The first week in Moscow is pretty much coming to an end. This is definitely one of those moments I'll remember for the rest of my life. I arrived Sunday evening with my friends Kim and Pat. When I got to my host mother's apartment I was terrified. I could barely understand what she was saying to me and plus I was tired. Thankfully the director of the program(Irina) was with me and helped me out a bit. I also met James, the really hot italian guy who lived with Eleonora(my hostmom/homegurl) during the summer. Unfortunately, he went back to Italy today. He was quite helpful since I could ask him anything I didn't really understand. I moved into my room which I jokingly call a closet since it is probably a little bigger than a walk-in closet. Eleonora, James, and I had some tea and I attempted to speak but nothing seemed to really come out. James and Eleonora were just chatting it up and I simply listened. We all finished our tea and I went back to my room to go to sleep.
During this whole week I feel like I have walked around more than I have ever walked in my entire life. It is crazy how big Moscow is and how much there is to see. I have been to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, Red Square, Manezhnaya Ploshad, Novodevichy Cemetery, various cafes, Tsaritsina Park, a couple of really really really old monasteries/churches, and more. I promise pictures will be up soon, I will do the flicker thing. Our group also has class for a couple of hours starting at 11 am at РГГУ(the university) which is just basically review of Russian and our chance to ask Irina anything about the language. There is a new girl that joined us and her name is Amy, she's from Wesleyan and she's pretty cool. The group is actually really awesome. We will definitely have fun this year.
So far Moscow has been amazing. I am definitely liking it. My favorite place so far is Tsaritsina Park. It is just so huge and pretty. I will probably go there often while the weather is still good. And let's be honest, the situation with racism/nationalism is not the best. During the day I feel pretty safe since I'm always with the group and such. I have only been out at night twice and both times I am just always looking around for any suspicious/angry looking people. So far so good. Let's hope it stays that way. Also, about the coming out situation, I haven't given it that much thought but I do plan on coming out to homegurl Eleonora. I don't know when or how... but it's probably not anytime soon. I need to know her stances on those types of things first, although we did have a conversation about racism in the US which went pretty well. We'll see what happens. But so far everything is great and I am definitely glad to be here :)
