Russia, Part II: Astrakhan

Dear All,

Well, getting to Astrakhan was a complete nightmare. I took a nap the evening before we left and then woke up to go out with some friends. We went to a bar and I was hungry, so I ordered "kebab." I was pretty sure that I knew that was until the waitress walked out with a plate of coleslaw, french fries and two "lamb-burger" patties. It was really weird. I suck at ordering food in Russia.

We left for the airport at 3:30 though none of us are sure why, because all we did was sit in the waiting area until 6:00, when we finally walked through security. The program directors told us that we could only have 20 kilos (44 pounds) of weight in our checked baggage and only 6 kilos for our carry on. Everyone was freaking out and weighing their luggage so those of us (yes, me!) who had weight to spare took things from other people. It actually turned out to be completely unnecessary, because they didn't even check. But oh well, at least it gave us something to do.

Our first flight was from St. Petersburg to Moscow and we made it there with only 30 minutes to spare before boarding our next flight. The entire process was hilarious because our directors kept taking us inside and outside, which meant going through security about 4 times (they check at the front door in Moscow). It got to the point where the security guards just waved us through. They were probably annoyed with the idiot Americans. Next we flew from Moscow to Volgograd and arrived there in about 2 1/2 hours. The airport at Volgograd is really just a few run ways and one large room where people wait for a truck to bring in the luggage. They open a garage-like door in the back and the truck just drives right in and you take your luggage off the back. We watched the truck come in twice without our luggage and waited until the guard came up to our group and said "vsio" which means..."that's all." Which for us meant that our luggage didn't come. We waited on the bus for a half hour while our director tried to figure out what was going to happen. He found out that it wouldn't come until the next flight from Moscow to Volgograd and apparently those come once a day! It would also have to be transported by bus from Volgograd to Astrakhan, which was 8 hours, so we were looking at two days without luggage.

The bus ride was about 8 1/2 hours and really hot, as the bus didn't have air conditioning. I didn't really sleep a lot; at that point I had only had about 15 hours of sleep in the last 72 hours. As we got closer to Astrakhan we made a couple of stops and were horrified to learn about "moshki," which are small bugs that litter the sky and of course, bite. I hoped that they would be gone by the time we got to Astrakhan, but no such luck. I have bug bites everywhere. We thought that we were going to stay in a hotel the first night in Astrakhan, but we didn't. Once we arrived at the university (at 10 o'clock at night), they shoved us into a cafeteria and made us eat a three course meal (did anyone know that the Russian word for "dill" has the same root as "flavor"? They put it on everything here!). We ate while our families sat across the room and watched us, talking to each other and pointing. After dinner, hordes of people descended on us and we met our families. My family consists of a mom, Valya, 19 year old daughter, Natalya, a young boy, Dima, and a stepdad, Kolya.

I finally realized the culture shock when I arrived at my family's house. It is in the "sovietskii raon" or 'soviet district' and truly lives up to its name. The apartment buildings are run down, there are wires and pipes everywhere, the sidewalks and parking lots are dirt and the inside of their apartment building is falling apart. The elevator has a maximum of four people--it's basically a broom closet that moves up and down. My family's apartment is three bedrooms, and really only three bedrooms. There is no living room or family room or didning room, only bedrooms, a small kitchen, a shower and toilet room. We have things to do almost everyday, from 9:30 am to 6 to 9 o'clock at night; I mostly feel overwhelmed because I only understand about half of what anyone says and there is always a lag time between when they talk and when I understand them. Hopefully now that we've started actually taking classes I will be able to catch up. Tonight we are going to an orchestra concert, so that should be fun!

Maria