Today we went to Nizhny and met with a number of important Russian politicians. That was very cool. They treated all of us students with respect and accomodated us all in a grand and amiable fashion. We sat at their table and were privelagged with the oppurtinity to talk with them and ask them questions. Everything was taped and we were interviewed. It will air on TV soon. Four hours there and seven hours back but it was worth it. I have pictures with four or five Russian politicians and one picture with the president of the republic in which Nizhny-Novgorod lies.

The trip to St. Petersburg was a lifechanging expierience. It is the most beautiful city I have ever seen. It is actually a little bit ridiculous sometimes--every building is a beautiful piece of history and culture. I was being bludgeoned over the head by beauty the entire time, without rest. Even the drug stores and everyday shops are museum-like castles. There is too much to say in one blog post or even two or three, and I don't want to write four so I will sum up a lot:
The Hermitage
The Canal full of boats running through the heart of the city
The palaces and museums (these two are often hard to distunguish)
The majestic churches which are actually to good for description
Walking though the streets and being able to look any direction and see a stunning building, fountain or garden

I could talk about the wonders of St. Petersburg for days. I have so much to say that I fear beginning in earnest because I don't know if I could stop.

I took about five hundred photographs, I can't describe them, I think that the beauty of this city can only be understood by being there. As I said, St. Petersburg was life changing, and it has frustrated my attempts to describe it.
This probably sounds rushed. It is . We have no internet at home so I am using the mcdonalds internet in cheboksary. The internet there is terrible and it could time out at any second. Therefore I must be economic with time.

Russian grammar is so complex and utterly incomprehensible in every way that I am having a hard time comprehending it. Grammar is occupying so much of me that I can no longer remember my twenty words a day. This is very disconcerting. I will give myself a week to heal from the wounds that the Russian language has inflicted upon me then I will resume stuffing twenty words a day into the burlap sack which is my mind.

Whoa! We just had a ridiculous hail storm that smashed peoples' windows and stuff. I have videos and pictures of course. They are coming soon. haha and I was just talking about how nice the weather was...

Today I went to the country house and had an unexpected encounter with a unique Russian holiday. On this day everybody visits the graves of their dead loved ones. Everybody in the family who's grave still exists we visited. We visited the grave of one woman who had been born in the nineteenth century. The graveyards were in the woods with trees sometimes growing out of the graves which is different than in USA. The graveyards are also very crowded, especially on this holiday.

From what I saw Russian graves are above the ground, not below. The body in question is normally at ankle level, so the mounds are pretty big.

On this holiday everybody even remotely related to the deceased person gathers around the grave and basically parties. Every time you eat or drink you must put a little bit down on the grave near the head. By the end there is usually quite a feast strewn out on the grave.
I also gathered from this holiday that the life expectancy in Russia is very low. I looked it up later and found out that it was 58 for men. I think that is the figure for Russia overall which means that I can hack of another ten years because my region is poor and more worried about day to day survival than living to ripe old age.

this was taken at 10:00 pm
The weather has been perfect for three weeks. It is usually about sixty five to seventy degrees with a hot sun and a warm breeze. I think that the summer is somehow Russia's way of saying sorry for the winter. There are only about three or four hours of darkness every night which is cool, but makes it harder to sleep. Like I said, the summer is really the opposite of the winter here. During winter there are only about four hours of light every day. In summer, everything is green and full of life, especially at our second house in the country. It is somewhat of a farm. They have chickens and cows and a lake with a lot of fish. The country house is beautiful this time of year.

Ok I was wrong when I said the "the WW2 victory celebration will be tomorrow". That was a different holiday--different but similar. The holiday, which is called "the ninth of may" is held, contrary to what I wrote earlier, on the ninth of may, not the second.

Today, (the ninth of may) I was at the heart of this celebration in cheboksary. There were parades and some jeeps and stuff in the street. I think a total of about five thousand people were in the parade in novocheboksarsk and at least twice that much in cheboksary. Each of them had their own genuine AK47. People would say "s praznikom!" and everyone yelled it back. There were a lot of drunk people who wanted to kill me and one of them stole my chocolate, but overall I'd say the good of the day outweighed the bad. My friends and I had a barbecue and then went to so the fireworks. They were stunning and promptly set the nearby woods on fire. The fire was big and it took about half an hour for the firemen to put it out. Only in Russia

On the way home an old, drunk man grabbed me by the hair and said laughinglly that he wanted it for himself.

Today the teacher of english at my school, who's name is Lidia invited me to her house to look at the sky with her husband. I said yes for astronomy has long been one of my interests and hobbies. It turns out that the teacher is fluent in Italian Russian and English and she is an amazing singer and guitarist. Her husband, who's name is Ed is an astronomer and astrophysicist. "There aren't many astronomers in Russia" he says, "but the few that there are keep in touch over this forum...which I created."-- www.Astronomy.ru -- He has written a book and published it on the internet. It is now the most downloaded Ebook in Russia. He speaks English, which he learned from his wife. Ed also is very proud of his achievements in various martial arts including SAMBO. To pay the bills, Ed gives financial advice, creates websites, and removes viruses from computers. But wait, Ed's not done. He also is a tea connoisseur. He likes to mix teas to create his own special blends. Both husband and wife are vegetarian. They both often speak of philosophy, quoting the Dali Lama, Confucius and Socrates always in the original language. They believe that less is more money wise--it just causes problems after all.

He and his wife are always playing music, he is an accomplished keyboard player and she is an amazing singer and a very good guitarist. They played an original song for me and it was awesome. There is just one thing; they live with Lidia's mother.

Luckily I don't care about that and I will be returning to their house where fine tea is aplenty, telescopes are big and always pointed at something interesting, foreign cultures are embraced and where skilled musicians practice their craft.

Ok, right now I am in Mcdonals looking down from the second floor window on the biggest display of patriotic nationalism I have ever seen. The funny thing is that the holiday hasn't ever started yet. Tomorrow is "Victory Day" the day that Russians celebrate singlehandedly winning WW2 and just Russia itself. Everybody has either a Russian flag or a Chuvash flag in their hands, most have both. People are dancing in the streets for sheer joy. Many have dressed up in their traditional Chuvash attire and are playing Chuvash techno music from big stages. Policeman and SWAT team guys are everywhere. They make up 25% of the attendants. They are almost happy too. I have been lifted off the ground by hugs from people I don't even know. Buses and taxis are barely charging money at all. Shopkeepers are out in the streets with everyone else, their stores left unattended. Everyone here is overcome with the pride and joy of being Russian. Tomorrow tanks will drive through the streets and planes will fly overhead. I can't even imagine what the people will be like then. Every soldier in the area will be in the parade. I hear that Moscow is even shipping in some American and British soldiers.

Ok, I am going back to the celebration...more to come

Wanna know why I woke up at four thirty today?
ok:
Today I shot my first Russian guns. Me, my brother and my uncle went to this beautiful forest of mostly birch and it was there that we were able to shoot targets with a number of pistols ranging from regular 9mm's to very strange, bird-shot revolvers. This was very fun and afterwards we relaxed and enjoyed the beauty of the forest.
My uncle had set up about ten of these devices (picture) to extract water from the trees. He encouraged us to try it and it was amazing. It tasted sweet and a little bit like vanilla and mint. I had never heard of this before and I do not know if it is often practiced in U.S.A. I think the name of the water after it is taken from the tree translates to something like "nature juice."
The Russian forests are really cool. There's a lot of topographical diversity. You can always find a wierd gorge or waterfall and the birch trees never fail to please. I actually came accross a couple of pine trees that looked exactly the same as the pine trees back in the pine barrens. (Tall with branches only at the top) (I just used the word "pine" three times in one sentence.)

Well, that's why I woke up at four thirty. It was worth it.

I have been without internet for a while, the home computer has a virus. I actually had to trek all the way to mcdonalds in the neighbouring city just to post this message with their wifi.
Ok, the halfway point has come and is now almost a month behind me. That felt both good and bad. Good because it means I will soon see my family and friends, but also sad because it means I will soon have to leave my family and friends here, probably forever. It is good because I can look back on all the Russian I have learned, but humbling because I still have so much more to learn. I definetly don't know Russian half as well as I want to, and my time in Russia is already more than halfway over.
Now for a grab bag of miscellaneous complaints and announcments:
1. I take Russian language classes at school with five and six year olds and they are really cute.
2.The Russian news only covers the bad stuff that is happening everywhere except Russia. --especially USA--there is always a story about some terrible thing an American did or some terrible thing that happened in America. Yesterday the news talked for twenty minutes about the American who fell down in New York City and was not offered help getting up.
3. The snow is all gone and the weather is amazing
4. I have gained over five kilos since I arrived.
5. On Sunday my host mom's car broke down in the middle of a Russian highway for about an hour. Russian highways are pretty much the scariest things ever. I am going to talk more about them later.

Mom, stop reading now.


On saturday I was provided the oppurtunity to witness one of the most profound and fundamental aspects of Russian culture: The Really Big Fight. The Really Big Fight, or Otchen Bolshaya Drakka involves twenty or thirty good friends dividing into two groups and having a really big fight. It is a frequent occurence here in Chuvashia and this event seems to have become the unofficial sport of my region. Sadly, it is one of the least frequently witnessed elements of Russian Culture. I was very pleased at being given such a rare oppurtunity, I felt like I was being drawn into the fold, included in an ancient Russian tradition. To be honest, that is exactly what was happening

This fight pitted two classes in school against each other. "11 A" against class "11 V". It lasted about five minutes and left no doubt in anybody's mind that 11 A had won. Afterwards 11A helped all of the losers get up and carried a couple of them home. There was a lot of mutual respect. The classes saw each other in school the next day and there didn't seem to be any hostility, although there was a lot of limping.

Overall it was a scary, yet enlightening day and I am quite glad to have lived it.

If anybody is asking the question: "John, did you participate in this?" I will not answer it, I will merely provide you the tools you need to answer it yourself.
I am here to expierience Russian culture.
Any Russian will tell you that this is one of the most important elements of their culture.
Mom, you should have listened to me.

Yesterday I gave a presentation in the Cheboksary Universety. It went pretty well, I was able to talk about the place that I live in detail and with minimal mistakes. I like to think that the students understood me. They asked a lot of questions, sometimes throwing in english words where they could. Went pretty well I think. I had a week to gather my thoughts and words which helped a lot.
I was in the newspaper again here in novocheboksarsk , which is pretty cool.

That's it for the good stuff this week, now for the weird stuff:

Today in History class, one of the girls started trying to saw her desk in half with her hair brush. Next, she ate and drank all of the makeup in her bag After that she began screaming crying and laughing like a maniac. What the heck?
Two days ago someone threw a dead dog off their balcony. It landed some twenty feet in front of me which caused me some distress, thought admittedly not as much as it should have.

Today I gave a presentation to my school on America, New Jersey, Medford and my life. It was about fifteen minutes long with photos projected from my netbook and whatnot. I demonstrated lunasticks and how they are used. I gave the presentation in Russian which made it funnier for them I think but also useful for me because I had to think about everything I was going to say ahead of time. It would have helped to have written it down but I only had a couple hours notice. Overall I think it went pretty well even though I was sick and unprepared.

Five days ago we lost our hot water. That is a big deal here, becasue even the cold water here that you get from your tap has hot water in it. It was three days into the five day spell without water that I decided that i was taking a shower. I could only stand about a minute and a half of direct contact with the water. It was really cold--there were actually tiny pieces of ice in it--I don't even know how that is possible... Anyway, after the shower I got pretty sick but it only lasted two days.

You know you are in Russian when the only clean people are sick.

So after five days they repaired our water system---the only problem---it was a Russian repair. The gave us back our hot water but they took away our cold water--nothing is free after all...
Seriously, five days of only freezing cold water and now we have only scalding hot water; it is more than a little bit ridiculous.

Our elevator has started stopping in the middle of a floor so you sorta have to duck and then jump down from the elevator to get out...or you could take the stairs.

My Englsih is officially going...sorry if there is any difficulty understanding this.

Today was a very long day. First I went to Cheboksary to see a museum, then I came back to novocheboksarsk with my AFS friends and we walked around for about six hours and then went to church for another two. After that I met up with my Russian friends in mcdonalds and walked around novocheboksarsk for another three hours. I think today I have walked a total of fifteen miles and traveled by vehichle about eighty. I did all this while staying inside of a twenty square mile space.

The weather here is amazing. it has been about sixty degrees for the past three days.
Everybody is happier, including me. I see people smiling on the streets. Oh yeah, the streets---the huge walls of snow and ice have befun to melt and as a result the sidewalks have become like rivers. People put boxes connected by plywood down in the sidewalk and everyone walks on that to avoid being soaked to the waist by five-month-old-snow-water.

This is funny though and not really that inconvenient. I think it should be like this al the time, even when there is no water on the ground.

Actually the weather is so good that I devoted two days solely to the substantial "Pleasure Boating" section of my Russian book. I learned about fifty words including: kayak, anchor, dinghy, inflatable raft, outboard motor, and most importantly of all: hook.

The terrorist bombings in Moscow are on everybody's mind right now here in Russia. We had a few minutes of solemn silence in my house to dwell on what had happened. Politicians are angry and have vowed to wipe out every last person involved in the attack. The metro is still fully operational; only the segments directly damaged have been closed down. The people of Moscow have decided not to let the attack affect their daily lives in any major way, because that is giving the terrorists what they want. Most people took the very same metro home the same day. I admire the courage and fortitude of these people.

The scary thing is that I almost went to Moscow for the holidays last. I would have been in the city at the time had I gone. There was a very expensive AFS camp and the few people who actually went said that they "heard the blast". Luckily they were in a different section of the city and they are fine, of course.

Things are going well--the holidays are nice, everybody here seems to be happier.
It has been about two months and the novelty of my foreigner status has worn off. My Russian friends still want to hang out with me though which is good. I might be going to St. Petersburg soon, which is also good.

Holidays are soon; they are going to be a much needed rest.

Unfortunately one of the other two NSLI-scholarship students in Russia has come down with a terrible case of food poisoning and is currently in the Russian hospital along with everyone else who ate lunch at that school. I don't go to that school but I have always had suspicions about the school food. God help us all.

I completely aced my recent Russian test. It was an oral test so I was able to branch out and show what I know while cleverly talking around what I don't know. I study fifteen to twenty vocabulary words every day. Ten nouns five verbs and sometimes adjectives. Also grammar, which is the hardest part--I have to study that a few hours every day also in order to learn it. I finally got to use some more unusual words which was very fun.

Only the NSLI scholarship kids were tested that day, we get tested alot, the US government wants to make sure it is getting it's moneysworth. Don't worry general public of America, your tax dollars will not be wasted on me!

The lady administering the exam came down to cheboksary from moscow---she is one of the cooler people I have met here. This other lady loved me until she saw that I had not worn a coat--then she freaked out. She seriously went mad with rage. I thought she was making a joke or someting at first but I quickly learned that she was not. I didn't catch all of what she said but it went something like this: "you are in Russia, you must wear a coat, you will catch a cold, you are like a small child, sometimes it is negative thirty degrees here and you must wear a coat."

All of this was said neglecting the one most important and fundamental bit of information: it was ten degrees celcius outside. That is warm. Unfortunately, she didn't seem able to concieve of any possible variations in temperature so I respectfully apologized and promised to wear a coat during the summer to make up for it, which seemed to satisfy her.

The way I see it, if it is cold I wear a coat, if it is not cold, I don't wear a coat.

That is the beauty of human intellect--we have the freedom to make such choices.

Ok I have finally completed my guide to the people of Chuvashia

Men under twenty five: all good, warm, nice, funny people. If there is a problem they will help.

Women under twenty five: beautiful, quick to smile, slow to laugh, are scared of men over twenty five.

Men over twenty five: ah, not nice people. Never smile never laugh unless they are laughing at you. If you are getting robbed, they will not even look twice unless they are the ones robbing you. Like to get drunk then start fights in the street.

Women over twenty five: Intelligent, sometimes smile, sometimes even laugh, will give you really good directions if you ask. They are also quite scared of Men Over Twenty Five.
************************************exceptions**************************************
This is important.
Bright coats--if they are wearing a bright color they are almost always kind. Of course this doesn't mean that those in dark colors are all unkind. IT is rare to see a bright colored coat

Children---if they have kids with them they are nicer, quicker to laughter and overall awesomer people. I see a lot less kids around here though.
This obviously is my opinion. I live in a little town in the middle of nowhere.

I came close to fighting for the first time in Russa today. I was waiting at a bus stop with my German friend Alex and this tiny lttle bald guy walked up and started staring at him in a really creepy drunken way. He did that for about two minutes then walked up and started saying ridiculous stuff that neither I nor Alex, who speaks fluent Russian could understand. Alex told th gentlemen that we didn't understand then the guy got really mad and stated freaking out and cursing at us asking why we didn't understand him. I thought it was really funny, because Alex is about my height(6'4) and over 200 pounds so I started to laugh uncontrollably. The guy was probably not even five feet tall and I think he was over thirty years old.
Any way the guy started pushing us screaming in our faces. (The pushes weren't really a problem because the guy was so small but it is the idea which is offensive.)Nobody nearby wanted to help and I learned that Alex is a pacifist so I pushed the guy and he fell over then Alex and I ran into a bus. That was an awesome idea because the gentlemen didn't have the neccesary fifteen cents. I think everything went well but I probably should have punched him because I bet he just picked new targets once we left.

Today I went to Kazan and that was very awesome. The city was stunning. It had all of these old colorful buildings and huge beautiful Churches and Mosques. The dramatic Tartar architecture and colors made for great photos. The city is also very developed, it is interesting to see two totally different lifestyles/lifetimes right next to each other, in each other's midst. There is something surreal about seeing a mega mall right next to a 900-year old Tartar palace.

I bought a guitar a couple days ago which I really had been wanting to do. It was about four thousand rubles including the amplifie, which is not a bad price at all especially for russia where everything except food is pretty expensive. I bought it from this awesome guy Sergei Zubov, who spoke absolutely perfect english with a california accent. I actually thought he was an American tourist for a second. He had spent a few years performing in America and i guess that's why his english is so good. He is sort of a celebrity in Chuvashia, which is the part of Russia I live in.

Two days after buying a guitar I got kind of annoyed at the Russian postal service because I still didn't have my care package but I had revieved other mail. I went over to the post office with my bro Dima and I didn't even have my passport with me. I gave them a photo copy of it and then I saw the contents of my package and I sort of got mad. I just screamed in Russian: "Why is my mail here and why is it open?" over and over again and then I accused them of theft. They eventually just gave it to me repeating over and over again that it was everything, that everything was there. I have learned a valuable lesson:
If you don't get what you want in Russia, just shout very loudly and look really mad--then you will get what you want.

Now I need to go buy a bunch of ten cent gifts because it is womens day tomorrow.

Yesterday I sat on a lady in the bus, she was very small. Then the door wouldn't open so I had to climb out of the window. That's when I realized that it was the wrong stop. I had to walk home but it wasn't too bad. The bad part was at home, outside of the apartment building. I saw a guy get punched in the face then run into the apartment building. When I got there and took the elevator there was blood all over the floor. It was difficult to see in the gloom and I accidentally got blood all over my shoes.

Today I went cross country skiing in the Russian forest. It was hard and not fun.
But at least I got to meet the local AFS volunteer's mother. She is awesome. The AFS volunteer and the mother. The AFS volunteer always tells me where to get off the bus and helps me when I get lost nad her mom is awesome because:
Right before the skiing began a froup of people including me were given a tour. The tour was not very fun becase it was very long and I didn't even know what the lady was saying. The people who could understand her didn't care about what she had to say. Anyway, we all jumped/flipped into the snow. I did too. For some reason it totally ravaged my jeans. The back was ripped open in three places from the waistband to my calf. THe front was also ripped in a little crescent moon right in between my legs. The AFS volunteer, who we will call Lera, because that is her name, asked her mom to fix my jeans. Her mom gave me some sweatpants and then stitched my jeans up basically good as new in about half an hour. How my jeans managed to rip in four places I will never know. Jumping into the snow isn't usually considered an activity capable of tearing wide gashes through denim in four places.

I havent posted a blog lately because I have been very busy with Russian study and I was at the secondary house of my host family this weekend. The secondary house thing is pretty common in Russia, one little flat in the city and one big house in the country, which in Russia is the tundra. The house was nice, it was big and and full of food, couchbeds and cute animals that like to sleep next to you. There is a bania about ten meters from the secondary home and I had the prevellage of visiting it during my weekend stay. It was about eighty degrees celsius and extremely humid. I stayed in for about one hour, which was very difficult. When I stumbled out my head was spinning and everything looked hazy whitish-gray--and I am not just saying that because I am in Russia, everything was way more hazy whitish-gray than usual. Overall the bania was great and I'd like to try it again.

I joined a gym in Cheboksary on friday and I just had my second workout there today. It's not bad, it has everything I need and it has been empty both times I went except for me and my AFS buddies who work out. The men's changing room is a remodled kitchen. It has a table and booths like one would find in a diner. It also has a microwave, some freeze-dried food, two hot water boilers and many many boxes of tea. unfortunately there no mugs. There is shower, a dryer, but no towels. There is also a huge cupboard full of various brushes and powders. The room with a shower in it has a door but no doorknob. There is also a sauna but when I got in, it was cold. I know this is a lot of detail for a gym , but i thought it was hysterical how nonsensical the arrangement was. haha today the lady who runs the gym sent a some little boy into the changing room to microwave her a baked potato because the only microwave was in the men's changing room.

Today is the first day of a week long holiday during which people eat blini every day for a week. We don't get off school.
I went bowling yesterday with AFS friends, sort of for my birthday. That was really fun. It's basically the same as bowling in the U.S. -- just cleaner.

I have been in three Russian homes so far and in all of them the TV was on the whole time. family gatherings, parties, hanging out with friends, tv is always on

Today I was not allowed to cook. oh well--- at least I got to help out in English class--- I answered a lot of questions about American media and television. It was the senior class so they were almost fluent in English. I was impressed and surprised, because the jr class has terrible English.  Today Valentina Yurpalova's friend came over with her husband. She used to be an English teacher so her english was naturally pretty good. It was a good oppurtunity to express myself to the Yurpalov's in way's that i would not normally be able. The food was good, I had my first Russian ice cream. It was good. I had some cow tongue boiled in salt water. It was not bad. I had some caviar today. It was---not bad.

Today I exerienced my first bit of true prejudiced against Americans.

It was my class' turn to cook lunch for the entire school today.  As soon as the head lunch lady saw me she asked a lot of questions to Dima. Most I understood quite clearly. She didn't want me anywhere near her and she didn't want anybody who was on good terms with me in her dining hall. She was really mad until she found out that two other americans were staying in Cheboksary, then she freaked out. She and the other old teacher made Dima and I leave the school. We came back two hours later after the headmistress had found out what happened and put a stop to it. The bad news is: old ladies remember when America and Russian were at war. The good news is: my understanding of Russian, especially angry Russian is coming along well.

My host mother is a butcher for a living and that is very cool.

This is my host brother Dmtri cooking some plaff which was really good.

                                                                                            Russians have school on saturday as I found out saturday morning.

                                                      Above: some amazing juice and some Russian sauce or something.  Potatoes and Lamb

In the bottom picture:

Kvass (the big brown bottle) pretty good but very wierd

Kefir(bag) pretty good but very wierd

Russian Sour Cream--pretty good but very wierd

Today I met the two other AFS students in my school: A german guy and a Swiss girl----They are very nice nad they have been here for six months so they are nearly fluent in Russian.

I played a game of basketball today. The teams were mixed and the girls were very good and very aggressive. All of the players were extremely intense which made it a lot funnier when they missed or tripped on each other. :)  Despite their intensity they all had very good sportsmanship. I look foward to playing basketball again.

I feel that, although I have only been here for four days, my knowledge of the language has tripled. I

Women are quite overrepresented in the workforce of Russia. I know that women outnumber men here, but not enough to account for this.  :)

I had some really amazing peach juice today.

I had this awesome idea for remembering different body parts: I write the name of the body part in ink on the boday part. So far it has worked very well. I remember the words, and the Russians think it is "wery genius, wery wery geniusfunny" that is a word in russian english; "geniusfunny"

Today was my first day of school and my first Russian party so this will be a long post.

Russian school is very chaotic. Kids ages 8-18 study in the same building.  Everybody is screaming and yelling and trying to get to their class.  The students all stand up when a teacher or adult enters the room. They are respuectful of their teachers but halfway into the class they are just like any other group of people doing something thay don't really want to do.  Russian schools must be doing something right  because the 16 year olds are doing advanced algebra and trigonometry. English class s very advanced. The students are not billingual but they are nearly proficient in english.

Russians punch each other a lot. Nobody seems to mind getting punched in the face...hard.

Whenever a teacher enters the room all of the students stand up abruptly.

The Russian party was very fun. It was an extended family party as most Russian parties are.  They accepted me right away as a part of their family. I have heard that Russians can be very loving people and I didn't belive it, but after attending a Russian party I am sure it is true. 

Sorry if my english sounds wierd, I am doing my best to forget it.

pictures coming soon

After  ten-hour plane ride I arrived in the Moscow airport to be solicited some fifteen times by various "taxi" drivers in a mixture of russian and english.  I eventually was picked up by an AFS Russia representative. She was nice and very helpful. I forget her name.  Guided by the AFS Russia representative I set off with the two other students for the train station. Two hour train ride from the Mocsow Airport to central Moscow----five hours of subway-----thirteen hour train ride from Moscow to Cheboksary where I was welcomed by my host family and two AFS Russia representatives.  Valentina Yurpalova and Dimitry (Dimya) Yurpalov are extremely kind. Mrs. Yurpalova hasn't spoken a word of English, which is good because it encourages me to learn Russian. 

After arriving at the Yurpalov flat I was treated to an excellent meal cooked by Dimitry.  Cooking, and Hockey are some of his hobbies.  Later on I met a lot of Dimitry's friends; they were all very jolly and interested in the very few things I could say.

Kvass---good

Russian fruit Juices (sok) -----very good

Russian Tea-----very good

Russian food-----pretty good most of the time

 There is a cinema and a variety of shops within walking distance of my residence. 

I have just received the first part of my orientation. It was long but the food was good. My roomate is hoss. There are two others students going to Russia and about ten going to Egypt.

I just had a great going away party at Camp Ockanickon. Thanks for coming, everybody!

I leave my house on Wednesday morning for Dulles Airport in D.C. where I will be given a day-long orientation. I get on a plane headed for Moscow on Thursday at noon.