DERRY — One Pinkerton Academy grad is brushing up her foreign language skills by getting close to the country, its people and its culture.
Kaitlin Farris, who is spending a semester studying in Moscow, is scheduled to return home next month with many memories, educational moments, and plenty of good stories to share with families and friends.
Farris, a member of Pinkerton's Class of 2005, is a junior at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass, who had the opportunity to spend part of this year studying abroad.
As a Russian major with a minor in Middle Eastern studies, Farris said the trip to Russia was a good chance to learn more about the language and see the world.
"I actually have been studying the Russian language for a long time," Farris told the Derry News. "When I was at Pinkerton, there was a very good Russian program and I studied the language there for four years."
She said that while still in high school, she traveled as a Pinkerton student as part of the academy's sister city excursion to Cheropovets, Russia, and other cities.
"It was a great experience and it helped to further my interest in the Russian language and culture," she said. "I have always been fascinated with languages and I always liked Russian, because it was so different."
After graduation from Pinkerton, Farris chose to attend Holy Cross because of its Russian language program and decided to make Russian her major.
The chance to take her Russian language studies and bring them abroad to Moscow was an added perk, Farris said. She always knew she wanted to study abroad someday, but choosing Moscow for her journey only served to add a bit more language icing on her cake.
"It was something I knew I would do," she said. "As a Russian major, having studied the language for so long, the only way to get better was to spend real time here."
Once she arrived in Moscow and had all her baggage in hand (she says about 50 percent of international baggage can be lost coming to Russia), she settled in and began her studies and sightseeing. Her dorm room at Moscow State University was amazingly small, not quite what she expected, she said, adding it became known to her friends and family back home as her "crib," but it all worked out.
The usual culture shock, living adjustments, trying to find the food that suited everyone, and getting used to the differences in everyday life took some time, Farris said, with a lot of the early weeks spent exploring, getting familiar with people and the university system, and language studies and classes during the day.
The weeks to follow, she said, were also filled with many trips to the countryside, museums, cathedrals, palaces and other historical areas like Red Square, the Kremlin and St. Petersburg. She said she even got to watch the Super Bowl in an American diner.
Farris said time flew by in many cases and now she is entering the countdown to come back to the States next month, following a few days in Paris. She said spending a semester in Russia was a dream come true and she learned a lot — about the country, the culture, the people and the language.
"I have not progressed as much as I wanted to with the language," she added, "but I have gotten better and, of course, had amazing memories and made awesome friends."
Farris said she has posted hundreds of photos of her Russian travels online for family and friends to see. She will spend the remaining few weeks with her new friends in the spring-like weather.
"I will definitely never forget this semester and all the growing that I have done," Farris wrote. "I would say that after living in Moscow, I am definitely a lot more grown up and definitely a lot tougher. My experiences have been full of ups and downs, but are something that I will never forget."
Friends and family who want to see some of Farris' photos online can visit www.katiemoscow.shutterfly.com.
