International Students Spent the Winter Break in Remote Russia

Alexander Titov, first-year master’s student of Applied Social Psychology, told us about the Christmas holidays that he spent in a remote Russian region with international students.

What is the best way to spend my Christmas holidays? I ask myself this question every year, but I’d never known the answer and usually left everything to chance. But this time was different, since I was waiting for guests. Studying on the master’s programme in Applied Social Psychology had helped me to make friends with international students from all over the world. Right before the holidays, our Indonesian student, my friend Adi came up to me and asked whether he could come visit me and stay for a couple of days. It didn’t take me long to reply that I would be happy to welcome him. Adi’s and his friend Adnan’s visit became a very special part of the Christmas holidays.

It’s worth saying that my parents were very worried about how my friends would take the remote town in Tver region. But I didn’t have any doubts about this, since my friend was ready to have a real experience of Russian life, as opposed to living in the capital, which is, as he himself assumed, rather vegetarian and doesn’t reflect the life of an average Russian. It was difficult for me to judge this, since I couldn’t look at it impartially. In fact one of the reasons I was happy to welcome them was that I got the opportunity to see my hometown through the eyes of international students.

We met in Tver, and then I took them to my house. We looked at Tver along the way and saw a bit of Torzhok – an old city with a rich history. We arrived at night, and couldn’t really see anything outsid, so the first attraction I showed to my friends was Russian billiards. They were impressed and said that it’s a complicated game and requires a lot of focus, but, according to them, that is what makes the game interesting.

The meeting with my parents went very well, and the next day we all were one big family. My grandmother and mother treated the guests with traditional home-made food, and, as far as I can judge from the feedback, their effort was highly appreciated. During the day, we looked at some examples of local architecture, saw Ozhegov’s house, and tried to use some balalaikas. 

We spent the evening in the family circle talking about local traditions and showing family photos. This was closer to what can be called ‘life experience’. But the guests came for just a couple of days, and we needed more good and tasty experiences. This is where I should thank Nadezhda Lebedeva, who worked together with our local village church and found a perfect job for the guys – chopping firewood. They were supposed to do it with a horse and a sleigh, wearing fashionable felt boots. It seemed slightly surreal as a plan, but turned out quite well.

Of course, I couldn’t go on such an adventure without a camera, since such rare events should be saved for posterity. The main problem was that the woodshed was 50-70 meters away from the house. This distance doesn’t seem like a problem unless you are up your knees in snow and trying to jump on the sleigh, otherwise you have to run in the snow. Then the guys talked to local kids, who were happy to communicate and improve their English while drinking some Earl Grey tea.

On the last morning the frost came. At first, Adnan said that the frost was mild and great for long walks, but then he felt the first wind and changed his mind. Of course, we bought some local craft herb liquor. When it was time to leave,  both the guests and the hosts feel sad, since we had already become attached to each other over these days. But we agreed to meet in the summer. And I’ll certainly take my camera with me.

Alexander Titov, first-year master’s student of Applied Social Psychology