Back in Chita after a three year absence #1

NOVEMBER 15 2024. Greetings from Chita! I arrived the 11th at 2am and am residing at Hotel Dauria smacked dab in the city center. It was the military hotel long ago during the Soviet era when this was a military center and the city and region were closed to the outside world with restricted access even to citizens (1925-1988). My room is enormous with 15 foot ceilings! Those Soviet officers must have been very tall! (In fact, I’m feeling dwarfed by the majority of college students I’ve met so far; they seem to be a head taller than I am at 5’9”! I’ve got them on wideness though!). 

This morning I woke up normally for the first time. I think the travel tiredness is behind me now. This is my fifth day here and so far these are the things I’ve done, not in order:

November 13th: the 8th Annual International Students Day Video-conference (I.S.D. is celebrated on November 17): this conference was started in 2017 by Elena Pishcherskaya at the Chita Institute of Baikal State University and Irene Duranczyk of the University of Minnesota, College of Education and Human Development, and a Chinese university also participated. I had attended the first several, but not recently. Now I was with the group that always has the most students participating and still does. The big classroom must have had 50 students in it, and the Chita Medical College and some students of Zabaikalsky State University also in Chita, participated from their home locations. The other three locations were, Minnesota, USA: University of Minnesota, this year only two students, but that is because Professor Duranczyk had no students this semester. Then there was Northeast Normal University in Changchun, China–about halfway between Harbin and Shenyang–with about 20 students, and Eurasia National University, located in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, with two students. This was their first time. A university in Uganda was scheduled to participate but dropped out at the last minute this year, though they’ve participated twice in the past. 

The conference began with some introductions and then most every participant got a chance to introduce themselves (at Chita Institute there were so many that only the first ring introduced themselves.) Then each institution was introduced via a student-made video. With so many students, this took about half of the two-hour conference. The 2nd half was a chance to learn cultural things about each place in the form of a game show based on Jeopardy!. Interesting factoids, all provided by the various groups of students.

While not much got discussed in the conference, contact info was made available for future one-on-one contacts if they want. But it seems to me the real point is just the wonderful use of this now ubiquitous technology and the greatly improved instant machine translation tool for students from all over the place to be together all at the same time and talking. It’s remarkable. I’m happy to say that Siberian Bridges was invited to—and gladly accepted—the opportunity to provide the post-conference pizza treat for the Chita Institute contingent. This is now a 3-years-and-counting tradition, begun by the Chita city government.

That evening, I met my godson, Seva. I’d been with him before, but he was really too young to meet back then—first at his Christening in 2019 and again in 2021. He is almost six and is a lively, cheerful (mostly) and charming boy. We bonded flying paper airplanes throughout his family’s apartment.

The group was all old friends: Seva’s family, Vova and Olya Kulakofsky, he and his nearly 12-year-old sister, Varya. Seva’s grandparents on both sides were there. Vova’s parents are Victor and Elena, whom I knew first. Victor is a retired policeman. Elena is a librarian. Olya’s parents are Tolya and Valya. Tolya has a fish farm 35 minutes outside the city—I wrote about it in a 2019 post when it was just starting up. I don’t know what Valya’s job is. The food was great as usual. It was a toasting event, ie. we were drinking, so there was no driving. I stayed overnight and went back to Chita with Vova on his way to work at 6:30 the next morning. Toasts from all sides were “We are so glad you came!” Mine was “I’ve missed you a lot. I’ll try not to take three years again!”

NOVEMBER 15: Today I was a jury member for an annual English language conference at the Languages Dept of Zabaikalsky State University. It is one of three held each year. This one was on A.S. Pushkin, Russia’s most beloved poet and writer (1799-1837). I knew almost nothing about Pushkin. Now I know a few things! 2nd year, 4th year and 5th year students participated. (Their college level has five years to our four.) Each presented a paper in English on a topic about Pushkin and then fielded questions from the audience. Topics ranged from Pushkin and politics, a Soviet era painter whose master works were a series based on Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin, his fairy tales and how they really aren’t written for children, translation issues into English and the intertextual relationship between the works of Byron and Pushkin. Yes, this presenter explained “intertextuality” upfront (fascinating topic!) All were interesting. The level of English was very high, I thought, and they presented very well. One of the teachers is the same from when I came as a teacher back in 1995! She remembers my mother from Mom and Dad’s visit to Chita back in 2000.

NOVEMBER 12: I made a visit to The City of Childhood Child Development Center’s (“Gorod Detstva”) language classrooms in the KSK district, 7 kilometers from the city center. Answered questions from a 7-8 yr-olds class, a 10-yr-olds class, a 15-yr-olds and a 12-yr-olds classes, all of them kids doing supplementary afterschool study of English. They knew I was coming and their teachers had them prepare these questions for me in advance. My favorite, though, was, “Do you like the color green?” This was the only impromptu question. It seemed to be from left field, but then the boy pointed out my green shirt, green belt and green pants!

NOVEMBER 15 again: I just had an early dinner with Raisa Lukashova and her 13-year-old daughter Maria and her husband Andrei. Raisa heads up the English program at Gorod Detstva. Maria is in the 7th grade at the English Immersion school in Chita, “School No. 49”. We ate at the “Ayan” Restaurant right on Lenin Square. It focuses on Buryat cuisine. There are several of restaurants in this relatively new chain here, and Raisa said there is now one in Moscow and even one in California! A regional business gone international!

MISCELLANEOUS: …It snowed today, about 2 inches, which is a big amount here. It’s been a very snowy November and October—very unusual this early. It’s beautiful. …Hotel breakfasts are terrific here—with normal kinds of breakfast hot cereal and eggs, there is also vegetables and sausage and soup and meatballs with noodles, as well as cakes and blini. 

Got invited on a picnic tomorrow (Saturday). It’ll get up to 15°F. Guess where I am in the world?! And yes, I have the clothes for it, and the boots! And on Sunday I’ll join a scheduled weekly hike of 6-8 km with another picnic at the end of that—a 5°F high is forecast! Where? Did someone say Siberia?