Arborescent Study Abroad

The study abroad experience is like being a tree. You arrive to the country as a small sapling, planted in a foreign environment. You began to grow roots and become acclimated to your surroundings. Your branches grow and extend as you reach out to the world around you. You begin to sprout leaves in order to photosynthesize as much nourishing knowledge as possible as you can. You hope your broadening trunk will give you a firm grounding to weather the storms that may come to impede your development. With time, your core also grows and distance between the rings indicates the growth you have made. Once you have become established in your environment, you find it difficult to consider existence somewhere else. You don't want to be uprooted and forced to acclimate once again. No matter where you are, you can always look back at the your rings and remember the growth you made during that time.

Vladimir, Russia - KORA Center for Russian Language

In case your curious about what I actually study while I'm here in Vladimir, I'll break it down for you.

I take seven classes, which total to 20 hours of study per week. All classes are conducted entirely in Russian.
Грамматика (grammar): 5 hours per week
Фонетика (phonetics): 2 hours per week
Практика Речь (speaking): 5 hours per week
Русская Истрория (Russian history): 2 hours per week
Художественный Текст (literature): 2 hours per week
Искусство Письма (writing): 2 hours per week
СМИ (current events): 2 hours per week

Our Russian study center, KORA, is located in a technikum. The program rents out a number of rooms on the third floor of the building, which we use as our study space.

Lunch is included by the program. We dine on authentic Russian food in the cafeteria of the technikum.

On Friday, we have excursions to points of interest both near and far. Some of the excursions this semester include Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Murom and Sochi. It is mandatory that we speak Russian at all times while on excursions and all guides speak only Russian with us.

In addition to classes and excursions, there are extra-curriculars. Folklore is an extra class conducted every other week to expose us to Russian culture through dance and music.

Kruglii Stol or Russian-American club is a round-table discussion with our Russian counterparts at the linguistics university about prearranged topics.

Internships give us on site experience in various Russian organizations.

Basketball is played with the Russians every week as a good way to get out some extra energy and exercise.

We are allotted two personal days every semester, which can be used for personal travel. This is a wonderful way to see more of Russia that you otherwise wouldn't have the chance to see with the program. Combined with a three or four-day weekend, these days provide a great opportunity to travel throughout Russia.