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!!