~Changes to Plans~

Привет, русский клуб!

Movie Night:
Plans have changed and we wont be having it at the campus. We'll have it this thursday at my place. Email me for directions or message me on facebook. :) It'll be at 8pm, we'll have Russian tea and food! The more the merrier - so just let me know if you can make it and if you're bringing anyone. We tried to make sure it was hopefully a day that would work for everyone.
THURSDAY. 8PM. APRIL 12TH

Taking Donations for Maria's Children:
Abby, Tyler, and I will be at a booth everyday this week from 11am to 2pm in the Memorial Union to take donations for Maria's Children (Дети Марии) Come by, hang out, donate art supplies, diapers, and clothes! 
Assuming I'm able to get out of Jury duty tomorrow, I'll be there - but who knows how long I might be at the courthouse. Ugh.


Ok, see you later!! 
До связи!
-Клара

Conversational Topics

Sorry there is not that much of a post this week (thesis is taking my time, and I've been sleeping - alot more than usual - which is annoying me!! lol, BUT ANYWAY -

We meet tonight as usual at 8pm at the Inner Bean. We'll discuss our movie night, schedule time to set up a booth in the memorial union for donations to Maria's children next week, and we'll practice some basic conversational phrases!

I look forward to seeing you there!

follow the links for some ideas
saying hi and bye

common phrases

common expressions and some fun cultural comparisons
(I must say - I do mean "lets do lunch." you can expect an invitation if I ever say this to you. Also, "how are you?" will elicit an honest answer (more or less anyway. LOL)

ok, apologies for the lack of actual Cyrillic writing in any of this - I have a lot of work to do and must get back to it.

See you all tonight!!!

EVENTS!

Привет, Русский клуб!

Above, you see the poster for our first ever movie night! We'll add the exact room number monday, under "at the Towers" and these 11 x 17 brightly colored posters will go out all over campus!

Ok, bear with me, I'm gonna go fast now:

Here is all we talked about today and what we're going to be doing this semester!

• We're collecting donations to send to Дети Марии (Maria's Children) in Moscow. We'll have a box for collecting art supplies, clothing, and diapers in the CSI and the Earl Center starting next week and going on until the end of April.

• We'll be setting up jars (I'm thinking in the CSI, the library, anywhere that will take them) to take monetary donations to help offset the cost of shipping (Which will be alot, so lets aim high!) Also with this goal in mind, we'll set up a table at the Memorial Union to accept both donations and cash. This will be in mid April through the beginning of May. Another way we will raise money will be with a BAKE SALE! Yummy Russian sweets (Guys - the recipes I have are очень вкусный (delicious) and Abby has offered to bake them! The bake sale will take place during dead week before finals, and we'll set up in front of Plumb Hall and the Library.

• The CSI grand-opening extravaganza will be Apr 25, and all RSOs are being called upon to provide a gift basket to be raffled off to any student in attendance at the grand opening (which has a wizard of Oz theme btw) Abby and I will make the basket, as we're going to Tulsa on the 15th, and can go to our old favorite source for Russian treats: EuroMart. Come by the CSI Apr 25 for some fun!

• There will be a time capsule going in at the new CSI. All RSOs are invited to put something in it! The stipulations are that it must be on an 8x11 paper, as there are so many RSOs on campus. We'll be typing up a little something about why we started the club, and add a photo of the WHOLE GROUP :) as well as all our signatures as founding members. Круто, да? (cool, yeah?) This will need to be turned in no later than May 4. I'll draft something up and we can all look it over, as well as figure out a good time after the movie night to get together and take a photo!

• Wednesday April 11, 5:30 pm, ASG will officially take a vote on our club. Abby and Tyler as well as myself will be representing. 

Ok, thats all for this semester! We're really getting started with a bang I think! Before the end of this semester we'll look at scheduling movie nights for the fall as well as planning a lecture on cultural signifiance and seeing what all we can do in the various annual campus events taking place in the fall semester (Particularly recruitment at Hornet Connection!)

Next week, we'll have a little bit of planning, but mostly conversational practice! УРА!! (hurrah!!) watch for your email and tag on facebook, as I'll post up some handy conversational phrases here by Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.

See you then! 

До связи!

-Клара

Lets do something good!

Abby and I were talking of things we can do as a club, and one great thing we thought of would be service. So, for our first act of service, we're thinking:

Maria's Children aka Дети Мари: A Moscow-based arts studio for children in state custody

http://www.mariaschildren.ru/
 -click on English to the right to translate the page-

Our studio is a place where boys and girls from state boarding schools come to make art. They are all very different from one another, but there is one thing that unites them: they are children who have been unlucky in life - from the very beginning and due to circumstances beyond their control. They are orphans. Some of these children belong to the group now put into the general category of “social orphans,” that is children whose parents are in fact alive, but have relinquished their parental rights or had them revoked. At seven years of age, children leave their baby house to enter an orphanage school, and if they cannot read or write - or if they speak poorly, as often happens - they are diagnosed as “debil”. From that point, their path is set: special school, technical high school, unskilled work, a room in a communal apartment, and the stigma of being “underdeveloped”.

The number of orphans in Russia is currently approaching one million. Lacking life experience in a normal family, and faced with modern demands of education and psychological stability, the majority of these children are unable to fully integrate themselves into society. Their own children end up in baby houses, and the cycle continues.

Although there is a lot missing from the lives of orphans living in state homes, these children nevertheless become accustomed to state support, which often leads them to develop a possesive approach to society. We are trying to change this situation.

Maria's Children uses arts therapy to help in the social, psychological and intellectual rehabilitation of orphans and special-needs children. In this way, we seek to enable them to become fully-valued members of society, sharing the same rights as everyone else. We would like there to be the greatest number possible of happy and successful people in our society. 
- Just a little from the 'about' page -


Here is the list of donations they take:
- Art materials (paint, brushes, paper, canvases, pencils, notebooks, fabric, acrylic paint for our wall murals, felt, supplemental tools for lessons [sewing machines, instruments, etc.] )

- Second-hand children's clothes still in good condition, --coats, boots/shoes included! --

- DIAPERS!!! That’s one thing that’s always in short supply, also, hygienic products (detergent, soap, shampoo)

- Second-hand furniture and home appliances for graduates of the boarding schools starting independent life,

- Second-hand computers and office equipment.

Now, I'm not sure if we can get together furniture or computers to ship, but we can certainly send art supplies, clothes, and diapers!!

What do you guys think? We can set up a table at the Memorial Union taking monetary donations and supplies as well as set up a box in the CSI to accept art supplies, clothes, and diapers :) 

Ok, please let me know your thoughts by commenting here, facebook, or email :)

Have a great spring break, See you all at the Inner Bean on the 29th at 8pm!

До свази!

- Клара

New News!

Привет все в Русский клуб!!! (Hi, all in Russian Club!)

We have a movie night in the planning - you should have been tagged in the note on facebook to go check out the various titles and vote on your favorite! We'll know the location soon, and I'll post it on facebook as well as here. If you weren't tagged in the note or can't view it, let me know via email and I'll fix that.

We now have an adviser - Assistant Vice-President for International Education, Dr. Gonzalo Bruce!

We'll have our status as an RSO voted on soon now that we have all we need to do for ASG. I'll let you know when that happens :)


So far we've got Abby and I as Co-Presidents, Tyler Johnston as Secretary-Treasurer, and places still open for anyone who wants to be Historian. We meet a little later this week, due to an overlap with German club for me and Abby (Well, feel free to meet at 8am exactly - we'll just be a wee bit late) Meeting as usual at the Inner Bean for conversation and coffees~

Lets be thinking of what we want our little group to do! Any fieldtrips? I'll be on the lookout for ballets, operas, etc - I know the Russian-America community in KC has the occasional festival.

Don't forget to go vote for your fave movie!! I've had a hard time deciding since I made the list - they all look good, but I'll vote by the end of the day.

До свазй, друзья! (Bye friends - or literally - Till Connection, friends)
- Клара

Movie Night and RSO Status

Привет! Как дела, русский клуб?

At the last meeting we discussed how we can go about having a movie night on campus! I'm going to check on what we can do about snacks - because we've totally got to have Russian cuisine - and I don't think sodexo does that, so I'll know if we can bring delicious treats like pirogi to campus by our Thursday meeting. I'll also have a list of all the movies Abby and I have access to show by tomorrow up here on the blog. You guys can leave a comment on which movie you'd like to see most, and the winner will be picked so we can get posters around. Lets plan on doing this in the next couple weeks before Spring Break or at least right after Spring Break.

Another topic was attaining RSO status. Its been decided that we should go for it! I'll bring all the necessary forms to the meeting Thursday at 8pm.

And last but not least - the Sunflower yearbook wants to get a photo of us - can we all make it this Thursday? PLEASE let me know if you'll be there this week so I can pass it on to the photographer (unless you guys don't wanna be in the yearbook?)

Ok~ I look forward to seeing you all at the Inner Bean Thursday at 8pm! Last week we chatted about lullabies, fairytales, music, and literature. What do you all want to talk about this week?

До связи,
Клара

Vasilisa the Beautiful / Василиса Прекрасная

 Click the link below!

http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/babayaga/index.html