And now a stream of consciousness:
Why must we always have classes in the spring, when it's all nice and warm and the birds are chirping and all you want to do is go play in a park and feel the warm sun on your face because it's been oh so long and the winter seemed to go on for.ev.er and you'd think in Russia of all places they'd understand that once spring hits there's NO WAY concentration could happen, wait what did the professor just say something about a final exam in a month woah hold the phone it's already time to think about final exams and leaving Russia but I just got used to everything and made Russian friends and now you're telling me I have to leave but on the other hand there is quiiiiiiite a lot to look forward to and I admit that I'm ready to get to the next step in my life aka senior year wait wait wait
senior year?
End stream of consciousness.
Can someone please tell me how it's already April? Mmm? Any takers?
Life as of late has been zipping by. As my host mom constantly tells me, "when you're young you just want to grow up but once you're old like me it seems like it went so fast." By the way, my host mom just celebrated her 86th (yes, 86th) birthday at the end of March. She is one tough cookie. Phil and I have noticed something about our older hosts (in his case an 85-year old host grandma) - they often quite randomly start naming off all these people they used to know who have now died. I've also discovered that almost every question I ask ends in a story about so-and-so who is now dead and/or life during the Great Patriotic War (aka WWII). ....does everyone get that way as they grow older? If so, oy vey.
The past weeks have been full of the usual trips to museums, plays, ballets, etc. I do love all this readily available culture, but I admit I will be glad to go back to a slightly, shall we say, less-packed schedule. April is actually a fairly slow month as far as the Dickinson program goes; we're only going to the theatre three times! Last Saturday we took a bus to Veliki Rostov, another city on the Golden Ring, and at the end of the month we'll take a big trip to Kiev, Ukraine, for four days. The month of April also brings, for me, a very very very exciting trip which I have been looking forward to for oh so long: I'M GOING BACK TO LITHUANIA. I went a few summers ago for two weeks as part of a volunteer-teach-English-to-teenagers-at-a-camp thing. It was the coolest. This time, however, I'm meeting a friend from Dickinson and it will probably/definitely be more epic than my first Lithuanian adventure.
The semester's impending end also means research projects. After bouncing ideas around, I finally settled on researching
monogoroda, or monotowns. This could very potentially turn into something I want to research further after college. Exciting.
My internship at the photography gallery is still going well. I've discovered that it's actually easier to translate things than just a month ago, which means my Russian has gotten better even though I can't really feel an improvement.
The little girl I tutor is also still as fabulous as ever, and I've come to the conclusion that she is me when I was younger, only Russian. One time we were playing the restaurant game (so as to teach her how to order food in English), and it was her turn to be the waitress. She rummaged through her closet, pulled out and opened an umbrella, and said (in cute Russian accent, of course): "Hello! This is the Rainy Restaurant! It's raining! What would you like?" She's also super cultured for a nine year old; she likes to go to the Tretyakov art gallery and asked me to bring her poetry. I feel like this is more normal for Russians, though. The arts are a very important part of education from day one. I approve.
In conclusion, I will write another post soon with pictures from my apartment, around my area, and a few parks I've been to.
In the mean time, go play outside. It's so nice out!
Stairway leading to my apartment
My door!
Ze kitchen.
Which item does not belong?
Those two tubs are full of crushed egg shells. I was always rather curious as to why in the world my host mom would save egg shells and finally asked. She uses some of them as fertilizer in her dacha garden (seems relatively normal, yeah?) She also makes some of them into this powdery substance and puts a spoonful in her kasha (porridge) every morning...to keep her bones strong....yum.
Living room.
Picture of her dacha.
Books galore!
Old church across from my apartment building.
