from left (front), Vincente, Zaenya,
(back):Shasha (Alexandra, from Kazakhstan), Marsha, Chetan, Shasha (Alexandra), me.
Next we hopped on one of their public bus (looks like a van with nice furry cushioned seats) and headed off to Novosibirsk State Technological University (NSTU). Half way though the ride a bus conductor came around collecting 25 roubles from each passenger and gave out bus tickets which she simply tore out from a rim of tickets (looks like its printed on our newspaper kind of paper. See picture). We passed by vast rural lands, and Karl Marx Square (they have a monument of some Russian pilot instead of Marx) One of the AIESEC member told me that Novosibirsk is spilt into 2 halves by a river. The right bank is more prosperous than the left bank, and NSTU is situated on the left bank. (yet to see the river)
*the bus we board to our apartment/NSTU
*See the trademark red building? That’s the first building of NSTU that was being built.
its thanks to this building that i can figure my way home.
*this is how it looks like on the road opposite of NSTU
*the exterior of our apartment is somewhat like this.
(basically this is how their flats looks like in general. 5-6 storey)
*pretty dandelions outside my apartment
(basically its all over the street)
At 7 am in the morning, 9 of us went for a city tour. So cute! No shops are open, and we walked all around the place just to look for food because our kind LC waited through out the entire night without sleep for our arrival. There was more talking on the way as we make circles round and round the city. Rita suggested that we should visit Novosibirsk zoo (apparently it’s the largest zoo in Russia), the beach (not beach, just some where you can swim and suntan, swimming pool more like it), and taste Russian ice-cream! The first place where we had our branch was at *drum rolls please* KFC!!! Well don’t imagine it to be like the one we always visit in Singapore. It has got a fusion of American fast food and Russian flavors, for instance serving Russian soup and cheese dip sauce.
During the walk, Alexander was talking about birthday and so it came to light that it was my birthday yesterday. And with this, the girl next to him shouted out loudly to the others (who where all behind us), and there… in the cool breeze of the tender morning, on the streets of Russia, a group of students sang the birthday song, and a girl blushed.
After satisfying the stomach, its time to head off to AIESEC office (it was supposed to be our flat, but something cropped up). I thank God that SMU has got lifts and escalators. At NSTU, we climbed six floors before we reached the top floor where AIESEC office is. Standing at the ally of the 6th floor, you will realize something (see pic). Another interesting scene, all the doors on the 6th floor is shorter than the standard measurement. We had to bend our heads to get it. Well don’t get me wrong here. Its not that Russians make shorter doors, but its because then this building (2nd building) as built they planned for the 6th floor for technical support, but soon realized it was too waste of this purpose and converted it into rooms (conference room, offices, classrooms etc) AIESEC office has a cosy feeling. More pictures of AIESEC office will come later when I start work there everyday.
*6th floor of buidinfg 2 of NSTU. ceilings are slanted to one side and doors are about only my height. they've got 门槛 ok!
*AIESEC office
Suddenly I’m reminded of ms jean. She always tell me ‘I’m very zai at jay-walking!’ In Russia, that’s a must-learn skill. Everyone just cross the road as and when they want. Pedestrians are the biggest, all vehicles must stop to let them cross.
In Singapore, when we see ang mohs in school we are all goos and gas over them. All sorts of questions we would want to ask them. I thought this sense of curiosity is exclusive for Caucasians, but seems like I’m far from being correct. This morning at the bank waiting for our turn to get into the cubicle to change for Russian rubles, an elderly Russian man strike a conversation with fellow AIESEC members. Seems like he was very much interested in US!!! What are these 2 Asians doing in Russia?!? Are they having a good impression of Russia?!? Are they enjoying Russia?!? Hope they come to Russia more often!!! Interesting little old man, made my day.`
Meanwhile I want to tell you something I especially like about Russia so far. In Singapore we have the mimosa flower. When I was young my mother told me I could pluck them and blow their seeds off the flower. I love of do it and I chance upon each opportunity to so do. In Russia, they don’t have the mimosa flower, but they have DANDELIONS!!!!!!! Its big, fluffy, cloudy and dreamy, just like those you find when you google images of dandelions. I’m so going to capture more picture of them and post them here. Close your eyes and make a wish, then in a breath, blow away all the seeds of the dandelion and your wish will come true!
I wonder how am I going to work here when I can’t speak a decent phrase of Russia?!?
Local time 2059.
I’m back at blogging again. So at 30 mins past 6pm, a whole lot of Russians poured into our tiny little apartment. As usual we exchange warm hugs as greetings. How do you do it? Easy, hug that person with the side of your face touching the other person’s side of her face and do a little kiss in the air or if you are shy about doing that, simply say ‘nice to meet you! I’m XXX, you are?’ I thought we were going out for dinner, but I was wrong. They came in with table lamps and started moving furniture around, they were still trying to make the place more comfortable for you. Cool, I really appreciate it. My room looks more like a place for human to live in. (show you the before and after picture later) Then I saw everyone moving chairs and stuff to our 2m by 1.5m kitchen, and I walked towards the kitchen in an attempt to make myself useful by helping, but the Russians came up to me and blocked my path. ‘Nyet nyet, you wait outside’. I wonder why are they so secretive.
Suddenly I heard people calling me, ‘Joh-ann, Joh-ann, come here, you will sit here… …’ So 8 people squeeze themselves into the kitchen and all of a sudden, I see this big huge poster in front of me. It says ‘AIESEC GUYS Keep On Smilin’’. Next moment some AIESEC representative was giving a short speech to welcome us, and at the same time, celebrate my belated birthday as well as Vincent’s (due 3 weeks ago). Aww how sweet was that! To make this honey sweetness, they brought us cakes. They are traditional Russian cakes (I dint managed to get the name of the cakes), that looked like bread at the first sight, but really, they were delicious. Comparable to my favorite cheesecake!
*in picture (from left): Natsha and Rita
(pardon me, i dint get catch the guy's name)
*the poster they hand painted for us. they wrote some russian words on them, and they say its our homework to go figure out what they meant.
in picture (on extreme right):Kasha (Kate)
*prune cake
*inside of prune cake. black parts are prume bits.
*caramel cake
*inside of caramel cake. darker strip, double-boiled condense milk.
(i think it might be double-boled condense milk cake instead of caramel cake)
After those delicious Russian cakes, we moved to the living room (aka Chetan and Alexandra’s room) for cultural exchange session. We talked about festivals in Russia, Brazil, Singapore and Kazakhstan. Oh so Russians love holidays! If they can draw up a holiday they would, and when it’s a public holiday, no one works at all. Everyone’s out to enjoy the break. In Brazil, June 14 is valentines’ day, more commonly known as boyfriend, girlfriend day. Now it seems like I will have more fun time before my internship really starts. You will know why tomorrow. Chit chat sessions like this are really enriching.
There are so many fun facts that I learn about Russians. Rita told me that in Russia, there are some traditions that students will follow by the day before their exams. For instance the night before their exam they will open their report cards where their grades for the coming exams would be recorded in and hold it with both hands stretched out if the window. Following which, they will repeat an abstract phrase (something like a magical phrase I guess) which they do not believe in for 3 times. They strongly believe that if they do this, their coming exam will be easier and hence they will score well. Others on the other hand believe that they should not wash their hair before the exam because by doing so, it will also wash away the knowledge that they have retained in their brains. Some others would write ‘5’ on the sole of their feet before they go for their exam because they believe that if you do this, you will score ‘5’ for your exam. (5 is the best score one can get for a graded exam, with 1 being the worse score). But the most common ‘tradition’ they abide by is not to show others their report card with the believe that if they show others their report card, all the good luck and ‘5’ will fly out of their cards.
Russians are superstitious people just like the Chinese. They would drop coins on the floor on purpose to thank God for good weather. So when I helped her pick up her coins they all laugh at me.
*(left-right):Zaenya, Nasha(slimmer one) and Kate(YW look-alike)
*(from left) kate, vincente(v-scent-thia) and ira
*(left) kate, kate, tanya, rita
*nastya, natsa
*these are fellow EPs who live with me in the apartment. (Vincente is from Brazil)
this is the living room, which also double up as their bedroom.
*a game of checkers using incomplete pieces of english chess pieces
*Marsha (Maria) teahcing us how to play a version of Russian board game.
first person to be able to move all his chess pieces to where his opponent's pieces are wins.
Happy time flies. So far so good, all the Russians that we have met so far are really friendly and they really try very hard to communicate in English with us. There is a time to meet and there is always a time to say ‘baaka’. As everyone stream out of the living room, Tatiana suddenly came up to me and said ‘I’ve got something to tell you’. I stared at her blanking, trying to comprehend what she had just said, but she went on.
‘I am your trainee and I am here to take care of you and make sure you have a happy stay here. I’m so sorry the documents took so long to come. I’ve something for you. (digs into her pocket and pull something out, holding it like a precious little gem she continued) this is something very special to me, I hope you will treasure it the same way as I do. It was given to me on my birthday by Katerina Zhirnova. She told me it’s not for me, but for my trainee. She told me I have to give it to her. When the documents gave me problem, I looked at this and it gave me the will to push on.’ (English modified for fluency, but content preserved)
I looked at the gift intended for me, and I looked at her, I could feel those real emotions there, no longer hidden. She was overjoyed yet apologetic. I gave her a big bear hug to tell her those trying times with FMS for her and those tough time of waiting for me was all over, lets put down the past and look forward. Thank you for all your hard work to get me here. I hung her present on my sling bag to show that I really appreciate it and do treasure it as much as she does. She gave me a metal keychain engraved with a Russian doll that was outlined in different matching colors.
Thank-you
*my bed. its just long enough for me.
*my 'table' facing the window. the clothes are purposely hung there to dubbed as curtains.
*the entrance of my room. the door knob is a made-shift one done by me using nylon strings.
