A little taste of Home
Friday, March 4 Turned out to be a very good day. I woke up nice and early to get to class for 10:50am. I had Russian language and Практический with Мария, the nice blond lady. We are doing a big review on verbs of motion, which I am thrilled about. It's very intense in that we need to use them with prefixes. Prefixes determine how you are moving as in: leaving, exiting, moving through or around, from behind or in front. Sounds complicated, right? You have no idea. To make this fun and interesting, Мария (Maria) printed out the story of "Goldilocks and The Three Bears." It was in Russian of course, but whenever a verb of motion came up, we had to choose the correct one and put it in. We read through the story once, got all the correct answers, then Мария tells us to close our notebooks. She looked at one of the Italian girls at the other end of the room, and tells her to start telling the story. She starts out by saying, There was this one girl who left home and went into the forest. Maria stops her, and looks at the next girl, tells her to repeat what was just said and add something to it. When I realized what was happening, and looked at how far away I was from where the story started, I started to sweat it out! However, by the time it came to me, it was pretty easy, because I had heard the story at least 5 times already, and I just had to add a sentence to it. Once the story became pretty long, and everyone had the chance to repeat it at least once, she had us stop and start from that particular part of the story. This went on all the way up until the three bears discovered Goldilocks sleeping in the son's bed. She got up, and ran out the window!
She's a great teacher, and knows how to make class fun, if not maybe a little stressful. After class, instead of heading back to the dorms immediately, I went to the cafe on the first floor of the building to get lunch. Michael, a boy from my class who is from Italy joined me. I was shocked to find out that he started to learn English when he was 6 years old. What is the US waiting for? If I had began to learn Russian when I was 6, I wouldn't be having all the problems I have now. Of course, if the US schools were to teach a language it probably would be Spanish considering the amount of immigrants from Mexico. I'm so jealous of Europeans. We may have the best universities in the world, but our school system, in my opinion, is making a huge mistake not teaching kids a second language. Knowing a second language is so beneficial on so many different levels. It's more than just simply being able to communicate, it's being able to understand and get a feel for other cultures in the world, people would be so much better well-rounded if the US school systems took the time to create a curriculum involving a second language. Anyway, this blog isn't about my opinions regarding this. Back to Moscow!
My friend Joe from SUNY Albany managed to get an internship working for the American Embassy here in Moscow. I got in contact with him over facebook and we both decided that we need to get together. He invited me and all of my friends to come visit him and his co-workers at his apartment. We left the university at 7pm and all 8 of us, minus Trevor and Angelina, left for the metro. It surprisingly didn't take long to get to at all. We only had to change lines once. Greg and Will were especially excited to meet Joe considering they are veterans, and had multiple questions about his job, and applying. It was so nice seeing Joe again. After formalities, things became really relaxed, we played a few games, met his roommates, and enjoyed each others company. The apartment that Joe and his 3 other roommates are living in is paid by the US government. It was beautiful. The furniture looked expensive, and everything was roomy and brand new. They had a very large and very shiny kitchen. They even had their own washer and dryer that was the most hi-tech looking electronic I had ever seen. It's really awesome seeing what the US government does for it's employees versus it's students. But, I'm paying for where I'm living, whereas Joe isn't. Not a penny. I want his internship!
Seeing Joe, was like a little taste of home. He and I never hung out before, but he was still familiar, and was my piece of Albany, NY. My friends had a good time too, and it was definitely a very good day.
She's a great teacher, and knows how to make class fun, if not maybe a little stressful. After class, instead of heading back to the dorms immediately, I went to the cafe on the first floor of the building to get lunch. Michael, a boy from my class who is from Italy joined me. I was shocked to find out that he started to learn English when he was 6 years old. What is the US waiting for? If I had began to learn Russian when I was 6, I wouldn't be having all the problems I have now. Of course, if the US schools were to teach a language it probably would be Spanish considering the amount of immigrants from Mexico. I'm so jealous of Europeans. We may have the best universities in the world, but our school system, in my opinion, is making a huge mistake not teaching kids a second language. Knowing a second language is so beneficial on so many different levels. It's more than just simply being able to communicate, it's being able to understand and get a feel for other cultures in the world, people would be so much better well-rounded if the US school systems took the time to create a curriculum involving a second language. Anyway, this blog isn't about my opinions regarding this. Back to Moscow!
My friend Joe from SUNY Albany managed to get an internship working for the American Embassy here in Moscow. I got in contact with him over facebook and we both decided that we need to get together. He invited me and all of my friends to come visit him and his co-workers at his apartment. We left the university at 7pm and all 8 of us, minus Trevor and Angelina, left for the metro. It surprisingly didn't take long to get to at all. We only had to change lines once. Greg and Will were especially excited to meet Joe considering they are veterans, and had multiple questions about his job, and applying. It was so nice seeing Joe again. After formalities, things became really relaxed, we played a few games, met his roommates, and enjoyed each others company. The apartment that Joe and his 3 other roommates are living in is paid by the US government. It was beautiful. The furniture looked expensive, and everything was roomy and brand new. They had a very large and very shiny kitchen. They even had their own washer and dryer that was the most hi-tech looking electronic I had ever seen. It's really awesome seeing what the US government does for it's employees versus it's students. But, I'm paying for where I'm living, whereas Joe isn't. Not a penny. I want his internship!
Seeing Joe, was like a little taste of home. He and I never hung out before, but he was still familiar, and was my piece of Albany, NY. My friends had a good time too, and it was definitely a very good day.
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