all that I haven' t been able to send

Well, today is Sunday, but we had class all day anyway. Well, that is to say until 4pm. I was in the higher level language class and felt good about my pronunciation & reading. (We had a poem that we had to read out loud today- homework from yesterday). But I have forgotten the grammar almost completely. It’s so much harder than French where I can just sort of feel if it sounds right or not. I guess it would have been better if I had learned from native Russian speakers more at the beginning of my mission.
The nice elderly teacher was funny and made us come out of our comfort zones with grammar and oral exercises. I also thought that here explainations of the history of the words and their roots etc was extremely interesting and helpful.
More than anything I am excited to get out of this big American herd and into a real Russian family for the next 2 months. I can’t get my groove back until then.

the next days
This is the second blog entry that I will just be typing to send off at some point. The internet here is still not working. “Soon” they say—we’ll see. Chapaevsk is a VERY small town of 70,000 people. Smaller than any town that I was in on my mission. There is no internet café… That I can see so far. Very few shops… and yet they seem to have a fairly well organized program. Yesterday we met in a round table with all of the organizations involved in the medical association and also in some way or another with AIDS prevention and care. I recorded the meeting and tour of the health clinic on my little digital player. I think that I will have Pasha or Alla transcribe and translate it for me so that for research purposes I can say that it was done by a professional.
I have a “chauffer” here. They haven’t showed me anything about the bus system yet. I am supposed to get that tonight. In the mean time the medical associations driver has beeen taking me back and forth.
I went to see a soccer game last night in which several male members of the medical association were playing. It was fun except for the mosquitoes. Then I saw them at home again after that… I guess because of the river they are everywhere around here. 
And I have to say that I feel like I am 16 or so again at my host family. They don’t get that I am independent. Now they are responsible for me and so they seem to be very careful and protective. Going to Ufa is a big deal for them and I will have to work with them to see when it is convenient for them. Whereas I of course thought that I would just plan it with my bosses and then just take public transportation to the train… Here we see clear examples of the American independence vs. the social interdependence of the Russians I guess… and I have always been extra-independent myself I guess.
The water is turned off today. At least it’s not the electricity. I am staying in a different family than the one they gave me information about. They switched our two families. The other family has a computer with internet and a dog. My family has a cat and a broken computer.
Also I tried to put a Russian sim card in my phone instead of my at&t one and there is some kind of extra company protective code. Great. Not surprising. Why would they want me to be able to switch out sim cards and not have to pay their outrageous 6$ an hour charges. So I am trying to decide either to rent or buy a Russian cell phone. I wonder if my ATT card would work in it??