Hello dear readers, I hope you are all well and enjoying the wonderful weather that May as to offer. The weather here in the Caucasus has been so very nice. Four of five days of sun with a sixth of rain, to add a little variety to the climate and to keep thing nice and green. I was so glad to see the all the great weather that we experienced in Georgia moved across the mountains and into the North Caucasus. It has felt very similar to the weather we have in Nebraska. I have to comment that when we returned from Georgia and drove across North Ossetia-Alania, a huge storm front moved into the area, dropping buckets of rain and quarter sized hail. Moving at 60 kilometers an hour, the sound was deafening and I was very concerned as the visibility was very poor. Our driver had never seen hail (stormy weather that I’m used to in Nebraska and in America in general is rarely seen in Europe) before and it was worrying that I had to tell him to slow down several times, the car fishtailing left and right. I’m very thankful that we made it back home in one piece.
I’ve been enjoying my final weeks in the Caucasus as much as possible. It is amazing to know that eight months have passed. It seems like a life time ago that I was in Grozny, touring the capital of Chechnya with my friends during first semester. The memories that I’ve made and shared have really had an impact on me, life experiences that have helped model and shape better my knowledge of this region and it’s many peoples. Seeing the old sites this year has been just as rewarding as well, making my time here more enjoyable. Sharing these memories with some very unique and wonderful people has made it all the better. Meeting individuals from all over the world helps put your own world into perspective and I’m very thankfully for the opportunity to have met people from every continent (except Australia). I only have twenty-some days felt here in this magnificent part of the world and I intend to make the best of it. Pyatigorsk has treated me very well, both this year and two years ago. The people at the Pyatigorsk State Linguistic University have been so kind and supportive and it some respects I’ve enjoyed my two years here better that my three at Hastings. The sense of community here , though made out of necessity, is very genuine. I’m not saying that in Hastings this wasn’t the case of that my own people are not hospitable, but I feel in some ways that my talents and interests have been better served here in the Caucasus.
I an effort to say my last goodbyes to some of the larger geographic features here, my friends and I took a climb up Mount Beshtau. I’ve climbed up with mountain every year that I’ve been here. My first climb was in October of 2013, when the leaves were all charging their colors. The view was beautiful with all the reds, oranges, and yellows flooding the scenery. It was the first excursion that I had made with friends, and the first time when I met my dear friend Vika. They are memories that I will never forget, the first mountain that had ever climbing in my life, starting at humble beginnings. The fellowing semester of 2014, I again went up the mountain during May with Alina and Vika, taking part in the festivities. It was a wonderful send off to a great year in the Caucasus. When I retuned, I climbed again in November (I wrote about this experience in a previous blog) and now I’ve made my final climb. It was a wonderful experience for me as it was my first time camping in the mountains. I’ve been camping a lot throughout my Boy Scouting career and it isn’t a foreign concept to me, but it was different to be 900 some meter above sea level, making a fire and sleeping under the stars.
We almost had to call our trip short, as it rained for an hour before hand. I was worried that the road to the mountain and the slopes of Beshtau were going to be too muddy and the ground to unstable. Beshtau is dangerous when one isn’t carful and like other mountains must be respected. Thankfully the rain stopped and the sun came out, drying things up a little bit. We had a lot of equipment with us, in regards to camping materials. My backpack was stuffed with bottles of water, a rain jacket, coffee, sugar, bread, some snacks and my briki or jazzve (my Turkish/Armenian/Greek coffee maker). I was very excited to make coffee with it on an open flame. Because of our weighty packs, we could taxis up to the base of the mountain, as it is three kilometers walk from Pyatigorsk. We started our trek at around 5 o’clock in the afternoon, the sun slowly wheeling across the sky. I walked with Vika and Maddy, the three of us reminiscing about our first walk up Beshtau. Christophe brought his camera with him, taking marvelous photos on the way. Alex, Alizee and Florane joined us, Maddy, Vika and I being out numbered by French speakers. It wasn’t a problem as I’m used to French being the dominate tongue in our group, but we all speak Russian and English so there are no misunderstandings (Alizee and Florane’s English is perfect, but their Belgians so less accent). We headed up the mountain, taking some of the less steep trails until we had to ascend the steepest part of our journey, about 12% grade. If someone fell over, they’d roll down the mountain and hit several rocks and trees on the way down. As the sun started to set, we made camp on a flat area, three quarters up the mountain.
Since we had little light remaining, we all gathered wood from our fire. I gathered a bunch of little sticks and twigs for kindling and built and fire pit out of some rocks near our camp site. I also made a little cooking pit, so we could piece hot embers into it, as to make cooking easier. There was some disagreement as to much wood was needed. Florane and I saying to the boys that we had more that enough for the night. It turns out that we did. We got the coals hot and Alex brought out some chicken and potatoes wrapped up in foil. I also brewed my coffee in my jazzve, Vika and I partaking in it’s tasty wonders. My friends also brought a lot of booze, Florane brought a bottle of wine that she bought in Armenia, Alex bringing several bottles of beer and vodka. As in traditional Caucasian fashion, we toasted to our drinks and had several rounds throughout the night. It was nice to have such a feast after a long and trier some climb. We song to some classic tones for the 70’s and 80’s, told stories and gazed into the fire that we had made. I love getting back to human roots, our society first starting as humble hunter-gathers making a living in the brush. I volunteered to watch the fire that evening, adding some wood here and there when needed. Vika also helped me, she and I talking together of most of the night when the others went to bed. The stars were bright, like gems in the dark void, shining from the light of our fire.
I get everyone up at 3 o’clock in the morning, so we could start our final trek to the summit. The biggest difference in mountain camping that I noticed as the lack of bugs. I’m used to hordes of insects, including the dreaded mosquitoes. I had my first camping experience of not getting eaten alive which was so nice. I wasn’t nearly was dirty either, as it was dry on the mountain and I wasn’t covered in sweat from a humid environment. It felt so good. During the middle of the night, my sleeping bag rolled down the mountain. After much searching, I found it wedged between two rocks about 50 meters below our camp site. I was so lucky that the poor thing didn’t bounce all the way down the whole mountain. I was smart and wrapped my sleeping bag in a plastic bag, so it was clean and not covered in mud. After I climbed back up, we all quickly gathered our things and started walking up the steep path. As we hit tree line, the geography flattened out a bit. In the navy blue morning sky, we could see a splitter of light from the sun. We slowly ascend up the northern side of the summit, the sun quickly reviling itself on our left, exposed the ground to more and more light. At one point I was crawling in the ground, grabbing the grass and pulling myself upward as this point was so steep. After much struggle and pain, I managed to finally ascend to the top. The view at dawn was breathe taking. I’m so glad that we made the effort to do this, as he scenery alone was worth the time. As the sun rose, it illuminated all of the region. The towns of Essentuki, Zheleznovodsk, and Mineralnye Vody, came to life. I burned the imagines of this beautiful scene into my mind, a time that will forever have a lasting impression on me.
Another lasting memory of this year I will have is of our last English Club. I first want to give a huge thanks to Andrew and Kristi Slate, who have made this years English Club a very successful and fun endeavor. Your ideas and willingness to teach not made an impression of so many students during the past year and I believe they will remember it for many years to come. We have had many amazing evenings, sawing Russian students our culture while giving them new and useful English vocabulary. For our last event, we held Pyatigorsk State Linguistic Universities’ first ever Oscars. Andrew and Kristi made popcorn for everyone and we watched clips from famous English speaking films, the students guessing the film and it’s genre. Maddy and got chips from several films including: the original “Toy Story,” the musical “Grease,” the action comedy “Hot Fuzz,” and others. We also had the students discuss what their favorite films were. The “Harry Potter” series seem to be very popular amongst our students. Our last project for them was to create their own trailer to be shown at our Oscars, the students acting out a scene of their own or recreating a scene from a previous film. One group did a remake of “Twilight,” two other groups did a mock up of “Harry Potter,” while our last group did a parity of the “Amazing Spiderman,” Caucasus style. It was very funny. We then gave out awards for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Visuals, and Best Original Screen Play.” It was a lot of fun and I always get enjoy in seeing the students smiles on their faces when at English Club. I will be sad not to be a part of it next year, but I’ve had a good run and I hope the I’ve impacted these students in some beneficial way. So, here is a salute to you, and I wish you all the best in luck and in life.
Another moment that signaled my time here is drawing to a close was that of the exam. The main purpose of my second year long stay here in at Pyatigorsk was to take the Russian language exam, a document displaying my fluency in the Russian language. This exam is the official paper that most international institutions will look at during the hiring process. The exam in of itself was in a state of flux, as the administration in Moscow was having issues taking to find people certified to administer the test. I was given the choice of taking either the A-1 or B-2 exams, and after some waiting, I ended up taking the A-1 test. This test isn’t the ideal level that I wanted to take, but I’d rather take a test then not at all. I however, would have preferred to take the B-2 exam as I was paying 6,000 rubles (90 some dollars at the current exchange rate) for the privilege of taking said test. The international office had those of us taking the exam met at the university at 2 o’clock, the Chinese students, myself, along with Andrew and Kristi took the exam. We were put in different rooms and began the exam. We first started with an audio exam, a recorded questionnaire. We answered by choosing the current phrase or sentence, a multiple choice section. This lasted for about 20 minutes. We then went on to a reading exam, text analysis. After this, the exam progressed to grammar, another multiple choice section (thankfully). Russian grammar is difficult, but in a pitch, one can put the ended of the verbs together as they generally match. After this I then had an oral exam, speaking of my family, work and why was studying in Russia. The whole ordeal lasted about two hours and I walked away from the exam feeling confidant in my work. Yet, another leap jumped.
One of the final “nails in the head” which highlighted my departing soon, was Alina and Vika’s graduation from university. I’ve watched these young women change and grow as individuals over the past three years and it has been a pleasure to be apart of their lives and academic careers, talking with them and helping them improve their language skills. I’ve very proud to call them both close friends and I hope that it remains this way, even with a 7,000 mile barrier in distance, but this why we have Skype and the like. Unlike in the States, the Russians (at least at Pyatigorsk State Linguistic University), have their grad ceremony before they complete their finals. This ceremony (like many Russian concerts at university) involves singing and dancing, with elements of presentations of awards to both students and their faculty members. Unfortunately, Vika’s father is seriously ill and she could not attend the festivities. I wanted to support them both so I arrived at Alina’s respect to sing and dance with her. She is one of the senior members within the German and English Faculty and she is well liked by her peers. We danced to Jerry Lee Lewis’s, “Great Balls of Fire,” Alina dancing while I sang. We did several rehearsals before hand and I think the whole thing turned out all right. The ceremony lasted for three hours and had several dances, songs and presentations by the students who graduated. It was long, but very enjoyable.
After the ceremony, we quickly changed clothes and Alina, Maddy and I entered a taxi to get to the graduation dinner, being held in the town of Essentuki, a 15 minute drive from Pyatigorsk on the other side of Beshtau. It was a very formal event, most of the women were in gowns and the men in suits. The event was held a restaurant which looked very expensive, judging by the scenery, a courtyard with several outdoor sitting areas, a couple of carriages for taking photos in, a pen for exotic birds, including a peacock and a peahen and lastly, a series of gardens. The graduates took many photo shoots in and around the restaurant. We then headed up to the second floor of the main building. Upon entering, I was shocked to see the decor of the floor, I felt like I was at a wedding and I then realized where the 1,900 rubles went which I had given a month before. We then sat down, waiting for the event to start. The professors gave a little talk, as did some of the students, including Alina. I was happy to see my friend Anna (another Anna from the Alina’s faculty, I know, it’s hard to keep track of all the Annas and Sashas etc.) I hadn’t had seen her since October, when she was pregnant with her first child. She was with her husband, Alexei, I very kind and observant man from what I gather after meeting him. He and I shared a few glasses of vodka together and toasted to life, success and the graduates. The dinner was like a banquet, I that we had so much food, that just kept coming and coming. Plates of salad, khinkali, khichiney, chicken shashlik, etc. were on the table. We also had wine, champagne and vodka. All the Russian men within the first hour were already drunk, the girls taking their time. In between course there was dancing and we all dancing and ate the night away. I had such a very good time sharing in Alina’s and her peers special moment. I was and am so proud of her and Vika for all of the hard work and effort they have put into their studies and into their development as individuals. I felt like a big brother, watching his little sister graduate from college. Toward the end of the evening, Alina, Maddy and I sat together outside at one of the tables and talked together, sharing a bottle of wine. A great end to a wonderful day.
Maddy and I left the party at around 11:30 in the evening, as we had places to go the next day. We both are trying to maximize our time here, seeing the last sites before we head to our respective homes. She left for North Ossetia and Ingushetia to see the old watch towers and monasteries that are in the foothills. I travelled to Nalchik for the last time for participate in the Circassian Day of Mourning. This is an annual event held on the 21st of May, remembering the forced deportation of an estimated 1.5 million Circassians from their homelands by the Russian Empire in 1864, marking the end of the Caucasus War (1763-1864) and the ethnocide if not genocide of a culture. The deported group of Circassians fled to the lands of the Ottoman Empire, notably to modern Turkey, Israel, Syria and Jordan. These communities form the Circassian Diaspora of around 5 million. Only million Circassians live in their historic homelands in the Northwest Caucasus. The Day of Mourning is an international affair, with the Diaspora communities in Amman, Istanbul, and Jerusalem having their own marches. Here in the Caucasus, the cities of Nalchik and Maikop had their own events. The events in Nalchik were very moving and it was honor to march within the rally there. Hundreds of people with Circassian flags (including myself), marched around the squares of Lenin, Abkhazia etc. until we reached the memorial to the Caucasus War. I was dressed in cherkesska, as were many others, Anna, Jan and this friends (Turkish Circassian Diaspora) joined in and we all marched together. Jan took some very good photos during the rally. As we approached the great bronze tree remarking the memorial, a horn was blown three times, signifying the exodus of Circassian people. Songs were sung of the events in Kabardian and Adyghean (to be honest I don’t know which), a moment of sorrow, but with a silver lining of hope. It was a sobering moment, one filled with honor and respect, a nation united through shared culture and history, even if spread across the world.
As the festivities concluded, people laid wreaths and roses on the Caucasus War memorial, a giant Circassian flag was hung in the background. As I stood watching, I lost track of Anna, Jan and friends. They were on the other side of the memorial, taking photos, as I found out later. While this was going on, I met up with my friend Elberd and we took some photos and after he finished his work (again as coward control), we looked for Anna and Jan. After about 30 minutes of searching, we decided to head out. I changed out of my cherkesska and we get into Elberd’s car, heading north to his parents home in Sarmarkovo. It was an enjoyable drive, seeing the Kabardian countryside, it’s rolling hills moving across the landscape like waves on the ocean. It was so good to be home in Elberd’s home town. Sarmarkovo is a marvelous town, established in the 1730s. You can really get a sense of the history here when you look at the stone walls scattered across the town. Elberd’s home has had several improvements since I was last there, the Kotsev Clan is building a new kitchen and we stayed in the summer house on this visit. I was so happy to see Elberd’s mother, grandmother and grandfather. Their all doing well for themselves and it looks like the apple orchard is going to yield a nice crop of fruit this year. They should be ready to harvest in late September. The grapes at the house are also growing well, maybe wine is in the future for the family. We ate and ate and ate, toasting to friendship, Circassia, family and for all the joys in life. Elberd cooked chicken shashlik and we sat and shared a meal together in the apple orchard. This is a moment that I’ll never forget, sharing a traditional Karbardian meal with a great friend and brother, toasting to our loved ones with a bottle of Scotch whiskey. Such a perfect weekend.
Well, my friends I’m signing off. This will be my last blog before I leave the Caucasus. I’ll write a follow up when I return to Nebraska. For now I want to enjoy my last moments here, as writing takes a day or so. God willing, I leave on the 14th of June and should arrive back home on the afternoon of the 15th. I’m very thankful for all the opportunities that I have been during my stay here in this amazing part of the world. Thank you all for reading my thoughts over the last year and for your support. I wish you all the best, from Russia with regards.
Respectfully yours, Ian Alexander Tuttle
P.S. Adige Wei Wei
Pub and Politics 