schneefink

I didn't expect to wake up today thinking "what was the other form of возвраща́ться again?" or to have dreamt of taking Russian lessons again at all, but it was surprisingly fun! It's been a few years. After I returned from my exchange semester in Moscow (which was nine years ago now, wow) I signed up as a language buddy for Russian exchange students at uni for a few semesters, then I stopped entirely, and the past few years every few months or so I decide to read a Russian fic for practice and usually either give up soon or don't continue after the first one.

Then a bit over two weeks ago I had the great idea to check YouTube. Turns out there are videos for Russian learners there! Who would have guessed, apparently not me. Anyway, I found the Easy Russian channel, which is a pretty good fit for my level: I understand most of it but I have to concentrate a lot so practice is great, I get reminded of words I almost forgot and there's also some new vocabulary every time. The videos are quite short and I've been watching one a day for the past two weeks. I'm enjoying it, and I think it's already been beneficial as a language refresher. Hopefully I can keep it up, maybe watch a few Russian movies with subtitles when I'm done with this channel (I saw that there are several animated children's movies with subtitles, for example), and maybe one day I can even read Russian fic (or books! or watch movies!) for fun instead of just practice, that would be nice.

(In other news, turns out Hades is on sale on Steam. ...I told myself I have to at least finish the first draft of my Yuletide fic first.)

Today:
- I bought a freezer! They had them at Hofer since yesterday and DD and I had to go to three different stores until we found one left. Soon I can finally buy ice cream reserves!

- I finally tried out the Citybike system. The bikes are nothing special, but there's a stop two minutes from my house and I think it'll be convenient on occasion. I should get my mom's bike helmet, she doesn't need it in Bolivia.

- I wrote almost 2k and finished the D&D session summary, the longest so far. Someone has to do it, and I don't mind, but it's cutting into my story-writing energy. Sure I know what happened, but I still have to put it in words.

- Someone almost ran me over with a car at a crosswalk and my first reaction was to shout "Oida!", that made me feel very Viennese. (Especially as someone who is usually terrible with Viennese dialect. My parents are both from further West, and I'm not good at imitating dialects in general… I do speak Vorarlbergerisch though, which has some similarities with Swiss German and is always fun to surprise people with.)

- I finished watching "Yowamushi Pedal." It's adorable! The rec that made me watch it. I was literally flailing and making high-pitched noises at some points. Team! Friends! Singing!
Some of my favorite things, apart from everything, was ( spoilers )