My host family...
Здраствуйте из Нижний Новгород! Greetings from Nizhniy Novgorod!
On Saturday we were all moved in with our host families and so far things have been going well. My host family, the Ustanov family (I think - there might be an extra "u" or "y" or "s" in there somewhere :-) ), is very nice. Sergey and Tanya are the parents and Ivan, their post-graduate son, lives with them. (I'm rooming with Ivan in the study/bedroom. Ivan's parents sleep in the living room (the couch must unfold to make their bed - I've never witnessed the transformation of the living room myself).) When I arrived Saturday Tanya and Sergey's daughter Katya was also there, as were her husband Aleksey (Alyosha) and their year and a half old son Nikita, who's very sweet and very cute :-). (He was a good ice breaker :-).)
The family's kind of quiet and watches a lot of sports when they're at home, but I think that things have gone okay so far. It's been somewhat draining for me because of my week last week and the paper I had due this morning. Friday I went out walking for about two hours (I made a little pilgrimage to the old churches in the Kremlin and the old posad (town)) and then only got about 4 or 5 hours of sleep 'cause of packing, watching movies 'for the last time' (in the Proflaktoriy anyway), et cetera. Saturday we moved my overly heavy stuff out of the Proflak and into the apartment, and Sunday night I was up till 3:30am working on my Bulgakov paper. (I put it off till Sunday 'cause I really don't like "The Master and Margarita" - I read Gorkiy's "My Childhood" at the same time as Bulgakov's novel and would have preferred to write on Gorkiy instead of Bulgakov. C'est la vie :-).) I'm hoping to go to bed earlier now that I'm with my host family - the latest they go to bed seems to be 11:30pm, so I'll have encouragement not to stay up late. (It's a tiny apartment and I feel bad moving around when everyone's asleep.)
After moving in Saturday it was so good to see the group Sunday night at Harley's (and Janet Sunday morning at church). English is amazingly beautiful after trying to speak Russian and failing miserably. I hate the feeling of not being abel to communicate well and I think I get scared of messing up and speak more softly and less clearly, which doesn't help me progress at all or help anyone in my host family understand me any better. (Ivan does speak fairly good English, but it would be nice to be able to communicate with Tanya and Sergey.)
Today we had a long lecture on Bulgakov (too long - and we're spending the next two days on him too :-/ ) and a relatively fun language class with Elvina. I've got to work on memorizing more vocabulary. Even if I continue to get cases mixed up knowing more words will at least help my comprehension.
I would write on and on, but I only have an hour to delete all the spam in my e-mail accounts and take care of other stuff (bank accounts, et cetera), so I bid you adieu! I hope you're all well! Forgive me for not writing you all personally as I should.
Oh, when I get back to the States (and good internet access) ask me about all the random positions I ended up in on rush hour buses in Nizhniy Novgorod :-) - I'll reenact them all for you to the best of my ability. This morning's positions were especially funny and awkward (me on tip toes with outstretched arm, a door that trying to get part of my shoulder...).
Oh, the absolute last thing: Some jerk tried to pick pocket me yesterday, but thank God and the Panagia I thought to check my pocket and found my wallet and coin purse still there, though in disarray. (The dude had the audacity to ask me what I wanted, as though I shouldn't give him the 'What do you think you're doing?!' look for trying to rob me.) All my money, cards, ID, et cetera, were still there (as were my receipts and notes), so I'm good, and I thank you all for your prayers. I'm carrying less money with me now and am also thinking "I'm in Addis" instead of "I'm in Chicago." I guess I should just think "I'm in Russia" - after all, I've never had anyone even try to take my wallet in Addis...
On Saturday we were all moved in with our host families and so far things have been going well. My host family, the Ustanov family (I think - there might be an extra "u" or "y" or "s" in there somewhere :-) ), is very nice. Sergey and Tanya are the parents and Ivan, their post-graduate son, lives with them. (I'm rooming with Ivan in the study/bedroom. Ivan's parents sleep in the living room (the couch must unfold to make their bed - I've never witnessed the transformation of the living room myself).) When I arrived Saturday Tanya and Sergey's daughter Katya was also there, as were her husband Aleksey (Alyosha) and their year and a half old son Nikita, who's very sweet and very cute :-). (He was a good ice breaker :-).)
The family's kind of quiet and watches a lot of sports when they're at home, but I think that things have gone okay so far. It's been somewhat draining for me because of my week last week and the paper I had due this morning. Friday I went out walking for about two hours (I made a little pilgrimage to the old churches in the Kremlin and the old posad (town)) and then only got about 4 or 5 hours of sleep 'cause of packing, watching movies 'for the last time' (in the Proflaktoriy anyway), et cetera. Saturday we moved my overly heavy stuff out of the Proflak and into the apartment, and Sunday night I was up till 3:30am working on my Bulgakov paper. (I put it off till Sunday 'cause I really don't like "The Master and Margarita" - I read Gorkiy's "My Childhood" at the same time as Bulgakov's novel and would have preferred to write on Gorkiy instead of Bulgakov. C'est la vie :-).) I'm hoping to go to bed earlier now that I'm with my host family - the latest they go to bed seems to be 11:30pm, so I'll have encouragement not to stay up late. (It's a tiny apartment and I feel bad moving around when everyone's asleep.)
After moving in Saturday it was so good to see the group Sunday night at Harley's (and Janet Sunday morning at church). English is amazingly beautiful after trying to speak Russian and failing miserably. I hate the feeling of not being abel to communicate well and I think I get scared of messing up and speak more softly and less clearly, which doesn't help me progress at all or help anyone in my host family understand me any better. (Ivan does speak fairly good English, but it would be nice to be able to communicate with Tanya and Sergey.)
Today we had a long lecture on Bulgakov (too long - and we're spending the next two days on him too :-/ ) and a relatively fun language class with Elvina. I've got to work on memorizing more vocabulary. Even if I continue to get cases mixed up knowing more words will at least help my comprehension.
I would write on and on, but I only have an hour to delete all the spam in my e-mail accounts and take care of other stuff (bank accounts, et cetera), so I bid you adieu! I hope you're all well! Forgive me for not writing you all personally as I should.
Oh, when I get back to the States (and good internet access) ask me about all the random positions I ended up in on rush hour buses in Nizhniy Novgorod :-) - I'll reenact them all for you to the best of my ability. This morning's positions were especially funny and awkward (me on tip toes with outstretched arm, a door that trying to get part of my shoulder...).
Oh, the absolute last thing: Some jerk tried to pick pocket me yesterday, but thank God and the Panagia I thought to check my pocket and found my wallet and coin purse still there, though in disarray. (The dude had the audacity to ask me what I wanted, as though I shouldn't give him the 'What do you think you're doing?!' look for trying to rob me.) All my money, cards, ID, et cetera, were still there (as were my receipts and notes), so I'm good, and I thank you all for your prayers. I'm carrying less money with me now and am also thinking "I'm in Addis" instead of "I'm in Chicago." I guess I should just think "I'm in Russia" - after all, I've never had anyone even try to take my wallet in Addis...