Internship at Liden & Denz – Round 2!
Привет всем! Я вернулась!
I’m back in St. Petersburg, and back at Liden & Denz, and again as an intern! It was such a great experience the first time, I had to do it over.
It’s been almost two long years since I left this city, my friends and my glamorous Russian life. It’s so good to be back! Somehow, I feel most at home here, even though I keep getting stares from the locals – I guess because of my Dutch height, or my funny clothes. I don’t mind.
I was born in Seoul, but then grew up in Italy, and since about 17 I’ve lived in the US, the Netherlands, and Russia. As I said, my favorite city to live in has been St. Petersburg. The architecture, the people, the edginess of it all… It’s hard to put into words but I think everyone who comes here can understand what I mean: nothing can compare. I left a big chunk of my heart here when I left. Coming back to see that not much has changed makes me incredibly happy. Also, I was really glad that there has been an opportunity, with the World Cup, for more foreigners to finally come and see how wonderful Russians can be. Весело! (Jolly!)
Currently my home base is back in Amsterdam, where I’m doing a double Master’s in Social Science and East European studies. After a year of hard work, I could’ve gone on holiday, maybe on some sunny beach somewhere, but instead I chose to come back here, and, to make it more worthwhile (Stakhanovite[1] that I’ve become), I chose to get back to studying Russian. I was a bit discouraged at finding myself so rusty, at first. I did not keep it up with it, I am ashamed to admit, although after my last course here I did have a much easier time understanding movies and reading articles for my studies. As the days have progressed, more and more of my vocabulary has returned to memory. I guess what I learned two years ago really stuck. I think it’ll be easy to get back in the groove, and I think I can improve a lot. This is definitely the school for it.
I’m looking forward to meeting you all! And if you ever need suggestions for bars, restaurants and activities, just ask me! I’m the tall girl with the funny clothes.
Эстер
[1] Aleksey Stakhanov became the shining example of socialist work ethic when he (allegedly – it turns out his feats were a bit exaggerated) mined 227 tons of coal in one shift, in 1935. His untiring commitment led to the creation of the Stakhanovite movement, a huge agitation campaign to stimulate worker productivity in the Stalinist period.
(Photo credit: Rustam Yunusov, Dervish Media)
