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| 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!
I liked all those questions. And I liked all those answers.
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