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....