"Does everyone in America have white teeth like yours?"

Yesterday, the group went to Selet, a Tatar summer camp for kids (ages 6-17ish). It was very entertaining, a tad overwhelming. .. and a little dirty ( I don't think this camp would pass American cleanliness standards..)

We were welcomed with a huge round of applause and were asked to introduce ourselves and say what state we're from. Of course California and New York got the loudest round of applause... I guess Tatar children aren't too familiar with the Tundra that is Minnesota.. I received some polite clapping at best. They split the kids into 3 groups, and each group had 25 minutes to ask us any question they wanted. (25 minutes is a LONG time to ask questions...)

My favorite questions were:
"Do you eat McDonalds here?"
"Are Russian people really different from American people?" (...Yes)
"Do you love Obama?"
"How do you like our vodka?" (the child that asked this question was no more than 10)
After a discussion of Twilight: "Are you Team Edward or Team Jacob?" (congrats Twilight stars, you know you've made it when the children of Camp Selet, Tatarstan, know who you are and love your movies)
And my favorite: "Does everyone in America have white teeth like yours?"

After the each group, several of the kids wanted pictures with us. One even asked for my friend to sign his shirt! We were treated like celebrities... a little weird.

AND I made a new friend. Unfortunately I can't remember his name, but he is 9 years old and loves mermaids. He told me all of Ariel's sister's names by heart, and apparently all of them start with "A". He wants to be an oceanographer and randomly knows how to say "jellyfish" in english. He is fluent in both Russian and Tatar, and his English is better than my Russian... He also recited to me a Pushkin poem (by heart) about mermaids. I wish I could adopt him, but I'm only 21 and I think he has parents....




Some more pictures of my blissful 7 hours at Camp Selet:


Playing with the hose is a camp favorite at your local Camp Selet. ...


The lovely cafeteria...


My new friend!

Pretty fun time overall! Hope all is well in the States!

Not Your Average Bowl of Borsch

These past couple of weekends in Kazan have been really... weird.

First, a couple of weekends ago we were invited to my host dad's parents house for dinner. Excited to get out of the city for a bit, we headed to the "suburbs" of Kazan. Upon entry of their apartment, the grandfather said: "Oh! Foreigners!" and proceeded to kiss my hand. My host sisters, roommate, host mom, and myself crowded into the living room to enjoy some borsch that had some weird beans in it/ odd looking chicken. I tried paying attention to the conversation that was going on but it went back and forth between Russian and Tatar and my poor little brain just couldn't handle it so I resorted to watched some weird Russian game show on tv.

Secondly, this weekend Tatarstan held a festival called Sabantui. Apparently it has been celebrated for centuries... so of course we had to go to experience this celebration where people climb poles, wrestle with pillows, and do egg races...Sounded to me like it was going to be field day in the 5th grade all over again.

Oh but it was sooo much more than that.

But of course to keep the suspense going, we had to make a side trip to a museum of a famous Tatar Poet, Gabdula Tukai. He was supposedly the "Pushkin of Tatarstan." The museum tour wasn't the interesting part... the interesting part was when 2 MEN WITH NO PANTS ON came into the museum to ask our tour guide a question. Just when I thought I had seen it all. I guess I had a look on my face because one of the pantless men looked at me as if to say "what, haven't you seen a pantless man in a museum before?" Well the answer to that pantless man is no, I have not.

Me with Gabdula Tukai:



Finally we arrived to the festival. Immediately I felt as if I was in some wacky 80's music video gone-wrong. Crazy outfits (that far surpassed the Russian "tacky" norm)... weird dancing, men climbing on poles, people throwing pillows at eachother... the list goes on. My friend convinced me to do the egg race--(where you put an egg on a spoon and put the spoon in your mouth and run until the egg drops).. Well the person who was running the game figured out we were American (what gave us away?was it my Scooby-Doo t-shirt? Or my friend's college apparel? Or maybe our sneakers?) Anyway he started shouting "America! America! America! oooh the Americans are going to play our game! America!"

As soon as I put the spoon in my mouth I knew it was a bad idea. It was...slimy. Ick. But I came in third and won a fan:

Totally worth it...

I was happy to make it out of that place alive... our 3 hours spent there was 2 hours and 50 minutes too many. But I'm glad I got to experience it.

On another note: My host mom went on a 10-minute tirade about how I don't eat enough food. Just as I was putting my dirty plate in the sink she grabbed another plate out of the cabinet and put more food on it. ТЫ ПЛОХО КУШАЕШЬ МАША!! (YOU EAT BADLY MASHA!) I had to finish the food before I was allowed to leave.

... I don't know how many more overly-buttered potatoes I can eat. I guess I'll have to start doing the flush-it-down-the-toilet-when-she's-not-looking routine again.

Hope all is well in the States and that you're staying out of the heat!

Kazan!

You haven't gotten rid of me just yet! After a blissful 7 days at home, I have returned to the Motherland- this time to Kazan, which is the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan and home to the Tatar people.

Before coming to Russia, I had no idea that Tatarstan existed (shame on me, I know).. but now that I'm here I've learned that it is the 3rd capital of Russia, and home to many different cultures and religions. Like I said, it is a republic, and thus has its own flag, and not one, but 2 official languages: Tatar and Russian. From the time of 500-700 AD, Volga Bulgaria (not to be confused with the Eastern European country Bulgaria) had an influx of Turkish people, which explains the appearance of the Tatar people. Tatarstan used to be Volga Bulgaria until the Mongol invasion of 1230, where the inhabitants accepted the name of Tatarstan. And lastly in the 1500s Kazan was conquered by Ivan the Terrible, making Tatarstan become part of Russia.

Another interesting fact... since the Tatar people are descendant of Turkish people, many Tatars are Muslim (Sunni)... 54% of Tatarstan is Muslim, the rest Christian (mostly). The two religions exist peacefully and as I'm told there are never really any problems between the two.

Whew! I'm living with a host family once again- a Muslim family of a mother, father, and 2 daughters. They are very welcoming and are already teaching me several phrases in Tatar! Besides the air mattress and sometimes overly exotic food, everything is quite comfortable.

Enough of my rambling, here are some pics:


Qolsharif Mosque


The Kremlin


My Host Family!

First thing my new host mom said to me: (literally, as I was walking through the door for the first time) "My, you have big feet!"