Alfiya

Bying a waffle is something Alfiya often does when she is in the station.

We took the bus to the Maaltebrugge park. Alfiya doesn't live far from it and she sometimes goes there for a walk. It was the day after a heavy storm, so there were a lot of fallen leaves and brenches. We had to climb over the brenches here and there.

Alfiya studied Arabic in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, and her studies allowed her to travel to Syria and Morocco. She also studied in Poland and Spain. She speaks several languages, including French, because she did an internship in France. Although many Muslims live in Tatarstan, they do not speak Arabic. Alfiya chose to study that language because it was difficult. She had gotten through high school easily, so she wanted more of a challenge. 

 As Alfiya is Russian, I was a bit cautious about talking about the war in Ukraine. But she asked me which countries I had been to. I mentioned them, including Ukraine and Transnistria. She asked if I thought Transnistria was an independent country. Not for me and not for Moldova either, but the people in Transnistria see it differently. It then also turned out that Alfiya certainly does not support the war in Ukraine. I noticed that she spoke of Kharkiv - the Ukrainian spelling - and not of Kharkov - the Russian spelling. She is wary of speaking Russian to Ukrainians and she thinks that Russian President Vladimir Putin is out of sorts. So we are on the same page with that. We ended the day at pizzeria La Rustica in the Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat, where we both ate a pizza.

Thursday 7th December 2023

We had planned to see eachother earlier, but that didn't went through as I was ill. This day we met at Mariakerke Post in order to visit the Claeys-Bouüaert park. We wanted to search for toadstools but as we met a couple of weeks later than we planned to do, the toadstools had already gone. But we still found several on trees.

I showed Alfiya a tree with very special brenches.

Friday 9th February 2023

We met in the De Krook library, the main library in Ghent. Alfiya takes a programming course during the week and she is learning Dutch. She comes to the library two to three times a week to learn Dutch. 

She is in level 7, but she tudies from the level 6 textbooks because level 7 is a conversation course. When her roommate is at the office, she studies at home. But Alfiya prefers to come to the library because it is warmer there. In summer it is too hot, but then there is no one there, which is an advantage. 

Today, Alfiya is studying the ending forms of verbs. 

Sometimes she looks up the Russian translation of a word via Google Translate on her mobile phone. Alfiya doesn't find it difficult to study among so many people. “It's actually inspiring. I am easily distracted and this gives me discipline. Studying is a competition. Moreover, there is always something to do at home: washing the dishes, tidying up, washing clothes.” She always brings a thermos with half a liter of tea. 

 There are all kinds of rules in the study room on the third floor of De Krook. These are explained using pictograms. Alfiya didn't understand 'keep the aisle clear'. She thought that you should not rock your chair and listen to music. That can all be seen in the image.

Saturday 17th February

We are visiting a Russian supermarket in the Frans Van Ryhovelaan. It is a neat, well-organized shop where you can get literally anything. 

Alfiya comes here occasionally for products she knows from home. She buys buckwheat, cottage cheese and condensed milk, among other things, with which she makes a kind of pancakes. She also buys sweets, cakes and Russian tea. 

The store has a product from Tatarstan. Something Alfiya calls cake and it is soaked in honey. It looks like some kind of snack. 

Remarkably, the main language in the store is Dutch.

Alfiya gave me the product from Tatarstan.