Life and school

Internet here is very bad.. It doesn’t always work and when it does work it is very very slow! That’s why I can not contact you or really do anything online. So I’m sorry that I don’t always answer: I really try and want to but this just refuses to send my messages sometimes. It is very frustrating! Well I am not going to spend too much time online, that’s for sure :p

Today was officially the first day at school and I was at my new Russian school number 48. It doesn't take so long to get there because it’s much closer than school number 23 (were my intensive Russian language course was). I say officially because the first day was a big celebration day and students have prepared it earlier (which sounds quite funny to me that students go to school before it has officially started) but anyway the celebration was just wonderful. The school, teachers and other students seemed really nice even thought it is quite difficult to survive there. That’s because my Russian is still very bad and generally speaking people here don’t speak English that well so I really don't understand anything at school :D And even thought some people know some English they are reluctant to speak it. That makes me think that maybe they think that it isn't important to know English. They really don’t need it for anything. The good side is that I will certainly learn Russian here because I really can not communicate with any other language.

My school is some really fancy school. I’m in the 10^th grade so my classmates are a bit younger than I am but that’s okay. AFS doesn’t usually place students to the 11^th grade because they are busy to prepare in their final exams. In Russia usually at schools you have to have white top and black trousers or a skirt but because I’m at some very good school we have a certain kind of uniform. All good school has their own uniforms. It isn’t really the most modern outfit I’ve seen and first I was a bit horrified honestly. On my way to school I noticed that people seemed to know that it is a sign from a good school and at school when everyone else had it too I noticed that the uniform ain’t that horrible after all. Actually it is quite fun to have a uniform for one year because we don’t have those in Finland. Even thought at first I thought I would really prefer ‘normal’ school clothes (white+black).

I’ve been here over a week now . I’ve started to know how things work here I know the place I’m living in. It is really nice and I feel more confident. Even thought my family seems really worried about me all the time.. Of course it is really good that they take a good care of me in the beginning when I don’t know the language and the habits but it makes me feel like I was much younger again :p Not have to take responsibility of myself (well at first and still now I still quite can not do that because I don’t understand what I have to do). I can say simple sentences and usually say what I want or need and I’ve started to understand very well when people speak me slowly and simply (even thought my Russian vocabulary is quite small). But still when people speak quickly and about more complicated things, I have no idea what they’re saying.  


So all in all my life in Russia is starting really well. Now I'd just like to find friends and maybe some hobbies. I would love to do some sports because I really haven't done anything since I left Finland. And It's more difficult here to make friends when you don't have a common language but I know I'm a very social person and I will make friends here :)

Love
Nella

P.s I was trying to add photos here but I couldn't and I'm just happy if I get this text published (some of the text might I written might be gone but still..)