yes.
I know I've been super lazy writing this blog
* super lazy barely writing anything at all
because I've been travelling but yes as you can see this blog has been in coma since October
but now
wow
I've slapped myself and here we go
Unfortunately I'm not blogging "live", and that's actually not because of my laziness, but because I had no access to any wifi during my trip and when I had a chance to use a computer, I chose to sleep six hours instead of writing crappy posts til the morning light.
So, I went to Saint Petersburg, it was a trip with school, a trip for stundents studying Russian. We left 12.4 and came home 16.4, the first and the last day was spent in the bus.
It is always interesting to cross the border. Most of the times there has been some kind of problems, mostly small ones, luckily. Once one of our boy's passport was a bit broken at a corner and the Russian customs didn't want to let him through, but eventually they let. Another boy was citizen from an non-European union country, which we Finns were, and it took 40 minutes to get him through. Normally it takes 2 minutes.
Well, this time everything went smooth, nobody wrote their own name wrong in any forms and everybody crossed the border without any problems. The checking of the bus went also smooth except that they wanted to look in one of the bags, but there were no problems.
A difference between crossing the Finnish border and crossing the Russian border is that when the Finnish customs check your passport, the say hello, check the passport and say "there you go" when they give it back. At least most of the times. The people behind the desks at the Russian customs barely look at you. Only once that I remember has anybody said hello to me. These are the first people you see on your trip that look really done with their job. Done with at least their job.
One funny thing with crossing this particular border by bus it that the quality of the road changes pretty radically as soon as you leave Finland. Forget everything about a smooth ride through the southeast Karelya, because no one has really cared to fix any roads.
At least before. I don't know if it was just me, but the roads weren't in that bad condition this time. I do have a memory though of our bus driver saying that the roads were fixed because of the Olympic games in Sotji. It's sad how people need to become hosts for the Olympic games before they start repairing and fixing the infrastructure.
We arrived sometime around 5/6 pm. The trip had taken around 8-9 hours with the stops. But I don't mind sitting in the bus for a long time, especially not when I have great company and good music, which I had.
Arriving by bus or car, anything that drives on the roads, gives you an opportunity to see the real Saint Petersburg. You see the huge blocks of flats in the size of a neighborhood, many built during the communistic rule, you see the shady local bars and markets, many open 24/7, you see the trash and you experience the traffic. And believe me, the traffic is an experience. But more of that later. Many of the block of flats have broken windows, broken balconies, they're basically falling apart. But people still live there. Though I haven't yet seen any slum that could been compared with the ones in e.g. India.
The first stop in Petersburg was at a school. We stopped because 1/3 of the group, including me, would get picked up by their host families. And this time I wasn't the last one to be picked up.
Yes, I lived in a host family.
And yes, last year I was on this educational trip too or how to describe it, and last year I also lived in a host family. Those who didn't, slept at a hotel.
Why did I choose now for the second time to live in a host family?
It's pretty simple.
Nowhere is a better place to familiarize yourself with a foreign culture than in a local family. All the families are different, I know, but the more times you've been in families, the better picture you get. And this was not the same family as last year. I'm going to spoil a little now and mention that they were different in many ways.
I know I've been super lazy writing this blog
* super lazy barely writing anything at all
because I've been travelling but yes as you can see this blog has been in coma since October
but now
wow
I've slapped myself and here we go
Unfortunately I'm not blogging "live", and that's actually not because of my laziness, but because I had no access to any wifi during my trip and when I had a chance to use a computer, I chose to sleep six hours instead of writing crappy posts til the morning light.
So, I went to Saint Petersburg, it was a trip with school, a trip for stundents studying Russian. We left 12.4 and came home 16.4, the first and the last day was spent in the bus.
It is always interesting to cross the border. Most of the times there has been some kind of problems, mostly small ones, luckily. Once one of our boy's passport was a bit broken at a corner and the Russian customs didn't want to let him through, but eventually they let. Another boy was citizen from an non-European union country, which we Finns were, and it took 40 minutes to get him through. Normally it takes 2 minutes.
Well, this time everything went smooth, nobody wrote their own name wrong in any forms and everybody crossed the border without any problems. The checking of the bus went also smooth except that they wanted to look in one of the bags, but there were no problems.
A difference between crossing the Finnish border and crossing the Russian border is that when the Finnish customs check your passport, the say hello, check the passport and say "there you go" when they give it back. At least most of the times. The people behind the desks at the Russian customs barely look at you. Only once that I remember has anybody said hello to me. These are the first people you see on your trip that look really done with their job. Done with at least their job.
One funny thing with crossing this particular border by bus it that the quality of the road changes pretty radically as soon as you leave Finland. Forget everything about a smooth ride through the southeast Karelya, because no one has really cared to fix any roads.
At least before. I don't know if it was just me, but the roads weren't in that bad condition this time. I do have a memory though of our bus driver saying that the roads were fixed because of the Olympic games in Sotji. It's sad how people need to become hosts for the Olympic games before they start repairing and fixing the infrastructure.
We arrived sometime around 5/6 pm. The trip had taken around 8-9 hours with the stops. But I don't mind sitting in the bus for a long time, especially not when I have great company and good music, which I had.
Arriving by bus or car, anything that drives on the roads, gives you an opportunity to see the real Saint Petersburg. You see the huge blocks of flats in the size of a neighborhood, many built during the communistic rule, you see the shady local bars and markets, many open 24/7, you see the trash and you experience the traffic. And believe me, the traffic is an experience. But more of that later. Many of the block of flats have broken windows, broken balconies, they're basically falling apart. But people still live there. Though I haven't yet seen any slum that could been compared with the ones in e.g. India.
The first stop in Petersburg was at a school. We stopped because 1/3 of the group, including me, would get picked up by their host families. And this time I wasn't the last one to be picked up.
Yes, I lived in a host family.
And yes, last year I was on this educational trip too or how to describe it, and last year I also lived in a host family. Those who didn't, slept at a hotel.
Why did I choose now for the second time to live in a host family?
It's pretty simple.
Nowhere is a better place to familiarize yourself with a foreign culture than in a local family. All the families are different, I know, but the more times you've been in families, the better picture you get. And this was not the same family as last year. I'm going to spoil a little now and mention that they were different in many ways.
When you live in a local family you get to eat either traditional food that's homemade or what the modern world has shaped these traditions into. I've gotten both cake and porridge as breakfast.
For me this time the language part was very important. I'm studying Russian and I finally got to try it live in real situations with native speakers. Last year I barely had any skills in this language so it was really hard to even learn anything. And when my hosts barely knew any English it was pretty difficult sometimes to communicate, but they were very nice people and everything went well. Now I have studied Russian for two years and I actually am able to say more than hello and count to ten. And when I met my host mother, who picked me up when we arrived, I was finally able to talk in whole sentences.
But.
My skills are still pretty non-excisting, and it was difficult at times (or more like all the time)to understand what was said and especially to answear questions. But there is no better way to practice a foregin language than to speak and just to try to communicate. When i left my hometown for this trip I had promised myself not to cheat and speak English, which I actively do when speaking with my Russian friends. But as my host sister was 13 and the brother even younger, I felt that cheating would not be a problem. I wanted to try to speak Russian as much as possible.
The third big reason why I chose to live in a host family was the opportunity to be an insider. I got to see a part of the real Russia, the real Saint Petersburg. I expreienced the traffic, the colloquial life and the social culture better than if I would have stayed at the hotel. And I got new friends, my family was a buch of very nice and sympathic people.
As a person not used to neither talk or to listen to Russian daily I had to concentrate a lot. And to ask to repeate. And to tell them all iver again that I'm sorry but I don't understand. As my rescue the daughter studies Finnish and knew a little and the mother knew even more and was iger trying to speak. Her Finnish was a bit better than my Russian a year ago and we managed well.
The Finnish-Russian-Finnish vocabulary the family had was something worth more than gold for those days. Just saying.
The first night was nice, even though I had some serious problems with learning how to lock the bathroom door. When my host sister came home from the movies with her cousin, we played Monopoly for a couple of hours.
A good piece of advice for you:
If you want to learn the numbers better and to count overall in a foregin language, play Monopoly.
As the guest I got the childrens room for myself and they slept on the big couch in the livingroom. I think my hostmom asked me where I want to sleep but I just mumbeled awkwardly and pointed at the bed and said может быть (mozjet bit, means maybe).
Remeber that word.
I was a little lost and felt a bit stupid not knowing what to do, not really understanding what the familymembers said to me and not knowing where in the appartment to go. But these are things that don't last for too long.
Oh, I almosy forgot, this family lived, like many others, in an apartment in a, for a Finn, normal sized block of flats, probably built during the Soviet rule. Luckliy on the first floor, my knees are greatful. And this family also has Finnish neighbors and a summerplace in Finland, which probably explained some of the knowledge in the Finnish language and the Finnish products around the house.
I also got a pair of plastic sandals to wear inside, but I like to walk barefoot so much that I always forgot to use them.
As dinner we had these traditional Russian pelmeni, the pastathingys with meat inside. It was the first time I tried pelmeni, and it was good.
And tea. Never forget the tea. It's something you can't escape in this country.
Not that I mind, I like tea.
I also study Spanish and I'm way better and more fluent in Spanish than in Russian even though I've taken less courses in Spanish than in Russian. And when my hostsister asked me where I wanted to play Monopoly- in the kitchen or in the livingroom, I was just about to say "no me importa" (directly translated: it's not important to me), when I noticed it was the wrong language.
This would not be the last time that I had difficulties tearing languages apart, so to say, on this trip.
I was relaxed even though i realized that I would have a hard time with the language. That it would be a lot of awkward moments, misunderstandings and mistakes. But I was motivated, this is a language I want to learn.
I was excited and tired, happy to be on the road and I felt like home. I don't know why, i just did. I had returned to a familiar city that I only have good memories from.
Welcome back to Russia.
To be continued :D
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