Taking Russian classes in college

[arian-archer.livejournal.com]

I studied Russian for 5 and a half years between middle school and high school so I would say I am relatively adept at the language (Not fluent mind you, but I know enough to get around). It's been about three years since I took my last Russian class, the college that I attended from 2003-2005 didn't offer any classes in Russian and now that I am going to a school (as a non-degree student so prerequisites aren't necessarily a factor) that does I'm wondering how advanced a course I should be taking. I still remember a lot of the fundamentals, verb conjugation and most of the cases, so should I go for the easy A and take a relatively beginning class to refresh or throw myself back into the language full force and take a class that's probably closer to where I left off after high school?

(no subject)

[beltspinner.livejournal.com]

I need help conjugating these two verbs. Please correct my mistakes.

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(no subject)

[nadyezhda.livejournal.com]

Hi there,

How do you say "a chechen" (female) in Russian? (i.e., amerikanka)

Follow-up: what is the adjective for Chechen? Somehow I seem to have missed this...

(no subject)

[superslayer18.livejournal.com]

This question isn't really specifically about the language so much as culture I guess.

I'm going to (hopefully) be spending the summer in St. Petersburg doing a Russian acceleration program that my school offers (it's supposed to be really great, and I'm really excited about it!).

Now, I'm going to a school (Yale) with a pretty liberal environment, so me being gay really isn't much of an issue and I feel comfortable not having to watch what I mention in conversation etc.

I'm wondering what that's going to be like around St. Petersburg (specifically the St. Pete. State University area, by the Winter Palace I think). Obviously how people react to homosexuals is entirely dependent on the person himself, but if someone could give me some general insight, that'd really be appreciated. Russian culture is sometimes branded as a little homophobic, but that might not be true in St. Pete or around the university area.

Any insight on gay life in Russian in general would actually be pretty appreciated (as well as any words/phrases that are absolute NOs to say etc).

Thanks so much! (Mods, if you want to delete this because it isn't specifically about language, I understand)