Zdrastvuitye!

I'm going to need to figure out how to type in Cyrillic I suppose--but for now, I'm going to make do with weird transliterations.

I'm currently at an internet cafe with my new apartmentmate, Roxanne--we have our own rooms but live with the same host mom. I wrote this up last night to post, so this is ~8:00 Moscow time on August 30.

It's been a whirlwind of a day. I left Chicago O'Hare at about 4:30 PM on Scandanavian Airlines to Stockholm, Sweden, where we landed at about 7:30 AM local time. The flight proved to me that being on a plane can in fact be enjoyable--they gave us nice blankets and pillows, the movies were free (so I watched The Other Boleyn Girl--stupid, don't see it--and the second half of Monsters Inc.), and the food was excellent. For dinner we had a yummy little chicken thing with rice, broccoli, salad and cheesecake, and the "light breakfast" was rolls with cheese and jam, yogurt, and OJ. Ridiculous. I spent the rest of the time reading the NY Times and sleeping a bit.

When we landed in Stockholm, I had about two hours to kill, so after getting my passport stamped I wandered around for a while and then crammed in some last-minute Russian studying. It turned out to be a English is not the primary language, so it was neat to hear announcements first in what I presume was Swedish before hearing them in English. It made me realize how lucky I am to know English--I don't know how I would travel without getting totally confused if I didn't.

Anyway, I got on a 10:05 plane to Moscow on Aeroflot. I had a small moment of panic when the visa-checking lady at the gate said mine might not be okay--it had a starting travel date of July because of the way the program set it up, so I think that was the problem, but it was fine in the end. The flight was decidedly less fancy, and I was in the very last row window seat surrounded by a huge group of loud guys, but I just passed out so it was fine.

And then--Moscow! The Swedes, as it turns out, aren't all that uptight about passport control compared to the Russians. You have to have a visa, and when you get here you have to fill out a migration card just so, and they keep half, and then it has to be registered by the next business day, and then you have to bring the other half back when you leave the country. But I got through that and customs without a hitch, and directly on the other side were two Russian boys with signs--"Neubauer Katherine." They took my bags and drove me to my host's apartment, which took a while, so I dozed off and tried to read some billboards, which had a wierd mix of Russian and English on them. I couldn't communicate very effectively with the boys, but one of them spoke decent English so we chatted a bit. I think they're students at the university where I'll be studying, so I may see them again. They had the radio on, and aside from Russian pop, it played two English songs--"I Will Survive" and the song from that movie about Chihuahuas that came out this summer. The whole thing was kind of surreal. We managed to find the apartment and up we went in a creaky old lift that could barely manage two people and my bags.

My host mom, Svetlana, met us at the door--"Zdrastvuitye, pazhalsta!" Now, I was told that they would try to place me with someone who speaks at least a little English, but Svetlana, mmm, not so much. She's very kind, though, and we hobbled through a little conversation with lots of pantomiming. She showed me how to lock the doors properly--Russian apartments have two doors at the front and the key must be turned just right--and my room, which is lovely. It's pretty spacious, probably a bit bigger than a Wilbur double for you Stanford kids, and I have a desk, a neat little bed, a wardrobe and even a magnificently out-of-tune piano! My window looks out over a park where kids were playing basketball and soccer (oops, footbol) and some other beautiful apartment buildings. Svetlana gave me some bread and cheese and tea, and then I unpacked while she ran some errands.

I'm feeling fantastically optimistic about this whole thing. I think the living situation is going to work out beautifully--we had DELICIOUS borscht for dinner last night and kasha, or porridge, this morning, with plenty of tea for the intrepid traveler with a cold (me). Last night I watched the clouds turn pink at sunset out my window. All of my things are in their proper places, and last night I crawled into my cozy little bed and fell asleep. It's hard to imagine this going any better, and while I'm sure difficulties will arise soon enough, for now I am perfectly content.