Date: Thu, 29 Apr 93 17:16:34 -0700 (PDT)
Patti,
I took some time for musing and decided to share some considerations with
you. First of all I will try to find more children who would wish to
correspond with your students. Meanwhile I think someone here should take
responsibility to try to answer all the children from your side if they
agree to write him and ask him questions. At the given moment I see noone
around me who would dare to take the responsibility except myself and my
daughter. Sergei B. is now absent till April 3. And he already made
his possible best to call boys and girls in his son's school. I hope he
will continue to correspond with you (he and his son) upon his arrival
in Yekaterinburg. By the way he could tell you much about our Russian
currency.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Though to begin with our main unit of currency is called rouble
and there are both paper and metal money in circulation. Metal coins can
be also a copeck (1/100 of a rouble), three copecks, five, ten, twenty,
fifty. Then there are also five rouble coins, ten, twenty as I remember.
Paper money may be seen now in variuos forms - former USSR money (except
50- and 100 roubles notes) and new Pavlov's notes (50 and 100). Ex-minister
Pavlov is now under court trial for known August putch in the former USSR.
Besides there are 1 thousand roubles note, 5 thousand, 10 thousand and
finally 50 thousand note is under question. There are many special coins
called here jubilee coins. To describe them all you will need a long time.
The jubilee coins have quite different values compared with their nominal
ones. They may cost hundred times more than it was meant for them.I forget
to mention that a kind of money is so called voucher (privatization check)
but its value is reducing greatly due to political games in the upper levels
of power organs. May be I will show you the examples of the coins and paper
money if we find possibility to see each other.
I also would like to tell you a little about our city Yekaterinburg.
The city was found in 1721 on the banks of the river Iset in the middle of
Ural mountains. The mountains are high enough only in the North and South
part of the ridge. Scientists still can not explain for sure what could this
mean "Ural". The most interesting (this doesn't mean valid) are related to
the Sanskrit root UR that means fire, light. Ancient sages knew the ridge
as Hyperborean land and told fairy tales about it. The historic records say
that the city was founded even earlier about 1702 but was named a city
officially only in 1721 after ruler Ekaterina. The fabulous tribe of Chud
(Miracle people) is said to live there not long before that but had to leave
the land due to expansion of Europe peoples of Russia. The chud had gone to
Altai and disappeared there in some enigmatic way into the subterranean caves.
Investigaters and scientists suggest that they leave for Shambhala kingdom -
a fairy land where immortal wise people only live. They say that
geographically Shambhala is somewhere in Hymalayas or Tibet.
During next two hundred years many buildings and many churches were
erected in the city. Every square kilometer had a church, temple or at least
small chapel for Orthodox people living there. After October Revolution
everything has changed there. You have to remember that last tzar dynasty was
abrupted in the underground floor of so called Ipatiev house. Since a print of
mishappiness seems to lay upon the city and all the country. Now people try
to return to the old way of life, religion and belief but new era seeks new
ways and pure hearts instead of just old rites.
Yekaterinburg (former Sverdlovsk - the city was named so after a
revolutionary leader Sverdlov - now renamed back due to changed social
values) is well-known for its jewelry and precious stones. Many tales and
folk stories are being told about gold miners and mystic Serpent whose
power may give and take back treasures of the mountains. Ural writer Bazhov
created his Malachite Box book about the things. Green Lizard, Misstress
of Malachite Mountain, also possessed various underground treasures and
helped working people to earn for their life and punished bad chiefs and
covetous men. Again if we have to meet each other we hopefully will see
some of the stones and things as well as hear the tales etc.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, enough for the beginning. I hope we'll continue to correspond,
to ask questions and to reply. Bye.
Love and best wishes to you,
Sergei Malykh.
Date: Tue, 20 Jul 93 07:54:43 -0700 (PDT)
Dear Patti!
Thank you for your qick respond. Now I'm sure that my new e-mail address
is working fine and you may continue with messages using this one
which is more short and convenient. My family is now in the country
picking berries & mushrooms. They tease and caress their cat Tisha they
miss much while in the city. I see that the cat became a bit fat and
much more lazy now.
Regretfully it's raining more and more so I think they may return
any moment and I will let you know when Olya will be ready to pick up
the receiver instead of some raspberry. Greetings from her to you and
her new keypals.
As ever
Sergei M.
Date: Tue, 27 Jul 93 11:43:11 -0700 (PDT)
Dear Patti,
My wife's name is Natasha. As I understood she told you the whole name
that is Natalya Ignatievna, well, it's too long to pronounce. Natasha is the
best I think. It's curious that people often do not believe I could have
children or we are married with Natasha because they though we are too young.
To my mind we are not very young - I am 32 and she is already 33 (a month ago
she reached this remarkable date) and I'll reach the same in some two months.
As for our pictures we still try to find proper time to get shot together
and one by one. Some years ago I used to make photos myself beginning from
setting the film into camera and ending at developing this film and printing
the shots. But once I got very tired from all those procedures and placed my
camera away from me. So we have to go to professional photographers, please
wait.
Well, I am looking forward to buy you your most favourite icecream and
frozen yogurt. Greetings to all of you. Bye,
Sergei M.
Date: Wed, 28 Jul 93 09:20:22 -0700 (PDT)
Hallo, Patti!
I am happy to see your messages and this one too. It is certainly good
to live not far away from water I believe. We are also living just 10
munites of walk from our city pond which leads to the forest area and
farther. So we like to go to swim and to burn under the sun every
possible day or a part of a day if we are free and the weather is good
enough. Now it is somewhat cold (15 degrees by Celcius) and the cloudy
sky seems to be such for long time. My family is in the country and
they plan to arrive back on Friday.
You bear with your message the brine of the ocean and the wind and
the surf - it's wonderful. Greetings to your family and please enjoy
the sand, sun and the salt waves. Have a nice rest! Bye.
Sergei M. and Olya
Yekaterinburg
--------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 93 10:21:05 -0700 (PDT)
Dear Patti:
thanks a lot. Your package received yesterday. It was a real joy to see
your smiles. You all are looking fine and happy.
Thank you so much for Maryland's pictures and beautiful maps. It
was also a surprise to hold your pressed petals present and a year
planner for Olya. She was happy to get from you the things. Sasha was
also glad and enthusiastic to show me all the items one by one - I
couldn't even step in after work as usual.
Olya asked me when we would continue our keypals' correspondence.
Well, I hope to hear from you soon. My loving best wishes to you all.
Sergei M.
Date: Tue, 21 Sep 93 10:51:03 -0700 (PDT)
Dear Patti,
Olya answered to your questions as she could in Russian making two full
hand-written pages . And I helped her to write it down in English.
We would be happy to continue to write to you and other friends as well.
Thank you for your support and warm hugs. If you could find an opportunity
to uudecode and decompress our pictures then we could send you something
more in a squeezed format by e-mail. Heartfelt greetings to you all.
Sergei M.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Our schoolyear begins on Sept.1. We have 4 terms: the 1st lasts about 9
weeks, and then we have 1 week of Holidays; the 2nd lasts about 7 weeks,
after that we have 1.5-2 weeks of Holidays; the 3rd is most long, it lasts
from the middle of January (or about Jan. 11) till almost the end of March
(say till March 23), then we have one week of Spring Holidays again; the
4th term lasts two months till the very beginning of Summer. The beginning
of the 4th term is on the Apr.1, the day for jokes, laughter and funny
cheating. Though it doesn't mean that there is a Holiday in the school.
Simply they come and joke (or fool) each other this very day. Finally we
have long-long summer Holidays - joy for all of us.
Now I will answer the most unpleasant for me question. The situation
is that they transfer our school schedules to the 6 days a week! Everyone
of us is indignant about it. Last year we had 5 days a week of attending
school and our hours (lessons) were arranged in pairs (two "hours" -
30 minutes indeed - one by one for every subject, and about two-three
subjects each school day). Now we have 5-6 "hours" (45 minutes) which are
not arranged in pairs, so we have to prepare our home work making almost
double efforts. And breaks became hardly convenient now. If last year we
could ask teacher about what we didn't catch during the first hour of a pair
so now we lost the opportunity - we should hurry to the next classroom as
a rule.
The idea of 6 working days in a school week returned from past years
because our physicians did analyse our health somehow and came to the
conclusion that it would be harmful to continue in that way. But who knows
what will be now when we have to get back to the horrible 6 days studying
schedules? In fact we think that we are adapted to the 5 days a week
and even to 8 lessons of 30 minutes long a day from time to time.
Lunch is also a problem now. We have only ten minutes to snack
something. They do not force us to eat so I do not eat anything during the
lunch break and do not complain about it.
I am in the 6th grade now. We have the following disciplines:
math, Russian, classic reading (literature), foreign language (I study
English), history of the ancient world, physical culture (gymnastics etc),
geography, biology, arts, handicraft. Our summer school may be called a
pioneer camp. Though we have now pioneers with red ties now as well as
the Communist Party ruling all over the country. The summer camp is working
through all the summer. It's OK there. We can eat there three meals a day:
breakfast, dinner and supper (or one could say - breakfast, lunch, dinner).
We used to go to theaters, movies and swimming pool there. Sometimes we had
fun competitions there. Interesting detail: we have there squads (or a kind
of a scout group -"otryad" in Russian) instead of school classes. I attended
the summer camp last summer. I liked so called "hour for a nap" ("tikhy chas")
there when one could nap or read quietly.
I miss my keypal correspondence.
Olya.
Date: Wed, 22 Sep 93 12:33:42 -0700 (PDT)
Dear Patti,
thank you for the three messages received here this morning. I will give
your students' letters to Olya.
I didn't answered you about computers in our schools - our children
do not have (in general) access to proper good machines neither in the schools
nor at home. But some parents can take them to their offices to give them
the opportunity. Some chosen schools and colleges have enough of computers
in their classes but I think it is not for all. They have also some kinds
of simple "kitchen-oriented" Soviet machines which are not compatible with
any other kind unless you have some hardware interface for the purpose.
The game and kitchen "computers" are available here almost for everyone.
Well, look forward to hear from you soon (and another lot of warm hugs too!).
It is cold here again.
Sergei M.
Date: Thu, 23 Sep 93 09:42:03 -0700 (PDT)
Dear Patti,
it's wonderful. We're chatting as neighbours ... Your hugs are always
welcome here since snow lies everywhere and doesn't want to melt here.
Early winter!
Political situation in Russia is still uncertain. Though nothing
dangerous has been made still. Please do not worry so much. We hope to
to receive your hugs on and on. Bye-bye.
Sergei M.
Date: Fri, 24 Sep 93 09:42:57 -0700 (PDT)
Dear Patti,
thank you for the trouble and please do not worry about my e-mail expenses.
It would be worse if we couldn't correspond or discontinue the letters at
the most interesting places (as they do in series of movies) because of
growing expenses.
To have a fancy dress is a natural desire for every girl to my opinion.
However I believe that very good clothes may have a reasonable price, not
very high. There is a joke about female garments - the less she wears
the more it costs to her. So called fashion items are worth nothing really
but they ask for them too much. And the most convenient and pretty clothes
may cost a mere nothing instead.
To participate in KIDLINK seems an important mission. And if you could
represent our Yekaterinburg small children community then we'd be lucky to
accept your mediator service. We'll try to work out the best way to join
the KIDLINK with your most kind help if possible. Again the best doesn't
mean the most expensive.
I would like also to send you two test uuencoded pictires by Olya and
Sasha. The problem is that our scanner is black/white so I have to make
colours "artificially" trying to find most close computer paints to represent
those on the pictures. Let me try!
Send my loving best wishes to you,
Sergei M.
Date: Fri, 24 Sep 93 18:02:57 -0700 (PDT)
Patti,
I am sending you two pictures by Sasha and Olya. Of course it's a hard
labour to try to paint them after scanning with b/w scanner. But all the
same it's somewhat more vivid or live communication.
Now I should send two letters for your students but I have only one
at hand ready, for Phillip. The other one for Angel is without end.
========================================================================
Dear Phillip,
in general they do not play baseball in Russia, and I can't tell much about
it. But we used to play lapta (it is not wide spread and we do not have a
lapta team in fact.) This is an old Russian game which is very similar to
baseball - you must have a ball and a stick (or a kind of wooden club). The
rules are like in baseball. Though the club is flat not round. I didn't
play lapta very long, however, I remember the game and I like it.
By the way what's the "action books"? I don't know what is it. My family
consists of father, mother, brother and myself (and a cat as well). And
the cat lives in the village so far.
Please tell something about yourself,
your friend Olya.
======================================================
Dear Angel Cappel,
Thank you for your letter. I'm fine. I am in the 6th grade too though
I'm 10. I have only one real brother, and I have two cousins - brother
and a sister as well. They are nice and dear. They can walk but can speak
poorly.
My favourite subject is foreign language that is English (it's native
and natural for you but not for me) . I feel better in the hours of English
compared to other hours (lessons), I don't know why. What do you study now
in math? We study simple and complex numbers. This is very interesting.
I like to find simple (natural) constituents of big numbers.
I like to read fairy tales. It might seem childish and not interesting.
But one couldn't say this about science fiction. I like to read some fiction
stories too. I liked to attend school last year. But now after they made 6
days a week of school work I do not like it. We have up to 7 different
subjects every day now. And we have to get up early about 7 o'clock in the
morning every of those 6 days.
I think you'll understand me. I do not attend music school but I can
plat upright piano a little. I do not think I like super brand new bands and
classic music. Though not at all. May be you know the Beatles and their songs.
This is my favourite music because the Beatles' music is something between
super contemporary and classic music.
To be continued ...
Olya.
Date: Fri, 24 Sep 93 18:30:18 -0700 (PDT)
Dear Patti,
It was a surprise to receive your message quite in the moment I was
going to go home. So I just want to tell you that our city was renamed
from Ekaterinburg to Sverdlovsk and then again to Yekaterinburg according
to the wish of our local people's deputies.
Well, some pictures are sent to you. I hope it will be fun to see them
as a first attempt or a test of our e-mail capabilities. Bye-bye.
Hope to hear from you in two days.
Sergei M.
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 93 10:01:22 -0700 (PDT)
Dear Patti,
Olya said that she responded to all the letters sent to her and she has
full rights to wait for answers from your side. That's why she's silent.
Snow is falling here - electricity shut down in many places due to
adhesion of snow to wires (wet snow is like a glue). So according to your
criteria our children may pass schools with light souls! Gosha is OK.
He thinks of his debt to write a letter for Kelly and then goes to sleep...
Well, hope you're alright. Best wishings to you all,
Sergei M.
Date: Thu, 25 Nov 93 09:38:16 -0800 (PST)
Dear Patti,
please give the following letters to your children, hope this helps.
Sergei M.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Nicole,
thank you. I know what "bonjour" means as well as "mersie". You write
your letters rather interesting and unusual. I think I can not do it
like you. If Angel Cappel is your friend then maybe it would be good
to write to you both and you could read my letters together. My letters
will hopefully be twice long.
I like playing games. I'm fond of various dolls such as Barbie. I like
computer games much as well as other toys and games. Please tell me
something about your favourite games and likes. Well, I will write you
more later. Bye,
Olya.
P.S. By the way do you know that the most old owner of black belt (a woman)
lives in Maryland?
______________________________________________________________________
Dear Nina,
why do you have Russian name? Do you know this? I would like to learn how
there in America the Russian names arrive? I am ten and I will be 11 soon.
I attend school N63 in Yekaterinburg. I have ten teachers and our class
teacher is Mrs. Svetlana Valentinovna. My mom's name is Natalia Ignatievna
Malykh and my dad's name is Sergei Anatolievich Malykh. It is hard probably
to read our names for you, Americans. There are many different flowers in
Russia. They flourish in the streets, fields, forests even on the windowsills
and walls, In the summer our city is full of flowers. All the kinds, it's
hard to name them all. And certainly there are churches here. Though I do
not attend any. Maybe one's belief is within one's heart rather than in the
temple or what else people may find to replace true feelings with external
rituals. How do you think?
Do you like dogs orr cats? I love cats. And I have one ginger cat. Well,
till next letters, bye.
Olya.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Matthew,
I don't know really what to write but listen what my father have told us
recently. A Russian woman from Moscow went to England and brought a very
good cat home with her. The Englishmen cried what the cat will eat there in
Russia and gave the woman some ten tons of Whiskas, cat's lovely meal.
The woman had also two other cats who used to eat ordinary ocean fish we call
here mintai. The English cat sniffed what the cats in Russia eat and forgot
about Whiskas forever - mintai proved to be really better than the best (as
they say) meal for cats. Is it fun?
Sasha
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Sally,
I don't know what can I write you. I like to record something on tapes.
Recently we began to read and to record Merry ABC beause it is fun to
read and to learn your English ABC and to pronounce different words in
English and then to hear (play back) what has been recorded. I like also
to record songs and rythms and to hear them.
Sasha.
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 93 08:53:44 -0800 (PST)
Dear Patti,
at last 6 messages from you reached this isolated isle in the ocean
of information flood. The last one was from Sonya... Again a Russian
name. It seems very curious. Where is America and where is Russia in
fact? Sonya means long-sleeper, a person who loves sleeping much in
Russian.
Sergei M.
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 93 09:18:53 -0800 (PST)
Dear Patti,
My family was very proud and happy that you have phoned them once
more and they have managed to talk to you somehow (I guess not very
good indeed). At least they told me about your worrying as for the
bouncing messages and showed me in the actor like manner how Sasha
in his shy and low (when he is shy) voice addressed to you... Fun.
Here is real winter weather. An exalted sorrow accompanies this.
Trees are in snow. Everything is as if frozen to a still beauty. Perhaps
you won't understand but it reflects uttermost love of Nature before
its death and it looks most beatiful in the moment.
Sergei M.
Date: Wed, 8 Dec 93 10:25:48 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Re: Christmas preparations
Dear Patti,
nice Christmas topic... No, we have not got prepared yet. And it would be
rather dangerous to put pretty lights around once own house - they will be
broken this very night I suppose. As for the city, yes, there will be many
lights on the streets and squares indeed, and a big fur tree with New Year
rides, toys, presents, little kiosks with grocery etc. Olya and Sasha
are eager to hang toys on a tree in any moment. But it's to early...
We used to meet New Year and Christmas at home usually in a close circle of
relatives. Well, sweet dreams for you, bye,
Sergei M.
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 93 08:47:06 -0800 (PST)
Dear Patti,
You and Matthew are asking to send some snow... A heavy task...
I think it would be much more easy to send you both instead to the
snow hills and to Father Frost. How do yu think?
Well, thank you for never-ceasing support and warm hugs. Here is a
letter from Olya to Nina. Best wishes and Merry Christmas to you all.
Sergei M.
=====================================================================
Dear Nina,
I would like to tell you a little more about myself. I like to play
basketball and to watch TV set. My favorite subjects are math and
English. I write letters also to some other American penpals - Angel,
Nicole, Sonya. Do you know them?
We always have to learn by heart various retellings in English about
this and that.
I like cats and other animals. I know that there in America people like
horses. Though here in Russia people are not so fond of horses. My birthday
is on 01/01/83. I have some questions to you.
1) Do you like some sports?
2) What's you favorite subject?
3) What is your favorite pet?
4) When were you born?
Bye,
Olya.