Pictures!

Ok guys, it took me a while, but I finally got all of the pictures uploaded and commented. Some of them are re-posts, as they are what I used for this blog, so you wouldn't have to wait 2 months to see what I was doing on the other side of the world, but there are upward of 400 pictures there, so there's bound to be some new ones! Here's the first one- the comments are underneath, and the next/ previous buttons are on the top right. I tried to make it a pretty slideshow, but there were too many pictures, and you wouldn't have gotten the trademark Lyssa comments. Go check 'em out!

On a slightly different topic: my post-travel thoughts. Looking back from the vantage point of having slept and eaten well for a week, I think I can take a more rational look at the trip overall, instead of being mired in the feelings of it. To start with: Yes, I am very, very glad I went. The things that I learned instinctively are invaluable- there is no way I could have memorized or studied the sensations and reactions to everyday Russian life in a classroom. For example, I will never be able to use the word for "next" (следующая), without remembering being in the metro on the way to/from school, and hearing "Next stop, Chkolovskaya" (следующая станция, Чкловская) - the station where school was. Nor will I ever forget sitting in the kitchen of an old apartment with ridiculously high ceilings, and having a German guy and his Russian girlfriend insisting I eat a billion blini and a bowl full of strawberries while we fumble and mime our way through three languages to explain how our days went. In terms of experience and keeping your mind open and flexible, I couldn't ask for more.

Were there downsides? Yes. I hate being hungry, I hate sleeping badly, and I hate not having the freedom to hop in a car and decide my own fate for the day. The whole "don't smile in Russia" was both difficult and utterly depressing, and seeing what the wars and government changes have done to the people there, both old and young, was eye-opening in a way I was comfortably ignorant of. But to be honest, if I'm studying the language and the people... that's stuff I need to know. Knowing what daily life is like, and how their history has shaped the present, helps me understand why they speak and act the way they do. Am I an expert? Heck no, but I have started on that path that cannot be followed anywhere but in Russia.

Would I go to Russia again? Yes, but emphatically not on that program, and probably not to St. Petersburg again. Do I want to continue studying the language and the people? That's a silly question, of course I do! I've already gotten the books for the semester I missed, and the two semesters we covered while in Russia, and am going over them to make sure I didn't miss much, and hopefully can continue on in third-year Russian come fall. Mind you, Russian will probably never supplant French as my favorite language, just because French is my second language, and Russian is... heavens, what, the 5th that I've tried to study? 6th? I don't know. But I am getting to the point where I can have conversations in my head that are part Russian and part French, and usually once I can start talking to myself in a language, it gets a lot easier.

Anyway, thanks for all the support you guys sent while I was over there- sometimes a simple "hey how are you" can help a lot, just knowing that you're not forgotten in some forsaken country across the world. It's been a great experience, and now, on to the next one!