BRRRRR!

Yay! It's finally COLD here in Moscow! Winter has arrived.

Saturday was looking pretty dreary and rainy, but I couldn't come to terms with sitting inside all day, so I went for a walk. If you look out my window, you can see the tops of a few really tall buildings to the north. The building lies on top of the only hill in the city (Vorobyovy Gory), and if you walk a bit north, there's an overlook with a view of the entire city to the north. I knew this, but I had never walked that way. I set off in sneakers, my heavy brown jacket, and an umbrella. I was really glad I brought the umbrella because this weird half-rain, half-snow mixture began to fall and I would have been even colder if I was wet. But then my feet got wet from all the rain as the sneakers have basically a mesh top (I'm thinking I am going to have to buy a pair of comfortable casual shoes that don't get wet as quickly) so I ended up cold anyway. Apparently the Vorobyovy Gory overlook is only a 10 minute walk from the main building! Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so there are no pictures of it just yet. It wasn't very pretty with the rain anyway.

Sunday was even colder than Saturday. I ventured out around 6pm to go to the rinok with Alissa. When we got there, the little time and temp billboard said it was 0 degrees. That's FREEZING, folks! I bought (and made) fixins for American salad with a delicious Italian-ish dressing. But only in Russia does the Italian salad dressing have dill in it. Hey I also finally bought some forks and two plate type things. After nearly six weeks! Anyway, I was really cold because I was still wearing my heavy jacket and I didn't bring my mittens.

But I have been having bad luck with my room lately. First, the sink drain seems to have clogged again, even though I poured drain cleaner down it a week ago. Second, I still don't have internet. I am trying to sign up for a cheaper plan, but Alyosha the internet boy somehow disabled my login, so I can't even add money to my account. Finally, my room is so cold. Every other one of my friends' rooms is, at the very least, cosy, or downright broiling. Earlier this week my room was pretty warm too, but the past 2 mornings I have been freezing. My only guess is that my window is really drafty... I need to ask the floor mother about this, because it's already annoying me after 2 days. Alissa and Henrike sleep with their windows open because their rooms are so hot, while I have to sleep in sweatpants and socks.

Internet!!!

I finally, finally have the internet in my room!!!!!! Hooray!

I spent a lot of money today. First, I put 500 rubles on my cell phone, which should last me about 3-4 weeks, as long as I don't make any international calls. Then, because I still hadn't bought them, I went out and bought my new boots from Ecco. They are gorgeous and cost me almost 5000 rubles. The other day I saw a raspberry-colored scarf at Benetton that went with both my brown coat that I have here and the gray coat I left in the trunk of my car. It wasn't cheap, coming in at about 600 rubles, but it's wool and angora. On the way home, I stopped at the produkty and bought some food, so that was another 200 rubles. Then, before I had the chance to sit down and rest, Alissa asked me to come up to her room and hang out with her while the internet guy fixed her internet (for some reason her internet hasn't been working, and they can't figure out why). Being the smart woman I am, I told her/ the internet boy to come down and hook mine up. There went another 500 rubles. But I have the internet, money on my cell phone, a scarf, and boots. That is a productive day by Russian standards, and it's not even 11pm yet.

McSplurge

Well, the sting of homesickness was tempered yesterday by a very productive day on my part.

This weekend the Davis Cup semifinals are taking place in Moscow- Russia vs. USA, and although I planned on going, I still had to buy tickets. So I decided to go buy tickets, and I took Megan with me because she likes tennis too (even though she calls Andy Roddick “Andy Rodderick”). I had only a “vague” idea of where the Olympic Stadium was located, but I wasn’t really worried about finding it once we got off the metro- how can you miss a whole stadium?! Well, it wasn’t so easy, and I had to ask a few people before I finally found the ticket office. And luckily there was a very helpful woman in line who spoke some English and helped us out a bit. But we bought 2 tickets to the Sunday session!!!! We could have gone for the 100 or 200 ruble tickets, but we decided to go wild and buy 600 ruble tickets. That’s about $23, which is a bit of a splurge for me. Now I just have to figure out who I am going to root for- Marat or Andy?

Then came the second splurge and the second success- McDonalds! McDonalds is pretty straightforward in Russia- a Big Mac is a Биг Мак and Chicken McNuggets are Чикен МакНуггетс- phonetically, they’re the same. But the first time we went, they couldn’t understand our English/ Russian accents and they pulled out these little picture cards and I just pointed to what I wanted. It was pretty humiliating and I felt like such an American. Fast forward to today: I ordered in Russian, and they didn’t pull out the picture cards! I was very proud of myself. To tell the truth, I wasn’t planning on ordering anything but a Coke, but I decided to give it another go and I was superbly rewarded. Unfortunately, that bit of pride cost me 125 rubles, or about $5. But McDonalds in Russia really is better than in America.

Also, Meghan and I went to the rinok again today (that’s the market outside our Metro stop) to get some cookies. I swear, my sugar consumption has gone through the roof since I got here. Actually I am eating a lot of fruit too, because it’s cheap and you don’t have to wait a week for it to ripen. Anyway, we went to this one fruit stall that I go to often, and the woman was really friendly. She came off her perch and showed us where the ripe fruits were, and then started a little conversation with us. I’m getting really good at small talk in Russian- everyone asks where I’m from, what languages do I speak, why am I here, how long have I studied Russian, where am I living. The rinok is the easiest way to practice Russian, because you’re forced to speak it at some point.

Also, thanks to everybody who has left comments and sent me e-mails. I appreciate every word you guys write, so please keep writing me. I know I am awful at replying quickly, but I’m trying!