the adventure continues

Today I made it to Russia. Technically speaking it was a combination of today and yesterday, and I haven't slept for more than, say, 3 hours since the night before last, though admittedly my day was 8 hours shorter than normal. (Don't think about that too hard.)

Good news - everything eventually worked out, plus I got to see Rachel Berkowitz for nearly an hour before leaving the hostel!! It was awesome, seeing someone I actually *know*, plus I hadn't seen her in forever to start with. Took the super shuttle to the airport. Met up with 8 or 9 other KEI folks (the few others were either already in Moscow or had booked their flights independently). Aeroflot tried to give Alex a hard time since he was changing all our tickets, but they worked something out because we all got on the plane in the end.

Bad news - I AM SICK. That whole "I have a little upset stomach and then a minor sore throat" episode? On the plane and then afterwards it turned into "Meredith wants to curl up and die and go to the bathroom every 15 minutes." Not lovely. So I got quite my fair share of aeroflot bathroom experiences. Man, the whole trip was just nutty. Everything worked out fine in the end, but each step along the way took four times longer than it seemed like it should have. The plane ride itself was as expected - 9 hours and change. But there were no movies due to "technical difficulties." The food was nothing special, and to me and my upset stomach it was downright abysmal. Oh aeroflot. When we finally got to Moscow, Irina (the on-site coordinator) was supposed to meet us all at the airport, but she was nowhere to be found once we got through passport control and customs. We had an awkward "uhhh does anyone have her number?" moment until finally she showed up, it was noon by now, and we all thought it was 4am. The process of getting to the dorm took about forever, too, just because of the logistics of a bunch of random taxis and cramming bags into corners. By now I was REALLY feeling terrible, so it was all I could do to not throw up in the taxi as we drove all the way through Moscow from Sheremetyevo (the airport) to the dorm.

Anyway, obviously we made it. I don't know the name of the dorm, but it's not the huge Lomonosov building as originally expected because there was a fire/explosion/something bad there last April or some such. Rumor has it we're here for two weeks or so and then we'll be up and moving AGAIN to rooms that are in the huge building and thus more central to everything. Right now it's a good 30 minutes walk (in the -20 C weather) to the main part of the university where our classes will be. But one thing at a time. First, we had to check into this lovely dorm. Let me start by saying, Moscow is not run by computer. It's run by cranky old folks with glasses who fill out way too much paperwork. The process of actually getting a room was unbelievable. We weren't able to settle in until nearly 5pm. SO MANY FORMS. All of which were in Russian, none of which completely made sense. Anyway. Long, painful story short - I got at my Pepto Bismol for starters. And I'm in a suite kind of similar to my suite in South last year, only one of the rooms is a single and the other is a double and they share a mini entrance and a bathroom. And it's on floor 10 of something like 22. Laura is in the single and I have the double to myself! Technically one of the other girls is supposed to be in the room with me but she's staying with her grandmother, so I've been told to "make it look like it's being lived in." er, right.

After all this, we headed downstairs to get dinner (or some meal anyway) at the cafe in the dorm. It's basically bad cafeteria food, only Russian style, so heavy slash unidentifiable. yum. not. I poked at potatoes and buckwheat and what we decided to call "deep fried cheese biscuits." Because, well, that's essentially what they were.

Next it was off to the turn-dollars-into-rubles place, followed by a convenience store. It's hard to get the hang of rubles. It's roughly 30 rubles to the dollar, so you're like "I have 1000 rubles!" but it's not really all that much. We now have essentials such as bottled water and toilet paper.

All I know for now is that I'm relatively glad to be here, more or less in one piece. Hoping I don't go through all my Pepto Bismol during week 1. Classes don't start till Monday, so we're likely going to be sorting out logistical things between now and then, and going through some kind of orientation. Who knows. At this point, it's all one big unknown, but you know what, I have a bed and water and toilet paper and even laundry detergent, as well as a few pretty good friends it seems, so it's all good.

What else can I say...stay tuned! I'm going to get some sleep. In a bed. YES.