Not quite dead

So after some intense internal debate, I decided at another attempt of regularly updating my blog. I was mostly moved by the fact that other people seen to manage fine with this and the fact that I am really hungover this morning and cannot seem to concentrate on doing anything beside web browsing. Although in all honesty I do not expect my blog to be a hit. Since I have not updated in a while, it is hard to actually decide where I should start. As many of you know I was a lucky recipient of the State Dept Critical Language Scholarship. The governemnt is basically trying to encourage more Americans to master critically needed languages- lucky me Russian made the scholarship list a year ago. Thus based on language level, the participants were placed in one of four cities: Samara, Nizhni Novgorod, Astrahan, and Tomsk. Being the master linguist that I am, the governemnt decided to send me to Tomsk, Siberia along with 18 other helpless victims. After a two day orientation and some drama regarding flying on Shavuot and me threatening to sue the program director, I was able to get my ticket changed so that I could spend Shavuot in Moscow and not on the airplane. I might have been a little rude but at least I got my way. After the chag I arrived into Tomsk, and I swear I thought that the 30 yeard old Kras Air Boeing was about to crash. But Baruch Hashem I survived that momentous approach into Tomsk. The terminal left lots to be desired but I will try my best not to complain. At least the bathrooms were not little holes in the ground which I assure you are the prevelent modes of relieving oneself in this part of the world. Well as they say the rest is history....well not quite as I still have two weeks left in this quickly developing city that is located roughly between Kazakchstan and Mongolia. Stay tuned for more updates!