First of all, I am so sorry that I haven't updated in so long! One thing led to another and by the time I got home it was just such a daunting task that I just couldn't bring myself to do it. However, I am feeling sufficiently guilty today to just jump in and go, so forgive me if things seem a little disjointed.
On Tuesday of last week, we determined which classes we would be in. I was placed in the second highest group, along with many of those that had been in my class in St. Pete. The group above me consists of a guy who was raised in Russia and is fluent and a couple of others who are very very good, so I was pleased with where I was placed. My teacher's name is Lyudmilla Sergeevna and though I wasn't too certain about her at first (she has the rather abrasive, blunt manner of teaching that is so typical of the Soviet schooling system) I now really do like her. Classes are 2 hours long, 2 per day, with one ten minute break. It's quite a lot to handle, but I think I've gotten used to it, and I just keep telling myself that classes back home will seem like a snap compared to this.
Wednesday was our first lecture, on the topic "Russia Today." Unfortunately, these are one of my least favorite things about Moscow. We are with one man for the entire 4 hours of our class day, listening to him talk on one subject. It gets exceedingly boring, and I know that the majority of us now use the time to do homework for our other classes instead.
Thursday was Kim's 21st birthday, so after class Anna went out and collected all the things to make a big pasta dinner for her, since we couldn't go out because of classes the next day. Kim very much enjoyed herself, and especially the bottle of Bailey's that we all pitched in to buy for her, since Bailey's is approaching 40 dollars per bottle here!
Friday was a fairly standard class day, nothing much to report, and rather than going anywhere I just came back to the dorms and chilled.
Saturday morning we had an excursion to the Kremlin. I was a little irritated (and still am) at the way our student advisor seems to treat us all like children, but what can you do, I guess. We were told to meet at a metro station 2 minutes away from where we were going at 11:15am. Turns out, our tour didn't even start until noon. So we waited around for 45 minutes for no reason at all, and then had to stop every 3 seconds once we did get going so that Elena could make sure that all her little American ducklings were in a row. It didn't help that the inside of the Kremlin was rather unremarkable. We did get to see the outside of the building that the President's office is in, but other than that all we saw were churches. Granted, the Assumption Cathedral was pretty cool, since it houses the bodies of almost all of the Tsars of Russia. We were supposed to go out for Kim's birthday that night, but it ended up not happening, and we just chilled in our room instead after walking around the Ohotnii Ryad underground mall for a few hours.
Sunday, our Russian friend Dmitry invited us to go to a beach north of Moscow on the Moscow River and have a barbeque for the Fourth of July. About 12 people said they would go Saturday night, but we needed a few people to get up and leave early to go to a large Hypermarket (apparently 5 times bigger than a supermarket) named Ashan to get all the things we would need. Since no one else would, I volunteered. So I got up the next morning at 7 after approximately 4.5 hours of sleep thanks to some people being loud in the kitchen all night and got up to get Benny, who likewise volunteered to go. When I went in, he refused to get up. I left and talked it over with Cate, and then went back in and very nicely encouraged him to get out of the bed. We were on our way by 8 and though the trip to Ashan was pretty crazy, we eventually made it (seems to be the story of just about every outing here). We spent four hours shopping and approximately a hundred dollars. Then it turned out that we had only 8 people who would be there, but it wasn't too big a deal. We met up with those that were going and headed to the beach. Again, took a while, but we eventually made it, only to discover that we weren't allowed to bring the mangal (open barbeque grill) in with us and if we wanted to it would be 5,000 rubles (almost 200 dollars). We said no way, and just decided to let the meat go bad and chalk it up to a loss and a lesson. Once inside we had a ton of fun, and I'm still very glad I went. Mitch and I laid out and watched people for hours, and I still think I'm scarred by the things people think are appropriate to wear ever, much less in public. Granted, being topless is totally acceptable at beaches here, and there are some that I think would have looked better just leaving all their clothes off, rather than the terrible things they chose to wear.
Monday I had my individual lesson after class (another 2 hours tacked on to the end of our second class after another 10 minute break. For the record, that's 6 hours of instruction and 20 minutes of break). We decided to do declined numbers (exceedingly difficult) but I did pretty well! The class was interrupted by a bee, however, that landed on the back of my neck in the middle of class. I freaked out, as anyone would, at finding a Chernobyl-size nuclear bee on the back of their neck, and swatted at it. When my teacher realized what was happening, she stopped telling me to be quiet and bodily lifted me from the chair, away from the bee. We chased the bee around for a little while, trying to get the bee onto a piece of paper to throw it out the window because it couldn't fly (apparently I broke its wing when I hit it). Eventually I got it and threw it out, and we settled back down to class. Not 5 minutes later, that thing crawled back in the window and started flopping around on the floor. We freaked out again and threw it back out, and Lyudmilla Sergeevna leaned out the window for several minutes to make sure it was really gone that time. She still says that all the insects love me, and I'm not so sure she's wrong.
Tuesday was Mitch's birthday, so once again we all pitched in to make him a big dinner. We went to Ashan again (a closer one this time), hoping to find coconut milk, but all we found were coconuts. We bought one anyway, hoping to make our own (bad idea). I finally fought the stupid thing open when we got home, and it was, predictably, an enormous failure. We eventually just threw it out because it stunk so bad. On the bright side, the curry chicken Anna made was delicious, and we all had a lot of fun. And, of course, I was in a fabulous mood because I found Haribo Gummy Coke Bottles at Ashan and bought myself 3 packs. They were absolutely delicious, even if I did eat all of them the next day and felt terribly sick.
Wednesday was our lecture again, during which I felt quite ill thanks to the aforementioned coke bottles, and I ended up sleeping through most of it. I hope I can stay awake next week, because he's supposed to be talking about ethnic troubles in Russia today, and as that has direct bearing on my thesis, I would really like to have the information. This was also the day that my hand looked its worse, thanks to two mosquito bites on the back of my right hand. It was swollen to baseball mitt-like proportions, and incredibly itchy and painful. I was afraid I would have to go to the doctor.
On Thursday, my hand looked a great deal better, so I felt much better about that, and my mood was only helped by the fact that our class starts late on Thursday because Bart has his individual lesson on Thursday mornings. That afternoon, Matt and Anna and I decided to go into the city to see the Mayakovsky museum. It was quite interesting, and we went to Teremok afterwards for food, which was delicious as usual. I'm going to miss Teremok terribly when I get back to the States! But on the way home Anna found a Lush store completely by accident, which she'd been searching for ever since we got here. She bought a couple of things, and then we headed home.
And that brings us, finally, to today. Class was done as usual, and then I went with Mitch to meet a Russian friend of his from Siberia, named Ivan. We wandered around Moscow together (much too quickly for my liking), took some pictures, and then went to a sushi restaurant for dinner. After dinner, my feet were so swollen and I was so tired that I decided to go home by myself. The trip nearly killed me because my feet hurt so bad, but I eventually made it home, and that is where I have been ever since, soaking my feet in cold water and being progressively guilted into spending an eternity writing this update. I hope you all appreciate it. ;)
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