3 days before I leave for St. Petersburg...

Well...the first of many blogs! (I hope). I leave in three days. Oh. My. I am beyond nervous. I'm also extremely excited. I have everything I need now; my bags are packed, I have my dictionary(very much needed), the description of my host family is very promising and I will be in DC for my departure orientation on Tuesday. whew. I will be flying out with all the other students in my program. I'm really happy about that. We will be able to get to know each other two days before we leave. Can't wait to meet everyone!
It seems like it has been truly a long journey to get to this point. I've been wanting to spend a significant amount of time in Russia since I started studying the language in 7th grade. I went during my junior year to Moscow for 4 days (I also spent a little bit more than 3 weeks in Ukraine during this Eurasian trip). That was an incredible experience and I've missed Russia ever since.
I guess my nervousness stems from the fact that I will be away from my family and friends for so long. Perhaps it is the fact that I will be attending a Russian university. This is slightly daunting. Not going to lie. All of my classes with be IN Russian. This, I know, is the best way for me to really acquire as much of the language as possible, as well as improving my listening comprehension. I feel prepared, I'm as ready as I'm ever going to be! I have this really strong feeling that I am going to have an amazing experience there :) I'm not sure how much internet access I will have. So there may be few blogs, but I hope I can let you all know what I'm up to and how the time in Russia is going! :) Miss you all already.
'Til the next post...До свидания!