Once Upon a (summer) Time

My mom asked me to write this so she would "have something interesting to read." A month later, I'm finally getting around to it - Happy Thanksgiving?

Summer was a bit of a whirlwind, partially because I stayed almost a week less than in the past.  In trying to cram an entire year's worth of things into about 3 weeks, I managed to: go to a 4 day music festival, have overpriced brunch in Manhattan with friends from college, stay in a lake house with other college friends, see most of my friends and family, road trip down to DC with 2 hours notice, catch the Milford Oyster Fest, and eat everything on my list of foods not available in the food dessert that is Moscow.

After getting back to Russia, I still had some wanderlust to get out of my system, so I took a quick trip to Romania.  Bucharest was a weird mix of classical European and super Soviet, but had great food and the world's largest Parliament building.  Constanta was really beautiful, and allowed me to finally swim in the Black Sea.

Back to Russia, and work/life have been business as usual.  Construction was finally finished on the square by my house, I convinced my roommate not to move away forever, and I've been SUMMONED FOR JURY DUTY AGAIN.  Again.  For Thanksgiving, I'm having a potluck, in which I'll try to fit way more people into my apartment than is probably advisable.  What can go wrong?

Fun fact before you go: remember when Crimea started being Russia again? Remember how the west was like "Not cool bro, give it back"? It's okay if you don't, people kind of stopped mentioning it.  The Levada Center mentioned it recently when it polled Russian citizens on whether they thought Crimea should be returned to Ukraine; a whole 3% said yes! How about that. 

Notes from Russia

Notes from Russia! I made a nice little excursion to Vladimir over Women's Day weekend, and it was lovely - beautiful old things, minus the hustle and bustle of Moscow.  Also back in March I celebrated my birthday for nearly a week with dinners, walks, and happy hours.  

This summer I'll be coming home for about a month to soak up some sun, sand, and fresh seafood; tickets have already been purchased! Please prepare to feed me. 

Despite the situation in Ukraine heating up and the west placing sanctions on Russia, nothing has changed on the ground here.  Although I did find some really great sweet and sour sauce in the store, so that was pretty groundbreaking.  

In other news, my landlady callously (and rather unfairly given that we live at the last stop on the metro line and a 15min walk from the station) raised our rent, so we're hoping to move after summer vacation - hopefully closer to the center.  

Our academic year at school is nearly finished, which is exciting though also sad as many friends have left or are planning to leave Moscow.  Warm farewells and hugs to everyone as they begin new journeys, which goes for those of you back at home and scattered across the globe as well.  As for me, I'll be here...for now.  

Adventures in...America?

I know it's been a while, so I'm going to break the rest of my summer and my return to Russia into two posts.

I flew out of Sheremetevo airport (missed Snowden again!) on July 25, 2013 on a direct, round-trip flight into JFK, where I was met by angry parents (seriously, the attitude was unnecessary and unappreciated, please don't let it happen again next year).  Then we got to sit in traffic, and then I got the fresh lobster dinner I had long awaited (thanks, dad).  The month flew by, but I managed to cram a lot of activities into it.  I went to Manhattan to see some friends (shout outs to Chris and Lea for hosting, and to Brendan for coming up from DC); to Long Island to see more friends and learn to sail (well...how to come about, anyway), taste wine, and cook an awesome vegetarian meal with more-awesome accompanying cocktails (shout out to Julia and her mom and sister); to read a lot of books; to meet my cousin's beautiful baby girl; to see how my other babies have grown (and started talking? Too soon!); to get my first smartphone (which subsequently ate my life); to eat fresh oysters and clams at the Milford Oyster Fest; to drink PUMPKIN BEER, MY FAVORITE BEVERAGE OF ALL TIME; to buy stuff for normal-people prices; to drive!; to eat...everything; to spend time with family and friends (and be fed by them); to ride my bike to the beach where I sunned and swam; and, perhaps most importantly, to welcome my cousin home from his tour of duty in Afghanistan (shout out to Anthony for protecting us all).

People often asked me what the weirdest part of being home was.  The truth is, the weirdest part was that it wasn't weird at all.  For the most part, everything was the same.  All of the same people are around, the landscape is the same, I95 still sucks from 4pm-8pm, I am still a beach bum, and Whole Foods is still my mecca.  I wasn't exactly itching for Moscow in particular, but I did understand that it would be really hard for me to live there again right now.  There's not enough going on, and I can't deal with the complete and total lack of comprehensive public transportation.  While I did catch the train into Manhattan and up to Milford a few times, that's about the most useful it gets.  On August 25, 2013 I went to JFK and missed my already pushed-back flight because some people thought the time I wanted to leave was way too early, but it most certainly was not.  After re-booking and chilling in the worst terminal ever (Terminal 1, if you were wondering), I boarded my plane to Moscow, came home, and crashed.  Next up: work, which I started the next day.