Friday, February 2, 2007

an update finally.

Sorry for not updating sooner...yesterday was rough. i was feeling pretty homesick, but today is a lot better and i'm feeling well. thanks to my family for dealing with me yesterday :)

We got here around 10 am. two russian students (they went to beloit last semester) picked us up and showed us around. i thought the outlet in my room didn't work (i was pretty distressed)
but turns out i was using the wrong outlet, as the woman who barged into my room at 9 am this morning told me :)

i woke up shaking from dehydration and lack of food. so we went to the store near the school...i bought yogurt, bread, and jam. supposedly i need to watch out for the jam, another student got sick last semester. but so far i'm fine :) we then met up with stuart, got some more of our stuff figured out, and ventured out to do more shopping. i bought american cheese (i'm very picky about my dairy especially so went with what was safe), juice, grapes, chips, chocolate milk...hopefully none of it gets stolen in the communal fridge, but i believe my yogurt has already been taken so we shall see.

right now we're in cafe max, which is actually a decent deal...50 rubles for half an hour (which is about $2.50 or so) and you can keep the number if you don't use all your time. people here don't smile a lot...if you catch eyes with them they usually just nod or stare at you lol. this morning i came into the building with my yogurt and while struggling to get my card to show the guard (i had been eating the yogurt with my finger due to a lack of utensils, which i remedied later) i dropped the yogurt and the guard got pretty mad. he told me to look for paper but as i didn't see any, he sort of stormed off and got some, then handed it to me and told me to clean it up lol. i was sleepy so it didn't really bother me.

i think i'm getting sick...eating or drinking anything aside from water hurts my throat, in a sort of pain that is worse than i've experienced.

the toilets are gross haha. i never "hover" but i refuse NOT to. the showers don't have shower curtains but happily the doors have locks. the pressure and heat is very good.

anyway i miss you all...keep commenting!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yay! Glad to hear from you!! I hope all gets better! I also hope you feel better soon! I also hope to see lots of pictures and hear from you again too!

Anonymous said...

Hey there,
Glad to see the tide has turned. I see that great Caitlin sense of humor in your latest post. I suspect you will have the whole country smiling by the time you leave, so don't worry too much about the frowns. Have fun, learn lots and keep the info coming.
Love,
Dad

Anonymous said...

aww i guess the first few days will be the time to adjust. im pretty sure you'll adjust better since u know russian!!

Anonymous said...

you really there!! i ment to call you before you left and got all wrapped up in classes. :( boo on my part. i really wanted to talk to you before you left. but hey you have this blog .. so thats great! it was an interesting post I must say, so brave to be out there, and such a different place! Well I cant wait to read the next post!

<3 Bethany

Anonymous said...

Hi! Sounds like you're learning a lot very fast. I hope you feel better soon! I has my surgery this morning for the Carpal Tunnel. So far so good. The only problem was the pain killers made me sick. Can't wait for your next entry!

Dash said...

When I think of Russia I always imagine then not smiling. I was sorta hoping you could correct that stereotype for me, but I guess not. Crazy people.

You should talk to Matt...he's been in Russia I think. He might have places for you to check out or something.

Anonymous said...

It sure sounds interesting so far!! I hope you don't get sick :(