A Slice of Life

It's December 22nd. All of you will be celebrating Christmas next week. I have three more days of school before break.

The dog is back visitng again. I don't mind her so much when she's not freaking out whining that Raisa's gone. She seems to have accepted me as more a part of the family.

As of this writing, my parents are either on a plane to, or have landed in Minnesota where my brother lives. They're spending the holidays there. I was only slightly disappointed about this, as I figure being in Yakutsk is a once in a lifetime opportunity and while I may in the future come back to Russia, who knows if and when I'll make it back to Yakutsk specifically. Besides, I can't wait to see what the holidays are like here.

My Russian grammar, both spoken and written is horrible. Yet, I've found that I'm now able to express myself more in Russian. I finished the journal I brought with me two nights ago, and I've started a new one. Officially, it's bilingual, but you'd be surprised and impressed at how much of it is in Russian, and how much of my inner thoughts I'm able to express.

My host sister comes home the morning of the 28th. That evening we're having a concert and discoteka at school.

Our homework in Literature is to learn and recite a Poem by Ecenin. This is a normal thing that the kids do here. A typical assignment. I mention it though because on monday, I too will be reciting a poem by Ecenin. Which for some reason I'm really nervous about.

I feel like I do a lot of waiting here. At first, I was waiting for december because I know back in September that if I could make it through the holidays, I'd be okay, and make it through the rest of my exchange year. Now that december's here, I'm waiting for April. April is spring. Spring is warm, Spring means the end of school is coming up. April is also when we have our big tour of the country. As I told my journal today, when April finally rolls around, I'll probably be waiting for July so I can go home. I hate the fact that I feel like I'm always waiting. First I was waiting to come to Russia, now I'm waiting more. I don't like the feeling and want it to go away.

I've made myself answer the phone so many times that I'm not afraid of doing it anymore, and often can have conversations with the people on the other end of the line.

Most all of the food here tastes better than in America. Is fresher and less processed. The two exceptions to this are Milk and Snickers candy bars. Both of which are pretty nasty.

My favorite breakfast ceral here is called "Little Pillows"

You can tell how cold it is here recently, by how much fog is outside.

I've discovered that if you eat about fifteen minutes before making a journey outdoors, you stay warmer.

When you live in Russia, it forces the OCD out of you in regards to food. They are a lot less weird about food sitting out and stuff. Raisa often puts Piroshki with meat in them, in the bread box. And There was one time, I accidentally left the milk out all day and Raisa was like "oh, it's fine, just stick it in the fridge." So I've stopped thinking/worrying/wondering about where the food's been stored, and hopefully I'll take that back with me to America.

Stuff that I do here that I hope to take back with me:
Slang
Drinking uber hot tea
Being more responsible
Independence
eating jelly right out of the jar

It really irritates me when people treat me like I don't understand Russian. It also really really bothers me when people talk about me in Russian, and don't address me directly, thinking I don't understand. The other thing that bothers me is when people translate for me. I'm here to learn Russian, I've been here for four months, I started learning before I came. I'm not a complete idiot!

okay, I'm done now.