My lodgings in Vytegra

Today I arrived in Vytegra around 6 a.m., basically dead to the world after ten hours of bouncing from pothole to pothole on the bus. The director of the museum where I will serve as an intern, Tamara Pavlovna, picked me up from the bus station and took me to my hostess's home. I simply don't know how Tamara Pavlovna got me here. I was so exhausted that, try as I might, I couldn't barely string two Russian words together. It must have been an act of heroism on her part to introduce me to my new home and hostess.


My hostess, Nina Evgenyevna, is a retired librarian and the sweetest landlady I could ever hope for. She knew everything I needed right off the bat. She put me to bed, and when I woke up, she had tea and breakfast prepared, which I ate ravenously. By the time I finished breakfast, she had boiled water for me so I could clean up. There is no hot water here, so a shower is impossible. Nina Evgenyevna showed me how to mix the boiling water with tap water in the tub, so I could bathe comfortably.


It's quite a change from the comforts I'm so accustomed to. Although there is indoor plumbing (thank God), the toilet doesn't flush, so Nina Evgenyevna keeps a bucket full of water next to the toilet to flush it manually. She apologized to me profusely for the broken toilet and lack of hot water, but it really isn't so bad, as long as you know how to handle it.

Lucky for me, Nina Evgenyevna, as she explained, had hosted a Finnish student about 10 years ago, and when he came, he didn't speak a word of Russian. So she is already in the habit of explaining things simply, rephrasing her sentences several times in a row, and pointing to objects and telling me their names. Without her patience, I never would have figured out how to take a bath!

It's not perfect, but I like my lodgings. I have a room to myself, which is quite cozy. Nina Evgenyevna and I decided that she would feed me breakfast and dinner everyday, and I would eat lunch on my own. The whole package costs 400 rubles per day, which is about $13. If I had stayed in the hotel, it would have cost me 450 rubles/day with no meals included, and I wouldn't even have a room all to myself.


So all in all, I got a really good deal, and Nina Evgenyevna is priceless. She is divorced, and her son is married, so she lives alone and is happy to have a guest. She is already quite taken with me, saying she always wished she had a daughter. She cracks me up, too. She talks to the TV, cursing the politicians and wishing the newscasters a nice weekend. When I told her my mom and sister live on the Gulf Coast, she started crying about the oil spill and chastised BP for being a useless, greedy company. I brought her a book of photographs of Michigan as a gift, and every time a friend of hers drops by, she proudly shows it to them and tells them about the beautiful state I came from.

Surrounded by such warmth and hospitality, I'm quickly recovering from the long bus ride. Today and tomorrow are free days for me, so I will explore my new surroundings and try to acclimate myself to speaking Russian all the time. Right now, I understand almost everything said to me, but my vocabulary is limited to "yes" and "I understand" and "thank you" as I struggle to produce words. Hopefully my tongue will loosen up soon. I'm afraid they'll think I'm stupid if all I do is nod my head and say, "Yes, yes, I understand."