Москва...(Moscow)

I feel the first order of business here needs to be a warning that I have not slept in the past lot of hours. I tried to do the math, but I'm too tired to do it. Somewhere around 30 hours, I think.

1. I think that I have decided to like tea just in time for it to be a very good decision.

2. Tonight after dinner, all of the kids from Midd (Eddie, Natalie, Ivan, Susanna, and I) set off "out on the town" with дэнис (*yes laurel good work*) as our trusty tour guide. We managed to buy metro tickets thus completing my first true business interaction. The entire interaction consisted of me saying одну поездку and then спасибо. We ended up at the Kremlin, Red Square, St. Basil's, and finally the Moscow river. It was so crazy to actually be there wandering around. I'm still not sure I have realized the reality of the situation. It seems like any moment I will be whisked back to the U.S. for our fall semester.

3. Like I already said, tomorrow we have orientation meetings in the morning and then our train leaves at 2:30. I am looking forward to finally being able to settle down in one place and stop living out of my suitcase as I have essentially done since summer school ended 3 weeks ago. I am also terrified out of my mind at the thought of introducing myself and conversing with my family. My usual attitude that "I'll never see these people again" can't really be of any use since they will see me pretty much everyday for the next few months.

4. I am sorry if these entries are fairly boring. It seems like I keep writing the same thing over and over again. But I'm trying to take advantage of the free wireless internet in our Moscow hotel because I'm pretty sure this is a "once in a trip to Russia" experience.

5. I don't know when I'll be posting again as I imagine I'll be fairly busy during my first few days just trying to figure out the city. blah blah blah.

Moscow

Brief blog post here. I landed safely in Moscow, with a brief layover in Frankfurt. Right now we are staying at a hotel somewhere in the city and I am currently fighting the urge to collapse onto my bed. We will be here this afternoon and evening and then all of tomorrow until we take the train to Yaroslavl at 2:30 p.m. I'm hoping to wander about a little bit later this evening, but they've taken our passports for paperwork purposes this afternoon, so we're pretty confined to the hotel.

I'm not sure that I had any true expectations of what the city would look like, so I can't speak of anything that truly surprised me. Денис, who studied at Midd last year and worked at summer school, and lives in Moscow is supposed to come by for dinner tonight, so he might be able to lead us about the city a little bit. Even if I don't get the chance to explore today, I'll only be 4 hours by train from Moscow, so I'll definitely be able to make it back for a weekend or two.

Abby

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Прив...

This is my blog. I am going to Russia (soon). I will be living in the city of Yaroslavl (pop. 600,000) which is located in Western Russia between Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaroslavl
Map: http://www.bugbog.com/images/maps/russia_map.jpg

I think the current state of mind is very scared (but also excited). And ready to not just sit around all day thinking about leaving. And staring at my suitcases.

I have no idea what else to say.

This is my address.

15000 Ярославль
ул. Совестская, 14
Ярославский Государственный Университет
ИНОТДЕЛ
Абигэль Мэйер (Abigail Mayer), американская студентка
RUSSIA

or

15000 Yaroslavl
ul. Sovietskaya, 14
Yaroslavckii Gosoodarstvenii Universitet
Inotdel
Abigail Mayer, american student
Russia

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