Homesick...But Still Here

I suppose I ought to have some really good excuse for failing to blog much in the past month. The frequency of my blogging has gone down quite a bit; in Taiwan, I would blog so frequently in part because there just was nothing else to do where I was, and my class load did not consume as much of my time as it does here. In Moscow, however, my class load has increased, my social life is fuller, and I find I have less time to report everything of even minor interest said by my students.

Moreover, I have had more than a touch of homesickness of late. The realization, early last month, that I had been away from New York a full year sparked off a bit of depression. To think of it, a full year had passed since I had last wandered through Park Slope at sunset, eaten an oversized sandwich at Fine & Shapiro's, or approached Brooklyn from the pedestrian promenade of the Brooklyn Bridge. And ever since, my mind has turned back there, again and again, wondering if I would ever make it home.

This weekend, however, I spoke to someone who gave me the verbal kick in the pants I needed to get out of this. I've come to see some advantages to my situation here I had not noticed before in my sea of homesickness.

For one, I actually have a job where I seem to be appreciated for my mind, not just as a warm body. This week, I won my school's recently-inaugurated lesson planning contest after I submitted my Charleston Contest lesson plan (I was, however, disappointed to learn that the prize was the equivalent of $50 in rubles, and not one genuine loving cup). I may not have as many students as a "real teacher" back home, but the students who are able to come regularly to my classes seem to like me, and have no complaints about me as their teacher. In short, I feel as if I am actually succeeding here, in a way I never succeeded at any job back home.

So with that more positive attitude, I will attempt to be in more regular correspondence.