I passed Spring II exams, and registered for fall, fulfilling my duties as a good student and a NY resident. I felt that I deserve a break. My parents bought a two-week tour in a boarding house at the Catskills Mountains near town Ellenville. Advertisement says: “Mitino gives you rest, peace and health. We will treat you like a family”. Friends told me that it would be an exclusive Russian recreation spot. August 20 we came there.
DAY1. Bus arrived at 1:0, and we packed. A worker drove our luggage directly to a small summer cottage. The cottage had two rooms and a sanitary part. My father and I arrived first, Mother stayed at work for 4 more days.
First feeling of Russia came during the dinner. First, all food was traditionally Russian: salad, vegetable soup, meat and porridge. Second, everybody spoke Russian. The general manager, Mitua Bykov, came and congratulated everybody with arriving. He said that his mother had opened this recreation center in order to support Russian emigrants.
We shared table with 2 grandparents and their grandson. Even though food was very tasty and most people were hungry, these boys hardly ate a spoon.
DAY2. I was playing basketball and got opportunity to met new girlfriends: Stella, Sasha, Marina, and Diana. Marina was a basketball player, Sasha looked extremely smart, and Diana was religious. Stella said that she liked to be around boys.
DAY3. Stella, and I, and my father Vladimir made a heroic trip to the lake. Most of the time we were singing Shakira, Madoona, Britney Spears, Zemfira, and Natali.
- So, Zhenya, what was popular in Russia, when you left?
- Do you know Tatu? “Ia soshla s uma, ia soshla s uma”
- Ye, “Mne nuzna ona, mne nuzna ona”
- I hear this band will sing in English. “ She drives me mad, I need her back”
There I met my other friend Sasha. Her mother was in the water swimming, but Sasha stayed under the tree reading a book. She also had study cards for SAT.
- Do you know all these words, Sash? There are so much of them.
- Yes I do, Zhenya. I also have more cards at the house.
- Do you study often?
- Every day. I want to pass SAT and forget about it.
- May I study with you some day? I don’t want to forget all my English
- Come after lunch to my house.
- OK. Or you can come to mine.
Unfortunately I was so terribly tired from the trip, that after lunch I slept for 2 hours. Sasha wanted to study with me, but she was calling me at a wrong house.
DAY5. My father Vladimir and I were very busy all day. We needed to clean the house, to move a 3rd bed from “living room” into “bedroom”, and to be ready for Mother’s coming. After breakfast I asked Stella to help us moving the furniture. She came, and in 20 minutes all 3 of us were extremely tired and happy.
At dinner we took food into house and served it. Father was very nervous, he wasned evereyng to be “first class” to make his wife feeling comfortable. Mitua drove my father and me to Ellenville. Finally, the bus came, and Father ran to meet Mom. After eating and taking a small walk around the territory, Marianna said that she liked been here.
DAY 6. In the morning Stella and I were gossiping about local guys. Two oldest were Arthur, 25 and Oleg, 21.Arthur was our local chef. He was shy, but at dinner usually came to table and asked if people need something. He was tall brunette, with very short haircut, lonely face, and always busy. Oleg was shy too, but sometimes he liked to joke around. He played billiard very good, and sometimes he played it with us. Oleg spent a lot of time with his uncle, Gennadiy.
There were also several boys under 15, noisy, funny and cute. Twins, Arthurchik and Timurcik, oleg’s little cousins. Nasty, fanny, noisy, they liked to play basketball and billiard.Iasha, who looked like Harry Potter. He lent me a science fiction book. He also knew a lot of jokes, and funny songs. Grisha, who spoke only English and said that “I don’t understand Russian”. Meanwhile, his mother, a very nice woman, always directed him in Russian.
I also met a new girl, Ira. She just turned 12. She liked to bite with kids, and sometimes we had fights too. Since the major point was to bite unexpectedly, we never bite hard.
That night we were playing “truth or dear”. All kids had got their first innocvent kisses. First I, than Stella had shown some dancing tricks. I showed strip dance on the table, and she showed lab dance with a stick.
DAY7 I took Ira to the lake. The weather was beautiful; the sun was shining on trees and flowers. On the way back Ira was tired; lucky we stopped a car of our neighbor and a friend Maya, and she dropped us home.
After dinner I went to Sasha’s house, and finally we were studying for the SAT. This test is so tricky! Then we played “stupid” using study cards. Sad and funny, I didn’t know half of them. The other half, I’ve learned when I was studying for the Placement test at LaGuardia. Sasha said that she “sick of studying”. Sorry to say, there’s no way to escape SAT when you want to enter a senior college.
DAY 8. The bad thing was that Oleg was leaving; the good thing was that two Orchestra singers from KIev came and sang at night.. At Mitino there also happened 3 disco parties, once karaoke singing, and another singer performed at the last night.
DAY9. 2 new guys came. Both were 17. First thing, they asked everybody where is a liquor store, but nobody wanted to give them directions. They smoked and seemed to be very unhappy.
In the evening, I and Irina played basketball against Timurchik and Arturchik. Sasha and Stella were our cheer leaders, and two new guys, Vladic and Vitalik, were viewers. Twins were quicker, but we were bigger! Actually, I was blocking Timur or Arthur, and Iria was hanging ball.
Later when girls and boys went to sleep I had a nice talk with Vitalic and Vladic. They revealed to be very nice people; we liked the same music, and knew the same jokes.
Vitalick was cute and charming like Eminem (and he has got the same nasty attitude). He and Stella were hanging around the rest of the holiday.
Vladic was different. All kids, and even me, listened to him. He’s got an ability to talk a person to death, but it was really nice to sit near him. We were flirting, but, anyway, it was just 5 days left.
- We are back to school guys.
- And we want to work in construction.
- LaGuardia has many students like you
- Actually, I and Vitalik will go to another community college first, and then transfer to Brooklyn college
- For some people boots up GPA means to go from 85 to 87, for others it to go from 40 to 70.
- Because we know that if we will drop off the school, we will never make any money…
DAY 12. At this day there were a last concert. I was an announcer at the first time.
One hour before mother met me, gave me notes and said:
“Janice, this is your great chance. There is a final concert starts in an hour, and you can be an announcer”
“Sounds great mother. I always dreamed about announcing. But I’m afraid ther’s too little time and I will do it first time in my life”
“First read all of the notes then begin to practice.”
Then we met one kid Vova, and asked him to direct me. Mother left, Vova and I were practicing.
- Est v poselke nashem, Mitino druzia.
- Hey, stop. Can you make it more energetic?
- What do you mean?
- You read everything with the same intonation. Hmmm. Can you say it in English?
- There’s Mitino, wonderful place.
- Sounds more natural
- Ok, now back to Russian. Est v poselke nashem…Mitino, druzia.
- Good
Then we came up to Olga, the main conductor. She listened to me, and says ok. I went home changed my clothes, and the concert begun.
First two announcing felt like a nightmare, but then I begun to speak clear and loud, and it got much better.There were brothers playing and singing, Women and men red verses, stories, songs, and a pair performed a comic scene about marriage.
Unfortunately Sasha left before evening. All day we spent together, comparing lives in Boston and New York and reading our books. We promised to mailed each other and meet during holidays. With her great voice and piano, Sasha would be lovely on the scene…
DAY 14. We got up at 6, and had a quick breakfast. Then two Queens-Brooklyn basses came, and we sent last kiss to Mitino and last “Thank you” to Mitya. As an Old Russian proverb says “It’s quite good everywhere, but home is the best”. Welcome back to New York!