I forgot to mention an interesting detail. Last Thursday, I think it was Thursday, Alla didn't go to work. She got a call that she didn't have to come in. When I asked why, she replied "crisis", and strangely with a smile. I guess she's not worried about job security, but occasionally she doesn't have to work due to the financial crisis. A friend at school said the same thing happened to her host mom.

This weekend I bought a guitar and went ice skating. It's such a comfort now to play music again. And actually I think this weekend marked a turning point in the sense that I feel a little more myself than I've been so far. It's a very different experience living in another country than merely traveling as a tourist. Traveling is wonderful, but living, really making a home and a life for yourself in a new place, is somehow simultaneously mundane and exhilarating. Day to day life is always, to some extent, trivial but when each day to day activity is new and strange, what you end up with is a disorientating dichotomy of wanting to record every single second of your life in pure wonder while, at the same time, just kind of growing accustomed to it, I don't know... let's just say writing in this blog has become increasingly difficult. Well, I don't know, it was difficult from the start. I'm just saying, this isn't merely a study abroad experience, I really feel like I have a new life in Russia. A new, strange life. And I'll admit, I want to stay.

I guess I do have more stories and thoughts but it's Monday and... Mondays suck just as much in Russia as they do in the States. Apparently.