Things I learned in Russia

It's been a few months, but I wrote these thoughts down when the feelings were still fresh in my mind. I learned a more than I've written, but perhaps these will be helpful to the future traveller.

THINGS I LEARNED IN RUSSIA:

Teachers gather to eat and drink champagne at the New Year's celebration.

1. There are many things you can do with cabbage and all of them are tasty 
2. And there are milk products in Russia that we have never even dreamed of, and they are also tasty.
3. That said, never trust expiry dates—especially for milk. I come from a family where 1 week is a shrug of the shoulders. In Russia, two days is food poisoning. It happened to me. 
4. Despite encountering a lot of poverty here, I have never seen so much generosity. When I put a hole in my carpet (it’s a long story), I told my friend Julia and she invited her husband and their friend to help me get a new one. They brought me to a carpet store, helped me choose out a new carpet, bought it for me (there was no saying no), and then they installed it for me—and then took me out for dinner! 

   

   Julia, the gang, and I go for some Armenian shishlik.

5. A gift is a way of bartering for friendship. At New Year’s, on Women’s Day, and on just an ordinary day of the week, people will give you gifts just to show that they appreciate you. 

   

   Just a few of the gifts from Christmas.

6. Walking in a straight line can be more complicated than it seems. It took me about 2 months. 

   

   Pygmalion Theatre: lots of hours being bored here.

7. You can be overworked and underpaid and still be happy every day when you come to work. 

   

   This cat bit me.

8. Never let an opportunity down. There’s a caveat for parachuting in Russia. No regrets, but I wouldn’t do it again!

   

   This was pretty scary as well: an inexperienced driver takes me through heavy traffic on the first snow day...and then back-up parks on this cliff. Let's just say I got out really fast.

9. You don’t need to know anything about a subject to teach it. You just need to know how to teach it.

   

   Hi students.

10. Cheating, in Russia, is considered a sign of loyalty between friends. I have never had to have so many discussions about cheating. The American professor agrees. Some students explain the cheating problem otherwise: they claim that teachers make their tests too hard and allow their students to cheat so that they can pass. Maybe that’s true. But in any case, most teachers avoid the possibility of cheating altogether by giving a lot of spoken exams.  

    

    Somebody has the brilliant idea to redo the hallway floors during the last week of school just before exams. We have to climb over broken pieces to get to this classroom. Suing is obviously not a common practice here.

11. It’s better not to make friends with your students, but don’t pretend there is any distance between you that cannot be bridged by empathy and kindness.  

    

    Elena shows me the Naval Supplies store and I buy a hat for my brother.

12. It’s possible to try to clean snow and ice with a twig broom and a pick-axe, but nothing beats a Canadian shovel and some salt!!

    

    In the central square: Supposedly the city didn't get any snow last year.

13. It’s better not to ask illegal immigrants who are from the desert to clean your streets in the winter. There’s a good chance that have never seen snow. 
    
    

    

    A view from "Eagle's Nest." I climbed to a higher peak but the cold froze my camera so I don't have photos.

14. Corruption is not completely corrupt. (How Russified have I become?)

    

    The usual 3 o'clock traffic. I'm looking out of the university window to some old wooden houses. I thought it was a slum when I first came, but there are many people who choose to live like this rather than move into the squeezed Soviet-style apartment buildings. Many of the wooden houses don't have running water or flushing toilets.

15. Let me explain: too many laws (and especially if they are not rationally apparent) lead to corruption, bribery, and the breaking of those laws. 
    
    

    

    At the orphanage: During the winter only three or four children are allowed to come and see the volunteers because of the fear of diseases and colds. Supposedly the children are not brought outside until Spring. Last time I snuck into the room with the youngest babies, but usually we were only allowed to play with the toddlers. A lot needs to be done to improve the care of children in Russia and to support young families.

16. It is possible to destroy someone’s culture. I could blame the Soviets, but they’ve been gone now for twenty years. What are really to blame now are bad education and laziness. Only one of my students had read Dostoevsky, mind you it is a hard read in Russian, but I even had one student come up to me and say: “What did you come here for, Miss? We have no culture here.”  !!

    

    Young people gather for a Lenten retreat at the only Catholic Church in the city. On the right is an image of Our Lady of Vladivostok (perhaps I've invented the title, but the icon was painted for the church and the image is Fr. Myron's idea).

17. Russian culture, as we have read about it, no longer exists. However, it is not completely gone. But you won’t find it easily-- like how I searched the entire city for a copy of the famous poetry of “Mandelshtam” who died north of Vladivostok. Of all the bookstores I only found one copy—and it was only meant to be for display since there were more pictures than words and the words themselves were too small to read. Thankfully an old artist held a copy and the teachers in my office found another one, albeit some detective work. Is this disappointing? No! It’s a cultural catastrophe! It’s easier to find a harlequin romance than a great Russian poet whose statue, by the way, stands outside of the university...  



The said statue.


18. Tuberculosis is still a major problem in some places of the world; eg., in some villages surrounding Vladivostok 

    

    This little market runs year round and sells a lot of Chinese vegetables. The Chinese border is about an hour away from the city.

19. It is possible to be stunning, come to class fully made-up in 10-inch heels, be dressed fashionably, and have the highest mark in the class. I can say the size of the heels differed for my female students, but I have never met so many beautiful, intelligent people. The experience has encouraged me to be more feminine in how I dress (well, without exaggerating). In Canada, a lot of my female friends are afraid to wear skirts so as not to “stand out” and be treated differently by their colleagues, employers, fellow students or teachers. What a shame that women are afraid to be feminine in the workplace--let’s be beautiful! I have seen many women leaders in Russia do the same and it’s liberating. 

    

    Students put together a New Year's show exhibiting traditional Russian dances. In this one, young women in glittering gowns swirl and glide in perfect synchrony in what moved me as a performance of beauty and grace.
20. There are lot of things to be grateful for in Canada. One of them is our liberal universities where many students are still encouraged to seek knowledge for love of learning. Another is our efficiency. I am very proud that we are often looking for ways to make processes faster and better. 

    

    At the local museum, there is this interesting display of a young Russian soldier who was martyred for his faith in the East. On the icon they have created for him on the right, the saint is wearing army dress with the typical Russian blue and white striped flannel under-shirt showing at the neck.

21. Russians are not typically stern and harsh. They smile a lot and their humour is very similar to Canadians’. Their favourite saying is: “Everything will be good.” It’s not that they don’t love their melancholy (especially in music—some claim only sad songs are worth listening to!)... but they hold that the 8th mortal sin is “Deep Sadness.” 

    

    Elena encourages me to go for a ride on a tiger. Tigers are the symbol of the area. I saw some live ones at the zoo. They're the biggest tiger in the world and they're supposed to be extremely ferocious, but they were just lazing around and sleeping when I saw them. This one seems rather friendly. 

22. Don’t put a hot frying pan on a carpet. I know I already mentioned it, but just in case you missed that point. It’s a long story.  
    
23. Always give yourself enough time to get to the airport. I almost missed my flight and ended up leaving a 50lb luggage in a Moscow storage room that I still haven’t managed to recover. It doesn’t help that the airport employees hang-up on me when I try to speak to them in my depleted Russian. It's as if they are only giving me one option: Come back to Russia and get it yourself!!

One of the less dangerous, most satifying things I did on this trip was to climb "Bell-tower" mountain in Kazanka with Dina and crew. I will never forget Dina running to the top and Vlad flying that makeshift flag with all the hearty energy he could muster.