Sound and vision?

OK, experimenting with video. In ALL cases trust that the video is really bad, but the sound captures part of the experience. Yesterday was the 450th anniversary of the union of Udmurtia and Russia. There was a huge cast of thousands doing many cool performances. It was only thanks to the generosity of my new colleagues that I was able to get a ticket to go, and it was a such a wonderful experience. I went with Farida, who also had to do a little bit of work and translate once in awhile, and also educated me on the different ethnic groups in the region...

As a warm-up, though, let's start off with a bit of the Udmurt State University theme song. (BTW, no real video, just my shoes, wanted to catch the song and not intimidate the singer)

Everybody sing!
Udmurte Universitet, Universitet, Udmurte....Udmurte Uni---verrr--si-tet (repeat)...



The big celebration for the 450th anniversary was amazing. Here are a couple of excerpts--again, horrible video, mostly important for sound, although some motion is discernable! :

This is the music and dance of the Udmurt people, and the language being spoken is Udmurt, which is more like a kind of Finnish...





It is really too bad that I can only put on a little of the total performance, but here's some of the kids performance, which was really fun:





There were many wonderful presentations of dance and music for the many ethnic groups which comprise Russia which just can't be put on here, unfortunately. But the show was also great for the unexpected. You're sitting, watching cool dance moves, and then---Hey, everybody, run! Here come the ballerinas!




To conclude, a bit of the big finish! REALLY bad video, but you can see the empty bleachers in the patterns of the Russian and Udmurt flags behind all of the performers on the field. They comprised about 1/3 of the total stadium seating, and did an amazing job as all were just community volunteers!






A truly amazing experience, hope you found these little bits fun....MR

P. S. As promised to family (mostly), the goofy bath hat shot....

Stories and pictures--not necessarily about the same things...

Continued the consumptive pattern of an American all weekend! Did get the desired hairdryer, and discovered that the camera was working after all. I had AA batteries, but apparently they weren’t AA camera batteries—who knew? Great sales clerk pointed it out at the mall. And it was a real mall! Built in the suburbs, as Marina B. said it was a shopping and entertainment complex. Her 10 year old son met a friend there, and they spent the time playing games up on the top floor. I never got up there to see the food court or the arcade area, but hope to as I am very curious. The rest of it was definitely mall in layout and arrangement. The cornerstone store—big store—was Mos-Mart—yes, like Wal-Mart only from Moscow. VERY much the same in layout and inventory, including a huge grocery store where we could get things like parmesan cheese, Societe brand blue cheese, and other items not seen elsewhere. I assume it was cheaper (except for the specialty items), but not necessarily.

Wandered around a lot with Hannah recently, which is great. I can’t remember where, but in some public area we saw a bunch of photos of hunters in the area—looked a lot like SD, everyone had their little orange vests on over plaid hunting jackets. All were with trophies, looked like mostly deer.

I know there’s much about Russian society that I am missing—that is, there are distinct differences in approach that are hard to define, and aren’t always clear to me. Hopefully that will clear up in time, or somewhat? The problem is everyone is trying to show me what they have which is like what we have, so it’s almost too easy to think we’re just the same—same malls, same kabillion stores, same specialty groceries—although I have to say their shoes are definitely better, even if most of them are heels that I wouldn’t/couldn’t wear!

Teachers here have very involved and complex schedules. The courses don’t necessarily follow a regular semester calendar—instead the “curriculum” drives the calendar rather than the other way around, as in the US. Consequently, courses can last for one month, or two months or a year or whatever it takes to deliver the information. My course is an oddity in that it has regular days for an extended period of time. The students also have to adjust to course times and days changing through out the term, as well as rooms because as the schedule changes, so do room assignments.

Teachers are hired for a base number of classes, but the pay is very low. Therefore, almost all teach more classes—either at the university or elsewhere in the community—to raise their pay. It seems that language teachers in particular are paid quite low, but perhaps I just know more about them. I think that someone like Marina, who is dean of the faculty, is paid a better amount, but she is very busy too, and I think she does some teaching, but I’m not sure. It really is a little muddy for me, and I don’t quite understand the system.

I learned today as well that the term “college” here means vocational school. Consequently, for them to hear that I teach in the College of Agriculture and Biological Sciences was very confusing and more than a bit shocking. They use the term “faculty” to refer to BA degree and above level study, so they would say I’m part of the ABS faculty at the University.

Went to the zoo yesterday and it was quite cold! Misty rain most of the time quite a wind. We went with Marina and Farida (pronounced FariDA), and actually had a great time! Most of the animals were sleeping or tucked inside away from the cold, but we actually had a great time exploring and then warming up with tea and coffee and just talking. Farida told about when they were children in school in Soviet Russia, they had to learn how to dismantle a kalashnikov rifle. She reported she was the best in her school—she could do it in 9 seconds. Marina said it took her 10 seconds. I am confident that it would take me much longer...

No red-haired people’s festival, although we found out it’s kind of a British ex-pat thing anyway! The mayor of Izhevsk had heard of it in Yorkshire England, and started one here about 3 years ago. Just too far away and too cold! We thought perhaps pictures of cold, damp, red-haired people weren’t really what we needed for our blogs….

Speaking of pictures, I hope to add some here at the end of the post, but haven't been successful yet, so you may have already seen them!

There are almost no houses in all of Izhevsk. The vast, vast majority of residents live in apartments buildings of various forms and sizes. Some the buildings are new, some are older. There are many backroads into these large blocks of apartments, and more people are beginning to own cars so some of them are very crowded. Most people do not own cars, however.

Marina B. talked about living in a "Kruschev flat"--when leader, Kruschev introduced a number of austerity measures, including the construction of many, many one room flats. She has bought the flat next to her, and is now in teh process of putting two into one--very, very expensive, she says and I don't doubt it...

The great chocolate Alianka/Olianka standoff. the small chocolate shows the face of Alianka, the poster girl for the Red October chocolate factory in Moscow. When Ukraine split from the USSR, they started producing Olianka chocolates (the big bar). I guess it was a way to keep brand loyalty and independence!

BTW, Russian chocolates are great and, perhaps unfortunately for me, readily available everywhere.

Despite creepy camera eyes, these students did a nice job of presenting Udmurt native dress, song and a little bit of dance for the reception for all the international students.

At the "zoopark", Farida, myself and Hannah....It just got colder, so we're looking quite chipper as yet. Unfortunately, Marina is the one taking the picture, so still need to get her in a shot soon.

some pics from Izhevsk

A tribute to the metal workers (the "crocodiles")and the arms makers of Izhevsk. The arms factories in Izhevsk were first established in 1760, with the real expansion occuring just prior to the Industrial Revolution, or in the early 1800s. (We're headed to the Kalashnikov museum soon, so I will have lots more to say about gun making, much to my surprise....I really never thought this would get to be an area of commentary for me, but hey, life happens...)

(Below) This is on the monument shown on the previous post, and is in the Udmurt language, which shares some of the same characteristics as Finnish. You can kind of see the umlat (not sure I spelled that correctly) of the first letter of the second word, and again directly underneath--there are no umlats in russian...

Saturday is apparently bride's day, and for Russian weddings, people hop in their cars and go to prominent places in the city and have their picture taken. As Hannah and I were playing tourist at all the same prominent places, we saw many, many brides on Saturday!

Next to the presidential palace is a bandstand. When we were walking by on Sat., there were people enjoying the music and dancing. The music was very fast, almost like klezmer (not sure I spelled that correctly either), and it had the same kind of quick beat so that people danced in circles with little steps.

We went to a very large market, composed of tent stalls and found this cowboy indicating a men's store. You'll find a funny mix of western alphabet and cyrillic, especially pertaining to consumer goods--food and fashion especially... I'm assuming this is a globalized take on urban cowboy, as I'm not sure of any other time when a cowboy indicated a city fashion, but hey, why not?

Izhevsk arrival and Udmurtia

Izhevsk is a very interesting city, with an industrial past and present. One of the first things I saw upon arrival was a whimsical statue of a crocodile in a top hat sitting on a park bench.
The term “crocodile” and the popularity of the image of a crocodile comes from the big green protective coats the arms workers have traditionally worn in the area.

With Marina, the dean of the soc dept., I also was able to see the opening of the Udmurt National Theatre—they had renovated the building and updated the stage materials and it was very beautiful. They were showing off the new lights capabilities, when it suddenly went dark, but no one let that stop them. Most segments were of a traditional Udmurt musical that they will be staging soon. This theatre troupe does more than just traditional theatre however. They sang “songs of love” written by one of the actresses, and young dancers (mostly female) did a couple of numbers, with the young boys (12 years maybe) doing the Cossack drop and kick—or perhaps it’s the Udmurt drop and kick here?

We need campus ids, of course, and there are limited access doors and guards at every entrance to campus buildings. The university is unusual because all of its buildings are together in a two block area--very unlike most Russian Universities. It makes it very easy to learn and find places however.

The emphasis on security is very interesting as a social fact--it's something that is brought up regularly in conversation: "This place is very secure." "When you use this, it is more secure..." etc.... I don’t know if it is there because of a high incidence of crime, because of low incomes so people have little to lose and want to protect it, or because of a sense of order left from Soviet structures—people feel more comfortable having checkpoints and multiple entry cards and verifications. I have heard from new colleagues of one incidence of a mugging and purse snatching, but that's all. And that's not unusual in a city of 750,000. Of course, the emphasis on security in conversation may just be because they want to assure me of my safety in their community, which is in keeping with the overall politeness and care I've experienced here.

Hannah (the Fulbright ETA who speaks good Russian) and I went out and strolled though the park in Izhevsk and down to the pond on a beautiful summer evening. Finally had a beer, and a Kalashnikov vodka shot (correction: it's good, and will bring some home of course! although very funny large bottle in the shape of an AK-47 is available...) to celebrate my first day of class.

The first class was an interesting event—a variety of listeners in addition to my students, and some good questions asked. At the end, the room applauded and the students gave me roses, now THAT has never happened in a class before. I learned from some German students here in international housing, however, that it's not quite as unique as I thought. In Germany, the students rap their desks at the conclusion of a lecture, as a form of acknowledgement, which is similar to the applause here. So, I guess I'm not that special after all....but the roses were cool.