Frustration

My dezhurnaya (floor mother) has been asking me for this little "napravleniye" document for a week now. I mentioned something to Irina about it the first time, and she said it would be taken care of. Then yesterday another dezhurnaya came by and asked me for it again. I was really confused and annoyed because 1. I couldn't understand her and 2. Irina wasn't helping me out. She instructed me to tell the woman that someone from the administration should have called her, and then have her call Irina if she needed anything else. Well, I obviously couldn't say anything that complicated to the dezhurnaya, so she told me to give it to her tomorrow (aka, today). The guys brought down mine about an hour ago and I went to take it to the dezhurnaya. I gave it to her, and she started flipping out on me. "Do you have your check?" she kept asking me. I told her, "No, Irina has it," about ten times. Then she kept saying something else to me, and I didn't understand. Slow, fast, angrily, patiently, no matter how many times and ways she repeated herself, I wasn't going to understand. So I said something like, "Irina, telephone, speak," and gave her my cell phone. I started crying while she was on the phone, because I just cannot communicate with anyone. I am so angry with myself and my classes- how can I learn Russian when I have only had 3 language classes?!?! I think it got straightened out, but that woman definitely hates me now.

This kinda ruined my nice little day. I rode the metro, bought some conditioner, and took a nice long walk in the cold. Last night the forecast said 1-3 inches of snow today, but today it just says rain. My ramble took me through some quiet neighborhoods, where normal people go about their daily life. I tried to imagine what it would be like to live in one of those neighborhoods, in a high-rise apartment... shopping at the corner store... riding the trams and buses. These are things I already do in my everyday life, but it still feels like I'm an outsider looking in.

Here are two pictures of the intersection where my metro stop, the rinok, and the bus stops to the university are located. The building in the center of the first picture is the entrance to the metro. The second really just shows the billboard, but the rinok is right beyond that.

One week already!

I'm finally back on the internet! We have free WiFi on the 5th floor of the building where I have class, and luckily class was cancelled for today, so here I am writing this up. The connection is pretty poor, so we'll see how this goes.

I haven't been doing too much, but at the same time I am doing a lot. The past few days have been spent trying to get settled in and meet new people. Saturday, the ladies in my group and a few from the university went to the Eternal Flame and inside the Kremlin. The Eternal Flame was my request because all the newlyweds visit the flame and lay a bouquet as tradition, so I wanted to see that. Inside the Kremlin, which sounds really neat, was a little underwhelming. It's a lot of cathedrals and then lots of buildings you can't go near. I also walked down Stary Arbat one day, which was pretty fun too. It's a street with lots of souvenier shops and artists and performers.

I've also gone out exploring a few times. I like to ride the Metro and look at the pretty stations- some are really fancy- and the people. Yesterday I got off at one stop and walked all the way to the other one. It took me an hour, but the neighborhood was really different and nice- lots of families, kids, and green space. Yesterday and today the weather had been beautiful, in the upper 60s/ low 70s with lots of sunshine. However, tomorrow it's supposed to be a LOT cooler (8 C) and stay that way for a few days, then warm up again!

As far as my language abilities go- they're getting better, sloooowly. One thing that's important to remember is that if you can't say it in Russian, it's better to not say it at all. It confuses and annoys people to hear a mix of English and Russian. I can read it pretty well now, (and thus sound out the words) and I can even understand a conversation if people speak slow enough. You have to remember that there are lots of people who grew up in the USSR for whom Russian is not their first language, so they speak it slowly and simply enough to be understood.

What's very ironic is that I have been speaking a TON of German. A lot of the people I have met are German or Austrian- or they speak German- so there's no language barrier there. One of my Russian acquantainces speaks German very well, so for us it's easier just to talk in German rather than English or Russian. When we go out in a group, it's fun to transition from one language to another to yet anouther. I always thought I was weird for not speaking any Spanish in America (one American said to me last night, "How do you survive in America by not speaking Spanish?") but here it's definitely an asset to speak English and German, and to know even just a little Russian.

Well, I guess I have said enough for today, so I'll leave you with a few pictures I've taken lately.