8 Days

Wow it's been a while since I posted. I'll set up easy headings so you can catch up with my life!

Thursday:

I was feeling even worse than Wednesday morning so I decided sleeping in could be a very good thing for me and I called in sick to Russian language in the morning. But I still made it to afternoon class and I think the sleeping in was good for me because I finally felt like I wasn't going to die immediately. Thursday afternoon was our last lecture for our classes in English and while I felt a little sad about it I was mainly happy that we didn't have to sit in a hot room directly after lunch. After class I headed to the European Mall to do a little shopping. It's been incredibly hot here and I was hoping to find a nice loose cotton dress to wear in St. Petersburg so I wouldn't die of heat stroke. I was striking out and feeling bummed until I popped into one last store and found a really cute black cotton dress for 400 ru., around $15 or so. Purchase in hand, I returned home exhausted and Dad and I went to get some food and beverages in preparation for our guests.

Our friend from home, Cale Burdick, was in Dubna (about 1.5 hours away) skiing at Worlds and he headed down to us with his friends Billy Susi, Trent Finlayson, and Thomas Moore. We met them at the train station, and immediately the energy of the group quadrupled. They were so excited to be in Moscow, to be able to get around in Moscow (with the help of yours truly and my Russian skillz), basically just happy. We hit a couple of places, had dinner on a really pretty pond, and I stayed up way too late, sliding onto the metro just before it closed. It was great to hang out with other Americans (/Canadians - Trent and Thomas) and see them react to a city I've gotten used to now.

Friday:

I was feeling surprisingly good but tired Friday morning. I had my last language class and we tried to communicate to each other how nice it was to talk and how much I appreciated the effort she put in to rounding out my education. After class Elise, Xannie, Ben, and I had lunch in Stolovaya 57 in the GUM right off of Red Square. It's this Soviet-era cafeteria type thing with good food, good prices, and a great atmosphere. Then we went for a drink (I guzzled coffee instead) before heading back to the school for a going away party. We were getting a lot closer and sillier with each other, telling funny stories, laughing, and generally being ridiculous. I'm glad that we got to this point but I'm sad that we missed out on more time of being so comfortable with each other. The going away party was awkward - since it was just the 5 of us and some of the teachers and administrators, but it was a nice idea for them to put in on for us and we got to say goodbye.

I headed back home to rest a little before dinner and leaving for St. Pete and found some of the skiers awake, others sprawled around the house napping. They LOVED my salsa (redemption!!), though to be fair it did taste a lot better after everything could soak together for a while and it was awesome just hanging out and chatting. They modeled the fur hats they got and Thomas put on a hilarious fashion show for us. Once everyone stirred and showered we headed to a nearby Thai restaurant for dinner and drinks, and met up with one of Dad's Russian friends. Before I knew it I had to leave to catch my train (we were meeting at midnight) and I had to say goodbye to my new friends. Though there was a world of differences - age differences, the fact that they are pro skiers and I am not..., we got along great and I had a lot of fun with them. Hopefully I'll be able to catch up with them again at water ski events this year.

Back with the group, we got on our train for an overnight trip to St. Petersburg. Each compartment had 4 beds and somehow Joe and I were the ones not with the rest of the group and were instead sharing with two older Russian ladies. In traditional Russian fashion some of the rules are totally followed and others are always broken - this time we thought we had to sleep in our assigned beds but one of the ladies tried to sleep in Joe's instead and we had a big language miscommunication. The trip itself was about 8.5 hours and relatively nice - air conditioned, clean, and pretty easy to sleep.

Saturday:

We went on a bus tour first thing, which was nice because we saw a lot of the city and got to get out and walk around a lot at important sites (the site of the original harbor, where the Decembrist revolution was, St. Isaacs Cathedral, etc). Almost everyone fell asleep by the end though - a long overnight trip plus a warm bus is a dangerous combination and when we finally checked into the hotel we had group nap time. The hotel - well lets just say it was less than great. And dirty. The wood floor was filthy and the comforter and mattress made me a little less than comfortable. Luckily the sheet felt clean and I spread it over the whole bed and slept on top because it was boiling hot anyway. The showers and bathrooms were separate from our rooms which was a little annoying because after paying so much for the program you would think we could get something a little nicer, but since it was only for one night it didn't really matter. Before naptime we had some lunch and did a little looking around. After naptime we showered, got drinks at a super cool Irish pub before having an AMAZING dinner at a little restaurant. The food was so good and fresh and tasty. Probably the best food I've had in Russia (to that point). We decided to go on a river tour, which was only $12 or so for students and had a really great time on the boat even though it rained a little. Then we headed back to the hotel, hung out for a bit and crashed.

Sunday:

We slept in and relaxed then Xannie, Joe, Elise and I headed out for the Hermitage. We walked around the city checking some things out and then did a fairly quick trip through the museum. I like art but I loved the rooms much more because the Hermitage is located in the Winter Palace where the Tsars used to live. I definitely want to go back and spend more time there but we were trying to maximize our time. It's free for students of all nationalities though - so it's definitely worth going to multiple times. Xannie had found a vegetarian restaurant online and we headed there for lunch. In one word - fantastic. The food was fresh and amazing, with lots of vegetables (not common here) and I had the most amazing freshly squeezed orange juice. I probably could have drank a whole gallon of it. We lingered and relaxed before walking slowly back home and stopping in Zara's - where I bought a really cute grey knit dress on sale - and a military-type store - where Elise bought pins for her bf and friend - before heading back to the hotel to unload. We went back to the Irish pub, which was lacking this time, and then ate in a "German" but actually Czech restaurant close to the hotel so we could head back to catch our 12:30 train. We took the metro to the train station and I have to say I like the Moscow metro better. The way back on the train was pretty much the same as they way there except I think we may have been sharing a compartment with clandestine lovers...

Thoughts on St. Pete - AMAZING city. It feels so fresh there because of the water, there is a great breeze, and it's not quite as hot. The city is very European and very pretty. The people are also a lot friendlier than in Moscow and many speak English, probably because it is more of a tourist town. The pace of life is also a little more manageable and I felt like I was able to relax unlike in downtown Moscow. The unanimous opinion was that it's better than Moscow and we all really enjoyed our time there. I can't wait to go back. Not to say that Moscow isn't great, but it's a hard city to live in, and it was nice to have a break.

Monday morning we got back in town and then my mommy came!!!! It was so exciting to see her and have her back but she was obviously very tired and jet-lagged. We went to dinner at the Hard Rock which was touristy but the waiters speak English and they have English menus and American food to ease the transition. Then I met up with Elise, Joe, and Xannie and we hung out and headed back to the dorms to continue our fun time. I'll definitely be sad when they leave.

Today we hit up this huge souvenir place and I got a few more presents and these super cool Soviet Propaganda coasters for myself. I still want a scarf for me but haven't been able to find the right one yet. We went at a great time because it was deserted and we got good deals because of that. Or at least better deals. Later we'll have our last dinner together and then say goodbye :-(. I'm excited to do stuff with my parents but I will definitely miss my friends and the close relationships we've made over the past week or so. Hopefully we'll be able to meet up again later in life.

I miss Kleenex with lotion

The past couple of days have been pretty simple - class, dinner, homework, some errands. On Monday I got yet another language teacher and my ears almost fell off because she talked so fast. However, she did seem to be concerned with giving me a full education because she said if you are going to study politics then you need to know the media too, so we started on some handouts she brought about acronyms, vocabulary, and different Russian TV channels, magazines, and newspapers. Pretty awesome! More importantly, we got to sleep in on Monday (no class till 2) and it was magical.

In the evening Dad and I went to Noviy Arbat, a few streets down from us to look for a mattress pad and to eat. We successfully ate (thank God) but failed in the mattress pad department. Back at home I finished my homework and practiced my economics presentation for Tuesday.

Tuesday morning surprised me as I understood probably 4 times as much as I did on Monday morning! Perhaps my brain is better at Russian than I give it credit for and I was just trying to cop out on Monday. Economics in the afternoon was interesting but nervewracking because we didn't really have any guidance or information about our economics presentation - just a topic and "ten slides." I chose Russian relations with the G20, which was interesting (for someone who doesn't really find economics all that interesting), but hard because the G20 has really only been important for about 3 years and in the G20 Russia isn't all that important (sorry!). That was sort of the point, that Russia isn't a major player in the G20, but it made me feel like I was missing facts and dates. After my presentation he talked a lot about the G20 in general and I hope that wasn't to point out what I should have included in my presentation, but I think it was more to give background and context for the rest of the class. 10 slides isn't all the much after all.

But I was in a bit of a mood afterwards and probably not a delight to be around so I just went home and did some homework. I started writing the paper I have due on Monday because since I'll be in St. Petersburg this weekend, it sort of needs to be done by Friday. I met Dad at the European Center to retry our mattress pad search and eat. Instead we found a sim card for his iPad and I found a place where you could get a mattress pad but they would have to order it and it would come in 2 weeks. Strike out. We ran into Miriam there - small world - after she went grocery shopping and barely made it to dinner before the food court closed.

This morning I was feeling way under the weather. I've been having sinus issues since Sunday morning, but I got some nasal spray that seemed to help. Perhaps I didn't use it enough yesterday but today I was hugely stuffed up and basically miserable. But I didn't want to miss class so I dragged myself down there, almost calling in sick about 3 times. Language class was awful because I was feeling so horrible but then suddenly about 10 minutes before lunch the pressure in my head cleared and I just needed to blow my nose a thousand times. So I was able to stick around, but I did take a nap when I got home from class. I'm feeling much more revived now although my nose feels like it's been rubbed all over with sandpaper. Call me pampered but I miss my kleenex with lotion. I was able to finish my paper while watching live results for Waterski Worlds, where our friend Cale Burdick from home is skiing and hoping he makes it into the finals.

I've also been able to talk to Cory during the day a lot more this week than other weeks and I've become closer to the rest of our group after living with them for two days. So mentally, I'm in a pretty good place. Now if only my nose would stop burning!!

I'm alive!!!

I have made it back from the Cucumber Festival in one piece and only slightly ill. Nothing to worry about, just some sinus pressure that this magic Russian medicine is supposedly fixing. Actually, for having no idea what it is and paying about $4 for it, it's working pretty decently. I also came back with presents for my roommates back home and boyfriend, so I feel pretty satisfied.

Our train out to Suzdal was WAY nicer than I thought it would be. In my excessive need to always know what is going on, I had googgled Suzdal and came across the little tidbit that the train to Vladimir (where you catch a bus to Suzdal) is bathroom-less. Obviously, this is not ok and I proceeded to dehydrate myself for the entire day. At the train station Ben told us that our train was actually continuing on farther and therefore would have a bathroom. I promptly bought a liter of water and downed it. Ok, just kidding, but I did drink around a liter on the 2 hour train ride.

The train itself was NICE! Six seats in a compartment, no gross feeling like you don't really want to touch anything, and the bathroom was decently clean for a public bathroom. The train back wasn't as nice, and we were sitting with this babushka who laughed at me as I tried to figure out how to use the Russian nasal spray that would make my head reattach to my body. But over all, pretty satisfied. We were supposed to take a bus from Vladimir to Suzdal but alas, the bus was all booked except for standing room only. On an hour long ride. So Ben and his gf (who came with us) did some quick thinking and we got two taxis instead and split them 7 ways, making them quite inexpensive. We did the same thing on the way back and the 30 minute drive in a taxi was well worth the $8 spent on it. Much better than standing next to a chicken on a crowded bus (disclaimer: I don't know if there are actually chickens on the bus, but it's highly possible. Or a goat.)

We settled in to this very rustic cabin - cute and Russian and FILLED with pictures of the Madonna and child. I like Jesus and Mary as much as the next Christian but I was a little freaked out. Luckily at night I was so pooped I didn't think about the staring pictures and have nightmares. Every morning this cute little babushka made us a super traditional Russian breakfast - meats and cheese and (of course) cucumbers and pickles; blini (like crepes) with a cottage cheese-esque filling and fruit preserves. Yum.

The first night we found a little place on a hill to eat at and we liked it so much that we stayed until closing time (only 11 - apparently staying up late is a Moscow thing not a Russia thing). We hung out, chatted, etc, and learned a lot of interesting things. I got a lot closer to the group as a whole this trip. Since I'm not living in the dorms I'm not around a lot but we were living together this weekend and I got to know people better. Anyway, it was a pretty good first night and it was amazing how clean and fresh the air was. We wandered around downtown and got a feel for it too, well as much as possible since everything was closed! Seriously, where are the 24 hour grocery stores and flower shops (because everyone should be able to buy flowers at 4 am)

Finally - the cucumber festival! I donned my green skirt in celebration of the occasion and obediently put on my hat before venturing out into the sunny streets of Cucumber land. We only spent a little time in the festival itself - lots of pickles, very few cucumbers, a demonstration on how to make a cucumber into a pickle quickly, some people dressed up like cucumbers, cool old buildings that have nothing to do with cucumbers, fair games, etc etc. There were lots of vendors inside and out of the festival and I did some serious browsing before picking out a few presents that I think people will like.

We grabbed some lunch and headed down to the river where we lounged, swam, got stung by bees (that was just me), and bitten by ants (that was a couple of people) before deciding that we were pretty much done with that. We wandered back to the booths and browsed. Several hours late, hot and tired, and maybe a little bit grumpy we returned home. We were supposed to go in the banya, a Russian sauna/hang out thing but decided that since it was so hot and we were starving and wouldn't have time to get dinner, that we would forgo it. It's definitely something I want to do at some point, maybe on this trip, but the last thing I really wanted to do was be even hotter, so I'm glad we passed on it.

We headed a little farther from home for dinner, to a place the landlord recommended, which was ok food-wise but had the SASSIEST waitress ever. She looked at us like we were the devil incarnate when we tried to give her 500r to pay for something that was 250r. (For your reference, 500r is essentially $20) Apparently I'm not the only person who hates those who get between them and food when they are hungry, as everyone else was annoyed too. We finished quickly, hit the grocery store for snacks and then settled into semi-coma states. We tried unsuccessfully to play at least 4 games and then just settled in to talking before heading to bed decently early. A long day in the sun plus lots of walking pretty much did us in.

This morning we got up, had the blini, and headed back to Moscow. I met Dad in the elevator and immediately turned around to go to a Formula 1 car race at the Kremlin. It was pretty cool, at least what we could see of it, and we kept moving around to get better views. At one point we ended up in the very front row right on the side of the "track" (aka street) which was awesome and we thought it was the best ever. Then we moved to a place where we were farther away but it was apparently donut alley because all of the drivers were spinning countless donuts there. The whole thing was less of a race and more of a show, but there was lots of fast driving. We walked around a little before hitting the grocery store and coming home for dinner.

A quiet evening to a busy weekend was just what I needed and I made my presentation which is due Tuesday, ate dinner, made some salsa (that just tastes like tomatoes so is apparently a fail) because salsa is really expensive/hard to find, and now I'm planning on taking a shower and hitting the sack. Thankfully, we have tomorrow morning off of school so I can sleep in and do some work and maybe go for a run in the morning. Or maybe I'll just lay with my feet out the window and try to get rid of the shoe tan I apparently picked up this weekend! Whoops.

Ready for the cucumbers???

Yesterday was a pretty average day for living in Moscow. I went to class, discussed political thought in Russian and learned a bit about foreign policy in Asia Pacific. My language class is still challenging but now that I know what to expect it's less of a shock, of course. Learning about Asia Pacific foreign policy isn't quite what I'm interested in but it was interesting (and short) enough to hold my attention. Then we went to KPMG, one of the big 4 financial firms in the world.

At first I was a little excited because it seemed like they were courting us or something. We had official schedules, complete with a coffee break, and bags of free stuff, the best of which was a mug (hooray for coffee!). But the presentations had little to do with what I was interested in, were full of acronyms that I didn't understand, and generally took longer than they were supposed to. At the end we had to listen to an hour long presentation about...giving presentations. Even though it was only scheduled to take 35 minutes and we were only supposed to be there for another 20 minutes it took a full hour. I really wanted to raise my hand and suggest that an important part of giving a presentation was not angering your audience. Perhaps it's just me, but one of my pet peeves is when people/things run long over the time they are allotted. I understand being 5-10 minutes late but when I finally walked out of the building an hour late I was really annoyed.

Luckily I was meeting Dad for skiing!. I skied pretty well - did all my tricks the first time except the easy one (of course). I decided not to slalom because my back was a little sore from the day before...not painful sore, just muscle sore, but I didn't really want to aggravate it. After skiing we went home and I did some homework then crashed. I've been super tired despite getting 7+ hours of sleep each night so I figured bed early could be a good thing.

We only had language class this morning and boy was it interesting. We're making our way through historical political thought (today in the 20th century) and my teacher asked me what I thought the ideal political-social structure was. Try forming that idea in English! I think I did an ok job of explaining and I'm pretty sure she doesn't think I'm an ignoramus so that's go

This evening I met the group for dinner at a Georgian restaurant about 10 minutes away from the apartment. I'm not sure if Ben picked close to my place on purpose or not, but I sure appreciated it! The food was decent, but with small portions, and the service was AWFUL. I mean, Russian waitresses aren't as friendly as American waitresses because in general the culture is less open and their wages depend less on tips. But still, this girl was awful. Even Ben's girlfriend, who is a Russian, was appalled. It's too bad because it's close to home and could be a good place to go.

After dinner every one came back to the apartment, and we all hung out and had a good night.

I'm doing fabulous and most importantly - looking forward to the CUCUMBER FESTIVAL this weekend!!!! We leave tomorrow and I'm sure it will be the trip of a lifetime. Mixed with "I can't believe this is happening..." and "I can't believe this is happening!!!" moments (I'm sure you get the difference)...I think it'll be nothing like I've ever experienced before. I'm sure we'll get closer as a group, have tons of fun, and probably eat way too many pickles!

That being said, I'm not taking my computer, and we're leaving tomorrow afternoon. I'll get back Sunday afternoon so expect an update then or maybe on Monday depending on how much work I have to do and how tired I am. Until then, my friends!

Uh school...?

Sometimes it's hard to forget the (ostensible) reason I'm here - to go to school. Oh you mean I'm not here to play and party in Moscow? Whoops...

Actually, since I go to class every day it's not hard to remember but on this day, the eve of my first assignment due date, I am nervous. Never mind that this assignment was the easiest, the shortest, and probably least important (since our professor doesn't seem to care about it one iota) of our 3 assignments but still... I'm not going to say I'm a GPA freak (I am) but I don't want a silly 4 week class in Moscow to screw with my GPA. Which it's not going to and I'm totally overreacting...probably.

Anyway, the paper (all two pages of it) is written and I'm mulling over the last couple of days. Monday in traditional Russian fashion there was a miscommunication...or something...and I didn't have a Russian teacher in the morning. My other teacher having flown to Italy with his wife, I was supposed to get a new teacher. I got to class at 10:25, a little early to get settled in. 10:30 came and went. 10:40 came and went. I started to wonder if maybe there was traffic or the teacher got lost in the building. 10:50 came and went and at that point I decided my teacher probably wasn't coming. Now, I was at a loss...should I go visit the other class like I did when we were short a teacher before? What I really should have done was called Ben, the coordinator, but as luck would have it my phone was out of money and I was going to reload it later in the day. I felt awkward walking in to the other class 20 minutes late so instead I pulled out my book and did review. That got boring after about 40 minutes so I played games on my ipod for ten minutes and then let myself out for lunch early.

In the afternoon we had Foreign Policy - the class where dreams and interest go to die - but we had a new professor! Who was WAY more interesting. We learned about the US and Russia and I was riveted. And, he's staying for the last class (tomorrow) too! Best news ever.

After class some of us headed over to the New Eurasia Foundation, Russia's (only?) main NGO for a talk from the president. Over an hour later we were still sitting there and told it would be 10-15 minutes more until he got there. Adding up the hours in my head, I decided I really couldn't afford the time, with a paper due on Wednesday and a presentation and paper the following week (and going out of town this weekend) so I regretfully left. I'm bummed I didn't get to hear him speak, but I had to get my work done so what was I going to do? I know I would have just been stressed. Later, Ben said they didn't get out of there until 6:30 which makes me happy that I left so I had time to write my paper, set up the printer, and make dinner.

Today I met my new Russian teacher (who showed up!) and she is much sterner. We speak only in Russian unless absolutely positively necessary or she wants to check that I really do understand a word she just described. That means when I don't understand a question or a sentence, or I don't know what a word is - explanation and definition in Russian. Also, instead of just letting me read passages and answer questions that are verbatim from the passage she made me talk about it and asked me questions that I had to answer in my own words. YIKES! It's really good for me but stressful and exhausting. Plus I speak horribly when I get nervous (in English as well) so I don't think I made a great impression. I put hard work into my homework assignment though so hopefully I redeem myself. And maybe she picked up on the nerves. We'll see how it goes tomorrow. Today we read about Machiavelli, which means I have now learned about him in 2 languages, neither of which were his own...kind of silly to think about that.

Contemporary Russia in the afternoon - domestic politics hooray! I've really hit the jackpot this week in lecture. Very interesting and also interesting to see the different perspectives. Our economics teacher is much more critical and skeptical of the political system than our contemporary teacher so it's cool to see both sides.

Dad and I went skiing today and I skiied pretty well. I'm working on my form with the help of a man we call Mr. Green Shorts because he always wears a green bathing suit and we don't know his name. Anyway he speaks great English and he's really helpful so yay for Mr. Green Shorts. I'm getting a lot better with his assistance. We're going back tomorrow and I might trick too :)

For now I'm tired so I think I'll go to bed. Tomorrow we have to dress up for a tour of KPMG - one of the leading financial companies in the world - so I'll see how the working people do it in Moscow. Somehow, between the sweaty metro and the long walks, I don't think I'm going to enjoy it so much. In London I managed to avoid heels on the cobblestones (except for inside Parliamentary courtyards) and dress clothes in the Tube by commuting in flats on the bus. Flats are available, buses not so desirable here so we'll see how I do!

Peanut butter by any other name...

This weekend goes down as a success, I believe. Yesterday Miriam, Zach (our new friend from a different program at our university here), and I headed slightly out of town, but still on the metro line, to Tsaritsyno Palace. It was built for Catherine the Great but it wasn't finished because she didn't like it and made a new architect do it again but first she died. For years it was in ruins but then in 2005 or something the government saw it as a perfect tourist trap and finished it.

The palace itself left something to be desired. Because it was never finished or lived in, it pales in comparison to Versailles or Hampton Court. Then again, I don't really think I'm a fair judge because I might just possibly have really high standards for palaces. Still, there was lots of cool art inside and a couple of rooms that were just amazing. I think, if I understand correctly, that they finished it according to the original plans (plus some additions like the elevators), so that was comforting. Either way, we laughed a lot about the Queen's private lobby to the elevator room. Generally being silly and making fun of the people dressed up in traditional costume (of course!).

The grounds also had a Bread House which sounded like it was going to have food, or at the very least fake bread and ovens and bread making apparati but instead housed millions of platters. The "bread plates" as we called them (to have some excuse for calling it the Bread House) were never ending. About 5 were really cool Soviet-era propaganda, but most of them were called "Flower," "Bouquet," or "Bouquet of Flowers." I was having traumatic flashbacks to Greenwich where Jeff, Cory, and I walked through room after room of boat paintings but we finally finished.

While the inside left something to be desired, though it was a cool experience, the grounds were AMAZING. We were trying to figure out why you would need such a large plot of land and came up with all kinds of ridiculous ideas, but mainly just enjoyed them. It was like being in a forest, randomly populated with old buildings that we couldn't understand. Oh and we also saw 25+ brides, which I think made Zach want to throw himself off the cool old tower we found. Apparently a very popular place for wedding parties, the grounds were absolutely swarming with them. Miriam and I not-so-surreptitiously snapped pictures of the couples and may have actually been featured in one of the videos! But we'll never know.

We headed home exhausted after our romp at the palace and I relaxed a little bit before meeting Dad at the 4th of July celebration put on by the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia. It was...not American. The people were Russian, most of the food was Russian (with the exception of corn and hot dogs), and only an American flag banner really marked it as an Independence Day celebration. Either way, it was nice to sit outside and eat food. The place it was at is this huge garden (apparently the theme for the day) and the air was really fresh and for a moment I forgot I was even in the city. We stopped at the local bar for a drink and to talk with our Russian friends before I crashed and went home.

Today I slept in deliciously late (!!!!) and then did some homework and work on my projects that are due in a week and a half or so. Then I spent hours trying to figure out Dad's iPhone and finally figured out what we need to do so we'll give that a shot. We ate in, nothing special, and then hit the grocery store down the street. Lots of food and plans to make salsa later, I'm chilling at home and getting ready to go to bed, dreaming of breakfast because at the grocery story I found....

PEANUT BUTTER!!!!!!!!

Everything I ever wanted and more. And fairly reasonable for Moscow prices too! I am a happy camper. Easily pleased, this one. Add that on top of this next story which I forgot to tell earlier and the end of the week definitely beat the melancholy of the earlier half of this week.

Usually when people stop me on the street to ask me something I am 1. too shocked out of my English thinking to comprehend words in Russian then 2. slowly processing the information and seeing if I understand and then finally 3. trying to formulate an answer. So usually I just tell them I don't know, which is probably true about 50% of the time, when they are asking me for directions to a store I've never heard of. But not Friday!! I was talking to Miriam and this passerby asked me in Russian if I knew where the Kitay-Gorod metro station was. I not only made the language switch, but I understood him and appropriately answered Yes that it was this way. And later told him to turn left at the stoplight.

It was a little thing, but it was the first time I was able to converse with a Russian without really thinking about what I was going to say first. And it came so naturally, I just wanted to dance in the street. Maybe this city is getting to me after all!

Sometimes it just takes a rainstorm

I had a feeling that yesterday wasn't going to be the best day of my life, but surprisingly it was saved by a rainstorm. In the morning we moved on to a new section of my Russian book...only passages and no more vocabulary, which was a little frightening but there's something kind of cool about reading about mythology and Confucius in Russian. Plus I tried these tiny little red berries that only grow in the forest here. I forgot their name but I have no idea what it was in English anyway. They were interestingly tart but not sour...very very small though.

The afternoon was what we were all dreading though. Because our class on Monday got cancelled, we had to go to class Friday afternoon instead. Plus, the same class had a conflict one day next week too, so instead of having double class like usual we had 3 sections of class in a row. Of the class that makes walking on hot coals sound fun if it meant you didn't have to listen to this guy anymore. I'm sure he's very knowledgeable but he is totally disorganized, his thoughts don't seem to be connected to each other, and the majority of the time I don't understand what's going on. Now, that's hard to endure for an hour. But we had almost 5 hours of class because he went 40 minutes over what we were supposed to have. At the end no one was even pretending to be taking notes or caring, it was so ridiculous. To top it all off, a HUGE thunderstorm started right as we were packing up to leave. I mean really.

So we waited about 5 minutes and it stopped raining so we ventured out to the metro station. Apparently there are about 3 drains in the whole city because we had to ford a river to cross the street! It was like Oregon Trail - to cross the street and potentially be soaked up to my armpits and lose the food and oxen or go around for days?? We made it relatively dry (at least from the knees-up) to the metro station. And walking through the river-streets made me feel like a little kid again jumping in puddles

But the other end was a different story. About 40 people were standing just inside the door to the station waiting for it to stop raining. It was raining hard but not too bad and I had my umbrella. Plus I was starving so I wasn't stopping for anything! About halfway home it started to rain a little heavier but I was only getting partially wet. In trying to shield my bag - which is thankfully somewhat water proof (I knew I chose that one for a reason!!) my umbrella was dripping occasionally down the back of my shirt but I was within 4 minutes of home so it didn't really matter.

Then suddenly it was torrential downpour. My umbrella was keeping my face dry and that's about it. My skirt was soaked, my shirt was soaked, my hair was plastered to my head and I stepped in a knee deep puddle. It was so pathetic, ridiculous, and completely unavoidable that I just had to laugh out loud. I'm sure all the other people running for their lives thought I was crazy as I giggled, soaked head to toe. But it was just what I needed to brighten up my mood.

Later that evening there was a party for the international kids at our school here. For a while it was just my group and a few other people but we had a lot of fun and made it back on the metro before it closed and we had to find an alternative route. Today a few of us are planning on heading over to a palace built for Catherine that she never actually lived in but that supposedly looks like Versailles. Hopefully it'll be awesome!

This country makes me sleepy

There's probably a billion reasons why I'm so tired. But I'm going to blame Moscow. Seriously though, come 2 pm it's like a master feat to keep my eyes open. I'm not actually tired per se, I just can't keep my eyelids open. What I'd really like is to close my eyes and listen to the lecture but unfortunately that comes off as sleeping, go figure. I thought it was just our classroom at school but today we visited the Moscow City Government and I had the same problem.

First, I thought it was going to be a tour of the government. Maybe I've been spoiled by buildings in DC, London, and Paris, but I really like looking at cool old buildings. That's not quite done here apparently. We only went inside a church and a museum at the Kremlin and today we sat in the Press room and saw the inside of the elevator plus a flight of stairs. So ok, it's a lecture instead, that's alright I like politics. But it ended up being mainly about transportation issues. Which is not exactly what I'm interested in but was still interesting and touched on the modernization problems and developmental issues that are complicating Moscow life. All in all it was interesting and we got to see our friends Maria and Zach again. (At first I typed "Friends" with a capital F...as far as I know they aren't Quakers but who knows).

Then the group went to this Uzbek restaurant...which I must admit made me a little nervous. You all know I'm not exactly un-adventurous...but please lets not play around with my eating! (Seriously, Jess and Linds, I should be obese). But it was what the group wanted to I packed up my courage and dove in to...what appears to be very much like the middle eastern food I eat at home. Yay!! The food was great, well cooked, and the waitress was really nice. Creme brulee for dessert was missing some crunch but other than that we had fabulous bread, dumplings, rice, hummus, yum yum yum.

And let me just make a quick comment about the waitress. First of all she was adorable. But she was NICE. She listened politely to my Russian, spoke slowly so I could understand her, and actually understood me! And SMILED! I love her and I want to take her home with me. Really though, up until this point I hadn't noticed how Soviet stoicness had affected me. I mean, I don't feel like smiling on the hot, crowded metro either. But when I see a cute baby, I generally smile while the nanny glares at me like I'm juggling knives over the pram. And while I get along with most people in our group well, it's not quite the same as walking into my apartment at school to cries of "My love!!" Ok, maybe my friends and I are a little too close, but still. I miss my presence being appreciated. Here I just feel like I'm in the way.

But I think perhaps I'm just a bit melancholy lately. Homesickness was bound to hit eventually of course, no matter how many buffers I had to hold it off. Hopefully I'll shake the feeling soon and will be back on my feet. I'm still enjoying my time here but I don't look out the window with the feeling that this city is mine anymore. Like London, I feel like an outsider, but like London, I'll get the happy feeling back and will love this city again. In the meantime I think I'll pamper myself with a nice relaxing bath and an early bedtime.

Settling in meets homesickness

Today was the first time I really felt homesick. I've gone through serious periods of missing people - my mom, my girlfriends, Cory, my kitty, but I haven't really felt like I missed home. I think part of that is living in the apartment with Dad - I have a real bathroom, a kitchen, my dad, and some stuff from home like blankets, art, etc. Plus having multiple rooms makes it feel more like home and not living out of a dorm room/hotel room. But today I missed home. Funnily enough it started because I wanted to wear this shirt that I didn't bring with me. I thought about it and then decided not to bring it (unlike the skirt I mourned last week because I forgot to pack it). But today I really wanted it and that little thing kicked off a whole wave of missing my home.

Other than that though, life is good. Yesterday we had class and I had my first solo language class. It wasn't as bad as I thought it might be but I'm still really nervous because there's no one to back me up or validate the fact that the material is hard. When I make mistakes, it's just me not understanding the material. When Joe and I both made mistakes it was more a confirmation that we were learning hard stuff. But it's not bad. Today was pretty good too, though Alexander said I'm getting a new teacher next week so I'm not sure how I feel about that. We're also approaching the end of the first section of my book, which involves grammar exercises, verb, comprehension, and vocabulary in addition to short passages. The next section is just long passages. Eek! But I'm trying to be confident - I can do this! Maybe.

Yesterday we went to this "top secret" Cold War bunker that existed under this city block for decades and no one even knew it was there. It wasn't a hide-out for Stalin like I originally thought, but instead basically a ballistics control headquarters type thing. I wondered how similar it would be to the Churchill War Rooms in London and the answer was...not at all. Sorry Moscow, but London totally has you beat on that. In London everything was preserved just how it was during the war. In Moscow everything was dismantled and secretly transported out of the tunnel system using a nearby metro line. Which would be super cool if you could actually see the secret entrance to the line but it's blocked off now. It was still neat and interesting to see the Cold War from a different perspective. Though a video that plays Ave Maria while atomic bombs go off in the background is somewhat unsettling...

But we did get to meet some different Americans on a 7 week language-only trip here. They seemed nice and it was cool to see some new faces. I talked to one kid, Zach, who just graduated from Tufts and is going to Stanford for his masters in the fall, at dinner. We compared Polisci departments and ideology and I explained my thesis. Which, as usual, sparks a panic that I am not far enough along on my data collection and that all of my hypotheses are going to be wrong. The first fear is ungrounded - I think I might actually be ahead or at least on target; the second one is probably right but not the end of the world I suppose. Either way, talking about it gives me a headache but I enjoyed talking to someone who likes political science as much as I do. While the people in my group are great, none have quite the focus on polisci that I do so it was a nice change. The other girl I talked to is only a junior in high school! I give her huge credit for coming here...I'm not sure I would have been quite that brave. Plus, I'm a little impressed that her 700 student, K-12 school in Alaska actually teaches Russian. Bizarre.

Today Joe and I met with our tutors and Miriam tagged along (quite welcome too, since Joe and I aren't always quite sure what to do with our tutors). Today was interesting though, we talked about learning languages and how hard that is, about language teachers, and then a bit about our cultures and the awkwardness of growing up and not being sure what to call people anymore (Mr/Mrs or first names???). Russians don't have a Mr./Mrs. equivalent, instead they call each other by first name and "patronymic" which is formed from their father's name. For instance, I am Erika Krisovna. My mom would be Linda Williamovna. Well, it sounds better with Russian names. Informally, they use only first names, but we bonded over similarities in unsurety over the transition between formal and informal. I shared how uncomfortable I feel calling adults by their first names, even though I'm almost a "for realsies" adult, as we say at my house.

Then I went back to the European mall because I hadn't stopped thinking about a top I tried on there and since it was only $25 I decided to treat myself and maybe cheer myself up. Alas, it was much less adorable than I thought in my mind so I walked home empty handed. I made bruschetta and ravioli for dinner and unlocked Dad's iPhone, to his amazement (I just followed online instructions but there you have it).

Tomorrow is more class and then a Moscow City Government tour. I'm not really sure what to expect but hopefully it's cool. I like being out of the classroom at least, it provides a break from sitting for hours. I'm not one to fall asleep in class but after sitting in a warm room after lunch for 3 hours I feel a bit sleepy. Once I get moving I'm fine but my eyelids definitely start to droop even though I find the subject material really interesting and I'm writing practically nonstop. I wonder what the professor would do if I started doing jumping jacks in class?

Bugs really like me

I know, I know, I've let you guys down this weekend. But truthfully, nothing really happened worth blogging about. That's not to say I didn't have fun but it was pretty regular, or not all that exciting stuff to write about. But I'll do a brief recap anyway.

Saturday I went on a scavenger hunt with Miriam, Joe, and the group of Armenians that live in their hallway. It started out REALLY badly, mild rain, my group was only speaking Armenian and they clearly didn't want to be doing this scavenger hunt. I pretty much said "peace out" and bailed to find Miriam. Her group was much more friendly and I spent the rest of the scavenger hunt with them before returning home. At home I got to Skype with Cory for the first time since arriving, which was great! The scavenger hunt itself was somewhat lame, with really weird or far destinations, and some things that you just plain aren't allowed to do, like take a picture with a policeman or take a picture in Chanel. Later we met the rest of the people from our program for dinner at a Japanese restaurant. Man is it weird to read Japanese words in Cyrillic. I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to end up with but successfully ordered vegetable tempura and a shrimp tempura roll. I know, pretty bland for a Japanese restaurant but they were basically the only things on the menu that I could decipher.

Afterwards Ben, his gf Alyona, Miriam and I had a little double date on the riverside and then Miriam and I walked back to the apartment and hung out for a while. She was thrilled because she got to see the Church of Christ the Savior close up and take lots of pictures. It was nice to have some girl time because I am desperately missing my girlfriends! When people are rude or crazy or funny, or I'm sad or happy, or pretty much like all of the time I like to talk it over with my friends and they aren't here :(. So Miriam and I filled that role for each other and it was great. I even managed to give her a little bit of advice in the long distance relationship department, pros that Cory and I are at that.

Actually, funny enough, her boyfriend's name is Chris, which some of you know is what Cory's name actually is. So we bonded over the trials of dating people named Chris.

Sunday Dad and I spent a lazy morning in the apartment, which was great because I definitely needed the sleep. Then we biked across the river and looked at art. We didn't find anything but we did have a nice lunch in Gorky park where I used my Russian food skills again. Clearly the only thing I can do is talk about food because that's the only time I feel competent in my Russian. After a quick stop home to drop off the bikes we went to the grocery store and successfully located ground beef, boneless skinless chicken breasts, turkey breasts AND sliced turkey. Dad had only found boneless skinless chicken breasts once before (the other time they turned out to have bones and I unexpectedly (sort of) learned how to debone a chicken). All in all, a pretty successful trip. We changed quickly and went to one of his coworker's house for a barbeque.

The party was (somewhat surprisingly) great! I didn't expect it to be all that interesting but the people were nice to talk to and the food was fantastic. Corn, steak, shish kabob, salads, all kinds of cheeses, hot dogs, and just about everything else under the sun you could want. We came home, called Mom, and crashed.

Today Joe, the other kid in my Russian class, decided to leave me for the lower class :(. He thinks the other class is a better fit for his skills, which is understandable but leaves me all alone. Once this sounded like a great opportunity...now it feels more like I've been cast out into the ocean without a life jacket. My teacher doesn't really speak great English and I don't always understand what's going on, so now I'm all on my own with that.

Luckily, though, our afternoon class got cancelled which is great because let's just say it's not the most interesting class ever. With the afternoon unexpectedly free Miriam and I hit the European Center (mall) and browsed. We unfortunately fell in love with more things that we should have but successfully walked out the door without buying anything! Except for some groceries that Dad and I forgot yesterday because there is a grocery store in the basement of the mall. I finally arrived home and started making stuffed peppers for dinner tonight...somewhat of an adventure due to the interesting tomato sauce situation. The options were tomato juice, spaghetti sauce with garlic and stuff, or this thing that was sort of between tomato juice and tomato sauce...and had giant tomatoes in it. I figure we'll put the tomatoes on a pizza or I'll make bruschetta and I was able to drain the sauce-ish stuff out for the peppers. Always an adventure!!

The one down side to the weekend - on Saturday night somehow I was devoured by a bug and now I have this HUGE bit on the end of my sternum. No joke, it's like half an inch wide and two inches long and looks like I'm having a mild allergic reaction or something....currently treating myself with cortizone cream that Dad found in his stuff and neosporin and hopefully it clears up because I really don't want to have to deal with the Russian medical service or the pharmacist. Yikes.

A day of food

Today we only had language class and then a long lunch break before our tour of the Kremlin (!!!). Miriam, Joe, and I decided to take a break from the столовая (stolovaya) - cafeteria and went to a familiar place - Subway! Yes, they have subway here. I got a 6 inch turkey sub for 99 rubles - about $3.50, a pretty good deal! It was a nice change and very yummy. But more importantly, I used some serious Russian. Miriam only started learning Russian on the flight over here and Joe speaks pretty good Russian but doesn't know vegetables. We had a whole food chapter in our book this year (which made for a very hungry couple of weeks) so I put my knowledge to the test. We successfully ordered 3 sandwiches and got the right bread, the right size, the right meat, and all of the right vegetables, down to the right sauces! I even effectively communicated that Miriam wanted her footlong cut in half so she could take half home. All in all, I was pretty proud of myself.

We ran home to drop off our books and bags and then headed to the Kremlin. There were no pictures inside the buildings unfortunately, but we saw some of Catherine the Great's dresses, traditional clothes, a bunch of "treasure," a royal cradle, ambassadorial gifts, armor and weapons, thrones, and a whole bunch of carriages. Our guide told us a lot of stories and had some quirks of speech that were pretty funny. She prefaced every new thing with "And what about the cathedral?" "And what about the tower?" etc and then would tell us about it. She also called Faberge "bloody talented." I'll share a few stories because I find them interesting:

Dishes from Napoleon: So as you know, she says, Napoleon was not Russia's best friend (since he tried to invade and all that...) but he gave Nicholas or Alexander or someone this giant set of dishes painted with Greek gods and goddesses. First, however, he gave them to his nephew as a wedding present, then took them back a month later to give to Russia. But the Tsar was "deeply uninterested" in them and never used them. The joke is that when Napoleon invaded Russia, he was coming to take back the dishes.

Peter the Great's throne: Peter the Great was coronated when he was only 10! Here's his throne: http://www.kreml.ru/en/museums/armoury/hall07/showcase48/ (click on the picture to enlarge it). There's two seats because he was crowned with his brother, 15-year-old Ivan. Ivan was super sick though so the boys were crowned together. (Ivan's crown was bigger because he was the actual heir but it was accepted that Peter would be the actual ruler when the boys reached majority because Ivan wouldn't live that long, so Peter had to be mollified with a new crown). If you look carefully, there's a cutout in the throne so the advisers could hide behind a curtain and tell the boys what to do in the coronation ceremony. The three poles in front were to make sure people kept distance and couldn't hear the advisers. There are also posts to hold the scepter and orb because the little boys weren't strong enough to hold them.

So some pretty cool stuff. We walked through the gardens, saw a "secret tower" where water used to be funneled in from the Moscow River, saw a giant bell that cracked during a fire and could never be used, a giant cannon that was never fired, and the two "official" residences of the President - neither of which he actually lives in. One is where the state things happen and he receives visitors in the same reception hall that the Tsars used. The other is where his office is and also where Lenin and Stalin lived with their families. We saw the three churches: Church of the Assumption (which we went in), Church of Michael the Archangel and Church of the Announciation.

After this we all wanted to cut our feet off so we went and had some snacks and a drink by Red Square, then dinner at Pizza Express, which I thought was an English chain but apparently has locations worldwide. I finally stumbled my way home, but not before successfully ordering two ice cream cones for Miriam and I for about 60 cents each at McDonalds! I fluently asked for the two cones in Russian and then followed it up with a nice American "Please" before catching myself and saying it in Russian. Whoops, cover blown.

A thought for parting - I usually ride the metro alone, so I'm pretty much silent unless someone says something to me - usually "this is my stop" or "can you move over" in Russian. I think the fact that they speak to me like I completely understand might mean I'm passing for a local. But today I rode for one stop with Miriam and we were speaking English to each other. Not loudly, because it's hard to hear on the train so you have to lean in close. But anyway, people seriously stare at you when you are speaking English. Usually I'm walking with the group and I don't notice if people are looking at me or not and they are busy on their way. But today I definitely noticed. Maybe they're trying to understand us, maybe they're just interested in the foreign language, but we got a lot of stares. I wonder, do I look at people like that when they start speaking a foreign language in America?

A cucumber by any other name...

Today was a pretty calm day. We read about "power" in Russian, therefore going back to strange abstract ideas that are kind of hard to understand in a foreign language. Our teacher is also having more trouble translating the new vocabulary...which sort of makes it hard to learn. But Joe and I are pushing forward and trying not to break down into hysterics (me somewhat less successfully). We talked about Russian economics in the afternoon and it was interesting for a subject that I'm really not interested in.

But the highlight of the day was after that. We went as a group to buy tickets for Suzdal, a city about 100 km outside the city. It's in the "golden ring" which is this circle of small towns around Moscow, called golden because of the domes of the churches. To get there you take a train for 2.5 hours (without a bathroom!!!) and then a bus for an hour or so. I think. Everything is very unclear. Anyway, Ben knows someone who knows someone who rents a place there so we've got the place pretty cheap, which is good because we are going for....

THE CUCUMBER FESTIVAL!!!!!!!

Seriously. This exists. http://www.odditycentral.com/pics/the-suzdal-cucumber-festival.html. It is too good to be true. We can't stop laughing about it because it's such a crazy experience we can't believe we'll actually have. Don't worry, I'll make sure my camera is well charged and bring back cucumber shaped souvenirs for everyone. We leave two weeks from tomorrow.

Then Dad and I went skiing and we both did less than stellar, but maybe it was just an off day. I did get some great coaching from a really cool Russian dude who didn't speak any English, but this other guy helped out with translating and he spoke really good English. Except he didn't know the words for hips so he kept saying you lift this part here this part I don't know what it is, lift this! It was kind of amusing. We came home early and I did my homework, talked to a friend, and now blogging! All in all an average day.

Tomorrow...THE KREMLIN. I'm probably not going to be able to sleep tomorrow, I'm so excited. I can't contain myself. I think I might scare the group with my enthusiasm. But I can always count on Miriam to be excited :). This weekend is pretty free. Dad and I might go to a party at his coworker's on Sunday afternoon when Dad gets back from his dacha trip (that's a traditional Russian summer home). Maybe I'll go window shopping with Miriam at GUM (the expensive, fancy mall) or walk around the Cathedral of Christ the Savior (I have to get a head scarf first) or hit a market. Or all of the above. I think I'll also stock the fridge with some traditional Russian snack/light meal foods - cheese we have and bread but I might branch out into колбаса, Russian sausages.

One last thought before I leave - I can do a lot here with the Russian I have. Especially when people learn that Russian is not my first language and they speak clearly and don't mutter. In a lot of situations I can make myself understood...even if I have to call ice cream by color and indicate "to go" by asking for a bag. I can order food decently well and ask for the check. I can navigate the metro, read a map, and buy metro tickets. Every day life is pretty much in my grasp. But things like buying tickets for the train are totally beyond my capacity to understand. I like to listen when Ben talks to waitresses/cashiers/whatever the most recent Russian person is and see if I can understand. Sometimes yes, occasionally I'm pretty certain I could have that same conversation. But today my ears almost fell off my head trying to comprehend. I think I would have just looked at her like a deer in headlights - my general facial expression when I can't keep up with the Russian. It's days like today that make me wonder if I really ever could feel comfortable doing this completely on my own. Food for thought.

Best day ever!

Dear faithful readers, I apologize for my lack of post yesterday! I spoiled you all with my frequent updates. I had SO MUCH to tell you all butttttt it was midnight before I got home and unfortunately for you guys my bed won out. After a quick call to Cory because I'm the world's best girlfriend and don't abandon him even when I'm half a world away.

Anyway, the day started out with the release of my LSAT scores!! I took the test early June, for those of you who don't know, and the scores were officially supposed to be released today but they came early, like they often do I think. Luckily, I was prepared after living through the release last time. Here's what it was like the first time around:

(Doing hw, maybe checking facebook, writing papers, etc)
Erika: Oh I have an email! AH THE LSAT RESULTSSSSSSS (commence freak out). Ok, get a grip, it's not like the score will be there right in the email. You'll have to sign in to your account so don't freak out yet. (open the email) AHHHHHH I WASN'T READY.

Because basically they just put your score in the email like hey dude you got a 164 love, LSAT commission. This time it was more like:

Erika: Good morning Russia I am so sleepy let's see if anyone exciting emailed me last night. Oh yes, so many people love m-AH THE LSAT EMAIL (choke on strange Danish cereal with dried fruit in it).

But at least I knew that the score was in the email so I didn't nearly die when I saw it. I did however jump up and run around the apartment screaming about how awesome I was. Which caused my dad to run out of his bathroom, probably to make sure that I wasn't fighting off some invader with a lamp (my weapon of choice). I was very pleased :). Plus, I don't have to take the LSAT again so that's enough to celebrate about.

Disclaimer: I'm in a fantastically good mood induced by the good day yesterday so please excuse my exuberance. I know you all miss talking to me so I'm trying to make it conversational.

So basically the morning rocked. We got this awesome text book that's like middle school politics in Russian or something like that and started learning, much to my excitement and the slight concern of my classmate, Joe, who I think hates me for asking if we could do this. Sorry Joe!!! I'll buy you a nice iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts to make up for it. Our afternoon class was Russian Economics but started with a (frank) rundown of politics. It was super interesting and I took like 10 pages of notes.

Joe and I met up with our tutors (who are best friends) in the afternoon and we pretty much walked the width of the city, saw tons of cool stuff, and I got like 4 blisters. I'm still in a war with them (the blisters, not the tutors) that makes me walk like I'm stepping on tacks or something. Very cute. But we're a lot more comfortable with the tutors now.

Then I met Dad and we went to the lake!!!! Everything I ever wanted and more. It took FOREVER to get there in traffic (this city is kind of poorly designed for driving and yet everyone drives...?). But unless you want to walk for like 3 miles with your skis on a dirt road after navigating the metro with them, you drive. But I skied AMAZINGLY. No problem running my opener, which I have been struggling with, easily running 28 and getting deep into 30, tying my tournament PB!!! I haven't even skied at 28 mph once this year yet (very depressing and frustrating) so I pretty much did my victory dance on the dock and possibly scared a few Russian skiers. Everyone was super nice thought and we had a great time. We're going back tomorrow so I'm hoping for a repeat performance. The lake is where the Russian state team practices so I stand to get some pretty good coaching I think.

Then we went to Ikea to get some stuff that we needed for the apartment and made it a pretty late night, rolling in at midnight. For Moscow, that's actually really early but for Erika it was a little bit late. In between we (somewhat) successfully navigated a McDonalds drive-through (I had to resort to "white" ice cream to communicate vanilla but the guy was really patient and only laughed at me a little bit). I called Cory, showered, and crashed.

Today was pretty chill. I managed to eat lunch for less than 5 dollars, a serious feat, but had a lot of food for the cost. Afternoon class was called "Contemporary Russia" and consisted today of a historical background to today's culture, which started thousands of years ago. It was really interesting to see how geography and natural resources shape so much of the culture that defines Russia today. The group went out briefly after class and then I headed home to start my Russian homework. We learn a lot of new words each day and it's pretty hard to keep up with them all. I made stirfry for dinner and we had some yummy watermelon for dessert so all in all it was a good, albeit calm day. Tonight I'll probably study my vocab more and go to bed early. Tomorrow's Russian lecture is about power so I better rest up!

Home sweet home

What a day!! What a very long day. I started today with some nerves about my first day of classes - we would have a Russian test to see what level we should be in and I wasn't looking forward to that. Not that it really mattered at all because the worst that would happen is that I would be put in an easier class but, you know me and my worrying. Anyway, I ended up exactly where I thought I would be, with the one guy in our group, Joe, in what we think is the upper class. We read a short story by Pushkin today and much to my surprise, with help on some of the words, we were able to understand it! Very cool. Then he asked what we wanted to learn about and I told him politics because I'm a political science major but I can't speak about politics in Russian. He just happened to have what I understand to be an intro to politics book IN RUSSIAN that he's bring tomorrow. At this point I almost danced on the table in joy. Especially when he told us that class was over!

Then we had lunch in the cafeteria...I never know what I'm eating but it's cheap and usually good and there is lots of it so yay! Then we had our Russian Foreign Policy class. That's something I'm really interested in so I was super excited. It was a super traditional Russian lecture AKA the professor just talked at us without writing anything down or consulting any outline for 3 hours. The material is interesting...the way in which it was presented actually almost put me to sleep. And the room is HOT! Not conducive to learning. The pros: no test, no paper. And we've worked out more discussion in the class so I think it'll be better from now on. I could go on about the fascinating things I learned but most of you don't care and I can tell those of you who do care later.

Then we met up with our liason at the university and Miriam and I walked around with her and her brother/cousin (Russians are very loose with the difference between these two so we're not really sure what he is exactly). Everyone else was tired and Ben had some duties he had to perform so the four of us traveled the city on foot and Anna, our liason, took about a billion pictures of Miriam and I around the city. We chatted about slang terms in English and Russian, cultural stereotypes, and the university systems in different countries. It was a lot of fun and I think I can speak for Miriam when I say we're really glad we went. It was cool to be hanging out in Moscow.

Miriam and I met back up with the group for dinner, then we walked by the European Mall (which looks like it has the same stores as the other malls, but what do I know) and then headed home. Luckily it was late enough that the trains weren't crowded and I could sit down because by then I could barely pick up my feet!!! It took me almost twice as long to walk home from the metro station as usual because I was moving so slowly. And it was AMAZING to walk into the (clean, the maid came today) apartment and sit down. A little sad though, because the maid threw away our highly sought-after cilantro plant that took us a really long time to find. Why? No one knows. It was still in the tiny plastic pot that it was sold in but we had a plan for potting it. Now I'll have to search again. Cilantro is super hard to find here but it's a key ingredient in beans and barley salad, one of Dad's favorite dishes. We figured if we had a plant it would be even better because he wouldn't have to keep looking for it (the recipe doesn't call for much). Oh well...life in Russia.

Life in Russia now dictates that I must take a shower. I think I sweated a liter of water today (gross I know) and my feet are dirty. Unfortunately, I don't think the tan line from my sandals will wash off....

Do I even speak this language?

Like they said in orientation, there's ups and downs to living in a foreign country and I seem to be on a rollercoaster to rival any found at Cedar Point. (Btw, friends in BHills and A2, we need to go there when I get back). I'm still a little jet-lagged and confused about what time it is - I think it's 4 pm and it's only noon, or suddenly it's 9 pm and I'm not really sure where the day went. The fact that it stays light until 11 (when the sun suddenly disappears and it is immediately dark) doesn't exactly help. Around 11 pm I get this crazy second wind and can't fall asleep but hopefully today I can get rid of that.

Anyway, we kicked off yesterday with a bus tour. But first it got pushed back an hour and I had to make my way from the spot we were supposed to meet to where the group actually was - always an adventure in Russia. Luckily it's always an adventure with the Mayer family so I wasn't too flustered by the sudden change. We finally got going on our 3 hour tour. (three hour tooooour) But we didn't end up on a deserted island, thankfully. It was a little disorienting, but we did see some cool stuff like 3 of the 7 Sisters (famous buildings built by Stalin) and a whole bunch of brides.

The brides: Apparently when you get married in Russia you go on this progression through all of these famous spots in the city and take pictures with the wedding party, drink champagne and generally party it up. Since we were on the general progression route as well, we saw a lot of brides. One spot involves a famous statue of children surrounded by the vices that corrupt the world. It's right by a bridge across the Moscow River that has all these metal trees on it. Tradition is for the bride and groom to put a padlock with their names or initials and date of the wedding on the tree. It's really cool to see all of the locks and we even got to see a couple putting their lock on.

After the tour we met up with our peer tutors. I was really looking forward to this as an opportunity to tailor my Russian learning a bit more to my interests - politics and international relations. I know a lot of Russian words about food, travel, and studying, but nothing about politics. We'll have to see how it goes, but I don't think that's going to happen with this tutor. She doesn't seem interested in it at all. Then again, I have no idea what she said because I could understand about 6 words she said. Maybe it was her accent or that she was talking too quickly but even when I said I didn't understand, it didn't help. We're meeting together with another person in the group, Joe, and his tutor, which is more comforting. Joe and I are at the same level of Russian so maybe that will help. Who knows. I'm keeping an open mind, but I was definitely at a low point after that.

The rest of the day was free time and I used it in some much needed relaxing. I took a nap, read a little, and hung out with my dad. We went out for dinner and I taught him some simple, useful Russian. Конечно - of course, можно - can I have... , может быть - maybe. Then we went to his favorite local bar for a drink and I met a bartender, Olga, who doesn't speak a word of English. But we were able to communicate!! I told her where we were from, what I study, and we made small talk. She said I speak better Russian than Daddy and that she likes that because I can translate for him. When we left she said I was pretty and Daddy should bring me back because she liked talking to me. I was exhausted but it was a definite high end to the night because I felt like I could actually communicate in Russian. I only had to ask her to repeat herself one time. Maybe she was just using simple words and speaking slowly because she knew I didn't speak perfect Russian, or maybe that's just how she normally talks, but it was awesome to talk to her. After meeting my tutor I felt like I had completely wasted 2 years of studying Russian; after meeting Olga I felt like my hard work was paying off.

Today is a completely free day (yay!!!). I slept in deliciously late and spent a lazy morning on the couch reading. While I don't plan to make a habit out of it, I think I really just needed some relaxation. I don't want to get run down or sick and I've pretty much been going constantly since I got here. This afternoon Dad and I are going to Ikea, the grocery store, and maybe to an art gallery. Tomorrow starts class!

Foreign countries are exhausting!

Safely landed in Moscow yesterday after being stuck on the plane for 2 hours on the DC tarmac. First we were delayed by air control for weather outside of New York, then they couldn't figure out how to detach the walkway (seriously?? isn't that their job??), then we were delayed AGAIN for weather. I was starting to think I might never get here! But we were finally on our way and it was pretty uneventful. I didn't sleep a lot but I was able to rest quite a bit so I wasn't too tired when we landed. Dad had a driver meet me at the airport and we got back to the apartment and got in and settled pretty easily.

The apartment is GREAT! Small-ish but the space is set out perfectly. There's some stuff that he hasn't figured out yet - like where to put up art, what to do with some shelves, and we might go to Ikea this weekend to fill out the place.

Then I metroed my way back to the group at a restaurant downtown and we had dinner. Dad and I were supposed to go to a concert in Red Square for the premier of Transformers 3 in Moscow - Linkin Park...but apparently GM got confused about the time. They told everyone 9:30 but it actually started way earlier than that so we heard about two songs. Oh well, that's Russia for you. Then we came back to the apartment and I conked out cold.

This morning, after 9.5 hours of sleep I was STILL tired!!! Seriously, I think my body is just wiped. I'm hungry and sleepy all the time. And a little light-headed. But I met the group and we did a little orientation at the school and then ate lunch in the cafeteria there. Then we got a coffee, did some wandering, and (finally) got local phones. Dad had an extra phone but I needed a sim card. I feel challenged using this phone...it's like relearning everything and it makes me miss my phone at home :-( but for a month I'll live. If I can ever figure out how to text.

I forgot how TIRED your feet get living in the city. I'm sure I'll get used to it again but for now I think I might soak my feet in the bath. Whew.

Airports are my favorite!

Sitting in airports sucks a lot. But it's SO much better with free wifi!!! Thank you Dulles Airport for being my new best friend. After staying in the hotel for the past 2 and a half days without internet, I am so happy to have it back. I can check my email on my phone but it's not the easiest thing I've ever done and between ski team stuff, moving to Moscow stuff, and all the other stuff I get in my inbox, trying to email on my phone has made me want to cry.

Plus I didn't get to update my blog!

But now I am here, with my bag (and skis) safely checked, checked in, and chilling until my 4:58 departure. We got here semi-ridiculously early because we had to be checked out of the hotel at 12 so we were a bunch of orphaned travelers. But it was good because when the self-check kiosks totally failed (as usual) to read our visas, we were hardly in a hurry. And I didn't get detailed in security for carrying a potentially deadly weapon.

(For those of you who don't know that story - it was a metal 9 inch long anchor that my mom was sending to Cory and I had to plead with the security lady to let me keep it)

So far the program seems good. We're doing some cool stuff in the city (especially for someone who loves politics like me!) like a Moscow city government tour, tour of a top secret Cold War bunker, tour of the Kremlin, and a visit to St. Petersburg. There are only 5 people on the trip (including me) plus our Resident Director who is kind of like our handler/cruise director. It's a small group, which concerned me but actually turned out well because everyone is getting along really well and they all seem nice.

Pause - some lady is asking me questions in Russian that I don't know the answers to. Ok, now that we got that all sorted out...let's go to Moscow!!!!

Step 1: Get to D.C.

I'm still not actually sure that I'm going to Moscow...Have yet to see a ticket or a reservation. But, all concerns about that behind me, I'm heading to D.C. tonight. The program starts tomorrow morning and to save a drive in from Annapolis with the morning traffic, Cory is taking me into the city tonight.

But first I have to get my life back in order! In my time here living out of a suitcase I've made a giant mess of my careful packing job. So I decided to make a new blog instead of working on that...:-). I was also able to do some laundry which is nice. Dad's washing machine is pretty small so I'd rather not start out with 5 days of dirty clothes.

It still feels pretty surreal...the combination of the last minute application and the decisions being sent out during finals has resulted in a weird half-acknowledgment of the trip. Every now and then it hits me that I'm actually going to Russia!!!!! But then I get absorbed in my world again - laundry, running, feeding the fish, visiting Cory.

Even now, with my bags packed, my passport in hand, it doesn't feel like it's actually happening. Strange because right about now I should be freaking out about whether or not my program companions will like me or if I'll actually be able to understand anyone there...if I'll get lost or confused or fail the classes. I'm usually so ridiculously over prepared that it's comical. This time...I don't even have any rubles yet! All of the preparations seem like an after thought.

Maybe it's time I learned to fly by the seat of my pants :-). My parents always have been worried about my ability to relax and have fun. Maybe I'm finally following their advice. Either way, I'm going!!