Well I have had an eventful past few days!
Taking of Thursday night on a red eye was less than my ideal way to start a trip, and then the flight had an hour delay. Regardless of the minor adversity, I made it to Vermont by 10am on Sunday by way of Newark. I have never been to Vermont before, but I have been to New Hampshire and Maine so I had some idea what to expect, however it was still quite shocking. Vermont is a very small place! Middlebury is the 18th largest town in the state and has a population of 8500. I am yet to see a stoplight, and the 40 minute drive from the airport here was along a two lane road with rural (but beautiful) houses on each side. The town (or actually village) is quite small, but has quite an interesting range of shops and resurants available, and it all looks like a travel brochure or 50s movie. Not that we will have much time to go into town of course, they have lots of activities for us here and the language pledge sill applies in town to all but 100% essential communication.
The whole place is very green, there are trees and grass growing wild everywhere, no need for irrigation even on the fields. Middlebury College is also quite a small place, with older buildings mixed in with brand new ones. The dorm I am staying in is called Gifford Hall, and is the central hub of the Russian program. there are about 130 students here for Russian school this year, and it has been difficult to keep track of all the faces, names and life stories, but it will happen with time. It really is like camp in many aspects, except the average age is 22 or so I would guess (plenty of undergrads, recent grads, grad students, and even several "real adults")
Tonight we take the language pledge, all Russian all the time until mid August! It is going to be very interesting, and challenging, but I think I am up to it. I tested into a class that should be perfect, it seems to be half people who have had two years of Russian, and forgotten it over a few years that followed (Like I have) or people fresh out of there first year of Russian who were able to remember everything. That should be perfect for what I want to do, since I have to start 3rd year Russian in the fall at MIIS. It looks like my class will be a review of what I know, plus some good new stuff and involves a bunch of Russian Films (!!!)
I am not sure when I will be able to blog again, but it will be in Russian so we shall see! I will also get some pictures up eventually, but it has been such a whirlwind of a time that I have not gotten to take any yet.
Until then, I remain...
Матвей (Cеверный)
Taking of Thursday night on a red eye was less than my ideal way to start a trip, and then the flight had an hour delay. Regardless of the minor adversity, I made it to Vermont by 10am on Sunday by way of Newark. I have never been to Vermont before, but I have been to New Hampshire and Maine so I had some idea what to expect, however it was still quite shocking. Vermont is a very small place! Middlebury is the 18th largest town in the state and has a population of 8500. I am yet to see a stoplight, and the 40 minute drive from the airport here was along a two lane road with rural (but beautiful) houses on each side. The town (or actually village) is quite small, but has quite an interesting range of shops and resurants available, and it all looks like a travel brochure or 50s movie. Not that we will have much time to go into town of course, they have lots of activities for us here and the language pledge sill applies in town to all but 100% essential communication.
The whole place is very green, there are trees and grass growing wild everywhere, no need for irrigation even on the fields. Middlebury College is also quite a small place, with older buildings mixed in with brand new ones. The dorm I am staying in is called Gifford Hall, and is the central hub of the Russian program. there are about 130 students here for Russian school this year, and it has been difficult to keep track of all the faces, names and life stories, but it will happen with time. It really is like camp in many aspects, except the average age is 22 or so I would guess (plenty of undergrads, recent grads, grad students, and even several "real adults")
Tonight we take the language pledge, all Russian all the time until mid August! It is going to be very interesting, and challenging, but I think I am up to it. I tested into a class that should be perfect, it seems to be half people who have had two years of Russian, and forgotten it over a few years that followed (Like I have) or people fresh out of there first year of Russian who were able to remember everything. That should be perfect for what I want to do, since I have to start 3rd year Russian in the fall at MIIS. It looks like my class will be a review of what I know, plus some good new stuff and involves a bunch of Russian Films (!!!)
I am not sure when I will be able to blog again, but it will be in Russian so we shall see! I will also get some pictures up eventually, but it has been such a whirlwind of a time that I have not gotten to take any yet.
Until then, I remain...
Матвей (Cеверный)
