Study abroad

[rita-ivanovna.livejournal.com]

Does anyone know anything about St. Petersburg State's Center of Russian Language and Culture or the CIEE program through them?

I just started studying Russian, and it has since taken over my life. I'm a sophomore (sort of) and the current plan is to spend next year in Petersburg through the CIEE program, mostly just because it's the only program to Russia that my school offers. If anyone knows anything about this particular program, good or bad, or any suggestions about other programs, I would really appreciate it.

Also is there anything I should be doing now to prepare for living in Russia for a year? Or anything comforting I could tell my parents who are not thrilled with my choice of destination? = ) Thanks.

Continuing with colors...

[apollotiger.livejournal.com]

Continuing with colors, I came up to purple -- пурпурный. My dictionary puts stress marks on BOTH the y's... so, is it ПУРПУРный?

could anyone translate these sentences in russian?

[lavienver.livejournal.com]

in the interior monologue there is no punctuation.’
‘where the mind and blood coalesced in a union without orgasm and rootless like those of fishes.’
‘their love like the ink of squids, a banquet of poisons.’
‘i carry white sponges of knowledge on strings of nerves.’

thanks a lot in advance

Link: Russian Slang site

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

For [numerous] those of you us fascinated with the magnificent Russian slang, there's a Web site completely devoted to that trash valuable part of the language. NOTE: it's in Russian, so you have to work hard in order to just get it. How relevant is the site? Well, its maintainer, Xenia Turova, is an educated linguist (she completes her Ph.D. thesis at Moscow State University) and a radio presenter on the Russia's best news radio, Echo Moscow.

There you go: Ксеня по фене.

However, the site's forum section is still far more comprehensive than the "Dictionary" section - it's probably because Xenia's part of Echo Moscow's REALLY valuable Russian language show, the weekly hour-long "Говорим по-русски", is just two minutes long.
BTW "Говорим по-русски" has its own forum which is really useful for advanced explorers of Russian.