School days

It's been a while since my last post, but I don't really have internet outside of the measly 45 minutes a day that we get at the school, and I've been trying to upload all of my pictures and videos. (by the way...there are new pics and photos-->)

When I last left you, we had arrived in Astrakhan'. Forgoing any attempt to catch up in detail, I will try to give you a sketch of my usual day and describe our many excursions about the city.

I am pretty exhausted at the end of every day, and this one has been no different, so forgive me if I abruptly end without completing my outline and start a new post tomorrow.

Classes start at 9:30 every morning. (you are now saying to yourself: "How cushy! I want to be starting my day that late." But no. Read on.) In order to climb the 3 flights of stairs to the 4th floor where my classroom is, and to allow time for the majority of the sweat on my body to dry, I have to arrive no later than 9:15. In order to arrive by 9:15, I have to be sitting on the marshrutka by 8:45. This means I have to be at the marshrutka stop by 8:30, as invariably at least 3 full marshrutki will pass before one stops that has an available seat. In order to make the marshrutka stop, eat breakfast, shower, and generally wake up, I have to get out of bed by 7:00 (6:45 is better). So I have been busy for a full 2.5 hours before I even arrive at school (and this includes the mild paranoia which shades all my marshrutka rides, as I never quite trust that they will take me to my destination. Plus, I have to tell the driver when to stop.

Classes rotate every day, but the first one will last 90 minutes, followed by a 15 minute break (which is always shorter, because the teachers run into the time from both sides--end class late and start class early), and then another 90 minute class.

It is now 12:45, and we all must go to the school restaurant to eat our free lunch. We have assigned tables and assigned seats. Every day, a menu is provided for the following day, and we are supposed to indicate our choices. This is an exercise in futility, as the cooks and servers send us whatever they feel is best for us. I hate raw tomatoes. I will never like raw tomatoes, but raw tomatoes appeared in front of me even though I had clearly indicated (with a very large handwritten "HET") that I did not want them. It's Russia. All you can do is laugh.

After lunch (which is a generous 90 minutes...but there is absolutely NO way to work within the leftover 20-40 minutes each day), there is lecture. Ah, Lecture, how I hate thee. Lecture is also 90 minutes. Lidia Glebovna, our teacher, speaks so slowly and clearly that I want to shoot myself. She seriously talks to us as though we were sixth graders, explaining at length all the "long words" she uses. Unfortunately, these long and difficult words are all EXACT COGNATES. I'm dying inside a little more with every overly enunciated word. As Jennifer puts it: "I can perfectly spell every word she says. I might have no idea what it means, but I can spell it." Plus, the woman chooses the most boring topics in the world, and if there is the slightest bit of interest in the topic, she will never get to the details, instead stamping out any intellectually stimulating detail (I guess she thinks it is too hard for us).

What Lidia Glebovna (and others) don't seem to understand is that we can understand a lot more than we can say. I know this is true for me. I would love to sit and listen to lectures from different speakers in different fields, talking at a normal (or slightly slower) speaking pace about topics that interest them. That would help me improve my aural comprehension, as well as varying my exposure. Right now, we only have the grating voice of L.G. Zolotykh.

Oh, and this woman reads our journals, so I can't even complain about her in there! (We are required to keep a daily journal in addition to the dozens of pages of homework assigned everyday).

After lecture, thankfully, is computer time, which is also consultation time with our teachers. We were scolded in our weekly meeting for not attending consultation this past week. 1) It was the first week. We did nominative and genitive case--nothing too taxing. 2) Consultation will ALWAYS lose out to internet time. Always. We are American students. Get over it. 3) At 3 PM, there is nothing LESS I want to do than more school. We've been here for 5.5 hours already, and are usually facing some sort of obligatory activity after school.

On the days that there are no excursions or other post-school activities, I hop a marshrutka with Sara (we live along the same route), and repeat my 30 minute ride of the morning in reverse. I promise that a marshrutka post is coming, because they are so interesting that I have to devote an entire post to them. I think that the earliest I have every gotten back to the apartment is 6 PM--usually its 7 on non-event days. Event days are usually 12 hour days. Rough.

Oh, I don't have to say that all of this is COMPLETELY in Russian, do I?

Okay, so I am too tired to talk about our excursions and events...I promise I will do so tomorrow.
Love, Shelley (Шелли)