An introduction

My name is Vicky, and I am studying BA Russian Studies. This year is my third year, and therefore is my compulsory year abroad. I will be spending six months in Russia.

For the first half of the six months, I will be volunteering for three months in a village called Orion, which is about an hour and a half’s drive away from Moscow. I will be teaching English, milking goats, and making myself useful, with my friend Lois who is also studying Russian.

I had never heard of Orion, or its sister village Kitezh, until Lois mentioned it to me, and, as I wanted to do some volunteering on my year abroad, and because she was so enthusiastic about it, I decided that this was the place for me. Both of these villages take orphans from awful backgrounds and give them a new life, with foster families, good education, and therapy. Although I know that this will be a challenge, having worked with AIDS orphans three years ago in Namibia (near Windhoek), I am looking forward to it, although this will be the longest time I have ever been outside of the UK!

I was studying Russian and Chinese Studies Joint Honours at the start of this year, but have since dropped Chinese. I was supposed to be going to study Mandarin at my university’s campus in China, but now I am looking for somewhere in Russia to spend three months.

One of my life goals is to visit every continent, and so far I have visited just Europe and Africa. As I thought I would be studying in China, I thought I could tick off Asia, but this is not possible at the moment so I’ll just have to wait and see what happens…!

Thanks for reading.

..

“I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
- Robert Frost