monday, take 1

Trying this again - hopefully the computer won't freeze this time.

I slept in a bit this morning since my first - and only - class wasn't until 3pm. It was nice, but when I woke up and pulled open the curtains expecting either cold and clouds or cold and clear, I found...cold and smog. ew. Just like at school, only with the added bonus of at least 7 smokestacks in the distance spewing heaven knows what into the air. lovely.

We did get our schedules late last night! Here's mine:

Monday: Russian language 3-5pm
Tuesday: Research meeting 1-3pm; Russian studies seminar 3:30-5:30pm
Wednesday: --nothing--
Thursday: Thermal physics 10am; Russian language 3-5pm
Friday: Politology 10am-1pm

And that is all I know. Well, that plus room numbers and professors' names. (To answer your questions, no I don't know when thermal physics ends, and no I don't really know what "politology" is.)

Tomorrow I'll find out more about the research stuff, so the Tuesday time above is probably just a one time starter meeting for now, but who knows. Laura (suitemate) went into town with Irina (on-site coordinator) today to meet a professor about her biology research and had an...interesting experience. Not all bad, just a bit trying and odd. Kind of like how the medical students found out they can't take the "operate on rabbits" course they signed up for until May because they spontaneously decided to renovate the building and they don't have any rabbits.

But enough about what I don't know yet. Here's what I do know - between Russian supermarkets and the Moscow bus system and my ability to be confused, I managed to be 40 minutes late to my first class today. (The good news is I'm now living off more than bread and cheese spread.) But it wasn't really a big deal. I can't decide if I like the ubiquitous tardiness here or not...I'm afraid I'll come back to the US and start being early to everything or something! yeah, right. :)

Anyway, the first thing I got after quite the bus adventure was a Russian language placement test. So I took it, and he graded it, and I got 37/50, which was not half bad considering Victoria (speaks Russian but doesn't have great writing skills) got 45 and Nick (lived in Kaliningrad for a few months not long ago) got 19. If there's one thing I'm good at, it's not failing Russian tests. Then we did stuff typical of a language class - a couple handouts, a reading and questions about the text, and overall it was quite good. I have a bit of homework, but no textbook yet. Minor concern in the scheme of things.

There was a bit of confusion figuring out dinner tonight, so I wound up just eating back in my dorm room, which was okay but a bit lonely. We all need to work better at navigating the bus system and coordinating our activities. By the way, the traffic in Moscow is horrific. It's like LA meets New York only it's cold and everyone's pissed off about it. I'm not exaggerating here, either. The metro is the way to go.

Well, as always there's more to tell but this lovely computer lab closes in 3 minutes and I need to get some sleep! Someone came into my room today and moved some drawers and a coiled gray cable with no end appeared on my desk. I hope they don't think that's an internet connection...but I suppose it's a good sign because they're working on it. Keep your fingers crossed. Goodnight!