The Roaming Russian (Major): The Longest Day of my Life

I finally have the internet up and there's just so much to talk about I honestly have no idea where to begin. So, chronologically, maybe, is a step forward in the right direction?

It all began on Thursday night back home in Virginia. I got back from buying everything at 9:30 pm. And still had to pack. Holy shnikes. So I spent all night (with the help of my dad) getting packed and ready to go. We were supposed to leave at 5am: Dad needed to drop me off at the Franconia-Springfield metro station in enough time to drive back and get the kids to school. Anyway, we didn't leave until 5:35. Needless to say, my dad wasn't pleased in the slightest but he got over it quickly enough. Then I took the metro to the Washington Reagan Airport stop, bought my host mother some DC memorabilia, and waited for my plane, which by the way, was over an hour late in takeoff. I never sleep on planes, but today was an exception. I passed out after we takeoff, and didn't wake up until we were prepping for landing. I figure I got half an hour of sleep, maybe 45 minutes on that flight.

Then it took forever to finally get to my terminal. At check-in, this family of three with a million bags and a nasty yap dog cut in front of me. Wasn't pleased, but got over it soon. On the plane, the flight attendants talked way too fast for me to understand anything they said, but there were shocked and pleased when I answered their questions in Russian. The lady sitting next to me left, so I had an extra seat next to me. Danielle, Mackenzie, and I spent the flight switching seats so we could talk to each other and look out the window. Danielle was obsessed with seeing Sweden, and Mackenzie Iceland. In fact, she wanted us to take pictures with her and Iceland together, in the plane, while she was leaning all over Danielle and me (which honestly didn't bother much). Needless to say we tried. We also tried to take other pictures but they failed epically. For breakfast we had our first Blini on the trip, so we also commemorated that.

The three of us took a taxi over, and the driver made sure we got to our host mother okay. My host mother's name is Marina Nikolaevna, and she has a daughter and a really tiny, peculiar dog. In fact, Masha, the dog, just made her way in my lap. She's a long-haired chihuahua, but she is far from a yap dog so we get along famously. She's 8, and really smart for her breed. According to Marina, she's really picky about people, but if I look her in the eyes (or she can't find me), she'll whine. What's really interesting about her is that her tongue sticks out on the left side of her mouth all the time. She's also got a lazy eye. I feel like there's a sad story behind this, but at the same time, I find this quirkiness about her really cute. My host sister, Nastya, seems awesome. She's been nothing but nice to me since we've met, and she is fluent in German after going to school there. And my host mom has traveled all over Europe, and she's one hell of a cook. And we're all going to be eating yummy salad and homemade chicken soup all the time. I'm quite honestly looking forward to it.

I met with Irina, our professor, Danielle, and Kenzie later in the afternoon. We swapped out our currency (34 rubles to the dollar today, baby!), bought phones, got coffee, and walked around some more. Poor Kenzie was so tired she napped at the cafe. We later got Eli, got him his cell phone, and walked around some more. I have never been anywhere like this before. I love it, and in an odd way, I feel very at home here in Moscow. I love the metro and all the underground tunnels/markets you have to go through to cross the streets. It's amazing, a cigarette vender was right next to an old lady selling bras. It's so bizarre, but I find it amazing and I love it.

Tomorrow we're going to the circus and a church. Super-looking forward to it.