a week of math. what fun!

Tif told me to update, so here I am.

It's not been a very exciting week...lots of GRE prep and looking up various MATESOL programs online. MSU's still the one I like the best (I'm familiar with the area, I really like the English Resource Center where I would hopefully be a TA, and their website's easy to navigate...a big plus after reading 20-some sites!), but a few other places have caught my eye (if they offer Ukrainain classes, should this be a factor?).

I dunno. It all seems very complicated, and there's the question of whether or not it's a good idea to only apply to one grad school, in case I don't get in or the financial aid isn't as much as I'd like.

(And then there's the random programs unconnected to TESOL that catch my eye, such as Kansas University's MA in Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies, which really has no practical application for me, but just looks really cool.)

The GRE prep is paying off...I took another practice test yesterday, and in a week of studying math, both the math and the verbal went up 70 points each. It's interesting...as I look up GRE stuff online, apparently it's more common to have a higher math than verbal, and I'm the other way around. Huh.

Last Saturday, I went back to the village where I'd been on Sunday, this time to celebrate my friend Andrey's 28th birthday. Once again, we went swimming in the river and ate shashlik. Before that, Andrey and his friend Alosha fixed the light bulb in my bedroom, which had been burnt out for quite some time. When I'd tried to change it, I'd found that the metal part of the bulb had corroded and was therefore extraordinarily difficult to remove, and in trying to do so, I'd made it harder. Andrey's comment (with a smile) was, "Next time, don't try and fix things yourself. Ask someone who knows what they're doing." Point taken.

That whole "I'm not going anywhere until COS Conference" idea seems to be out the window, but I'm waiting until I know for sure (tomorrow?) to post details. :)

I found a baguette (spelling?) at the store yesterday, so I made French bread pizza. It was good. I also made applesauce tonight to use up some apples Nadia gave me.