I am back in Russia and so is my blog. I will be in Russia for the next nine
months as an English teacher. I have been placed to teach at Voronezh State
University in the Applied Sciences and International Relations faculties. I
have never been to Voronezh before, but here is the little I know about my home
for the next year:
1. Voronezh is a city about 5-9 hours south of Moscow (depending on if your mode of transportation is train, bus, or crazy Russian driver).
2. Voronezh has a population of about 890,000 (slightly bigger than San Francisco’s population).
3. Voronezh is most famous for alleged UFO sightings in the 1980s
4. Most importantly,
Voronezh boasts a Mango (by far my
favorite clothing store in the world).
As of yet, I have received very little info as to what I will be teaching, to whom/what level specifically, or even where I will be living, but I have developed a more “zen” attitude about these things since there’s really nothing I can do about it until I arrive in Voronezhon Friday night.
Right now I am in Moscow for a five day Fulbright orientation and training. Last Friday, I flew from JFK and met Madeleine on my connection flight out of Zurich, and we arrived together at Domodedovo. At the airport, we found ourselves sufficiently lost while attempting to find our driver after clearing customs, and in our panic we then proceeded to confuse random strangers by speaking incorrect Russian while attempting to ask them if we could borrow their phones in order to locate our driver. (Who knew it was so easy to mess up the word “roditel” (parent) with “voditel” (driver) when frantically looking for the latter?) We eventually ran into our rather, by that time, impatient driver who took us on one of the most terrifying drives of my life for two hours to our hotel on the outskirts of Moscow. I think our airport experience was still better than the first time Madeline and I attempted it.
I have not had much of a chance to explore the city since we have training every day, but I have made it to a few Moscow landmarks. Tomorrow is our last day in Moscow, and we have a whole day to ourselves to wander around and explore the city, which I am looking forward to very much.
Here is a picture of me with my fellow Rochester friends on red square. Even though we all majored in Russia and studied abroad, this is the first time the three of us have been together in Russia.
Tonight, we found a nice restaurant called “Sixties” on top of one of Moscow’s sky scrapers which has this beautiful view of the city.
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Also, if you are familiar with my extreme trepidation when it comes to pigeons, you can only imagine how I feel about the new phenomenon in Moscow called "zombie pigeons". In case you haven’t heard of it, since August people have been frantically reporting cases of birds, pigeons specifically, acting strangely (falling onto people, getting their necks stuck in awkward positions, dying unexpectedly on the streets, etc). It doesn’t sound like a disease that can be transmitted to humans, but I am keeping a very healthy distance from any pigeons (normally my policy anyways, let’s be real).
On a more serious note, I have one more day in Moscow and then I head to
Voronezh. Next update will hopefully be from there!
