Vicerektorn

Jag var nyss jag inbjuden till universitets vicerektor. Vi drack kaffe och åt pepparkakor. Jag försökte vara representatibel. Jag svimmade nästan och den ryska jag kan var som bortblåst... Huuudå. Jag måste öva på att prata med auktoriteter.

Lite kyligt

Now we're talking! - 30 degrees! A fur coat and a fur cup wouldn't be so bad right now actually :)

Saturday I spent in a crowed shopping center. I wasn't really successfully in shopping. I was there for buying Christmas presents, but I mostly tried clothes, but I didn't buy anything. Clothes are quite expensive here. Same prices as in Europe, sometimes even more expensive I think. There are a lot of new shopping centers in the city and I don't really understand who buy all these clothes and shoes :) But I bought food from Ikea to give as presents to people here. They had glögg there. I bought two bottles and then a woman in the queue asked me if it's a good wine and I said “Yes, very good”, and she went for some more bottles. I have no idea if this is a good one, I have never tried it, I hope for her that it's a good one.

Sunday was absolutely fabulous. First fish pirogies and music at a friends parents' place. First live Russian music from an accordion from 1954 and then vinyl records from the '80 (Bad boy blues, Boney M, Modern Talking). Jessica in heaven! Then after that we went to another friends place for blins. Russian pancakes with caviar, fish, jam and also some kind of sweet Russian milk product. Delicious! This accompanied by guitar music and singing. I warned them before we started to eat, that I eat a lot of pancakes, but there were still quite many left when we had finished. So they were well prepared!

Кукушка

Some days ago I saw the Russian film Кукушка (Käki in Finnsih). It's a story about a Finnsih and a Russian solider (Ville Haapasalo plays the Finn) coming to a Lapp womans home. The Russian solider speaks in Russian, the Finn in Finnsih and the Lapp in Sami. So it's quite comic because they don't understand each other. I didn't understand everything because it was a version where they had recorded Russian speech over the Finnish and Sami. But you can still hear the other languages in the background. At least I understood more Russian than Sami. Hurray! I think it was a funny movie.

The record

I haven't done any kind of sports in 10 weeks. That's a new record for me. I haven't even been talking walks. In Gothenburg I walk everywhere I go. But here I walk 8 minutes to the university and maybe 12 minutes to the metro, that's all. To walk to the center takes 1h 45min. I tried that once the first week, but then they were talking about it for a week after; the strange Finnish girl who walked to the center. I just wanted to check how far it was :) But it's not really a nice route to walk. Only asphalt and cars. And you don't really feel like taking walks in order to get some fresh air here, because the air is quite polluted. A lot of industry and a lot of cars.

I was thinking about swimming in the beginning. But then they told me the the swimming baths not are very pleasant here. The time is restricted to 45 min from that you enter and and there is a strict babushka in the shower checking that you have washed yourself enough. So I decided not to try. :)

I think I feel a lack of physical exercise. So please, let it snow in Malax! I want to ski à la Julia Tchepalova during Christmas!

Grrrrr!!!

I wrote to the Finnish embassy in Moscow the first week I was here and asked them to send me some brochures of Finland that I can use in my presentations here. And they promised to send me. Now, today, I received a package with a lot of nice brochures with information and a lot of pictures. Their all in Russian. TODAY! 7 weeks later! I know that the Russian post is not that slow! But now I won't have any presentations anymore. They would have been so useful. :(

Monday again

Hurray, now I can hear knirr, knirr from my shoes when I am walking, instead of klafs, klafs. I like the knirr, knirr sound. But it also means that it's really cold. Today it's -20 degrees. Welcome winter cold! But our office is still so warm so we need to have the windows open sometimes.

Last week I watched a Swedish movie again with Josefina's Swedish students. They watched Tomten är far till alla barnen. That's an exampel of what they call Swedish family here. I had seen it before, but quite many years ago. Quite funny.

I forgot about Finland's independence day yesterday. Forgive me mother Finland! But I received a sms from Tove just before I was going to fall a sleep and she congratulated me on our independence day. So I could send some nice thoughts to my country before I fell a sleep. Somebody said here that if Finland wouldn't had got independet in 1917, we would now be like the other former Soviet republic (considering development), but problably more like the baltic countries.

Today we will have oral exams with the students in the cours cross cultural communication. Interesting. I hope I know myself what I have been talking about. They seems to mostly have oral exams here.

Give me some Christmas atmosphere! I want ginger bread, glögg, julstärnor and christmas candels. The Chrismas atmosphere in the stores I don't like.

Skitvader och elavbrott

Nu far jag sluta skryta om det fina vintervadret. Det har varit skitvader i flera dagar. Plusgrader, vilket har gjort att snon smalt och det blir sa halt och geggigt pa gatorna. De varken sandar eller saltar har sa det blir bara en enda geggamoja, som sen blir hal nar det fryser pa pa kvallarna. Man halkar omkring och skorna ser ut som tva lerklumpar. Man tar tre steg sa ar byxorna fulla med lera. Inte sa kul nar man inte har nagon tvattmaskin :(

Igarkvall fick jag reda pa att universitetet skulle vara stangt idag. Elen skulle var avstangd eller sa var det nagot som hade gatt sonder. Jaha. Trevligt med en ledig dag! Da var jag i stallet pa teater imorse. Det var en liten teater i ett gammalt hus. Det var en liten scen och plats for kanske 50 i publiken. Det var jattemysigt. Jag fattade inte sa mycket, men det var bra i alla fall. Det var Pushkins nagon pjas. Jag maste kolla upp vad den hette. Det var en generalrepetion, darfor var det kl. 11 pa morgonen och den var gratis.

Ikvall ska jag pa balett, det ar en student som bjudit mej.

Det har med att snooza . Jag har aldrig riktigt snoozat pa morgnarna innan jag stiger upp. Jag brukar stiga upp efter forsta eller andra signalen. Men har har jag borjat med nagot jattekonstigt. Jag staller klockan en timme fore jag ska stiga upp. Sen nar klockan ringer, staller jag fram den en halvtimme och sen snoozar jag den sista halvtimmen. Varje morgon samma procedur. Fattar inte var jag fatt det ifran.

Alltsa min blogg ser forfarlig ut. Nagon info om Sherbrook dar i kanten mitt i allt... Men nu orkar jag inte andra den. Ni far ursakta. Urskaktar aven om dessa inlagg ar full med stavfel. Jag ar namligen pa internetcafe och har brattom!

Helgen

Helgen gick undan med valdig fart. Jag traffade en akta rysk дедушка (farfar/morfar. Jag gillar дедушкor/ъаъушkor), de har mycket att beratta. Han var 88 ar och jag fick titta pa hans uniform med alla medaljer fran kriget. Han visade en bok han skrivit om kriget och foton ocksa. Hans division (vet inte vad det heter) var mest i Ukraina och Tyskland under kriget. Det ar lustigt det har med kriget, for for Finland ar det ju Ryssland som varit den stora fienden. Medan kriget mot Finland bara var en liten bisak for Ryssland, for dem var det saklart tyskarna som var den stora fienden.

I sondags var jag pa ett litet berg med min andra kollega och hennes familj och akte pulka. De grillade sashliks i skogen. Oj, sa gott. Jag at mest av alla. Som vanligt. Tycker ni att jag borde skammas? Sen akte jag hem till dem och fick glogg och nagon saltgurkssoppa. Gott! Pa sondag kvall var vi till en bar dar de hade livemusik. Fyra olika band hann jag hora. Men jag fick hemlangtan till baletten nar de spelade "Luciiillle".

Fredag

I have just finished work and now I'm sitting at a coffee house and having a coffee. In 45 minutes I will go to Josefina's Swedish course to meet her students at the beginner level.

At Tuesday I had a presentation about youth and religion in Finland. It was very interesting. In Russia it's quite different from Finland. The religion it's not connected to the society at the same way as it in Finland. During the Soviet period many churches were destroyed and government was totally against religion. So they found it interesting when I told about how it is in Finland, for example that 82 % of the population "belongs" to the church and that we pay church tax. Here they don't have any education in religion in school and if you want to get wed in the church you have to have a civil marriage first.

My other presentation about design was more difficult. I don't know anything about design. But the teacher is a big fan of Finland, so she seemed pleased anyway. She was praising Tove Jansson, Aki Kaurismäki and our clean nature and so on.

She took pictures of me with the class.




Now I have to run! Have a nice weekend!

Pay It Forward

Jag började skriva på engleska, men det blev så svårt, så nu blir det ett inlägg på svenska.

En gång såg jag en film som hette Pay It Forward. Den handlade om en liten pojke som fick som uppgift i skolan att komma på någonting för att förändra världen och sedan sätta det i verket. Den här pojkens idé var att man istället för att göra en god gärning tillbaka till en person så ska man göra en god gärning åt tre nya personer. Alltså pay forward i stället för pay back.



Trevor i filmen Pay it forward

När jag var i Quebec fanns det två fantastiska personer som alltid tog sig tid att lyssna på min knaggliga franska och uppmuntrade mej att prata hela tiden. Nu när jag träffar människor som lär sig svenska försöker jag göra likadant för dem och ta mig tid att lyssna och uppmuntra dem att lära sig.

En gång när några människor, som vi inte kände så bra, körde hem min systers möbler från Åbo när hon flyttade därifrån, så ville vi betala dem. Men då sa de: “Nä, vi vill inte ha något för det, gör ni bara samma sak för någon annan någon gång”.

Min handledare var på praktik I USA för två år sedan. Hon hade en jättebra handledare som gjorde jättemycket för henne. I fredags mailade hon åt henne och berättade att hon nu har en praktikant och att hon försöker vara så hjälpsam och vänlig mot mej, som hon hade varit var mot min handledare.

Jepp, så det här fenomenet har jag tänkt på över helgen. Jag tycker det är ganska fint. Ofta gör man ju saker tillbaka för den som varit vänlig eller hjälpsam mot en själv, men jag tror inte att vi lika ofta som vi pay forward.

Ditt och datt

Yesterday I went to the border between Asia and Europa. There was a big monument and I could stand with one leg in Asia and one in Europa. So touristic, but it had to be done! :) On the way back to the city we ate delicious sashlikis (some kind of grilled meat) and we also visited IKEA. IKEA was quite small, but I guess it looked like an IKEA should do. I bought gingerbread and knäckebröd. Knäckebröd is the best thing to always have at home in case you have forgot to buy bread. And of course – it tastes good as well. I have seen some Finnish products in the stores here. Many VALIO products, for example Oltermanni cheese. I have also seen Fazerina in one store.

As if it wasn't easy to understand the people here before, it really doesn't make it easier that the people in the stores and the restaurants are wearing masks because of the flu now... All I can hear is some mumbling behind the mask. Yesterday I didn't even understand a waitress who said da svidanja (good bye). This week the quarantine will be over and the students will return to the university. I will have quite many presentations this week.

Have a nice week!

By the way

My supervisor's mother was competing in athletics in the 60's. She ran 100 m and 200 m. Her best time was 11,4. She beats me with like 5 meters... I find this quite cool. She's my new idol now.

Pelmenis

Some weekends ago I was invited to my Anna's (my supervisor) place and they showed me how to make pelmenis. Which is typical Russian food. You fill small ovals of dough with different kinds of fillings. For example meat, mushrooms, cabbage, fish... then you boil them for about 10 minutes and then eat them with smetana or something similar, we had some kind of cream/sauce of horseradish. Very tasty. To this we also had many different kind of salads, mostly based on cabbage. Other Russian dishes that I like are of course pirogies, but also the soup made of beetroot – borscht with some smetana is great! I have tried to do it in Sweden, but the ones I have had here is so much better!

Я хoчо стать полиглотом

I'm trying. To learn Russian. But it's hard. I don't really have possibilities to take a language course. There are only full time studies at an other university, but since I'm working daytime this is not an option for me. I could take private lessons, but I found it quite expensive. At work I'm not really forced to speak Russian, since my supervisor speaks English and I give all the presentations and courses in English. It's of course not necessary to learn Russian, but since I'm interested in languages, I'm giving it a try to learn a little bit more than only how to order food in the restaurants.

So I'm trying my best with my grammar book, movies, music and an audio course. I also meet with two girls, who are studying Swedish with Josefina. We meet a couple of times a week and I help them with Swedish and they me with Russian. Is there something more I can do? I'm proceeding very slowly. Either I'm getting old or it's a difficult language, because it's impossible for me to remember the words. How did we do it in high school when we had 100 of words to learn every week...

Who know if I ever will have any use of knowing Russian in the future, for something more than maybe traveling or chatting with Russian people I might meet. And you forget a language very fast if you don't use it. Is it the worth the effort? I mean in international relations today you manage very well with English. So why not start with learning English properly. But I guess as long as I find it interesting, I'll keep on trying...

I love the feeling when you slowly get aware of that you really understand a language. You have broken the code of the language and you can understand most of what is said by people. You understand what they say on TV and you're able to have a conversation. It's amazing! Have had the feeling with Finnish and French. But I don't think it will happen this time...

By the way it's a pity that Lars Winnerbäck doesn't sing in Russian, since he's the one I want to listen to now as often as possible.

My work

I work in the office for international relations. They are two persons in this office. My supervisor and an other person. My supervisor is teaching but she also does administration work at the office. The other person working with administrative tasks and takes care of all the work with invitations, visas and registration of international students (all from former republics of the Soviet republic).

The first week I didn't have so much to do, but now I think there is always something for me to do, but I can's say that I'm stressed.

I usually start working at 9.30-10 in the morning. I search for opportunities (scholarships and exchange programs) for the students to go studying abroad (so far nobody has been abroad). My task is also to find a way to get the students interested in going abroad as exchange students and also to find a system to inform them which the opportunities are. I'm also give a course in cross cultural communication once a week (this was one of my supervisor's courses that I took over when I came). So far I have had two classes. The students in this course are studying English their 3rd year and they all around 20 year old. An experience, since I'm not used to talk for 1 ½ h and definitively not in English. It's difficult to keep the flow of talking. I remember that I have always like teachers who have been telling their own stories and given examples from their own experience, but now when I do it myself, I only feel stupid and egocentric.

I also prepare different presentation about Finland and Sweden. This week I had three presentations for different groups of students. The subject depends of what the the groups studying. I always start with a general presentation of the countries and then I continue with their subject. This week it has been music, literature and theater. Next presentation will be about design. I'm not an expert in these subjects, but I guess with some research I can tell about the most important things. If the students don't know English my supervisor translates (which are all groups except the one who are studying English).

The students are usually very interested and ask a lot of questions. It's really difficult to answer to their questions. Is it expensive, is it cold, at what age do people get married, what do we eat, how much is the interest when buying a flat, are we open or closed people? I mean everything depends on what you compare with. I have got a lot of questions about theater this week, since the students are studying to become actors. I said that we don't go to the theater so often, so now they think we are the most uncultured people in Finland and Sweden. I don't know. Do we? Then I also said that we don't have so many theaters. Then later I read in a brochure that I have, that Stockholm is one of the world's most “theater-packed” cities. Is it? I'm a bad ambassador for the countries, I don't know anything, only telling lies. Here in Jekaterinburg there are about 30 different theaters, drama, operas, ballet, private owned... Another question I got was what my opinion is about that Finnish people in the north cross the border to Sweden in order to pick (steal) berries... (I think he had heard about this in the news or sth) :)

I often start the presentations with asking them what they know about Finland and Sweden This are the most common answers: ABBA, Swedish families (!), Volvo, Ikea, Nokia, Santa Claus and sauna. They also know Astrid Lindgren, Ingmar Bergman, Ville Haapasalo, Tove Jansson and they recognize almost all the artists that are known abroad when I mention them. The most popular characters of Astrid Lindgren seem to be Pippi and Karlsson på taket.

Today (Sunday) I had a presentation for a group of part time students (at another university, my supervisor give courses in three different universities). They are already working as actors but want to get a higher diploma. They come to Jekaterinburg for a month twice a year during four years. They were really nice and had a loooot of questions. After the lesson they invited me for lunch (three students prepare their lunch every day, different students every day of course). I liked it a lot. Really nice!

Oh, back to my day at work... around 14.00 we go for a very fast lunch in the university. You can choose between different salads, main dishes and deserts. You pay separately for everything you take (dishes, bread, drinks, pirogies etc). It's quite the same every day. Main dishes are soups, meat balls, fish or chicken with rice, pasta or potatoes. I usually eat a salad, a main dish, a piece of bread/pirogi and drink juice. For that I pay about 70 rubles which is about 1.70 €. We finish the lunch really fast, in about 15 minutes and then we go back to our office. I like the food, but remember that I eat and like almost everything! Fika breaks are not exciting :)

We usually finish around 17.00.

The flu

Now my university will be closed too because of the flu. At least next week. That means that there will be no students. We will still work. But I guess there won't be so much to do...

Thanx to Johanna, who sent me an article, I now know that Russia try to prevent the flu in a little bit other way than the west of Europe. They closing the school in order to prevent to flu. They also have an other system about the vaccination.

Read more here

http://www.dn.se/nyheter/varlden/ryssland-stanger-skolorna-for-att-stoppa-svininfluensan-1.992801

So in case I won't update the blog for more than, let's say three days, you know that I'm also ill (I have no internet at home).

Trevlig helg!

Random

Tomorrow I will give a presentation on Swedish and Finnish literature/film/theater. I must admit I don't know the subject very well and yesterday I did some research and realized that there are so many books and films I haven't read/seen. So when I come back home I think I must lock me in at my room in order to make up everything that I haven't read/seen..

In the beginning of the week I visited Josefina's Swedish course again. They were watching the Swedish movie "I taket lyser stjärnorna". I glad I went, because I really liked the film I recommend it if you haven't seen it.

It has been snowing - YES! It was so beautiful when I walked through the city to the metro back home after the movie. So now we have real winter weather. Today it's colder again around -10 I think. Everybody here is worried that I'm not wearing enough cloths and that I'm freezing outside. But "hey come on, I'm a Finn", this is what they always say in Sweden if I sometime complain that I'm cold.

My room in pictures

View from my room




Bob keeps me company, when he doesn't fall down on the floor



I have a TV (and now also a DVD-player) :)



















As I told you before I live in a student house. I never see any other students, because I live in some kind of hostel of the student house. You have to be home before 23.00, after that the doors are closed. There always standing a guard checking who's entering in the entrance. I have name for them all, the unfriendly guard, the cute guard, the friendly guard, the woman guard :)

The flu

I read about the new flu on Internet, in newspapers from Finland and Sweden and was thinking, oh it seems to start getting serious there, luckily I'm here, it doesn't seem to be so big here and I felt content. But then the day after I started to see people with masks and a teacher told me that several schools and universities are closed. You're quite unaware when you don't know the language and aren't able to follow newspapers and news on TV... But now I know, the flu is everywhere. It's watching us!

But the performances of the other countries...

were really good and interesting to watch! There were dances and songs from Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Tadzhikstan, Kirghistan, Armenia, China, Japan, Mongolia, Africa and probably some more that I don't remember. My favorites were from Turkmenistan I think, they were a group of dancers dressed in some national dresses and the music was really cool.

Africa was rapping, China kung-fu-ing, Armenia singing opera, Mongolia acrobating. Russia contributed with the orchestra of the university playing Kalinka! Very nice!

I'll put up a video later. I really like this kind of multicultural shows. I remember there was one in Quebec as well (then I didn't dare to participate myself). I just wish I would have some fellow-countrymen/women so I could do something more than "Finska polkan" at the accordion. There were certainly a lack of dancers in my number (blink, blink Baletten)!!!