Very Busy and New Surroundings.

Hey there, readers! It's a snowy Sunday here in Kyzyl. The ground is still warm, so the snow is melting and making soggy brown mud puddles. All the same, the falling snow makes the city seem beautiful and calm.

My first week of full time teaching and living in a homestay was a blur of activity. There have been a lot of adjustments to make, but a fair number of genuinely good days and interactions.

To start with, I'll tell a bit about my homestay. Last weekend, following an episode where a drunk hooligan tried for long hours in the middle of the night to break down my door, and everyone from the university was afraid to come tell him off because he might have a knife, it was unanimously agreed upon that I needed to move. I was thrilled, because I was wanting to move anyways. I'm not the sort of person who thrives in isolation. After this night, the gears snapped magically into motion and mere hours later I found myself moving into my new home, an apartment in a building at the intersection of Lenin and Chekhov streets...

The apartment is rented by my colleague from the university, Namdalma. She is one of the sweetest women I have ever met, and invited me almost from our first meeting to come live with her. The reason for her extreme kindness has to do with the fact that she studied in Moscow and knows what it feels like to be far from home. The apartment has two rooms, a narrow hallway, a tiny kitchen, and separate toilet/bathrooms. The kitchen is a relaxing light green color and has a window looking out on Du-geh, the mountain with the world's largest Buddhist prayer written on it. The window also overlooks a neighborhood of cabins and the prison facility for criminals awaiting trial. The facility is interesting--I am told that sometimes the prisoners throw handwritten notes out over the very tall concrete walls to land of the balconies of nearby buildings--desparate attempts to communicate with loved ones and the outside world. However, our building is not right next to the prison, and we don't have a balcony, so we don't receive any correspondences from the prisoners.

There is another aspect to the neighborhood which makes it an ideal place to live. A three-minute walk from the apartment is a women's sport club, where I have been taking step aerobics 3x a week. I am finding this exercise to be a great way to stay active and have fun in the evenings. Since the fitness club is so close, I can walk there on my own, even once it is dark. I relish this freedom... Plus, the ladies there are very nice. Two Russian ladies run the club, and they can be severe, but they feel that it's their job. And nobody slacks off in class, so they are accomplishing something. It's a good exercise for my language skills to try to follow precise instructions in Russian while jumping up and down to a techno beat. The one thing that is annoying is that nobody drinks water during the class, and at the end we all have a steaming hot cup of "fit" tea with jasmine. Then I walk home, and drink a ton of water(don't tell the Russian ladies)!

I could mention here the strange Russian beliefs about health, etc, but that discussion could go on for a while. But the best strategy I have found to deal with people who have very STRONG ideas about what is good for my health and strong traditions that are different from mine is to compromise, and to see everything in terms of compromise. Namdalma nearly had a fit when I tried to put my water bottle in the fridge--in the Russian (and Tuvan) mind, this is the perfect recipe for a sore throat, which naturally leads to more serious illness and an early death. So I sighed, shook my head, and left my waterbottle on the windowsill... But later when we were eating borsch, I put my foot down. No mayonaisse for me, please! I like my vegetable soup without milk products :-) So we get along, each giving a little, each getting a little.

I haven't yet explained what a great lady Namdalma is, and how much I enjoy talking to her. I probably won't be able to adequately convey that here, and I feel awkward talking about her online anyways. I haven't told anyone here that I'm keeping a blog, because I think it's kind of sneaky to write about people I meet in real life on the internet for a distant audience. Now that I'm living in a home, everything is so many times more personalized. For example, I watched the greeting card program again this week, but instead of watching it as a "foreign observer" I was getting narrations from Namdalma about the background. Apparently each of the songs is a traditional Tuvan song with a very specific meaning. I'm not making much sense here, I'm afraid, but what I'm trying to say is that living in a family is helping me immensely in connecting to the community and the people, but it's difficult for me to write about because it feels personal (and it is personal)... I am learning a lot about the Tuvan family, first of all that it is VERY different from the Russian family. Instead of existing as insular nuclear family units, like many Russians do, the Tuvan family is a vast network composed of relatives galore. All these relatives are constantly visiting each other, and very much in each other's business. They are also helping each other and caring for each other's children. I don't know if I've ever been part of such a connected, generous culture.

Last night I went to a birthday party, and it was such an event I feel I ought to write something about it (maybe it will make some of these things I don't really have the words to explain clear). First of all, it was not just a birthday party, it was also a family reunion, high school reunion, thanksgiving, prom, and anniversary. There were at least 100 people there, and they had rented out an entire resturant. I was introduced to everyone as Namdalma's "sister," so I was even somehow "related" to the guy whose birthday it was and had to give a speech and present him with a postcard featuring Alaska moose. He liked it, but not as much as some of the other presents he got....

That was because the presents were enormous! He got a carpet, a whole cow, and at least $10,000. People took pride in the monetary value of the gifts they gave. Each value was announced and the people who gave the most (a group of his old classmates) chanted "we're the best! we're the best!"

Once the speeches were done, the party began in earnest. Each table was loaded with food and drink, including champagne, vodka, cognac, wine, juice, fizzy water, compote, and later hot tea was served. There were also many many dishes brought out from the kitchen. Toasts were many. Finally, there was a musician there, a singer.... from the greeting-card TV program! I was thrilled to get to see him in person, and he had a great tenor voice. There was lots of dancing.

In the beginning of the evening it was a little awkward, because everyone thought I was Russian, and was wondering why I was at this Tuvan birthday party. People avoided looking at me and everyone was speaking Tuvan, so I couldn't follow much. I spoke to a few people in Russian, but they didn't seem to want to answer me. However, once the alcohol started flowing (I drank only wine, but others drank heavily) and the dancing started things seemed to loosen up. People began to figure out that I was actually American, not Russian and they immediately become very friendly. The boys all wanted to dance with me, and it was a little overwhelming. Absolutely everone I meet here tells me I should get married. It's getting old...

But the dancing was really fun. Everyone stood in a cirle and got down. Then there was this group of super-sexual aunties that were hilarious and kind of drunk, but everyone was laughing and kind. I had a good time. We didn't stay too late, because Namdalma is not a wild party-sister and things can get crazy later on. But it was a fun night.

I have to go now! The time is out in this internet cafe... But I wanted to write something at least, because this last week has been tremendous, both busy and fun. I miss you guys lots, and hopefully will have my thoughts more in order next time I write. All the best from Kyzyl,
Riley