At Last!

Howdy there, all. I am writing with the happy news that about two days ago I finally arrived in Kyzyl, capital city of the Tuvan Republic. The trip here was long and full of adventures, and I have already had several more adventures since my arrival. I will tell you about them...

The first adventure was the trip from Abakan, the nearest point to Kyzyl which can be reached by aeroplane. This trip was complicated by the fact that the flight I took to Abakan does not usually exist. It was an experimental stop on a longer flight to Komsomolskaya-na-Amur in the Far East, so that Vladivostok Air could decide if there is enough traffic to make it a regular thing... The result of this was that nobody expected me to arrive when I did. Even though I sent the flight information in an email, they didn't believe me, because it's common knowledge here when the flight from Moscow arrives. So at 2 am, when we arrived at the airport in Abakan, nobody was there to meet my plane!

Luckily, I was not the only passenger for Kyzyl. I was quickly adopted by a Russian babushka who had lived in Kyzyl for 50 years, and we made friends with several Tuvans and agreed to find a taxicab together. This was easier said than done, as every taxi driver we could find was trying to charge us several times the going rate. We took a local cab to the train station and managed to find a reasonably priced taxi, and set out on the road to Kyzyl. We were in a compact car with every seat full, plus luggage, so it was a tight squeeze.

Most of the four-hour trip was in the dark, which was unfortunate, as I didn't actually see the country as we climbed up into the Sayani mountains. We traveled at speeds of up to 140km/hr on the twisty mountain roads. Luckily, the driver knew what he was doing. Dawn came at about 7:10 am as we started to descend the Sayanis, and it was a glorious sight. The species of tree coating all the mountains was tamarack, the only conifer that sheds its leaves, so we were in a massive valley of what looked like bright orange spruce trees.

The country was rugged and mountainous. It defied my expectations, being both more beautiful and strange than I expected. One we descended past a certain point, it felt like we entered a totally different biome, leaving behind taiga (that looked remarkably like my home in Alaska, except for the abundance of tamaracks) and entering the strange new world of the central asian steppe. I think that the landscape is old volcanic, that's what I'd guess anyway, although I could be wrong. The mountains were dark and rocky and I could see all sorts of layers twisting through their cliff faces. They stood out strangely from the surface of the big bowl that makes up the Tuvan Republic, reminding me of 'sky islands' from Arizona and the American Southwest. Beautiful stuff! All illuminated by the soft purple light of dawn and under a clear blue sky...

Then began a strange episode where one of the other passengers (we had all gotten to know each other by now) invited me to her home for breakfast. She made the valid point that I probably shouldn't show up at the university with all my luggage, so I agreed. She was a very interesting lady--studied in Moscow, spoke Farsi, and married a man from Afghanistan. I got to meet their two kids who were so cute! And they fed me a delicious soup with garbanzo beans and jalapeno peppers--possibly the first spicy food I have eaten in Russia. I called my contact at the university, who was relieved to hear that I had made it to Kyzyl and arranged to meet later in the day. I feel asleep on the couch...

When I woke up, the whirlwind began, and we bustled around doing registration and other arrival type tasks. I met my colleagues at the university and got my first glimpses of Kyzyl. I made my first friend--Lena, the only Russian teacher on the English faculty at the teacher's college. Lena blew me out of the water almost immediately because her English was practically native-speaker fluent, which is because she spent two years in the states at a bible college. I had a great time getting to know the city through Lena, and she was super efficient. In several hours that afternoon I managed to get a cell phone, USB modem for my computer, and go shopping for food. Lena dropped me back at home and I quickly passed out from exhaustion.

Where is my home, you might ask? Well, right now I am living in a room at the university's hostel for guests. The hostel is really just an apartment with three bedrooms, a kitchen, and bathrooms. Right now, I am the only guest, so it is a bit like having my own apartment. There is a woman who comes in the morning to tidy up the kitchen. So far I really like the room--it is centrally located and fairly comfortable, although I don't know if it will get too lonely. I was asking about a Tuvan language homestay, to try to pick up a little of the language. So perhaps at some point I will move, but this is great for now.

Beyond that, the only thing I have to tell about is my second day in Tuva, the day I met my students at the Philological Institute. The meeting was after lunch, so I had the morning free to walk around. I went to a park and walked down to the Yenisei River, which runs right through town. Here are some pictures:

Well, nevermind. The pictures are too big to load right now, sorry! I will try to compress them or something. Suffice it to say it was beautiful and I'll get some pictures posted soon. The area of Kyzyl is surround by mountains with snow dusting them already! So it's a beautiful sight; great Siberian River + snowy mountains + bright blue sky...

At about noon yesterday the head of my kafedra (deparment) picked me up in her car and we drove to the university. I have to say right here that drivers in Kyzyl seem pretty reckless, which, in light of other recent events, makes me a bit nervous! But no problems so far, and I'm super cautious about crossing streets these days... I guess the thing I was trying to say was, though, there don't seem to be many traffic rules in Kyzyl, it's mostly a game of who is the least intimidated by the other person's car. Luckily the cars aren't big like SUVs, and the roads are also populated by various other slow moving vehicles, including tractors.

We made it to the university, which is a sattelite campus about 15 minutes outside of town. Apparently there's a minibus that will take me from very near my house right to the campus, so it's really perfect. The university is a cluster of imposing yellow buildings in the middle of what looks like an industrial area. The building where my department is located is towards the back of the cluster. Inside the building all of the hallways are dark green! There is a library where all the course materials are kept and a teacher's office where we teachers gather for tea. On Friday we will be having a special tea party to celebrate national teacher's day! I might bring scones (thanks to Maddie for the recipe!) to share, depending on if I can find everything I need for baking.

Soon enough we went up stairs. It was agreed that I should give a lecture to the entire school as a way of introducing me to the students... yikes! I was a little nervous, but I didn't stop to think about it, and just walked into the room. There were about 100 students and all of them were Tuvans (no Russians at all!). I gave a 10 minute introduction to my life, told them about places I had lived and my family, and then opened the floor to questions. They had amazing questions! My first impression of my students was BEYOND positive. They had not only listened carefully to what I had said, but they were not afraid to takes risks in asking questions and speaking in English. I found this fact incredibly encouraging, and am really looking forward to all the things we will be able to do this year...

The questions they asked were varied, and covered all topics from stereotypes of Americans (do we all drink so much coffee?) to my personal habits (do I take drugs?). One girl then made a comment to all the other students, asking them to please not indulge in stereotyping of Americans. I was pretty flabbergasted! Then they proceeded to ask me about ecological issues in America (had I ever been part of Greenpeace?) and even showed that they understood our problems with food being unhealthy in America. Basically, they impressed the heck out of me... I am going to have to work hard to stay a couple steps ahead!

Then I asked them some questions, and learned that they had a variety of reasons for wanting to become teachers, but mainly it is to help preserve their traditions and culture and help Tuvans succeed in the modern world. The students I have this year are the future teachers of English in the Tuvan Republic, so I have the chance to influence broadly what people learn about English and American culture. Cool beans! Also, Tuvan culture seems strong; that is my overwhelming first impression. After the talk I went to have tea with the teachers, and we got into a discussion of language politics... the department head, Elena Dimitrevna talked about the situation in her own family; she is ethnically Tuvan, her husband is Russian, but she says she cannot call herself Tuvan because she doesn't speak the language. But she said her husband would sit in front of the TV watching the Tuvan news (not understanding a word) and say "I am Tuvan!" She ended the speech asking rhetorically "Who am I? I am nothing!"

Which brings me to another interesting point (I realize I'm drifting a little here, but this is exciting, so hang on...). One of the things they are hoping I will be able to do this year is to help introduce a English literature studies curriculumn! They want to read some shakespeare and other famous books! I'm totally stoked... I will probably work mostly with the teachers on this--but in addition to teaching the students, I will be doing a weekly class for the teachers, to talk about US university education and hopefully this literature curriculum, and also giving them a chance to practice their language skills, too.

But back to the meeting with the students--to finish up really quickly! The meeting ended with a performance from one of the students who does throat singing. It was really beautiful, and just made me smile. So I think that we got off on the right foot, all things considered. My presence and my goals were well received and seem to be compatible with what people want to learn.

I also found out my course load, and it sounds heavy but not impossible. I am going to be teaching 7 classes a week, plus the class for the teachers. Six of these classes will be "Poopers," an acronym in Russian (nunp) that means written communication and conversation. Elena Dimitreivna appreciated the humor in the name, which made me glad. I'll be teaching third and first year Poopers, so it will be mixed levels. Then I will also be teaching advanced grammar, which should really push me, but there is a curriculum I can use, because frankly I have not much of an idea what subjects are involved in English grammar. So far I am really happy with how my university is choosing to use me; it seems like they are treating me as a full colleague, which is a lot of responsibility for a fresh graduate, but hopefully I will be able to rise to the challenge.

Unfortunately for you, reader, the day did not end there! Eight of my students then asked permission to show me around the city, so I set out with an entourage to explore Kyzyl. We were going to go to the national museum, which is a truly astounding edifice in the center of town (bigger than the museum in Fairbanks with a pointy gold roof) but it was closed, so instead we walked to the drama theatre, visited the monument marking the geographical center of Asia, went to the center for Shamanism, stopped at various buddhist statues and places to pray around town, and went to the big Buddhist temple. Then we went to the cafe "Vostorg" or "delight" and had supper.

Then I went home for an hour, before meeting up again with two students to go see a film about the Dalai Lama. It was great, but I had to struggle to stay awake, I was so tired. But my first experience of hanging out with the youth was very positive. One of my students invited me to go home with her on a weekend to her parents' yurt to meet them and her young son and see the traditional way of life, and another invited me next week to join her bellydancing class. So it looks like I will be busy here...

Well, that is more than enough update for now. Thanks for your patience if you're still reading, and I hope to be less verbose in the future. I will be in Tuva for the next week, before I head to Moscow for two nights of Fulbright orientation, making the whole journey over again twice :-( But the upside is that I get to see all my fellows in Fulbright Russia and hopefully see the mountain drive in full day light. Peace to you all.

Love,
Riley