In 24 hours I'll be out of here. My flight leaves tomorrow afternoon and school starts in St. Petersburg on Monday. I get there on Thursday evening, am dropped off at the host family's house, and have to report to the school on Friday morning.
Friends, I am nervous. There are a lot of unknowns. I really don't know what I'm getting myself into. I have asked myself why it is that I'm leaving my friends and church and community and going off on my own for four months. Sometimes I have a good answer.
The other three OU students going are already there. I have met one of them. I have been in email contact with a few foreigners in the city who know friends of my parents. I will probably go church shopping with them.
It is 55F and rainy today, and 62 tomorrow in StP. Cold. I'm okay with that though. I have been packing today and it is going well. I think I can get everything.
Well, okay, I was getting a little excited when I started reading about stuff to do in St. Petersburg. I can go see Dostoevsky's house. And Pushkin's, where he died of a gunshot wound from a duel. And go to the Hermitage - Catherine the Great's art museum that has so many great works of art in it that it doesn't have the space to display them all at once. And so many churches and cathedrals. And the Peter and Paul Fortress, and the Bronze Horseman, and Peterhof, and Pushkin village (Tsarskoe Selo), and theaters and museums, and Nevsky Prospect and the Neva River, and just wandering around the city and riding the metro. There is so much history in this place. All these great Russians that lived here and wrote great literature and had revolutions and walked the streets and wrote poetry in and about the very places that I can go see. So that's pretty awesome.
And I'll be speaking Russian. For four months. And reading and writing, and going to class, and doing homework. And not just grammar exercises. But we'll see. There's cause to be nervous, and cause to be excited. I am afraid of loneliness. Please pray for me, and I will miss you.
See you in 2009!
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4 comments:
Oh, I hope it goes well!! We'll be praying for you.
Hey Sally! I'll be praying. I hope you will have a good experience.
Don't get shot in a duel in a house in St. Petersburg.
You would.
But don't.
For me.
Praying for you and missing you already.
you would. say hey to the karamazovs for me. ha. I'm a nerd.
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