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It's currently about 2:00 in the morning and I have to be up at 3:30 for a 5:30 arrival at the airport.
I have been waiting over a year for this moment, so when I found out that the program was canceled, I was beyond devastated. I was ready to give up, but my amazing Russian teacher wasn't, and managed to pull together a whole new program through Moscow State University and get us our visas in just a few short months.
In this time, our program lost a lot of its original participants, but the ones who fought the hardest to make this happen stayed. There are now six of us, seven including my teacher - myself, Will, Michael, Lindsey, Milica, and Sequoia. They are all really wonderful people and I can't wait to get to know them better throughout this amazing adventure we are about to embark on!
I want to also take the time to thank my parents, who pooled their hard-earned money together to make this trip happen for me, even though I'm not always the most pleasant person in the world to deal with sometimes. Without them, none of this would possible. So, to my parents, thank you, thank you, thank you. You will always have my gratitude for giving me all of the opportunities that you have given me in my life.
As for my expectations about Russia, I'm pretty nervous. I'm not great at Russian numbers and I feel like I might have trouble doing transactions and haggling in the markets. It's going to be difficult to get used to having nobody smile at you, or to be given weird looks when you smile at someone. It's in Russian culture not to smile without having a reason to. There's a quote that goes something like this "Only fools smile without reason." That will be difficult for me because working in retail has made me a really smiley person (as odd as that is, normally it does the opposite to people). I'm used to greeting people, to smiling at strangers, and all that. So, it will be a weird change for me. I just have to remember that Russians aren't not smiling to be cold - it's just in their culture not to.
Anyways, I had probably better attempt to get some sleep. The time is fast approaching for me to have to get ready to go to the airport.
I have been waiting over a year for this moment, so when I found out that the program was canceled, I was beyond devastated. I was ready to give up, but my amazing Russian teacher wasn't, and managed to pull together a whole new program through Moscow State University and get us our visas in just a few short months.
In this time, our program lost a lot of its original participants, but the ones who fought the hardest to make this happen stayed. There are now six of us, seven including my teacher - myself, Will, Michael, Lindsey, Milica, and Sequoia. They are all really wonderful people and I can't wait to get to know them better throughout this amazing adventure we are about to embark on!
I want to also take the time to thank my parents, who pooled their hard-earned money together to make this trip happen for me, even though I'm not always the most pleasant person in the world to deal with sometimes. Without them, none of this would possible. So, to my parents, thank you, thank you, thank you. You will always have my gratitude for giving me all of the opportunities that you have given me in my life.
As for my expectations about Russia, I'm pretty nervous. I'm not great at Russian numbers and I feel like I might have trouble doing transactions and haggling in the markets. It's going to be difficult to get used to having nobody smile at you, or to be given weird looks when you smile at someone. It's in Russian culture not to smile without having a reason to. There's a quote that goes something like this "Only fools smile without reason." That will be difficult for me because working in retail has made me a really smiley person (as odd as that is, normally it does the opposite to people). I'm used to greeting people, to smiling at strangers, and all that. So, it will be a weird change for me. I just have to remember that Russians aren't not smiling to be cold - it's just in their culture not to.
Anyways, I had probably better attempt to get some sleep. The time is fast approaching for me to have to get ready to go to the airport.
