1-month check in

This week marks my one month in Russia. That went by quickly. I would thus like to spend this next post on my second-favorite activity after making plans: evaluating their success. Hurrah! So, without further ado, my goals:

Average no more than 30 minutes per day in communication with America (including email, Facebook, phone, and video chat).

On average? I think this has been a success. The original idea, however, was to limit communication in English, and that has been going not-so-great. It’s hard to chat with the other students in Russian when we all know English so much better.

Also, to balance out the days with actually zero contact with America, there are always those days with hour-long Skype calls, plus long hours searching for job listings on the internet…

Learn to pray in Russian.

Success-ish. I’ve been borrowing the Catholic Morning Prayers in Russian, which helps. The bulk of the text is straight from the Psalms, some of which I’ve memorized, which means I don’t have to look up all of the words I don’t know. And when I do look up words I don’t know, they are the sorts of words helpful for church interaction. Beyond that, I’m still working on it.

Find a place in St. Petersburg where I can swing dance. Wear my amazing (-ly obnoxious) new $6 dance shoes. Be the exotic American doing exotic American dances like, the way they do them in America.

I did find a place. Several places. But I have not gone to any of them, because they are either really expensive or have dances 12-4am. One of these days.

But otherwise, keep the obvious Americanness to a minimum.

Abject failure. I packed too much plaid.

Read at least one “for fun” book in Russian. Even if it’s a children’s book.

Not yet. But working on it. I found The Chronicles of Narnia in a bookstore here, but I’m still holding out for something… different. Preferably written originally in Russian.

Remember to take my dietary supplements and vitamins.

Yep! (did you hear that, Mom? I’m doing it! I still got sick, but I’m taking those vitamins!)

Attend a Russian church. Make friends with the local бабушки (read: little old church ladies).

I have been attending a small Russian church every week. There are actually no little old church ladies there—I mean, this is a small church. I’d wager 35ish people, and half of those are under the age of 8.

But the “Russian” part of this equation is coming out to be more important than I thought. Most Protestant (and, for that matter, Catholic) churches around here are very full of expats. The Lutheran churches have services in Swedish, Finnish, or German… the nondenoms have them in English… the Catholic churches have them in Polish or French… but mine is all Russian, all the time, which of course makes a 40 minute sermon exhausting, but understanding is getting easier and easier.

Don’t be too annoying about rooting for the good ol’ USA during the Olympics.

I watched the USA-Russia hockey game in a restaurant/sports bar, surrounded by Russians. Of course I was annoying, just by my very Americanness.

Update this blog at least twice a week.

I think I’ve done that? I don’t know. I write all of these posts in a Word document and post them as I have internet on my computer, so I haven’t been keeping good track.

Get more sleep than I do at ND on a regular basis (so, more than 6.5 hours/night).

This has been a success, for the most part. I heard from an expat friend of mine here that language immersion means that you require 2 hours of sleep beyond what you usually require. So, 8 hours of sleep here has about the effect of 6 hours of sleep in America. So I’m glad I can usually get 8… except I think I’ve still only slept through the night 3 or 4 times this whole month.

Stay in a hostel.

Not yet. It will happen. I hope.

Visit every free museum in St. Petersburg.

I’ve been to the Hermitage, a travelling exhibit, a monastery, and two church-museums. I have like 80 left. I am already getting tired of museums. It may not happen.

Do not end up leading/directing/in charge of anything. Except maybe weekend excursions with the other students.

Lolz, of course this hasn’t happened. I’ve already been named экскурсовод (excursion-director) by my classmates. Also, I’ve gotten involved with Cru here in Peter, and this week I was asked to lead the icebreaker at English Movie Night! Did I accept? You bet!

Learn 12 words/day, and use them again.

I haven’t been keeping a list, exactly. Flashcards instead, drawn from the 6 separate lists I’m keeping (for each class, and for myself). I’ve been super disorganized about this. I need to change that pronto. I’ve tried several different systems for keeping track of my new words all in one place, but none of them are working well for me.

So: I don’t know. On class days? Definitely. On free days? Probably not quite 12.

Keep a journal, minimum 150 words/day*

I’m currently about 500 words behind in my journal, because I have a bad habit of skipping a day, and then the next day not wanting to write about two days’ worth of events so skipping that day too, on and on for a significant length of time. Or just skipping a day so as to write three emails and a blog post.

Read 3 news articles/week.

To say it plainly: no. I’ve read a few, and several poems, but this is something I also need to figure out a schedule for.

So, for what it’s worth, there’s how I’m doing. More to come soon regarding:

PDA in Russia

Sightseeing around the center city

Church life

Why literary culture in America is declining, as explained by Russian

Maslenitsa