A letter home from study abroad
Tuesday's classes started with phonetics...where I, once again, hadn't
been able to memorize the story she wanted us to memorize. We finally got
out of classes at 2:30 and ran down to the stolovaya for a snack before
our group meeting.
At the meeting, we learned that we're leaving for the baltics on
friday at 5:30. We still haven't recieved visas to get back into russia
once we leave. It seems that the local visa office is the only one in
town that has heard of a new rule that foreigners studying in moscow
aren't allowed to leave the country during their stay....so we're hoping
that we can get new visas in estonia. If not, future dispatches might be
coming to you from the baltics. (Don't worry, mom...i'll be back in time
for your visit)
After the meeting, I logged in for the first time in several days
to discover that Utopia's new sendmail configuration is apparently
bouncing at least some of my mail. So, I set up forwarding to Wes for the
duration. (It's also easier to telnet to wes, in the even that I find a
cyber-cafe in the baltics.) After that, it was off to the bank, in order
to change $350 in travellers checks into rubles so I can go buy train
tickets tomorrow. On the way, I passed several women in green and white
jumpsuits passing out free cigarettes. I swear the girl in the bank kassa
must have counted my checks 20 times...but she didn't give me any hassle
about cashing the checks themselves.
For the moment, at least, I'm a ruble multi-millionaire. It's
only a little disconcerting knowing that I have two million of anything in
my wallet. But, it will get much lighter tomorrow.
On the way back from the money changer, I stopped to pick up a
kilo of ponchiki (a cross between doughnuts and fried dough) for several
people on the program. While I was waiting, a beggar hit me up for money
several times. (You'd think he'd take a hint afer I said "No! Go away!")
When I got back, I discovered a game of hearts in mid-trick.
Within moments, I'd taken jocelyn's spot. (Matt, you'd be proud of me: I
took about 4 points over 4 hands...) Well, after several hands, everybody
else got disgusted by my winning streak and I bowed out to log back in. I
got to talk to my friends rachel and jen and kate....who happen to
be so net-addicted that they were logged in at 10 am. ;) (through iowa no
less!) God, I love the internet.
Later, my hall-mates olya and tanya invited me to tanya's "7000
days" party. Apparently it's her 7000th day alive....it was really just
an excuse to have a party....we played silly party games, drank chai, ate
cookies and told stories...it was quite silly and a lot of fun all
around...now I'm just typing silly journal entries and dreading my job
interview tomorrow.