Sorry for the incommunicado for so long, but the internet is not as pervasive here as it is in the US. The short story (since I don't know how long I have here), is that I am here, I am safe, and while I can't say that I know my way around, I know enough to not get utterly, utterly lost (yet).
The flight in was relatively hellacious, as the flight from NYC to Moscow was delayed just long enough for me to miss my flight to St. Petersburg, and then the phones were not working right, I couldn't get a hold of anyone to let them know the new flight I was on, and I had to find my way to the house on my own. I won't lie, the fact that I had been awake and not-well-fed for over 52 hours at that point meant that there was some amount of breaking down on my part, and some amount of "oh god there's a crying foreigner on my hands!" on some very, very kind Russians' parts. However, all is well as of now, and I'll be getting a phone (and some teaching!) as of today, so hopefully no more horrendous feelings of being lost.
I will say though, that so far, Russia has been HOT. Maybe it's just a matter of I came in on the right day, and I've gotten used to CO's utter lack of concept of summer, but man I am sweating. Then, too, the person I'm staying with, Sergei, decided we should walk to school today instead of taking the underground... and waited until we were halfway there to tell me it was 3 miles... that could have something to do with it! On that note, farewell for now, more to come. Cheers!
Edit: Upon review of this post, it seems I missed explaining a vital detail. The single woman with whom I was supposed to be staying while in Russia decided that it would be far better for her to go on vacation, and her (single) nephew to be my host instead. What this resulted in was him going out drinking every night, and stumbling in as I was leaving, having bought my own food and made my own breakfast. The little conversation we did have consisted of him being drunk and trying to hit on me. Good times!
The flight in was relatively hellacious, as the flight from NYC to Moscow was delayed just long enough for me to miss my flight to St. Petersburg, and then the phones were not working right, I couldn't get a hold of anyone to let them know the new flight I was on, and I had to find my way to the house on my own. I won't lie, the fact that I had been awake and not-well-fed for over 52 hours at that point meant that there was some amount of breaking down on my part, and some amount of "oh god there's a crying foreigner on my hands!" on some very, very kind Russians' parts. However, all is well as of now, and I'll be getting a phone (and some teaching!) as of today, so hopefully no more horrendous feelings of being lost.
I will say though, that so far, Russia has been HOT. Maybe it's just a matter of I came in on the right day, and I've gotten used to CO's utter lack of concept of summer, but man I am sweating. Then, too, the person I'm staying with, Sergei, decided we should walk to school today instead of taking the underground... and waited until we were halfway there to tell me it was 3 miles... that could have something to do with it! On that note, farewell for now, more to come. Cheers!
Edit: Upon review of this post, it seems I missed explaining a vital detail. The single woman with whom I was supposed to be staying while in Russia decided that it would be far better for her to go on vacation, and her (single) nephew to be my host instead. What this resulted in was him going out drinking every night, and stumbling in as I was leaving, having bought my own food and made my own breakfast. The little conversation we did have consisted of him being drunk and trying to hit on me. Good times!
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