Jonathon Gerry
English 191
Interviewee: Vlad
Date of Interview: Friday, November 19th, 2012
Time of the Interview: 3 P.M.
Location of Interview: Third Floor of the Library
Country: Kyrsgyzstan
English 191
Interviewee: Vlad
Date of Interview: Friday, November 19th, 2012
Time of the Interview: 3 P.M.
Location of Interview: Third Floor of the Library
Country: Kyrsgyzstan
Country Report: Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan, a country located in Central Asia is a beautiful country secluded by mountains and abutting several countries such as Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhsta, and China. Kyrgyzstan has a population rate of about “5,550, 239 with Bishkek being it’s capital city” (C.I.A.). Kyrgyzstan is well known around Central Asia because it is a country mostly consisted of beautiful mountain ranges, valleys, and lakes.
Kyrgyzstan, a country located in Central Asia is a beautiful country secluded by mountains and abutting several countries such as Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhsta, and China. Kyrgyzstan has a population rate of about “5,550, 239 with Bishkek being it’s capital city” (C.I.A.). Kyrgyzstan is well known around Central Asia because it is a country mostly consisted of beautiful mountain ranges, valleys, and lakes.
Kyrgyzstan had a fascinating and quick
changing history that has greatly impacted the nation to this day. One of the
most significant dates was on December 5th, when Kyrgyzstan joined the Soviet
Union. Kyrgyzstan joined the high power Soviet Union. Once Kyrgyzstan joined
the Soviet Union, they flourished and exceeded in many aspects of their life.
After a while though the Kyrgyzstan realized that the alliance they had joined
was soon to fall and became fully independent on December 25, 1991, the day
before the Soviet Union ceased. The following year in 1992 Kyrgyzstan the
joined the United Nations and became what is known today as the “Kyrgyz
Republic.” These were key factors in Kyrgyzstans life but the one that had the
biggest impact on it was when Kyrgyzstan became independent because of the fall
of the Soviet Union. Once the Soviet Union died off it left Kyrgyzstan
struggling economically as the 2nd poorest country in Central Asia. To this day
the country is still trying to bounce off the devastating blow and dig itself
out of a hole using the land they have. Majority of the land that thrives in
Kyrgyzstan are used for economical purposes. For example, gold exporting is the
best business in Kyrgyzstan because of the mountains, following up with the
vast agricultural approaches with numerous fruits the land is able to produce.
Last, but not least, Kyrgyzstan is able to use its high mountains for hydroelectricity
energy. Hydroelectricity energy is “the production of energy, through the use
of gravitational force of water”(Wikipedia). So what they would do is use the
mountains as like a dam and produce energy through the use of it and live off
that. Kyrgyzstan is a small country that has had a tremendous impact on the
world and should be looked into.
Another
key importance to Kyrgyzstan that ties into it’s geography are the means of
transportation. Transportation is pretty much a “do what you got to do” basis
in order to get from point A to point B. In Kyrgyzstan, due to the rough
geography features, such as the mountains, transportation is a lot more
difficult than none other. Mountains make it a lot slower and more dangerous to
pass through. In open land one can make a straight road going all the way
through, where as in the mountains, you have to adjust to the landscape and
following it all the way through. This makes means of transportation slower.
Factors that make it dangerous are mother nature incidents, such as avalanche
or mud slides. With all this being said, how do the civilians cross this rough
terrain? Well there are multiple ways one can get across the land, such as
railway, car, and most importantly the horse. The horse is probably the key
transport in Kyrgyzstan because of its ability to adapt to the mountains and
cross through and “fuel efficiency.”
The next topic that will be
introduced about Kyrgyzstan are the sports played among the country. Some
sports played in Kyrgyzstan sports are familiar to all of us such as hockey and
soccer. Hockey and soccer and the two top sports played among Kyrgyzstan, but
the one that comes out on top is soccer. Other sports such as hockey are played
among the country, falling by the uprising of wrestling. To show the success in
Kyrgyzstan’s movement in wrestling “In the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, two athletes
from Kyrgyzstan won medals in Greco-Roman wrestling: Kanatbek
Begaliev (silver) and Ruslan
Tiumenbaev (bronze)” ( Wikipedia). With Kyrgyzstan’s success in these world known
sports, they also have been excelling in sports that most American’s haven’t
even heard about. For example, two sports that Kyrgyzstan has been on the
uprising are Bandy and Ulak Tartysh. Ulak
Tartysh is a “popular sport among the south Central
Asians such as the Uzbeks, Hazaras, Tajiks, Kyrgyz, Kazakhs,
Turkmens
and Pashtuns”
(Wikipedia.) There are several only differences between Ulak Tartysh and polo.
Yes, both games include throwing an object up and down the field to score a
goal, but the objects aren’t the same, nor are the time periods. In Ulak
Tartysh, the time period can last for days but it the game is represented in a “tournament”
version, where as polo is in a set period of times and last for a couple of
hours. Last, but not least, are the objects: Ulak Tartysh uses a headless carcass
of either a goat or a calf, while polo uses a ball. Once again, both these
games have similar objectives, but they also differ in numerous ways other than
just the time period played and what they use to play with. The second sport
that is unfamiliar to the United States that I thought was pretty cool is
Bandy. Bandy is pretty much like a combination of ice hockey and soccer all in
one. Bandy has the same rules of soccer and the same length of the “field,” but
relate to hockey with the usage of equipment, except they use a ball instead of
a puck. Bandy has progressively grown throughout Kyrgyzstan and is getting more
and more exploited to the world. Kyrgyzstan has relevant sports that we can
compare to, but they have outstanding traditions such as Bandy and should be
looked into as an opportunity to explore here in America. By opening up our
minds I feel like even more athletic activities could blossom from such an
idea. 
Overall
Kyrgyzstan is a fascinating country of it’s own in many ways. It has had a huge
impact in the pass with one of the most thriving forces, the Soviet Union.
Unfortunately after the Soviet Union died off, Kyrgyzstan almost did as well.
It is still to this day thriving to pick itself back on it’s feet and will
probably be doing so for a very long time. Luckily this country has the right
tools and the right equipment, it’s geographic foundation! Kyrgyzstan’s
geography is significant in more ways that one and without it, Kyrgyzstan would
probably not be able to make it back in this world.
Work Cited
United States. Central Intelligence Agency. Kyrgyzstan: , Print.
<https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/kg.html>.
Wikipedia contributors. "Bandy." Wikipedia, The Free
Encyclopedia.
Wikipedia contributors. "Hydroelectricity." Wikipedia,
The Free Encyclopedia.
Pre-Interview
The
preparation for this interview was probably not the best one because not
everything went according to plan on my interviewee terms. Initially I wasn’t
supposed to interview Vlad or anybody from Kyrgyzstan. Rather the initial plan
was to interview somebody from China one more time because that was the first
country I did a report on and I wanted to be consistent with that. Originally I
had a date picked out, November 16th , at 2 p.m. in a study room.
Leading up to that date I was on track. I was preparing better than I ever was
before and even going further research about China and broadening my knowledge
on the succeeding nation. The person I have chosen was from one of my other
classes, her name was Lien. I approached her the week before and told her that
I have to do a report on a country and that I would love to do hers. Lien is a
very outgoing person and was thrilled for the interview. So the hard part was
done, asking someone for an interview. It was someone I knew and someone that
wasn’t from here, now all it was is prepare for the interview.
As
the week went on I did just glanced more into my books that I had rented out
from the first interview and was getting more comfortable with my approach
towards the interview. The day finally came and I was ready. As I was going to
the library around 1:30 I received a text message from Lien saying that she
couldn’t make it to the interview anymore because she had gotten sick and that
she couldn’t do the interview at all anymore because she didn’t want to get me sick.
I was at a lost, I had no one to go to, it was Friday, everybody goes home for
the weekend and I was at a lost.
I
had no idea what to do, I started to panic a bit because everything was going
perfect up until that point. While I was outside one of my Biology lab
partners, Vlad, was walking by and noticed my “panicking.” He stopped by to ask
what was wrong and I told him the situation. Vlad was very excited because he
said he wasn’t from around the United States either, but from Kyrgyzstan. Vlad
then threw me off guard even more, he asked if I would like help and do a quick
interview with him before he went down to the cities later that night. I felt
bad because I didn’t want to put that on Vlad, nor was I ready for this
interview at all. I knew absolutely nothing about his country and was going in
it blind- folded. Vlad understood the situation I was and said he wouldn’t take
to any offense of what was to come out of this country. Since Vlad and I have
lab together, we all ready had a mutual respect for one another because of that
other class, so that did help the case out a lot.
Post-Interview
Looking
back at the interview with Vlad it was probably the most fun and the most
interesting interview out of the three. A couple reasons why it was the most
interesting is because I went into the interview knowing nothing about his
country. As you know, my previous interviewee, Lien, canceled on me on the last
second because she was sick, so Vlad decided to take her place. Vlad and Lien
are both from two separate countries, so you can see what I meant by going in
there blind-folded. The thing that seperated Vlad and Lien apart was the
connection between the individual. I feel like Vlad and I connect a lot more
than Lien because we both push each other to strive to be the best in our biology
lab, where as Lien and I are just classmates and don’t really associate with
one another.
The
fact that Vlad and I had a good connection coming into the interview made it
more fun and a lot more relaxing. I didn’t even have to warm up and I didn’t
have to worry about sounding like a fool. What made this interview more
successful than the others is I wasn’t only able to just discover interesting
facts about Vlad’s country; I got to unveil some personal life stories. I got
to see a more personal and in depth story than what I got from my previous
interviews. Yes I felt the least prepared for this interview, but that was out
of my control from what happened, but the fact that my interviewing skills have
gone up compared to the first time, where it took me a long time to warm up Shu
to just jumping right into the interview and getting that information, I felt
successful.
The
one thing that I did notice in the interview is Vlad was really excited to share
his life story! He was so open about anything and he said it how it was. He
didn’t try to sugar coat everything or tried to beat around the bush, he said
it how it was. Vlad pretty much did all the talking and filled in all the gaps
before I could even ask the questions most of the time. He was great
interviewee and because of that I know my classmate even more. Overall, after
reviewing all my interviews, from my first to my last, I have noticed a great
difference in the information I was able to uncover. Each interview I
progressively got more and more interview out of my interviewee along with
getting more comfortable with the whole situation. This was a great experience
overall and I am glad I got to see a different world besides my own. I have
realized how isolated our country is and how we keep to ourselves. I think that
this class has helped my become broaden my horizon on what’s out there and to
be more open and acceptance with difference because we all have different lifestyles,
none of them are ever right or wrong it’s just the culture we grew up with!
Interview:
Interviewer= Jonathon/ Me
Interviewee=Vlad
Interviewer= Jonathon/ Me
Interviewee=Vlad
Interviewer:All
right Vlad, thank you for coming today, please sit down! ( Shake hands and we
both sit down. So Vlad, do tell me, where are you from?
Vlad: I am from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. It is the capital city of Kyrgystan! It is a small country West of China and it used to be part of the Soviet Union.
Interviewer: All right, so you liking the United States so far?
Vlad: I like the United States, I think it’s a good place to be.
Interviewer: That’s good to hear! So where are your parents from originally?
Vlad: They are also born and raise in Kyrgyzstan! They were born and raised their most of their life.
Interviewer: That’s great to hear! So do tell, what’s the school system like up in Kyrgyzstan?
Vlad: In Kyrgyzstan, I’ll tell you a little bit about before how it was in the Soviet Union part and what it is now. Although a lot has changed religiously! Back in the Soviet Union, they segregated the people that were Christian. They didn’t get certain grades although they could. I know for example, I know this lady from my church, she is a pediatrician. She went to school everything completed and the last exam she had to take they didn’t let her take because they asked her “ Either there is no God, or we’re not going to give you the test to become a pediatrician.”
Interviewer:What?!
Vlad: The president, or the leader back then said I will take till the last person, I will be putting them up on the news, tv, whatever, in front of everyone to view to see that they are Christian and to show that they are for their one God. So Russia in general, the Soviet Union in general, which Kyrgyzstan was a part of, they were totally against…they were Anti-Christ, they were trying to put everything, all their resources together to see if there was a God or not. However now these days, it’s no longer there, but you know it’s still in the back of their heads.
Interviewer: Wow, that’s a little (all of the sudden Vlad added on more to his previous comment)
Vlad: In the class it’s still probably the same. The kids are a lot more respectful in Kyrgyzstan. Like over here a kid can say something to the teacher, backtalk to the teacher, and not get penalized for it, where as there..the teacher will whoop you up (haha)
Interviewer: (Haha) that’s so?
Vlad: Yeah like the kids have to raise their arm like this (uses arm gesture to lift his arm up) in a way in front of the teacher respectively before they are allowed to even say anything.
Interviewer: So would you say the students in the system are a lot more dedicated to school work than like…(stumbling to complete my sentence)
Vlad: I would say they are!
Interviewer:They are?
Vlad:Yeah, I would say they get..I know a lot of the kids have to learn poems, like LEARN them, no reading them! And rehearse them in front of the class. Things like that, just a little different. Another thing that’s different in the Russian school system or Kyrgyzstan in that matter is like they don’t get grades “A, B, and C,” rather it’s one through five, five being the best and one being the worst.
Interviewer: Wow, so what’s not passing?
Vlad:Well two isn’t passing, and ones are really rare, they hardly happen. Yeah so that’s…anyway there’s that part. Anyways although now not as much before…there’s still this uhh they still play their favorites, a lot!
Interviewer: Wait, what?
Vlad:Like maybe not as much as before, but teachers play favorite. Like pretty much you could suck up to the teacher and he could help you through.
Interviewer:Ok then.
Vlad:Like before, like much more you have more people going to schools. But I would like to say that was back in the you got the different government systems, like back in the Soviet Union…like the Soviet Union happened 10, 12, no wow! About 20 years ago so about, umm a lot of the stuff is still there. You go some of the older people that used to work for the Soviet Union and still have that same mind set you know?
Interviewer:All right! So I did a little research on this about something people having to enlist in the army. Tell me, what do you have to say about that? Like is this true or…what? (Haha)
Vlad:Uhh, the Army…like I’m going to go back to the Soviet Union because it wasn’t that too long ago. When the Soviet Union, as of now, the people are to serve, like mandatory serve up to three years I think, at least three years.
Interviewer: How do they do the process of recruitment?
Vlad: They are pretty much taken outside of their house, unless they have some certain medical conditions or severe religious conditions that just totally..AGAIN back in the day the Soviet Union didn’t care much about your religion, so they just made you do it. And just because of the odds of being a Christian they said, “We are not putting a gun in your hands,”
Interviewer:So Christians weren’t allowed in the army?
Vlad: They were, they were made to still. However, those Christians weren’t allowed to take guns. They were of course segregated. They were…it was harsh, you know they made them do the worst jobs, clean the tables, scrub the floors. None the less, the first freshman army batch that came in, they are like belittled by the third year or last year army guys. Even the third year or the last year army guys do a beating.
Interviewer:What?!
Vlad:Yeah it’s really sad, it’s ridiculous the way it sounds, but they do like a “Fresh meat beat” as they like to call it.
Interviewer: So you beat up on the new guys?
Vlad: They beat up the new guys to show them what’s up. They show them who’s boss. Like you come up to them and they do is the smack them. Like no joke, like a full swing on the back of the neck or like
Interviewer: (Astounded by this shocking news) Wait what?!
Vlad: Yeah no joke!
Interviewer:Holy shit!
Vlad:Yeah!
Interviewer:So has anyone ever died from these beatings?
Vlad: A lot of people bones break from these fights obviously. A lot of them get into a lot of fights to of course…like I know there’s fights in the American army, but this is like a GROUP of people, a group of individuals of the third year. Like they just go on a full smack down on the little guys for a few reasons. 1. To let them know what’s up. Like we are what runs the show kind of thing. Another reason is to tell them that this is not a joke being here! Kind of like the tough message across.
Interviewer: Yeah! Oh so it’s a must do in order to set the tone for the rest of your years
Vlad: Yeah, pretty much be like “Don’t start anything with the older guys, that’s how it is in the army.”
Interviewer: All right so let’s say if you don’t go to the army or you choose not to, do you know what happens?
Vlad: There’s a lot of people that really don’t have a choice and not a whole lot of people stay home. I have a friend, he’s actually my uncle now, uhh he didn’t go to the army because he had some sort of medical condition or he was leaving to America at the time.
Interviewer:Mmmhmmm
Vlad: So yeah if you didn’t get to go to the army you don’t have a choice, you pretty much lucked out.
Interviewer: Oh shit! So that’s got to be a really big relief! So let me ask ya, what’s the food like in Kyrgyzstan?
Vlad: In Kyrgyzstan there’s a lot of food that they really like, they really don’t like a lot of those fatty stuff that the American’s like, like the hamburgers or the greesy burgers, they really don’t like that stuff. They have some of the traditional entrées, for example plough. Plough is a bunch of rice, kind of like a Chinese stir-fry, and they really like to make it in a huge bone called the Kazong. They like to make it under a campfire so it has the smoke smell kind of to it. So meat and rice, lots of onions and cucumbers, onions and carrots…yeah. What they do is they cook the meat and they poured uncooked rice in it, then they cover the top and put the fire on low. They then cook it for 30 to 40 mins and then you get this Plough, it actually tastes very wonderful.
Interviewer: That sounds very appetizing!
Vlad: Yeah another dish they like to do is called Monte. Monte are like dumplings, they look like dumplings! They have dough that covers the inside which is like meat, with onions. The difference with these compared to dumplings is you don’t just throw them into the water and just cook them and boil them, you have this grit pan with little holes on the bottom, so you have the Monte in those. The bottom of that is a heated up bowl. You then “pile up the dishes” so to speak so that the evaporation of the water cooks the dumplings. So they’re not in the water, but they’re sitting on a plate with holes right above it so that the evaporation of the water cooks them.
Interviewer: Sheesh!! Sounds so good!
Vlad:Yeah that stuff is very tasty actually! Umm, a lot of their foods are mixed with the Russian food. Like Borsch! A guy told me that Borsch is kind of like the “Spit and go kind of soup.” So like you throw whatever you could find into this soup, like meat, onions, cabbage, tomatoes, potatoes, so yeah throw all this together kind of like a “spit” and it’s actually very tasty!
Interviewer:Now when you said “spit” what do you mean by that?
Vlad: What they guy meant by that is it’s so easy to make.
Interviewer:So you can put what ever you want in it?
Vlad:For the most part. All you got to make sure you have is your meat cooked first, and then go ahead and toss all the veggies that you like in it and go ahead and wait for the veggies to get soft and go ahead there’s your soup. That’s like famous soup in Russia!
Interviewer:What’s it called again?
Vlad: It’s called Borsch!
Interviewer:I’m going to have to try it out one of these days!
Vlad: A drink, you know I’m going to try to get an entire entrée for ya..umm a drink that the Russian’s really like aside from Vodka is called Kvas. Kvas is like a..there’s fermented one for alcohol and there’s a nonfermented one…it kind of tastes like alcohol beer…alcoholic beer, and there’s one that’s not alcoholic beer, that’s what they like to drink. That’s what they like to drink, nonalcoholic beer.
Interviewer: So it tastes like beer, but it’s not beer.
Vlad: Exactly! They ferment, I can’t remember what it is exactly, but I think it’s wheat or..yeah wheat, but they don’t wait till it’s really really strong and alcoholic, right before the alcoholic part, right before the alcohol stage they stop it. I actually really like it, I drink it many many times!
Interviewer: Nice!
Vlad: Yeah, so a good salad that Kyrgyzstan loves is Ale via. Al via is a salad with cucumber, ballonet, or our American ballonet, but just with a different name with it, some ham and salad. So cucumbers, ham, ummm (eyes rolling to the back of his head as he’s thinking)
Interviewer: (As Vlad was thinking of the salad I quickly asked) So is this all on one salad?
Vlad:Yeah! So they chop it up into really define, diced up pieces. So potatoes, ham, cucumbers, green peas, some eggs, some may, and they with eat it with some pepper and salt. They REALLY LOVE that salad!!
Interviewer: Damn! Sounds amazing! I don’t mean to get off quick topic right now, but I have a quick question that I forgot to ask you about the army!
Vlad:Mmmhmm?
Interviewer:Do they enlist women in there as well or is it predominant by guys?
Vlad:Women, it’s kind of like the American army, before women weren’t as much in, so back then it was pretty much all men, but now I think women are more and more joining it, but still it’s predominant by men.
Interviewer:So do women have a choice whether they want to go or not, or do they not have a say in it?
Vlad:Umm, women had a choice to go before, like back in the Soviet Union women never attended cause like…(Vlad right then gave me the “you know” face)..yeah, if you were a girl they didn’t even do anything to you. Even now they don’t even do anything to ya, so now women have a choice whether they want to go in or not, but they don’t have to. Russia and the Kyrgyzstan army are predominant by all men.
Interviewer: Ok then!
Vlad: Like America now, even though our women get underpaid for that same job, in Russia it’s about the same thing.
Interviewer: Same thing you say?
Vlad: Yeah but Obama wants to change that, but it’s still gonna be in Russia there for like…for like forever (haha) Unless somebody comes in like Obama you know?
Interviewer:Yeah I know what you mean! Well let’s talk about sports, like what’s big…what’s like our “American NFL”?
Vlad: American NFL would probably be either soccer or hockey! They only have two I want to say…from the two I would have to say hockey is the highest one. They really like hockey up there! I’m sure you have heard of the movie “Miracle”
Interviewer:Yep!
Vlad: Yeah well that was based off of Kyrgyzstan.
Interviewer: Kyrgyzstan? I thought it was based of the United States!
Vlad: Nope! The movie was based upon umm..Russia has been winning the cup for 20 years in row and American team wanted to beat them because Russia has been winning the cup for so long and the miracle behind the story is the young American teams won and brought the cup back here.
Interviewer:Oh!
Vlad: But otherwise soccer! You know just like an American NFL player, a lot of the kids want to grow up and become some professional player. Like in Russia, soccer I called football…but by far hockey is the most popular.
Interviewer: Ok then!
Vlad: Like said between hockey and soccer, hockey predominates for sure! However, basketball is on the rise!
Interviewer: No kidding!
Vlad: Yeah! Actually a lot of the basketball players are starting to move to America. We have two Russian guys on our Timberwolves team right?
Interviewer: I don’t watch a whole lot of basketball so I don’t really know (haha) sorry!
Vlad: (Haha) It’s all good, but yeah we also happen to have players from Russia in America right now! For example, on the Washington Capitals, there are two players on the team, Stanislav and Evgeny. In Russia you don’t get much.
Interviewer: Really, so you don’t get spoiled like our players do in America?
Vlad:That’s the reason why they’re leaving actually. You don’t get paid much. You actually get paid very little for being a hockey player or a sports player in general. They play it as a “job” pretty much. So what ever an average job makes that’s what they get as well.
Interviewer: Wow! That’s a lot on the line right there. Like if you got hurt, like there goes your “average job,” what next?
Vlad: Yeah! It’s very sad, like I’m sure they’re working on that to fix that up, but that’s the reason why a lot of Russian players take America over Russia if they were to play that sport here.
Interviewer: Ok then, so let’s see…what about your family. Tell me about your family! Like how many kids are in your family?
Vlad: Uhhh right now there’s about 10 of us total.
Interviewer: (My eyes just popped out at this point) 10 total?! Are you the oldest?
Vlad: I’m the second oldest actually (haha)
Interviewer:Wow, so what about your mom or dad, how did they raise you in a way?
Vlad: So I guess I’ll start from my childhood up till now, I’ll be brief
Interviewer:No it’s all right, we have plenty of time!
Vlad: Ok as I was growing up, all of us, well the first five are all one year apart, actually the fourth and fifth are eleven months apart. So you can tell how busy my parents were. My dad, he was a butcher, he loved to buy animals, butch them, and then sell them in the market. My mom was a stay home mom..ummm…she took care of all of us. She took care of all of us while my dad worked on the farm. Ummm but growing up, my dad he really likes horses, so he would have to leave to go to Moscow to train horses.
Interviewer:What?!
Vlad: Yeah, if not in Moscow he would be raising horses somewhere else. He really likes horses!
Interviewer: You dad is a hard worker I can tell!
Vlad:Yeah he is! Umm when I was two or three, my brother, my older brother at the age of four, he burnt down or shed and some of our house. We had a huge house fire because he lit up a match and he didn’t know what to do with it. So yeah since he started a fire and we had a little barn umm pretty much we had extra propane tanks and extra gas supply for our tractors and that and ALL that went into flames! Like there were gas tanks blowing up and flaring around everywhere and my mom pregnant with the fifth kid.
Interviewer: (Awed by this I couldn’t help but squeal out) oh..my..gosh (as I bring my hand to my mouth)
Vlad:Yeah she only got hit in her belly! She went to go open the door to the house and this HUGE explosion flew at the door and she hit the floor, recovered from that and ran through the doors to grab our papers.
Interviewer: Holy!!! Oh my gosh your mom’s a champ! Why did your mom go inside the house?
Vlad:Yeah, after that my mom ran inside the house to grab the family papers right before…anyways she grabbed the major documents and brought them over to the neighbors house and called the fire departments came and they poured 10 tons of water until there was nothing they could do. Eventually the shed burned down and part of the house did. (At this point Vlad was getting into his personal life of his family and requested what was said after the burnt house incident to not be documented)
Interview: That is one hell of a story you got their Vlad!
Vlad: yeah well growing up, living in Russia, living in Kyrgysztan especially, it’s a bunch of poverty!
Interviewer: How sad, I did not know that!
Vlad: Yeah they really like to drink their vodka! They pretty much would sell everything to get them some vodka or some spirit drink. So yeah poverty was defiantly a big thing back then and it is still to this day.
Interviewer: All right then.. So growing up, who was stricter, your mom or your dad?
Vlad: My dad! He really..like I think it’s in his brain , he really likes to bring back some money and everything falls into place. And all that stuff that is supposed to be “falling into place” that’s what my mom has to do.
Interviewer:mmmhmmmmm
Vlad: So concerning with strictness, I would have to say both my mom and dad are both pretty strict , but my dad is more relaxed until shit hits the fan, then get’s pissed about it! Like my mom is more relaxed about it. She is VERY nice! However she is this way, the way she believes is her way or no way at all. She is not lenient at all about any of her stuff.
Interviewer: So literally it’s her way or the highway? (Haha)
Vlad: (Haha) well what she does is she sets the standards that will stand all the way through. Where is my dad he can be strict, and then he’ll stop, and then we can’t predict him and then if it’s wrong he just lays down his hand (slams his hand on the table)
Interviewer: All right then who would you say is more disciplinary in Kyrgyzstan?
Vlad: In Kyrgyzstan it’s a lot more different than in America. Like what I mean by that is we, the kids, get spanked by our parents in a disciplinary way. Our family was disciplinary by this implemented.
Interviewer: Dude, I got the belt bare buttcheeks and all!
Vlad: Yeah yeah yeah! Bear ass, bear back, whatever it came to!
Interviewer:You got bear back?!
Vlad: (Haha) Yeah! Where ever you could get hit pretty much.
Interviewer: Holy shit!
Vlad: (Haha) Yeah you know sometimes you run away and your dad is still swinging!
Interviewer: (Haha) Yeah I remember and all you hear is “Get back here! I’ll get you!” and all you can do is cry and scream NO!
Vlad: (Haha) Yeah my mom though, she was neat about it! She just laid us down and she would..my dad, he was a little unfair. There was times if we were wrong he would be like “All right get in your room I’m going to come spank you” and he would just do it until he would see us cry or until he felt bad for us. However he wouldn’t exceed over force or LITERALLY beat us up! We were kids and I think the thought of being spanked made it a lot worse than the actually moment!
Interviewer: Yeah I agree!
Vlad:Where as with my mom on the other hand she’s disciplinary herself and she would be like “All right I’ll give you five” and that’s it whether you’re crying or not crying that’s all she’ll give you. Where is my dad, there’s been many times where he’d be like “Get in your room I’ll get my belt” and there would be times I would be crying before he even hit me with the belt and he would give me one little one and let me go! So both my mom and dad are disciplinary, and Kyrgyzstan in general is very disciplinary as well. Like a pull on the ear or smack on the head it’s ok.
Interviewer: Here it’s not the same, like you touch a kid and you can get in a lot of trouble!
Vlad: Yeah I would have to say here there’s a lot of restrictions, like you could go to court and get as far as your children getting taken away from you.
Interviewer: Yeah that is true, I did not know as a child we couldn’t get hit, but man if I know that, it would have been a blessing in disguise! (Haha)
Vlad: (Haha) Yeah for sure!
Interviewer:What would you say is the role a brother in the family?
Vlad: Me from being the older brother, being the older kid, well I’ll tell what it’s like being from the young kid from the older kid ummm from my youth growing on up to my adulthood.
Interviewer: Ok then go right at it.
Vlad:Growing up there was five of us older kids and then there was a gap, like a five or six year gap before my mom had anymore children, and then there was another five children from that.
Interviewer:Sheesh!
Vlad: Yeah, my older brother is more of a computer geek. He loves sitting in his room watching movies usually all the time. My younger brothers and me would usually clean and help around the house and stuff, however they didn’t want to do much, she didn’t really want too. However, my mom developed a type of arthritis at a really young age where her immune system attacked her joints.
Interviewer: I’m sorry to hear that.
Vlad: Yeah she developed that at my age of seven or eight. So from about my youth to my late adolescence I pretty much did a lot of work! I helped take care of my mom every day, I would message her hands or her feet, I would take care of the children when she’s hurting, clean the floors; I pretty much did a lot to take away the pain from my mom.
Interviewer: Yeah that’s a good son right there!
Vlad: My brother’s wouldn’t do as much or they wouldn’t want to! Like my older brother, we would always call him the lazy guy cause he never really wanted to work. My brothers after me they did some work, but they didn’t really want to either so yeah. Me as a role model, I had to do a lot more than probably all of them, show them that we need to all work and stay focused.
Interviewer: There you go! Way to step it up as a leader! Well what about….let’s talk about a new topic since we’re running out of time! Tell me about the geography!
Vlad: The geography of Kyrgyzstan is VERY different than from here! It’s very very mountainy! Lot’s of mountains all over the place. Plus there’s a lot more sun so it’s always hot there!
Interviewer: Really?!
Vlad: Yeah, it’s usually in the 90s you know..
Interviewer: The entire year?!
Vlad: Yeah, well not all year! Like usually in the summer it’ll be around the 90s, but of course it’ll go down to the 60s in the winter.
Interviewer: So you guys do get winter like us?
Vlad: Yes, as a matter of fact we do get winter, but it’s not as extreme as it is down here. Like for example, Russia, Canada, and Minnesota, those are extreme temperatures, we have mild compared to that!
Interviewer:That’s got to be nice not living in an ice age!
Vlad: The one thing I love about Kyrgyzstan is it’s very beautiful! What I mean by that is there’s flowers growing on the mountain side, really really green! There’s the apples, the fruits that grow there, the apples, the peaches, watermelons, the melons, a lot of fruits. And the fruits usually very ripe because they get a lot of sun you know?
Interviewer: I didn’t even know about that at all, I will have to go visit this place! So you guys have mild winters, so I’m guessing it’s uncommon for people to come skiing or snowboarding up there.
Vlad: Yeah skiing and snowboarding is something you would want to do in Austria.
Interviewer:So what about transportation, what is transportation like?
Vlad: Transportation, they…well I’ll start off back in the 1990s because obviously it has evolved! Back in the 90s it was a lot of like, very little buses. Like pretty much what it was like in the 20s and 30s here in America! A lot of little buses crammed with people, donkeys, horses, umm, pretty much they would be strolling around the streets. A lot of people would be walking around in the streets too! A lot of the people back in the 1990s would do a lot of walking, like donkeys and horses, packed their buses and are used to drive around. Now of course people have course. Very little cars though, VERY poor cars! Still very bad there, but you know trains still go through there!
Interviewer: Do people still use donkeys to this day?!
Vlad: Yeah yeah yeah! They still uses their animals, donkeys, horses, yeah people still walk around too! (Haha)
Interviewer: (Haha) That’s awesome! So I feel like…no offense it’s like way back in the days, just riding your horse to school or something! Would just tie up the horse and go about your ways?!
Vlad: (Haha) None taken! No uh because you’re so poor, you would probably stroll up to school with your horse and then your dad would take it home because he needs it to do work at home or something, (Haha)
Interviewer: So what about holidays?! Do you celebrate Christmas and everything else here in America?
Vlad: Yes we defiantly celebrate Christmas by far! New Years is a huge holiday there as well! For Christmas, a lot of, well a lot of people where I’m from aren’t rich so like all these different presents of stuff for each child, it never happened. We never did that, we never got that, uh, however, the fundamentals like meeting up with the family on Christmas and singing, we always did that! We still do caroling a lot. So we go to people before, Christmas Eve, and we’ll go ahead and sing a song with all of our friends, for our friends.
Interviewer: That’s awesome
Vlad: Of course usually on Christmas day we would usually go to church and then we, yeah we would convert conversation with everybody, and then after that we would do a church party after usually! And then afterwards we would go out and celebrate Christmas you know?
Interviewer: There you go!
Vlad:Yeah and then for New Years people would get together with our friends and usually sing and have a good get together. For most Russians or Kyrgyzstan’s they would drink just like Americans or many other countries.
Interviewer: (Haha) Celebrating the new holiday!
Vlad: (Haha) Exactly!
Interviewer:So is there any holiday here in America that we celebrate that isn’t in Kyrgyzstan?
Vlad: Umm in Kyrgyzstan we have heard about Halloween, but do not celebrate it at all.
Interviewer: Oh wow, well I feel like America uses it as an excuse to get more food (haha)
Vlad: (Haha) yep! Another holiday that’s actually celebrated in Kyrgyzstan that’s celebrated in America is Valentine Day. The only thing is it’s on a different date. Here in America they have it on February 14th, we have it on March 8th. So one month to add, same reason why celebrate the holiday though.
Interviewer: That’s nifty! So Vlad do tell, do a lot of people in Kyrgyzstan get the opportunity to go to college?
Vlad: Umm college, for sure more than ever than before! Now because the Soviet Union broke off and people aren’t favored, umm although there are some favoring going on amongst the students and professors, people actually are getting their degrees and diplomas from what they have earned and not from favoritism. Because college is affordable, even though it is more affordable over here in the states, umm many more people are going to school, people are getting their degrees and going out with what they want to do. However, there is still to this day where teachers favor certain students and will fail other students just because they don’t like them or if the student does stupid things.
Interviewer: Oh my! So do the students have a saying in that?!
Vlad: For the most part NO! If you are hated by your teacher for example, she obviously have the right to do many things and in that case tell or fail you and you’re gonna not have much to say because she’s going to let the dean know that you are an effective bad student, you don’t have much to say.
Interviewer: So you really can’t screw off in school! So if you want to be the “class clown” you are sacrificing your grade.
Vlad: That for sure is true!Also if you try to be a smart ass, be a jack ass, or try and act out of the ordinary, or yeah being somebody the teacher just doesn’t like.
Interviewer: So does that lower the rating of screwing off in school in Kyrgyzstan?
Vlad: I would say it most defiantly does contribute to it! Another thing is for example, I know before, that you couldn’t get your diploma without giving your teach a gift!
Interviewer: What?!
Vlad: I know this was before, but I’m not a whole lot sure anymore, but I remember you couldn’t get your diploma unless you gave your teacher a gift. Favorites right?! They’re still there!! So if you bring your teacher a big box chocolate, as a matter of fact CHOCOLATE and TEA!! They are huge on that! Especially to the women, you are on their better list and she will do what she can to make sure you get a good grade in that class.
Interviewer:Really?!
Vlad:REGARDLESS of what you know, they will make sure you pass that test!
Interviewer:So let’s say you fail the test will she just give you an A?!
Vlad:She’ll help you get an A, but it’ll be through a lot of extra credit!
Interviewer:Oh ok then!
Vlad:Yeah because honestly there will be a lot of times where people will walk through school and not know much!
Interviewer: So kissing ass works over there? (haha)
Vlad: (Haha) exactly! Like here there’s NO WAY you will ever see that!
Interviewer: So back in Kyrgyzstan you would see a lot of people with “brown noses” coming out of college? (Haha)
Vlad: (Haha) Pretty much!
Interviewer: So what’s it like over here knowing you can’t brown nose your way through this one? (Haha)
Vlad: (Hahaha) at this point you get used to it of course, I mean I got used to it! I mean in my family since we grew up like that there were times where I would try to suck up! There’s actually this one time where I got pulled over in the States, and I asked the cops if he wanted to we could bargain and I could give him some money if he let me go…and he just yelled at me “Sir I am going to arrest you if you ask me that one more time!!”
Interviewer: (Haha)
Vlad: (Haha) yeah he told me never to ask a cop a question like that here in the states!
Interviewer: (Haha) Yeah I agree!
Vlad: Well Johny I must be heading out here soon! I got to catch the bus my brother! I’m sorry about that!
Interviewer: No it’s perfectly fine!!! I just want to thank you very much for your time and consideration Vlad! It means a lot that you came out here to talk about your life and where you come from! I had a great time getting to know you even more! Is there any questions you have for me out of curiousity?!
Vlad: Yes actually, what class is this for?!
Interviewer: This is for my English 191 class.
Vlad:Really?!? Why do you have to do this outta curiousity?..
Interviewer:Well the professor has his students broaden their horizon and their knowledge on the world around them. It’s a fun project and it defianetly has given me a different perspective of what the world is like! You know I kind of just looked at the world with just one opinion or angle, and that was “America’s, but now I’m starting to see a broader range of angles to look from and see a whole other side of the story!
Vlad: Wow! That’s awesome, well good luck typing up this conversation Johny! (Haha) I’ll see ya next week my friend!
Interviewer: (Haha) I’m gonna need all the luck I can get, well at least it’s the last interview, so that should be motivation itself right there! Thank you again Vlad for everything, have a great weekend!
Vlad: I am from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. It is the capital city of Kyrgystan! It is a small country West of China and it used to be part of the Soviet Union.
Interviewer: All right, so you liking the United States so far?
Vlad: I like the United States, I think it’s a good place to be.
Interviewer: That’s good to hear! So where are your parents from originally?
Vlad: They are also born and raise in Kyrgyzstan! They were born and raised their most of their life.
Interviewer: That’s great to hear! So do tell, what’s the school system like up in Kyrgyzstan?
Vlad: In Kyrgyzstan, I’ll tell you a little bit about before how it was in the Soviet Union part and what it is now. Although a lot has changed religiously! Back in the Soviet Union, they segregated the people that were Christian. They didn’t get certain grades although they could. I know for example, I know this lady from my church, she is a pediatrician. She went to school everything completed and the last exam she had to take they didn’t let her take because they asked her “ Either there is no God, or we’re not going to give you the test to become a pediatrician.”
Interviewer:What?!
Vlad: The president, or the leader back then said I will take till the last person, I will be putting them up on the news, tv, whatever, in front of everyone to view to see that they are Christian and to show that they are for their one God. So Russia in general, the Soviet Union in general, which Kyrgyzstan was a part of, they were totally against…they were Anti-Christ, they were trying to put everything, all their resources together to see if there was a God or not. However now these days, it’s no longer there, but you know it’s still in the back of their heads.
Interviewer: Wow, that’s a little (all of the sudden Vlad added on more to his previous comment)
Vlad: In the class it’s still probably the same. The kids are a lot more respectful in Kyrgyzstan. Like over here a kid can say something to the teacher, backtalk to the teacher, and not get penalized for it, where as there..the teacher will whoop you up (haha)
Interviewer: (Haha) that’s so?
Vlad: Yeah like the kids have to raise their arm like this (uses arm gesture to lift his arm up) in a way in front of the teacher respectively before they are allowed to even say anything.
Interviewer: So would you say the students in the system are a lot more dedicated to school work than like…(stumbling to complete my sentence)
Vlad: I would say they are!
Interviewer:They are?
Vlad:Yeah, I would say they get..I know a lot of the kids have to learn poems, like LEARN them, no reading them! And rehearse them in front of the class. Things like that, just a little different. Another thing that’s different in the Russian school system or Kyrgyzstan in that matter is like they don’t get grades “A, B, and C,” rather it’s one through five, five being the best and one being the worst.
Interviewer: Wow, so what’s not passing?
Vlad:Well two isn’t passing, and ones are really rare, they hardly happen. Yeah so that’s…anyway there’s that part. Anyways although now not as much before…there’s still this uhh they still play their favorites, a lot!
Interviewer: Wait, what?
Vlad:Like maybe not as much as before, but teachers play favorite. Like pretty much you could suck up to the teacher and he could help you through.
Interviewer:Ok then.
Vlad:Like before, like much more you have more people going to schools. But I would like to say that was back in the you got the different government systems, like back in the Soviet Union…like the Soviet Union happened 10, 12, no wow! About 20 years ago so about, umm a lot of the stuff is still there. You go some of the older people that used to work for the Soviet Union and still have that same mind set you know?
Interviewer:All right! So I did a little research on this about something people having to enlist in the army. Tell me, what do you have to say about that? Like is this true or…what? (Haha)
Vlad:Uhh, the Army…like I’m going to go back to the Soviet Union because it wasn’t that too long ago. When the Soviet Union, as of now, the people are to serve, like mandatory serve up to three years I think, at least three years.
Interviewer: How do they do the process of recruitment?
Vlad: They are pretty much taken outside of their house, unless they have some certain medical conditions or severe religious conditions that just totally..AGAIN back in the day the Soviet Union didn’t care much about your religion, so they just made you do it. And just because of the odds of being a Christian they said, “We are not putting a gun in your hands,”
Interviewer:So Christians weren’t allowed in the army?
Vlad: They were, they were made to still. However, those Christians weren’t allowed to take guns. They were of course segregated. They were…it was harsh, you know they made them do the worst jobs, clean the tables, scrub the floors. None the less, the first freshman army batch that came in, they are like belittled by the third year or last year army guys. Even the third year or the last year army guys do a beating.
Interviewer:What?!
Vlad:Yeah it’s really sad, it’s ridiculous the way it sounds, but they do like a “Fresh meat beat” as they like to call it.
Interviewer: So you beat up on the new guys?
Vlad: They beat up the new guys to show them what’s up. They show them who’s boss. Like you come up to them and they do is the smack them. Like no joke, like a full swing on the back of the neck or like
Interviewer: (Astounded by this shocking news) Wait what?!
Vlad: Yeah no joke!
Interviewer:Holy shit!
Vlad:Yeah!
Interviewer:So has anyone ever died from these beatings?
Vlad: A lot of people bones break from these fights obviously. A lot of them get into a lot of fights to of course…like I know there’s fights in the American army, but this is like a GROUP of people, a group of individuals of the third year. Like they just go on a full smack down on the little guys for a few reasons. 1. To let them know what’s up. Like we are what runs the show kind of thing. Another reason is to tell them that this is not a joke being here! Kind of like the tough message across.
Interviewer: Yeah! Oh so it’s a must do in order to set the tone for the rest of your years
Vlad: Yeah, pretty much be like “Don’t start anything with the older guys, that’s how it is in the army.”
Interviewer: All right so let’s say if you don’t go to the army or you choose not to, do you know what happens?
Vlad: There’s a lot of people that really don’t have a choice and not a whole lot of people stay home. I have a friend, he’s actually my uncle now, uhh he didn’t go to the army because he had some sort of medical condition or he was leaving to America at the time.
Interviewer:Mmmhmmm
Vlad: So yeah if you didn’t get to go to the army you don’t have a choice, you pretty much lucked out.
Interviewer: Oh shit! So that’s got to be a really big relief! So let me ask ya, what’s the food like in Kyrgyzstan?
Vlad: In Kyrgyzstan there’s a lot of food that they really like, they really don’t like a lot of those fatty stuff that the American’s like, like the hamburgers or the greesy burgers, they really don’t like that stuff. They have some of the traditional entrées, for example plough. Plough is a bunch of rice, kind of like a Chinese stir-fry, and they really like to make it in a huge bone called the Kazong. They like to make it under a campfire so it has the smoke smell kind of to it. So meat and rice, lots of onions and cucumbers, onions and carrots…yeah. What they do is they cook the meat and they poured uncooked rice in it, then they cover the top and put the fire on low. They then cook it for 30 to 40 mins and then you get this Plough, it actually tastes very wonderful.
Interviewer: That sounds very appetizing!
Vlad: Yeah another dish they like to do is called Monte. Monte are like dumplings, they look like dumplings! They have dough that covers the inside which is like meat, with onions. The difference with these compared to dumplings is you don’t just throw them into the water and just cook them and boil them, you have this grit pan with little holes on the bottom, so you have the Monte in those. The bottom of that is a heated up bowl. You then “pile up the dishes” so to speak so that the evaporation of the water cooks the dumplings. So they’re not in the water, but they’re sitting on a plate with holes right above it so that the evaporation of the water cooks them.
Interviewer: Sheesh!! Sounds so good!
Vlad:Yeah that stuff is very tasty actually! Umm, a lot of their foods are mixed with the Russian food. Like Borsch! A guy told me that Borsch is kind of like the “Spit and go kind of soup.” So like you throw whatever you could find into this soup, like meat, onions, cabbage, tomatoes, potatoes, so yeah throw all this together kind of like a “spit” and it’s actually very tasty!
Interviewer:Now when you said “spit” what do you mean by that?
Vlad: What they guy meant by that is it’s so easy to make.
Interviewer:So you can put what ever you want in it?
Vlad:For the most part. All you got to make sure you have is your meat cooked first, and then go ahead and toss all the veggies that you like in it and go ahead and wait for the veggies to get soft and go ahead there’s your soup. That’s like famous soup in Russia!
Interviewer:What’s it called again?
Vlad: It’s called Borsch!
Interviewer:I’m going to have to try it out one of these days!
Vlad: A drink, you know I’m going to try to get an entire entrée for ya..umm a drink that the Russian’s really like aside from Vodka is called Kvas. Kvas is like a..there’s fermented one for alcohol and there’s a nonfermented one…it kind of tastes like alcohol beer…alcoholic beer, and there’s one that’s not alcoholic beer, that’s what they like to drink. That’s what they like to drink, nonalcoholic beer.
Interviewer: So it tastes like beer, but it’s not beer.
Vlad: Exactly! They ferment, I can’t remember what it is exactly, but I think it’s wheat or..yeah wheat, but they don’t wait till it’s really really strong and alcoholic, right before the alcoholic part, right before the alcohol stage they stop it. I actually really like it, I drink it many many times!
Interviewer: Nice!
Vlad: Yeah, so a good salad that Kyrgyzstan loves is Ale via. Al via is a salad with cucumber, ballonet, or our American ballonet, but just with a different name with it, some ham and salad. So cucumbers, ham, ummm (eyes rolling to the back of his head as he’s thinking)
Interviewer: (As Vlad was thinking of the salad I quickly asked) So is this all on one salad?
Vlad:Yeah! So they chop it up into really define, diced up pieces. So potatoes, ham, cucumbers, green peas, some eggs, some may, and they with eat it with some pepper and salt. They REALLY LOVE that salad!!
Interviewer: Damn! Sounds amazing! I don’t mean to get off quick topic right now, but I have a quick question that I forgot to ask you about the army!
Vlad:Mmmhmm?
Interviewer:Do they enlist women in there as well or is it predominant by guys?
Vlad:Women, it’s kind of like the American army, before women weren’t as much in, so back then it was pretty much all men, but now I think women are more and more joining it, but still it’s predominant by men.
Interviewer:So do women have a choice whether they want to go or not, or do they not have a say in it?
Vlad:Umm, women had a choice to go before, like back in the Soviet Union women never attended cause like…(Vlad right then gave me the “you know” face)..yeah, if you were a girl they didn’t even do anything to you. Even now they don’t even do anything to ya, so now women have a choice whether they want to go in or not, but they don’t have to. Russia and the Kyrgyzstan army are predominant by all men.
Interviewer: Ok then!
Vlad: Like America now, even though our women get underpaid for that same job, in Russia it’s about the same thing.
Interviewer: Same thing you say?
Vlad: Yeah but Obama wants to change that, but it’s still gonna be in Russia there for like…for like forever (haha) Unless somebody comes in like Obama you know?
Interviewer:Yeah I know what you mean! Well let’s talk about sports, like what’s big…what’s like our “American NFL”?
Vlad: American NFL would probably be either soccer or hockey! They only have two I want to say…from the two I would have to say hockey is the highest one. They really like hockey up there! I’m sure you have heard of the movie “Miracle”
Interviewer:Yep!
Vlad: Yeah well that was based off of Kyrgyzstan.
Interviewer: Kyrgyzstan? I thought it was based of the United States!
Vlad: Nope! The movie was based upon umm..Russia has been winning the cup for 20 years in row and American team wanted to beat them because Russia has been winning the cup for so long and the miracle behind the story is the young American teams won and brought the cup back here.
Interviewer:Oh!
Vlad: But otherwise soccer! You know just like an American NFL player, a lot of the kids want to grow up and become some professional player. Like in Russia, soccer I called football…but by far hockey is the most popular.
Interviewer: Ok then!
Vlad: Like said between hockey and soccer, hockey predominates for sure! However, basketball is on the rise!
Interviewer: No kidding!
Vlad: Yeah! Actually a lot of the basketball players are starting to move to America. We have two Russian guys on our Timberwolves team right?
Interviewer: I don’t watch a whole lot of basketball so I don’t really know (haha) sorry!
Vlad: (Haha) It’s all good, but yeah we also happen to have players from Russia in America right now! For example, on the Washington Capitals, there are two players on the team, Stanislav and Evgeny. In Russia you don’t get much.
Interviewer: Really, so you don’t get spoiled like our players do in America?
Vlad:That’s the reason why they’re leaving actually. You don’t get paid much. You actually get paid very little for being a hockey player or a sports player in general. They play it as a “job” pretty much. So what ever an average job makes that’s what they get as well.
Interviewer: Wow! That’s a lot on the line right there. Like if you got hurt, like there goes your “average job,” what next?
Vlad: Yeah! It’s very sad, like I’m sure they’re working on that to fix that up, but that’s the reason why a lot of Russian players take America over Russia if they were to play that sport here.
Interviewer: Ok then, so let’s see…what about your family. Tell me about your family! Like how many kids are in your family?
Vlad: Uhhh right now there’s about 10 of us total.
Interviewer: (My eyes just popped out at this point) 10 total?! Are you the oldest?
Vlad: I’m the second oldest actually (haha)
Interviewer:Wow, so what about your mom or dad, how did they raise you in a way?
Vlad: So I guess I’ll start from my childhood up till now, I’ll be brief
Interviewer:No it’s all right, we have plenty of time!
Vlad: Ok as I was growing up, all of us, well the first five are all one year apart, actually the fourth and fifth are eleven months apart. So you can tell how busy my parents were. My dad, he was a butcher, he loved to buy animals, butch them, and then sell them in the market. My mom was a stay home mom..ummm…she took care of all of us. She took care of all of us while my dad worked on the farm. Ummm but growing up, my dad he really likes horses, so he would have to leave to go to Moscow to train horses.
Interviewer:What?!
Vlad: Yeah, if not in Moscow he would be raising horses somewhere else. He really likes horses!
Interviewer: You dad is a hard worker I can tell!
Vlad:Yeah he is! Umm when I was two or three, my brother, my older brother at the age of four, he burnt down or shed and some of our house. We had a huge house fire because he lit up a match and he didn’t know what to do with it. So yeah since he started a fire and we had a little barn umm pretty much we had extra propane tanks and extra gas supply for our tractors and that and ALL that went into flames! Like there were gas tanks blowing up and flaring around everywhere and my mom pregnant with the fifth kid.
Interviewer: (Awed by this I couldn’t help but squeal out) oh..my..gosh (as I bring my hand to my mouth)
Vlad:Yeah she only got hit in her belly! She went to go open the door to the house and this HUGE explosion flew at the door and she hit the floor, recovered from that and ran through the doors to grab our papers.
Interviewer: Holy!!! Oh my gosh your mom’s a champ! Why did your mom go inside the house?
Vlad:Yeah, after that my mom ran inside the house to grab the family papers right before…anyways she grabbed the major documents and brought them over to the neighbors house and called the fire departments came and they poured 10 tons of water until there was nothing they could do. Eventually the shed burned down and part of the house did. (At this point Vlad was getting into his personal life of his family and requested what was said after the burnt house incident to not be documented)
Interview: That is one hell of a story you got their Vlad!
Vlad: yeah well growing up, living in Russia, living in Kyrgysztan especially, it’s a bunch of poverty!
Interviewer: How sad, I did not know that!
Vlad: Yeah they really like to drink their vodka! They pretty much would sell everything to get them some vodka or some spirit drink. So yeah poverty was defiantly a big thing back then and it is still to this day.
Interviewer: All right then.. So growing up, who was stricter, your mom or your dad?
Vlad: My dad! He really..like I think it’s in his brain , he really likes to bring back some money and everything falls into place. And all that stuff that is supposed to be “falling into place” that’s what my mom has to do.
Interviewer:mmmhmmmmm
Vlad: So concerning with strictness, I would have to say both my mom and dad are both pretty strict , but my dad is more relaxed until shit hits the fan, then get’s pissed about it! Like my mom is more relaxed about it. She is VERY nice! However she is this way, the way she believes is her way or no way at all. She is not lenient at all about any of her stuff.
Interviewer: So literally it’s her way or the highway? (Haha)
Vlad: (Haha) well what she does is she sets the standards that will stand all the way through. Where is my dad he can be strict, and then he’ll stop, and then we can’t predict him and then if it’s wrong he just lays down his hand (slams his hand on the table)
Interviewer: All right then who would you say is more disciplinary in Kyrgyzstan?
Vlad: In Kyrgyzstan it’s a lot more different than in America. Like what I mean by that is we, the kids, get spanked by our parents in a disciplinary way. Our family was disciplinary by this implemented.
Interviewer: Dude, I got the belt bare buttcheeks and all!
Vlad: Yeah yeah yeah! Bear ass, bear back, whatever it came to!
Interviewer:You got bear back?!
Vlad: (Haha) Yeah! Where ever you could get hit pretty much.
Interviewer: Holy shit!
Vlad: (Haha) Yeah you know sometimes you run away and your dad is still swinging!
Interviewer: (Haha) Yeah I remember and all you hear is “Get back here! I’ll get you!” and all you can do is cry and scream NO!
Vlad: (Haha) Yeah my mom though, she was neat about it! She just laid us down and she would..my dad, he was a little unfair. There was times if we were wrong he would be like “All right get in your room I’m going to come spank you” and he would just do it until he would see us cry or until he felt bad for us. However he wouldn’t exceed over force or LITERALLY beat us up! We were kids and I think the thought of being spanked made it a lot worse than the actually moment!
Interviewer: Yeah I agree!
Vlad:Where as with my mom on the other hand she’s disciplinary herself and she would be like “All right I’ll give you five” and that’s it whether you’re crying or not crying that’s all she’ll give you. Where is my dad, there’s been many times where he’d be like “Get in your room I’ll get my belt” and there would be times I would be crying before he even hit me with the belt and he would give me one little one and let me go! So both my mom and dad are disciplinary, and Kyrgyzstan in general is very disciplinary as well. Like a pull on the ear or smack on the head it’s ok.
Interviewer: Here it’s not the same, like you touch a kid and you can get in a lot of trouble!
Vlad: Yeah I would have to say here there’s a lot of restrictions, like you could go to court and get as far as your children getting taken away from you.
Interviewer: Yeah that is true, I did not know as a child we couldn’t get hit, but man if I know that, it would have been a blessing in disguise! (Haha)
Vlad: (Haha) Yeah for sure!
Interviewer:What would you say is the role a brother in the family?
Vlad: Me from being the older brother, being the older kid, well I’ll tell what it’s like being from the young kid from the older kid ummm from my youth growing on up to my adulthood.
Interviewer: Ok then go right at it.
Vlad:Growing up there was five of us older kids and then there was a gap, like a five or six year gap before my mom had anymore children, and then there was another five children from that.
Interviewer:Sheesh!
Vlad: Yeah, my older brother is more of a computer geek. He loves sitting in his room watching movies usually all the time. My younger brothers and me would usually clean and help around the house and stuff, however they didn’t want to do much, she didn’t really want too. However, my mom developed a type of arthritis at a really young age where her immune system attacked her joints.
Interviewer: I’m sorry to hear that.
Vlad: Yeah she developed that at my age of seven or eight. So from about my youth to my late adolescence I pretty much did a lot of work! I helped take care of my mom every day, I would message her hands or her feet, I would take care of the children when she’s hurting, clean the floors; I pretty much did a lot to take away the pain from my mom.
Interviewer: Yeah that’s a good son right there!
Vlad: My brother’s wouldn’t do as much or they wouldn’t want to! Like my older brother, we would always call him the lazy guy cause he never really wanted to work. My brothers after me they did some work, but they didn’t really want to either so yeah. Me as a role model, I had to do a lot more than probably all of them, show them that we need to all work and stay focused.
Interviewer: There you go! Way to step it up as a leader! Well what about….let’s talk about a new topic since we’re running out of time! Tell me about the geography!
Vlad: The geography of Kyrgyzstan is VERY different than from here! It’s very very mountainy! Lot’s of mountains all over the place. Plus there’s a lot more sun so it’s always hot there!
Interviewer: Really?!
Vlad: Yeah, it’s usually in the 90s you know..
Interviewer: The entire year?!
Vlad: Yeah, well not all year! Like usually in the summer it’ll be around the 90s, but of course it’ll go down to the 60s in the winter.
Interviewer: So you guys do get winter like us?
Vlad: Yes, as a matter of fact we do get winter, but it’s not as extreme as it is down here. Like for example, Russia, Canada, and Minnesota, those are extreme temperatures, we have mild compared to that!
Interviewer:That’s got to be nice not living in an ice age!
Vlad: The one thing I love about Kyrgyzstan is it’s very beautiful! What I mean by that is there’s flowers growing on the mountain side, really really green! There’s the apples, the fruits that grow there, the apples, the peaches, watermelons, the melons, a lot of fruits. And the fruits usually very ripe because they get a lot of sun you know?
Interviewer: I didn’t even know about that at all, I will have to go visit this place! So you guys have mild winters, so I’m guessing it’s uncommon for people to come skiing or snowboarding up there.
Vlad: Yeah skiing and snowboarding is something you would want to do in Austria.
Interviewer:So what about transportation, what is transportation like?
Vlad: Transportation, they…well I’ll start off back in the 1990s because obviously it has evolved! Back in the 90s it was a lot of like, very little buses. Like pretty much what it was like in the 20s and 30s here in America! A lot of little buses crammed with people, donkeys, horses, umm, pretty much they would be strolling around the streets. A lot of people would be walking around in the streets too! A lot of the people back in the 1990s would do a lot of walking, like donkeys and horses, packed their buses and are used to drive around. Now of course people have course. Very little cars though, VERY poor cars! Still very bad there, but you know trains still go through there!
Interviewer: Do people still use donkeys to this day?!
Vlad: Yeah yeah yeah! They still uses their animals, donkeys, horses, yeah people still walk around too! (Haha)
Interviewer: (Haha) That’s awesome! So I feel like…no offense it’s like way back in the days, just riding your horse to school or something! Would just tie up the horse and go about your ways?!
Vlad: (Haha) None taken! No uh because you’re so poor, you would probably stroll up to school with your horse and then your dad would take it home because he needs it to do work at home or something, (Haha)
Interviewer: So what about holidays?! Do you celebrate Christmas and everything else here in America?
Vlad: Yes we defiantly celebrate Christmas by far! New Years is a huge holiday there as well! For Christmas, a lot of, well a lot of people where I’m from aren’t rich so like all these different presents of stuff for each child, it never happened. We never did that, we never got that, uh, however, the fundamentals like meeting up with the family on Christmas and singing, we always did that! We still do caroling a lot. So we go to people before, Christmas Eve, and we’ll go ahead and sing a song with all of our friends, for our friends.
Interviewer: That’s awesome
Vlad: Of course usually on Christmas day we would usually go to church and then we, yeah we would convert conversation with everybody, and then after that we would do a church party after usually! And then afterwards we would go out and celebrate Christmas you know?
Interviewer: There you go!
Vlad:Yeah and then for New Years people would get together with our friends and usually sing and have a good get together. For most Russians or Kyrgyzstan’s they would drink just like Americans or many other countries.
Interviewer: (Haha) Celebrating the new holiday!
Vlad: (Haha) Exactly!
Interviewer:So is there any holiday here in America that we celebrate that isn’t in Kyrgyzstan?
Vlad: Umm in Kyrgyzstan we have heard about Halloween, but do not celebrate it at all.
Interviewer: Oh wow, well I feel like America uses it as an excuse to get more food (haha)
Vlad: (Haha) yep! Another holiday that’s actually celebrated in Kyrgyzstan that’s celebrated in America is Valentine Day. The only thing is it’s on a different date. Here in America they have it on February 14th, we have it on March 8th. So one month to add, same reason why celebrate the holiday though.
Interviewer: That’s nifty! So Vlad do tell, do a lot of people in Kyrgyzstan get the opportunity to go to college?
Vlad: Umm college, for sure more than ever than before! Now because the Soviet Union broke off and people aren’t favored, umm although there are some favoring going on amongst the students and professors, people actually are getting their degrees and diplomas from what they have earned and not from favoritism. Because college is affordable, even though it is more affordable over here in the states, umm many more people are going to school, people are getting their degrees and going out with what they want to do. However, there is still to this day where teachers favor certain students and will fail other students just because they don’t like them or if the student does stupid things.
Interviewer: Oh my! So do the students have a saying in that?!
Vlad: For the most part NO! If you are hated by your teacher for example, she obviously have the right to do many things and in that case tell or fail you and you’re gonna not have much to say because she’s going to let the dean know that you are an effective bad student, you don’t have much to say.
Interviewer: So you really can’t screw off in school! So if you want to be the “class clown” you are sacrificing your grade.
Vlad: That for sure is true!Also if you try to be a smart ass, be a jack ass, or try and act out of the ordinary, or yeah being somebody the teacher just doesn’t like.
Interviewer: So does that lower the rating of screwing off in school in Kyrgyzstan?
Vlad: I would say it most defiantly does contribute to it! Another thing is for example, I know before, that you couldn’t get your diploma without giving your teach a gift!
Interviewer: What?!
Vlad: I know this was before, but I’m not a whole lot sure anymore, but I remember you couldn’t get your diploma unless you gave your teacher a gift. Favorites right?! They’re still there!! So if you bring your teacher a big box chocolate, as a matter of fact CHOCOLATE and TEA!! They are huge on that! Especially to the women, you are on their better list and she will do what she can to make sure you get a good grade in that class.
Interviewer:Really?!
Vlad:REGARDLESS of what you know, they will make sure you pass that test!
Interviewer:So let’s say you fail the test will she just give you an A?!
Vlad:She’ll help you get an A, but it’ll be through a lot of extra credit!
Interviewer:Oh ok then!
Vlad:Yeah because honestly there will be a lot of times where people will walk through school and not know much!
Interviewer: So kissing ass works over there? (haha)
Vlad: (Haha) exactly! Like here there’s NO WAY you will ever see that!
Interviewer: So back in Kyrgyzstan you would see a lot of people with “brown noses” coming out of college? (Haha)
Vlad: (Haha) Pretty much!
Interviewer: So what’s it like over here knowing you can’t brown nose your way through this one? (Haha)
Vlad: (Hahaha) at this point you get used to it of course, I mean I got used to it! I mean in my family since we grew up like that there were times where I would try to suck up! There’s actually this one time where I got pulled over in the States, and I asked the cops if he wanted to we could bargain and I could give him some money if he let me go…and he just yelled at me “Sir I am going to arrest you if you ask me that one more time!!”
Interviewer: (Haha)
Vlad: (Haha) yeah he told me never to ask a cop a question like that here in the states!
Interviewer: (Haha) Yeah I agree!
Vlad: Well Johny I must be heading out here soon! I got to catch the bus my brother! I’m sorry about that!
Interviewer: No it’s perfectly fine!!! I just want to thank you very much for your time and consideration Vlad! It means a lot that you came out here to talk about your life and where you come from! I had a great time getting to know you even more! Is there any questions you have for me out of curiousity?!
Vlad: Yes actually, what class is this for?!
Interviewer: This is for my English 191 class.
Vlad:Really?!? Why do you have to do this outta curiousity?..
Interviewer:Well the professor has his students broaden their horizon and their knowledge on the world around them. It’s a fun project and it defianetly has given me a different perspective of what the world is like! You know I kind of just looked at the world with just one opinion or angle, and that was “America’s, but now I’m starting to see a broader range of angles to look from and see a whole other side of the story!
Vlad: Wow! That’s awesome, well good luck typing up this conversation Johny! (Haha) I’ll see ya next week my friend!
Interviewer: (Haha) I’m gonna need all the luck I can get, well at least it’s the last interview, so that should be motivation itself right there! Thank you again Vlad for everything, have a great weekend!
(We shook each other’s hands and Vlad left the
study room while I stayed back and started typing up the conversation)
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