Week 2

Hi again!

I've survived another week in Russia! Things have really started settling in. My schedule is pretty set and my routine with my host mom/babyshka is good. As my knowledge of the city grows, so does my food repertoire. I am trying new cafes for food and my host babyshka is making me more Russian dishes. The other day, she made me tongue and yesterday aspic. Neither were bad, mostly just the thought of them made me uncomfortable. She promises to make me this rice and ground beef ball, which I am pretty excited to try. So I'm eating really well! Tonight is smoked salmon and cauliflower (in Russian, white cabbage). I expect to eat a lot of blini (Russian pancakes) this week because Monday is Maslenitsa (holiday). My host babyshka made me blini with carrots and spice the other day. They kinda tasted like the pancake version of carrot cake, ie: yum!

This past weekend, I went to Moscow for the holiday weekend. I wrote about the trip and put pictures up on my website: www.larissalevine.com. The weather there was cold, but the sun shone everyday!! This is crucial because I had just gone 15 days without seeing the sun! Speaking of seeing the sun, next week we take our group trip to Sochi!! I'm really looking forward to the warmer weather there! The train ride is going to be super long, though. 28 hours there, and 40 back (slower, but more direct train back). I've already started thinking about how to spend my time on the train. I'm thinking I might actually be able to put a small dent into War and Peace.

Nothing here really feels that new anymore, making it hard for me to update about super interesting things. The stuff that is now exciting for me is small interactions with regular Russian people. I try really hard not to mess up so that they can understand me. I've been doing a pretty good job, but when I tried to call someone for information, they hung up on me… ☹. Last week I found a cafeteria that makes potato and onion stuffed bread. I finally got up the courage to buy some! And today the lady behind the counter remembered me!! It was way more intimidating to buy it today because there was a line and there were lots of men standing around drinking vodka (10am). But I ordered flawlessly and was very proud of myself. I've been buying two of them (about $0.50) and eating them for lunch.

Today I'm going to meet the people at my internship for the first time. Actually, I'm only meeting one of the head people, because the guy I'm supposed to work with is in Africa and others are in New York. I won't actually start working for them until after Sochi, but it should be nice to get a sense of what I'll be doing there.

Okay, I must go now, but I hope all is well with everyone!

-Larissa

Okay, I wrote this last week, but didn't have internet access all week to update. So this post actually refers to last week!