First Night

Flying here was overall pleasant. On the flight from JFK to Moscow, I sat next to a Russian physicist. She was very nice, and hadn't been back to Russia in ten years. She has been living in the USA for sixteen.

Moscow is huge. We arrived and immediately set to motion. We got on a big brown retrobus (seriously, it looked straight out of the 70s) to find an even more ridiculous interior: Mexican themed. I really wish I had taken pictures of it. We drove to our school, which took about an hour. Then we were given a tour and a rundown of what is going on, and met our host families.

My host mother, Svietlana Ivanova (Светлана Ивановна) is really nice. She doesn't speak any English, which I really hope I don't regret asking for. So far, the language barrier is very much a barrier. But this is night one. Her cat, Alisa, is white and fat. She's currently on my bed next to me as I type this. I'm nervous for tomorrow. We're being tested to place our level of Russian.

It is crashing down on me that I have signed up for a whole quarter of being mostly unable to communicate with anybody. Yep, I'm the weird foreign kid...

I am exhausted and it is only 6:30 here. I think I'm on my fourth wind. I miss everybody. My feet smell from being in the same socks for twenty-four hours, even after a shower. Just thought you might want to know.

Pictures coming in future posts. Right now, I am too tired. I think I will just read and relax and wind down.