Spooooky Houuuse SpookyHouse!

Well faithful readers, it’s Halloween and I am happy and full of candy.  I showed my students The Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror and even stopped myself from explaining all the references and jokes they were missing.  In the evening, I went with young Danilo to see Gogol’s “Overcoat” at the Puppet Theater.  What an experience.  First of all, there were no kids in the audience; it wasn’t a show for kids.  The theater was beautiful, modern, quite large, and sold-out.  Danilo somehow got us tickets in the third row, even though they were two of the last ten tickets to be sold.  When we first sat down, I was amazed by the set: a huge bed, a coat spread out over the ceiling and a door in the middle of the coat.  It began with the hero, the only human in the cast, lying in bed and a cast of white, ghost-like, Jim Henson-looking puppets rising up all around him.  One of the coolest aspects of the show was the great variety of the puppets.  From plush to avant-garde to almost Japanese, there was no attempt at uniformity, and that in and of itself was exciting to watch.

The production started where Gogol’s story ends: the hero, his coat stolen, is dead and roaming the earth as a ghost.  In this play, by turns funny and frightening, the coat falls to different characters, but is so intent on finding her true owner that she brings bad luck to anyone who tries to possess her.  Or at least, I think that’s what was going on.  The truth is, I understood very little of what was said.  I was just so stunned by the music, scenery and artistry of the spectacle that I found it very moving.  I even cried when the puppeteers came out at the curtain call, like my mom used to at our school plays when the principal said, “The kids worked so hard on this.”

Well that’s all I got.  Tomorrow morning I’m off to Tiumen, so there probably won’t be a new blog post until there’s a new incumbent president.  Let us pray.

Shoulda Been Gone, After All Your Words of Steel

Had a frustrating day at work, but it ended quite pleasantly.  I had scheduled meetings with the two third-year groups whose methodological projects I'm supervising.  I even went in early to print out extra copies of their assigned Gospels.  Not only did I not have the room I scheduled, the first group didn't show up.  I had tea and took care of some business and was about to leave when I decided to give the second group the benefit of the doubt.  Sure enough, three students were waiting for me, and we had quite a nice little talk.  I came home for a while, then returned to the school for my next class.  Before it started, a kid who was supposed to be at the second meeting called me and said she couldn't find me and could I give her the information now.  I got a little self-righteous in my old age and told her that the other students had no problem finding me, and it was her responsibility to get the info.  To drop the bomb on my bad mood, nobody showed up for the next scheduled class.  Later a student told me that they did come, apparently on Russian time, ie ten minutes late, and I just didn't wait long enough.  Nuts to them!  I took a walk and then drank tea in the kafedra (head-quarters?).  

My last scheduled class was with a great group and they're always a pleasure.  They're studying ecology so I gave them a brief natural history of the United States, which somehow ended up as an anti-imperialist rant.  I believe it was one of Maida's high school history teachers who used to say, "There's no "north" from space; the white man decided north is up."  (It's amazing how many quotes from Maida's teachers have entered my vernacular.)  Anyway the students were very interested and engaged, and with them the time goes by very fast.  Before I knew it, I was home, chatting with mom and cooking pelmeni.  

By the way, I downloaded "Burn After Reading" and was absolutely loving it, it's just pure classic Coen, when it cut out after some 90 minutes.  I wonder if my neighbors heard me yell out, "Noooo!"

Nothing Special, Just a Girl

I don’t have much to report, I’m just so happy to have the internet in my home.  At this very moment, I’m chatting with both my beloved mama and fellow ETA Mary-Katherine (Masha-Katya).  I can’t even express how much of a difference it makes to feel connected.  I’ve already rediscovered the joys of Facebook, MySpace and, my all-time favorite, AllUC.org.  Many American websites, like Pandora don’t work here, but, joy of joys, I can watch movies and tv shows.  I’ve already downloaded the new Coen brothers movie, Oliver Stone’s Bush bio-pic, Terry Gilliam’s documentary about trying to make a movie of Don Quixote, and a bunch of Home Movies and Dr. Katz.  

What else did I do today...bought my train tickets to Tiumen, sent out more postcards (now that I know they eventually do arrive) and taught my students to say “awesome” and “bitchin’.”  Also I got in trouble again, this time with a colleague who’s my age, for not relying heavily enough on the textbook.  You’re damned if you do, and I’ll be damned if I let Zikova’s English Grammar rule my life.  Tomorrow I’m working with some 3rd-year students on their Christmas project, teaching the Bible as literature.  Unfortunately, I assigned the wrong Gospel, but it will kill some time to read the right one.  The good news is, I’m so lackadaisical about teaching, I’ve become the favorite among the students.  Rock!  Alright friends, it’s time for me to curl up with George Clooney and two flavors of ice cream.  Hope you all have as nice a night as I will.

Wheel's on Fire

Ladies and Gentlemen, I can hardly believe my luck.  I am writing, and soon will be posting, from my house.  That's right: I got internet in my apartment!  They gave me enough wire to take my computer all over the flat and the connection is surprisingly fast.  I even get the first month free (not including the 1000 ruble installation fee of course).  Today the Mac expert came to iron out the kinks.  He even spoke English and, though I busted him watching one of my episodes of "The Simpsons" when the installation still wasn't complete, he was nice enough.  Not nice enough for me to accept his flirtatious invitation to "call anytime," but he got the job done.

So now I'm reclining on my luxurious, mattress-ed bed, thinking about all the things I can do now that I couldn't before.  I think I'll even join VKontakti, the Russian version of Facebook, just to further blur the line between student and teacher at the Ped. Institute.

This evening I gave my second English class at the synagogue.  It wasn't as well attended as the first, but that's ok because this group was much more manageable.  We read Countee Cullen's "The Incident" and Langston Hughes' "Harlem (A Dream Deferred)," the latter of which I read in my best Stephen T. Colbert voice.  The participants, I hesitate to call them students, trudged through the poems and I think came away with a good sense of both form and content.  The one problem was an overly eager student, who took it upon himself to correct the others' English grammar.  I, as the teacher, don't even correct grammar, because I know it's nerve-wracking enough to speak in a foreign language.  If he comes again and pulls the same shit, I'll give him what-for.  Also, when we were talking about racism and political correctness (a favorite topic of Russians'), I joked that I don't feel any liberal guilt, because while Africans were enslaved in America, my family was "busy being raped by Cossacks."  No one got the joke, or even how that could be a joke. I guess it was lost in translation...

Friday is Halloween, so I've started a rumor that anyone who says "Trick or Treat" to me will get some candy.  I bought three bags of candy, so hopefully they'll take me up on it.  Also I plan not to "teach" but to show episodes of "The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror."  That evening, I'm going with my colleague Dasha's son Danilo to see "The Overcoat" at the local puppet theater.  I have no doubt that it will be a remarkable production.

Next week we have two days off school, because what used to be The Day of the Revolution is now The Day of Remembrance and Forgiveness.  Hilarious.  To celebrate, I'm going to Tiumen to visit Katherine, a second-year ETA.  It will be great to see her and to visit another city.  My only regret is that I'll have to leave before the election results are in, so when I get back I'll be drinking (either champagne or vodka, depending) alone.  For now, I'm happier than a proverbial pig in shit.

I got internet in my apartment!

Have Idea, have Ikea (also rhymes in Russian)

I’ve had a great Saturday, and as Homer Simpson remarked in a classic episode, “I owe it all to not going to church,” or in my case, temple. I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve become rather derelict in my temple attendance, missing both the end of Sukkot and Simchat Torah, but I had the totally legitimate excuse of sickness. This morning, however, I chose to play skip, a choice I actually made last night despite setting my alarm. I decided I was still less than 100% healthy, it would be behoovey to get my Saturday morning sleep. Compounded with the fact that I got drunk with friends Friday night, I slept this morning ‘til almost noon. I had one more, even worse excuse: I had plans to go to a reggae club tonight and wanted to save my strength. I used to pull that sort of thing in high school and college, skipping class during the day so I could go to work or a show at night. I guess you don’t grow out of certain priorities. Anyway when I woke up I had a text from my friend Nadia that plans had changed and reggae was out. Go figure.

I had a nice chicken soup breakfast and cold cereal lunch before meeting Nadia downtown for a movie. On the way we saw Sergei, the husband of my colleague Dasha, who was just returning from an attempt to buy Chuck Berry tickets for the three of us (the box office was inexplicably closed). Imagine: in the third biggest city in Russia, running into an acquaintance who was just doing something that concerns you directly. The funniest part was that, having met Sergei only once before, I wasn’t even sure it was him, so I stared him down until he said hello first. I’m starting to get the hang of this city.

Actually, the chances of that meeting weren’t so small, since Nadia and I were going to the cinema/performance theater where the Chuck Berry concert will be. Cosmos is a huge, beautiful, really cool complex, decorated, like the other theater I visited, to combine classic architecture with modern technology. Between Open Season 2 and Admiral, we chose to see Admiral, and, as it turned out, rightly so. Initially, I had very little interest in this film. It’s the story of a naval officer of the White Guard (the tsar’s army), living and loving through the Revolution. I thought it would be a proper balance of romantic sap and cheap, Hollywood-style special effects. How wrong I was. The film was so gripping, so moving, I cried in the middle and sobbed at the end. I’m generally not drawn in by war movies, but this was made in the tradition of Saving Private Ryan; from the very beginning, you’re right in there with the soldiers. Moreover, since the hero is a member of the White Guard, the filmmaker didn’t exactly glorify the revolution. Even the love story was complicated and beautiful. The male lead is the same guy from the Night and Day Watch movies, and according to Nadia is ubiquitous in Russian cinema, and the female lead bears a striking resemblance to Anna Karenina. I sincerely hope this movie makes its way to America, where with the help of subtitles, you all can catch all the nuances that I missed.

After the movie, and my crying-headache, Nadia asked what plans I have for tomorrow. It turns out we both, independently of each other, planned to go to the Mega shopping mall. I had actually wanted to ask her to go with me, but I didn’t want to be needy or annoying. This works out perfectly; I’ll help her pick out new pants and she’ll help me pick out a new mattress at IKEA. Now I’m home, watching The Incredibles dubbed into Russian on tv. It wants for the voice talents of the original, but loses nothing in the categories of cute and clever. All I plan to do tonight is measure my bed and kiss its uncomfortable Soviet ass goodbye. Well, goodnight!

Epilogue: bought the mattress, but instead of ordering a taxi, I apparently ordered next day delivery. Anyway I got it this morning.

A Quick One While He's Away

Dear Comrades,
After a quick battle with a sore throat, I'm feeling all better. It certainly helped to take the day off work. I made chicken soup, watched "The Great Escape," read 1/2 of a stupid book about American English and, what helped me the most, called home. It made me feel so much better to hear my parents' voices, and I hope I didn't worry them by sounding hoarse. The point of this post is to let you, Mom and Dad, know that I'm fully recovered. It also didn't hurt that I took a sleeping pill and after two nights of only 4 hours' of sleep, I was out for a full 12 hours.

Now I've gotta run for my first class with 3rd year students, in which I'm helping them do their methodology projects, a term I barely understand. The topic is winter holidays in America so I get to teach the Bible as Literature, while dreams of Bruce Chilton dance in my head.

Oh yeah, about that show I went to on Sunday, my friend/student/rock journalist Masha asked me to write an article for her website, UralRock.ru. It's my first Russian-language publication, in fact one of my first publications ever. Bitchin'.

Welcome to the Working Week

What a great weekend, and not just great in the context of being lonely in a weird country, but truly great. It started Thursday evening when, together with Katie, I had Tanya over for dinner. Tanya is the receptionist/manager of the university’s English department, and roughly my age. She’s one of the few people who doesn’t slow down her speech when she talks to me, nor does she ever stop to ask if I understand. Most of the time, in fact, I don’t understand what she’s saying, but she speaks in such a way, and usually concludes by cheekily smiling and squinting her eyes, that I find her hilarious. It was very nice having her over, and now I might be able to refer to her the way the rest of the department does, as “Tanichka.” Friday night I met a woman who was interested having private English lessons and had been referred to me by a colleague. I was fully prepared to charge her 500 rubles an hour for serious, structured lessons, but when she arrived, everything changed. She too was about my age, and lovely in the way that explains why Russian women are considered (if only by Russians) to be the most beautiful in the world. Instead of payment, we decided to do dual-language meetings, so we will work on her English and my Russian. After she left, Katie and I watched Sluzhebni Roman (“Office Romance”). It’s a Soviet romantic comedy about a businesswoman and her nebbishe employee, and the most enjoyable movie I’ve seen in a long time. I have a categorical problem with any movie in which a hardworking woman undergoes a makeover to get a man, but besides that, I loved it. In Hollywood, the female lead would be played by Diane Keaton and the male by Woody Allen. Hey, that sounds familiar...

Saturday began at temple and lunch with my Israeli friends. We ate ourselves silly, including breaded chicken wrapped around an egg, a strange dish that was like a cross between kotleti and chicken kiev. I taught them a song from Jessie Strongin’s Hebrew school about how “Wherever you go, there’s always someone Jewish. You’re not alone when you say you’re a Jew...” Then I asked if any of them had seen Fiddler on the Roof, because it seems to be unknown in Russia. Chaia started singing “Matchmaker” and “Wonder of Wonders.” When the other two Israeli girls and one Russian said they had never seen it, I suggested that the temple could buy and screen the film. “Why would they do that,” Chaia asked, “when it’s so anti-semitic?” Then commenced most bizarre quarrel of my life: in Russia, an American arguing with an Israeli over the anti-semitic implications of Fiddler on the Roof. Chaia contended that Tevya’s daughters’ rejection of Judaism and their perspective of the traditions paints Jews in a negative light. I understood her point, but because of the language barrier, couldn’t quite explain that the real enemy in the film/play/stories is Russia, that is the outside, modern world. It got heated. Luckily, the rabbi’s wife arrived just in time to translate Chaia’s and my ideas between Hebrew and Russian until we were able to, if not agree, at least understand each other’s points. Phew. Then Katie showed up and, after eating some cake and singing a few songs about the Messiah, we took our leave.

From the synagogue Katie and I went to the house of Tatiana Nikolaevna, the head of our department, where Katie had left some winter clothes last year. Her apartment was easily the most beautiful I’ve seen in Ekaterinburg, probably in Russia. She has three daughters, and until I saw them, I didn’t fully appreciate how beautiful Tatiana Nikolaevna is herself. Now I had eaten enough at temple to last me through the day, but you try refusing food from a Russian mother, let alone your boss. So I ate another meal, two more varieties of cake and did my part in two bottles of wine. I played with her daughters and 14-year old dog and we all had a jolly old time. Also present was her friend Marina, who promised to take me to shows of local jewelry-makers, something I had just been telling Katie I wanted to investigate. Amazing. To top it all off, when we were going to call a cab, Tatiana Nikolaevna’s husband offered to drive us home. His butt-warmer was on turbo-blast, which was pretty nauseating after six glasses of wine, but still it was nice to get a free ride. Katie went out on an errand and I used the phone card she gave me to call home. Sadly, my mom wasn’t home, but I had the most wonderful, amusing and comforting talks with my dad and Zak.

Sunday I met my student/friend Nadia for a walk in the park. The park was muddy and the benches removed for construction, but we did peek into a pet store, where they had a cat on the staff and a monkey in a cage. Disturbing. Then we went with some more of Nadia’s friends to a cafe. Actually, the weather was so pleasant that instead of a cafe we decided to buy some beers and sit outside, talking and listening to gypsy street musicians play “Hotel California.” At 4, Katie and I were invited for dinner at Dasha’s, our colleague with whom I saw Mamma Mia! on my birthday. She made such delicious food, and even more delicious was her almost two-year old daughter Sveta. The little hooliganka performs on her brother’s command in both Russian and English, always cheeky and adorable. Dasha’s husband is a really cool businessman who has travelled throughout the US and showed us his pictures from his visit to Cleveland. It wasn’t until I was standing behind him at the computer that I noticed his t-shirt was from the Rock Hall. They invited me to go with them in a month to see Chuck Berry. I didn’t even know he was still alive!

I left Dasha’s a little early, but with a good reason: I went to meet another friend/student to go to an indie rock show! After an exasperating journey, I finally made it to Nirvana Club. Masha was waiting by the door, and because she’s a music journalist for the website UralRock, she got us both in for free. The place, which is supposedly not one of the best clubs, was so fucking great to me, it felt just like home. Cheap beer and loud, live music, it looked like the Agora and felt like the Grog Shop. The kids there were dressed the same as Cleveland indie rockers, right down to the Chucks. This was very comforting. Masha knows everybody from the bartenders to the musicians and is particularly good friends with the headlining band, Moy Raketi Verx (“My Rockets are High”). All the bands were awesome, and again, not just in the ironic Russian context, but really great. Also, it was some kind of Resurrect Kurt Cobain party, so a bunch of the bands did really faithful Nirvana covers. I came home drunk, exhausted and happy, my ears ringing like they haven’t since I saw Double Murder Suicide the night before I left home. I even had a great, life-affirming conversation with the taxi driver on my way back to the apartment. After my favorite snack, a post-show bowl of cereal, I am so ready for bed. Good night.

Grrr

I came to school for my 8:30 class only to learn at 8:40 that it was cancelled. I could've gone home, but my 10:15 class was still on. Of course I couldn't get into any of the rooms I needed, like our department office or the computer lab, so I once again comandeered a computer in the international office. They're so kind to me, I've got to do more than buying them the cheapest chocolate cake I can find. Maybe this weekend I'll bake them some monkey cookies... I've also decided I'm spending altogether too much time with the first-year period students. I have them four times a week, which is four times as much as any other class. It's nothing personal, I like them a lot, but frankly I'm running out of information. Today I actually went into English teacher mode for the first time and taught them about 1st- 2nd- and 3rd person narrators. Even I was bored. Anyway it will all get better because my final class of the day is with a great group, and its one of the girl's birthday. Cake!

This evening I'm giving my first private English lesson to a woman who got my number from one of our professors. Fulbright limits the amount of private teaching we can do, but there's no restriction on dual language conversation, ie 1/2 hour of conversation in English, 1/2 in Russian. But it really all depends on whether or not this lady and I click. If she's coming to my house for English lessons, I'm pretty much obligated to keep myself stocked with cookies and candy. It's a hard life.

Ok dear readers, I'm getting sick of being stared at by the students who are in the computer lab for legitimate reasons. That means I'm signing out.

Kiss noises!

PS--My friend Lauren says Amy Sedaris is getting her own sitcom. Anyone have any details about this?

PPS--In response to Dave Bellard's question: there is photo-publishing technology, but I can't figure it out. All my pictures are on Facebook, but I've yet to upload any from Ekat. If you want to know what my apartment looks like, just picture your grandmother's house in the 70's.

Rock Rock Rock n Roll Pedagogical Institute

Hey friends (my but that feels nicer than “Dear Diary”). It’s the middle of October, it’s snowing, I’ve been here about a month and a half and am feeling groovy. Today I gave my lecture at the American Center on the history of Rock n Roll. From my notes I didn’t think I’d be able to fill up the two-hour time slot, but actually I ran out of time before I even got through the eighties! Still, I managed to end my presentation with Josh Goldberg/Double Murder Suicide’s “Ballad of Eddie Guerrero” and the message that in the 21st century, everyone has the power to be a rock star. My Mac-version PowerPoint didn’t work, so it was a good thing I remembered to put JPEGs of the musicians on my flash (please note: that is the most technologically sophisticated sentence I’ve ever written). The turn-out was amazing; a ton of my students came, plus a dozen or so people I didn’t know, including a local journalist. The American Center staff asked me for next time to warn them how many people would come, because tonight they barely had enough chairs. I think everyone really enjoyed it, hopefully as much as I did. When the lecture was over, an older gentleman came up to me and gave me a CD of his son’s band, Dead Alice. It doesn’t look like my cup of chai, but I’ve never been a girl to turn down a free CD. Plus it came with a bonus pin! Also one of my students gave me a flash drive full of music, including a really good Russian indie band that’s playing here this weekend. I feel like Don Quixote, getting ready to go out on his first sally. Let’s hope mine doesn’t end with a drubbing!

In other news, I paid my second month’s rent. I had agreed to meet with my landlords sometime tonight after seven, so I figured they would call me then. Inopportunely, I forgot my cellphone at home today, so when I came home a little after seven-thirty, my houseguest Katie was outside the door waiting. My landlords had come and gone, leaving a huge bag of garden-fresh produce for me. They were very understanding when I called them, came back and were politely bemused when I didn’t understand the extra money they wanted. “It’s your money,” they kept saying, “for our safety.” Eventually I realized it was a security deposit and paid it happily. When they left, having met Katie, they asked if there would be another ETA here next year who might want this apartment. How’s that for a show of confidence? I can’t overemphasize the rarity in Russia, or anywhere for that matter, of such respectful, helpful, kind-hearted landlords, and what a difference it makes.

Tomorrow I don’t have class until the late afternoon. I have a second class in the evening, but thinking I was going to the ballet, I got a real teacher to substitute. Now it turns out the ballet was sold-out, so I think I’d better show up to class because I might get tickets for another Thursday. I’ve already made a bad impression on this teacher by not being where I was expected. Which is worse, to be flip-flopper or a total flake? I just hope I didn’t lie and tell her I already had the tickets... I guess we’ll never know.

Back on the Blog

Hey gang. Today I went to the internet connection office and they were all set to install in my apartment until they realized I'm not a Russian citizen. I have to go back tomorrow with somebody who has a Russian passport (the cute Russian boy in line behind me wasn't allowed to help) and then, with our powers combined, I should get internet at home. Don't stop believing!

10.7

Today was a roller coaster, which in Russia is called “American mountains.” Not that it was particularly exciting, but just full of ups and downs. Tuesday is my easiest day at the Ped. Institute; only one class with at most three students. After that, I came home, had some lunch and headed downtown to the cafe that usually has free wireless internet. I was anxious to read birthday emails, but to my dismay, the internet wasn’t working. And that after I bought a bottle of water for 45 rubles! The nerve! So I schlepped my laptop over to a real internet cafe (to be clear, there’s real internet, but no cafe). They don’t have wireless there, so I had to pay another 100 rubles for about an hour’s worth of internet. I was trying to get my fix of New Yorker articles, plus pictures of musicians for my upcoming lecture on rock music. Unfortunately, I wasted both time and flash drive memory loading Google Image pages that now won’t open. On the plus side, the happy birthday e-mails were all-you-can-eat.

From the internet cafe I walked to the synagogue, and even figured out some new shortcuts. It was the first night of my English language club, and we had over a dozen participants! They were of varying ages and levels, which is a challenge unto itself, but everybody was energetic and attentive. My preparation consisted of bringing postcards of Cleveland and photos of my family, so I had everyone talk in groups about their lives, families, and pets until I heard it dissolve into Russian. Then I asked them to name their favorite English and American authors, and you wouldn’t believe the people they mentioned! We’re talking J.D. Salinger, Tennessee Williams, Graham Greene, Kurt Vonnegut! It blew my mind. For next class, I’ll have to do some actual planning. Luckily, the people at the synagogue are extremely accommodating, and they even have internet! Too bad the Ped. Institute isn’t run by Jews.

After class, Katya, one of the younger participants asked what I was doing. I had planned on just talking the metro home and having dinner, but she insisted on giving me a ride, introducing me to her English-speaking friends and showing me around the city. We went to a cafe (ironically the same chain where I had gone for WiFi, but in a different location), where her friends were going with their English class. We were standing in line to order shwarma when her friends came in, attended by a group of Texas missionaries. I was introduced to Rodney from Dallas, who had no idea that when he first entered the cafe, I thought he was just another Russian drunk. Anyway, Katya is very sweet. She even treated me to the shwarma and when I thanked her, she said, “No, thank you for the class!” What a mensch. So now I’m home, full of Coke, shwarma and love for Ekaterinburg’s English-speaking Jewish community.

Tomorrow is Yom Kippur, and though I’m not going to fast, I will tally up my sins. I’ll start with the most recent and work backwards. Sorry for prejudging you, Rodney from Dallas!

10.9

It’s a rainy Seattle night in Ekaterinburg. Also, as Lewis Black said, “It’s Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, and I am FUCKED!” I knew I wouldn’t fast, so I didn’t go to temple either, for fear of being hypocritical. In fact, this morning I woke up just as services were beginning and thought, “Woo hoo, don’t have to go.” Way to atone. Instead, I went to the Marc’s-type discount grocery store and stocked up on yogurt and generic honey flake cereal. They also have fresh (non-frozen) meat there, amazingly. Sorry Hashem!

I went in to school around 2 to meet with Vino, the resident American English Language Fellow. She wanted to plan some Halloween festivities, but we also both needed to get photos done for our new visas. (Actually, I had some extra passport pictures done in Ukraine, but somehow I lost them. My frustration over this fact even crept into last night’s dream.) We talked about doing Halloween and Thanksgiving programs as we walked to the photographer. Vino doesn’t speak Russian, and it gives me a great feeling of confidence to translate for someone. We got back to school just in time for me to print some documents and head to class.

So I’ve been doing a little poetry with my classes lately. I started with Langston Hughes’ “Harlem (A Dream Deferred)” and William Carlos Williams’ “Red Wheelbarrow.” Recently, though, I found a beautiful poem about racism called “The Incident” by Countee Cullen. I started using this poem because it’s about a white boy calling a black boy “nigger,” and since this is the normal Russian word for a black person, I wanted my students to know not to use it in the U.S. Most of them have liked this poem and had nice egalitarian things to say about it. Today, though, I gave it to the third-year PR students and was shocked by their response. After analyzing the poem, they said that it was irrelevant to their lives because racism does not exist in Russia. Probably I was too aggressive, but I told them that I’ve seen so much discrimination against foreigners, mostly people from former Soviet republics. Hostile treatment of Azerbaijanis and Tadjikistanis, I said, was no different from discriminating against blacks. The students became extremely defensive, most of them insisting that these foreigners come to Russia illegally and sell drugs. It got very uncomfortable very fast. I tried to break the tension by revealing that I’m Jewish, but it didn’t really work. Eventually, one of the students appeased me with some anti-racist platitudes, and we moved on. They much preferred “Dream Deferred” (hey that rhymed!) and one girl even connected it to race relations at the end. I was still feeling shaken by what had gone down, but as we were leaving, a student asked how long I would be there, and when I said all year, she smiled and clapped. Phew!

After that I had class with 4th-year English students. I walked in and saw one of my favorite groups, which was strange because I’m only supposed to have them twice a month. They also said they were surprised by my being there, but we got started anyway. About ten minutes into the class, their real teacher walked in and said a different group was waiting for me downstairs. Whoops! And just when I was starting to feel comfortable in this school. But that was just hubris, overweening pride. Still though, it’s just as important that they’re getting used to me.

10.12

It was a great weekend, the best I’ve had in a long time. It began Friday evening with a much-appreciated phone call from my friend David, who’s ETA-ing in Vladivostock. We had a great talk about our shockingly similar experiences. Like me, he is adjusting to living alone for the first time, and strongly missing his friends and family. But on that topic, he imparted a piece of wisdom from Balzac or Rousseau or some such frog: “The man who gives himself to loneliness, oh yes, he will soon be lonely.” I realized that I’ve spent more time lamenting my solitude than doing anything to change it. When we finally hung up, I was on the brink of grateful tears. He’ll never know how much that phone call meant to me.

Saturday I went to temple, and felt wonderful sitting surrounded by friendly and familiar faces. After services, the Israeli girls asked me to have lunch, but apparently the rabbi’s wife had sent the same request, and she won. Feeling like the prettiest girl at the dance, I promised Chaia, Mushka and Chanali that I would surely join them next week. We also made plans for Sunday, but more on that in a minute. So, my friend Sveta and I walked to the rabbi’s house, and she explained her philosophy of shabbos. It’s not correct, she said, to think of it as a day of not working. Rather, it’s a holy day, and you honor it by not doing what you usually do. In her convincing opinion, this is more liberating than conceiving of shabbos a list of prohibited actions. I asked her why, when you don’t use machines, it’s ok to use running water. At just that moment, we ran into the rabbi, who took the question. I couldn’t quite understand his explanation, but I think it has something to do with processes that are already going on for everyone. That is, the water is running whether I turn on the faucet or not. That’s fine, but it reminds me of what my Bubbe used to say, “They make it up as they go along.”

How’s that for gratitude? Here this man and his wife welcome me into their home, and I mock their beliefs. Nice, Abbie, real nice. Anyway they know that I’m not religious, I mean, I don’t know the prayers or anything. But they know how much it means to me to feel part of a Jewish family. The food was even better than last time, and I felt comfortable and confident enough to join in the conversation. By the time I left, it was snowing heavily. A student, Yulia had asked me to meet her in the city center for an evening walk, but I was dressed for a morning temple service, so I went back home. Feeling discouraged by the weather, I called her to see if we were still on. She was game, so remembering the advice from Balsack or whomsomever, I put on warmer clothes and headed back to 1905 Square.

Now, a confession: when Yulia first called, I wasn’t sure who she was. Her name hadn’t registered, and anyway there are Yulias aplenty. But when she came out of the subway, I recognized her smile immediately. Another confession: she’s one of my favorite students. She had brought Margarita, a psychology student whom she tutors in English. In bad weather, Russians still go for a walk, but only as far as the nearest cafe. In this case, it was Mamma’s Biscuit House. The girls told me about their Buddhist aspirations, meditative drawing classes and New Years plans of taking a train to seek out shamans. Writing it out makes them sound like New Age hippies, but really they’re so spirited, fun and smart. After they ate and I, still full from lunch at Marina’s, drank, we fancied a change of location, so I invited them back to my place for a drink. We shared cheese and crackers, wine and all our thoughts on international relations. Yulia said she’d never met an American that she really wanted to befriend, but in me she sensed a kindred spirit. She went on to say that I made her realize that the Cold War is fought between Moscow and D.C., but Russians and Americans can still be friends. I told her that’s exactly what I wrote my Fulbright application about and, though I didn’t want to come off as needy, this was the first night I felt like I had real friends. Her birthday is coming up, and I volunteered to make any kind of cake she likes. When she asked if I could make a Pavlova, we both knew that it was fate for us to meet.

Today, Sunday, I planned to go with my friend Nona, plus Chaia, Mushka and Chanali, to the Ekaterinburg museum of art. We walked there from the synagogue along the river, passing an excellent monument to computers: the PC keyboard hewn in stone. The museum was great, and featured amazing exhibits of metal-smithing and Urals stone decorative art. I recognized busts of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, plus mini-sculptures of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Unfortunately, I enjoyed the museum much more than the Israeli girls. They were not at all interested in the iconography, which is my favorite, and further discouraged by not understanding the Russian placards on the rest of the works. I tried to help them feel engaged by explaining the historical predominance of religious art in Russia, but on the way back they confessed that art doesn’t much interest them anyway. Still, they were happy to go somewhere besides work. And I was happy to see all that beautiful Christian art!

In the evening, I did my favorite thing in the world: cooked a ton of food and shared it with friends. Last year’s ETA Katie is visiting, and since we got acquainted in Kiev, I invited her to stay with me. I also asked Yulia and Margarita to dinner, since they wanted to show me the Russian-dubbed version of the South Park movie. I made vegetable soup, chicken pilaf, Israeli salad and my grandmother’s garlicky eggplant. The girls brought the most delicious tea and chocolate-covered marshmallow-type treats, which I served along with some gingerbread. The DVD didn’t work, but I was just as happy just to talk and goof off. It’s really nice having Katie here, since she spent all of last year in my position and then signed up for a second hitch in Belgorod. She’s on the couch passed out now, and I’m in my bed, about to do the same. Let’s just hope that while she’s here I get back in the habit of closing the door to the bathroom.

It's alive! Aliiiiiiiiiiiiive!

Good news fans! The school computer lab is open and has a surprisingly fast internet connection! Of course, there's no macs here, so I can't easily upload old blog entries, but I takes what I can gets. Right now I'm sitting here in the middle of a class, a privelege afforded "teachers" like me. So I still don't have internet at home, but at least I have it at work. Just realized the kids all have little plastic slippers over their shoes. Whoops.
More good news: I'm really enjoying my Soviet comedy classics, even if I can't understand every word. I watched one called "Be My Husband," where a woman needed a man to pose as her husband for some reason connected with renting an apartment. Guess what ended up happening. It was really cute. Another great one was "Afonya," about a plumber who lives and loves by his own rules. If this movie had been made in America, it would have starred Jack Nicholson.
Ok my loves. Gotta get ready for class. Keep on keepin' on.

Whoops

Posted that one a couple times didn't I? Sorry. Just more reading pleasure!

Filling in the (Jerri) Blanks

9.28

I’ve had a lovely, relaxing yet productive Sunday.  One of the fourth year students invited me to go for a walk in the afternoon.  It was a brisk but beautiful autumn day, perfect for a stroll.  Before we planned to meet, I had some time for housework, like fighting with the washing machine and trying to figure out how I already got a utilities bill for more than 1,000 rubles.  The electricity went out briefly, but it was bright enough for me to do some work by natural light.  I was eating dry Honey Nut Cheerios straight out of the box when it came back on, so I had a proper lunch before heading downtown.

I wasn’t meeting Nadia until 3, so I took an hour to sit in a cafe that has free wireless.  To my surprise, all the websites loaded, even those that hadn’t worked the last time.  I feel so much better having uploaded two weeks’ worth of blog posts.  I also took the opportunity to put some websites on my flash drive, including all my friends’ blogs, the current New Yorker and a transcription of the first presidential debate.  Perusing the news, I was saddened to see that my beloved Paul Newman died.  In addition to being a first-rate actor and philanthropist, not to mention heartthrob, he taught me that the world really would give a Buckeye a chance.  I’m really dismayed by this news, all the more so because I have no one with whom to commiserate.  A great young writer also died, whose name escapes me at the moment, but I know it’s a three-part name and he was part of the Believer generation.  Sad.

At 3 I met Nadia and her classmate Tanya in the metro station.  They wanted to take me to the photography museum and were embarrassed to learn that I had already been there when they still hadn’t.  I genuinely urged going anyway, since I loved it and they might have changed the exhibit anyway, but when we got there we decided to go to a cafe instead.  I kept my mouth shut about having been to that cafe as well.  The girls are so sweet, and promised to also take me shopping for winter clothes and sexy boots.  I told them I live close to the school and invited them to come over some time for tea, an invitation they accepted as graciously as if I had offered them tickets to opening night at the opera.  Before heading home, they showed me a fabulous grocery store where you can buy fresh meat, fancy cheese, really anything you want.  For today I contented myself with real lettuce and salad dressing, since I’m getting pretty sick of my cabbage with home-made honey mustard salads.

When I got home, I went down to the grocery store, where I found some coconut milk (yay!) but couldn’t find the peanut butter I once bought there (boo).  Just before the cashier started ringing up my purchases, I asked if I could use a credit card.  The store generally accepts credit cards, but you never know because the machine at any given register might not work.  Good thing I asked, because none of them were working today.  So I hauled ass back to the metro station to use the ATM and made it back before my ice cream melted.  It’s funny, everybody at that store knows me now, and treats me with patronizing kindness.  What’s weird is that none of them have asked what a young American woman like me is doing in Ekaterinburg, besides causing problems at the grocery store.

Now I’m fed like a fat mafia don and just as happy.  I’ve been enjoying doing “research” for my rock and roll “lecture,”  but this evening I hit a brick wall (of sound) when I got to the Beatles.  How can I talk about them for just a minute and then move on to whatever the hell happened to music in the 70s?  I wrote a couple notes about “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” before closing my book in frustration.  Probably the best approach will be from the Jeff Katz School of Academic Honesty: I’ll acknowledge my inability to speak dispassionately and then propose another lecture solely on the Beatles.  But maybe it will be a good exercise in self-control to discuss the Beatles objectively.  Too bad I hate exercise and self-control.  I’m having  similar but not nearly so profound difficulties preparing only a minute’s discussion of Phil Spector.  For that one I’ll just have to keep the burden of information to myself.  

Well folks, that’s our show for tonight.  Tune in next week for more exciting adventures of Butch Abbigie, the Sundance Yid.

9.30

A day of small difficulties and even smaller triumphs, but I got it all done.  Actually, today felt like that Animaniacs cartoon “Good Idea, Bad Idea.”  Today was the first day of Rosh Hashana.  The synagogue held a service this morning at ten and again this evening at six.  I had class at noon, so I resolved to go to the evening service, hoping also to get a dinner out of it (good idea).  Unfortunately I beat my alarm clock and woke up at eight, filled with guilt and self-loathing for doing schoolwork instead of going to the morning service (bad idea).  I became obsessed with the importance of hearing the shofar and berated myself for not going when I had the chance, because anything could have happened to delay me between then and six.  Ultimately I decided I don’t believe in superstitions and went on with my day.  Having gained two extra hours, I endeavored to clean the bathtub of washing-machine residue and take a shower (good idea).  But when I tried to rinse out the chemicals, the water came out of the tap an uncleanly shade of brown (bad idea).  It ran clear after a minute, so I did a blitzkrieg memory-repression and hopped in.

My first class was good, despite being attended by only two students, down from last week’s three.  It was ok though, I think they had fun and learned, but these kids, first-year advertising students, have a bad habit of not writing anything down.  As it turned out, they were better than the students I worked with later in the day.  In the hall I ran into one of the PR professors, who told me America’s stock market crashed like Yeltsin driving a Lada (a little post-Soviet humor for ya).  Spectacular.  In the afternoon, I had agreed to substitute-teach today with the third-year English students (good idea).  I gave the students the choice of learning about either the American, revolution, government or education system.  After one election with poor voter turnout, the students finally chose to hear about education, though kids kept trickling in for about fifteen minutes.  I tried to make my lecture interactive by having them compare it, point by point, to Russia (bad idea).  Then I asked them to design their own schools and present them to the class (worse idea).  Even though they refused to stop when I told them the time was up, less than half of the groups were willing to present, and fewer still to comment on the presentations.  In these situations, if kindness doesn’t work, some light-hearted insults usually motivate the students, but nothing was doing.  By the time the class ended, I think I was even happier than they were.  I was frustrated, and the more I thought about it, the angrier I got. Those kids just stared at me like I was crazy for asking them to speak in English, and they were upper-college students in the English department!  Even the first-year PR students had been more responsive.

I came home to have a quick bite before heading downtown.  I planned on making a lovely salad with tuna for protein and familiarity (good idea).  But I didn’t have a can opener, so I attacked the can with every sharp object in my kitchen (bad idea).  Having finally freed and drained/strained the fish, I sat down with my audiobook of Stephen Colbert’s I Am America and So Can You! (good idea).  Incidentally, I finished the Phil Spector audiobook.  It ended with him having just married a woman forty years his junior and awaiting trial for murder.  Suddenly it was almost five o’clock, and I wanted to get to the American Center before services (bad idea).  

I hauled ass down to the Center, checked my email, returned my books, got new books and made it to synagogue with time to spare.  As it turned out, the youth group--my age, not middle-schoolers--meets every Tuesday night, so I thought I might also make some friends in addition to hearing the shofar (good idea).  I certainly felt better for having heard the rabbi blow on that ram’s horn, but frankly, Adam Siegal does it better.  After the service, we adjoined to the dining hall for a dinner of, you guessed it, tuna, and not just once but in two different dishes.  Also, the fish’s heads decorated the table (disgusting idea)  On most nights I don’t eat tuna even once, so why on this night did I eat it three times?  Also, no one talked to me (bad idea) except the kids I’d already met and those to whom I was directly introduced.  I even tried to strike up conversations, but they fell flatter than week-old seltzer.  Awkward.  The rabbi tried to get me to stay for the class, but I insisted I was scared of going home when it was dark.  He understood, and invited me for dinner next shabbos.  That’s a good idea, and I’ll play it as it lays.  Now I have a great idea: I’m going to eat some ice cream and watch Russian sitcoms until I pass out.  Ab-uh-dee ab-uh-dee ab-uh-dee that’s all folks!

10.3

Boy those Russians really know how to make a girl feel special.  Today is Teachers’ Day and I’m telling you, we should institute this holiday in America.  What happens on Teachers’ Day you ask?  Well, quite simply, students shower their teachers with gifts.  Actually, the holiday is on Sunday, so I guess the kids started “celebrating” early.  I had heard about this holiday, but being a new pseudo-teacher, I really wasn’t expecting anything.  I couldn’t believe when my first class presented me with a beautiful coffee mug and a congratulatory card (Russians say “Congratulations” on holidays and birthdays, where we say “Happy...”).  It was so sweet, and clever how they did it at the beginning of class, making it hard to then ask for homework.  This was the first-year PR group, and as they are the only students I see twice a week, I chalked it up to a special bond.  I was even more shocked then when my second-year English students gave me a big box of chocolate truffles!  That time it worked; I didn’t assign any new homework but ended class by passing around the candy and letting them go early.  My final class today was with another group of second-year English students, one of whom stayed late to congratulate me on being a novice teacher and give me a star-shaped candle.  What a sweetheart.  These little tokens really made me feel appreciated.  I guess that’s the whole idea.

Now I’m awaiting a visit from my landlords.  I received a huge bill for the month of September and, since I only moved in on the 15th, they graciously agreed to split it with me.  Actually, I would be satisfied with paying 2/3, but I takes what I can gets.  They might also bring a new mattress, which is also amazing, since I was ready to buy one.  I bought them a little box of candies to thank them for being the sweetest, most helpful landlords, in spite of the curse Gary DiMauro laid on us.  Hopefully I’ll also remember to ask them how to work the oven.  Even though I always keep the place quite tidy, I cleaned it especially well for this visit.  I feel like a college student whose parents are coming to the dorm.  This feeling is not completely unjustified, since the housing agent told me that Uri and Liudmila refused a bunch of potential tenants, waiting for someone they could trust to take care of the place.  Anyway, my philosophy for living alone is to keep my apartment as neat as Bonnie keeps hers.

This weekend I’ll do some shopping and maybe try to work out a long-term plan for teaching.  Tomorrow morning of course I’ll go to temple, which I’ve been looking forward to all week.  There’s a chance the rabbi invited me for dinner tonight, but I wasn’t really sure what he was saying at the time.  Late Saturday afternoon I’m supposed to meet Zhenya to go shopping for a winter coat and maybe some sexy boots, “both warm and cool,” as she joked.  Monday is my birthday, which was actually giving me some lonely anxiety.  Here’s the deal: in Russia, it’s customary for the birthday person to cook a big dinner (or treat everyone at a cafe) and receive a bunch of gifts.  I really don’t want any presents, and I don’t want to give the impression that I do, but I want to celebrate.  It’s just sort of inconceivable for a group of people to go out to dinner on someone’s birthday and everyone pays for him/herself.  Am I being cheap?  Maybe.  But I’m also uncomfortable with the obligations on both sides.  Anyway I think I found a loophole: the cinema.  A colleague, not knowing it’s my birthday, invited me to go see Mamma Mia on Monday evening.  Perfect.  And another example of how my standards are changing from living abroad.  At home I had no interest in seeing this movie, but everything’s funnier dubbed into Russian, including Meryl Streep singing.  So this way I can bring a cake into the office (another obligation of the birthday girl) and go out in the evening.  Way to go me!

10.4

Today I had a very good, very lucky day.  In spite of the stupid mistakes I made, the universe provided for me.  Hey, the dude abides.  First of all, my alarm didn’t go off, because when I set the clock last night, I forgot about military time.  So instead of waking up with the alarm at 8:30, I woke up on my own at 9:20, with just enough time to get dressed, grab some food and head to temple.  I made it without a minute to spare.  After the service the Israeli girls invited me and my friend Sveta to have lunch.  The five of us had no common language, but each spoke a little English, Russian and Hebrew.  We were a regular United Nations of Jews!  It was great; we ate, sang and laughed a lot.  One of the Israeli girls told this joke: A Jew on a desert island built two synagogues, one to go to and one not to go to.  Jewish humor is an international language.

When I left, I called Zhenya about going shopping.  She said she could meet me at the Geological metro station in about an hour, but I was already there, so I elected to go on my own.  To get to the shopping mall MEGA, you have to take a bus from the metro station.  Thanks to the kindness of strangers, I found the bus and made it to the mall, in all its glory.  Some of MEGA’s attractions include Ikea, a grocery store and a skating rink in the food court.  Only in Russia.  After looking in a few stores, I found myself a super-warm, calf-length, fur-trimmed black winter coat.  Score!  I wandered around some more looking for boots, but in vain.  I might try tomorrow at the market.

I chased down the shuttle to get back to the metro.  It both picked us up and dropped us off at new locations, but I managed to find the closest metro station after only one wrong turn!  In the subway bootleg DVD store I bought myself a birthday present: fifteen Soviet comedy classics on one disc!  Women be shoppin.  Now I’m dead on my feet, ready to settle in with my new old movies.  And it’s a good thing I ate so much at lunch, because I haven’t the energy to cook.  For dinner: clementines and chocolate ice cream.  As Molly would say, “It was a pehfect day.”

10.6

Just after midnight on what’s now my birthday, I turned on the tv to the stupid American movie Maid in Manhattan.  Guess whose uglified beautiful face was smiling at me?  Amy Se-fuckin-daris!  Happy Birthday to me!  Or, as we say in Russian, “Unfortunately, the birthday is only once a year...”

Some 24 hours later

A great birthday.  I woke up early, well not really early but 9 o’clock is early enough for having not set an alarm.  Managed to find the post office, it’s only right across the street from where I live.  So I sent off ten letters and postcards (check your mail friends!) and realized that I could pay bills there too.  I had been nervous when my landlords told me I could pay my phone bill at the post office since I have no Russian bank account, but what they meant was that you present the bill and pay cash to the cashier.  I also had the singular pleasure of watching pensioners complain about the slow service and scold young mothers and their babies.  Then I picked up some groceries, including a cake, and passed the early afternoon leisurely reading and watching Arrested Development.  

It was only at three when I arrived at school, proudly carrying my birthday cake, when I realized my class was at two.  Doy-ee.  Everyone cut me some birthday slack, but really I had been home doing nothing!  My next class wasn’t until 5:30 (really this time!), so I brought the cake down to my friends in the international affairs office.  We ate some sweets, drank some tea and they rounded up a lovely tea set as a gift for me.  It was a bit embarrassing to get improvised presents, especially when people scolded me for not warning them about my birthday, but come on, they have my passport on file.  Anyway, I was more than happy to share with my dear colleagues this surprisingly delicious store-bought cake.  

After class, I planned to meet another English teacher to see the movie Mamma Mia! (their quotation mark, not mine).  I bought myself a beer, heated up some pasta and hurried to meet Dasha and her young son Danilo near the theater.  The theater was very nice, and soon they’re even showing the new Coen Brothers movie.  But I don’t think I’ll go, because if it’s translated well, I won’t understand it, and if poorly, that’s a waste of 50 rubles!  So, about Mamma Mia!  Maybe it was just the Russian dubbing and my joy at watching a Hollywood musical on my birthday, but I loved it!  Meryl Streep’s singing wasn’t nearly as bad as the choreography, and I’ve loved Abba ever since Muriel’s Wedding.  Plus, since we stayed through the credits, we got to see the bonus performance of my favorite Abba song, “Waterloo.”  Disco and Napoleon--it’s a winning combination!

Walking back, Danilo invited me to the Puppet Theater production of Gogol’s “Overcoat.”  He recounted the story, which I already knew but his English was so adorable and emotion so sincere that I didn’t care to intervene.  If he were a little older, I would have told him what Gogol was really talking about!  Now I’m really looking forward to seeing this show.  If it’s half as good as the Petersburg production of Nose, it will be twice as good as anything at Playhouse Square.  We parted ways at the metro station near my apartment and Dasha asked me to call her when I got in.  That’s why I love hanging out with moms.

Now, already satisfied with the day’s events, something incredible happened to top it all.  I fixed myself a bowl of cereal and started flipping through tv channels, looking for something entertaining or at least inoffensive before bed.  As if some programmer knew it was my birthday, my all-time favorite bad movie is on tv.  No, not Rock and Roll High School.  No less than Scarface!  I turned it on at the beginning of Tony’s sprawling descent, right when he gets nabbed by the camera in the clock.  This is lucky because once I hear that infectious synth-and-whip music, I can’t turn it off.  I just have to “push it to the limit (limit!)”  Since I’ve started writing this, Tony’s killed Manuelo and now he’s about to get f’ed right in the a.  I take your bullets!  I’m Tony Montana!  I bury all of you cock-a-roaches!  There’s something so satisfying about seeing him get it in the back of the head.  That reminds me that I want to prepare a lesson on the American dream...

Well folks, I’m about to see what sleep is like for a 23-year old.  And when I come home this summer, you’ll all be able once again to “say hello to (your) little friend.”  Nyuk nyuk nyuk.

Filling in Some (Jerri) Blanks

9.28
I’ve had a lovely, relaxing yet productive Sunday. One of the fourth year students invited me to go for a walk in the afternoon. It was a brisk but beautiful autumn day, perfect for a stroll. Before we planned to meet, I had some time for housework, like fighting with the washing machine and trying to figure out how I already got a utilities bill for more than 1,000 rubles. The electricity went out briefly, but it was bright enough for me to do some work by natural light. I was eating dry Honey Nut Cheerios straight out of the box when it came back on, so I had a proper lunch before heading downtown.

I wasn’t meeting Nadia until 3, so I took an hour to sit in a cafe that has free wireless. To my surprise, all the websites loaded, even those that hadn’t worked the last time. I feel so much better having uploaded two weeks’ worth of blog posts. I also took the opportunity to put some websites on my flash drive, including all my friends’ blogs, the current New Yorker and a transcription of the first presidential debate. Perusing the news, I was saddened to see that my beloved Paul Newman died. In addition to being a first-rate actor and philanthropist, not to mention heartthrob, he taught me that the world really would give a Buckeye a chance. I’m really dismayed by this news, all the more so because I have no one with whom to commiserate. A great young writer also died, whose name escapes me at the moment, but I know it’s a three-part name and he was part of the Believer generation. Sad.

At 3 I met Nadia and her classmate Tanya in the metro station. They wanted to take me to the photography museum and were embarrassed to learn that I had already been there when they still hadn’t. I genuinely urged going anyway, since I loved it and they might have changed the exhibit anyway, but when we got there we decided to go to a cafe instead. I kept my mouth shut about having been to that cafe as well. The girls are so sweet, and promised to also take me shopping for winter clothes and sexy boots. I told them I live close to the school and invited them to come over some time for tea, an invitation they accepted as graciously as if I had offered them tickets to opening night at the opera. Before heading home, they showed me a fabulous grocery store where you can buy fresh meat, fancy cheese, really anything you want. For today I contented myself with real lettuce and salad dressing, since I’m getting pretty sick of my cabbage with home-made honey mustard salads.

When I got home, I went down to the grocery store, where I found some coconut milk (yay!) but couldn’t find the peanut butter I once bought there (boo). Just before the cashier started ringing up my purchases, I asked if I could use a credit card. The store generally accepts credit cards, but you never know because the machine at any given register might not work. Good thing I asked, because none of them were working today. So I hauled ass back to the metro station to use the ATM and made it back before my ice cream melted. It’s funny, everybody at that store knows me now, and treats me with patronizing kindness. What’s weird is that none of them have asked what a young American woman like me is doing in Ekaterinburg, besides causing problems at the grocery store.

Now I’m fed like a fat mafia don and just as happy. I’ve been enjoying doing “research” for my rock and roll “lecture,” but this evening I hit a brick wall (of sound) when I got to the Beatles. How can I talk about them for just a minute and then move on to whatever the hell happened to music in the 70s? I wrote a couple notes about “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” before closing my book in frustration. Probably the best approach will be from the Jeff Katz School of Academic Honesty: I’ll acknowledge my inability to speak dispassionately and then propose another lecture solely on the Beatles. But maybe it will be a good exercise in self-control to discuss the Beatles objectively. Too bad I hate exercise and self-control. I’m having similar but not nearly so profound difficulties preparing only a minute’s discussion of Phil Spector. For that one I’ll just have to keep the burden of information to myself.

Well folks, that’s our show for tonight. Tune in next week for more exciting adventures of Butch Abbigie, the Sundance Yid.

9.30
A day of small difficulties and even smaller triumphs, but I got it all done. Actually, today felt like that Animaniacs cartoon “Good Idea, Bad Idea.” Today was the first day of Rosh Hashana. The synagogue held a service this morning at ten and again this evening at six. I had class at noon, so I resolved to go to the evening service, hoping also to get a dinner out of it (good idea). Unfortunately I beat my alarm clock and woke up at eight, filled with guilt and self-loathing for doing schoolwork instead of going to the morning service (bad idea). I became obsessed with the importance of hearing the shofar and berated myself for not going when I had the chance, because anything could have happened to delay me between then and six. Ultimately I decided I don’t believe in superstitions and went on with my day. Having gained two extra hours, I endeavored to clean the bathtub of washing-machine residue and take a shower (good idea). But when I tried to rinse out the chemicals, the water came out of the tap an uncleanly shade of brown (bad idea). It ran clear after a minute, so I did a blitzkrieg memory-repression and hopped in.

My first class was good, despite being attended by only two students, down from last week’s three. It was ok though, I think they had fun and learned, but these kids, first-year advertising students, have a bad habit of not writing anything down. As it turned out, they were better than the students I worked with later in the day. In the hall I ran into one of the PR professors, who told me America’s stock market crashed like Yeltsin driving a Lada (a little post-Soviet humor for ya). Spectacular. In the afternoon, I had agreed to substitute-teach today with the third-year English students (good idea). I gave the students the choice of learning about either the American, revolution, government or education system. After one election with poor voter turnout, the students finally chose to hear about education, though kids kept trickling in for about fifteen minutes. I tried to make my lecture interactive by having them compare it, point by point, to Russia (bad idea). Then I asked them to design their own schools and present them to the class (worse idea). Even though they refused to stop when I told them the time was up, less than half of the groups were willing to present, and fewer still to comment on the presentations. In these situations, if kindness doesn’t work, some light-hearted insults usually motivate the students, but nothing was doing. By the time the class ended, I think I was even happier than they were. I was frustrated, and the more I thought about it, the angrier I got. Those kids just stared at me like I was crazy for asking them to speak in English, and they were upper-college students in the English department! Even the first-year PR students had been more responsive.

I came home to have a quick bite before heading downtown. I planned on making a lovely salad with tuna for protein and familiarity (good idea). But I didn’t have a can opener, so I attacked the can with every sharp object in my kitchen (bad idea). Having finally freed and drained/strained the fish, I sat down with my audiobook of Stephen Colbert’s I Am America and So Can You! (good idea). Incidentally, I finished the Phil Spector audiobook. It ended with him having just married a woman forty years his junior and awaiting trial for murder. Suddenly it was almost five o’clock, and I wanted to get to the American Center before services (bad idea).

I hauled ass down to the Center, checked my email, returned my books, got new books and made it to synagogue with time to spare. As it turned out, the youth group--my age, not middle-schoolers--meets every Tuesday night, so I thought I might also make some friends in addition to hearing the shofar (good idea). I certainly felt better for having heard the rabbi blow on that ram’s horn, but frankly, Adam Siegal does it better. After the service, we adjoined to the dining hall for a dinner of, you guessed it, tuna, and not just once but in two different dishes. Also, the fish’s heads decorated the table (disgusting idea) On most nights I don’t eat tuna even once, so why on this night did I eat it three times? Also, no one talked to me (bad idea) except the kids I’d already met and those to whom I was directly introduced. I even tried to strike up conversations, but they fell flatter than week-old seltzer. Awkward. The rabbi tried to get me to stay for the class, but I insisted I was scared of going home when it was dark. He understood, and invited me for dinner next shabbos. That’s a good idea, and I’ll play it as it lays. Now I have a great idea: I’m going to eat some ice cream and watch Russian sitcoms until I pass out. Ab-uh-dee ab-uh-dee ab-uh-dee that’s all folks!

10.3
Boy those Russians really know how to make a girl feel special. Today is Teachers’ Day and I’m telling you, we should institute this holiday in America. What happens on Teachers’ Day you ask? Well, quite simply, students shower their teachers with gifts. Actually, the holiday is on Sunday, so I guess the kids started “celebrating” early. I had heard about this holiday, but being a new pseudo-teacher, I really wasn’t expecting anything. I couldn’t believe when my first class presented me with a beautiful coffee mug and a congratulatory card (Russians say “Congratulations” on holidays and birthdays, where we say “Happy...”). It was so sweet, and clever how they did it at the beginning of class, making it hard to then ask for homework. This was the first-year PR group, and as they are the only students I see twice a week, I chalked it up to a special bond. I was even more shocked then when my second-year English students gave me a big box of chocolate truffles! That time it worked; I didn’t assign any new homework but ended class by passing around the candy and letting them go early. My final class today was with another group of second-year English students, one of whom stayed late to congratulate me on being a novice teacher and give me a star-shaped candle. What a sweetheart. These little tokens really made me feel appreciated. I guess that’s the whole idea.

Now I’m awaiting a visit from my landlords. I received a huge bill for the month of September and, since I only moved in on the 15th, they graciously agreed to split it with me. Actually, I would be satisfied with paying 2/3, but I takes what I can gets. They might also bring a new mattress, which is also amazing, since I was ready to buy one. I bought them a little box of candies to thank them for being the sweetest, most helpful landlords, in spite of the curse Gary DiMauro laid on us. Hopefully I’ll also remember to ask them how to work the oven. Even though I always keep the place quite tidy, I cleaned it especially well for this visit. I feel like a college student whose parents are coming to the dorm. This feeling is not completely unjustified, since the housing agent told me that Uri and Liudmila refused a bunch of potential tenants, waiting for someone they could trust to take care of the place. Anyway, my philosophy for living alone is to keep my apartment as neat as Bonnie keeps hers.

This weekend I’ll do some shopping and maybe try to work out a long-term plan for teaching. Tomorrow morning of course I’ll go to temple, which I’ve been looking forward to all week. There’s a chance the rabbi invited me for dinner tonight, but I wasn’t really sure what he was saying at the time. Late Saturday afternoon I’m supposed to meet Zhenya to go shopping for a winter coat and maybe some sexy boots, “both warm and cool,” as she joked. Monday is my birthday, which was actually giving me some lonely anxiety. Here’s the deal: in Russia, it’s customary for the birthday person to cook a big dinner (or treat everyone at a cafe) and receive a bunch of gifts. I really don’t want any presents, and I don’t want to give the impression that I do, but I want to celebrate. It’s just sort of inconceivable for a group of people to go out to dinner on someone’s birthday and everyone pays for him/herself. Am I being cheap? Maybe. But I’m also uncomfortable with the obligations on both sides. Anyway I think I found a loophole: the cinema. A colleague, not knowing it’s my birthday, invited me to go see Mamma Mia on Monday evening. Perfect. And another example of how my standards are changing from living abroad. At home I had no interest in seeing this movie, but everything’s funnier dubbed into Russian, including Meryl Streep singing. So this way I can bring a cake into the office (another obligation of the birthday girl) and go out in the evening. Way to go me!

10.4
Today I had a very good, very lucky day. In spite of the stupid mistakes I made, the universe provided for me. Hey, the dude abides. First of all, my alarm didn’t go off, because when I set the clock last night, I forgot about military time. So instead of waking up with the alarm at 8:30, I woke up on my own at 9:20, with just enough time to get dressed, grab some food and head to temple. I made it without a minute to spare. After the service the Israeli girls invited me and my friend Sveta to have lunch. The five of us had no common language, but each spoke a little English, Russian and Hebrew. We were a regular United Nations of Jews! It was great; we ate, sang and laughed a lot. One of the Israeli girls told this joke: A Jew on a desert island built two synagogues, one to go to and one not to go to. Jewish humor is an international language.

When I left, I called Zhenya about going shopping. She said she could meet me at the Geological metro station in about an hour, but I was already there, so I elected to go on my own. To get to the shopping mall MEGA, you have to take a bus from the metro station. Thanks to the kindness of strangers, I found the bus and made it to the mall, in all its glory. Some of MEGA’s attractions include Ikea, a grocery store and a skating rink in the food court. Only in Russia. After looking in a few stores, I found myself a super-warm, calf-length, fur-trimmed black winter coat. Score! I wandered around some more looking for boots, but in vain. I might try tomorrow at the market.

I chased down the shuttle to get back to the metro. It both picked us up and dropped us off at new locations, but I managed to find the closest metro station after only one wrong turn! In the subway bootleg DVD store I bought myself a birthday present: fifteen Soviet comedy classics on one disc! Women be shoppin. Now I’m dead on my feet, ready to settle in with my new old movies. And it’s a good thing I ate so much at lunch, because I haven’t the energy to cook. For dinner: clementines and chocolate ice cream. As Molly would say, “It was a pehfect day.”

10.6
Just after midnight on what’s now my birthday, I turned on the tv to the stupid American movie Maid in Manhattan. Guess whose uglified beautiful face was smiling at me? Amy Se-fuckin-daris! Happy Birthday to me! Or, as we say in Russian, “Unfortunately, the birthday is only once a year...”

Some 24 hours later

A great birthday. I woke up early, well not really early but 9 o’clock is early enough for having not set an alarm. Managed to find the post office, it’s only right across the street from where I live. So I sent off ten letters and postcards (check your mail friends!) and realized that I could pay bills there too. I had been nervous when my landlords told me I could pay my phone bill at the post office since I have no Russian bank account, but what they meant was that you present the bill and pay cash to the cashier. I also had the singular pleasure of watching pensioners complain about the slow service and scold young mothers and their babies. Then I picked up some groceries, including a cake, and passed the early afternoon leisurely reading and watching Arrested Development.

It was only at three when I arrived at school, proudly carrying my birthday cake, when I realized my class was at two. Doy-ee. Everyone cut me some birthday slack, but really I had been home doing nothing! My next class wasn’t until 5:30 (really this time!), so I brought the cake down to my friends in the international affairs office. We ate some sweets, drank some tea and they rounded up a lovely tea set as a gift for me. It was a bit embarrassing to get improvised presents, especially when people scolded me for not warning them about my birthday, but come on, they have my passport on file. Anyway, I was more than happy to share with my dear colleagues this surprisingly delicious store-bought cake.

After class, I planned to meet another English teacher to see the movie Mamma Mia! (their quotation mark, not mine). I bought myself a beer, heated up some pasta and hurried to meet Dasha and her young son Danilo near the theater. The theater was very nice, and soon they’re even showing the new Coen Brothers movie. But I don’t think I’ll go, because if it’s translated well, I won’t understand it, and if poorly, that’s a waste of 50 rubles! So, about Mamma Mia! Maybe it was just the Russian dubbing and my joy at watching a Hollywood musical on my birthday, but I loved it! Meryl Streep’s singing wasn’t nearly as bad as the choreography, and I’ve loved Abba ever since Muriel’s Wedding. Plus, since we stayed through the credits, we got to see the bonus performance of my favorite Abba song, “Waterloo.” Disco and Napoleon--it’s a winning combination!

Walking back, Danilo invited me to the Puppet Theater production of Gogol’s “Overcoat.” He recounted the story, which I already knew but his English was so adorable and emotion so sincere that I didn’t care to intervene. If he were a little older, I would have told him what Gogol was really talking about! Now I’m really looking forward to seeing this show. If it’s half as good as the Petersburg production of Nose, it will be twice as good as anything at Playhouse Square. We parted ways at the metro station near my apartment and Dasha asked me to call her when I got in. That’s why I love hanging out with moms.

Now, already satisfied with the day’s events, something incredible happened to top it all. I fixed myself a bowl of cereal and started flipping through tv channels, looking for something entertaining or at least inoffensive before bed. As if some programmer knew it was my birthday, my all-time favorite bad movie is on tv. No, not Rock and Roll High School. No less than Scarface! I turned it on at the beginning of Tony’s sprawling descent, right when he gets nabbed by the camera in the clock. This is lucky because once I hear that infectious synth-and-whip music, I can’t turn it off. I just have to “push it to the limit (limit!)” Since I’ve started writing this, Tony’s killed Manuelo and now he’s about to get f’ed right in the a. I take your bullets! I’m Tony Montana! I bury all of you cock-a-roaches! There’s something so satisfying about seeing him get it in the back of the head. That reminds me that I want to prepare a lesson on the American dream...

Well folks, I’m about to see what sleep is like for a 23-year old. And when I come home this summer, you’ll all be able once again to “say hello to (your) little friend.” Nyuk nyuk nyuk.

Highlights

Hey faithful followers! As usual, I have a stock-pile of back-dated posts, but I can't upload them here. Oh well. Here are the highlights:
Temple yesterday: a multi-lingual lunch with five girls in three different languages, Russian, Hebrew and English. Turns out, Jewish humor is international. So is the food. BTW, Halle, you're right, these girls are Lubbovitcher all the way.
Teachers' Day: A Russian holiday when students giv their teachers presents. That's what I'm talkin' about. I got a coffee mug, candle and a box of chocolates. And I'm not even a real teacher!
Third-year English students: capable, enthusiastic and energetic. When I asked them about a Russian fairy tale they had referenced, they all got up and acted it out. In this group is the sweet girl who took me to the photography museum and was mortified to learn I had already been there when she never has. She and her dad are also helping me get internet in my house.
Doberman: I met today on the street, a fat bitch (come on, it's a dog!) named Danna. Dannichka!
The New Yorker online: I can save articles right to my flash drive!
Pirated DVDs: Fifteen Soviet comedy classics on one disc!
Birthday: Tomorrow. Cake and "Mamma Mia." Anything's funny dubbed into Russian.
Ok my friends that's it for now. Shana tova and an easy fast to my Jewish friends. To my gentile friends (do I have any?) I say, when the Messiah comes, we'll know who was right; there's a fifty-percent chance either way.
Peace and love