, and I promised her that I would be able to get home safely. I Then went on to walk home (which did indeed take less time than the drive over). After the walk, I arrived feeling not so well. I tried to sleep last night, but my sleep was regularly interrupted again. At least I don't have that IV in my arm anymore. As it stands, I still have yet to eat anything since that chicken sandwich, and I still feel as though I wouldn't be able to hold anything down if I did eat it. At least my fever's gone down, and I'm pooping less.
Ginger -
Likes:
I really like the amount of exposure we have to Russian, through plays and class. We see a lot of plays and even if you did not particularly enjoy the plays, through exposure, they help improve your Russian. Naturally, I also really like the city of Moscow.
Dislikes:
This isn’t particular to Russia, but I don’t like the uptight attitude of MXAT. It results in everything becoming a bigger issue than it really is. Missing class, being late, and forgetting things are often blown out of proportion. That is the only thing that has given me a negative perception of the program, but perhaps it is our fault after all.
