First Week

Whew, my first week of class is over. Where to even begin telling you what I've been up to?

Sunday night, as promised, we took our language pledge. Writing this blog entry is probably the most Englishing I've done since then, besides sneaking a peek at my email and other people's blogs. In general, all the Russian speaking hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be. For the first three days, I was extraordinarily tired, like I was at the beginning in Russia, but I'm already getting used to it. Also, I wasn't sleeping very well at first, but I seem to be growing more comfortable on this bed and in this room.

Sunday night they posted our class placements, based on the tests we took earlier. Both me and my roommate placed in the seventh level (the highest!). Our teachers, Elena Nikolaevna and Evgeniya Olegovna, are both from St. Petersburg, and they're fantastic. I finally, really feel like I'm working on improving my Russian again, like I'm looking at specific parts of grammar that need work, etc. We meet from 8 to 11:40 each day. Our class is split into two groups, each of which meets with one of our teachers for the first half of the morning, then we switch for the second half, and then we all meet as a group for the last class. So I study Word Formation and Conversation Practice with Elena Nikolaevna from 8 to 9:25, then Grammar and Reading with Evgeniya Olegovna from 9:30 to 10:55, then the whole class watches and discusses a film till 11:40 (except on Fridays, when that time is used for our weekly test).

The rest of the day is ours, but mostly what I've been doing is studying. I've never had so much homework in my life! However, this weekend the only homework I have is to write an essay, so that's not so bad.

Tomorrow all the clubs start. I'm definitely signing up for the cooking club, but I'm not sure what else I'll have time for. Maybe the daily newspaper? There's a choir and a theatre group, but I've heard that they take a lot of time, so I might just go watch the shows, rather than participate. Tomorrow night there's also a disco. I'm totally there.

On Wednesdays and Sundays they play movies for us, which I've really enjoyed so far, and we have Tea Salons afterwards, which are also a fun way to relax and talk with other people. I've been trying to go to the gym as much as possible, but I've been very tired this week, so I've only gone three times.

The people here are fantastic. It's so fun to be surrounded by so many people who are as passionate about Russian as I am, and many of whom have shared similar experiences in Russia as I have. Three of the other students in my class are in the Flagship program as well, so I look forward to spending more time with them in the upcoming year. I also really love the first year students, those that came here without knowing any Russian at all. I admire them very much for taking the plunge and promising to speak only a language which they don't know at all! I've befriended one student, Ivan (John), and I'm actually quite amazed at how much language he's mastered in the course of a single week. Our conversations are somewhat one-sided, but I enjoy them just the same, because it's like getting to watch the process of acquiring a language first-hand.

Only one thing here has really annoyed me so far, and that's this test we had to take by computer on Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday wasn't so bad, since it was reading and listening, and the questions were multiple choice. But Wednesday was the written section, and we were required to use the standard Russian keyboard, because the director of our school believes that phonetic keyboards (where the Russian letters are roughly aligned with their English equivalents) are just a crutch. Well, that may be so, but since I hadn't had much practice on the standard Russian keyboard before the test, the test doesn't at all show the level of my Russian writing skills, but of my Russian typing skills. The test isn't valid! Whatever... by the time I take it again at the end of the program in August, I'll have had lots of practice with the Russian keyboard, so it'll look like I've made huge gains in my language (although in truth much of the gain will be in my typing skills).

It's been rainy and cold the past week, but they say it's going to get really hot. I'm actually kind of looking forward to that, because I didn't bring very much warm clothing!

Well, I don't know what else to say. It seems like every day goes on for ever and ever, and I feel like I've been here a long time. It already feels weird to be using English, as if everybody in Vermont is supposed to just be speaking Russian. I hope everyone at home is safe and is staying dry. Let me know what you're up to, I'd love to hear from you!