And ya pack and ya pack and ya cross over...

So those might not quite be the correct words for the Shim-Sham, but I go dancing for the first time in a semester in a week and some change, so I'm excited, okay? :-)

It's over!! Or at least school is. We had our last ( of 2/3 ) exam today. Grammar - blech. But it's over! This was, without a doubt, the easiest exam period of my college career (senior spring in high school is still the easiest of my life - we played Spades all week). Phonetics was Friday, but you can't really study for phonetics, so we just went in and read and got it over with.

We were supposed to have History on Tuesday, but the teacher got sick and cancelled the exam. Of course, no one told us this, so the three of us girls spent half of Monday night crashed at one apartment, cramming what city KAMAZ trucks are made in (Kazan, in the Volga region), and the order of the first Rus' kings of Russia (Rurik was from 862-879, followed by Oleg, followed by Igor, followed by Olga, whose son-in-law Vladimir Christianized Russia in the 10th century.) We had a couple of Russians on hand for help, and they decided that the stuff we were having to learn was hard. We then showed up Tuesday morning and sat around waiting until we got the teacher's cell phone number and called her, only to find out that she'd already turned in an "excellent" for all of us. Yay!

I need to be packing now, but it's hard. I've successfully *unpacked* both suitcases now, so I can start putting things back in them. I'm worried it's not all going to fit. Oh, dear, oh dear. Don't worry - all of your presents will be coming.

I think this was originally meant to be more interesting, but I'm tired now. And now, like Erica, I have a new entry to look at. Yay!

Going Postal, Part II

So, after another 1.5 hours at the post office, a new box, and about $50, the parcel has been sent. Why a new box? Apparently, in Russia your box is not good enough. You must mail it in a blue box with Pochta Rossii written all over it. Also, you must write out in words the value of the contents of the box. Are they trying to decide whose box is worth raiding? (It really does happen - the customs officials somewhere along the way helped themselves to some candy from one of the other girls' box...) The actual writing of these numbers was the problem, since Mrs. GrumpyPants, the postal employee, having already established that I was a foreigner who didn't speak the language fluently, uses some crazy verb, rather than just doing things the simple way. Fortunately, the lady behind me in line had more mercy (and she probably realized that helping me would expedite her turn), and she broke things down into simpler language.

I sent it by land (or by sea, in this case), as air mail would've cost $80, and that's more than the stupid box was worth. I don't know when it's arriving in the States - I asked the grumpy lady at the post office how long it would take, and she said that once it leaves Russian borders, she doesn't know (nor did she really care). So, Erica, your present is on its way to the States - I just don't know when it'll get there. (And are you thinking Paris in the fall?)

Weather-wise, it's been snowing pretty much constantly for the past several days. Falling snow is a) pretty when you're inside, b) an excellent distraction when they're trying to teach you basic verb conjugation AGAIN (got it already - moving on...), c) good news, since snow has better traction than ice, and d) a pain when it's not falling so much as shooting parallel to the ground, and into your face. I went to lunch at an Italian place with some of the kids from my class on Wednesday, and by the time we got to the restaurant (less than a mile from school), I looked like I'd dumped a bucket of water on myself. Soaked hair, runny mascara, the whole nine yards - it was just lovely. Perhaps this is why so many Russians rock the Eskimo hoods on their parkas (even so, they still look silly. Just sayin').

Y'all are amazing and awesome and other adjectives, including some that don't begin with the letter "a". I love hearing from everyone - take care and stay warm! And if you're feeling very kindly disposed towards me, do me a favor and let me know where you're living in the fall. I'm trying to puzzle this out, but not being around complicates matters...

Anyhow, have a wonderful Friday!

How Time Does Fly...

Start music: Fleetwood Mac's The Chain (seems kind of fitting for the girl who's too lazy to update all that often...)

So October's almost over, and we passed our halfway point sometime earlier this week. It's weird - it seems like time has sped by being here, and yet it seems like there's so much time left to go. It doesn't help that a very vocal part of my brain is convinced that cold weather = Christmas and that it is, therefore, almost Christmas.

I'm all registered for classes today - thanks to Baylor weirdness, I have all 15 academic hours on MWF, running from 8 AM to 3.30, maybe? And since harp tends to fall on Mondays, I'll probably just be working on Tuesday/Thursday - crazy, isn't it? My schedule came out with: Principles of Microeconomics (04), Intermediate German (01), Fundamentals of International Politics (02), Russian Reading Development, Introduction to Slavic/Eastern European Studies, and Harp. Anyone have class with me?

Things I've done today: gone to the gym, gathered up my clothes for the wash, had a discussion with my hozhaika about the wash (which I think has probably resulted in everything - pinks, darks, whites, getting washed together...), had a discussion with my hozhaika about rent payment (she's decided she wants USD this month since she "already has Russian money". Because it's so easy to find USD in provincial Russia...), bought lunch at a kiosk (I miss Dr Pepper, and I'm going to miss 25 ruble pitas), and now I'm on the Internet (in case you can't tell).

Things I'm excited about: the cookie thing in my purse, going to the grocery to buy water*, the bookstore that sells both English novels and Star Wars books in Russian, the ballet in a few weeks (I'm going twice in the same week), the upcoming trip to the Caucasuses, the fact that I got my box from my parents yesterday (!) (Erica - your birthday book made it all the way to Russia - the 'rents mailed it to me, and it made me glad), the fact that I've actually cast on and started knitting a sweater (it's about two inches long at the moment...), and who knows what else.

My brain's kind of scattered at the moment, so apologies for the correspondingly scattered blog post. Tell me about what's going on with all of y'all at home - I miss you! Have a Happy Halloween!

*The grocery store is an actual Western-style supermarket. I can't recall if I've blogged about it before, but trust me, it makes my heart glad to go and wander up and down the marked aisles, where you can pick up things and examine them for yourself and look in the freezer cases and all that. It's funny the things that end up being comforting...

Last Day of Freedom

In answer to the first of Erica's bajillion questions (:D), I start classes tomorrow. At least, I'm under the general impression that tomorrow is Monday. Between all the travel weirdness and the lack of defined schedule, I'm a little out of the loop as far as normal times of day are concerned. Russia runs on the 24-hour clock, so I'm constanly subtracting 12 from times, too.

The WP kids had an assignment to complete after Saturday's jaunt around the city. We (the Baylor girls) kinda think we might have one, too, but since Ben only grabbed enough for them, we're pretending we don't.

I really wanted to upload pictures from my trip and from yesterday, but I put them on my USB, only to discover that this internet cafe doesn't have accessible USB ports. I'll either burn them to CD and upload from there, or I'll have to go to the expensive gaming cafe and use their USB ports. (On the gaming cafe - the boys told us it was so much cheaper, etc, etc, and we went rather out of our way, only to discover that if you're on the Internet, it's actually rather pricey...)

Laura and I went to the gym today - it's only about $40/month for full time access and full classes and all that - it's pretty nice. I know I'm going to hurt tomorrow, though. The showers and all are nice, so I think we may just start showering there at least part-time, so we don't have to feel bad about using the water or anything. They didn't have a squat rack, though. Who runs a gym without a squat rack?

I had my first moment of major frustration today. My transformer wasn't working with my laptop (BestBuy lady lied!), and there was an adapter laying out, so I just used it. Turns out it was Sasha the elder's, and I thought he was mad at me. I don't think he really was, but I was upset, and I kept trying to ask where I could buy one, and he kept telling me over and over that he bought it in China. I understood, but he wouldn't answer my question. It really didn't help that apparently what we call an adapter is not what Russian call an adapter. Argh! I was so frustrated with not being able to communicate (on top of major difficulties trying to get directions to the Catholic Church for Laura) that I just needed to get out (and to eat), so I went down to the street vendor and bought a pita. After a little food and a little space, I felt better.

One of the little stands plays music, and for a moment I thought I'd found an affirmative answer to the title question. Alas, I think it was actually the William Tell Overture, so no luck yet.

Take care and have a good week of classes, guys!