Pre-Russia

I think I've heard enough jokes and jabs about vodka now. Tomorrow (technically today) I'm headed to Moscow to start teaching English. It has been a stressful last week because I sent my passport and all my documents to the wrong location. After waiting a week and expecting them to arrive, I finally called the embassy to discover that they don't do visas by mail, but that they would take it to a place that would do it for me. Of course I had to pay more money for that and send them more documents, but it was better than having to drive up to DC and try to sort it out myself, and I think faster as well. I ended up being 3 days late to Russia, and had to pay more money for my flight, but all is well now.

I wouldn't say that I'm excited exactly. If I think about it too much I might get nervous. Relief is probably the most significant emotion, but for the most part I just feel like this is an inevitable and almost routine occurrence. The relief comes mainly from finally having a job again, but also for being able to get out of the US, and to do something new.

I will miss cooking though. Today I made a big dinner; lemon pepper shrimp with mustard, rice, buffalo cauliflower with feta cheese dip, sunflower seed bread, and pumpkin spice scones with cream. The cauliflower was a bit limp, but everything tasted really good. I doubt that I'll have the time, utensils, or ingredients to reproduce it in Russia. And alas, Frank's Buffalo Sauce is likely to be scarce...

In the last few days I've spent a significant amount of time cleaning out my closet which was a very fulfilling experience. On the other hand, I've gone through nearly an entire large box of tissues in those few days, thanks to all the dust. In fact, you know how sometimes when you do something for a long time during the day, you feel like you're still doing it when you're in bed? Yesterday that happened to me, but the action was sneezing. It was a very strange sensation.

Nothing particularly interesting has happened in the last couple months. When I accepted this job, I started studying Russian very diligently, but in the last couple days packing and cleaning has taken over. I'm looking forward to getting back into it. And I think that's just about all I can write at the moment. If I'm not working this weekend, I'll certainly have another post by Saturday.