Why am I here?

This is what I wanted to do for a vacation? I spend about 5 hours at school and then another 5 hrs (or more sometimes) doing homework in the evening. What was I thinking??

The past few days I have been asking myself--why am I here? I think I lost some of my optimism because I was physically feeling crappy from the demons that took over my body for 36 hours and that my mental patience was pushed to the limit with the Swede (by the way--he is a 60 yr old retired guy) that invaded my living space and has tried to suck me into his cult (see the previous posts for details).

I have quickly learned that it is not physically possible to even get a grasp of the Russian language only after a few weeks of immersion. I was hoping I would get farther along than I am right now. This language is grammatically complex. Some other students here that speak 4-5 other European languages agree that it is the most difficult by far BUT not impossible. It just takes time. Now that I have come to terms with this I am excited to see how much I can soak up in the next week or so before working my way back to Alaska.

Natasha is my teacher for the last 2 weeks here. She is the ultimate optimist. Each day she tells me to say that I can learn the language. She tells me that ever morning she gets up, looks in the mirror, and says she is a beautiful woman and she is going to have a great day. I really like her...