One of my biggest problems is that I have many interests and I’m not very good at multitasking. I try never to do more than two projects at the same time, because only proper focus gets me where I want to go. If I do too many things at once, then none of them turn out the way I want. It might therefore happen that for a few weeks or months I get thoroughly off track and do something completely different. This usually happens when I’ve managed to find the momentum for something that I’ve wanted to do for a while already. It’s also what’s happening right now with my Russian studies. I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time, but it always seemed like one more thing on the list. After tackling my Argentina pictures and finishing some work for university it was finally the right time though. The aim is to finish with the work on my Russian textbook before we travel to Argentina, so that I can move on to a more passive learning style of reading and watching movies while we are over there.

Working through a whole textbook and memorising most of it in such a short time is a rather ambitious plan, but I’ve done it once before in a similar time frame when I was learning Italian. It was extremely effective, in fact even more effective than I knew myself! Although I never really needed it actively again after my university exams, a few years later I surprised myself when I noticed that I could understand my Italian flatmate perfectly when she was talking to her parents on the phone. I had never worked on listening comprehension and hadn’t kept the Italian up at all after those exams, so it took me completely by surprise to find my Italian to be intact, especially considering that I learned solely from a text book with hardly any recordings! Since this strange moment I actually make a point of reading a paragraph or two in Italian every now and then to check whether it’s still there. And somehow, although rusty, it’s still alive and kicking! I could probably revive it in very little time if I ever felt the need. I’m curious to see whether the same approach will be as effective for Russian, which is much more heavy on grammar.

And speaking of Argentina, here some more of the pictures. Among them one of my favourites from that trip! Oh and … vegetarians beware, they’re not very squeamish over there where it comes to meat. It had to be documented.

All pictures taken with: Leica M6, Zeiss ZM C-Biogon 35mm f/2.8.
dm Paradies 400 developed in Fuji Hunt C41 Kit.

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

Now you know what I was up against. 3+ stops from shadows to lights. Here I just gave up on the shadows entirely.

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

Strange stuff.

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

Another one of those endless bus journeys I suppose.

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

They also had whole piglets.

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

My husband said several times that I was photographing every street corner of the city. It’s a big city, so obviously I couldn’t manage, but I have to say that I definitely tried!

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

Boys with their toys …!