31 July 2008

Горы, солнце, пихты, песни и тайги / Mountains, sun, fir trees, songs, and the taiga

I doubt anyone uses this blog to check up on whether I'm alive or not, but in case you were wondering, I am.

I'm in Moscow now and am starting my extended leave of absence from Russia (a.k.a. moving home for grad school) on Saturday. I think if I could really grasp that I'm leaving, I'd be crying a lot, but happily for myself and everyone else, I only sort of half-grasp it, so I just kind of mope around. We'll see what Saturday morning is like, though.

Siberia (the reason for my extended silence) was AMAZING. The risk that I will run away and live on the shores of Baikal forever is now even higher than it was last year after Ulan Ude. I have tons of impressions from the trip (do we say that in English? I feel like maybe only Russians and Americans who have been in Russia for too long say that), which unfortunately makes it hard to write about, but I promise that I will. And there will be pictures. :)

But for now, I'm off on a little pilgrimage (read: two stops on the metro) to Patriarch's Ponds, the setting for the opening scene of Bulgakov's "Master and Margarita," which I finished reading yesterday... in Russian. It's the longest work I've read in Russian so far, at 413 pages. Gold star for me!

5 comments:

Celine said...

Leslie! So it's finally over, your Russia-adventure... I hope you will enjoy gradschool equally, although obviously it will be completely different.
Let me know if you have a stop in the Netherlands (or Belgium, for that matter)? Maybe we could catch up. Otherwise, I will probably be in D.C. for a couple of days before the end of the year, so maybe we can see each other there.
Careful on the grasping-part, we don't want you crying too much!

Anna said...

Holy smokes! You read Master and Margarita in Russian?! When I tried to read it, I couldn't tell when it was the book that was strange, and when it was my bad Russian leading me astray. Two gold stars for you!

Anonymous said...

Welcome bank from Siberia! I hope the snow and bitter cold wasn't too bad (oh, wait, that's just the American misimpression of Siberia).

Love,

собака-папа

Anonymous said...

Oops! I meant "back".

собака-папа

Anonymous said...

I think we say "memories" not "impressions". :-)
When will you be back in CWA? I miss you!

-L