Friday, July 22, 2005
Park City with the Russians
By Kate Robison, Intermountain Juniors
Our author with her new friends (Kate is on the far left of the photo)
Today the Intermountain Junior Team and the two Russian teams from Samorodok took a trip to Park City together. It was an amazing experience. We all met at Westminster College and then we took a bus up to Park City. On the way up in the bus we taught the Russians some fun games. I have taken two semesters of Russian in college. I speak very very little, but I did try to talk to some of them. They were extremely helpful and wanted to help me speak Russian. Basically I could ask their name, age, where they were from and how many brothers and sisters they had. But, it was fun to speak with them. They would sometimes forget that I only spoke a little Russian and they would turn to me and ask me a question really really fast and I had no idea what they said. But, sometimes when they would slow down and use simpler sentences, we could communicate. It was a very good experience and test of how well I learned some Russian.
After a little while we taught them how to play the hand slapping game "Down By the Banks" and they liked it a lot. We had three different circles going at the same time- one in the front of the bus, one in the middle and one in the back. Then the front group, with the help of a translator, played another hand game were you have to say “beep” and then if you mess up you have to sing opera style when it is your turn. Then if you mess up again you have to say “for-shizzle-my-nizzle”. I wasn't in that group, but I heard they had a fun time trying to teach the Russians to say “for-shizzle-my-nizzle”.
The back groups starting playing a card game. We taught them how to play spoons, only we didn't have any spoons so we used our thumbs. The first person to get four of a kind would stick their thumb out and then everybody else would stick their thumbs on top and the very top person was out. They really liked that game too.
IVA Juniors and the Samorodok Youth and Juniors from Russia on their way to Park City
When we got to Park City, we were heading up to the Olympic Venue where all the ski jumps are and the zip line. On the way up to the Ski Jumps, our bus broke down. When the bus broke and we were waiting for a ride, we started singing. First the Russians would sing a Russian song and then we would sing an American song. We sang a couple back and forth and then the Russians all stood and sang their National Anthem, so we then followed and sang our National Anthem. It was so neat that we were all there sharing music and games yet we are from complete opposite sides of the world and from totally different lifestyles. We connected playing games, singing, and I am sure we will connect when we play volleyball with them.
At the Olympic venue, we watched the ski jumps some and that was fun, then we went down to the zip line. Their head of delegation paid for all of the Russians to ride the zip line. They all loved it. It was a lot of fun to see them come down and to see the look on some of their faces. I am sure it was a very memorable experience for them. After that we went up and looked at the museum. The museum had actually closed, but they opened it for us to look for 20 minutes. It was very neat to see all of the Olympic displays.
6’7” and 6’5”, the Twin Towers of the Global Challenge
Next we went to dinner on Main Street at the Red Banjo. We had pizza and salad. The pizza was different than the pizza they were used to, but they seemed to like it. The salad had a little bit of dressing on it that was similar to Caesar, and the Russians that were sitting at my table said that it was too spicy and hot for their tastes. I found that very interesting. After the Red Banjo, we took them to the outlet mall. We took them to the Nike store and to Old Navy. The were all very excited to shop. They all wanted to get jeans. Since our bus had broken town, some vans had come up to Park City to meet us, and they took us back to Westminster College. There we said good-bye and they went to their dorms and we went home.
It was a wonderful experience to meet them and to interact with them. They were so eager to communicate with us and we used a lot of actions and hand signals to try and describe what we wanted to say. I loved experiencing the difference in culture and I can't wait to get on the court with them and play volleyball. I feel that my team did make a connection with their team and we will always have that with us.
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