Russian Sign Language

mood: a i'm-drinking-hot-chocolate, i-just-watched-the-sun-set, and i-have-yet-to-do-any-work-at-all-today kind of mood
music: soundtrack to питер fm (romantic comedy movie from the other night)
random word: глухой

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Today, I had the best lunch of my life.

I met with this girl, Elizabeth Zane, who just graduated from Midd this year. She was a Russian and Biology major and is on campus now...I'm not really sure why, but she's sitting in on some graduate Russian classes, I know. She's been an occasional member of ASL Club, and by that I mean I think she's come to two meetings in the past two years. She also just finished her thesis which was on RUSSIAN SIGN LANGUAGE!! And she has received a Fulbright scholarship to go to Russia next year to study RUSSIAN SIGN LANGUAGE!! And she will be in MOSCOW!! All year!

I found this out right at the end of school, and basically jumped for joy, because, I mean how cool is that?! I'll be in Moscow. She'll be in Moscow. And she knows, or is learning, Russian Sign Language!!

So, we met for lunch today to talk and it was wonderful! First of all, her Russian is good. Really good. She spent the first semester of her junior year in Irkutsk, and went through the whole Russian School thing, and it just made me feel so happy that she was so good. All I could think was that she went through exactly what I am in the midst of going through (especially because she was only in Russia for a semester, as I will be), and it worked! She can speak Russian! And well, at that! So, yeah, that was exciting. It was also cool because not only did she speak well, but I could understand her. There were a couple times when I didn't quite catch something, or had to ask her what a word meant, but for the most part, I understood her perfectly. And lastly, I was able to, more or less, express myself and say what I wanted to say to her without feeling like a complete idiot. It was really, really cool, and that alone made me really happy.

But the exceptionally cool part is that she is going to be in Moscow next year!!! She's taking classes at RGGU, which is also the university where I will be taking classes (well, where I will be taking one or two classes.. most of my classes will be at the Midd school). And apparently they have an RSL department, or at least, some classes in RSL, I guess. When she was in Irkutsk, she worked with the deaf and learned some RSL, but apparently there are a number of different sign languages throughout Russia! I had no idea! I'm not sure how many there are, but she said they can't even understand each other. So she's assuming that the one she learns is Moscow will be different from the one she was learning in Irkutsk. Although, then she's hoping the one she learns in Moscow is kind of the "western", most popular one - like, they speak it in Moscow and Petersburg and stuff - cause that would definitely make everything more useful. She's not sure where she's living yet. Apparently Fulbright told her she could live in a dorm, but now the university says she can't, so she doesn't really know yet.

She seems really excited, I think just to know someone over there, which is good cause it means she'll contact me and stuff. So, yay!! Between the whole "wow, I actually can understand and speak Russian" thing and the whole "you're going to be in Moscow next year and be working with the deaf" thing, I basically walked out of Ross with a huge smile on my face that I couldn't wipe off. It was awesome. :)