I have a cold and I am very tired. I refuse on principle to keep two records of my time here in Kirov, so you guys (which now includes my dad’s Facebook friends, I guess) are going to hear it all. I have a cold, and so after Sasha One* scolded me for not saying anything when it first started on Thursday, he gave me like three kinds of Russian cold medicine and said something like “this one’s for sore throat, and this one’s for your nose, and this is for your cough, and this one you should dissolve in warm water, and don’t eat or drink for an hour after this one, and this one requires a blood sacrifice.” Something like that, anyway. I fell asleep a little towards the end. Then at breakfast the next day Ira gave me two more things, and then at lunch Sasha Two handed me yet another pill. I’m just hoping that someone is keeping track, because I’m not sure what can and cannot be taken together.
Also, I met my host mom today! We all went ice skating on Saturday, but my host family was in the village with their grandparents, so they couldn’t come, so I was one of the only ones who hadn’t met my family yet. Today, we did presentations on ourselves and our families for our host families, and then we walked around the park together. She brought me chocolate. She’s super nice, and I was surprised by how much I was able to understand her. Arina, my host sister, helped translate, too. Between the three of us, we were able to work it out.
We’ve had ever so slightly less homework this week, but I still have to memorize this monologue for tomorrow, and I can’t say I’m sure it’s going to happen. Every day we have a phonetics class for an hour, where we either learn a poem or a song. Then half of us have conversation class with Larissa, who terrifies me just a little. Then a 15 minute break, then grammar with Anna. We’re assigned 15-20 words to memorize and spell on a quiz the next day, and whatever dialogue or poem or text Larissa wants us to read and (and usually memorize), and grammar exercises for Anna. It’s a lot, but it’s fun to get together in groups and at least pretend we’re doing work. One more week in the hostel. It’s gone so fast.
*Sasha One met us in Moscow and took the train with us to Kirov, which is why he gets to be Sasha One. Sasha Two is an AFS volunteer who came with the Russian peers. Sashas Three, Four, and Five are the Russian peers. There are also two girls named Dasha, which means that 1 in 4 of the Russian peers are named Sasha or Dasha.