Paul in Moscow was the precursor to Beyond Utah. At the time (2014), I was in my second year of university, and I needed to complete an internship abroad. Having never left the USA, I moved to Moscow, Russia to teach English with International Language Programs (ILP).
Original Post:
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Добро пожаловать! (that means welcome in Russian). I thought about making a blog awhile ago, but I never really had anything super exciting in my life to blog about. BUT NOW I DO. As you all probably know, I will be teaching English to children in Moscow, Russia this autumn! I did have some visa delays, so I will not be leaving just yet. However, the rest of my group left for Moscow this morning. So I will get to play catch up once I arrive next weekend. 🙂
Now for the story behind this whole adventure…
Junior year of high school I discovered ILP. ILP (International Language Programs) is a “non-profit organization that arranges for young adults to have a life-changing semester abroad volunteering around the world” (check out their website! www.ilp.org). Every year since this discovery, I’ve wanted to pursue this, but never had the time or resources to do so – until now. In June, I went to an informational meeting in Provo, Utah. I was hooked. I was determined that this was going to be the year I volunteer with ILP. So after much scrambling to get paperwork done, I signed the ILP contract, got assigned to Moscow, and received approval from BYU-Idaho to have this experience count for internship credit. LIFE WAS AWESOME.
Then came training. And boy, was there a lot to take in. But I am confident that I will be able to excel no matter how terribly I might do in the beginning. After the second day of training, I received a phone call informing me that my visa would not arrive in time for my scheduled flight… So that’s been quite the bummer. However, it was confirmed yesterday that my visa will come next week and I will arrive in Moscow that weekend!!! 🙂
Now I just need to finish my pre-departure checklist. So here’s to the crazy, adventurous semester to come.
Paul