First entry 27-12-15 Today is my first day on italki. As for a quick bio: I was born and raised in East Tennessee in the United States. I have not had any experience with the Russian language until I began taking a college Russian language class (3 years ago) and loved it straight off. As a result, I decided to double-major in both biology and Russian. My initial career plan is to graduate from medical school, become a doctor, and specialize in forensic pathology while working with a government agency or other similar areas (most forensic pathologists usually do). When I enrolled into the University of Tennessee, my major required me to take two years of a foreign language. Initially, I thought Russian would help me get a job with a government agency more easily, since they are looking for people with specific language proficiency. I then began to love the language more and more and thought of more career options, even one involving me to live in Russia and work in the medical field over there. I am now a senior and am on track to graduate in December 2016, and I plan to take a year and a half break if I still decide to go to medical school in America. I hope to improve my Russian language skills, maybe help others improve their English while helping me, and to possibly make friends and conversation partners over the next year or longer. I plan to return to Russia in a year and begin one of my career paths, enjoy the experience in my favorite city, Saint Petersburg, and maybe continue my studies in Russia. I just finished a semester studying in Saint Petersburg and don't want what I learned to be weakened by being back in America. Although I have two majors, I plan to work hard in and out of class to prepare for my return and hope to see a few friends I made while I was over there. The biggest issue I have, other than my school work in my other major is that the time difference between my few friends in Russia is large, so I don't have much of a schedule to communicate with them and help each other out with our language skills in person and in a convenient time frame. I am at an "advanced" level in the Russian language and need help to become more proficient and confident in the language, so I can enjoy another extended trip, or even a career in Russia. My school was great in teaching Russian up until the advanced level, but either did not really help in conversation or pronunciation. This last semester helped a lot with improving those, but still would like to get better.