so, uh, yeah...
huge difference #1 about this last stint in russia and my first stint in russia: i did not so much as LOOK at LJ while i was there, much less even think about posting. the sole reason for this is that i did my writing on facebook instead, so if you want to read the notes i wrote over there, let me know and i'll post them here in a couple of installments.
i'm sleepy and have to get up early tomorrow to run, but how can i be brief about the last 3 months? i'll try: school ended, i spent three weeks re-learning the joys of doing nothing, and then i made my way back to the motherland. to say that it was amazing would be a gross understatement - as i'd expected, it was both easier and harder than the last time, for various reasons. (holy vague statement, batman.) (by the way, "dark knight"? AMAZING. i'll be surprised if heath ledger doesn't get a posthumous oscar.) i did make it back to st petersburg for two separate weekends, and visited my old host mom, tanya, both times. the first time i went to see her, damned if i wasn't walking up the street to her building from the metro and almost started crying - everything came flooding back to me and hit me like a brick wall. it meant so much to go back, though, and it was enormously helpful in chasing away some of those ghosts of five years past. st petersburg both is and is not how i left her, and after my second visit that became okay. i changed a lot in five years, and she had to as well. i'm considering a jaunt over there for new year's - she was so much more beautiful in winter, even if it was, oh, -25 outside.
so what was i doing over there in the first place? studying - i had class for 3 hours a day and was studying russian language, living with a host family and doing various extracurriculars such as rafting, museum-going, church-visiting, beer-drinking, and the like. the city i was in was beautiful, and the people exceedingly friendly and helpful. it was very hard to leave, because i'd just settled into a routine and suddenly, bam!, it was time to go - i was only there for eight weeks - and then i had to make my way home. coming back this time was weird, though: i've come to the conclusion that america is a strange place and i'm not entirely sure that i belong here. but then, i'm not entirely sure exactly where i DO belong, because if you asked me today if i'd move to russia, i'd say no. i've no problems visiting and spending extended amounts of time there, but moving permanently? i don't think so. maybe i'm just getting old and too dependent on creature comforts, but i don't think i could do it. happily, though, i'll be in school for a good long while yet, and will hopefully have plenty more opportunities to visit and do research (and hopefully next time i'll actually be funded and/or get credit for my pains).
i miss a lot of things about russia already - i've only been stateside for eight days, but it feels like a lifetime - but it's good to be back, kind of. i most emphatically did not miss the weather; where i was it was on average high 60s-low 70s with no humidity. (it, um, snowed one night during the first two weeks when it didn't get above 50.) all in all, it was really an awesome two months - this is probably the best summer i've had in a very long time. i'm broke as hell since everything came out of my own pocket, but it was 5000% absolutely worth it.
so, now i'm bumming around until school starts again in a few weeks; i'll be visiting north-carolina sister next week, relaxing for a little while, and then hopefully starting a new job (that, uh, i have yet to apply for, oops) coinciding with the beginning of classes. i'm a teaching assistant again this year, and i'll have the same kids i had last year as they make their way through second-level russian. i'm pretty excited about that, since year two is when you really start learning the interesting stuff. :) that's pretty much it...
...so what's new with you?
i'm sleepy and have to get up early tomorrow to run, but how can i be brief about the last 3 months? i'll try: school ended, i spent three weeks re-learning the joys of doing nothing, and then i made my way back to the motherland. to say that it was amazing would be a gross understatement - as i'd expected, it was both easier and harder than the last time, for various reasons. (holy vague statement, batman.) (by the way, "dark knight"? AMAZING. i'll be surprised if heath ledger doesn't get a posthumous oscar.) i did make it back to st petersburg for two separate weekends, and visited my old host mom, tanya, both times. the first time i went to see her, damned if i wasn't walking up the street to her building from the metro and almost started crying - everything came flooding back to me and hit me like a brick wall. it meant so much to go back, though, and it was enormously helpful in chasing away some of those ghosts of five years past. st petersburg both is and is not how i left her, and after my second visit that became okay. i changed a lot in five years, and she had to as well. i'm considering a jaunt over there for new year's - she was so much more beautiful in winter, even if it was, oh, -25 outside.
so what was i doing over there in the first place? studying - i had class for 3 hours a day and was studying russian language, living with a host family and doing various extracurriculars such as rafting, museum-going, church-visiting, beer-drinking, and the like. the city i was in was beautiful, and the people exceedingly friendly and helpful. it was very hard to leave, because i'd just settled into a routine and suddenly, bam!, it was time to go - i was only there for eight weeks - and then i had to make my way home. coming back this time was weird, though: i've come to the conclusion that america is a strange place and i'm not entirely sure that i belong here. but then, i'm not entirely sure exactly where i DO belong, because if you asked me today if i'd move to russia, i'd say no. i've no problems visiting and spending extended amounts of time there, but moving permanently? i don't think so. maybe i'm just getting old and too dependent on creature comforts, but i don't think i could do it. happily, though, i'll be in school for a good long while yet, and will hopefully have plenty more opportunities to visit and do research (and hopefully next time i'll actually be funded and/or get credit for my pains).
i miss a lot of things about russia already - i've only been stateside for eight days, but it feels like a lifetime - but it's good to be back, kind of. i most emphatically did not miss the weather; where i was it was on average high 60s-low 70s with no humidity. (it, um, snowed one night during the first two weeks when it didn't get above 50.) all in all, it was really an awesome two months - this is probably the best summer i've had in a very long time. i'm broke as hell since everything came out of my own pocket, but it was 5000% absolutely worth it.
so, now i'm bumming around until school starts again in a few weeks; i'll be visiting north-carolina sister next week, relaxing for a little while, and then hopefully starting a new job (that, uh, i have yet to apply for, oops) coinciding with the beginning of classes. i'm a teaching assistant again this year, and i'll have the same kids i had last year as they make their way through second-level russian. i'm pretty excited about that, since year two is when you really start learning the interesting stuff. :) that's pretty much it...
...so what's new with you?