mort09 May 22nd, 2010

This week I helped a fourth-year public relations group with their final presentations (and sang songs with them as a part of it), played word games with another group, saw Robin Hood (not that impressive), showed Hairspray at our last English film club, and bought a ticket out of Ukhta. Exams start at the end of next week, so students are busy preparing, and I don’t have much to do. My ticket is a 24-hour train ride from Ukhta to Cherepovets leaving on June 6. There is an English Access Camp for kids in Cherepovets where I’ll be helping out for a week, after which it’s a relatively short train ride to St. Petersburg and further adventures. As I’ve been thinking about leaving, I’ve prepared a partial list of things I’ll miss about living here and things I am looking forward to at home.

Things I’ll miss about Ukhta:

my friends

Russian soup and salad lunches

tvorog, pirozhki, sukhariki (little hard flavored croutons for eating with beer), and gren’ki

constant tea-drinking

low-stress job

spacious apartment

being able to walk anywhere in town

minor cultural/linguistic mishaps and awkwardness

speaking Russian

seeing new places

late addition: dachas and banyas

Things I’m looking forward to in America:

seeing friends and family

Mexican, Chinese, and Indian food

Chex Mix (the ultimate American beer food)

a more demanding job (I hope)

having an oven

real coffee

ease of communication

clean restrooms with toilet paper and soap

cleaner, better roads

the rest of my clothes and books that I left at home

good wine

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