Sunday, April 6, 2008

Quick hello (part II)

Unfortunately I am rushed for time again but I figured some news is better than no news at all...So life is honestly pretty good here. That isn't to say that I haven't had to make some major adjustments in order to be comfortable but the transition has been no where near as difficult as I would have thought. (I don't believe in jinxes fyi...yet) My host family has cable TV (complete with a Russian version of Married with Children...every detail indentical...just in Russian), hot water, fantastic food and thanks to me a serious Uno addiction. There are obviously things that I miss about home--friends, family, my teams and Buddy's Pizza--but each day here brings with it new experiences that I would never have a chance to know back in the States.

I think I mentioned this in a prior post, but I am learning Russian and am totally enthused about it. With all of the new developments taking place in Russia and all of the former Soviet Republics, Ukraine included, I cannot imagine a more important language to have under my belt moving forward. The langauge training is tough, however. I would guess that the first 5 days of classes covered well over a half of semsester's worth of college language course work. The fact that there are only 5 of us guarantees a ton of individual attention and that makes a lot of difference. Plus living among and with Russian speakers (my host family speaks zero english) makes it easier to practice what I have learned. I know the next 10 weeks or so of training is only going to get tougher but I think I am up to the challenge...

I bought a cell phone yesterday but the store did not have the Sim card I needed so I will have to wait until tomorrow to be able to send an receive calls. I promise to post the number here as soon as I get it. All of my incoming calls are free so call all you want (within reason). Keep in mind that it is 7 hours later here...EST. I am really not suppossed to be getting mail during the first 3 months so I will refrain from posting my address here...if anything changes I will be sure to post that as well.

It's getting late and I have to do some studying before bed...if anyone has any questions you can post them on here and I will do my best to answer them. Hope everyone is happy, healthy and not flipping out over the Tigers 0-3 start. I will try and post in the next few days...miss you all.

3 comments:

Muzachary said...

1) how's the toilet paper
2) how do you say "yeah, booooyyyeee in russian
3) what's your favorite thing to eat there?
4) what does your apt. look like?
5) what kind of anecdote can your relate to us about the language barrier?

Anonymous said...

http://www.unforgettablelanguages.com/frames_a6.html?gclid=CL-477S0ypICFQIgPAodiQ4cqQ
learn Russian language really fast at this site using link word recognition tools! For example: The Russian word for Cow is Karova. Now imagine driving a car ova a cow!..Karova

Then there is this site:
http://www.foreigndocuments.com/phrases_hello.html
words like hello and goodbye..


Seems easy! We'll learn along with you.

love and dasveedanya.

J Ro

Andrew said...

Hey Jordan,

Keep this blog going! I'll read so long as you write.

Glad to hear you're doing well.

Tell me, does your host family think that the ending of Rocky IV was complete b.s.?

Love,
Stein