Thursday 6 November 2008

we apologise for the delay in the running of this service

OK so, 's been a while, but lots of stuff has been happening and I've been too busy doing it to stop and write about it.. also had lots of stuff going on in my head which has been taking up lots of time and energy as well.

So, at the beginning, when I started out on this Russian adventure, I was really happy to discover that I wasn't completely shit at languages after all and that I was actually doing pretty well in class. As time went on though, I got more and more frustrated by how slowly the group was moving, largely because we had these two Korean guys who didn't seem to get anything at all, and also because every 2 weeks new people would join and sometimes they would know the same stuff as us and sometimes not so we would constantly have to repeat stuff we already knew to get them up to speed. Last week I finally got fed up of this, because I knew I could be learning more and the thought of getting to the end of 3 months and barely having scratched the surface of Russian was really depressing me, so I've decided to take two weeks of one on one lessons (mucha gracias mama) and try and move into a higher level group after that so that I can move forward faster with the language. So far I've had two lessons with her and shes lovely and doesnt mind explaining things in english, and judging by what my friends in the group are doing im moving along much quicker so its all looking ok for joining the next group up. Having said that, the director of studies just spoke to me and asked me to sit a test tomorrow so she can judge if im good enough so im now freaking out about that a bit.. So that's the first bit of big news.

The second bit is related to this, but more vague and complicated. I had been planning to move to Edinburgh in January to actually do something towards getting a proper job etc instead of just swanning around the world in my usual fashion. The thought of moving back to Britain didn't particularly fill me with joy. The longer I stay here, the more I feel like the last thing I want to do right now is move back, not really because I hate Britain, because I don't, I just really prefer it here, against all expectations. One of the things ive really enjoyed about moscow is its tendency to surprise you... youre walking along a really ugly street and then suddenly down a side street will be a really beautiful church or a perfectly preserved/restored building, you spend days paying a fortune for things in cafes then suddenly you discover a really cheap amazing place to eat... you spend weeks missing a certain type of food and then it turns up in a random tiny supermarket that you only went in to get a bottle of water...
In short, I'm having an amazing time, not because I'm not working, I was never a massive fan of studying, but just because this place makes me feel comfortable but excited at the same time. I've made some great friends and most of them are going to be here for at least a year, either because theyre russian, or because theyve been studying at the school in order to move their work here so as a result i feel like it would be nice to stay longer both from a linguistic perspective and from a just generally being happy here pov, and that this wouldnt involve making a whole bunch of new friends again.

Ideally, I'd like to come back here after Christmas and carry on studying Russian for another 3 months, because I think after 6 months of studying it I'd be reasonably competent (which I definitely won't be after only 3 months). Unfortunately that would cost in the region of £8k, and short of selling my liver (obviously the most valuable organ in russia), I don't see how I can get that kind of money together without coming back to Britain and temping again, interrupting the language learning process, which would be a pain to have to waste time repeating stuff I'd forgotten. So, plan B is to get a job here, either a proper one which will let me stay for a couple years, or a part time one which will provide enough cashish for me to keep studying for a bit while the proper job materialises. Either way, I am going to do my very best to avoid coming back to Britain next year.

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