Day 1

Okay.  I made it to Washington D.C. and I'm still alive.  Day 1 of this ten week journey has been a success.  However, to call this first post of my first blog "Day 1" does not begin to do service to the time, patience and preparation put in to making this "Day 1" possible.  I thought I'd begin my travelogue with a bit of a description of how I ended up in this five-star hotel room (with free Wi-Fi) in Washington D.C. en route to the southern border of Russia, where I will spend the next ten weeks speaking only Russian, immersed in Russian and Tatar culture, living with a Tatar / Muslim family and spending 40 of the week's 168 hours in the classroom drilling declensions, vocab, verb conjugations, syntax, morphology, idiomatic usage and colloquial structures.  Basically, I applied.  It was a shot in the dark that landed a bull's eye.  Seriously.  

The old George Bush thought it would be a good idea to create a federally funded program that would allow American citizens who had expressed proficiency in specific foreign languages to go to those countries for intensive study, thereby increasing the number of advanced speakers of those "Critical" languages every year.  This National Security Language Initiative gives out funding every year for students like myself to study "Critical" languages.  There are 8 or so critical languages.  Russian, Arabic, various dialects of Arabic, Urdu, Chinese, Korean, etc.  One can assume these languages are deemed "critical" because the countries in which these languages are spoken either pose some sort of threat to US interest abroad or they hold some value economically, culturally, etc.  Either way, uncle Sam wants more of us speaking these languages at advanced levels.  (This is a good time to note that the views and opinions expressed in this travelogue are my own and not that of the U.S. Department of State.  And yes, I have to say that.)   This is where I come in.  I've been studying Russian, among other things, since high school.  I received bachelor's degrees in English and Russian Studies and then a master's in Linguistics, focusing on the comparison of a number of Slavic languages i.e. Russian, Polish, Serbian.  Obviously, my background in Russian studies was critical in my receiving this award.   Plus, I really got my act together near or around junior year of undergrad (kind of), managed a 4.0 MA program, did some great internships, moved out of Kirksville, MO, the usual.  Now I'll stop gloating.  

Prior to this Day 1 and soon after I found out I was one of the 20 to go to Kazan', there was a tremendous amount of work to be done to ensure my place on the trip.  Physicals, AIDS test, written language proficiency tests, oral language proficiency tests, over-the-phone language proficiency tests, forms, forms, forms, and a few more forms, health insurance, flight itineraries, homestay preferances, gifts, packing, buying stuff, toiletries, packing, ipod, computer, downloading music, more packing, etc.  And this all paled in comparison to the actual application process which included 5 or so essays, resume's, letters of recommendation, letters of intent, contract to use Russian in some capacity upon return,  forms, forms, forms, a couple more forms, and a couple more essays.  The fact that I'm lying here in this bed right now, typing on a blog is not only completely foreign to me, but a complete accomplishment in and of itself.  Like I said, I made it D.C. and I'm still alive.  

The group of students going on this trip is incredibly diverse.  All walks of life, many universities, many backgrounds, all connected through an understanding that the ability to communicate at the international level will be an invaluable tool in the years to come.  We met the head of the Bureau of Educational Affairs tonight at this evening's only mandatory meeting.  He congratulated everyone and answered a few questions.  Then they handed each of us sixty dollars and told us to go have dinner.  I couldn't believe it.  I've never been given that much free money.  Like I said, Day 1 was a success.  If the whole trip goes as smoothly and as efficiently as the preparation process and Day 1 went, we are all in for a treat.  Thank you National Security Language Initiative and thank you U.S. Department of State.  So far so good.  

I'm going to be dilligent about this whole travelogue thing.  Like a good student would. 

PS:  I already miss my family and fiance'.  Leaving Andrea today was really difficult.  I can't begin to imagine how happy I'll be to see her when I return in two months.