"Sorry, I don't have exact change."

Where to begin? We have been so busy. Hence, the lack of updates. I honestly don't know how to start. I guess I just will.

Russians get really mad when you don't have exact change. And that whole, "the customer is always right" thing is completely false. The customer is never right, apparently. The pigeons here have no sense of personal space. It's upsetting.

I went to see Swan Lake at the Kremlin. It was beautiful. We have gone on a lot of tours and Craig is teaching me how to play chess. Do not bring your dirty clothes to the laundry room in a suitcase, because they will think you are trying to leave the country. And you will be sent to the administrative office. I bought some souvenirs and finally found some postcards that weren't 20 rubles a piece. Now onto actually writing and mailing them. I'm sure that will take another two weeks. Okay, so I have actually done a lot of things over the past week or so. I just really don't feel like listing them all to you. I would rather just ramble. I'm not feeling very eloquent today.


I've only been here two weeks, and I already feel different. I can't really place it. There is just this underlying feeling of...change. I have always felt like there was a piece of me that I left behind here. I keep expecting to find it around every corner. But, it is not that simple. Every time I see an older person, I cannot help but think about how much change they have seen over the years. This world must be such a strange place for them. 


There are a lot of empty eyes here.

"I just want a Big Mac."

  Moscow may be considered the cultural capital of the world, but they whip up a serious Big Mac. With so many new sites, sounds, and tastes to experience, one typically wants to branch out into the unknown and pop that comfort bubble you think will somehow protect you against a foreign culture you don't understand. This is why we decided that we weren't going to that McDonald's on the corner for "at least 3 weeks." Well as it turns out, we went to the one downtown instead. But we'll get back to that later.

  We went to the Kremlin Armory today. I'm not really sure what I expected to see there. Tanks, maybe? Every model of the Kalashnikov ever made? Anyway, it wasn't like that at all. 

STOP- there is a drunk Russian man singing merrily in the courtyard below my window. These are reasons why I love Russia.

  I digress. The Armory. It was filled with some pretty baller stuff. Diamonds, silver, wedding dresses, thrones, some bejeweled swords, loud buzzers that went off when you got too close to the velvet rope because you just HAD to touch that 200 year-old carriage plated in gold. You name it, they had it. Note: if you are an American, babushkas WILL cut you in line. They won't even try, they will just do it. Throw some 'bows and be aggressive. Or just let them go in front of you and wait for your teacher to verbally own them so you don't look like a stupid tourist who can barely say, "I don't speak a lot of Russian."

  The Armory was amazing, but the opera I went to tonight was even better. It was my first, and I loved every minute of it. There is just something special about beautiful music. It doesn't matter if it is in Italian, I don't need to understand what they are singing. I love feeling the story and filling in the blanks myself. What I do not love, is turning to my friends on either side of me to find them BOTH sleeping. To be fair, even though I have no desire to validate such behavior, we had a long day, and I think we are all still trying to adjust our clocks. Not everyone can appreciate the same things. For example, the fact that we found basketball courts has no bearing on my life whatsoever. It takes all kinds, I guess.

  After the opera, Galina Ivanovna took us downtown to eat. By the way, the "us" I keep referring to is Julia, Nicole, Mike, Craig, Scott, and me. Before we knew it, Galina was saying, "Okay, this is where I leave you." Then she disappeared. It's pretty precious- how much faith she has in us. She just wants us to spread our little wings. Most people might find it absolutely frightening to be left in downtown Moscow. However, for some reason, I have full faith that Galina can just magically drop out of the sky whenever you need her. I swear, she has done it before.

  So there we were, in the middle of downtown. And there IT was. The McDonald's. I don't think I can even count how many times Mike said, "Ya hochy Big Mac" while we are at the theater. But at this point, we all wanted it. And we were going to have it. Shockingly enough, I think Russians might like McDonald's more than Americans do. This place was huge, and the food was so much better. Employees will even come and take your tray when you are done. Oh, and they have guards at the doors. Yeah. They mean business. 

  Well, it has definitely been a crazy few days, to say the least. The flight from Orlando to JFK went well, but we hit a lot of speed bumps while we were in New York. It all started when Mike, Scott, Craig, and I were trying to figure out what terminal Aeroflot was in. Well, we finally figured it out and got on the airtrain. When we arrived at our stop, we merrily hopped off the airtrain only to hear someone yelling, "You left things!" Craig had walked off without his hat and pillow. Mike, in a valiant attempt of friendship, jumped on really fast to grab Craig's stuff, only to have the doors abruptly close in his face as he was about to step off. Oh my word, I do not think I will ever forget the horrified/"eff the world, specifically Craig" look that was on his face as the airtrain pulled away. Luckily, we had a three-hour layover, because he had to take the airtrain all the way around JFK in order to get back to our terminal. And he did not have his cell phone. It was a nightmare and unnecessary. I do believe it is something that Craig will never be able to live down.

  We finally arrived at Terminal 1 and went on a hunt for the Aeroflot check-in area. It was easy to find, but upon arrival, the agent told the boys that they had to check their carry-ons because they were too heavy, even though American Airlines had let them carry them on. Go America. Not. Obviously, mine was not above the allotted 10 kilos, because I am awesome. Mine was only 6.6. So, they had to deal with that and pay $50 to check their luggage. At this point, there was a rather hostile air hanging around our group. Anyway, we got through customs easily and quickly, despite that fact that the line had tripled while I was waiting for them to check their stupid luggage. When we got through, it was about 5:20 pm, and we were supposed to start boarding in an hour. 

  I must say food in JFK SUCKS. There was barely anywhere to eat in our terminal and we all know how I get when I need food.  I ordered a $10 pizza because it was the cheapest thing on the menu. It might have been about 5 inches in diameter. We ate and hustled back to our gate. And by "hustled" I mean "we walked slowly and delayed getting back to our gate as much as possible." Our plane ended up boarding about 20 minutes late, but we eventually got settled into our classy economy seats and all was well. The flight was good, but I could not sleep, so I felt pretty crappy by the time we landed. It was only about 9 hours, not bad at all. 

  When we arrived, we got through customs, got our luggage (it was all there, thank God), and our taxi driver picked us up. The ride to the university was so much fun, because our driver did not speak English and obviously, we were not very comfortable with our Russian, having been thrust into an overwhelming situation. It was kind of awkward and silent (because the boys were completely silent, which forced me to be the one with some form of social grace), so I decided to tell him that I liked his car in Russian. He responded, "Tebye ni nravistsya?” which means, "You don't like?" Ahahahah he thought he said that I did NOT like his car. It was pretty much hilarious and broke the ice, and we had a good time for the rest of the drive. I was the one sitting up front with him, so he was teaching me new words. The situation was riddled with a lot of instances when we would just stare at each other and start cracking up because each of us would realize that the other had no idea what we just said. He was really a funny man, and while we were driving through Moscow, Bon Jovi came on the radio and he blasted the volume so we could sing to him in English even though he did not understand it. I think "It's My Life" will be one of my favorite songs from here on out just because of that situation.

  He got us to the university and brought our luggage up and we said our "Do svidanya's" (goodbyes) and "spasiba's" (thank you's). We literally had 20 minutes to get our stuff in our room and get ready to go to dinner. It was stressful and tiring, to say the least. We met up with the rest of our group and went to dinner, and then Galina, our teacher, wanted us to go to a Museum. We were all so tired and our feet were killing us. The simplest task here takes at least an hour. There is so much walking. Several metro connections and 20 minutes of super speed walking through the cold rain later, we were outside the museum she wanted us to go to. It was around 8:30 at this point. We waited outside in the cold for about an hour and then we finally got in. I was not in a bad mood at all, but I was so exhausted that I was basically fighting back involuntary "I'm exhausted" tears the entire time. The tour was so long. And then 20 minutes of super speed walking through the rain again and several metro connections in the opposite direction later, we were back where we started and took the long, painful walk back to the university. By the time I collapsed into my bed, it was after midnight and I was at around 30 hours without sleep. Needless to say, this tiny couch bed felt like the most heavenly thing my body had ever come in contact with. 

  On Sunday, we took a bus tour of Moscow and got out at some pretty amazing stops. I had already been to most of them, but it was still so breathtaking. I swear, the beauty and magnitude of monuments here are so overwhelming, it does not matter how many times you see them. After the tour, which lasted 3.5 hours, we were free to come back to the dorms, rest, and then do whatever we wanted. And the internet guy was coming to give us our wireless passwords. It was supposed to be a 30 minute process in total, but remember I said the simplest tasks take at least an hour in Russia? Five hours later, we all had internet and were starving. Mike, Craig, Scott, and I set forth on our first time alone in the city on a quest to find a restaurant and place where we could buy vodka. We were successful in both, after a few wrong turns here and there. It does not get dark here until about 11 pm and the sun comes back up shining around 4 am. So you never really realize how late it is. By the time we left the restaurant, it was 9:30 but it felt like 5:00.

  Yesterday I woke up feeling fantastic, despite the amount of vodka I drank the night before. Then we all went to class to take our placement tests. My hangover hit me about half way through the test, so that was wonderful. But I pushed through like the champion that I am and got the job done. We were supposed to have our official tour of campus afterwards, but it was postponed until today. It did not happen today either. This is Russia. That is how it goes. 

  I am so happy to be here. I don't think I can even describe how good it feels to be back. It just feels right and makes me so excited for the future. And it reinforces what I already knew- I still have so much to learn.