As I near the end of my first semester in Russia, I am almost halfway done with my year in Ekaterinburg. It is bittersweet, because I have learned so much while being here but I am also afraid the second half will fly by even faster! Here are some of the highlights of my year so far.
I took the train alone from Moscow to Ekaterinburg, and started up conversations with the people in my cabin! I’ve gotten my Russian back to where it was when I was studying abroad three years ago, and I am noticing how it’s getting even better. Now I can listen to the news, podcasts or tv shows and understand most of it (not 100%, but there is room for improvement!). I’ve started conducting interviews (in Russian!) for my research project and learning about how life has changed since the collapse of the Soviet Union from people who lived through it themselves. I’ve made a handful of local friends. This was hard to do during my previous experiences studying abroad, since I was there with a large group of Americans and it was an easy excuse to not make local friends.
Overall, in this year (so far) I have accomplished a lot. Sometimes it’s easy to be hard on myself and say that I should have done more.
