My name is Gabriela Martínez. On April 2013, I was awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship Scholarship in Russia. For the next 10 months, I will be living and and working as an English teacher in at the Khakás States University in Abakán, Russia. In addition to teaching, I will be working on an independent, oral history project.
If you want to know more about me, here is an extravagant and slightly embarrassing “about” stub a wrote a year ago for a blog I attempted to write during a Critical Language Scholarship in Ufa, Russia.
“It started one hot, lazy Puerto Rican summer, when a high-school girl decided to read The Brothers Karamazov. Plunged in a spiritual crisis and baffled by her newfound insight into human existence, the girl had no other choice but to begin studying Russian formally during her first year in Sarah Lawrence with hopes of decoding her own seemingly pointless life. Despite its obtuse grammar rules, the Russian language became an intrinsic part of this girl’s life and led her to that mystical place where people only speak Russian and drink vodka. After spending an academic year in Yaroslavl, she realized that Russia was more than the land of vodka and Dostoevsky. She became immersed, tapped into the “webs of significance” of Russian culture through language. In short, she was hopelessly in love and wanted to go back as soon as she returned to the Americas. Last February, her dream came through. She was awarded a Critical Language Scholarship and will be attending an intensive language-study program in Ufa, Russia.”
Also, here’s an important disclaimer, written in a fit of caps lock fury:
THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THIS BLOG DO NOT REPRESENT THE OPINION OF THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF STATE, IIE, OR OTHER PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS IN CHARGE OF COORDINATING THE FULBRIGHT PROGRAM.
My life in Khakassia 
Hello Gabriela, I’ve been looking for a blogger in Khakassia who would be willing to write posts for “Life in Russia”. I started the blog a year and a half ago as a way to share with friends back in the states about what life is like in Russia. So far it’s reaching 170 countries and is visited approximately 5,000 times a month by people all over the world. The idea behind the blog is to build bridges between countries, show the similarities and differences when they occur. I myself live in Kazan, Russia and have been here for almost 2 years. If you are interested in contributing a post once a month about the culture, the people, the history it would give your own blog more exposure. I hope you don’t mind that I”ve done a pingback to your about page for my readers to be able to find you and learn more about Khakassia. If you are interested you can visit “Life in Russia” at hague6185.wordpress.com, hope to see you there and give you the ability to share about Khakassia. Steve
Hi Steve!
Thank you so much for this opportunity. I’m leaving Khakassia in June, but I am still writing and I have a lot of posts I want to publish. I am more than willing to send them to you. I will be working at a camp in Kyzyl in Tuva Republic most of june, so I will send you posts about my experiences there. I am more than willing to send them to you.
It would have been great to find out about your blog sooner.
-Gabriela
Hello Gabriela,
Great, you can contact me through the aboutme section in my left sidebar on my blog. That way I can give you the particulars of how to send posts to “Life in Russia”.
Hallo Gabriella,
My name is Adin, and i am an independent traveller and researcher, born in Australia, and currently living in Germany. I am in Abakan right now and i am looking for connections to people who practice some pieces of traditional Khakassian life (and who may also speak english! :P. I saw in some of your pictures some Shamanist themes and people and possibly rituals, and i wonder if you may be able to put me in contact with someone in Abakan or in the Khakassian Republic region who may be able to show me some experiences or teachings, and even possibly host me for a longer time (whether it be now or in the future).
Thank you very much in advance, and you may contact me by the email that i included for this message 🙂
Kind regards, and Blessings of love, light, harmony, balance, growth, fulfilment, and wellbeing to you 🙂
adin
Hi Adin,
I’d be glad to help. I know an American couple, two anthropologists, living in Abakan. They speak English and they might me able to put you in contact with people or institutions that would be willing to show you around. I will email once I talk to them.
Thank you! i am going to krasnoyarsk tomorrow but would be willing to go back if there is an opportunity for khakassian learning 🙂