So, I'm well past the halfway point of my whole summer abroad, and I've got a little over four weeks left in Russia. Last night I had an academic epiphany of sorts about what my senior year at Tufts is going to be like, about my major and other activities, and I got really excited for senior year. I'm reading Dostoevsky's "Notes from Underground" now (in English, I suppose I should mention), and it's really getting to me in an incredible way. I suppose that when it was assigned in 12th grade I wasn't ready for it, but now I'm at a point in my life where I am really discovering how much I love reading and literature. It may not be the romantic science-technology focus I always seemed to dream about, but right now it really fits. Plus, it was really nice to think about such positive things and to get so excited for the future, and to see how my college career could come together in such a great way. And then Zach called me from England and we discovered that we're both working on Chekhov's "Three Sisters" in our respective programs, and we had a great conversation. I've been talking to loads of people on the phone, and it's great to be able to keep in touch from Russia, even as I'm just walking to class in the morning!
Unfortunately, my laptop is still not working, and something tells me that this time it's not going to inexplicably get better. I'm fairly sure the motherboard / main logic board is failing, though there is a chance it could be some kind of "simple" firmware corruption. Fortunately it's not the new hard drive, so I won't lose any of the pictures and emails and music I had saved on there and had been working on, but that also vastly limits my ability to take more pictures than my memory card can hold, which I suppose isn't too much of a problem, being more than halfway through and all. Supposing it's the logic board, that'll mean $350-$550 for a new one from eBay, plus a very labor-intensive installation. On the other hand, that's about half the price of the new 13" MacBook Pro, and plus I'd get another free iPod and printer. In any case, it's all annoying because I originally bought that computer to last longer than two years, so I'm not happy.
Anyway, about my return, it's sort of starting to come together. I'll spend 1, 2, or 3 nights in Israel (assuming El Al is somewhat cooperative...), fly to New York, and then hop on a plane to Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina, to visit my grandmother (I haven't seen her in almost two years, I think) for two days or so, before flying home to LA. It's very slightly possible, I suppose, that I could stop in Boston for one night first (taking the bus there from NY) and fly to NC from there, so that I could spend an evening with some friends that will be there. Hmm, that's a pretty good idea...
We're going to the Russian Museum tomorrow, and then the Banya (Russian Bath) is on Sunday. Also, the midterm exam (or I guess more accurately, the final for the first month) is on Friday. Still hoping to go see "Up" in a day or two, and then I think next week Harry Potter comes out! yes.
Hope all is well wherever you are reading this blog. My regards to you! More insight later, I suppose.
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