Friday, March 26, 2010

Pulling Out The American Card

Telling people you're American in Russia usually leads to a couple of different scenarios. Russians will definitely want to know why you decided to take up the task of learning their language. Russians will probably ask your opinions on political matters and obviously Obama. They might ask you what your thoughts are on Russia and it's people.


Being abroad in Russia as an American has been a very interesting experience. Seeing people's reaction to me being American never tires me actually. For the most part, they're pretty positive and just inquisitive. What I think is more interesting is when I haven't introduced myself and I am with the group and we're speaking English. People around us obviously tend to stare, especially when we are in other smaller cities since I'm sure they aren't used to a lot foreigners. They also quickly assume that we don't speak Russian a lot of the times. I've encountered it a few times when I hear some people walking behind me and talking about how we are foreigners and they can't figure out how to say something to us. To their surprise I turn around and just tell them "Umm.. I speak Russian..." and they're so surprised by it as if it's something completely inconceivable. I can't say that I don't get a quick out of those moments haha


Another thing being abroad for the year as an American has taught me, or rather made me more aware of is my privilege. I am much more aware now that as an American I have a certain amount of privilege in the world that isn't awarded to others(Russians for example). I can go travel to so many places and I don't need a visa or any special documents other than my passport. Also, American pop culture has a pretty big presence in other cultures. How does that work? For example I can name someone like Britney Spears or Lady Gaga and young Russians will immediately know who that is. But can I go to Dickinson and will they know who Dima Bilan or Jana Friske is? Not a chance.


Living abroad as American citizen who happens to not be white can also put me in some funny situations. I am always amused when I tell people that I am Mexican and the image they have in their head is of a cowboy in old American Westerns. It's pretty funny how far I am from that stereotypical macho image. I have definitely had some peculiar cultural exchanges with Russian people and I hope there is more to come.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Kazanorama

Now I am back from the city of Kazan. It was a pretty nice city and I had some interesting experiences there so I can't wait to tell all of you!


So we had a nice little 14 hour train ride there which wasn't bad since I actually got to sleep this time as opposed to the other overnight train trips I have had in Russia. Our hotel was pretty decent and was in a nice location within the city. The first day we met with one of our guides, Guzel. She led us around for the day and our first stop was of course the Kremlin. I was surprised and extremely happy to see a mosque since all I have seen are russian orthodox churches. After our Kremlin adventure we headed to the pedestrian street, Baumana, which reminded me a lot of Arbat in Moscow actually. Then we headed to lunch where I had a nice little conversation with Guzel. We were just talking and she asked me "Do you have a girlfriend?" and I just told her "No, I'm gay". Oh my god! Her expression was PRICELESS, I wish I could of taken a picture of it. I imagine that I was the first openly gay person this poor girl has ever met. She was definitely shocked and for some reason thought I was joking. But the situation subsided and we headed to the national museum where we learned a bit about Tartarstan. Our dinner was fun, we ate at the hotel and watched some movie that was basically a combo of Hocus Pocus and Pirates of the Caribbean.


Our second day we had a tour at an island that is near Kazan. On the way there our guide(not Guzel, thank baby Jesus) gave us some bits about the city as we saw it. We got to the island and okay... it's like the beginning of March and there are supposed to be two rivers but everything is FROZEN. Once you get on the island, the view of the frozen everything is quite amazing and eerie at the same time. Our tour on the island consisted basically of churches and more churches. One really interesting thing was the icon that was made with a non-human head. It seemed kind of weird and out of place to me but I liked it. After our island trip we had lunch at some little cafe where we got to taste some Tartar foods. That night we had a theater event to attend, Delafruz. It is a remake of a Soviet play in which a girl picks her true love out of 4 candidates. It was a fun little endeavor and the whole thing was actually in the Tartar language, but we had headsets that translated so it was alright. We decided to go to an Irish pub afterwards and we met the owner who took us through a very creepy tour of his second bar which is currently being renovated. In the end we all made it out alive and now we have a new friend in Kazan.


Our final day in Kazan was Monday which was International Women's Day! We made some plans to visit the souvenir market, hit up another church, and possibly see some of the metro. Okay... so I'm not gonna lie... this was pretty much the worst day during our trip, in regards to weather. It was snowing and pretty cold, so we weren't really excited to hit the road and get our day started. We got to Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral and it was like one I have never seen before. The outside was ornately decorated and the inside was as well. Afterwards, we walked a while towards the souvenir market. It was a nice little setup inside of the city's exhibit center with interesting little souvenirs. We decided to see some of the metro and compare it to Moscow's. So Kazan's metro is only one line with basically six stations. It is pretty much a tiny little thing when compared to Moscow's insanely huge metro system. At the end of our day we were all pretty beat, we were so ready for that overnight train. We got on the train and headed back to Moscow.


Kazan was a pretty nice city but I definitely expected much more Eastern influence than what I got. I also think it would be a city that is much more beautiful during the warmer months when every body of water isn't totally frozen.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Express yourself don't repress yourself

So now my schedule seems to be getting more regular and I am sort of settled in. I just want to say how crazy I think that it is already March. It seems like just a week ago I arrived back in Moscow for my second semester. Oh how time flies..

At the moment I am taking the regular courses for the Dickinson Program. Something we had to do this semester was find a class with Russian students that we liked. After searching while I have settled for some Spanish classes which I am enjoying so far(Translation, Literature, and Grammar). Going to classes with Russian students, at least in my experience, is different than going to a class at Dickinson. I would say that Russian students have a tendency not to show up to class, especially language classes. I have also not mentioned this before but cellphone etiquette is much different here in Russia than it is in the US. Professors and students answer their cellphones during class without even hesitating, people LOVE to talk on their cellphone during a movie in the theater, and people have no qualms about texting right in front of the professor during a lecture. It seems weird because in the US that would definitely all be pretty rude, but here in Russia it seems to be quite the norm. I still wonder why but I don't really question it since I have gotten used to it, although I have not adopted the Russians' celletiquette (that's right, made it one word) yet haha. As for internships, I do believe I have two at the moment. I have one at an HIV/AIDS center that specifically caters to gay men and men who have sex with men(MSM). For that one, it isn't really clear what I am doing, translating probably. Also I have picked up another one at the Cervantes Institute which is a place that promotes the spread of the Spanish language and knowledge of Spanish-speaking cultures. I am doing quite a bit with Spanish this semester, which I am really glad about actually since I have always thought since I got here "Who am I going to speak Spanish with?!?!"


So lately I have been thinking a lot about the way I express myself in relation to sexuality and gender. In Russia, things a bit different than in the US when it comes to gender relations and expression on non-heterosexual sexuality. I am not going to sit here and try to quantify oppression and compare it between two countries because that is just not how I work. In class, especially when it comes to more personal topics(i.e. marriage) I obviously try to give my two cents. I was actually glad that the other day when we talked about marriage and we just stuck to kinds of weddings/matrimonial traditions rather than go into a conversation about our own personal visions of what we want our weddings to be like. If we did take the more private route I would obviously try to express my opinions as best as I can in the Russian language and probably come out to the whole class right there and then. The problem in this scenario is that I don't have an amazing command of the Russian language which would allow me to express myself fully and defend myself in case things go awry. As for gender, well currently we have this class in English on the arts in Russia in which I have noticed that the professor is quite rigid on her ideas of gender. There have been several occasions where she's made it quite clear that something is for boys and something else is for girls(i.e. a makeup video to learn about color theory is for girls only). I have made sure to tell her that actually, I am not so interested in buildings and telephone technology, I actually LOVE fashion. In this case I am not so hesitant to give my opinion because of the language, the class is in English. But these interactions are all within a classroom environment. Outside of the class is a whole different story. Just like in the US, I am at times aware that I am not really acting gender-appropriate and I may get a stare or two. What actually worries me more is my race rather than the way I am acting at a certain time. The whole gay thing actually goes way over the heads of a lot of Russian people. I haven't encountered a situation yet where I have had to hide who I really am in order to feel like I belong or even to feel safe, and for this I am grateful.


So in a couple of days I will go off to a city to the East of Moscow called Kazan. It's one of those long weekend trips and I am looking forward to it. My next post will def be when I come back.