Spring Break (Day 1): ‘Trevoga’ redeemed in U.U.

Russians have a word (“trevoga”) for the spiritual qualms that you experience before traveling until you’re safely seated on your train/plane seat. I call it stress. Whatever it is, I feel it. The day of our departure, I went straight from classes to my internship, and then straight to choir rehearsal, leaving early around 8 [...]

Weeks 24-25: Taking responsibility, a lesson in grammar

In grammar class, we are learning about how using passive voice and impersonal expressions is a good thing. In the Russian language, you are supposed to put the blame on an invisible, mystical (neuter gendered) something. The Star Wars “Force,” if you will. (And no, it’s not God, for God is male in the Russian [...]

Holiday: It’s beginning to look at lot like New Year’s. . .

To properly describe my experience in the realm of the Russian “holiday season,” if such a concept actually exists as a period defined apart from the general conception of everyday life in this country, then I should go back to my Thanksgiving holiday here. Walking out of a delightful evening of intercultural dialogue (conversation over [...]

Weeks 14-15: Take two

I’ll blame my lack of posting on a few things. First, wrapping up finals season always comes with alternating bouts of productivity and extreme laziness, meaning that when I was working, I was burning the midnight oil, and when I wasn’t working, I really wasn’t. Second, Ryan got into Irkutsk two weeks ago, so between [...]

Week 11: First impressions of the Siberian ‘winter’

As far as I’ve been keeping track on the weather report, last week’s temperatures included the lowest low I’ve seen thus far (-28 deg. C.) and the highest high I’ve seen since it’s frozen (-3 deg. C.). Although autumn officially still has about a month to go, the magic of the Russian cold has been [...]

Week 2: Baikal’s big, snow’s small. . . ‘S all good

Admittedly, I felt the down-points of the “culture shock” wave more than I expected–the frustration of little inconveniences, getting on wrong busses, the language barrier, missing home and Middlebury–, but, I’m still reeling on how great of a week this turned out to be. Baikal adventure no. 1 Last Saturday, the Midd group, along with our [...]

…I’d be getting all the sun (and Snow) I could get. That is, before Siberia.

The two and a half weeks I’ve spent at home so far have been nothing but relaxing as I prepare for a summer of what I’m expecting will be plenty of hard work. (Not that it  won’t be a great time, too.)  In addition to getting some work done on the computer (setting up this [...]