Moscow Day 2 and 3!!

By:

Alejandro Romero

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Day 2 and 3.

 

Ok so first off, day two was pretty kool. First thing I did was go to the grocery store and got myself some stuff to drink/eat.  Russian Grocery stores definitely do not have the selection we have back home. I mean the cereals didn’t even have their own aisle. I kid you not, I had a choice of like 6 cereals. “Do I want cornflakes…chocolate squares..cornflakes with sugar…or more chocolate squares lol.” It was hard to budget food for a few days with spending as little money as possible, but in the end I managed to spend only 300 something rubles which is like 10 bucks. (I got like 4 things lol).

I also found it interesting that they only give you one bag for all your groceries, and that you have to pay for another, but at least they are much stronger quality then the ones back home. The cashier giggled as I struggled to ask for another bag. Either way it was a fun experience hehe.

            Later on at night another American student finally came. (I thought I would be alone here on the 9th floor forever lol). She is super kool. Im not sure how to spell her name but I believe its Colette (pronounced Ku-let) if she ever reads this I’m never going to hear the end of it lol. She is a student at Truman State, along with John, who I met today (day 3). I showed her around and we made plans to go class together the next morning.

 

So DAY 3!!

 

We got up and went downstairs to meet Lyena, who had called me in the middle of the night btw, to tell me not to go to class but instead to meet her downstairs at 9:50 and to please tell Colette who im sure was sleeping already…as I was. Anyways… so We go downstairs at 9:30, and now Colette has me all confused because both her watch and my cell say 8:30..but I was sure it was 9:30 (when I looked at my PC clock). after trying to figure out the time, we finally found out I was right, and we only had to wait 20 minutes for lyena. We walked together to the GRINT office, where I met Alexander (the Director) and Margarita (the head teacher) who I believe also speaks Japanese, because she  was not only impressed when I told her I spoke some, but she also responded in Japanese, later on when I made the mistake of pronouncing the Russian word for “Horrible” Grosni, as Grasni, she said quote ” No, not Grasni, you mean Grosni, Grasni means Kitanai (The Japanese word for dirty”). At that moment I had decided I loved this women, and I was very impressed to have found someone who mixes languages as I do.

            We then took some Russian language placement test, and then an oral test. I think I did fairly well, but I know my colleagues did even better, as they have had multiple Russian languages classes before, as well as internships in Russia before. but this is good because I can learn a lot from them. I guess I shall find out tomorrow where I will be placed..at this point though, I am sure I will have a class all to myself, so it will be one on one teaching at least for the first few days, totally fine with me hehe.

           Finally, after the test, Lyena took us to downtown Moscow, which was a big surprise. (Unfortunately I could not enjoy it to my full potential because my book bag strap had broke on the way and I had to carry these heavy books with me for hours :( )At least we got to see a few famous sights, including the red square, but not in great detail as we are going to go back there for a full day excursion later on.  The point of going there today was basically just to show us how to use the metro and get back to our dorms. (check out all the nice pictures I took today!(below).

In awhile I believe im going to go jogging with Colette and then maybe some more grocery shopping. (This time for lemons to make my own lemonade!! yay!)

Thank you all for following, and will post more soon.

 

Alejandro Romero

My name is Alejandro Romero, but my friends call me Alex. I was born in Hialeah Miami, to a Costa Rican father and Puerto Rican mother. When I was young my parents divorced. I was raised primarily by my mother and my Irish-American step-father in Hollywood, FL. I have two younger siblings, a brother on my mother's side, and sister on my father's side. Growing up, English was my first language and Spanish was my secondary. In middle school, I had the wonderful opportunity of going to Costa Rica with my father. While I always had an interest in foreign languages and cultures ever since I was young, I was amazed with how different daily life was in another country. In high school, I became fascinated with the Japanese language and culture and started teaching myself before having the opportunity to take it as a class. I studied Japanese for 4 years before finally getting the opportunity to participate in a student exchange program in the summer of 2009. To this day, I say that was the greatest experience in my life, and it has allowed me to see the world in a different way. Recently I have fallen in love with the Russian language and culture and wish to pursue the same great experiences I had during my Japanese Studies. My goals in life are to use my skills of languages and cultures to help improve international relations, and change some of the misconceptions people have towards other cultures.