I didn't pass the TORFL, and I know why. There were 5 parts to the exam: Grammar, Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing. I rocked the socks off of Listening and Reading, but my Grammar wasn't the best since I suck at verbs of motion. Russian has different words for "to walk", "to go via transport", "to have returned via transport", and so many more, and I just can't remember all of them. I like English's lax use of prepositions with verbs of motion. You come/came. You go/went. Curse you, verbs of motion. My Speaking was also terrible because the woman who administered that portion was the one of the program's head honchos, and she scared the hell out of me. I clammed up, stammered, and blanked out. Oh well. The test doesn't mean anything for me since I still have all of the credits, and a lot of knowledge. For someone who only started really studying the language here in September, I think I've made enormous progress. At least, that's what my professor said. Yes, I took Intensive Elementary Russian at Hunter over the Spring '07 term, but that professor spent the entire time joking around in Russian with all of the immigrant kids who came to get easy As, and ignoring myself and the others who were there to learn. Thus, I believe that relative to the amount of time I've been seriously studying the language, that I'm quite alright at it.

I've also learned quite a lot from my Russian Politics, Civilization, and History classes. In the very least, I was able to smile to myself every time they mentioned the Decemberists. The band named themselves for a failed Russian revolutionary group of the 1820s, who were exiled to Siberia but lauded as heroes during Soviet times. Anyhow, I'm ready to return to my Geography studies at Hunter to continue my focus on Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. What'll I do with this? Eh, despite how much I can't stand her pandering to Bush, Condoleezza Rice also specialized in Russian and Russian studies. To cut her story short, she rose quickly from being a professor, to the government's specialist on Eastern European affairs, to now, Secretary of State. That's a life of possibilities. I'm still striving for the dual BAs in Geography and Russian, and after this, the MA in Geography.

The Hunter Geography graduate advisor and I have been emailing while I've been here. I got to know her when I got an A in Geography of Russia in Spring '07, and I did some of work for her over the summer by cataloguing every book in her office on Excel. She just happened to be born in Moscow, so she's taken me under her wing with my studies, and has even invited me to her house for dinner after I get back so I can tell her how I felt about coming here. I'm so happy for this, because not only is she an admirable woman who encourages me academically, but this also means that entering graduate school will be much easier, especially if I stay at Hunter.

When I return, I'll also be starting up French again. Some of my friends I've met while over here have made me a little jealous over their language abilities. Andy has studied Russian, French, German, Italian, and Japanese. Ryan has studied Russian, Greek, and Chinese, I believe. And Will is currently studying Russian and Chinese. If they can have all of these opportunities open to them and handle all of this academically, why can't I? I got straight A+s in French in middle and high school for 3 years, and though Russian has pushed most of it out of my head, I'm ready to get back in the game. Miss Teen Wordpower. This sounds silly, but I realized how much I missed learning French not only from speaking it here and there in Russia, but mostly from watching this song from Flight of the Conchords. Ridiculous. So now I've got to get my old high school to fax my transcripts to the Romance Languages undergrad advisor, and he said that once he's recieved them, that he'll let me jump right into French 102 this term. But oh no, what'll I do about this 300-level Geography class that I had to drop for French? Looks like I'll just have to make it up during the next winter's 3 week study abroad trip to Hawaii, which is covered by my financial aid (get orphaned as a child, and you'll get govt money too!) and counts just as much towards my major. Oh, the horror!

Last night I got to say goodbye to my Russian pal Ildar, and also hung with two people I'd known from SA, an American named Andy and a Spanish guy named Pablo. Pablo knows Spanish, English, Catalan, French, and Russian. He's traveled all over the world, translating. He drew a linguistic map of Spain for me in my notebook and gave me a brief lesson on the many language regions of the nation. I don't care how geeky I've gotten in this post, it was fucking awesome. I'm glad to have introduced Andy to Ildar since they spent a while talking Linux. Ildar gave me a ceramic cat, awww. I'm gonna mail him some sweet stuff from America. Hopefully, it'll get here by next Christmas. Joey sent me a package on Nov 12th - it's Dec. 13th, and still no sign of it. One might say that I'm about to go postal about it, hurr.

And on another negative note, Ildar and I shared a ham-and-pineapple pizza, and I got horrific food poisoning sometime around 4 am. I woke up shivering something awful, which I know seems like it'd be normal in Russia, but I have a thick comforter, a space heater, and two radiators in my room. Then, my body decided to expel everything I've eaten in the past five years. Ugh. I didn't sleep at all, and though I'm better now, I'm exhausted, dehydrated, and weak. Staying in today, but hopefully I'll be better by tomorrow so I can see this Soviet history museum, and the cat circus with Amy. Today was supposed to be class and graduation, and I felt bad about missing my last class since I love my professor, but she didn't come anyhow because she broke her leg. I really hope she's okay, being that she's a babushka and well, subject to the Russian health care system. I left her a nice Christmas/New Year card for her regardless. I somehow also made it to graduation, and now I have a diploma from the program and a little keychain gift they gave me. My friend Margaret also did a little awards ceremony afterwards, and my award was for best Garbage Day impersonation.

Yeah, I'm the biggest nerd you know. At least I'm kinda cute. I fool everyone with that sort of thing. 3 days til NYC!