Koa
09-01-2005, 12:42 PM
Hellooooooooooo!
I was back from Moscow 2 days ago and I struggled to find some time for the forums, but for the next 2 hours I should be free...
So...my month in Moscow was a great experience. The city is so incredibly big, it could take literally hours to get from one place to another, even if the transports, namely the underground/subway is really efficient. The institute I was studying at is located in the suburbs, so that it took at least half an hour to get to the centre...and the closest metro station was a 20 minutes walk away! And that's called normal there...whatever, I quickly got used to it. Only it was a stress cos I had class till 3pm, and most museums closed at 6pm, so I had to rush to get there on time... But at least at the beginning of August, the sun was up until almost 10pm, so there usually was no hurry if I just wanted to walk around.
The buildings are also huge...the people all live in blocks of flat that are so big, like I think Ive rarely seen one that had less than 10 floors! (maybe the Americans wouldnt be that impressed, but the vasitity of everything was really new to me...). The parks also were huge, like huge woods in the middle of the city...also something unusual for me.
The language course was good. I ended up in a class with all Polish people (there were plenty of Polish there), a Japanese that vanished soon and a guy from Taiwan who didnt really care about it and appeared from time to time just for fun. At first I really didnt like my class, the Polish understood Russian much better than me and spoke more easily than me, and sometimes the teacher didnt seem too patient to explain me everything, plus I didnt like some of her methods... But from the middle of the month I started to like the lessons, maybe cos we were less and less people attending and we could talk more and words were explained in a more relaxed way, the teacher stopped doing that kind of exercise that I didnt like... All was great, and I feel that my Russian improved a lot, now I can hold conversations even if my vocabulary and oral comprehension skills are still far from perfect, and I make tons of grammar mistakes, of which I realise myself but my mind is not quick enough to correct them on time. I believe that when I'll reach that perfect syncrony, I will be able to say that my Russian is good.
I also finally had the chance to experience the pleasures and pains of living in a dorm... which was really interesting. My roommates were a Czech who lives in Italy, a Basque and an American (who unfortunately left soon) and we all got on really well. Despite this, from the social point of view this experience was a step back compared to my Hungarian sociability... I often was hanging around on my own cos the other Italians from my group just spent many afternoons at the dorms studying or doing nothing, and I handt come there to just see the dorm... and even if they were nice and funny and I spent some good times with them, sometimes I felt a bit like it was a kindergarten, and wondered if my super-independent-woman attitude isn't a bit wrong... But I really can't stand the fact of always moving in a group (they would all go to bed if only half of them were tired, and stuff like that!), of spending hours in the kitchen (a common kitchen for every floor... on my floor it was practically impossible to use the kitchen thanks to an invasion of Italians who seemed to cook a wedding fest everyday...even in the 40 minutes of break we had for lunch!)...basically, I found many other reasons why I don't have much to share with the typical Italian.
I was hanging around with Czechs sometimes, but we didnt always agree on our plans so I went alone many times...I don't know, I left the forum one month ago with some kind of speech about being weird wondering if I wasnt exagerating with my statements, but at times I've felt weirder (and lonelier) than ever recently, during those solitary walks which I immensely enjoyed anyway.
What else.. well now I'm back to reality, with less and less ideas about my final paper which is due in 2 months, and wondering if I should look for a job immediately or wait at least until my paper is almost done, so to be sure that I really make it by November... Thankfully a guy I know needs some help where he works so I can go there for a few days when needed, which is a great solution that leaves me the time to solve the situation about the damn paper. In the past week I was kind of feeling like I needed another holiday after all the running around I've done to see all I wnated to see in Moscow... :D
And here, what's up? Did I miss anything important? Give me a summary of the main events and let me know if there's something I must absolutely read... :banana:
I was back from Moscow 2 days ago and I struggled to find some time for the forums, but for the next 2 hours I should be free...
So...my month in Moscow was a great experience. The city is so incredibly big, it could take literally hours to get from one place to another, even if the transports, namely the underground/subway is really efficient. The institute I was studying at is located in the suburbs, so that it took at least half an hour to get to the centre...and the closest metro station was a 20 minutes walk away! And that's called normal there...whatever, I quickly got used to it. Only it was a stress cos I had class till 3pm, and most museums closed at 6pm, so I had to rush to get there on time... But at least at the beginning of August, the sun was up until almost 10pm, so there usually was no hurry if I just wanted to walk around.
The buildings are also huge...the people all live in blocks of flat that are so big, like I think Ive rarely seen one that had less than 10 floors! (maybe the Americans wouldnt be that impressed, but the vasitity of everything was really new to me...). The parks also were huge, like huge woods in the middle of the city...also something unusual for me.
The language course was good. I ended up in a class with all Polish people (there were plenty of Polish there), a Japanese that vanished soon and a guy from Taiwan who didnt really care about it and appeared from time to time just for fun. At first I really didnt like my class, the Polish understood Russian much better than me and spoke more easily than me, and sometimes the teacher didnt seem too patient to explain me everything, plus I didnt like some of her methods... But from the middle of the month I started to like the lessons, maybe cos we were less and less people attending and we could talk more and words were explained in a more relaxed way, the teacher stopped doing that kind of exercise that I didnt like... All was great, and I feel that my Russian improved a lot, now I can hold conversations even if my vocabulary and oral comprehension skills are still far from perfect, and I make tons of grammar mistakes, of which I realise myself but my mind is not quick enough to correct them on time. I believe that when I'll reach that perfect syncrony, I will be able to say that my Russian is good.
I also finally had the chance to experience the pleasures and pains of living in a dorm... which was really interesting. My roommates were a Czech who lives in Italy, a Basque and an American (who unfortunately left soon) and we all got on really well. Despite this, from the social point of view this experience was a step back compared to my Hungarian sociability... I often was hanging around on my own cos the other Italians from my group just spent many afternoons at the dorms studying or doing nothing, and I handt come there to just see the dorm... and even if they were nice and funny and I spent some good times with them, sometimes I felt a bit like it was a kindergarten, and wondered if my super-independent-woman attitude isn't a bit wrong... But I really can't stand the fact of always moving in a group (they would all go to bed if only half of them were tired, and stuff like that!), of spending hours in the kitchen (a common kitchen for every floor... on my floor it was practically impossible to use the kitchen thanks to an invasion of Italians who seemed to cook a wedding fest everyday...even in the 40 minutes of break we had for lunch!)...basically, I found many other reasons why I don't have much to share with the typical Italian.
I was hanging around with Czechs sometimes, but we didnt always agree on our plans so I went alone many times...I don't know, I left the forum one month ago with some kind of speech about being weird wondering if I wasnt exagerating with my statements, but at times I've felt weirder (and lonelier) than ever recently, during those solitary walks which I immensely enjoyed anyway.
What else.. well now I'm back to reality, with less and less ideas about my final paper which is due in 2 months, and wondering if I should look for a job immediately or wait at least until my paper is almost done, so to be sure that I really make it by November... Thankfully a guy I know needs some help where he works so I can go there for a few days when needed, which is a great solution that leaves me the time to solve the situation about the damn paper. In the past week I was kind of feeling like I needed another holiday after all the running around I've done to see all I wnated to see in Moscow... :D
And here, what's up? Did I miss anything important? Give me a summary of the main events and let me know if there's something I must absolutely read... :banana: