Kazan — summer 2012

Wow, what a day. Various administrative things in the morning, preparing for the next couple days. Then four students came to my apartment to take their OPI-c exams, which are tests to evaluate their oral proficiency in Russian via an internet-mediated test. Then I made the rounds of our host families.

I really like visiting the host families. It gives me the opportunity to meet so many different types of people. One of the host mothers, Lyutsia, astonished me by knowing exactly how to talk to a foreigner. She spoke slowly and clearly. I complimented her on this, which surprised her. It turns out that she teaches kindergarten, and speaking clearly and slowly is exactly what her children need. She was amazing that way. And I had to laugh at the overlap of skills.

Lyutsia is the host mother of John and Andrew. She has a cat. A female cat. Lyutsia says that the cat really likes men, and that she never lets her out on the street, and that's why she has never had kittens. The cat really likes to be petted. I scratched her head, and she purred. I scratched her shoulders, and she purred. I scratched her lower back, and her purr turned into a semi-orgasmic thunderstorm, and she displayed her feline female bits to me and started backing up in my direction. Andrew looked at me and said, “We think she’s in heat.” Oh. Sorry, kitty. That's a service I'm not willing to perform.

Visiting host families also gives me an amazing opportunity to see different living arrangements in Russia. Talk to me sometime in person about the variety. It really is astonishing.