A few quick fun things

1. First week back in class has been great. We didn't have our new textbooks and I figured we'd wouldn't get them for at least a week or two (after all, this is Russia, where everything moves as fast as molasses). But, one of our teachers mentioned that a bookstore in the city had them, so we took matters into our own hands. After appointing two guys from our class (the only ones with access to cars) to be in charge of the operation, everyone pulled out their wallets, handed over a few hundred rubles and wished them luck in locating the books. They actually found them (a real shocker). It only gets better: I was flipping through one and kept on wondering, "What's so weird about this textbook?" I couldn't figure it out, but finally I realized - it's a Russian textbook for English speakers! It has instructions, a few translations, enormously helpful grammar instruction ... wow, how amazing! After spending three months working out of an entirely Russian textbook, I didn't even realize I was reading in English. Haha.

2. During exams, I was in the beginning stages of a truly terrific sinus infection. One of my teachers is a very stereotypical Russian babushka, as bossy as they come. She heard me coughing and snuffling and wrote down the name of some Russian super-medicine, which she claimed would cure me after two or three lethal doses. I politely thanked her and was silently greatful to my mother's forethought in sending me some antibiotics. I still have a bit of a sniffle and in class today, she was extremely upset that I had not taken her suggestion. She made me promise I'd stop at the apteka (like a drugstore, but you don't need prescriptions, just ask for whatever you'd like) today. I just nodded and escaped as quickly as I could. I guess no more blowing my nose in class.

3. It's cold. Wow. Looking at the temperature is pretty useless (I can't keep track between celsius and farenheit any more either). The windows in my dorm room close almost all the way, but not quite. I wasn't too concerned; it had actually been so hot in my room that I'd open a window for a few minutes. However, with the heat being scaled back for the holidays (most students leave) and taking a while to come back on, as well as a pretty big drop in temperature, my room has been chilly. As long as I bundle up and move around every once in a while, I stay pretty warm, but sleeping has been an interesting experience. The dorm provides two blankets to each student, but anything more is on you. On Tuesday night, I ended up in bed wearing all of my long underwear, pajamas, and a sweater. At 2 am, I was wondering what else I had in my room that could possibly keep me warm. I ended up back in bed, in my wonderfully warm Russian down jacket. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

I wasn't sure what to do; I didn't want to spend a ton of money on another blanket, but certainly wasn't looking forward to spending the rest of the winter sleeping in my coat. That night around 11 pm, the nicest floor matron knocked on my door and said, "I came to check on you. I thought you might not know how to close Russian windows all the way." She inspected my windows, pronounced it very cold in my room, and said she'd call the repairman to come on Saturday and seal my windows up. She was in such a good mood, laughing and joking with me, that I decided to go out on a limb and ask her if I might have another blanket. As I guessed, I got a lecture about how that wouldn't be fair, she couldn't give out blankets just like that, etc. Then, she grinned and said, "I'll see what I can do." Two minutes later, she was back with the biggest, purplest, wooliest blanket I'd ever seen. Hurrah for God's provision =]

4. Sadly, my favorite roommate Sonya isn't coming back for this semester. She and I had gotten as close our terrible Russian allowed and I was looking forward to another couple months of cooking dinner together, watching American movies with me attempting to translate for her, and fighting with the washing machine for several hours on Sunday evenings (our assigned laundry time).

Thanks for all of the cards, e-mails, packages, and love in the last month! I have a grand dream of answering about a billion e-mails, mailing some postcards, and uploading some pictures this weekend. We'll see how itgoes; I have a page long essay about a Russian translator, his doctor wife, and happy family to memorize for class on Monday.

- Elsbeth