A Sad Day in Technologyville

Today was a typical Monday in Russia.

I slept in til 8 today (I've been waking up early since coming to Russia). Megan and I didn't have our classes til 11:50 so we went to get our water bottles refilled at the water place, had breakfast, and I finally bought some folders and paper before class.

Today we had grammar (our first grammar class) followed by culture, which we had had two classes of when Megan and I were still in Group 2, which was far beyond our comprehension level. It was awesome being able to understand what was going on in culture class.

Let me take a moment to talk about groups, because I don't think I've talked about that yet. On the first day we were divided into groups based on skill, which were assigned random-seeming numbers. Group 1 knew no Russian, Group 2 was basically fluent, and Group 3 was in between. Dylan was in Group 3 and Megan and I were in Group 2, which seemed wrong from the get-go since Dylan, Megan, and I had had all the same classes.

But, for whatever reason we decided to give it a shot. Megan broke down after class the first day. We decided after the second day we'd switch. I broke down during class the second day and almost walked out. It was slightly awful. But after class that day we talked to Elena Arnoldovna (our counselor in the international office who doesn't speak English, so that was a task in itself) who told us to come back tomorrow morning and we would be in a mythical group we had never heard of: Group 4.

As it turned out we were not in our own new group, but a group between Group 2 and Group 3 (because why wouldn't Group 4 be between Groups 2 and 3?) otherwise made up of Chinese girls. Group 4 has been a good fit so far, and also a different perspective because we're not always surrounded by Americans. And neither Megan nor I have had another breakdown... yet.

ANYWAYS... class today was good. Until I came home and realized that somehow yesterday my power converter and computer charger cord both got fried. My outlet adapter still works so I can charge my camera batteries and ipod, but my computer is without a charger. So for the rest of the semester I will be bumming charges off Dylan and other Mac-using Americans wherever I can. Bummer.

Now here we are again at the internet cafe, eating some delicious shrimp pasta (yeah... I needed yummy comforting food after the tragic loss of my charger...) and using the web. They'll probably get sick of us here soon. But Thursday we should be able to get set up with internet in the dorms. Which I would be more excited about if my computer battery would last more than a couple hours at a whack. Oh well.

I survived one more day!
As they say in Russia,

"Yrah!"