Four Weeks to Go

By this time in four weeks, I'll be in an airplane. Probably somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean. Heading for St. Petersburg.

WHOA.

This has been a pretty eventful summer. My job at Utah Lake has kept me well-occupied during the day, and lately all of my nights have been spent writing essays for my application to the English Teaching Program at BYU. After weeks of effort, I finally turned in the finished application yesterday. (Huzzah!) Which means I'll have more time now to spend on important things - like blogging, right?

Let's see, how to fill you in on what's been going on? Well, I guess since I already brought it up, we can talk about the English Teaching Application first.

I used to be an English major, see? But I've been trying to work my way into the English Teaching program for months now - it's a separate major, and a recently closed program, so I have to apply before I can be a part of it. If I get in, then when I get back from Russia and start going to school again, I'll be able to take teaching classes instead of just generals. I'll actually be working on my career! (Real life is ever-looming...)

The application was a lot of work. By the time I'd finished, I had a folder with ten pages of essay, an article from the English Journal, a progress report, several signed documents, a lesson plan, and a ten-minute video tape of me teaching an English lesson. Phew! It's nice to have it all done and out of the way, because now all I have to do is wait for them to call me and arrange an interview.

In the meantime, I guess I'll keep getting ready to go to Russia. (Less than thirty days now. I'm starting to feel the wriggling tentacles of panic creeping in on me.) I've got to figure out a packing list and start gathering the materials I'll need (including a whole new wardrobe of "teacher clothes") and keep practicing my Russian. Здравствуйте. У вас есть карандаш? I've already finished all of my payments, so now I can work on making enough money to sustain me while I am there, and pay for my many trips to the Russian ballet!


That's why I'm working at Utah Lake, no? It's been a really great job. Lately I've been working with a lot of dedicated hunters - basically, men who come in to do volunteer hours so they can get hunting privileges - which has been interesting. I've had four of these guys so far: Levi, early twenties, who was a big promoter of dating websites; Chad, early forties, who's been a firefighter for fifteen years; and two guys in their early thirties who were so irritating that I can't even remember their names. I have another hunter coming in on Monday, so it seems to be getting more and more popular as the season goes on.


I've also had a slight problem at work . . . a man named Boyd. (*sighs*) He really deserves a post all his own. Sufficeth to say he comes by regularly to see me - originally to bring me Russian-learning material and now just because he likes me. He is ninety years old and claims to have adopted me as a granddaughter, which would make more sense except for this part: he's trying to date me.


...yes.


So you see? I may not have been blogging, but I have been keeping myself rather busy as of late. Hopefully I'll be able to post more often now, since I've finished most of my summer projects. And maybe this post has had SOMETHING to interest you, so that I might still have readers even after my three week hiatus. Good, that.


See you in August!








(Did you notice I have 11 people on my engaged/married lists? Only one more to go, then my prediction will have come true!)