A glut of posts

The reason for the current glut of posts is that I'm preparing to take the State Test of Russian as a Foreign Language, Level 2 (a passing score allows you to enter grad school in Russia - not that I'm planning on doing that) on Tuesday, and, just like when I had to study for things in college, I'm procrastinating like crazy. In case you wanted to know. Anyway, this is the last one for now.

It's that time of year again (for me, anyway) – the time to figure out what I'm doing next academic year. In the midst of my angst about re-applying to stay here teaching for another year (as in, angst about whether I should do so or not), I've discovered that just as it's easy to say that you want to stay another year in Russia when you're sitting at home in America, it's easy to say that you want to come home to America when you feel like you have all the time in the world left in Russia. And in both cases, a change in perspective can change your opinion quite fast.

This was precipitated by being waitlisted for grant renewal, as well as by receiving an email today about the Russian summer camps we're all supposed to work at, which informed me that I've been assigned (pending agreement on my part) to spend most of June in Ulan-Ude. Being waitlisted is kind of crappy, obviously, but it was the other email that really made me realize how little time I have left here. Don't get me wrong, I am over the moon about getting to go to Ulan-Ude (don't know where it is? look it up, and it will become clear why I'm over the moon about it), but looking at the dates of the camp and the date I want to be home by and the current date just really underlined the fact that I only have a little more than two months left in Vlad.

Can you believe it? I sure can't.