So, I decided not long after hearing about the Fulbright that I won't be going back to Russia for a while. I can't ask my parents to cosign on a loan and take on more debt. It's not right. At the moment, I'm still looking for a job in Columbia, but I'm having absolutely no luck at all on that front, so I'm almost completely resigned to staying in Sumter and working here full-time. Unfortunately, I'm not having any luck at all finding a job here, either. If anyone knows of anything, drop me a line. I'll try to take the [View Full Entry]

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I didn't get the Fulbright. I got to the final round and it all went to shit. The Fulbright people lost my address so I had to ask them what happened. They said I wasn't selected for a grant. I'm not even an alternate. If they'd bothered to keep addresses straight, I might have had more time to find more financial resources. I'm trying to arrange for a student loan with International Student Loans, but European University isn't an approved school-- I can't get a loan until they register with the US Department of Education. I don't know if they'll agree [View Full Entry]

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Friday March 14 2008 Hi everyone. My computer is broken so I haven't been able to write anything on my laptop. I"m left to battle it out with the other 14 teachers for the one computer Language Leech has seen fit to give us. We had to sacrifice our toilet paper privileges for internet access. That's only a joke because it hasn't occured to Language Leech to add that to it's efforts to economize. Coming home on april 11th. I'm still not sure what's going to happen after that. I was hoping to get the Fulbright (I'll find out in June) [View Full Entry]

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Friday, 11 January 2008 Spoke with my director after my last class this evening. I’d asked when my contract would officially end earlier this week and she said she’d check and get back to me. I’m done on April 9th! IT’S A FESTIVUS MIRACLE! Wednesday, January 16, 2008 Bought my ticket home yesterday. $1200. :{ See yall on April 11th… 20 January 2008 I wanted to go to a museum with Natalie today, but instead I stayed in and figured out my life. I want to do Russian and Eastern European history for my Ph.d. I’ve always loved history and there’s [View Full Entry]

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Sunday, January 7, 2007 5:52 am St. Pete I got back from Tanya’s (my old host mother) house around 10:00. I didn’t realize how nice it would be catch back up with her and her family. I thought I’d only been there for an hour or two, but 4 hours had flown by. Considering that we spoke Russian the entire time (with the exception of “coconut”), I’m surprised that it was so completely painless. That was the first real Russian-language conversation I’ve had since I left in 2006. She sent me home with a bag of flour. Not randomly, I mentioned [View Full Entry]

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December 31st, 2007 11:58 am SC time. 8:58 pm here Being on vacation has only reminded me of how tired I really am. I guess this is as good as time as any to officially say that I intend to come home in April. I’m waiting to get enough money together for a plane ticket—my family’s gonna have to lend me the money for the time being, but I’m aiming to leave on April 16th. I’ll still be coming back to study later in 2008, assuming European University accepts me and I get the Fulbright, or at least a good student [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday, December 26, 2007 Before we begin, I want to point out that we were ALL completely sober in these pictures, yet still managed to look like this. Had Festivus Yesterday. It’s not the same as being with family on Christmas, but it was nice to have a house full of people to play with. We all helped cook Festivus dinner. My contribution was Charleston-style crab cakes, which turned out really well, I’m happy to say. I had to buy imitation crab cake, which came in a roll, I kid you not. There was just a mass of it stuck together [View Full Entry]

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Tuesday, December 11, 2007 Today on LL: Descent into Insanity This month, we are collaborating with the sociology department of Moscow State University and are trying to determine if we can reverse the housemates’ entire concept of good and bad. We had an administrator review Stephanie’s lesson last night. While Stephanie clearly bombed the lesson (heart rate 112) and somehow ripped a hole in the divide between Hell and Earth (tornadoes ravaged Saint Petersburg, the walls bled, children screamed, the Bronze Horseman was split in two by a bolt of lightning from the heavens, and the dead walked the earth), we [View Full Entry]

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Tuesday, November 27, 2007 “Thou shalt not steal, but thou shalt accept generous donations of free-wi-fi from thy neighbor.”—Nate That just drifted in from the hallway. We’re all strung out on the internet here, so any mention of wi-fi gets our attention, no matter what room we’re in. Wednesday, December 5, 2007 ____________________________________________ This week on LL: Descent into Insanity: Breaking the computer and copier was such a huge hit with viewers that we’ve decided to up the ante. We have broken the copier and the computer again and replaced the printer’s ink cartridge with a nearly empty cartridge. AND, while [View Full Entry]

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Saturday, October 20, 2007 Petersburg seems so different than it was when I left in 2006. The city has an entirely new feeling about it, although I know the only reason it seems as if it’s changed is because my life here is different now. It seemed so much more accessible when I was a student and I had my ACTR friends to spend time with. I’m still waiting to hear if I can get my contract reduced to 6 months. The head of the school told me that it’s been done before, so I don’t know what the hold up [View Full Entry]

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