Catching Up...

Despite my lack of communication and contact with the rest of the world outside Russia, I am doing very well. I just got a power adapter so I should be able to Skype/email/call now. Unfortunately, the time in Moscow is 11 hours later than on the west coast. So I probably won't be able to talk in the middle of the day, but I can talk in the morning or at night.

Since I'm a few days behind, I'll give a day-by-day of what I've been doing. The flight on Singapore Airlines was very nice, though I was hoping for a wee bit more room. The food was good, and the entertainment was great. They even had little games to learn a bunch of different languages. I spent a while learning the numbers in Russia, but I managed to forget them soon after getting off the plane, making purchases much more difficult. After getting off the plane, I ran into Lisa, Erin, and Lilly (who are all in the same program), who were apparently on the same plane but I hadn't seen because the plane was so big. We found our way to baggage claim and didn't have too much trouble getting our baggage. One woman even helped me grab my bag off the carousel when another pushed me out of the way (and I mean **pushed**). After getting our bags, we went through what seemed like customs, but we didn't actually do anything except walk through a doorway with a guard. We found the person who was waiting for us with our names on signs (Masha). I felt pretty cool. Haha.

Once we were out of the airport, we took our overloaded luggage carts and the taxi driver loaded them into the van. The van was pretty old, but it seemed to be working fine when we got into it. After a while in the taxi (I didn't really have a sense of time after the long plane ride and change in time zones), the driver seemed to be having some trouble driving the car. It was a manual transmission and he kept changing gears willy-nilly and revving the engine. I don't know if it was because the car was acting up, or if he didn't really understand how to drive a stick shift, but he shifted from a high gear into a low one and the car came to a jolting stop and would not move out of traffic. People were honking and going around us, and after 15 or 20 minutes, he managed to get the car to the side of the road and call another taxi. When that car arrived, we didn't quite know what to do - it was a tiny car and we had already filled the big van. He called another "bigger" car, which was only slightly bigger than the first one. We had to split our group into the two cars, but only Masha could speak Russian so one of the cars would go without a Russian speaker. That car was mine. Lilly and I got into the taxi and crossed our fingers that the driver would take us to the right place. Thankfully, my host mother was waiting downstairs when we drove up to the building and she helped me into the apartment.

As I quickly found out, my host mother, Galina, speaks very little English. It is amazing how much can be communicated entirely through gestures, noises, and continuing to speak in your native language to someone who does not understand. That is how we've been getting along for the past four days, and nothing horrible has happened. She is very nice and wants to make sure I'm always taken care of. She cooks very well, and I've been eating delicious food the whole time I've been here. She makes this cabbage soup that everyone eats here, and it is very good. Also, we've been eating watermelon at every meal. There are watermelons everywhere and they are the one food that seems to be affordable. It costs about 65 cents for a huge watermelon that lasts for days with only a couple people eating it. It is also one way to stay hydrated, since they don't seem to drink anything besides tea.

On Sunday, Galina took me for a walk to the Metro so I would know how to meet up with everyone on Monday. I live within walking distance of the Academy, but the meeting place on Monday for orientation was the Metro. It's about a 20-minute walk from my apartment to the Metro. It may sound childish, but I was proud of myself when I was able to cross the street by myself. The drivers here are crazy and don't stop for anything. They do not want to let anyone go in front of them, so merging looks like hell. It is really scary to walk in front of these cars and pray that they will not hit you. After coming home on Sunday, I didn't do much except sleep most of the day, trying to catch up from a few nights with almost no sleep and the 11-hour time difference.

On Monday, I made it to the Metro without getting lost and met up with everyone else for orientation. We walked down to the Academy and had our orientation. Afterwards, we bought cell phones and wandered around the shops and market. We went to McDonalds, and we tried to read the menu, but with only a couple of us having studied the alphabet already, ordering was a little difficult. But, everyone got what they wanted through sounding things out and pantomiming. They have free wifi at McDonalds, so that is where I'm posting this from. I do have internet at my place, but we are going on a little excursion in a while, so I didn't want to walk all the way home and all the way back.

I have a million things I could talk about, but I'm going to leave this for now and try to catch up on emails.

I made it!

I made it to Moscow!!! Somehow, even with all my preparations, I managed not to buy a power adapter so my laptop will only be alive for a short time. I'll update with all my stories when I get an adapter. :)

Leaving On a Jet Plane (hopefully...)

I finally got everything packed into two suitcases (one less than I thought I was going to need!) and now I'm anxiously waiting until 3am when I have to get up to leave. My flight out of Newport is supposed to leave at 4:45, but they called me a few hours ago and said it might be delayed because of fog. If it is delayed, we'll probably have to drive up to Portland to make sure I don't miss my flight out of Portland. I've been a little anxious the last few days because of all the packing I hadn't done and realizing how I might be crazy for going a place where I'll be lucky if I can communicate with anyone. Thankfully, I got a Russian-English dictionary as a gift yesterday so I'll be able to look up an English word and maybe point to it so someone else will understand. I haven't mastered (or even really looked at) the entire Cyrillic alphabet, so I won't be sounding things out quite yet. My goal was to have it learned by last night, but I got distracted with all the perfect barbecue food: bbq chicken and steak, homemade potato salad, stuffed shells, pasta salad, fresh green salad, raspberry lemonade (fresh squeezed and delicious!), blackberry cobbler, fruit salad, and a million other things I'll miss while I'm in Russia.

Even though there are the scary parts of traveling to Russia, there are parts I'm really looking forward to. I am really excited for arriving in the Moscow airport because someone will be waiting for me with a sign with my name on it. Ever since I was a kid, I've wanted one of those signs to be for me. Now I get to fulfill my dorky childhood dream. Also, I'm flying on Singapore Airlines from Houston to Moscow, and I've heard nothing but good reviews. Free food, free drinks, and real service! That's something I haven't seen on a major airline in....well, ever. That'll be fun.

For now, I should make good use of the three hours I have left at home and take a quick nap before leaving for the airport. спокойной ночи (good night!...I think)

Preparations and Delays

After I decided to apply to the Stanford in Moscow program, I knew that I was in for a completely new experience. I've spent the last few months trying to prepare for four months in a country that I knew almost nothing about, could not speak the language, and had never traveled to. Figuring I could learn the Russian language once I got there for the intensive language program, I spent little time this summer doing anything but working and hanging out with friends.

When I heard about the wildfires in Russia this summer, I wasn't too worried because I am always hearing about wildfires in Oregon and California and they've never affected my plans for anything, except maybe choosing places to go camping. So when I heard this Monday that we were going to have to delay our arrival by three weeks, I didn't know what to do. Naturally, I procrastinated in buying a new ticket (but I did buy travel insurance!) and this morning, we were told that we could go ahead with our original plans to arrive. So, I'm not out any extra money, but I do have to pack up my life for four months into a couple suitcases over the course of the next day and a half.

We are having a going-away barbecue tonight, which will be great with the awesome weather we are having here on the coast. It'll be a perfect sendoff for my four crazy months abroad.

I'd better start packing for everything! I'll update again when I get the chance!