If you read my latest posts, you know quite a bit about what happened in my life in the last week. Check them out.

What I didn't say was:

I asked a girl out recently. Planning to go out tomorrow night. Hopefully she'll be able to make it (she has classes until 8 PM, like most of the uni this year). She promised nothing but said that she'll try to find time. I presume you don't say that if you aren't interested.

Had my first "man talk" today. A curator male friend of mine asked me today what I think of the female curators (about our age) "as girls". I said I didn't really think about it, which is true. He told me he liked one of the girls, Masha (the same one I wrote about in the Curatoriade posts), because she had "unusual beauty" - as in, not a model, but attractive nonetheless. I was surprised that he started that kind of a talk with me, but apparently, I grew up enough in his eyes to warrant it.

My guys (the ones I curate) have been addressing me with the respectful "you" ("Вы") until very recently. I appreciated it at first - it was nice being called that - but soon I realized that it just pushes me away from them by making me into some sort of an unreachable authority figure, and that's not what I want.

You can see how a lot of my recent thoughts revolve around curating the freshmen. It really does take a lot of my time and energy, and I may complain about it from time to time because I'm not used to it, but I've never felt so alive and full of energy.

I've met the British exchange students in TSU today. They sat on the floor, talking about stuff. Will and Arthur. I didn't exactly catch the uni they exchanged with: it goes along the lines of "Dortham" or something like that; it's in the north of England. We had a class right next to their class' room, so I came by and got to chat with them. They didn't bat an eye when I said "Hey fellas". Turned out to be really cool guys, someone whom it's nice to chat with.

Some of my groupmates talked to them, as well; they seemed to be pretty receptive to that. One of my groupmates refused outright because she was so shy about her English, despite the fact that she talks fine, and the flaws in the language that she has are negligible, definitely so by the Brits who came here to practice Russian. I got a bit of a stutter talking to them because I already had a full day of running around behind me at the time, but they both appreciated my command of English nevertheless.

I'm aiming for a student exchange the upcoming spring, as well. All I have to do is get the papers in, but it doesn't guarantee my success. I am a pretty good student, as per my exams, so this should win me some points. If I get to visit the US or Germany, that would be fantastic. My German is not very good at the moment, but hell, I'll practice hard for that kind of an opportunity.