Anna Ershova – Page 5 – Anna’s Out of Town News

The Yalies Who Lunch (With the Dean)

Ever since I was admitted to Yale, I was intrigued by the last names of President Levin and Dean Salovey: they both sound very Russian. “Salovey,” for one, appeared to be a misspelt Russian word (“solovey” means “nightingale”).This is why I chose Yale over other schools: Yale’s President had a Russian-sounding name while Harvard’s ex-president made derogatory remarks about women in science. And other schools’ presidents didn’t have Russian-sounding last names, so it was Yale for me. Just kidding.

I chose Yale for many other reasons, but I was pleased to learn that President Levin’s ancestors are in fact Russian. Together with nine other students, I had lunch with Dean Salovey (Dean of Yale College) today and he turned out to be Russian, too! Actually, his family comes from Belarus, but his last name is Russian Jewish. And so is that of President Levin.

Trumbull, my residential college, has introduced a Monthly Dean’s Lunch Series that allows Trumbulians to talk to interesting people over a meal. Dean Salovey happened to be our first guest. We all learned a lot of exciting facts by Dean Salovey that Wikipedia and Yale’s website fail to provide: that he plays in a grassroot band, why he became a dean at Yale College, why he cannot comment on Aliza Shvart’s art, and why our dining hall has the right kind of matza (ask me if you’d like to know).

I am now looking forward to more Dean’s Lunches – who knows what I will get to learn next time?

Photo courtesy Trumbull’s amazing Dean Jasmina Besirevic

Yalies Get Excited Over a Downed Plane

MOSCOW — Georgia accused Russia on Monday of violating its airspace and using a MIG fighter jet to shoot down a Georgian reconnaissance drone over the separatist territory of Abkhazia on Sunday.

Several of my classmates and professors got really excited over watching footage of what appears to be a Russian jet shooting down a Georgian plane. So I thought I’d share it with you. There is even an English commentary by a Georgian military official. I am not an aviation expert, but the video appears to be real. Oh, and the Russians have been denying their fault. Most of the Russian newspapers I read only commented that the Ministry of Defense (should it be ‘offense’?) believes Georgia is making everything up. For instance, here (in Russian only) a fairly reputable Russian newspaper cites the Ministry of Defense spokeperson’s comments that call this incident “a hoax.” I guess Russians are not aware of that YouTube video just yet…

Russians “Pick” Orthodox Christianity

A couple of days ago, I wrote about Russia’s bothersome attempting to introduce an Orthodox Christian version of Valentine’s Day. Today’s issue of the New York Times has me even more worried: “At Expense of Others, Putin Picks a Church:”

This close alliance between the government and the Russian Orthodox Church has become a defining characteristic of Mr. Putin’s tenure, a mutually reinforcing choreography that is usually described here as working “in symphony.”

Mr. Putin makes frequent appearances with the church’s leader, Patriarch Aleksei II, on the Kremlin-controlled national television networks. Last week, Mr. Putin was shown prominently accepting an invitation from Aleksei II to attend services for Russian Orthodox Easter, which is this Sunday.

Even though Moscow has always been a beacon of Orthodox Christianity in Russia, Russia’s Muslim population is around 15-20% of its total population (10-15% of the total population are practicing believers, according to the World Factbook); a significant percentage of the population is Buddhist. Catholics, Protestants, Lutherans etc are also fairly well-represented in Russia.

Apparently, according to Kremlin’s bizarre logic, since the incumbent President belongs to Orthodox Christianity, no one should care about other religions. Did anyone just mention the word ‘democracy’?

It’s Bulldog Days!

Unfortunately, I never made it to Bulldog Days: it’s a 20 hour long flight from Hong Kong to NYC (and a 20 hour long flight back!) and my IB finals were drawing dangerously close. A year has passed, and hundreds of those luckier than me are here right now experiencing what is is like to be a Yalie.

Warnings not to serve alcohol to pre-frosh have been sent out (we are an officially ‘dry’ campus during Bulldog Days); a huge bulldog has been inflated and set up on Old Campus; Dean Salovey was in an improv show tonight; bright-eyed and anxious potential 2012-ers are flocking up to campus (my suite is hosting five of them!).

It’s an exciting time for all of us. Welcome to Yale, future Class of 2012!

Valentine’s Day: Not Good Enough for Russia

It is with great sadness that I observe growing nationalistic trends in Russia. Russian leadership goes to great lengths to get rid of the “negative Western influence.” Did you really think the Cold War was over?

Svetlana Medvedeva, the wife of Russian President-elect, recently announced her wish to introduce a Russian analogue of St. Valentine’s Day — and a religious one, too!

Russia has been embracing Christianity a lot more recently (Remember these pictures of bare-chested Putin wearing a crucifix?). Putin is quite a regular at the Christmas, Easter etc services. Now photos of Mrs. Medvedeva wearing a headscarf (all women are supposed to wear them inside an orthodox Christian church) and lighting a candle or talking to a priest are all over the Russian newspapers.

The holiday is supposed to celebrate two Russian Saints, Peter and Fevronia. Peter was a Russian prince. An evil serpent in a human form was paying supposedly unwanted nightly visits to his wife’s sister.

Peter, a noble Russian guy, killed that serpent, but the latter’s blood left his body covered in painful ulcers. Then he met a very wise peasant girl named Fevronia who asked him to marry her in exchange for curing him. He said he would marry her, but, in a typical Russian fairytale fashion, ignored his promise as soon as she helped him. But then his
ulcers came back, so he had to marry her. The prince and princess ruled over their share of Russia, became popular with the peasants, and lived happily ever after. When they died, they were buried apart at first, but then it was discovered their bodied ended up in the same coffin.

This story is warm and fuzzy, but I have a couple of questions to ask. Given that Fevronia blackmailed Paul into marrying her, can this holiday be viewed as a celebration of a female empowerment? Or as an indication to Russian women about how to treat their men?

As an atheist who is particularly allergic to the orthodox Christian tradition, I find this holiday disturbing. Valentine’s used to be a religious holiday, but it was consumerized a long time ago. So what is going to happen to Valentine’s in Russia?

If this “authentically Russian” holiday is indeed introduced to Russia, the number of holidays when single people feel miserable will be doubled. Or, if Presidents Medvedev and Putin like the plan, selling and buying traditional Valentine’s cards and gifts will be, you know, discouraged. After all, Saudi Arabia introduced a ban on selling red roses on Feb 14, 2008. Iran and Kuwait made repeated attempt to ban the holiday altogether. Russia is already following these countries’ example in terms of reducing democracy; isn’t it about time it banned Valentine’s, too?

Dropping the Y-bomb

At ephblog, there is an exciting discussion going on about whether student admitted at both Yale and Williams should choose Williams. One person complained about Yale and Harvard students throwing around their school’s names :

I have a lot of acquaintances, friends and loved ones, who are grads of Harvard and Yale. Is there higher recognizability? Most definitely. And what does this particular ’status’ breed? They all have a tendency to let you know, within a few minutes of meeting them, where they went to school. I find it amusing the regularity with which this happens, regardless of the ‘type’ of individual.

Here is my response with regard to Yalies. I cannot vouch for Harvard students.

“I avoid telling people where I go to college at all costs: people tend to treat me in a weird way after I mention Yale. I also found it to be a very effective way to deter unwanted male attention. I travel a lot and it happens sometimes that a man next to me on a train/bus/airplane is bored and/or flirtatious. After the mandatory “so, wheredya go to school?” I just answer the truth and they tend to sort of stop right away (nobody likes a smart blond, I guess).

In Hong Kong, where I graduated from high school, people tend to deify prestigious academic institutions; upon hearing ‘Yale’, they start asking me tons and tons of questions about ‘the secrets of getting in,’ so I try avoiding ever mentioning it.

In Russia, where I grew up, people either don’t know what Yale is or start making fun of me because of a certain American president who is an alumnus; so I keep quiet, too.

One may claim my experience is unique; I don’t believe it is. In fact, many of my fellow students tend to avoid mentioning Yale when they talk to strangers (unless those strangers are their job interviewers).

An interesting phenomenon to consider is that people pay more attention to the brand-name colleges. Since there is an existing discourse on Yalies bragging around about their alma mater, one automatically registers it every time Yale is mentioned. A student of a random college in the middle of nowhere can talk about their school 24/7 and nobody seems to mind; a Yalie mentions Yale once and everyone considers him/her annoying and arrogant.

Also, if you someone wearing, say, a UMass sweatshirt, most people won’t even notice; if it’s a Yale one, most people will pay attention to it and consider its owner an arrogant brat. Would you disagree with that?

See also incredible anxiety Harvard kids have about dropping the H-bomb…”

Is Abortion Art? One Yalie Insists It Is

Guess where I will be on April 22? At the Undergraduate Senior Art Show, probably amongst many other students – trying to find my way to Aliza Shvarts’ senior art project. Because what can be more attractive than videos of an undergrad undergoing miscarriages?

Not really; I just want to see her exhibit for myself.

According to Jonathan Schell, an author and an intellectual, who is my professor in a seminar on non-violence (how very relevant!), “Watch presidential candidates being asked questions about this.” And, according to my classmate in that class, “Too bad Huckabee dropped out, he would have made a couple of interesting comments.” Another added, “How will she apply for a job?” Another one wanted to know who was filming her videos (“Would you mind holding a camera while I am having a self-induced abortion in my bathtub?”). Another one was curious as to how she got men to be her inseminators (“Um, so I am working on this senior project…would you mind providing me with some sperm?”)

According to Yale, Shvarts did not have any pregnancies/miscarriages/sperm donors – it was all a made-up story.

According to Shvarts, who wrote a guest column for today’s issue Yale Daily News, it is all true.

Go figure.

Yale’s message boards are full of anti-abortion posters; a Facebook ad invites the Yale community to attend a candlelight vigil to honor abortion victims.

I am pro-choice, so I believe she had a right to do that to herself; at the same time, I feel overwhelmed that someone would be so ruthless (if her story is indeed true) to their body.

What do you think?

Pre-gaming Schwarzenegger’s visit: Yale Students Find a Good Reason to Party

As I was walking back from my Astronomy observation session yesterday, I saw crowds of people outside Sage hall, home to Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. They were affixing a model of a car to the building, putting painted wooden boards on the ground, and drinking beer.

I though it was some not-so-secret-society ritual going on, but, upon inquiring, I was surprised to find out they were pre-gaming Schwarzenegger’s visit.

Yale is currently hosting the Conference of Governors. Its aims include developing a new strategy to combat climate change. While the governors of Kansas, Connecticut, New Jersey and a Premier of Quebec will be present, it is the California’s governor who seems to attract most of Yalies’ attention.

All Yale students, faculty, and staff received an e-mail from the Dean of School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale inviting them to come over to Woolsey Hall (the hall with the largest seating capacity) and to listen to the Connecticut and California governors talk. Soon the campus was buzzing with the news. Facebook statuses screamed “the Governator is coming!!!” and the students claimed “Yeah, I just wanna stop by and see Him.”

Yale is no stranger to celebrities: from Henry Kissinger to the Czech Prime deputy prime minister to Arnold Schwarzenegger, one can easily get their fix of celebrities at the guest lectures. But as far as I remember, tomorrow is one of the few times for visitors to speak at Woolsey Hall, which is usually reserved for freshman President address etc.

Probably not all Yalies who will be flocking up to Woolsey Hall tomorrow are interested in environmentalism , but hopefully Schwarzenegger’s address will raise awareness about the global climate change. As for me, the California governor’s address is just an added bonus to the exciting political event. But cheers to the Governator for drawing our attention to the climate change issues.

The Joys of Obtaining a Russian Visa

Are you craving adrenaline? Are you looking for challenges? Are you willing to explore the unknown? Apply for a Russian visa.

Throughout my life, I have had to deal with all sorts of visas. I signed papers with a promise that I am not a journalist for a North Korean one ; I certified that I would not do anything newsworthy for a Chinese one (I am still not sure what they meant by it); I went through the fingerprint scanning process for the US one and filled out the 18 page long Hong Kong trainee visa application. One visa that I have never had to get is a Russian one. Lucky me.

When my boyfriend decided to brave the Russian winter, I thought getting a visa would be a bureaucratic, yet civilized procedure, just as everywhere else (yes, including North Korea!) . What naiveté. Applying
for his visa made me consider it a survivor test: only the strongest get to go to Russia.

There are two basic visa options for those who wish to visit Russia. It can be a home stay visa, for those who wish to stay with their Russian friends. There is also a regular tourist kind. Both of them require a
tourist to obtain an “invitation” and to submit it along with his/her application.

An invitation for a home stay visa is almost impossible to get. An inviting party has to have a local branch of the department of visas and registration approve their invitation. The wannabe hosts are asked to submit a prove of their income (for only the rich people should be hosting foreigners); I heard of police officers turning up at their houses to check what they looked like (so that a foreign guest would not be offended by less than luxurious living conditions). The entire procedure is said to take 45 days, but it can last for two or so months. The department’s offices are usually located only in larger cities, so if one’s hosts live in a village, they will have to endure a lot of travel.

Getting an invitation for a tourist visa is tricky in a different way. In theory, one is supposed to book a hotel online; then the hotel issues an invitation. But booking a Russian hotel online proves challenging even for a Russian-speaker: the transactions don’t always go through and the websites are difficult to navigate . Those who do not happen to have any Russian-speaking friends by their side have to resort to using several overpriced websites in bad English. If you master the process, however, there is yet another challenge: not all hotels are allowed to issue invitations. But no worries: if you wish to stay at a nice private hotel (which are oftentimes much better than the government-approved old-school ones), you can still obtain your
invitation from a Russian tourist agency that will issue it in the name of a government-friendly hotel. It is just that I haven’t found any which have any forms of online payment available.

I had my friend in Moscow obtain an invitation from a tourist agency, pay cash, and e-mail me the invitation. The embassies do not accept “copies of the invitations,” and an attached Microsoft Word document is considered more “original” than a faxed copy. And here comes another challenge: Once you have an invitation and a filled out application form, you have to pay the application processing fee.

There are only two ways to pay for obtaining one’s visa: money order or cashier’s check, so a trip to a local post office/bank rather than writing a personal check is required. Most countries’ embassies I have dealt with are perfectly happy to accept personal checks – or cash. I guess we Russians are just way too cool for that.

Got that money order? Go mail it off. Oh wait, no so fast…

The websites for the embassy in D.C. and the consulate in NYC provided us with contradicting address information. When we called the consulate, they did not seem to know enough English, so I had to talk to
them. I did not mind, but they kept telling me they did not know anything (because, you know, the consulate is there to host Russian-themed parties, not to advise those few foolish Americans seeking to

visit Russia). They told me to call a number in D.C. that I had never reached even though I had been trying for three days straight (it seemed that nobody bothered picking up).

It was only after my boyfriend got his visa that I made an important discovery. Like all other things Russian, there is a shortcut that is paved with money . If you pay a US-based tourist company $60 or so, they will issue the invitation right away. For additional $30, they will register you (another bothersome formality) in Moscow/St. Petersburg without ever asking where you are really staying. A Yale professor who often goes to Russia promised to hook me up with a really nice deal: a DC-based agency that is trustworthy, friendly and efficient. So if anybody needs the information, drop me a line.

One thing bothers me: I am not still not sure all these agencies are legal. They cheat the system and provide the immigration authorities with false information. Surprisingly, the government is perfectly aware of their activities and does not seem to mind. Neither do immigration officers. According to a Russian lawyer friend, these agencies are not legal – but they are not illegal, either, like so many things in a country with a flawed legal system. So if you are persistent enough to do extensive research and stubborn enough to obtain the
paperwork and have some money, welcome to Russia.

Just one thing: recently the Ukraine announced that the EU and US residents can visit it visa-free. The Ukraine has all that Russia has to offer – similar architecture, similar language, similar national cuisine – only more democracy and a warmer climate. The tickets to the Ukraine are priced at an amount similar to those to Russia. So really, if you want to spare yourself the bureaucratic trouble and enjoy Eastern Europe, go for Kiev, not Moscow.

The Troubles of Paying Taxes At Home While Abroad

I have never had to pay taxes. In fact, I don’t even have a Russian tax identification number since I am never in the country long enough to go through all the bureaucracy. Recently, the Office of International Students and Scholars at Yale kindly informed me I had to file a tax return to the US government. Since they provide every international student with the tax software, I was anticipating a fairly easy process.

The process was not as painless as I hoped, but I have survived (although answering endless questions on whether I was secretly married in 2007 or had a citizenship I was hiding from the IRS was not really pleasant). At the end there was a nice surprise: I qualified for a fat tax refund.

I got curious and went to the IRS website to investigate. It turns out the US has a number of bilateral tax treaties with various countries. According to the IRS, “residents (not necessarily citizens) of foreign countries are taxed at a reduced rate, or are exempt from U.S. income taxes on certain items of income they receive from sources within the United States.[1] <#_ftn1>” According to the software, I qualify for a tax refund because of the tax treaties with Russia. A 27-page long document provided by the IRS explains the treaty; it was signed in 1992 by President Bush. I went through the entire document and learned that this tax refund means I have to pay tax in Russia.

Now, I really want to be an honest Russian taxpayer. My question is, how do I become one?

All employed Russians are supposed to have an Individual Taxpayer Number (ITN), which is akin to a SSN. Getting one is a fairly tedious procedure. One cannot get one at the embassy, it has to be done in Russia. Provided I waste lots of my summer time and do it, what happens next?

A Russian friend of mine was in a similar situation last year. She received a nice scholarship from her college, filed her tax return, received her tax refund and then decided to pay tax in Russia. When she
went to the Russian IRS, they laughed at her. Just proving she had an income required much paperwork, all translated into Russian and certified by a notary, which is fairly expensive. Providing she had gone through all this trouble, she probably would not be able to actually pay the tax. Russians do not write checks, and transferring money from her American account (the only one she has) to the Russian IRS account is insanely expensive. And the best part of it is: the IRS officers told her not to bother. Apparently, unless she reports it herself, no one in Russia will ever know if she received any money from the private college in the US. And since her income is not in the 7 digits bracket, they
“don’t really care.”

I will do my best to pay taxes in Russia. I am just not sure I will be able to.