Meeting Host Family!

6 Sept 2010

I’ve now moved in with my host family! I couldn’t believe how nervous I was to meet them. It was like an audition, we were all standing on the other side of this wall from the families, and people were called one-by-one. I know everyone keeps saying ‘oh, if you have someone who speaks English it’s not as good, you aren’t forced into Russian,” but seriously, having Polina able to speak English has made everything better – I understand important info, like what time to be up, and when to leave, where the metro is, and also the conversation can keep moving in Russian since if I don’t know a word, Polina can supply it. I like her a lot – she is really into Anime and Russian Facebook – I can definitely get behind that. We talked about anime in general and she gave me a Deathnote Russian manga to read, I’m totally stoked. Olya is really nice, and helpful, but not stereotypical babushka (she’s too young!) in the sense of being crazy overbearing or anything. This morning she took me to school, thankfully, cause I never would’ve made it there by myself. The longest part of my commute is the walk from Belarusskaya vokzal (my metro stop) to the university, but unfortunately its pretty much unavoidable. So I need to be prepared for 20 min outside per commute leg.  We had tests to determine our placement – everyone was really nervous, but I never am on placement tests, since I wanna get placed exactly where I belong. The oral was way better than the written – I have such an easier time speaking than understanding, since any word that Polina Leonidovna taught me I remember super well, but she didn’t teach me crazy many words. At lunch I discovered two things – 1. Cafeterias are way cheap, 2. Russians eat really traditional Russian food at EVERY SINGLE MEAL. This morning for breakfast, I had a warm hard-boiled egg, tea, cherry yogurt and bread with cheese and kolbasa. For lunch, meat-loafy thing, mashed potatoes, bread, salad, and raspberry juice. Got super lost on the way home – at first, I realized I had forgotten my passport. Back to University. Next, I couldn’t remember where the door to the metro was at the train station, even though I’ve been there like literally 5 times. Next, I couldn’t find my line after the transfer. Then I couldn’t find anywhere to buy tapechki (house slippers) that weren’t hideous like in the first store I went to. I ended up having to give up on that, and I came home for my computer and went to Kofe Haus. Kofe Haus is a silly place – I paid $3.50 for 250 ml of stupid sparkling water (like half a pint) and forgot to buy the 2L bottle of bez gazom that was outside for 40r. Though, I guess if I think of it as $3.50 to use the internet for an hour… no, it still sucks.