Carrot Per Person Per Day

Is a refrain from one of my former adventures.  Back in 2006, Ty and I were determined to tackle the New Zealand mountains and enjoy the taste of fresh produce along the way.  So we came up with a rationing system – one piece of fresh fruit, per person, per day.  One carrot.  Half a cucumber.  All the Marmite you can eat (Taylor).

2006.  I was twenty-two, and now here I sit, on the eve of my 26th birthday.  At the end of one project, and on the brink of another.

This past week my students and I had our last class, our last videoconference with Bucknell University.  The World Classroom Project culminates this week in the Second Annual International Scholars Conference I have organized at RSUH.  This year’s theme – “Reality, Identity, and Postmodernity”, of course.  And John Hunter, my professor from Bucknell, with whom I have worked and had a kick-ass time on this project, will be here for it.

That’s Wednesday, April 29.  Thursday, April 30, the world will change.  And I have to get ready to go with it.

I haven’t written a lot about The Runners Guide project on this site – mainly because I’ve been so busy trying to balance two separate, completely different projects, that I just simply haven’t had time.  And also because, well, what the hell – birthdays are times for confessions, and I confess I’m nervous as hell.

I’m nervous about having enough funds to complete this trip.  I’m nervous about my body being able to stand up to all the travel and the pounding.  I’m scared about having to navigate so many cities on my own, in such little time.  And yeah, sure – I’m scared that this will all be done in vain.

But on the bike this morning I realized that sometimes, there is nothing harder than having your dream come true.  Or almost come true, and the last thing that has to be put in place is you letting go.

I don’t know all that much in this world.  But I do know how to travel.  I know how to figure out how to get from one place to another, I know how to haul my backpack, I know how to settle myself in a new place and I know what I need to do to get out, get into it, and figure it out.

I know how to do carrot per person, per day.  I’ve done it before.  And I’ll do it again.

I could be lots of things in this world.  But I’ve never really wanted to be anything but a writer.

Много Веши Можно Обойти Без Тебя

Drawing inspiration from an Amstel Light commercial today.

Betrayal

I came to the Russian State University of the Humanities because I knew I had contacts, old professors, here. And I thought that they would be reliable to help me carry out The World Classroom Project.  Little did I know that once I got here, one professor in particular would lead me down one crazy path after another, none of which would culminate in my final goal.

I spent a semester of frustration attempting to work with Irina Vladimirovna, and finally gave up in mid-January.  I had been lucky enough by that point in time to make friends at the American Center on campus, and find professors and friends I could ocunt on.

So imagine my surprise when I found a press release about an upcoming conference that the American Center and I are organizing, giving full credit for the conference to I.V.  Imagine my shock, anger, and my profound sense of betrayal at having my project, and my work, snatched away from me and broadcast as her own.

Now you know how I feel tonight.

Give it a shot

“Go into “Druzhba” mall.

Go past the pricey storefronts gleaming with stiletto boots, leather purses, diamond jewelry, and overpriced soap.

Walk up the back staircase.

Enter the discount clothing store – head to the staircase at the very back of it.

Walk up the staircase.

Right there is a hair salon.

To the right of that is the Chinese Medical Center.

(Of course).”

These were the directions I was given to get to a good accupuncturist of Moscow.

Today was the first time I’ve ever done accupunture.  I was looking forward to the experience, both for its healing and blog-post potentials.  Turns out that, once I found my way through this crazy wave of directions that are all-too everyday in Moscow, the event was rather uneventful.  Clean facility, neat doctor, rather pokey experience, and I left it all feeling a bit better.

I recommend accupuncture for those of you who suffer from some ailment.  I haven’t done enough of it to know if it works, but it is different.  And its alternative philosophy gives me some hope.

This is why we have memories

The skies are grey, the weather cold.

But on the recumbant bicycle at Mango today, I was able to turn up my music, close my eyes.  In a flash I was two miles up Four Mile Canyon on a fall day, heading to the top of Flagstaff on a summer sunrise, flying down Molas Pass on the way into Silverton, surrounded by a peleton of everyone I know and love.

Somehow I made it through half and hour, and got my heartrate up.

And somehow got a smile back on my face.

I live the life I live and create the bonds and memories I have because I know, the day will come, when life is not nearly so interesting as it is now.  But I hold enough fondness and love in my heart, I take in the energy from those afar, and I know that somehow it will see me through.

Little Italy

There are 18 students on our floor.

Nine of them are Italian.

I am never far from the smell of garlic.  I have learned how to make a kick-ass cup of coffee.  And in addition to improving my Russian language skills, my Italian is on the upswing.

I call this multi-tasking.

Rules of Engagement

I’ve lived in the Foreign Students’ Dormitory at RSUH for eight months now.   For those of you who wondered whether I, a 25-year-old almost-real person would get tired of constantly sharing her space with others, the answer is “no and yes”.

On the one hand, it’s really only after you leave college that you realize how lucky you were to have forty-five second walks to classes, three minute commutes to the gym, and less than one minute to the farthest friend’s room.  Here in the dorms I am surrounded by Fulbright and Erasmus scholars from all over the world, some of the smartest people I have ever met deeply engaged in studying something I love.  I can’t go into the kitchen without running into a conversation about Dostoevsky, Tsvetaeva, civil liberties, or deep debates about how to properly say “potato peeler” in Russian.  When you leave the dorms at college, you only then realize you are leaving a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.  For my part, I am lucky I got to have that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity again.

But when you are sharing spaces – particularly the kitchen – there are rules for proper practice:

• We live under Communist law in our dormitories – all dishes, pots, pans, and utensils, are there for general use.
• Wash those dishes.  Please
• Tea, salt, and sugar, are communal.  If you want chornii chai, and there is none, you better head to the grocery store.  Next time, someone else will do the same for you.
• You are free to leave other groceries in the kitchen as you want, but don’t be surprised if someone believes them to be communal.
• Food on the table is up for grabs.  Food not on the table general belongs to someone (but that doesn’t mean it’s safe – see above).
• Discourage your roommates from leaving dishes – particularly bowls – in the room.  We have four bowls for twelve people.
• You can make your own space on the shelf in the fridge.  But if you go out of town and remove your food from there,  someone else is free to take it.
• The space on your windowsill between your double windows is an excellent alternative refrigerator in the winter.
• Less so in spring.
• Once you are done with your meal, make way for the next shift.  We have five chairs for twelve people.
• Please, oh please, do not forget when you have perishable items in the fridge.

We live here for a long time, and we live here well.  But I look forward to the time when I can go into the kitchen to get some milk, and it will still be there.

Yoga for the Motherland

They keep ripping down all my yoga flyers.

But if I draw the Russian flag on them, all of a sudden they’re allowed to hang.

My Bio for the Conference

Even I don’t believe it.

Taylor Lynn Chase graduated from Bucknell University in 2005 with a degree in Comparative Humanities and Russian Language.  She is now a Masters candidate in International Education and Education Policy at the University of Colorado at Boulder.  This year she was selected to be a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar and chose to spend the year studying at the Russian State University for the Humanities.  While here she has been working on “The World Classroom Project”, an international education project that uses videoconference and Internet technologies to connect university students to their international peers.  The class – “Reality, Identity, and Postmodernity – was taught in partnership with one of her mentors, Professor John Hunter, at Bucknell.  This English spetzcourse was taught to RSUH students from various classes and faculties.  In it, students were able to learn about issues pertinent to contemporary culture, and discuss those issues via the Internet and videoconference with Professor Hunter’s students at Bucknell

In addition to “The World Classroom Project”, Taylor Chase has also enjoyed her opportunities to work with the Russian-American Academic Center at RSUH, where she was able to play a key role in organizing weekly roundtable discussions and participated in their February conference on Abraham Lincoln.  She has also followed lectures on Russian Language, Russian Contemporary Literature, and International Relations, taught English, taught yoga, and served as the president for the Foreign Students Association at RSUH.  In all of her endeavors Taylor has worked for two things – to increase the opportunities for RSUH’s students to interact with students from other cultures, and to garner curiosity among foreign students for Russian culture.

Taylor will remain in Moscow until the end of May, at which point she will set off across Europe to write an active travel guidebook called “A Runner’s Guide to Europe”.  This book will feature information on running culture and details on the best routes to run in 42 European cities.  It will be published in early 2010.  Taylor will also resume her studies at the University of Colorado in early 2010, and graduate with an M.A, in May 2010.

Sportmenka, Komsomolka, Krasavitsa

Talking with audience after talk

Self-Reflection

Autograph

This week I had the chance to make a presentation about “A Runner’s Guide to Europe” at the Moscow American Center.  It was an exciting moment for me, seeing as how this was the first official talk I would give in conjunction with my book.

It was a night of other firsts as well.  The audience really liked me (although not as much as they liked Brit – as soon as they found out I had a twin sister, they wanted to see her photo!).  My 20-minute talk was followed by an hour of questions about my book, my home, my family, my hopes, my dreams, and myself.  I was lavished with the compliment спортменка, комсомолка, красавица – sportswoman, Komsomolka, beauty – which 40 years ago, was the coolest thing you could ever possibly be.  I was solicited for my first autograph, and nominated to be the first woman President of the United States.

Unfortunately my nominator can’t vote in the US, and the book I signed was written by someone else.  And it was a library book, at that.

But hey.  We all have to start somewhere.

http://amcorners.ru/streetside-diplomacy-runners-guide-europe-project