It's been nine days!?!???

HELLO ALL. So.... this has taken me so long to update! I'm very sorry... things are crazy with getting settled and realizing HOLY %^& I AM IN RUSSIA.

Anyway... I got here August 27th which seems like literally years ago. I flew on Aeroflot (a Russian airline), so I jumped right into the Russian world. Flight was good blahblah. They lost my bag, but then it was found so yay.

Onto more interesting things. I am living with a host family consisting of a Mother and her daughter Alina. They are awesome. Alina is fluent in English, but we all speak Russian 95% of the time which has already been so great for my Russian. Living here for just a week has taught me so much about Russian culture and the Russian household such as...

1. Do not EVER wear shoes in the house.. I was given little slippers that have a cartoon cat on them and say "100% Sweet" that they gave to me first thing that I wear around the house.

2. After you are out (and you put your slippers on) the very first thing you do is wash your hands when you get into the house. No questions asked. Being the germa-phob I am.... this has been wonderful and nothing far from the norm, but a lot of my friends have struggled with it.

3. The more food you eat, the better. If you are offered seconds of dinner for example, you pretty much have to take them. Again, as all of you know not even a slight problem for me.

4. No matter what apartment you go to... there will be 8420280023 locks and buttons to get in and out.

5. Certain foods you must like or pretend to like: Sour Cream, Dill, Beets, Potatoes.

That is just the beginning.

Moving on, the reason I decided to blog today is because we finally had our placement exam. Last week, we all walked A LOT, brushed up on our Russian, braved the Metro, etcetc. Wednesday is when the real deal begins. The placement test was pretty much hellishly diffucult, but whatever.

More on class and all that boring stuff later. I have been very brief about what we have done this past week. We.... (in non-chronological order to put it lightly)

1. Went on an AMAZING boat tour on the Moscow River. We saw so much. It was an hour and a half of glory.

2. Went to various "garden bars" and drank as the Russians do... pretty much the only even slightly cheap form of alcohol in Moscow.

3. Saw MGGU and toured the school. Boring.

4. Celebrated the Birthday of Moscow yesterday and went to the most AMAZING concert of marching bands that were from all over the world from Norway to China to Mexico. The best bands were Mexico, Greece, China, Norway, and, of course, all of the ones from Moscow (see photos on Facebook).

5. Tasted all kinds of Russian food....... the great, the bad, and the just plain weird.

6. Walked pretty much everywhere one can imagine in Moscow.

And so much more! Now I am procrastinating and I have to go do work but more to come soon!!