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Volgograd
Sorry it's been so long!
We took our 22 hour train ride from Moscow down to Volgograd, and arrived in the morning to be registered at the school. In Russia you must register whenever you change locations for an extended stay. So we had to have all of our papers checked and we recieved new ones saying we're allowed to be here legally.
The city is very beautiful. Its usually very sunny, although its been drizzling today. The Volga River is huge! We walked down near it yesterday and I couldn't believe how big it was. Our school is just a few blocks from the river. The side we are on has docks and such. On the opposite side is where people own cottages and there are public beaches. We all want to go swimming while we're here. I'm sure we'll have plenty of hot weather to do so.
I live in a little apartment in the suburbs. I have to take a "marshrutka" in the morning to school. It's basically a van with a bunch of seats that you get in and a pay a set amount for your destination. When you see where you want to stop you have to yell at the driver to pull over (in russian of course!) When its really busy the drivers sometimes pick up too many people and people stand up by the door leaning on a railing. It would definitely not fly in America.
I have a mom Olga and a dad Kolya. Olga stays at home with their daughters Katya and Sasha. Kolya is a prison guard and he was in the Chechnyan war. Sasha is 7 and in school. She starts learning English in the fall so she's very interested in our alphabet and simple words. She laughs all the time at them. Katya is going on 2 and she cannot talk yet. We are very good friends since no one can understand us! No on in the house speaks English so its a constant struggle. Its been getting progressively better just this week so I'm sure it will get even better.
Our school has a computer lab, and my family also has internet. The School is very small. There are 9 of us and we were split into two groups. I am in the first group with some of the upper level students and one other person from my 200 level classes. So far we've had conversation, phonetics, and grammer. We have culture classes this week as well. I really don't like grammer, but I enjoy conversation. After class we all go out for lunch and hang out down town before going back to our houses.
The first couple of days our "parents" picked us up and dropped us off at school so we didn't really get time to explore the city or hang out after class. It made the week go by really slow having to be at home. I'm sure the next 4 weeks will fly by now that we'll be doing class and hanging out and going on some excursions in the city.
I'm definitely craving American food already, but I do like a lot of the food I've had here. Everyone is addicted to green apple Fanta, which is just as good as it sounds. I want to fill up my suitcase with it and leave all my clothes!!! They eat a lot more often than we do, but they are smaller portions. Except for breakfast, which is usually pretty big to my standards. I usually get fed yogurt, oatmeal, tea, and bread with butter or cheese. I'm getting more used to the eating schedule though.
I will try and post photos later this week from Moscow and here. Hopefully this nice long post satisfies everyone! miss you!
We took our 22 hour train ride from Moscow down to Volgograd, and arrived in the morning to be registered at the school. In Russia you must register whenever you change locations for an extended stay. So we had to have all of our papers checked and we recieved new ones saying we're allowed to be here legally.
The city is very beautiful. Its usually very sunny, although its been drizzling today. The Volga River is huge! We walked down near it yesterday and I couldn't believe how big it was. Our school is just a few blocks from the river. The side we are on has docks and such. On the opposite side is where people own cottages and there are public beaches. We all want to go swimming while we're here. I'm sure we'll have plenty of hot weather to do so.
I live in a little apartment in the suburbs. I have to take a "marshrutka" in the morning to school. It's basically a van with a bunch of seats that you get in and a pay a set amount for your destination. When you see where you want to stop you have to yell at the driver to pull over (in russian of course!) When its really busy the drivers sometimes pick up too many people and people stand up by the door leaning on a railing. It would definitely not fly in America.
I have a mom Olga and a dad Kolya. Olga stays at home with their daughters Katya and Sasha. Kolya is a prison guard and he was in the Chechnyan war. Sasha is 7 and in school. She starts learning English in the fall so she's very interested in our alphabet and simple words. She laughs all the time at them. Katya is going on 2 and she cannot talk yet. We are very good friends since no one can understand us! No on in the house speaks English so its a constant struggle. Its been getting progressively better just this week so I'm sure it will get even better.
Our school has a computer lab, and my family also has internet. The School is very small. There are 9 of us and we were split into two groups. I am in the first group with some of the upper level students and one other person from my 200 level classes. So far we've had conversation, phonetics, and grammer. We have culture classes this week as well. I really don't like grammer, but I enjoy conversation. After class we all go out for lunch and hang out down town before going back to our houses.
The first couple of days our "parents" picked us up and dropped us off at school so we didn't really get time to explore the city or hang out after class. It made the week go by really slow having to be at home. I'm sure the next 4 weeks will fly by now that we'll be doing class and hanging out and going on some excursions in the city.
I'm definitely craving American food already, but I do like a lot of the food I've had here. Everyone is addicted to green apple Fanta, which is just as good as it sounds. I want to fill up my suitcase with it and leave all my clothes!!! They eat a lot more often than we do, but they are smaller portions. Except for breakfast, which is usually pretty big to my standards. I usually get fed yogurt, oatmeal, tea, and bread with butter or cheese. I'm getting more used to the eating schedule though.
I will try and post photos later this week from Moscow and here. Hopefully this nice long post satisfies everyone! miss you!