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