July 24, Russians’ cooking day and lake loss

Between the Lines updates (international writing program)

I made a discovery today – there is sweetened condensed milk in America. Sguschenka, that is. We found it today at HyVee food supermarket to serve with Russian bliny. Russian girls wanted to treat their American peers to some nice home-made food. So the organizers reserved a kitchen for them in a Methodist church, took them to a supermarket and didn’t forget to take a first aid kit to a cooking party. Bliny stuffed with minced meat and potatoes, Russian salad or Olivye, and sugar pies called ‘pies for son-in-law’. It was greater fun to watch Americans join the process, listening to crazy Russians’ orders while glued to frying pans.

After kitchen fun, we went to Coralville lake, which has a beach and a camping area, for a picnic. Even on the shore of a lake there is a water fountain. On campus they are everywhere. Students played American Marco-Pole game in the water. It is similar to our zhmurki. One person with his or her eyes closed says ‘Marco’ and everybody answers ‘Polo’. He or she should catch anybody following their voice. When played in water, it turns into funny splashing and mar-co-po-lo-mar-co-po-lo singing.

Another discovery for today, and a shocking one. I was robbed. I got all my clothes stolen while I was swimming peacefully in the lake. Blue shoes, a jeans skirt with watch in the pocket and one dollar, a grey-collared T-shirt and a light long jacket, a white towel – that’s what I wrote in a lost item report. Looking into trash bins didn’t help. Everything just vanished. Shivering with cold in a wet swimsuit, I stood To be robbed in the middle of nowhere in Coralville while I was safe in LA (Los Angeles), DC (Washington, DC), NYC (New York City), TBC (to be continued). The ranger who was on duty in the camping site said it  had never happened before. A mystery. TBS (to be solved).

July 22, Cinematheque

Between the Lines updates (international writing program)

Kids were to nominate the films they’d like to watch – one Russian, one American. Somehow, the choice of Russian films narrowed to Cheburashka, which is not even a film. I could have never thought it would be such a fun to watch this Soviet cartoon on big screen with English subtitles. Cheboksary turned into Chicago, pioneers into boy scouts, and ‘doska pocheta’ into employees of the month. Americans got really excited watching this ‘cute little creature’ building birdhouses, collecting scrap metal or working as a toy in the kindergarten.

American film continued the theme of friendship with Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), though in a completely different implementation. Fake devices to skip classes, siblings’ hatred and a pack of lies in the family, car adoration and idolization, fancy restaurants and high school fundraising made a startling contrast.

Did they really want to show us American culture with this film? the student asked.

I don’t know but many a true world is spoken in jest.

July 21, Figge museum, Pine Brook and Old Grist Mill and Iowa Farm

Between the continents updates (international writing program)

Our first stop on travel day was a nature park with caves and rocks, winding paths and inscriptions left from the 19^th century. Bathroom (in a nature park!) rang a familiar bell as it was a typical by-the-Russian-road toilet with no toilet paper or even a trash bin and with a hole. We did a bit of hiking and went to explore the old mill by the river.

The 19^th century Grist Mill grinded wheat to flour in grandfather’s days and still functions. We drove to the Mill in two minivans by noon. After a quick lunch (all rest places have tables and benches installed) we went to explore the Pine creek and the mill. The door of the shabby building was open and I entered a grain-smelling dusty room. A middle-aged woman wearing round glasses welcomed me and warned about the snakes in the basement. They help us keep the mice population down, she said. I thought it was a joke until we saw a black glossy creature looking at us from the engine cover and another brown head thrusting forward from a hollow in the bricks. The woman pointed at the upper beam with her walking stick: Once we were working with a young man here who was afraid of snakes. Suddenly something fell between us. It was a snake’s skin. We looked up and saw a snake cuddling above right there.

The Figge Art Museum was our next stop. We scrolled through the spacious halls admiring the angular lines of Picasso, blinking at the flashy modern pictures, testing our creativity at the craft center, crawling into a wigwam in challengeable architecture hall and wondering through a recycled construction “No shoes, no shirt, no service”.

The final stop was a farm in Solon. We had a tour of organic farm that is partly sponsored by CSA program (community-supported agriculture). CSA is getting more and more popular in the USA when people pay beforehand to farmers and then during get fresh organic (without chemicals and pesticides) every week. The farmer spends the money on seeds and farm needs. The worker of the farm happened to study in St. Petersburg and could speak Russian fairly well. And she prepared beet salad (vinegret) for us, along with tomato-cucumber salad (without lettuce!). The best dinner we’ve had, students commented. Then a crazy idea to cook Russian food sneaked into the girls’ head.

July 20, Cemetery in Hickory Hills Park

Between the Lines updates (international writing program)

FREE day! Crazy shopping in the morning. Students became really excited as sales or clearance in the USA doesn’t mean that the price goes up and then you are given 20-30% discount. Sales 50-70%, all for 8$, 6$, get one get second for 2$, and so on.

I could hardly take all the bags back to the dorm.

I bought a cowboy hat for my brother.

I went to the comics book store and brought a box back.

We grabbed some burritos for lunch.

So everyone enjoyed themselves getting lost in antique shops, vintage clothes & jewelry or discount books.

After lunch the group went to watch a film in Center for Communication Studies. Room 101 was like a small cinema, which made a film about war in Iraq even more impressive. Nobody moved when the film finished. As the instructor went to turn off the equipment, we held our breath to stop crying. Then Misha raised, but the spell wasn’t broken. Impressed and depressed, we went back to the dorm.

Look! This bird is holding something in its beak.

A bright-bellied robin was running along the pavement like a penguin. We widened the strides so that the robin couldn’t escape our gaze. Then it flew up to the branch. Three featherless heads jutted out of the nest. Little beaks stuck out, exploring the world. It was like an old-fashioned brownie after hot Mexican source. After the eye-opening film on Iraq with crippled children clearing the pastures of mines, digging trenches instead of doing math, it was a balm. Life was going on.

July 19, Reading at Dairy Queen, river walk and star sky

Between the Lines updates (international writing program)

Evening activity for that day was students’ reading at an old-fashioned ice cream place Dairy Queen. After picking up a treat of their choice (not without doubting commotion and anticipation at the sight of ice cream dipped into chocolate), we sat at the wooden tables by the river and by a highway. Reading is when writers read their work, poets – their poetry or you can recite your favorite poem.

After the reading we went to public observation desk. In many universities student volunteers interested in astrology organize sky watch events. Anyone can come and see with their own eyes and the magnifying eye of a telescope Saturn or Venus and, for sure, Moon. Standing high above the city was amazing in itself. Cafés and restaurants lit in vibrant profusion. Red dots of mobile signal reception towers were flashing in the distance. Three lights together in the south. Pum-pum-pum. One at a time in the west. Pum-pum-pum. The pulse of America was beating steadily.

July 18, Scavenger Hunt and Dinner at Old Bricks

Between the Lines updates (international writing program)

Scavenger hunt is an American game in which organizers prepare a list of tasks and participants in teams have to complete them first. In Iowa, where every second person in the street is a writer, the scavenger hunt is literary, so students were to solve literary tasks. Example 1: write 1 sentence about the end of the world. Write 2 sentences about how to save the world. Example 2: write 3 sentences about people you see in the street. Example 3: find out who was a Slavic writer in Iowa. Example 4: in the bookshop, find a book, a quote that characterizes you, explain why.

During the hunt I had a group dinner with Summer Writing Festival program at Old Bricks Events center. Mosaic windows arched to the ceiling, drew in the rays of sun exploring the first Presbyterian church. Built in 1836, now it combines charity food program ‘Table to Table’ and events center. Computer cabled to speakers, tables and chairs in a spacious hall, bread pudding for dessert, wine bar in the back room and note ‘Tips are absolutely legal’. Yes, it’s all in the former church. I could easily imagine it’s absolutely proper to conduct Sunday services here on. American style

July 17, Russian 101

Between the Lines updates (international writing program)

I guess I have to explain what 101 means. In American universities classes are graded according their difficulty level. 100s are the easiest, then 200s, then 300s, and 400s (usually that’s it for bachelor’s which takes 4 years to complete).

Today in the evening Russian students had to teach Americans some Russian. That was the most motivated language class I’ve ever had. We developed a plan covering seasons, basic phrases (greetings, thank-yous and farewells), animals, alphabet. Some Americans have already taken Russian classes and could actually understand some Russian pretty well to the point to coin a phrase “Ya malo dumayu letom” (I think little in summer).  The tiny girl from our group stood in front of the fly-chart saying in soft but demanding tone “Repeat after me, all together”. After they learned ‘spasibo’ and ‘privet’ we made them find paired phrases. The animals part was so fun. Russians imitated sounds and Americans blurted out ‘sobaka’ (dog), ‘zmeya’ (snake), ‘swinya’ (swine), ‘petukh’ (rooster), sometimes messing up swine and snake or cow and sheep. The seasons part was intellectual with Chaikovsky on the background and finally everybody got to write their name in Russian using transliteration. The Kalinka (old folk song) made a lively chorus in combination with rucheek game when pairs run under the raised arms. The excitement sprang into the night with everybody-get-your-nails-painted American party.