Monday, September 24, 2012

Sunflowers, Greetings, and Tea!

Hello All! (Привет, все!)There have been quite a few new people sign up to learn more about Russian Club and perhaps join us! So lets get to know eachother this wednesday at 7pm at the Inner Bean.

I'm sorry this post will be quite short, as I am only taking a break from my thesis-writing and sorting out my plans for after graduation. (Graduation may be in May, but I have a lot to do to prep for Phd..and moving to Germany if all goes to plan, but that's beside the point.) I'm a bit sleepy, bear with me мои друзья (my friends).

1. Look to the last post for our agenda as these are the things we still need to talk about. 

2. Theses are the officer positions which can still be filled:
  • Secretary
  • Treasurer
  • Historian
We can talk about what each of those positions do at the next meeting on wednesday.

3. Sunflowers, Greetings and Tea: Fun stuff! 
Sunflowers! Lets talk t-shirts! I've come up with a possible design which includes a sunflower and our name written in cyrillic. We can tye dye these or whatever! Lets chat about it wednesday. 

Greetings! Also on wednesday we can practice a few greetings and small talk! For me, the trickiest thing is pronunciation, it may be the same for you ~ lets practice together - even if you've never spoken a word of Russian before! You'll find some great lists of greetings among other things in our archives here on this site. 

Tea! A great drink to share as we converse, of course Inner Bean has coffee as well, so lets just get together, sit on those comfy cushions and chat Russia and Russian language!

See you all Wednesday at 7pm. If you've never met me before - I'll be the girl with the short blonde hair in the black shirt and tall boots drinking black tea (I'm predictable). Um, and I'll be reading a book of Russian fairytales. I'll get there a bit early so just look for me!

Need directions to the Inner Bean? Email Me!

See you Wednesday! (Увидимся среду!)
~Клара

Monday, September 17, 2012

Привет Русский клуб! (Privet Russkiy klub!) (Hi Russian Club!)
The fall semester is underway and there is much to do! Movie nights, charity fundraising, language practice and more!


Lots of things on our first agenda:

Meeting Times
We shoud decide on a good time and place to meet. I am in favor of meeting at the Inner Bean as we did last semester; it's close to campus and very affordable as well as has several rooms for some bit of privacy. As to times, this is my availablility:
Wednesday evenings 7pm-8pm, or 9am-10am, though I, for one, will not be chipper at 9am. :)
Thursday at Noon to 1pm, 1pm to 2pm, or evenings at 8pm-9pm
Friday at 11am-noon.

Which of these work for you? Please let me know as soon as possible so I can try to make a time that will work for everyone. As to this week - I will be at the Inner Bean Wednesday at 7pm. Come and join me!

Things to do this Fall


1. We have been asked to team up with the Leadership Honor Society to gather donations of canned food to help feed hungry children this winter. I think it's a great idea - how about you? If we want to do this, we can brainstorm ways to do so on wednesday.

2. Similarly, we've been asked to team up with PRIDE for "trick or treat so kids can eat" and dress up on halloween and go door to door asking for donations of canned food items instead of candy. Sounds fun! We could work out some Russia-inspired costumes! Ever heard of Baba Yaga, the terrifying witch in the woods on her hut on chicken's legs? Wicked Koschei the deathless? Brave and beautiful princess Vasilissa or strong prince Ivan? The little thumb-sized old man (ok, that would be tricky...) but you get the idea, fairytales and folktales as well as historical personages abound to inspire our unforgettable halloween costumes! (Maybe we stay away from dressing as Stalin or more currently, Putin though, hmmm? :)

3.Last semester we raised $30 and a box of art supplies to send to the kids at Maria's Children, a great place in Moscow that helps orphaned children and wards of the state in many ways, including art therapy. We need to raise a bit more to pay for postage, plus we can always use donations of coats and other clothing. It gets awfully cold in Russia in the winter, so I'm sure the kids at Maria's children would love some new coats! We could easily advertize on buzzin and set up a table taking donations of clothing, etc, or even set up boxes around town. But first, lets send those art supplies that we were given last semester! We should aime to raise another $30 to send it.

4. Movie nights! We had one of these last semester, but lets go bigger and better this time around! I have many movies as options - Russian audio with English subtitles. We can talk about this on wednesday and if anyone has a favorite you'd like to watch, just let us all know!

Officer Postions
Lastly, officer postions. Currently I'm president and Abigail is vice president, and last semester Tyler did double duty as secretary and treasurer. Tyler, do you still want either of those positions? We have a few others and we can discuss that further on wednesday!

Also - t-shirts - I have some ideas!

So, again, we will meet wednesday evening at 7pm at the Inner Bean coffee shop to discuss all this as well as the best time to have our meetings from here on out.
There are many ways to get ahold of me, so please don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions about the above ideas or any ideas of your own, or just need directions to the inner bean. You can find me on facebook, email me back here, twitter (which i will attempt to use more often) and you can always come in and see me at the center for student involvement, which is where I work.

See you soon,
Clara