the russian rain

Friends and family - I apologize for the lack of updates!

Everything is well in Yaroslavl. I've become very comfortable in this setting and am really enjoying the experience.

The weather here can be summed up in one word: cold. Honestly, it's not that bad, but then again it's just September. The worst is yet to come, but I am very ready to see some snow. I'm excited because I'm sure I will be seeing the most snow I've ever seen in my life. The weather for the past two days has been kind of bad with rain and even colder wind, but the weekend is supposed to be nice which is very good news considering we'll be visiting a nearby city on Saturday.

We went on an excursion last weekend to Rostov - if you haven't yet, look at my most recent pictures (by clicking on the film strip at the top of this blog). It was an absolutely beautiful town. The incredibly large churches here are breathtaking. Just today, I was chatting with a friend in our small office at school and I glanced out the window and caught a glimpse of the top of the church that is very near of our university. I had what we like to call an "I'm in Russia" moment - a time when we realize just where we are and how incredibly far away from home we are. You'd be surprised how hard it is, at least for me, to really understand that I'm in a completely different country separated by an OCEAN from my home country - it's hard to conceptualize in my head sometimes.

(This is a picture from our outing to Rostov.)

I've decided to give some piano lessons a try while I'm here. I'm not sure exactly how it will all work yet, but our resident coordinator asked if any of us were interested in taking lessons while we were here and I thought, 'why not?' - I used to play the piano when I was really young and I've always wanted to learn how to play really well, so I have to start somewhere! And the best part is that it's only once a week so it won't take time away from studying and, unlike in the states, the lessons are cheap - a win-win situation.

Classes are going very well. For those of you who don't follow me on twitter, you may not know what classes I'm taking: grammar, stylistics (written speech), rhetoric (oral speech), history, and culture. As I said, all the classes are going well so far. Of course, they're tough - not to mention they are all taught in Russian. My favorite class so far is my culture class. We have been studying a lot about the religious culture in Russia - a very, very interesting subject. If you have never heard of Russian icons, they are very interesting and absolutely beautiful - look them up.

I guess that's about it for now! If you have any questions or want to know something specific, let me know! I'm better at responding to questions. I've gotten used to so many things here that they no longer seem strange, so I forget to mention them - so ask questions - that will help me out.

Peace and love to all.