It has been an interesting few days. Although we still haven't been exploring quite as much as usual due to the cold and most of us being under the weather to some degree, that has not stopped us from having some adventures, anyway.
On Wednesday of this week, Russia celebrated Men's Day, which is a holiday that gives tribute to men who served in the military. For us, this meant a day off from class and an opportunity to play laser tag at an arcade in downtown Moscow. Maksim and Anton took the Americans and French Maxime to play and we teamed up with a few Russians to win at least one game. My stealth skills need some work (the flashing red lights on my vest and gun didn't exactly help). Afterwards, Shelli and I went to get shawarma for the Russians and that almost ended up being a very bad night. Somewhere between the hostel and the shawarma stand, my purse fell open and all of my papers fell out--my passport, my hostel paper, my immigration form, my student ID. I realized this as Shelli was ordering the food and told her I was going to backtrack to try and find it. I walked the entire length of the sidewalk but couldn't find it so I returned to the stand. Shelli saw me and grabbed my arm, "Where were you?? I thought you got kidnapped or something!" I started to explain where I was when these 2 Russian guys dressed all in black came running up to me yelling. I had no idea what they were saying until one of them handed me all of my papers. I didn't know what to say, so all I said was, "Большое спасибо!" Crisis narrowly averted. And the Russians still got their shawarma.
On Thursday night while the American girls were getting food at the canteen, we met 2 Russian Special Forces soldiers, Alexei and Denis. They joined us for dinner and though they didn't speak English, they were able to tell us about how they served in Iraq and Afghanistan alongside American Special Forces. They were both extremely amusing. Alexei was celebrating his graduation so they brought out a bottle of champagne and we toasted with them. After, Alexei made each of us an origami flower out of napkins. Who said you need to know the language to communicate?
Last night, a large group of us went to an authentic Ukrainian restaurant a few metro stops down from the hostel, complete with colorful artwork, bright woven tapestries, and waitresses donning traditional flowered headdresses. We had a private room and ordered everything from boiled berries to horseradish, honey, and vodka (no better way to clear your sinuses, let me tell you). I split a dish of rabbit cooked in sour cream sauce with sauerkraut and sweet raspberry dumplings with Katie McKee, our newly-arrived, freshly doctorate-awarded professor. It was all absolutely delicious, made better by the setting and, of course, the company.
I'm still fighting some kind of derivative of a cold (I think I'm about as congested as is possible to be) so I hope that won't slow me down too much this weekend, though I don't know what's in store. Tomorrow we are planning on taking a little excursion outside of the city, which will be a nice change and I'm very much looking forward to it.
пока!
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