Crunch time...

"Follow me, in merry measure!" NO, YOU"RE LATE!

"Once in royal David's city, stood a lowly cattle shed. Mary was that..." SIGH. С повторением! Repeat!

Apparently I can't stand up without almost falling over, nor can I get out of tables without making a complete fool of myself. Such was my Saturday afternoon, full of hilarious and frustrating and awesome moments. Yes, I believe everything will go smoothly in the end, they generally do, but at the same time, we have about two and a half weeks to our concert on Dec. 8 so hopefully things will come together sooner rather than later.

All this being said, we're singing some wonderful music in four different languages (English, Latin and one song each in Russian and French), and we had a brilliant Messiah rehearsal on Tuesday, after which I feel totally confident to sing the excerpts we're performing: "And the Glory of the Lord", "O thou, that tellest good tidings to Zion" and of course the "Hallelujah Chorus". I'm really really excited for our concerts, and with a little extra effort on everybody's part, we're gonna knock the socks off the audience on those two nights!!!

Apart from the inconsistency of rehearsals, everything else is entirely on the up and up. I just found out that I've been invited to Thanksgiving dinner by an acquaintance from church, which will be really nice, because I wasn't expecting it and I normally have class for about 5 hours or so on Thursdays without a break (Stylistics, Music History and Skazki). Speaking of skazki, my class is going really well. We're getting ready for our open class on Dec. 10, in which we'll be performing three plays: "V krugu druzei", "Kolobok" and "Repka". Should be quite an experience, I'll be playing an old man, the kolobok and a cat. Quite the repetoire, LOL.

Yes my friends, it is indeed crunch time. For the next month, I will be thoroughly immersed in my studies, singing Deck the Hall until I go insane, trying to improve my French pronunciation, attempting not to fall over, friending participles and cursing the declension of numbers (don't get me started on fractions or decimals...), reading book after book on teaching pedagogy and Russian folklore, watching As Time Goes By before I go into all Christmas mode next week after Thanksgiving (when it is socially acceptable to start listening to Christmas music, something I thoroughly disagree with, why not enjoy Christmas music and films for what their worth at any point during the year???), writing ridiculously long sentences with endless amounts of subordinate clauses and participial phrases (or, more accurately gerunds, since they all follow the preposition in and after prepositions come gerunds) like this one (can you remember what the original subject and predicate was?) and apologizing profusely to everyone reading this sentence and questioning how the hell I ever got to be an English teacher. Wow. James Joyce, eat your heart out.

On a more serious note, I do want to take some time and thank all the people who have been an incredible blessing and support net. I apologize in advance if I embarass anyone. Thank you, Mom, Dad, Linda, Gramma, Grandma Joan and Grandpa Jin, Auntie Suzanne, Uncle Dave, Jess, Josh, and everyone else in my family too numerous to name but no less important and special. Thank you Matt, Monique, Andrew, Bob, Alexa, Eileen, Sara, Maureen and all my friends out there for reading my blog, for chatting with me and giving me words of encouragement and keeping me strong. Thank you Mike, Jim, and all my friends at Language Link for our weekly get-togethers. Thank you Ilona for your friendship and for the two books you so graciously bought for me. I hope you're enjoying Stephen Frye. ;) Thank you to my Russian host mom, Nana, and my professors for a smooth transition back into life in Russia in all its aspects, both academic and cultural, as well as daily life in Moscow. Thank you to the MPC (Moscow Protestant Chaplaincy) and St. Andrew's for welcoming me with open arms into your worship community. I really feel at home and part of the family, and I thoroughly enjoy coming to sing every Sunday. Thank you Stef, for reading my numerous messages in Russian and not cringing at the numerous grammatical mistakes, but rather, keeping me up to date with life in Peter and making my day with a friendly word or two and your wonderful smile. :) It is so evident that I have quite a deal to be thankful for, so I just wanted to take a few minutes to express my love and gratitude to all of you for being such an important part of my social, academic and spiritual growth and development, not just here in Moscow, but back home in Boston as well.

May God bless and watch over you, especially now at this time of Thanksgiving and the approach of Advent and Christmas. Please keep in touch, keep writing, and keep swimming! Talk soon! :)