One of the impediments to making friends in Russia is probably the fact that my poor command of the language renders me a rather dull personality.  I'm unable to think of quick responses and the extent to which I can discuss  a given topic is usually rather limited.  I often try to make jokes in class, for instance, but it's very hard to be intentionally funny in a foreign language.  If I try to make a joke, I often just say something wrong, and then struggle to try and get it out correctly, by which time it's no longer funny.  Not to mention, it may not have been funny in Russian in the first place.

It does seem to be getting better though.  Lately I've been able to make Russians laugh a little more easily.  There are also signs that my comprehension is improving.  Often if someone says something funny in Russian that I didn't understand, I don't know it was funny until other people start laughing.  However, today on our excursion to Dostoevsky's apartment, I found myself laughing along with others as I listened to our tour guide.  Weekly excursions have been a decent way to measure my language growth.  At the beginning of the semester, I could never understand a tour guide.  Today I probably understood 90% of what was going on.  It's not a perfect measure since all tour guides are not created equal.

All things considered, though, Russians are usually impressed that we Americans are even trying to learn Russian.  Some are confused, since they don't think it's particularly useful and so difficult that most Russians can't speak and write it properly.  They're very complimentary of our abilities, even when we know we're struggling.  One problem, though, is that Russians don't want to respond to me in Russian. Once they figure out that I'm not Russian, they address me in English, and that's that.  There's one bar we often go to, and the bartender seems to remember me because he never speaks to me in Russian.  I don't if they think they're helping, they want to practice their English, or they really can't understand my Russian.  I think it's sometimes a bit of all three.