Last night our orientation concluded and it was finally time to meet our host families. My new host mom picked me up at the hotel we had been staying at. Her name is Irina Mikhailovna. In Russian culture, there is a high emphasis on respecting those who are older than you. So when I greet my host mom, I must address her not only by her first name but with her patronymic as well. A patronymic is almost like a Russian middle name, except it is given to you based on your father's first name. For example, my patronymic would be Johnovna (I guess?). Not the biggest fan in the world of the whole patronymic thing (from a feminist standpoint of course) but I'm accepting it all in the name of cultural assimilation.
We arrived at our apartment building, admittedly quite dilapidated, with its pink peeling hallway and broken down elevator (loads of fun carrying my luggage up a few flights of stairs). I live on Soviet Street, which may sound pretty simple, but there are ten streets parallel to each other all named Soviet Street. Mine is the eighth in the row, hopefully it will be easy to find on my walk home from school today.
My apartment is very rustic. It definitely has not been refurnished from Soviet times. My room has lots of storage space and a big window. Luckily there are curtains, although rather thin, they still block out most of the light during the evenings. There is no air conditioning, so the small apartment can get pretty stuffy. I was tempted to open the window in my room, but I have yet to touch it for fear of the large amount of mosquitos in the city. I opted for a tiny fan that I brought from home, but within a few minutes it started smoking and over-heating! Definitely proves the importance of bringing a convertor during international travel...
Both dinner and breakfast were authentically Russian. Lots of soup and sour cream; and kasha which is Russian rice porridge. I was excited to find my room has internet, something that seems pretty rare with other homestays in the program. My host mom speaks no English at all. This has definitely been a challenge and has forced me to remember all that vocab I memorized in high school! Hopefully our language barrier turns into a positive experience for me, after all the reason I am here in Russia is to learn the language!
We arrived at our apartment building, admittedly quite dilapidated, with its pink peeling hallway and broken down elevator (loads of fun carrying my luggage up a few flights of stairs). I live on Soviet Street, which may sound pretty simple, but there are ten streets parallel to each other all named Soviet Street. Mine is the eighth in the row, hopefully it will be easy to find on my walk home from school today.
My apartment is very rustic. It definitely has not been refurnished from Soviet times. My room has lots of storage space and a big window. Luckily there are curtains, although rather thin, they still block out most of the light during the evenings. There is no air conditioning, so the small apartment can get pretty stuffy. I was tempted to open the window in my room, but I have yet to touch it for fear of the large amount of mosquitos in the city. I opted for a tiny fan that I brought from home, but within a few minutes it started smoking and over-heating! Definitely proves the importance of bringing a convertor during international travel...
Both dinner and breakfast were authentically Russian. Lots of soup and sour cream; and kasha which is Russian rice porridge. I was excited to find my room has internet, something that seems pretty rare with other homestays in the program. My host mom speaks no English at all. This has definitely been a challenge and has forced me to remember all that vocab I memorized in high school! Hopefully our language barrier turns into a positive experience for me, after all the reason I am here in Russia is to learn the language!
Should I assume you live on 8th. street? so glad you listened and brought your sneakers. So you can now refer to me as Mama Rudyovna!!
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