Friday 17 August 2012

Allow me to introduce myself...

Здравствуйте!

My name is Lois, I'm a student at The University of Nottingham, in my third year of a Russian Studies BA. Currently I'm on my compulsory year abroad, and I'm soon to embark on my first placement in Russia on August 29th until November 26th.

I am starting this blog to keep all my friends, family, and whoever is interested up to date with my adventures in Russia. This will be the first time I've been away from home for such a long time. My first placement will be 13 weeks in Orion, teaching English, milking goats, helping out in the kitchen and however necessary with my friend Vicky, who is studying Russian and Chinese.

Orion is a small village in the Kaluga region about an hour and a half drive south-west of Moscow, which began in 2005 as a sister village to Kitezh. Both are villages which take orphaned children from difficult backgrounds and give them loving foster families, education, play therapy and psychological help. I've been wanting to travel to Kitezh/Orion to volunteer since I was about 17, when a classmate's sister recommended volunteering there.

I have been studying Russian for 9 years now, and have become reasonably comfortable with my language skill, but then perhaps I'll be rusty after a summer out from being taught it. I have spent this past summer studying Teaching English as a Foreign Language with i-to-i TEFL - a course I have found stimulating and challenging. I hope to put the skills I have learnt to good use in Orion.

I think that will suffice for an introduction - пока!


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