I finally downloaded part of the course catalog. The whole catalog would be way too long, and to be honest, I’ll probably just be taking History and Russian classes. MAYBE one of my four classes will be some sort of elective (although said elective MUST fulfill a distribution requirement). This means that soon I will be sitting down with all kinds of charts, figuring out a) what distribution requirements I need to fill b) what major requirements I need to fill c) what classes I’m interested in d) what kind of schedule I’d like e) which professors I like and f) what I most likely want to take senior year (which is the semester after next-CHOKE-when did that happen?) and I will take all of these things into consideration to make the perfect schedule for next semester.
This is a lie, it won’t be perfect, because half of the Russian classes I want to take aren’t offered this year. As much as I love the Russian Department, perhaps we need more than 5 professors. Or maybe they should all be here at once instead of rotating when they go on sabbatical.
Enough of that. The other subject catalogs I downloaded are Psychology, Political Science, Sociology/Anthropology, Philosophy, Religion, Math, and Physics. I’m excited to get back to something that resembles an organized and independent life.
One of my biggest frustrations here, I guess, is trying to decide how far I want to go with Russian. In theory, I’d like to get a Master’s degree and actually use it in my professional life. On the other hand, as of right now, I can’t express any complex thoughts, and that is very frustrating. In order to really get better, I need to be speaking ALL THE TIME. Even when we were in
Okay sorry that was completely without (erg, I know EXACTLY how I’d say this in Russian, I can’t even speak English anymore) meaning? Completely meaningless? You get the point. I’ve also been thinking about what happens when I move into my own apartment. I guess it’ll be like playing “House”, but for real. I’m not worried. I’m responsible and intelligent enough to handle it. I also get really excited about the thought of matching juice glasses from Target.
Update: So I went through my pages of courses and finally came up with 21 to choose from. Well, actually, I already know I’m going to take Tatiana’s class, so that’s 1…so I guess I have to choose 3 of 20. I should actually say 3 of 18, because if I were to do one physics class, I’d have to do both at the same time, and that would be 2 of the 3 courses I need to choose from, and I don’t think I can just take 2 physics classes when I still need to finish all of my requirements for the History and Russian majors. Sigh. I’m still not ready to give up the idea of being a physics minor, but at this point, there’s probably no way I’d be able to do it. Sad. So instead of doing my grammar homework, now I’m going to figure out exactly what requirements I need to fill-both distribution and major requirements. This is the best form of procrastination ever.
Further update: To my great surprise and delight, I discovered that I have already (or will inevitably soon) fulfilled all of my distribution requirements except for 1. I have also fulfilled all of my Russian major requirements except for 2, both of which I have to take fall of senior year and can’t take spring of junior year. I have fulfilled 7 of the 11 courses I need to take for history, and only still have to do a 100 level course (which hopefully I can waive that requirement), a reading seminar (which I will probably take next semester), and 2 pre-1800 level courses (which I’m hoping I can use an AP credit for one, and my history class in Russian for the other…which would also put me up to 8 of the 11 classes I need to take). Therefore, planning this semester is going to be much less stressful than I thought. As of right now I should take Tatiana’s class, 2 history classes (one of them being my reading seminar), and then my 4th class can be whatever I want it to be. I need to check out the times for all of these, because that is WAY important. One class may be better than another just by the description, but if the better one is a 3 PM class and the other one is 9 AM, I’m gonna go for the 9 AM. I also need to see if the professors are good. MAN I wish I had internet access right now. Oh, it’s 11 PM, I should probably do my homework.
Friday, November 9th: I am in like the worst mood EVER today. I forgot my Speech Practice homework at home, which is SO annoying, especially because I did in in advance and spent a long time on it (as in, not the night before). It doesn’t really matter that much, she just asked that I bring it in on Tuesday, but still. Then our grammar teacher was especially unpleasant today. Actually I don’t think that’s true, I think I was the one that was especially unpleasant (not to anyone else, just to myself, so she seemed more unpleasant, but it was really just my mood). THEN Sonya and I went to Café Fiesta to use wi-fi, and they told us we couldn’t. There’s more to it than that. First, everything was fine, we would buy our little cups of tea and use the internet. Then they told us we would have to buy 100 rubles worth of food in order to get a half hour of internet (which would be like $4 for a half hour of internet and a lot of tea...but the tea isn’t really what we want). So then there were times when we could just avoid the two girls who would say that and everything would be fine. Or, we could order stuff from the other side (one side is like pizza/soup/food, the other is like dessert/coffee…the dessert/coffee side has the internet code printer), show them our receipts, and they’d print it for us. But NOW, after we each bought a slice of pizza (well, I bought borsch), they told us that we have to buy something from the dessert/coffee side in order to use the internet. IT’S THE SAME EXACT CAFÉ! It’s not like one side is it’s own separate business. So then we left, and are in search of that other internet café (which we have yet to find). I think I’ll seek it out tonight, or maybe tomorrow.
So, also, like ALL of the classes I want to take are 3-4:15. And the ones that aren’t are at the same time. I have a list of like 16 classes, and pretty much all of them are 11-12:15 or 3-4:15. There’s one that’s 8-9:15, another that’s 10, etc. But still. I don’t want afternoon classes, especially since I don’t want it to mess with my softball schedule. I don’t know. I’m still trying to figure it out, it just sucks A LOT. I might be able to make this work though. I do like getting up early, and I work really well in the morning, so maybe it’s better if I still get up early, work out, do work/read, and then go to class. I dunno, we’ll see. But like, why are Tatiana’s Culture class and Beyer’s Lit class at exactly the same time? Like, those who want to take the culture class probably would be interested in the Lit class as well. The department is only so big. (On the other hand, there are probably going to be only 4 people taking the Civ/Culture class…since it’s in Russian).
On the plus side, Ivan’s dad is here and we’re all going to dinner tonight. It should be really fun. We’ll also probably be speaking English, which although is not good for my language proficiency, will probably be a stress reliever.
Update on classes: So I think I have this figured out. The only problem is, if I can’t get credit for a) the history class I’m taking right now for credit and as a pre-1800 class b) my AP US history credit as a history credit and also as a credit for a pre-1800 class c) my Soviet Politics class for the second half of the Traditional/Modern Russia requirement for the Russian major and d) be exempt from taking a 100 level history class, I’m going to be taking nothing but Russian and History classes my senior year. Which I guess would be okay with me, as of right now I can’t really find any other classes I’d be dying to take. Also I find it unlikely that I won’t get credit for anything. But you never know. At any rate, I will graduate with all credits needed, I just might not be able to take some random class that I find that sounds interesting. I guess I can live with that. Also that’s a worst case scenario.
I think something about the cold of
So just got back from dinner with Ivan and his dad (and Joseph, Sonya, Eddie, and Adrienne). We all had a really good time, even if the place where we were eating had the loudest, most obnoxious music ever. It looked like it would be a nice quiet dining experience, but the music was more nightclubish. Also there was a herd of very awkward middle-aged dancing Russians. So in a bunch of restaurants I guess they have this person that just stands in the corner and sings. It’s supposed to be live music but I don’t think it’s very good. Sonya said this is what her host sister does in the Chinese restaurant near where she lives. I now want to go there really really badly. I also learned that my blog is reading material for…a vast number of people in the Eastern/almost Southern part of the
We also had a long discussion about the events of Olhon. I feel like it’s not really worth talking about anymore because we all have different perceptions of how much danger we were actually in. Some downplay it, others don’t. I happen to think it was a very bad situation, but I don’t really think we could have done anything differently. Also, as a side note, I know everyone makes fun of me for being a spaz at times, but I think I’m pretty good in crisis situations and am able to read situations in general. I think my biggest problem is that I don’t ever want to be mean to people, which is often necessary in
So I guess this evening I’m going to Tanya’s house. I don’t quite know what I’m supposed to do. I guess this will be an interesting cultural experience.
In other news, my host mother let me wash my own dishes after breakfast today. I consider this a great victory of mine, as she usually forbids me from doing such productive tasks.
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