Translation: I suck at Russian.
It seems I can't escape from the death grip that Russia has on me. Everywhere I go, I run into Russians and am forced into speaking the worst Russian on earth because I have forgotten 90% of what I learned in Russian class.
Last night I went out with a friend only to discover that no bars were open, so we sat down on some chairs outside at a closed, abandoned bar. No one was there but us. But soon a group of six Russians sat at the table next to us. Once I heard them speak Russian, I couldn't refrain from trying to speak Russian to them. But god was my Russian horrible. They tried to toot my horn and tell me I speak well, but we all knew it was bullshit, including my friend who doesn't even speak Russian. Pretty soon I decided to excuse myself because I was embarrassed, and that was that. I had a similar encounter a few weeks ago in Valdivia, when I went to an international artisan fair and talked to a Russian woman selling matryoshka dolls (another Russian phenomenon from which I can't seem to escape). My Russian sucked then also.
As a result of my embarrassing experience, I dreamed last night that I got rejected from the State Department Critical Language Program in Russian. I'll hear back from them in the first week of March, and if they have any sense they will certainly reject me. My inability to communicate even the most simple ideas in Russian makes me wonder how I was able to survive there for three months. It's such a relief living in a country where I can communicate myself and do things without the help of a translator. Nothing makes you feel like a bigger dumbass than not being able to speak a language.
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