Someone in my Fulbright group sent out a link to this amazing, funny website – Big Russian Soul - which I wanted to pass along.
Other than my recent post of a poem by Aleksandr Blok, I haven’t written anything on this blog during my time in Russia, which is now approaching a full 4 months. I could write a novella about my life here so far, my impressions, musings, but I do not have time, nor do you have time to read it. So for now, I will just give a somewhat brief, functional update, with only minimal editorializing. This journal is often in the back of my mind as I’m moving through my daily life and ideas for articles come into my head not infrequently. I don’t want to let this year get away without better analyzing life here and without documenting these things in a better format than my sporadic emails to friends and family, so I hope to write more often. (I have also kept a semi-regular Russian journal for writing practice, which you are welcome to read, but its analysis is limited by my Russian language ability).
I left Ohio at the end of July, sadly parting with my few remaining good friends there and especially my family, whom I did not expect to see for an entire year. I flew to Moscow and spent the entire month of August there with a group of 13 or so other Fulbright grantees. We lived in an authentic Russian dormitory (authentic, in this case, means really run-down, probably equivalent to welfare housing in the U.S. ) at Moscow Gumanitarnij Universitet (MosGU), listened to presentations about teaching English at Russian universities, went on a few excursions to museums and interesting places, and, somewhat half-heartedly, took classes in Russian language. Read more »
