Damian Marley - It Was Written (Dubstep Remix)

From then til' now

Since I have gone almost a year without posting on my long-lost-but-never-forgotten blog, I should probably explain shortly what it is that I have been doing since my last post. As was posted a long time ago, I was in Vladivostok, Russia for approx. 10 months. My thoughts since then have matured, my brain has since then matured, and therefore so has my character. I must also say that going to Russia(and to really stretch it going to Brazil) was the best decision of my life. Studying abroad and going to these countries showed me things, people, and languages that will never leave my mind. I can still picture perfectly looking up the street onto T-63 in Goiania and just as clearly remember the frozen rivers of Kamchatka. To be able to even see both of those places in one lifetime is truly remarkable and not every person on Earth can say he/she has or will have these experiences. I wish I could talk to every person that reads this in person because a text truly can only capture some of the emotion I have attached to this topic. But anyways, on to explaining what I did!

I remember one of the first weeks in Russia, I talked to my dear Australian friend, Elissa Pollock. We actually met while we were both on exchange to Brazil, but kept in touch over the years. When I talked to her, I was complaining(just like I was on my blog), telling her all the bad things that happened to me, and how I was just hating it. I also think(but am not too sure), she was one of the people whom I was telling that I was going to leave early. Thankfully, that never happened. But while we were talking, she told me about how her first month in Brazil sucked but the best thing about it is that if it starts bad, it can only get better and will. I knew she was right, and she was. After my first month, things were on an incline and I would say after the New Year things really started to come together. The week and a half or so in Kamchatka was the biggest turning point though. In the month of February, I started dating my Russian girlfriend who I am still dating to this day(wish me luck), and I also got to see some of the most beautiful nature in my life. I got to go dogsledding, and sledding, and see what I would really call a winter wonderland. For anyone who doesn't know, Kamchatka has approximately 9 months of winter, and LOTS of snow. It is actually the peninsula that is across from Alaska. So I was probably closer to home than Moscow. By the end of April, it was finally about 0 degrees Celcius, and my Russian studies were finally coming to fruition. I was starting to be able to hold conversations and get my points across in a clear way. The grammar was finally stuck in my mind and it was free sailing from there. The relationships I built all came to show me a lot about Russian life, and I definitely got to live well there. It was also in the spring(from maybe March to June), I made 4 tracks with some friends of mine(Andrei and Max). I don't even want to start on the host families, I will make a whole new post for that one. But to summarize the whole experience, my year abroad was important not only for learning about another culture, but learning about life and what it means to you. Like I've said many times, it was the best decision of my life.

Son & T-Payne - Ghetto

A great video I made in Russia

I also wanted to post a link to a rap song turned music video that features me with my friend Max, called Ghetto. I am really trying to spread it so please support it! It's got a pretty tight beat to it :) Here's the link to it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-rd8hxvOEQ

It's time to start it back up!

I have returned from Russia, and already started college in Portland. I am on an endeavor to start learning Chinese, Urdu, and Arabic this year. I am also taking an Advanced Russian class but it is only 2 days a week and only a semester long. I am back on the grind and trying to get a whole lot of things done this year. I hope I can find some supporters and really lend help to a lot of people with what I do. Deuces.

Update: Oct. 22, 2009

It is Thursday Night in Vladivostok, and the temperature is currently around 45 degrees Fahrenheit. This has by far been a much better month than September, especially since that I now have a good group of friends and I can move around the city as I please. Classes at the University are going well, even though I need to do something about being in so many English classes. I'm meeting lots and lots of people now, and starting to use more Russian and less English(even though I definitely need to polish it a lot before I can brag). I am not experiencing any homesickness whatsoever, and in fact the only thing I miss is the love of my life Tiffany Svoboda, but that topic would take another few hours to elaborate on(I love you :) ). Anyways, I am starting on a Russian book that I got at the bookstore and even though I am only on the first page(I got it a few days ago and have had no time to really dig into it), I plan on gradually working my way through the whole book with the help of one of my English teachers. The book, that I currently can't think the name of, is a classical book so obviously there are lots of vocabulary problems, but I believe after I learn more it will get easier and easier. Next weekend, the exchange students are planning on going to Khabarovsk for Halloween, but depending on a lot of things it might happen or it might not. I am currently really enjoying Vladivostok so I have no problem with going or staying. I must go, but I will leave a more informative post soon. 1~

Finally, an update

After about a month in Russia, things are finally starting to become normal. In the first month, way too much seemed to be going on. My Rotary Guarantee Forms had the wrong address, wrong names, phone number, and everything for my host family. The person who was supposed to be my Counselor turned out to be a random Russian woman who had no idea who I was, I was having problems with my host brother, and I was stuck in an apartment with just him, and the kitchen had no food or water so some days I had to buy all my own food and drink which started to be too pricy. I was given the wrong directions from my university trying to get home and got taken to a bus station in a place I had never been, had to get off the bus, ran out of credits on my cell phone, and then was unable to receive calls on my cell phone because my SIM card was acting up. I was almost chased by dogs, found out I had much less money than I expected, and then had someone buy a ticket for me to Irkutsk that costs about $400 even though I told her I didn't think I could afford it. So, to put it simply, I had a very rough month. With all of that plus troubles back home, I really am suprised I was able to stay somewhat positive through all of it. Things are finally working themselves out and I am still with my host family and my host brother and I get along pretty well now.

Even though I end up using lots of English each day because of the fact that I am surrounded by students and people eager to practice with a native speaker, I have been picking the language up much sooner than I expected. The Russian language seemed very complex when I first began studying, but soon I realized that is just another language. It is a language that expresses itself differently and because of that it forces you to have to think differently as well, which is something I was really excited about because I've always wanted to learn a language that would force me to think differently when I express myself, if that makes any sense. What I mean is, Romance languages like Portuguese, French, Spanish, etc., are very easy to learn for an English speaker because all you have to learn is conjugations, a few pronouns, and from there just plug in nouns and you are almost done. But with Russian, you have to learn about all of that but also declensions, aspect, and even after that it is another thing to speak it and sound naturally because Russian speakers tend to use their words in a variety of different orders instead of the simple Subject-Verb-Object. I won't get too nerdy on the language, but I am really enjoying this more than anything else.

When it comes to Russian culture and just living in a Russian city, the one world I can use to describe it all is "wow." My city is more diverse then probably most Russian cities, but the diversity is still small. The city is obviously mainly white, with a small Oriental population and, I am not joking at all when I say this, 3 black people. I make the fourth. So, you can imagine that every single day I come out, I get crazy looks from people and get asked for my photo every single day. After about a week or so I adjusted and now I just have fun with it. The people here do not smile at all when they walk the streets, and at first I felt very uncomfortable and didn't know whether I would be safe here, but I realized that it's just the way people carry themselves here. The people are very friendly, and actually treat me very nicely. When people see me they usually get really excited and act very funny. I also must add that the Russian girls have bad Jungle Fever...

So, that is a quick summary of my first month here. I leave for Irkutsk Monday night and I will be putting on photos on my Facebook soon. So keep reading and stay posted. If you haven't added me on Facebook yet, just search for Torrey Payne from Charlottesville, VA and you should find me!