so close - and so far away

picture: http://www.middlebury.edu/sa/russia

It is SO CLOSE to being time to head out of the US and Russia is SO FAR AWAY - haha. I have to say that I am incredibly pumped about going! I thought I would write up a quick Q&A post of some of the FAQs that I've received in the past few days/weeks concerning my trip to Russia this coming semester.

Q: Why are you going?

A: I'm studying abroad - I'm enrolled in Middlebury University's School Abroad in Russia and I will be studying Russian language (grammar, speech, and phonetics) and possibly two other culture & civ courses.

Q: Where exactly are you going?

A: Yaroslavl, Russia (pronounced "yar-o-slav", the "a" sounds like the "a" in "yard" and the second "l" is soft) - It's northeast of Moscow - check out the Google Map in the previous entry.

Q: Will it be cold?

A: Yes - most definitely. The weather in Yaroslavl is already a solid 20-25 degrees cooler. You can check out the weather on the handy weather.com app at the bottom of the blog. Just to give you some perspective - I'll be at the same latitude as southern Alaska.

Q: How long will you be there?

A: 3.5 months - September 1st - December 18th

Q: What's the time difference?

A: from central time zone: 9 hours, eastern time zone: 8 hours

Q: What's your living situation?

A: I'm living with a host family. Most families in major cities live in apartments. There are very few "houses" in major cities and one will rarely find neighborhoods and subdivisions near the city center.

Q: Do your host parents/family speak English?

A: Probably not, but even if they did we are supposed to only communicate in Russian.

Q: What type of food do Russians typically eat?

A: Not really sure... but I'll be finding out soon enough. I've opted to eat my meals with my Russian family instead of receiving a stipend for grocery shopping - whatever it is, I'm sure it's not hamburgers and pizza.

Q: Is there anyone else going from UTK?

A: Yes, there is one other student from UT Knoxville going to Yaroslavl - we've had Russian classes together for about 3 years now. She will be in Yaroslavl for the first semester and then she is staying the whole year and will be moving to Irkutsk for the second semester.

Q: What are the people like there?

A: Good question! My senior thesis/project for the Chancellor's Honors Program at UTK will actually be answering this question in the form of an amateur documentary that will compare the typical day of a Russian citizen to the typical day of a United States citizen. I'll let you know more as it comes along.

That is a list of the more common questions I have been asked, but if you have any more or would like to know more about any of the above questions, just let me know by leaving a comment or sending me an e-mail to ssmit131@utk.edu . Please feel free to be interactive with the blog as I update it throughout the semester - let me know what you want to know and see!

the countdown

I leave the country in 19 days. My overall emotion: excited, anxious, nervous - just to name a few. This will be the second time in my life that I have ever left the country (the first being to Jamaica for a mission trip) and the first time to live in some semi-permanent capacity outside the country. Truly, I have no idea what awaits me in Russia, but I'm really excited to find out. All I know is that a sense of adventure is pumping through my veins.

If you don't know already, I'm going to russia to study Russian language and culture as part of my Russian language degree at the University of Tennessee. I'm going with the Middlebury College program and will be in Yaroslavl, Russia for the entire fall semester. Have no idea where that is? Check it out below:






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While i'm going to study Russian language, I'm also going to have a Russian experience - hence the name of the blog. Don't get any ideas though. Stereotypes might lead you to think that I am going to "experience" Russia by drinking tons of vodka and attempting to become a spy - that's not at all what I mean. I'm going to experience another country, culture and people - one that, for some reason, has interested me for a couple years now.

Though I plan to blog as much as possible, it is very likely that I will only have internet access on campus or at an internet cafe of sorts. The likeliness of me having internet access in my host family's apartment is very slim, but I'll try to keep you up to date as much as I can.

One more thing - if you see a new blog post and it's in Russian, don't ignore it! While i will be in Russia, I will be under a language pledge through Middlebury College that "binds" me to use the Russian language first and my native language only in emergency situations or in situations in which I am not able to express myself in the Russian language. So, my plan is to blog first in russian (at least as much as I am able to) then I will blog the same thing in English, so all you will need to do is simply scroll down.

Well - back to my last few days in the states. You can check out my other English blog here: the Overflowing Cup  I'll be keeping them separate for organization's sake.