A City of Gentlemen (and Starches!)

Second day in Moscow and it has gone by so quickly!

Today we went to the аптека (drug store-Denis had to help me figure out how to type in Russian!) with Sasha and Denis to buy a few items, my first time having to figure out how to price things in rubles. It was a little crazy, Russians don't abide by too many pleasantries like "excuse me" or "sorry for almost knocking you over in the aisle." But luckily our guides watch over us like hawks. This is both good and bad. Good because they help us navigate this unfamiliar foreign city, bad because they don't let us do much of anything unsupervised-including open doors, carry items, or walk down snowy pathways (I haven't opened a door or carried my own things since I got here!). I suppose a better person should be glad to live in a city of such gentlemen and don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. But it is a little overwhelming at first, especially for a person who is used to being a little more independent.

We are learning Russian at a fast clip and all of the Russian students are eager to help us practice so they want to improve their English, too. I just spent a good hour going over the alphabet and how to write in Cyrillic. My brain feels ready to explode but it is good, they are all good teachers.

We have yet to get on a normal eating schedule (one meal a day so far) and I haven't quite adjusted to Russian food yet but I expect that will change very quickly, especially when we start spending more and more time outside in the cold! The food is greasier or starchier or something and it is hard to find vegetables that aren't cooked in rice or with cheese. A lot of the meats are stuffed with starches, too. My chicken tonight was stuffed with potatoes. Can you say carb overload?

Tomorrow, we are going to Moscow Center and I am very excited to get to see it. Hopefully, tonight I will go to bed at a reasonable hour and start adjusting to the new time zone but we shall see. We have spent all of our evenings so far hanging out with the students and it's an opportunity I just can't bring myself to miss-even if it does result in only 4 hours of sleep!

пoка!