Day-to-day life

The weather has been really nice recently. Mostly in the 60s-70s and sunny. I have a feeling that when November rolls around, things will change.
Tomorrow we are going on an excursion to another medievel Russian city. It should be exciting. The city, Bogolyubovo, is a really historic and pretty area.
The culture of Russia is becoming more and more familiar. No longer does it seem ironic that the man driving the ambulance has a Marlboro (or more likely a Soyuz-Apollo) dangling from his lips. Equally, the constant threat of jay-walking tickets (a 50 rouble/$2 fine) is not as worrisome.
The ACTR proram continues to impress me by how effective the teaching is, and in how structured the program is. All of the different subjects work in unison, to drive home points. For instance: The grammar class we are learning "verbs of motion". So in the reading class, we read poems heavy in motion verbs. At the same time, in the conversation class, we spoke at length about travel. Everything is connected.
Day-after-day I am delighted that I chose the ACTR program. And day-after-day I realize that Vladimir was the best city offered.
I would strongly encourage all students of Russian to apply for the same scholarship that I did. Additionally, I would highly recommend the ACTR-RLASP Vladimir program. Studying in Russia has increased my active vocabulary by more than 500 words already.
I have heard (while here in Vladimir) that the linguistic gains of students in Moscow or St Peteresburg is less than that of students in Vladimir. So that is reassuring.
Poka!