One thing that I have noticed in the 4 or so days I've been here are that the days are loonngg!!! Right now, the northern part of Russia is experiencing 'White Nights', meaning that the sun doesn't set until about 11:30pm and then begins to rise again at 3:00am (and those 3 1/2 hrs are mostly twilight and not completely dark). The days usually start at 7 or 7:30am (sharing a room with 6 other girls usually means that you get woken up before you'd like to get up), breakfast at 8am, consisting usually of some sort of porridge or oatmeal-type food, coupled with LOTS of BREAD, butter and cheese. (I usually just try a little bit of oatmeal and have one of my Chewy bars :). We leave for placements around 9 or 9:30am and stay at our morning placements until about 12:30pm, come back for lunch (coleslaw sort of salad, soup and a meaty dish - again I usually just have some soup) and around 1:30pm we leave for afternoon placements, returning in time for dinner at 6pm (more soup and a meaty dish). After dinner we have free time, which is usually spent "going into town", as downtown Yaroslavl is about a 20-30 min walk or a 10 min bus ride away. Before I came I was concerned about walking down the street at night and how safe it was; not that I have ever walked down the street by myself, nor do I plan to but regardless, by the time I get back to my home base - usually around 10:30 or 11 - it's still light out!!! It can be really confusing for your body and quite honestly, I don't like it. It sounds like it'd be nice to have sunlight for so long but when you're trying to get yourself ready to go to sleep and it looks like it's 4 in the afternoon outside, it can be really difficult (maybe one of the reasons I can never fall asleep here!).
Once or twice a week (this week was a little different, just because it was the first week) we go on a cultural excursion in the afternoons. This Wednesday we went to the Yaroslavl Army Glory Museum, which was in honor of the men and women who fought int he "Great Patriotic War" aka World War II. It was quite interesting, especially to see the Soviet perspective before and during the war. Honestly for the most part I would have to say that the Russian people's experiences were (from what I've learned about American history) pretty similar to what American families went through; if not more tragic since the "Fascists"(as the Axis is always referred to here) actually came into their country and also set up a blockade on Leningrad, which lasted for several years. The tour lead us through all different aspects of the war - including women's role. Like in America, women left the home to work in factories, as nurses on the fronts and also - in the case of many Yaroslavl women - were sent on the road between Yaroslavl and Moscow to dig a huge ditch to be used as a trench to defend the towns. It was especially incredible that this ditch was dug in winter, when it was - 40! There were also many famous women spies, which I thought was very interesting. While I was very interested in the tour and learned a lot about what WWII was like for the Russians, one part that was omitted was Stalin's purges; I guess this is a part of their history they don't want to remind people about.
On Wednesday evening me and a few of my fellow volunteers decided to partake in a little cultural immersion.... we went to the Yaroslavl football game! It was interesting to see what sporting events are like here, compared the to the US. I know some people who have gone to Spanish or English football matches which are really intense, but as Yaroslavl isn't that large of a town the stadium was only about half full. Although reassuringly (or not), the police were ready for any kind of situation that might result from the game's outcome.... they had the Russian army (I think army at least), the regular police patrolled all around the perimeter of the stadium, PLUS the police with the shields! Luckily the game tied 1-1 so there were no riots after the game. After the game me we were able to find a restaurant serving pizza, so like any regular Americans would do, we went in for dinner. (and yes I did eat a pizza :).
Tomorrow around 4 I leave for Moscow for the weekend. There is a group of about 25 Army ROTC cadets who are volunteering at the same time and they were nice enough to invite me and 2 other non-ROTC girls along on the trip. Seeing as how Moscow is on my list of places to visit and I'd rather go with a big group rather than 1 or 2 other girls, I happily accepted their invitation.
It should be an interesting weekend so definitely check back to see what happened!! Miss everyone at home!
Dasvadania!
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