It is Aug. 1, my last Saturday in Astrakhan, and I am sitting at my desk in my apartment looking over the schedule for St. Petersburg, my flight schedule home from St. Petersburg, and all of the pictures from my time here. We leave Monday at 6 a.m. for St. Petersburg, where we will spend a few days doing post-program debriefing and a post-program exam to measure our progress. Last night, we had a banquet for the CLS program at the university, where the students, our host families and the faculty ate dinner while the students performed songs and skits in Russian, and we watched the film made by the media club (the club I participated in).

It is really hard to believe that my time here is almost over. I've become so accustomed to living here I wonder what going home will be like. I am looking forward to being able to drive again, but I am feeling somewhat nostalgic. Since Volgograd, our class schedule and routine has not changed. We still had class from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, with excursions around the city and lectures after class.

In mid-July, we went on an excursion to the city of Elista, the capital of the republic of Kalmykia. Kalmykia is the only republic in Europe where Buddhism is the dominant religion and is also the home to the largest Buddhist temple in Europe. The city is well-known in the chess world and was host to the 1998 Chess Olympiad, the Women's World Chess Championship in 2004 and the World Chess Championship in 2006. The "City-Chess" that was built for the event is still there, and we were able to see some of it. The city itself lacks Western chain restaurants and stores.

Being in Elista was being in Russia. People still do a majority of their shopping at markets; fast food is purchased at individual kiosks and is all Russian food; most of the old Soviet architecture and structures are still there. The city (and republic, for that matter) are very isolated, being located in the Russian steppe. On the way to the city, we stopped at an old World War II monument dedicated to a city that had been destroyed in the war. The whole experience was quite surreal, as I occasionally wondered what exactly I was doing all the way out there! I visited a city and republic most people do not know exists.

Last weekend, we went to a tourist "baza," a place on the Volga River where people go to relax. We spent Saturday and Sunday there with our teachers. My friend Mark was thrown off of a camel, we took a boat ride to see the lotus fields (which were beautiful), we had a huge dinner with traditional Russian songs and dancing, and after the dinner the staff gave us a free bottle of red wine. All in all, it was a great weekend. To be honest, I still don't know where we were or where the baza is located.

Language-wise, I have learned more in two months here than I did in two years of university. There is nothing like being completely immersed in a language and culture, which is what this program is all about. We eat, sleep and breathe Russian. I am very grateful to have been chosen for this program and highly recommend it to anyone who wants to do this language study. The language pledge is central to the program and for learning Russian. We were forced to speak the language daily and actively use Russian not only in class, but to get around the city, as well, because very few people here speak English, and if they do it is usually not very much. Very few times do people actually get to experience the everyday life of another culture, even when studying abroad. We experienced Russian life daily, from university to transportation to family life.

I will be spending this coming semester in St. Petersburg, Russia (Editor's note: Holstad left the U.S. for St. Petersburg on Aug. 26); however I know that this experience is truly special because of the nature of the program. I will miss Astrakhan and my family, but I'm also very glad to be going home to see my family and sharing the experience with them. So, in Russian fashion,

Patrick Holstad, a Calhoun Academy graduate and senior at the University of South Carolina, spent his summer participating in the Critical Language Scholarship Program in Astrakhan, Russia. He is currently studying in St. Petersburg, Russia.

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