Coup de gueule

I’ve had surprisingly few low moods here, since my arrival. They do occur, but I usually try to snap out of it, and get on with things. Alex has been having a slightly tougher time lately, so we are trying to support him as best we can. One thing that still gets me into a fit of rage (slight exaggeration), is when Russian speakers question the usefulness of our degree (Russian and politics), and our level of Russian. This has happened countless times, but I usually laugh it off, or try to explain why I chose my degree, and why my Russian is still as “appalling” as it is. I am all for constructive criticism, but when someone actually laughs and says we “can’t speak russian” (I have a certain person in mind), I just do not see the point of those comments. Surely, if anyone has tried learning a foreign language, you know that the least encouraging thing a native speaker could do is laugh at the way you speak. I am usually immune to this sort of thing, and chat with people anyway, despite making mistakes, but I still find it bloody rude. So hopefully, despite Russians thinking that our degree is completely useless, I hope to reach an acceptable level of Russian and not to be jobless. I believe a lot of things are changing in our generation, and that a degree will not necessarily get you where you want to be. Hard work and perseverance, openness and a passion for something will get you a lot further.

Autumn in Kitezh

Lately, I have been quite a lazy blogger. Since our trip to Kaluga, a new volunteer has arrived from Moscow. He’s half russian half english, and speaks both languages perfectly. He’s almost been here two weeks, and will probably be leaving soon. Other than that we’ve all been having fun together, and have been having a few get togethers, one of them being yesterday in the Banya, where we played card games and truth or dare. It was like being a fresher again. Apart from having a laugh together, we did a treasure hunt with the kids last sunday, which was quite successful. Sweets were hidden in different houses in Kitezh, and they had clues where they had to guess which house had sweets in it. Emily and I have been helping out in the kitchen quite a bit, and I also worked in the greenhouses. English classes have once again been changed, which means we temporarily no longer teach the children, because two of the teachers in Kitezh, Yulya and Nastya, who know fairly good english, are teaching them english grammar through russian. We will see if this will be a more successful way of teaching english. Other events in Kitezh have been the visit of three girls from the Urals, studying cinema. They organised a sort of cinema club, retracing the history of cinema (from charlie chaplin onwards). At the end of their stay they filmed a short film as an advert for Kitezh, imitating charlie chaplin style films. We also had the visit of a theater troupe from the neighboring region.They put on “The little prince” by Saint Exupery. It is one of my favourite books, which I read as a child. Winter hasn’t arrived yet, but Kitezh has transformed into beautiful golden and crimson colours. Today is a day off, finally. So we have been having breakfast and lunch together. Both the parents and the little girl, Dasha, in my house have left for Kaluga or Orion (the other village). They will be coming back in a couple of days. Alina is washing the kitten with a lot of dedication in the bathroom. I have decided that I might come back to Kitezh during the month of january, but Russian administration is a pain. I have two passports, so it is possible for me to apply for two visas, but considering the fact that they are so close together in time, the applications are going to be a nightmare. Although I am really enjoying my time in Kitezh and the closeness of the bonds people have to each other, I am happy that I will be experiencing something new in my second term, in St-Petersburg. Although it might be harder to meet people and Russians in particular, I will be having more classes. I hope it won’t get too lonely, after 3 months of close-knit interactions with people in this community. You get used to greeting everyone you meet with a friendly “Privyet!”(hey/hi), which means that whenever someone outside Kitezh visits, I have the reflex of going for the informal “Privyet”, rather than “zdrastvuyite” (hello). We are going to work on “kaminii dom” today, or the chimney house. A new family has arrived in Kitezh, and they are going to be living in that house when it is ready. I hope my last 5 weeks in Kitezh will be a success, and that I will enjoy as much as the rest of my stay.