2015 summed up

oh well..

The post that is long overdue, but goodness, what a year it has been! Another 3 hours and 2015 will be gone forever, and it's the first time in 4 months when I actually have the time to write a post here. Crazy, but my university life started so quickly and suddenly, I couldn't even comprehend everything at the same time. I came home from the city just yesterday, managed to pass my German exam (and get the highest mark!) and wish a happy new year to all my friends and family. Supercalifragilistic - the very word that sums up 2015 for me.

It all started in September, when I first came through the doors of Kuban State University and met my group - 11 amazing people that I'll have the fortune to study with for the next 5 years, and our curator Anastasia Prima (literally the most amazing English teacher I've ever had the chance to work with). I'm pretty sure our group has the smartest and friendliest people in it - our collaboration is truly incredible and deserves attention.

I still remember the concert we arranged and the song we performed (Jason Mraz haha), some individuals are already sick of this track which is quite understandable, because I have the same thing with the German Christmas song "O, Tannenbaum". I feel your pain chaps!

Then the Students' Forum - such a fun experience! Hands down the brightest memory of the year, I'll never forget how our idea of dressing up as British celebrities failed and we all had to improvise - the idea of making a Brit-girl out of me turned out so hilarious! Coming up to completely random strangers and offering them a chance to "TALK TO AN ACTUAL GIRL FROM GB" was such a perfect thing, big thanks to Vera haha! Everyone fell for it except one chap who apparently was too clever to believe, or maybe I just wasn't English enough?

Talking about university I shall of course mention the actual studies (about 95% of my life right now) - Faculty of Modern Languages means that you have to become a superhero and study a lot, and when I say a lot, I mean A BLOODY LOT!
Now, learning three languages (and having other subjects waiting to be read) is not easy and certainly demands time and patience, but in all honesty, even though I moan every day and keep saying how shattered and exhausted I am (sleeping for more than 5 hours is luxurious!) I love the uni, my faculty and people surrounding me with all my heart. Literally. I feel like I've grown so much during the first term! I think it would be fair to say I've changed. Not completely (natch), but a lot. I have a feeling I overuse the word "a lot" in this post (which is really rambly hah), but bear with me guys - there are a lot of things which can relate to this word.

The way we answered our Latin home task is the best - "WAIT WAIT, WHICH SENTENCE ARE YOU GOING TO TRANSLATE?? IS DASHA READING? OH MY GOSH, IT'S ALMOST MY TURN! "
German is another topic for discussion - the amount of introductory words our teacher uses is out of control and is 50/50 annoying and hilarious at the same time. Oh and the "umlaut" sounds - what a performance heh.
Then our literature - Zeus is just the epitome of old-fashioned folks. The way he talks is so peculiar!
But I'd like to mark our English lessons because they are truly the best. Again, our collaboration and long talks discussing "well-maintained houses" and phonetics are great. I'll repeat myself and say that our teacher is amazing and thanks to her we were never bored! I'll remember one particular lesson when we discussed what happiness is and the time when Regina and I had to answer the phonecalls from people (our groupmates) with weird requests haha! I had soooo much fun! I also liked the fact that Anastasia Prima always thanked us after every lesson and kept saying what a wonderful group we are. This is beyond inspiring.

As I said studying is a huuge part of my life right now, but I'd like to thank my flatmate Alvina for not letting me drown in the depths of Latin and psychology  - our talks and the crab dances are so good oh my haha :D

To finish off this post I'd like to post a couple of pictures that are the "covers" of these 4 months of my life and say that I've never felt this lucky and happy. Right now I'm sitting in front of the screen at home with my family, thinking about everything that's happened to me. So hard and difficult yet so incredibly amazing. I'm looking forward to the second term and hoping it'll be just a tiny bit easier so that I have the time to socialise and go to places with my friends. Thank you 2015 - you were great! Happy New Year everyone!

             

- Stacey x

A summer summed up.

Right, I'm finally here again, writing a post that is looong overdue (oops), but it's better late than never, isn't it?

The past couple of months has been quite fun actually and I'm going to put a bunch of pictures to show what I've been up to recently. Sadly this was the last nonchalant summer because I'm about to start university and oh well, I can already feel the changes. But even though I'm leaving my old life behind I know that I have people who will always be with me whatever happens  - family and friends.

One of my favourite summer highlights is the countless amount of photoshoots that we had. Big thanks to Vlad for being an okay-ish photographer :D (okay okay just kidding - you're amazing at taking pictures). Here are some of my favourite shots:

I will particularly miss my mad friend Xenia and our days spent together. Especially the last one. Yeah. Too emotional haha. But honestly drinking tea, editing pictures (which I posted above), chatting, reading poems, watching the stars and sleeping on the veranda are my most favourite memories now. Oh and of course the bonfire :D Thanks for everything love x

Another peculiar person that I would like to mention in this post is Anastasia-a girl that I have known literally forever. I swear we have been friends for as long as I can remember and I love everything about it. She is like the biggest Josh Hutcherson fan EVER! I absolutely loved watching films with you every evening (and night ;D). The amount of inside jokes that we have ooooooh! May the odds be ever in your favour hun!

I would also like to mention the loooovely Alexandra (we still haven't taken a picture together!) for being absolutely adorable! I have never met a girl like you and oh my goodness I cannot wait to meet up again (we wanted to go to the theatre, remember? ;D). Even though we haven't known each other for a long time, you're honestly like a sister to me - we're practically the same!! I'll never forget our little stroll in the park and the Spanish ice cream, we had soo much to discuss (and still do). You are seriously one of the most interesting people I've met and looking at your always happy-excited-cheerful-smiley-shining-inspired face makes me smile every time <3 Alexandra and I are united by so many things and disliking liver is one of them - high five sis!

And of course I can't help but mention my nugget. THE nugget that is also known as Meg. I seriously I don't know what to start with - you're AMAZING. Idek how we found each other but feels like I have known you forever. When I come to England I'm basically going to squeeze you in a hug and gosh, you mean so much to me!! Our calls and jokes and endless twitter/facebook/whatsapp conversations (remember how it started? xD) are the bestestest. I'm still not over the parcel that you sent without telling me everything! This post will go on forever if I start talking about ya so ain't nobody got time for that! I'm going to tell you how much I love you on the phone - the next time we have one of those 3 hour long convos ;D

Okay enough rambling about friends, this post is never going to end if I go on about them, I would now like to mention my little trip to the mountains with the family. It was quite unexpected, but I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it!

 Well that's about it for now.
 I hope that my first year of university will turn out great (though I'm aware of  the challenges I'm going to face!) and know that I'll do my absolute best to  succeed in my studies. I want all of my readers have a good start at school/university, good luck guys!

 Stacey x