catching up

Funny thing - somehow a week passed! It's been back to same-old same-old, if you can call Moscow that. I've had a pretty typical week, and (I think) we're going on an overnight trip to Vladimir and Suzdal on Saturday and Sunday! That should be fun - my first time out of Moscow since arriving here in February.

Some of the other people in my group have travelled on their own in the past couple of weeks...two took a train to Tallin, Estonia and also took a boat to Helsinki, Finland, and another two went to Riga, Latvia. Another went to Poland, and yet another to Germany. I suppose instead of traveling around Europe I've actually been *gasp* going to class. :) And Mike's visit was essentially a spring break. If I'd known ahead of time I'd have my passport, and if he hadn't already been traveling around a lot, we would have likely gone somewhere in addition to Moscow. Still, all this talk of traveling has made me realize that there's a lot to see in the world, and there's no way I can begin to see it all on this trip!

Anyway, a few tidbits from my week.

Monday evening I was having dinner in the cafe, reading my book and mindlessly eavesdropping on a conversation across the room...wait a second...they're speaking ENGLISH!! A minute later I introduced myself to two girls also from the US and living in the main building, Brainne and Whitney. We ate together and chatted. They're both doing a Russian Language program. We exchanged phone numbers, so hopefully I'll get to see them again sometime.

Tuesday I learned all about gross little things called participles. (The difference between "the operation done by the doctor was successful" and "the operation, which the doctor did, was successful" - sentence 1 uses the participle сделанный with "doctor" in dative case and sentence 2 uses a который clause with "doctor" in nominative case.)

Wednesday was a pretty typical day complete with Thermal Physics, lunch at a Столовая, and the afternoon spent on the computer sending emails, doing homework, trying to sort out the summer, etc. (By the way, this summer it is looking like I will be living at Mudd and commuting to Pasadena for an astronomy research position at the Carnegie Observatories. But I have yet to receive an official confirmation, so please don't hold me to that just yet!)

Thursday early afternoon I got a text message from my Russian Language and Russian Studies Seminar professor cancelling both classes...so I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening listening to the Harry Potter audiobook while doing some serious astronomy numbercrunching.

Thursday was also Jenna's 21st birthday, so a bunch of us headed out to a bar called Tema that night. I decided on a whim to text Katie since I hadn't seen her in a while and see if she wanted to join us. She had just woken up from a nap but said she would call if she and some friends decided to come. I met Jenna and some others at the metro stop around 9pm and we headed out! Luckily the bar was close to the Proekt OGI bar I'd been to with Katie and co., so I was actually able to help find our way there. We also ran into a surprisingly non-sketchy young Russian couple who saw us standing at a street corner speaking English and debating which way to walk, and they helped us, it was great. :) We got to the bar a bit before 10pm. It wasn't exactly empty, but it WAS easy to get a table! They had a HUGE cocktail selection as well as plenty of delicious food. And after we'd been there maybe 10 minutes, Katie called! She was with three friends at the nearby metro stop, so I gave them directions to find us, and soon our group became 12 or 15. We managed to get two neighboring tables and everyone started chatting - I felt very happy for bringing two groups of people together!

This morning (Friday) I opened my curtains to find another ethernet cable outside my window. This one runs straight from top to bottom and must be pretty slack, because it tends to oscillate back and forth like a confused pendulum in my peripheral vision, which can be a bit distracting.

...and I just got word that we're meeting at the metro stop at 7am tomorrow to go to Vladimir and Suzdal. EARLY, gross. But, I suppose we can sleep on the train.