The Roaming Russian (Major): Первый день занятии, РГГУ, Саша

I really don't have that much to write today. We had our first day of class, and it was pretty good. I really like my instructor - another Irina. She's really funny and her comments make our discussions a little more lively. It's just Mackenzie, Eli, and I with this Italian guy named Luca. He's been living in Moscow for a few months already. Then Danielle is in an intro class with an English lady. She's been here since January. Her husband is a chemical engineer and he's over here for work. She's got kids in school, and she said they're picking up Russian really quick, especially her youngest one. In the middle of class Sasha came by and dropped off a ton of Russian candy for all of us. It was wonderful seeing her for the thirty seconds it lasted.

We ended around 12:45, then went over to the Russian State University for the Humanities (RSUH, or РГГУ). The whole school is a huge art museum! It's very beautiful. We ate lunch with Irina and then Sasha came to meet us with some of her friends. They were really sweet. We ended up going to a really huge park, sort of like Central park, but much cleaner and with more interesting stuff. For example, there were these really weird banana chairs and pianos that were used as flower pots. AND there was a rocket. Afterward, we went to Kropetinkaya metro station, so we walked along the Moscow River and actually crossed the bridge this time. The weather was really pretty. It sort of reminded me of Charleston, SC, in the early spring, like around March. Eli converted a little bit of his money, and a Kenzie and Sasha's friend Katya got bubble tea at a Beard Papa's. Apparently, bubble tea only got here about a month ago. That's so weird for me to see because bubble tea was a huge thing when I was in high school in Hawaii. In fact, I hadn't seen a Beard Papa's since high school, so I got really excited to go. We went and sat in the park just behind the metro station to talk, finish bubble tea, and catch up. Apparently Katya knew a lot about me already from Sasha, so it was really funny watching her face when she realized who I was.

After that, we all began to head home. I got home and had kasha for the first time. It's not as bad as people say it is, it just needs a little ketchup (or honey if it's breakfast). I also need to go back and finish my soup; I came to write the blog to let it cool down a little bit. When I finish with that I'm going to head back out again with Eli. We're going to just chill over by his metro station, otradnoe. It's only a few stops down the line from where I'm at, Dmitrovskaya. Так, будет весело.

Playing the flower pot

A hotel boat on the Moscow River

A Karaoke Bar boat in front of the ridiculous Peter The Great Statue that doesn't fit in with Moscow and that nobody else in the world wants, but Muscovites hate it just as badly as everyone else.