In Limbo

My time left in America is steadily ticking away. It is May 14, I leave July 30th or 31st. 77 days left. I’ve got a little over a month left of work in Cincinnati–I am really looking forward to the end of 2.5 hours of driving a day. At the end of June I’m going to Washington D.C. for a Fulbright orientation conference. July is my last month in the country so I’ll be packing, getting ready, and spending a lot of time with family and friends.

I’ve been trying to speak, read, and listen to Russian as much as possible lately so I’m ‘in the groove’ when I get there and can hit the ground running. Finding time isn’t easy, particularly with work and driving all the damn time, but I’ve been able to meet with my Russian tutor Natasha once a week, watch a few Russian movies, write some letters to my Russian penpal, and religiously read the always useful Learn Russian community. I also work out from time to time with a guy from the Urals named Azat @ the Bally’s near my house, and we’ve got plans to go for a beer some night this week. I suppose if I keep up this pace from now until August my Russian should be in acceptable–not great but acceptable– shape when I touch down.

The first month of my time in Russia I’ll be living in Moscow and undergoing training. I imagine this will be TOEFL or at least TOEFL-esque training and I’ll end up with some sort of certification. After that, I’ll ship off on the Trans-Siberian Railroad to Novosibirsk for the remaining 10 months. The multiple-day journey on this (in)famous railway is something I’m definitely looking forward to and I am haunted by the timeless question of whether or not to “go platzkart.”

I don’t know a whole lot about Novosibirsk and I don’t know anyone who lives there other than a penpal I met online. The university I’ll be teaching at, NSTU, is quite large at 10,000+ students. Novosibirsk itself doesn’t get glowing aesthetic reviews. It’s commonly described as “industrial”, “sterile”, and “Soviet,” but to me this is part of the experience. If someone wanted to come to America to taste real American culture and they went to San Francisco, this would arguably be pretty unrepresentative of what the lives of most Americans are like, so at least in this sense I am grateful for my placement and hope to get the best and worst of what Novosibirsk has to offer. I will at least have Irkutsk and the allegedly awe-inspiring beauty of Lake Baikal only a few hours away.

Having already been to Russia and knowing a decent amount about the different opportunities to be had there for foreigners, one of my main hopes is that I can truly take advantage of this opportunity and not squander it. I hope to avoid some of the pitfalls of constantly hanging out with English-speaking expats, drinking excessively, being lured into a relationship with a scheming, conniving Russian woman, to name a few. I hope to make some good Russian friends, go to the banya, eat some salted fish, and engage in long kitchen-table conversations over tea or vodka, and generally to be open to all of the unknowns that are bound to come up.