nap and the boyfriend

This afternoon, I had a three and a half hour nap. I really wanted to go with everyone to the museum of Rasputin’s penis, but I’m glad I took the time to recharge. Sometimes when I take an afternoon nap, it’s hard to get to sleep and there’s a chance that I’ll just waste a lot of time just trying to get to sleep. This afternoon, I had no such trouble.

Tomorrow we are going to Псков Pskov! This is a very old city near the border with Estonia, built in the tenth century AD, that has seen many different inhabitants of various cultures. I'm really looking forward to the five hour drive tomorrow morning because I haven't yet seen any of the Russian countryside!

Tonight, I met some people (including some of our tutors - Russians!) at Московская площадь Moskovskaya Square, home of a 16 m. tall statue of Lenin and lots of fountains. I asked one of the tutors, Марина Marina, and she said it was an excellent and relatively safe place to play my violin for some cash. So I think I will!

I've decided that my Russian is not improving quickly enough. There are some things that I've definitely learned that I wouldn't have at home - practical words that are necessary here. But I would have more fun and communicate more effectively with a bigger vocabulary. And then being in Russia at all will be more worthwhile. It's been two weeks and I think it's time to be a bit less passive in my approach to learning the language.

So I've returned to my flashcard regimen, basically moving through new words whenever I have spare time, on the bus, in my room, sometimes when I'm walking. It still feels like relaxing, especially since I'm not really being tested on the words. And I've already started to find opportunities to use the new ones in conversation. Not difficult to do, since I only know about fifty words to begin with...or so it seems whenever I try to communicate anything.

It is a fine balancing act to get the most out of the program. The last thing I want to do is isolate myself from the group and study all of the time. Anyway, I could do that in Niskayuna. But even if I go out with Russians and talk with them all the time, I won't progress as quickly as if I have some time to myself to drill words and grammar. Also, there's the danger of becoming reliant on ways to get around words that I don't know or concepts that I haven't internalized.

So I'll see how this approach goes. If nothing else, it's fun to have my vocabulary expanding.

Breaking news: I just met the boyfriend! Ура Huzzah! He (Саша Sasha) and Наташа Natasha, my host sister, just came home with lots of groceries and a backpack. They are going hiking tomorrow! Саша Sasha is very nice, somewhat drunk, and talked with me for a good while just now.

I'm slowly breaking the ice with Наташа Natasha. It's hard for me to remember how amusing it must be for her when I try to make sentences in Russian. She studies English at the university but is very nice about not getting frustrated and just telling me whatever she's trying to tell me in English.

We won't get back from Псков Pskov until Sunday evening (Sunday morning at home) so I won't write until then. Here are the lyrics to the excellent song I'm listening to right now.