Half Brothers?!/Дедушка pt. II

I've been getting a lot of love off of the Obama Moscow visit. Russians are even more fascinated by me now more than ever.

My English is deteriorating. Which doesn't mean my Russian is improving but I just make a lot of mistakes when I'm writing and speaking it. I also will occasionally think to put the soft sign (ь) in certain English words. I'm the first person to notice when people make you're/your mistakes. I've been making them frequently. I also am messing up on punctuation.

At the post office today another old Russian man (between 65-74 years old) came up to me. He was dressed in an old but nice blazer and an old Nike cap and his shirt and trousers also seem to be pretty old too. He was holding a bag of something but I didn't know what was in it. He came up to me and shook my hand... Almost breaking it. He was about 5'8 and showed no signs of ever having any brute physical strength. However, the firmness and strength in his handshake immediately made me take him more seriously and engage in conversation with him. I tightened and firmed my grip appropriately matching his level of strength on my hand.

He asked me an assortment of very random questions in Russian. And I responded as best as I could. He eventually let go of my hand and handed the receptionist a melted ice cream in a plastic bag from the bag he was holding and thanked her for it. He then gripped my hand again. Even harder and I asked me if my father was okay. I told him that my father was fine. He then told me in Russian that I was very strong and healthy. I wished him good luck and health as he disengaged me and walked away.

As if things couldn't get any weirder...

I just had dinner.

When I was washing my hands. My right one in particular. I heard someone playing the guitar in the kitchen/living room. I was preparing myself to meet up with some more of my host moms strange friends or maybe some of her patients (which sometimes come here I think) but instead I go into the kitchen and see two young blonde haired boys. She tells me that they are her half-brothers (in English). I thought she was just misunderstanding so I asked her if she meant cousins or nephews. But it turns out that this 14-year-old and 11-year-old are actually the sons of her father.

The older one plays hockey and he has really nice singing voice and plays the guitar extraordinarily well. He has really good technique and he knows how to play a lot of popular/cool English songs. The younger one according to my host mom is the champion table tennis player of St. Petersburg for his age group. When I first walked into the kitchen the older one wanted to shake my hand but it was still wet so I gave him a fist pound and he seemed to like that. As soon as his brother saw this he ran up to me to get a fist pound too. Dinner was really good by the way tonight. I had been invited to dinner by a friend yesterday and didn't tell my host mom. I felt bad and apologized today but she said that it wasn't a problem.

I offered to take them to the gym with me (I'm about to go right after this) cause they have table tennis there and some hockey training things. My host mom called her dad and set up a play date for us all. I am supposed to hang out with them all on Friday around one o'clock and play sports in their neighborhood... They don't live far from my school. Should be interesting.

As for my host moms father I talked to him on the phone and he speaks perfect English. No accent or anything. I'm sure he's Russian but she told me that he lived in Canada for quite some time. He's a huge fan of sports and I guess that's why both of his sons are both star athletes. My host mom never played any sports... Weirdest thing was that over the phone this man sounded like he wasn't a day older than 35. His voice was so youthful and English so on point that I almost said, "alright homie, later" before I got off the phone with him.

I realize now that my Russian fluctuates depending on how well I'm paying attention to what I'm reading or who I'm speaking with. If I'm completely focused on the person talking or what I'm reading then I can effectively communicate. If I've got other things on my mind or am trying to speak Russian and do something else at the same time then I sound like an idiotic foreigner. I find that I do my best work when I sit in the front row and don't take my eyes of the teacher for a second.

I'm going to go run to the gym now. I have to lift and I'll probably run some pick up games. When I get back I'll sketch out a little bit of my homework and then I'm going to go out with some friends.

Stay Tuned.

Мой Отец (My Father)/Fatherhood

Happy Father's Day Dad! The first part of this blog is just for you. Just a list of a few things I've noticed in Russia that you might be interested in.

Logging here is really slow and primitive. I was watching a news report on some logging going on not far from Petersburg and they were using outdated equipment and it's hard to find workers. I saw a loader that moved only one tree at a time by grabbing it longways. Logging here would be better but it's so cold that you can only cut 2 or 3 months out of the year. I talked to Sif about it and he said that Russia would have a lot more money if they could cut trees at least 2 or 3 more months out of the year. And because the wilderness is so vast and uncharted there's a lot of loggers that get in trouble for cutting into government or private land. The Russian word for lumberjack is лесоруб. les-or-ub.

Sports in Russia are major. I had the most difficult time ever trying to explain baseball to my host family. They were really interested in how it was played. The most popular sport is soccer. And at the gym I've joined I've seen a lot female tennis players working out. They take their training really seriously. I'm sure some girl in there will be the next Anna Kournikova. Playing basketball in Russia is simple. The only defense I've run so far has been a zone. At first it was hard to orient myself to the post position cause the lines are slightly different but I figured it out. And boxing is also semi-popular.

And finally! I know you like to explore when you go to a new city so I bought a guidebook that let's me fill in all the places that I've been and make my own maps. I've recorded the addresses and metro stops of all of the interesting places I've been. And if you ever decide you want to travel here I've got a book filled with all of the best places to go!

Regularly scheduled blog starts here.

Happy Fathers day to my boy Sif! He told me on Friday that he's actually a father to a seven month year old Russian girl. He's very proud of her and he showed me pictures and everything. I now understand why he works so hard. He has a family to support. That's right. He's also married to the mother. And I know what you're wondering. Is she white? Yes. She is. According to him her parents accept him and he's had no problems. The daughter even has his patronymic name. He doesn't want to raise the baby in this country so after he finishes his Masters he's going to move to somewhere like Australia or Japan and develop his programming.

We had an amazing conversation Friday about Russia, Zimbabwe, and just life in general. He has some very interesting views on Mugabe. The party that is opposing Mugabe is backed and funded by the British... If you want to know more about that e-mail me. And whenever someone would say something in Russian at the bar he'd ask me if I understood. If I didn't he'd explain. He told me where I could get a haircut! Which I am eternally grateful for. He calls me Jimmy and so do other Russians. I'm Jimmy to Russians that speak British English. I'm James to only a handful of people and Russians that just speak Russian call me Женя (Zhenya).

Happy Fathers Day once again to everyone!

Stay tuned.