First thoughts on Nizhni

Nizhni is frigid but beautiful. We arrived Thursday night after a 5 hour train ride through the countryside, where the houses and churches grew smaller as the pastures and trees got bigger. It was dark when we arrived so we didn’t see much of the city; we were supposed to have a tour Saturday but it was delayed due to the subzero temperatures. It was, by the way 17 below yesterday. It was colder the two days prior to that but I had no way of check to see how cold it was. It has now warmed up to the mid teens and my RSP friends and I are rejoicing that we can walk across campus without our faces aching and our eyelashes, scarves, and even nose hairs freezing. I do not think I have felt anything colder than Saturday. We walked to a bookstore to get notebooks and such for classes. It was a 10 minute walk but it felt like it took at least half an hour. My best guess is that it was less than 20 below (it was also windy).
Anyway, our tour of Nizhni will hopefully be this weekend now. This week is the first week of classes and every day I have been exhausted from learning. We have three hours of language in the morning, lunch, then a two hour lecture in the afternoon. It is good, but a much different approach than I am used to and my head is spinning.
The first night here we had a discotheque with the Russian students who are in the international club. It was awkward but ridiculously fun. Most of the students spoke some English and a few were quite good, but it was still difficult to communicate. We danced to a mixture of Russian rap/rock and random American hits. I think one of the Russian guys said it best when he said “Russian or American, it doesn’t matter on the dance floor!”
Our building is pretty nice; not quite your standard dorm but satisfactory for sure. All of us spoiled Americanskiis are adjusting to the bathrooms here and bringing our own toilet paper as well as taking communal showers. The food is pretty good—very sweet—but I feel like all I am doing is eating. Since we can’t spend much time outside I haven’t had a big appetite but I feel rude not eating what we are served-large quantities—so I have been trying to clean my plate, resulting in food comas and probably weight gain. Ah well, when in Rome…
Our Russian teachers are very different. They rotate, and one of them is very quiet and strict and makes us repeat after her a lot. The other is completely ridiculous and giggles all of the time. Her name is Yelena and she wore a miniskirt and stilettos today, despite her age (45? 50?) and the weather. I don't think I learn as well from her but she is very entertaining. Every time she uses the chalkboard she puts hand sanitizer on her fingers on that hand and holds it out, shaking it sort of. She does not speak English very well so mutters under her breath in Russian as she writes on the board. She taught us the word for crazy, then explained why she prefers big dogs to little dogs and why she hates cats (shedding). She came close to shedding tears several times, once after I mistook a hard consonant ending for a soft one. I’m not sure what I said, but her response was “oh, CrEEstal! (insane giggles) No, no, no!"(more giggles, snorts).
That's your update from a dark and cold Nizhni Novgorod. I will post again in a week!