Back in the States

I am so happy to be back in the States! My flight was delayed in Moscow for 4 hours which means I was waiting for about 7 in the airport, but I finally made it. My uncle was at JFK to pick me up and we did a conference call with one of my other uncles and my mom. It was a nice welcome back home. I stayed with my uncle and his family for a day in NY and am now in South Carolina visiting my spiritual mom, Sarah, and her husband whom I hadn’t seen for 4 ½ years At the airport we didn’t recognize each other at first because it had been so long.

It’s been really great to be back. I’ve been dealing with a loss of words though. When my uncle took me to Starbucks, I ordered a peppermint mocha and apparently couldn’t remember the word for whip cream so I said, “with out the whip, foam stuff please.” The barista behind the counter probably though I was a little off kilter ☺. It’s been fun having American food again. So far: American-Chinese, NYC bagel, NYC hot dog, Waldorf salad. I’m in the South now so that has been a cultural food experience too. My friend Sarah was ordering at Cracker Barrel and I thought she was speaking a different language. Everything seems to be sweet down here, even my sourdough bread tasted sweet yesterday. So far I’ve tried hush puppies, collard greens, and other things I don’t remember the names of. I know I’ll be getting boiled peanuts and exploring other traditional foods in the next couple of days.

I went to two museums yesterday of American history. After being in Russian museums and learning about their history it’s been fun to be introduced back to American history and culture. Even though we are a young country I think America has had a rich history so far and a lot of tragic events as well. It’s said that more people died in the Civil War than any other war in history. This was hard to digest since I was very impacted from learning about the Siege of Leningrad when I was in St. Petersburg. It lasted 3 years and killed around half a million people. The preservation of history is very strong here in the South and I’m looking forward to exploring even more American history in these next couple of days.

Hello from the Motherland!

I just finished up my first week of school in Moscow. I’m in an intensive language program right now and it is just that, very intense. Our schedule is Monday-Thursday 10am-3pm with an hour lunch break. My teacher speaks only Russian to our group except in very rare insentience when we don’t understand vocabulary. Even then, her knowledge of English is limited. I would say my comprehension is improving slowly but surely. Yesterday my brain was absorbing the language instead of translating it in my head, which is a good sign. I know it is only a matter of time before I begin feeling more comfortable using Russian for everyday speech. I have not doubt that it is a very challenging language!!!! I’ve been joking that I can no longer speak English well or Russian.

God gave me a good experience though on Wednesday. My roommate and I were walking to a nearby produkti, type of store, to get some groceries and a woman who was Moldavian stopped us on the street. She wanted to know where she could get her documents translated. Of course we didn’t know since we don’t know the city very well at this point. She was so sweet and friendly though and chatted with us for a while wanting to know where we were from and so on. I felt like it was a gift to have a native speaker stop us and “force” us to speak Russian. She was very friendly and it was excellent practice for us, especially since we speak very poorly right now. It’s so silly but I get nervous anytime I have to order water or anything from the stores. But chatting with this woman on the street I felt so comfortable even though I wasn’t so successful. I’m starting to believe that I really do blend in “physically” here in Russia. The first day I was in Moscow a woman who needed directions also stopped me. Unfortunately I couldn’t really say much at the time. I was with a group of people, but she chose me to come up to and talk with. My boyfriend says that I look Ukrainian/Russian but just speak a bit funny. I’m now starting to believe it and am glad that I blend in, especially since I don’t want to be stopped by the police.

My first time on the metro scared me to death this week. There were so many people, lots of noise, and lots of busyness. I bought a metro pass for 460 rubles, about $15, that’s good for 20 rides. Of course the more rides you buy, the cheaper it is. You can get a pass up to 60 rides for about $30. Riding the metro is quite the experience. To get down into the metro one must ride an escalator that takes about 3-4 minutes to get to the bottom. This experience is not good for anyone scared of heights. I would say the incline is between 70-75°. It’s very steep! Once down in the metro, I started to think of the metro bombings that occurred in March of this year. I couldn’t imagine how intense of a situation it would have been for the people who were there during the bombings. The metro is very efficient and makes it easy to get to one part of the city to the next. Moscow is very spread out geographically so I couldn't imagine living here without good public transportation.

The weather is miserable here right now. I’m sure most of you have heard about the conditions on the news. Russia has declared a state of emergency because of the intensity of the fires. I was reading that there are about 40 different fires burning around Moscow. More than 2,000 homes have been lost as a result. Moscow has been filled with smoke from the surrounding forest fires ever since we’ve been here. The air has been especially bad in the past couple of days. On top of the smoke, there is extreme heat and humidity here too. The temperature has been over 100° with humidity. I’m continually sweating. Air-conditioning is hard to come by. Thankfully our university has air that works in the building but our dorm doesn’t.

Just Me and My Dog

I’ve started a love affair with hot dogs. Something I can’t seem to get enough of this summer.

There’s something almost spiritual about holding a soft bun at room-temperature, with a little flour on it’s bottom, oh so cute, as it wraps around a warm, plump dog. It really doesn’t matter to me how it’s cooked: boiled, bbq’d, or nuked, what matters is the act of maintaining love. It’s the smothering of affection that counts. The satisfaction of reaching a fulfilled relationship that will never let me down.

So it begins

First, I spread a nice layer of mayonnaise on the inside of the bun. Then, lay the dog down slowly into its clean, white bed. Next, squirt mustard and ketchup on top of it, but I refuse to end here. It can’t be over yet! Every relationship must have its quirks you know. As an act of impulse or just mere habit, I begin swirling the yellow and red together as if making music, tenderly creating the perfect covers. Finally, while adding a layer of chopped, red onion, the job is done, and my dog is tucked into the perfect setting.

And then it’s over, I’m a lost woman. Each bite is the perfect delight. I forget that I’m on a place called earth because my heart has been transported to heaven.

My mind goes into a state of absolute peace…