Midway through writing yet another journal entry in my Russian "tetrad"
booklet, I realised that it's been some time since I last updated the
blog. Once again, sorry about the lack of posts. I made a commitment
to maintain this blog, so I'll try posting at least once a week again.
This Wednesday our winter break (zimnee kanikuli) ended, as the new
semester began at school. We had four days of camp near Moscow, but we
didn't explore the city until departure day. Camp started out poorly,
to be honest, as the exchange students and Russian students did not<
want to interact at first, but over the days, people became more
friendly toward each other. For the most part, we had a good time
presenting our native languages and about our home countries. Every
night there was an evening dance (discoteka), but I only went once or
twice. Instead, we stayed in the dorms to talk with friends we haven't
seen in the last four months.
I wasn't very social in camp outside the established group of friends, but I don't regret it much. I talked to the people I wanted to, and made enough new friends too. Despite the good spirits, there was a tiny air of sadness lingering over the four days. Time is precious, as we learned. This Winter Camp would be the last time we would see other exchange students until June or maybe earlier. That is, if we're lucky. Sadly, some close friends live in faraway cities, but we're discouraged from traveling outside our placement city. It's already quite hard, because the distances are massive. It was cited that our personal safety was a top concern, and travelling across regions would pose a liability for the exchange program in case of accidents. On Departure Day of camp, all the students split up. We have different trains to catch, so we said our goodbyes. The Cheboksary kids lunched at McDonalds. Then later in the day, we went to Red Square (krasnaya ploshad) and GYM shopping center. We met up with our very cool volunteer Rianne afterwards. She led us through the Metro, where we saw the Bolshoi Theater, Malinki Theater and various monuments (pomitniki). We even had a nice stop at Starbucks. Then we walked through the historical Arbat Street, which I thought to be one of the most gorgeous sights ever. I really enjoyed the excursion, even though I wished we had more time to explore.
I wasn't very social in camp outside the established group of friends, but I don't regret it much. I talked to the people I wanted to, and made enough new friends too. Despite the good spirits, there was a tiny air of sadness lingering over the four days. Time is precious, as we learned. This Winter Camp would be the last time we would see other exchange students until June or maybe earlier. That is, if we're lucky. Sadly, some close friends live in faraway cities, but we're discouraged from traveling outside our placement city. It's already quite hard, because the distances are massive. It was cited that our personal safety was a top concern, and travelling across regions would pose a liability for the exchange program in case of accidents. On Departure Day of camp, all the students split up. We have different trains to catch, so we said our goodbyes. The Cheboksary kids lunched at McDonalds. Then later in the day, we went to Red Square (krasnaya ploshad) and GYM shopping center. We met up with our very cool volunteer Rianne afterwards. She led us through the Metro, where we saw the Bolshoi Theater, Malinki Theater and various monuments (pomitniki). We even had a nice stop at Starbucks. Then we walked through the historical Arbat Street, which I thought to be one of the most gorgeous sights ever. I really enjoyed the excursion, even though I wished we had more time to explore.
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