Увежаемые пасажеры!

"Caution passengers!"

I would say that about sums up our trip so far. It's what they say when you're on the metro: when you get to a station, when you leave the station, and if someone keeps the doors from closing. And I guess it kind of applies to everything in a metaphoric way. So far we've only had orientation, but it's been enough...

Thursday:
We arrived at the hotel and had some time to just hang out, rest a little, eat dinner, etc. It was kinda nice because I'd been going and going and going for almost 24 hours straight.

Friday:
We had a bunch of host family/safety/academic things to talk about. It was pretty amusing, actually. Hrm, we can't physially abuse our host family? That's strange... Then at 6 my host mom came to the hotel to pick me up. Her name is Ludmila Petrovna and she has a little dog named Lada--"like the car". She's very sweet. She's made me feel like I'm at home, and she's a very good cook. For dinner we had pan-fried, breaded chicken; pan-fried potatoes; a "salad" of cucumber, tomatoes, red peppers, and corn; two kinds of bread; two kinds of salami; two kinds of cheese; and some sort of onion-y spread. Then we had tea with two kinds of dessert. Oh. My. God. Amazing. All of it.

Saturday:
I bought a cell phone while we were out. Everyone did, and everyone's phone worked. Everyone's except mine. Yeah, I know. By the time I had given up on it maybe working in a couple mins, I was almost home, the group long gone. So, I went to the same kind of store that I bought it at and they were very confused about what I wanted, but after playing with it a while decided that I had a defective SIM card and needed to go back to the EXACT store I bought it at. Well, I told my RC (Resident Coordinator of my program) and the next day she took me back to the place--I had no idea where it was--and helped me get it straightened out. So, if you would like my new number, email me and I'll make sure to get it to you.

Sunday:
We went to this beautiful park a couple of metro stops away from my house. It was really amazing. There was a wooden castle there during the old times (middle ages maybe? I couldn't really read any of the signs). Oh, yeah, where I live. Here's a map of the metro...
If you click on it, it gets bigger. I live at the south end of the green line (Krasnogvardeiskaya). Our school is where the grey line crosses the brown ring at the north (Novoslobodskaya), but it's to the west of it, so I can get off one of the green line stops and walk there in like 5 mins or so. Not bad at all. Also, since I live at the end of the line, when I go into the city, I ALWAYS get a seat, because the train is empty when I get on! Also, it's safer and cheaper to live way out because people who live out there don't have as much money, and thieves know this. The metro is very easy to navigate. Only one line goes to each platform, so at a transfer station, you always have to switch platforms to switch trains which makes it really hard to get on the wrong line.

Today:
Today wasn't much. We saw a little more of the university. We ate in the cafeteria. It was amazing. I paid $3 for macaroni and meat sauce, a pastry with meat, a pastry with apples, cabbage salad, and a glass of apricot juice. All huge. Everything in Russia is pretty cheap for students. 10 metro rides for a regular person costs about $5.50, but unlimited for a month costs about $6.50 for a student. Amazing.

Anyway, I really like it so far. Except for the whole not being able to look at people's faces things. It's hard for me because it's what you do in America call the time. And school starts tomorrow. So we'll see how I like that. Doing everything in Russian is really difficult, so I can imagine school will be difficult too. Oh well, can't do anything about it now :-) Da svidania!