S3E42: Seattle Colleges Conversations with! International Student Mariia Albitskaia of Russia

In this our forty-second episode of Season 3, Seattle Colleges host Evan Franulovich interviews international student Mariia Albitskaia of Russia about her experience here at Seattle Colleges and about life in the United States. 

1:19 - Meet Mariia!

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Transcript

Evan Franulovich  0:05  
Welcome to Seattle Colleges International Programs and our show 'Conversations with!', where we talk to people that help you understand how you too, can be an international student in the United States and why Seattle Colleges should be your first choice. We'll talk to students and staff and agents and government folks, all kinds of people about what you can expect when you're getting ready to apply or travel here, what you'll experience while you're with us, and how it can all lead to an amazing life. Don't forget to check out the Seattle Colleges International Programs website at intl.seattlecolleges.edu where you can find a treasure trove of information about the school, the programs here and best of all, fill out and submit your application. Again, that's intl.seattlecolleges.edu.

Evan Franulovich  1:04  
Hey everybody! Welcome back to Seattle Colleges 'Conversations with!' Here at Seattle Central College, our first guest from Russia today. Welcome! 

Mariia Albitskaia  1:18  
Hello!

Evan Franulovich  1:19  
Very exciting to have you here. Tell everybody who you are, where you're from exactly in Russia, what you're studying, and how long you've been here.

Mariia Albitskaia  1:28  
Hi everyone! My name is Mariia Albitskaia. I'm 18 years old. This is my third quarter here. Originally, I'm from Saratov, but I lived in Moscow mostly my entire life. I'm studying Business Management and Accounting. 

Evan Franulovich  1:43  
Cool. And what do you want to do with business and accounting?

Mariia Albitskaia  1:46  
I think I'm going into marketing more right now, because it's kind of like my field.

Evan Franulovich  1:52  
Do you want to own your own business someday? 

Mariia Albitskaia  1:55  
Yeah, there is a possibility. Because I was always into sole trading, it's a way of business where you basically work for yourself. 

Evan Franulovich  2:08  
Well, that's cool. So we were talking before we started rolling. Super interesting background. Let's go back to when you were just a little kid. You went to school in Moscow, did you go to public or private school? 

Mariia Albitskaia  2:31  
I went to public school in Moscow, like a normal public school in Russia.

Evan Franulovich  2:36  
Yeah, yeah. Did you dream about being an international student one day, or was that completely off the radar?

Mariia Albitskaia  2:43  
My mom did. 

Evan Franulovich  2:44  
Oh, she did. 

Mariia Albitskaia  2:45  
My mom, since I was born, she had a lot of stories of people telling her that I was a special kid. She really wanted me to study abroad. She was like, 'Yeah, this girl really needs to study abroad.' 

Evan Franulovich  2:58  
Well, shout out to Mom. That's great. So did she recommend just anywhere, or did she really want you to go to the United States? Australia, UK?

Mariia Albitskaia  3:10  
No, for that time, it was just imagination. We didn't actually think about it until I went into middle school. 

Evan Franulovich  3:20  
Okay, so you went into middle school again in Moscow, right? 

Mariia Albitskaia  3:24  
Oh yeah, middle school was in Moscow. 

Evan Franulovich  3:26  
But you transitioned to private school. 

Mariia Albitskaia  3:27  
Yeah, I went into private school after. I went in into international private school when I was 13 to 14 years old. 

Evan Franulovich  3:36  
Was it a good experience? Did you like it?

Mariia Albitskaia  3:38  
 I liked it. I been to two international schools in general in Moscow, and the first one, I've been there for two years, and in the second only for a half of a year. 

Evan Franulovich  3:40  
And do you want to give those schools a shout out? Which ones were they? 

Mariia Albitskaia  3:52  
That's English International School and Anglo American School of Moscow. 

Evan Franulovich  3:57  
Cool. So everything's taught in English? 

Mariia Albitskaia  4:00  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  4:01  
So I'm guessing there must be a combination of Russian.

Mariia Albitskaia  4:05  
Yeah, there was a combination of Russian and English in EIS. But mostly afterwards, there were only international students coming in, and it was more like of an English...we were not allowed to speak Russian in the school. 

Evan Franulovich  4:19  
Oh, really? 

Mariia Albitskaia  4:19  
Even though we still did. 

Evan Franulovich  4:21  
Of course, you did. So most of the kids were from other countries?

Mariia Albitskaia  4:27  
A lot of people were from other countries, but let's say 50% were from Moscow, and 50% were from other countries, like India, Korea, Poland, a lot of people from Poland, Serbia as well. Yeah, I mean, it's a big international city, so you're gonna get a lot of people, that's really great. 

Evan Franulovich  4:50  
And then as a high school student, your mom was like, 'Hey, we're thinking about sending you over to another country.'

Mariia Albitskaia  5:00  
Actually, my mom was already thinking about it when they were transferring me to an international school. 

Evan Franulovich  5:05  
Okay. 

Mariia Albitskaia  5:05  
Yeah, because my dad is American. 

Evan Franulovich  5:08  
Where is he from? 

Mariia Albitskaia  5:10  
He's from Seattle.

Evan Franulovich  5:13  
So is this why you came to Seattle? 

Mariia Albitskaia  5:14  
Yeah.

Evan Franulovich  5:15  
Nice. So you have family here?

Mariia Albitskaia  5:19  
Yeah, I have friends here, family here.

Evan Franulovich  5:22  
And for housing, do you live with your family friends? 

Mariia Albitskaia  5:25  
No, I live in the dorms. 

Evan Franulovich  5:30  
Oh, you live in the dorms just across the street. 

Mariia Albitskaia  5:34  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  5:34  
Hey, and how's that going? 

Mariia Albitskaia  5:34  
That's going, actually really well.

Evan Franulovich  5:34  
Do you have roommates? 

Mariia Albitskaia  5:35  
Yes, I do. 

Evan Franulovich  5:36  
I have one roommate. 

Mariia Albitskaia  5:36  
Okay, and where is she from? 

Evan Franulovich  5:39  
She's from Africa. 

Mariia Albitskaia  5:40  
Nice. 

Evan Franulovich  5:41  
Do you know which country?

Mariia Albitskaia  5:42  
I don't really remember, because it's a complicated name.

Evan Franulovich  5:46  
Sure. That's great. That's cool. So you'll live in the dorms for a year or so, and then what's your plan after that?

Mariia Albitskaia  5:55  
I will live in the dorms next year because I just got a job. 

Evan Franulovich  6:00  
Nice! Doing what? 

Mariia Albitskaia  6:01  
Resident Assistance.

Evan Franulovich  6:02  
Oh, you're one of the RA's. That's right. Which is one of the best jobs, by the way. So tell everybody what your job duties are gonna be as an RA?

Mariia Albitskaia  6:11  
Basically, I'm looking after residents. I'm moving them in and out, and just creating a socially good environment. Because a lot of people came here without any friends in any communities. That's why the college is called a community college. I have to make their life like better with making friends and just meet people together, check rooms. Sometimes call the maintenance manager if something is up, yeah? Something like that. And I get a free room.

Evan Franulovich  6:43  
You get a free room. That's the best part of the job, I'm thinking, yeah. So how many RA's are there total? 

Mariia Albitskaia  6:49  
Two.

Evan Franulovich  6:49  
Two. That's what I thought. So you guys take turns being on call?

Mariia Albitskaia  6:53  
Oh, kind of, I think so. The move in and move out, obviously, both of the RA's is supposed to be there, but mostly through the entire quarter, there are some ups and downs with how busy it is. It can be a week when no one have questions. It can be a week when everyone's like, what's the code for the door?

Evan Franulovich  7:16  
Yeah, cool. That's really great. Congratulations on getting that job. 

Mariia Albitskaia  7:18  
Thank you.

Evan Franulovich  7:19  
Yeah, you can always check with the department that does housing, and sometimes they have jobs. So it's a really great job. Okay, so going back, so you did High School in Russia, but then you also left the country, where did you go?

Evan Franulovich  7:42  
I went to Mauritius. 

Evan Franulovich  7:43  
Yes, you went to Mauritius. 

Mariia Albitskaia  8:06  
For the last two years of my high school.

Evan Franulovich  7:19  
I got really excited to hear that, but you weren't as crazy about Mauritius as I would think someone would be. 

Mariia Albitskaia  7:53  
Yeah. I mean, I'm a big city person. I love big buildings, glass and everything is fancy, and I have a lot of stores and accessibility, public transportation. And Mauritius was a different style of life for me, and I was put out as a teenage from my original environment, when your hormones are playing, you're a teenager, you want to explore everything, you want to go out, and then you're coming to a completely different place that you're not used to. It's just a really tough situation to be in. It was a tough situation for me and my family. Sure. It was just not something we were used to, because that was houses we lived in, the flat most the entire life. Shops were like 20 minutes away drive most of the time. 

Evan Franulovich  8:39  
20 minutes, wow. 

Mariia Albitskaia  8:41  
Yeah, you couldn't just go out and go to the store. 

Evan Franulovich  8:44  
Interesting. 

Mariia Albitskaia  8:45  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  8:45  
So your parents lived there with you. You weren't boarding at a school?

Mariia Albitskaia  8:49  
No, my parents lived there. Me and two dogs.

Evan Franulovich  8:52  
Did you bring your dogs to the US?

Mariia Albitskaia  8:56  
No, my dogs are right now in Dubai. 

Evan Franulovich  8:58  
Ah, they're in Dubai. What kind of dogs do you have?

Mariia Albitskaia  9:00  
Yeah, I have two Yorkshire Terriers.

Evan Franulovich  9:03  
I have a Shiba Inu, which was probably maybe a little bit bigger than your dogs. It's a petite Shiba. 

Mariia Albitskaia  9:09  
It's a little bigger than my dogs, because one of my dogs is this big. 

Evan Franulovich  9:12  
Super small. 

Mariia Albitskaia  9:13  
Yes, super small. She's adorable.

Evan Franulovich  9:15  
So your mom, dad, take care of yourself. Yeah, very cool. We're big dog lovers here. So after Mauritius, you graduate?  What school did you go to in Mauritius? 

Mariia Albitskaia  9:27  
I went to Northfield.

Evan Franulovich  9:29  
Northfield, that's a private or public? 

Mariia Albitskaia  9:31  
That's private. 

Evan Franulovich  9:33  
Oh, okay. Good experience? 

Mariia Albitskaia  9:35  
Yeah, it was a nice experience.

Evan Franulovich  9:38  
Did you play sports while you're there? 

Mariia Albitskaia  9:41  
Not really. I mean, I played tennis, but just not in school. It's a completely other thing. 

Evan Franulovich  9:47  
So are you pretty good tennis player? 

Mariia Albitskaia  9:50  
Not pretty good, but I'm okay. 

Evan Franulovich  9:52  
You're not gonna go on the...?

Mariia Albitskaia  9:53  
Yeah, I'm not gonna go to tournaments or anything. But yeah, I can play. 

Evan Franulovich  9:57  
What do you do for fun while you're here? Or what's your...? 

Mariia Albitskaia  10:01  
I love playing volleyball. 

Evan Franulovich  10:02  
Okay. 

Mariia Albitskaia  10:03  
I'm a singer as well, a little scared of the public.

Evan Franulovich  10:08  
But you didn't sing the other night at the talent show.

Mariia Albitskaia  10:10  
I didn't because I'm scared of the people.

Evan Franulovich  10:14  
Too bad. Next year, maybe. 

Mariia Albitskaia  10:16  
Maybe. 

Evan Franulovich  10:17  
That'd be great. Yeah, there were some really talented people in the talent show.

Mariia Albitskaia  10:21  
Yeah, definitely. The results were actually great, I knew that they were gonna win. 

Evan Franulovich  10:28  
Well, next year you can try. It'll be great. We'd like to see up there. So when you sing, what do you do, like karaoke?

Mariia Albitskaia  10:35  
I mostly do acapella. I used to go to musical school for five to six year, so I play piano. 

Evan Franulovich  10:44  
That's great.

Mariia Albitskaia  10:46  
And then I dropped out, I didn't finish musical school because of teachers and teenage kind of time. 

Evan Franulovich  10:53  
Yeah. 

Mariia Albitskaia  10:53  
And then I started doing piano on my own. Didn't really work out, but it's fine. And I started doing private singing, because I sang in choir for five years, and then after I went to...

Evan Franulovich  11:06  
Very cool. Do you sing in a choir here in the city? Because I know there are city choirs.

Mariia Albitskaia  11:14  
Not really. I haven't really moved into the community yet. 

Evan Franulovich  11:18  
Well, it's coming then. Well, really, great. So you started to apply for schools here. Did you only apply to Seattle Colleges, or did you apply to others?

Mariia Albitskaia  11:31  
No, I applied to some unis, but my priority was Seattle Colleges. 

Evan Franulovich  11:35  
Did you understand the difference between a community college and a university before you came to the US? 

Mariia Albitskaia  11:40  
Before I came into the US, yes. But mostly Seattle Central College was recommended to me back then, back when I was applying for unis, because I thought that I have to only apply for unis. Yeah, that's how it works. But then when I started reading about community colleges, I was like, yeah, that's much more of a nicer decision. 

Evan Franulovich  11:59  
Yeah, that's great. That's what I did. I thought, I think it's great way to go. So your plan is to finish here and then where do you want to transfer? 

Mariia Albitskaia  12:07  
I want to go to UDub. 

Evan Franulovich  12:08  
Oh, you do. You mean Seattle, Bothell, Tacoma? There's two campuses.

Mariia Albitskaia  12:11  
Seattle.

Evan Franulovich  12:12  
Yeah, of course. Seattle's a great place to go. For sure. Do you think you'll do OPT, between the time you finish here and the time you go to UDub, or you go straight and do it?

Mariia Albitskaia  12:24  
I think I'll go straight. 

Evan Franulovich  12:25  
Okay. 

Mariia Albitskaia  12:26  
Yeah, because I really want to finish my education and get my bachelor degree. So after that, I just want to go straight up to working and maybe travel around the countries and have a work experience from different countries.

Evan Franulovich  12:39  
Yeah, that's great. Any place in particular on your list that you really want to go to?

Mariia Albitskaia  12:45  
I really want to go to Germany and Italy.

Evan Franulovich  12:49  
Yeah, so nice. So being from Moscow, you're used to cold weather. What do you think of Seattle? 

Mariia Albitskaia  12:57  
Oh, actually, it's nice. 

Evan Franulovich  12:58  
Nice, right? 

Mariia Albitskaia  12:59  
Yeah. I mean, people were saying it's really rainy, but I didn't really realize that.

Evan Franulovich  13:07  
We have a reputation for being really rainy, but honestly, it doesn't rain all that much.

Mariia Albitskaia  13:11  
It doesn't. After living in Moscow, it doesn't rain that much.

Evan Franulovich  13:16  
And hardly any snow. 

Mariia Albitskaia  13:17  
Yeah, that was bad. 

Evan Franulovich  13:20  
You have to kind of take the bus or the train or whatever.

Mariia Albitskaia  13:25  
Yeah, we went to Leavenworth with my boyfriend, so it was a really nice experience, because it was really snowy there. It was a really cool thing to do. 

Evan Franulovich  13:38  
So for the listeners out there, if you don't know, Leavenworth is a small town that is to the east of here, up in the mountains, and they've kind of modeled it after a German city. Yeah, it's really cool. Especially at Christmas time. 

Mariia Albitskaia  13:54  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  13:54  
They have it all lit up and stuff. So go check out Leavenworth. That's really great. Have you done any other travel since you've been in the US?

Mariia Albitskaia  14:02  
I traveled a lot when I was a kid, from 8 to 10 years old. 

Evan Franulovich  14:08  
Oh, nice. 

Mariia Albitskaia  14:08  
I've traveled mostly everywhere. 

Evan Franulovich  14:11  
Your parents are international business people? What do they do? 

Mariia Albitskaia  14:15  
My dad is in the business field. He has projects, he's working on them. He has a computer science master's degree.

Evan Franulovich  14:26  
Oh, very cool. But you decided business not computers.

Mariia Albitskaia  14:31  
I started with computers. 

Evan Franulovich  14:32  
You did?

Mariia Albitskaia  14:33  
Yeah, I did. For the first two quarters, I did Computer Science, Engineering specifically. But then I took physics, and I was like, 'Yeah, that's not my thing.'

Evan Franulovich  14:43  
Gonna switch to business.

Mariia Albitskaia  14:44  
Yeah, business was something that I really loved to do through my entire high school. 

Evan Franulovich  14:49  
Right. 

Mariia Albitskaia  14:49  
And it was something I was really interested in, specifically marketing, because Marketing involves talking to people and basically presenting yourself in a way for people to buy something.

Evan Franulovich  15:02  
This might be a good question for people that are listening, because if they decide that the course of study they've selected isn't really working for them, they might want to change, what was the process you went through to change your major?

Mariia Albitskaia  15:18  
Oh, it was pretty easy. Basically, I requested service at Seattle Central College the fact that I really want to change major, and my advisor approved it. That's it.

Evan Franulovich  15:31  
That was easy. 

Mariia Albitskaia  15:32  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  15:32  
Will it extend the amount of time you're here because of the switch of major? 

Mariia Albitskaia  15:37  
I mean, it didn't, but maybe because I just been for two quarters when I changed the major, and it wasn't really a big, big change, because first two quarters you were taking mostly classes for every major. Total amount of classes like Math, English 101 & 102.

Evan Franulovich  15:59  
Since your dad is American, right? 

Mariia Albitskaia  16:01  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  16:02  
You had been to the US many times before?

Mariia Albitskaia  16:06  
Yeah. I mean, we lived in Russia the entire time, from one to eight, from my age gap one to eight. But after we just started traveling. 

Evan Franulovich  16:08  
Just started traveling. 

Mariia Albitskaia  16:16  
Yeah.

Evan Franulovich  16:18  
So when you got here, there's no culture shock to go through because you've been here, you know the area.

Mariia Albitskaia  16:22  
 I lived mostly in a Russian environment, because my dad speaks Russian. So basically I spoke Russian only until I turned 13 or 14 years old.

Evan Franulovich  16:36  
So just curious, how did your mom and dad meet?

Mariia Albitskaia  16:40  
They met at work. 

Evan Franulovich  16:41  
At work? 

Mariia Albitskaia  16:42  
Yeah, my dad lived in Moscow for 25 years. 

Evan Franulovich  16:46  
Oh, long time.

Mariia Albitskaia  16:47  
Yeah, the entire time, and they were just working in the same company.

Evan Franulovich  16:52  
And that was all it took. 

Mariia Albitskaia  16:55  
Yeah.

Evan Franulovich  16:56  
So did he speak Russian before he met your mom? 

Mariia Albitskaia  17:00  
Not really. 

Evan Franulovich  17:02  
So he learned it all later.

Mariia Albitskaia  17:03  
Yeah, my mom didn't speak English and my dad didn't speak Russian. So it was a love from the first side. That's great. Yeah, they were communicating with hand gestures, they were pointing at things. That's so funny. And when my mom was talking about that, she basically said 'You know, I actually know that I didn't understand anything he said. But he was so funny.'

Evan Franulovich  17:27  
That's really interesting. Would you say your dad's Russian really good? Because you're a native speaker, right? 

Mariia Albitskaia  17:03  
Yeah, I am. So my dad's Russian is pretty good. 

Evan Franulovich  17:26  
Yeah, yeah. 

Mariia Albitskaia  17:19  
I would say he's pretty good. He can understand things, he can talk. I don't think he can write, but he can definitely read. That's really amazing. Maybe, write, because of an experience. But he's a good Russian speaker.

Evan Franulovich  17:58  
Well, I would think you'd have to be if you've been there for that long, because you got to go to the store. You have to negotiate traveling in the country and stuff. So that's pretty cool. Well, so you're here now, you've had three quarters you said, right? 

Mariia Albitskaia  17:58  
Yeah.

Evan Franulovich  17:58  
So what's been your favorite class since you've been here? Which one is top of your list? 

Mariia Albitskaia  18:10  
I think I have few. 

Evan Franulovich  18:21  
Oh, yeah? 

Mariia Albitskaia  18:21  
Yeah, I really loved English 102.

Evan Franulovich  18:26  
Why? That is not what I usually hear. 

Mariia Albitskaia  18:29  
I don't know why, I love the teacher, the professor. Her name was Elizabeth, she was extremely well taught. And I loved my Macroeconomics class.

Evan Franulovich  18:40  
What? Why? What was so interesting about it?

Mariia Albitskaia  18:43  
Macroeconomics was based as a group work, mostly, and I loved it. The way we communicated was extremely well. And I had my own group, I had friends, and the older topics for macroeconomics were really easy to handle.

Evan Franulovich  19:00  
Hmm, interesting. Those are your two favorites?

Mariia Albitskaia  19:02  
Yeah, two favorites. 

Evan Franulovich  19:05  
You mentioned before we started rolling that you'd taken a world music class, and in other interviews, I've had a couple of other students who took that class too, and they said it was cool. Would you what was your experience?

Mariia Albitskaia  19:20  
It was cool, but it wasn't something that I didn't know. 

Evan Franulovich  19:26  
Right. 

Mariia Albitskaia  19:27  
And it wasn't something new and something hard for me. I loved classes that make me want to study more. 

Evan Franulovich  19:34  
Okay. 

Mariia Albitskaia  19:35  
And music, I've been in this field for 70% of my entire life. 

Evan Franulovich  19:40  
Sure. 

Mariia Albitskaia  19:42  
It was something not new for me.

Evan Franulovich  19:44  
Very cool. So what do you listen to if you're just listening to music? What are you into? 

Mariia Albitskaia  19:50  
Pop, mostly. I love Russian rap. But probably Russian people will understand and Russian speakers will understand because the first person that usually pops up is Makhan. People probably know that name. 

Evan Franulovich  20:05  
I do not. I'm old, so I don't know. Every once in while when I'm visiting, when I was in Germany, I was just checking out some of the German music while I was there, and there's a really cool rap.

Mariia Albitskaia  20:18  
I love German music. 

Evan Franulovich  20:19  
Yeah, that was really amazing. So check out other cultures music. It's really great. I'll have to check that out. 

Mariia Albitskaia  20:27  
Yeah, you can. He's a really nice rapper. I mean, he's not specifically a rapper, he combines everything. I think you'll like it.

Evan Franulovich  20:35  
Yeah, maybe we can help me find it, because I won't be able to spell it. So one of the things that we have here at Seattle Colleges are a number of scholarships available. Have you applied for any of those scholarships?

Mariia Albitskaia  20:47  
I didn't apply for scholarships yet because I applied to Seattle Central after the scholarship was already closed, so I'm planning to apply this year.

Evan Franulovich  20:57  
Cool. Foundation Scholarship, January to March is the opening. 

Mariia Albitskaia  21:01  
Yeah.

Evan Franulovich  21:03  
Are you taking classes at any of the other campuses?

Mariia Albitskaia  21:06  
No, I'm only taking classes here at Central. 

Evan Franulovich  21:08  
Yeah, that's one of the benefits. If you come, you can take classes at the other but you don't have to, you can just focus right here. Did you get all your classes registered for fall? 

Mariia Albitskaia  21:19  
No, not yet. I'm gonna do that today. 

Evan Franulovich  21:21  
Yeah, usually you can do summer and fall at the same time. Are you're gonna go home...?

Mariia Albitskaia  21:25  
I mean, I already took a vacation quarter in the summer.

Evan Franulovich  21:30  
Gotcha. And your plan was to go back to Dubai, yeah?

Mariia Albitskaia  21:34  
My plan was to go to Dubai and then to Moscow. But yeah, my flight got canceled yesterday because of everything that happend with Iran. 

Evan Franulovich  21:42  
So if you can't make it back to home, what will you do? 

Mariia Albitskaia  21:48  
I'll stay in Dubai with my parents and my two dogs.

Evan Franulovich  21:51  
Yeah, you can at least get to Dubai. 

Mariia Albitskaia  21:53  
Yeah, and I have to spend my 19th birthday.

Evan Franulovich  21:57  
When's your birthday? 

Mariia Albitskaia  21:59  
10th of August. 

Evan Franulovich  22:00  
Oh, it's coming up. Wow, that's cool. Then you won't have to be back until mid September? End of September is the beginning of fall quarter. 

Mariia Albitskaia  22:11  
I think it's like mid September.

Evan Franulovich  22:12  
Oh, when you hear that? It's Trivia Time. This is the part of the show where we ask five questions, and we won't make these two hard, so don't worry. So the first question is: Who is the Vice President of the United States? 

Mariia Albitskaia  22:31  
Vice President? 

Evan Franulovich  22:32  
We all know the President. Yeah, who's the vice president?

Mariia Albitskaia  22:38  
I have no idea.

Evan Franulovich  22:40  
Maybe it's a hard question. Vance is his last name. 

Mariia Albitskaia  22:43  
Okay. 

Evan Franulovich  22:44  
Yeah, that's a tough one. 

Mariia Albitskaia  22:45  
I mean, I know the actual president. 

Evan Franulovich  22:47  
Everybody knows the president. So that was a little tough. Sorry, I had to start you with the tough one. How about this one, there are two countries that border us on the north and south. What two countries are they?

Mariia Albitskaia  23:00  
Okay, I know one country that's bordering is Canada, right? 

Evan Franulovich  23:03  
Canada. 

Mariia Albitskaia  23:04  
And the second one, I have no idea. 

Evan Franulovich  23:09  
Think tacos.

Mariia Albitskaia  23:11  
Oh, Mexico. 

Evan Franulovich  23:12  
Mexico.

Mariia Albitskaia  23:15  
Oh, my God, it was so easy, but then my brain kind of is turning off.

Evan Franulovich  23:19  
I know the stress of the podcast is terrible. All right, question number three: Name two modes of public transportation that you can take within the city of Seattle. 

Mariia Albitskaia  23:27  
Oh, busses and one line.

Evan Franulovich  23:34  
Yeah, very cool. What is the one line? 

Mariia Albitskaia  23:36  
The one line is basically a train. It goes above the ground and under the ground, mostly. And it goes to a lot of places, actually. And now they're combining the second line and one line.

Evan Franulovich  23:47  
Line two is over by Bellevue, on the other side of the lake. But yeah, they're gonna be connected. Very excited about that. 

Mariia Albitskaia  23:55  
Me too. It's so hard to get to Bellevue sometimes. 

Evan Franulovich  23:58  
If you don't have a car. 

Mariia Albitskaia  23:59  
Yeah, if you don't have a car, it's much longer. And then for me, I have to go to Bellevue a lot. 

Evan Franulovich  24:04  
Oh, really? 

Mariia Albitskaia  24:05  
My best friend is in Bellevue. 

Evan Franulovich  24:07  
That'll make it super convenient. I've been really excited about that. And they're extending the line further south. Right now, it ends at angle lake, and I think it's gonna go all the way to Federal Way. 

Mariia Albitskaia  24:19  
Oh, that's cool. 

Evan Franulovich  24:20  
One of the things great about Seattle is great public transportation. We have lots of ways to get around. There's also water taxis. 

Mariia Albitskaia  24:20  
Oh, yeah, I heard about fairies. 

Evan Franulovich  24:36  
We've got Amtrak.

Mariia Albitskaia  24:38  
Oh, I love fairies. I really want to visit a ferry. 

Evan Franulovich  24:41  
Yeah, you can go down. You can go down to the waterfront there, and you can catch the ferry over to West Seattle. 

Mariia Albitskaia  24:48  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  24:49  
It's really nice, especially on a beautiful day. 

Mariia Albitskaia  24:52  
I'm thinking about that right now. 

Evan Franulovich  24:53  
Yeah, get some clam chowder. It's really cool. Grab some of your friends while you go. And we also have the little electric scooters around town. 

Mariia Albitskaia  25:07  
Oh, yeah, the lime things. 

Evan Franulovich  25:09  
Lots of ways to get around. You really don't even need to own a car. In fact, there's a bus that goes from downtown all the way out to the ski resort.

Mariia Albitskaia  25:17  
Yeah, I am a skier. I didn't ski this year, but maybe next year.

Evan Franulovich  25:25  
Okay. Well, this brings us to our next question. There are three national parks around the city of Seattle. Do you know any of the parks? 

Mariia Albitskaia  25:35  
No. 

Evan Franulovich  25:36  
That's tough. 

Mariia Albitskaia  25:37  
There is a park next to Space Needle, but I don't know the way it calls.

Evan Franulovich  25:42  
I mean, national parks.

Mariia Albitskaia  25:44  
Oh, national parks. 

Evan Franulovich  25:47  
Off to the west, you'll see mountains. Those are the Olympic National Park. Then there's a really big mountain off here to the south.

Mariia Albitskaia  25:56  
Oh, I think I've been to this one, I just never knew the name.

Evan Franulovich  26:00  
Mount Rainier National Park. And then to the north, we have North Cascades National Park, which is gorgeous. 

Mariia Albitskaia  26:07  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  26:07  
You don't have a car, you said? 

Mariia Albitskaia  26:10  
I don't, yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  26:11  
Make friends with someone who has a car, and get a ride and go out and see these places. 

Mariia Albitskaia  26:16  
That's probably why I don't know many places in Seattle, because I don't have a car, and mostly everything that I go to is really easy to find and easy to go to. 

Evan Franulovich  26:29  
Around Town, no problem. 

Mariia Albitskaia  26:30  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  26:30  
It's easy to get around. Okay, last question: What was the last movie you saw in the movie theater?

Mariia Albitskaia  26:37  
I just went to a movie theater. 

Evan Franulovich  26:39  
What did you see? 

Mariia Albitskaia  26:40  
I saw Mamma Mia. 

Evan Franulovich  26:43  
Mamma Mia? 

Mariia Albitskaia  26:45  
I saw Mamma Mia, a few days ago. And we went to a cinema for Lilo and Stitch.

Evan Franulovich  26:56  
Mamma mia, you saw it in the theater? Because Isn't this an older movie? 

Mariia Albitskaia  27:01  
It is an older movie. 

Evan Franulovich  27:02  
Oh, but they put it out as a kind of as a re release or something. Cool. I like that movie, but I think I saw it a long time ago.

Mariia Albitskaia  27:11  
I saw Lilo and Stitch. 

Evan Franulovich  27:12  
How was it? 

Mariia Albitskaia  27:14  
It was amazing. Yeah, I loved it. 

Evan Franulovich  27:16  
So funny. 

Mariia Albitskaia  27:16  
We saw Lilo and Stitch. We are planning to go to 'How To Train Your Dragon' right now. 

Evan Franulovich  27:22  
Oh, yeah. 

Mariia Albitskaia  27:22  
Then we saw Snow White.

Evan Franulovich  27:26  
How was Snow White? I heard it wasn't very good. 

Mariia Albitskaia  27:29  
It depends on a person. I love Disney movies. Snow White was just really changed from the original story, and because Disney right now are changing a culture of actual princesses which everyone doesn't like, which no one likes.

Evan Franulovich  27:51  
What do you mean? Are they making them more badass?

Mariia Albitskaia  27:55  
Something like that, because of feminism and things like that. Let's say Snow White the original story was the fact that Snow White was basically saved by men, saved by a prince. That was a little change in the film. Right now she's running after her own dreams and things, which is for most of the people wasn't the right place to go. 

Evan Franulovich  28:20  
Oh, this is not the story I remember. 

Mariia Albitskaia  28:23  
It's a story of a blank white snow girl with dark hair, short hair, and lips as red as a blood. So it's a story about love and a woman who wants to give herself for love. And for me, I don't think it's bad for a woman to love someone. And if a woman doesn't want to go through her problems by herself, and she wants a man next to her and like a guy to help her out, I don't think that's a problem.

Evan Franulovich  28:54  
Yeah, so the movie was okay.

Mariia Albitskaia  28:56  
It was it was not too bad. It was not too good. It was just a middle thing. I liked the way it was filmed.

Evan Franulovich  29:02  
They've remade Lion King from animation.

Mariia Albitskaia  29:08  
I love Lion King. 

Evan Franulovich  29:09  
Was it good?

Mariia Albitskaia  29:10  
We went to Lion King 2, about Simba's father. 

Evan Franulovich  29:16  
Yes, Mufasa. 

Mariia Albitskaia  29:18  
It was an amazing movie. This one was one of the breathtaking ones. It was amazing.

Evan Franulovich  29:25  
Cool. All right, well, we got to start wrapping it up. One of the last things we do is, I always ask my international guests to say some things in their first language. Of course, in your case, it's Russian, but you're the first one to speak Russian on the show, so that's cool. Yeah, 10 or 20 seconds of whatever you want to say, you can say hi to your family, or talk to your friends back in Russia, whatever you want to do.

Mariia Albitskaia  29:53  
*Mariia's message in Russian* - Hi Mom, Hi Dad, thanks for always supporting me.

Evan Franulovich  29:58  
Very good. And then we always ask for advice, there are kids back that are thinking about being international students, but maybe they're nervous about it, or they just not really sure about where to start. What kind of advice would you give those students? 

Mariia Albitskaia  30:01  
Put all the overthinking aside and start working for it. 

Evan Franulovich  30:06  
Yeah, yeah. 

Mariia Albitskaia  30:07  
Just sit down, check out colleges and get to it, and that's it. You can do anything, if you really want to. There are simple tests for English. You can easily learn English. You can do Duolingo, which is a really good recommendation. 

Evan Franulovich  30:36  
Is it the one you did? 

Mariia Albitskaia  30:37  
Yeah, I did Duolingo. As soon as you get more than 100 or 90 or something, you're getting in the college. You also can take courses for English here and be like English unproficient. An actual recommendation is just to start it, because there's always a way, no matter what kind of position you're in.

Evan Franulovich  31:00  
Yeah, I agree. Yeah, that's cool. I'm curious, in your preparation to come over to Seattle, you had to pack, right? Is there something you wish you had packed that you didn't pack? 

Mariia Albitskaia  31:12  
Summer clothes.

Evan Franulovich  31:16  
You only brought winter clothes? 

Mariia Albitskaia  31:20  
I only brought winter clothes. 

Evan Franulovich  31:22  
That's funny. 

Mariia Albitskaia  31:22  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  31:22  
Because you would have been in Dubai, when you did that? 

Mariia Albitskaia  31:23  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  31:23  
So you have summer clothes. 

Mariia Albitskaia  31:25  
I left all my summer clothes in Dubai. 

Evan Franulovich  31:26  
Well, you'll need those summer clothes, because summer in Seattle is beautiful. 

Mariia Albitskaia  31:32  
It is beautiful. Actually, I was surprised by that. It's sunny, it's beautiful. Because everyone said it's rainy and like, dark, and I did not notice that,

Evan Franulovich  31:41  
Yeah, it starts getting nice beginning of June, end of May. And it should be pretty nice now until end of September, and then it'll start getting dark and it'll start raining a little bit. Nothing you won't be able to handle, that's for sure. Well, cool. Thanks, that's really great advice. I love it. Make sure you note that advice. Just go and do it. Don't be nervous. Well, great to meet you again. We met at orientation, which was cool. 

Mariia Albitskaia  32:13  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  32:13  
And this the first time we've had a chance to sit down and talk. So thanks for being on the show. Don't forget to come back every Wednesday. We have episodes from students from all over the world, from students, staff, faculty, whatever. Great information on here. Don't forget to like, share and subscribe. We really appreciate you listening. 

Mariia Albitskaia  32:34  
Thank you so much. 

Evan Franulovich  32:36  
Have a great weekend. 

Mariia Albitskaia  32:36  
Have a great weekend. 

Evan Franulovich  32:38  
Take care, bye, bye.

Evan Franulovich  32:42  
Conversations with! is painstakingly crafted for you by the Seattle Colleges International Programs department and supported by the lovely folks here on our campus. This show is produced and edited by me, Evan Franulovich. We welcome your emails and questions about coming to Seattle Colleges. Please reach out to us via our website or just give us a rating and a review on Apple podcasts as this helps others discover the show. Also, don't forget to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok or YouTube at Seattle Colleges Intl, that's Seattle Colleges Intl. And be sure to check out all of the shows here on 'Conversations with!' Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next week.