Sorry for the wait!

I have been so busy lately that I haven't had time to write much. That in addition to me blowing my macbook charger, but no need to worry, I found the blackmarket in moscow and bought a new charger! I'm going to begin by talking about Monday night. My friends and I thought it would be a great idea to go to a little club on Monday evening. We danced, met new people and had a great time. We took a "gypsy" cab home, which is just a random person who will drive you home. I know that doesn't sound that safe, but it is a normal thing here. The next morning, after an hour of sleep we had an excursion to the museum of the revolution. There we walked through the history of Russia seeing things from Russia's grim past to it's promising future. Our tour guide was amazing, not to mention his snazzy snake skin shoes :). The sun was shining that day, so I couldn't help but smile. The marshooka door opener said I was his girlfriend. I guess a smiling woman is a rare oddity here. The rest of the week has just been filled with homework, homework and more homework. My Russian is dramatically improving though. 
Today after class I decided to do laundry. The laundry room is the place for social activity because I met a Russian guy and he helped me with my homework. I'm done with all my homework so the weekend can officially begin. :D

Я понимаю! I understand!

The past two days the sun has finally decided to come out in Moscow. It's a beautiful and mood lifting sight! The more the sun shines, the more the temperature drops and I really do not understand how. My room is always so cold! I bought a poster today to add a little bit of decoration to my very depressing room. It's amazing how much you want to do when the sun finally shines!
I had a breakthrough in class today! The teacher kept talking and asking questions in Russian and I realized that I was translating everything in my head at a reasonable pace and basically perfectly. This was an ah ha moment for me because I can finally see some drastic improvement. There are rarely ever times in my life where I sit back and think, "Good job, Kallie," but today I realized that I am so proud of myself. Listening and understanding is extremely difficult for me and I am on my way to mastering it with Russian. I never imagined that I would come this far with Russian language and even though it is a little difficult and overwhelming at times, the reward of progress is well worth it all. 
It's finally the weekend and much needed at that. The thing is, since I'm in Moscow, even though its the weekend and I have no language classes, the lessons continue in real life situations. For example, in class I would never learn the word "таракан" which means "cockroach," but since there are allegedly some in the kitchen on our floor, I learned the word. :) The adventures never end here.
I also went to a political seminar on Thursday night. I was going to make a post about Russian politics in general but I didn't think everyone wanted to read about politics.
Well, I can mark this off as another successful week in Moscow!

Nothing much here.

I had three Russian classes today in a row-reading, phonetics and then grammar. That's 5 hours of intensive Russian language. Needless to say I was so tired after because there is nothing like learning a foreign language to put stress on your brain. Nothing too exciting has really been happening in the past couple of days. The highlight of my day yesterday was when a 1 and a half year old little Russian boy waved at me.
I read an awesome page about some of the issues that I have been going through so far while being abroad. So far I've gone through 8/10 listed. The hard/soft water thing is a serious issue here.
 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/17/beauty-problems-study-abroad_n_4612765.html

I dropped the Russian political economic system class that required the 20 page paper. Yes, I'm being a little lazy but I'm  here to explore, have fun and learn...not write a novel. I have a wonderful Russian literature class and since I love to read, I know I will really enjoy it. I've started reading the first required reading already called, The Life of Archpriest Avvakum and it is written by himself. It's not very long and an interesting read. According to a small review on wikipedia:

    "Avvakum's colourful autobiography memorably recounts hardships of his imprisonment and exile  to the Russian Far East, the story of his friendship and rupture with the Tsar Alexis, his practice of exorcising demons and devils, and his boundless admiration for nature and other works of God."

Feel free to read it at this link, http://www2.potsdam.edu/mausdc/class/481/avvakum.htm

Well, that is honestly about it.

My ballet review

So, as some people know, Russia is famous for ballet. Tonight I got to watch sleeping beauty. The costumes were beyond wonderful, the scenery was magnificent and the dancers did a perfect performance. I was thoroughly entertained. A guy named Je in my group was also entertained because he was clapping really really loud :).

After the ballet we went to eat at a traditional Russian/Ukraine place and they fed us so much delicious food. I now know why there is so much sour cream in Russia-because it is amazing with pancakes! I know that sounds strange but it is soooo great.
During the performance I feel like I got homesick because I started thinking about how my cousin does ballet and she would really enjoy watching this. That made me think about missing my aunt. Then there were two ballet dancers acting like cats and it reminded me of how much I miss my cat. Later that night my mom skyped me at a restaurant and then I started missing her. My dad sent me a message on facebook and I started missing him. I then started thinking about kabsa (middle eastern dish) and I started missing all my friends back home. This was just a downward spiral of homesickness.
In addition to the ballet, great food and homesickness, I was told today that I have to write a 20 page paper and I am really not interested in doing that at all. If it was a paper about Russian history then that would be awesome but no, it's about why America's economy is better than Russia's and why a lot of American businesses wont come to Russia. It could be a potentially interesting topic, but not 20 pages worth of interesting.
Everyone wish me luck :).

Never a dull moment

It's Sunday and on Sunday's I like to do laundry. I was going to ask my roommate to help me figure it out but I decided to take the adventure myself. The laundry room is on the bottom floor of my sector so it is very close to me. Before I came to Russia, the only advice that was repeatedly given to me was "be prepared to wait and have a lot of patience." I didn't think I would need patience to do a small task such as laundry, but I was very wrong. I had to wait over an hour to put my clothes in the washer because there was a "laundry room monitor" who would tell you when you could put your clothes in the washer. It cost around $2.85 (100 rubles) and she gave you the coins to put in the machine as well as the laundry detergent. I thought that was convenient. After your laundry was done washing, you put it in the dryer yourself, pay her again and she gave you the coins. There is an option to have her wash your clothes but that can take up to 3 days.
While I was waiting, I met some other Americans as well as a new Russian friend, so my time waiting was time very well spent.
So, I thought tonight I would order a pizza from the cafe and have it delivered to my room. I must have been feeling very confident or something. I didn't understand what the lady on the phone was saying, even with my best Russian she didn't know what I was saying so in the end I just hung up and walked downstairs and ordered it.
Other than that I have just been working on my Russian homework and trying to memorize some new verbs. I have class tomorrow at 9 am and I am definitely not looking forward to that.

Today was a day to remember

Today, Feb 15th, was just one of those days I will never forget. The American's got together with some Russians along with a Finnish guy (Mark) and watched the US-Russia hockey match. I can't explain what a fulfilling experience this was for me. These few hours encompassed why I came to Russia. The fact that people from all different backgrounds, world views, and experiences could come together and cheer for our countries without hard feelings was amazing. It is possible to have pride for your own country and not be obnoxious or arrogant about it. I thought both teams did an amazing job and I am happy that I was able to be in Russia at this time. I am so thankful for my new Russian friends that are so willing to help me with the language and willing to show me the Russia that they know and love. I will forever be grateful for this day.
After the hockey match we all walked to the red square and it was so amazing with all of the lights. Some of us went to Mcdonalds and some of us went to a London styled pub. We ate, drank, and talked about the game. One of the Russian guys told me how hard it is to understand us when we talk fast and that made me feel better because to me it is also difficult to understand Russians when they talk fast. We all are experiencing the same things when learning each other's native language. Every day I learn how we all are the same rather than how we are different. We're students on a limited budget. We study, learn and have dreams for the future. I'm just so happy I got to achieve one of my dreams of coming to Russia.

If America sneezes, the world catches cold.

The past few days have been extremely busy which is why I really haven't had a lot of time to write about whats been going on. On Thursday I only had one class, but then that afternoon our group met with a group of Russians (some young, most old) to talk about politics and stereotypes. Amazingly, one of the older women talked about when she was younger and she read a book called "Tom Sawyer." She always dreamed of the imaginary land in the book until one day she learned that there really was a place like that and it is called America. Her entire childhood she saw America as a competitor in sports and the race to the moon but she never saw America as the enemy.The way she described America made me want to go there myself. She was speaking like she was a young child again and by the way her eyes shined, you could tell that everything she said was straight from the heart.
Another lady spoke on how Russian women aren't so wrapped up in worrying about what Russian models look like, but they do want to look like American models. They do all these things that Americans do such as "eat hamburgers."It broke my heart that she said that because even though America is pretty great, Russia is also great as well. They are two different cultures but that doesn't make one culture better than the other. Obviously I thought Russia is pretty amazing because I'm willing to take 4 months out of my life in America to come here, explore and learn.
A lot was earned from this experience and I now have a greater respect for America as well as Russia. We have to realize that the actions of the government do not always reflect the beliefs of the people. Just because Russia and the USA have some issues on a governmental level does not mean the Russians and American people have to have issues with each other. We are all humans. We want a lot of the same things out of life; to make a comfortable living, have our children have a better life than we do and to live in a peaceful environment. Until we all communicate with one another on a personal level, we will sit 4,000 miles away from each other, watching CNN and FOX news believing whatever 'news' they happen to be selling that day.