All things considered

Hey Everyone,

So yeah, I made it back to Vladimir and so far things are going pretty good. My flight into Russia was fine, no problems. Getting through the Moscow airport was actually easy, which was not expected. I ended up taking a taxi home to Vladimir, that is a taxi from Moscow to Vladimir (3 hours). Clearly not the cheapest solution, but definitely the quickest and easiest. Still it was expensive. I got into Vladimir around 2pm Russia time and almost instantly fell asleep. My host mother wasn't home so it was a bit of a shock to her to find me there when she got back. Apparently, despite me telling her when I would get back several times, she thought I wasn't going to be home until Friday, not Thursday. No harm done, just kinda funny now.

I spent the next few days getting resettled and unpacking. Basically everything came nicely together, I kinda feel like I never left, which is weird, good but, weird. Of course my new computer is performing admirably and it is nice to have a little library of American movies to enjoy on those long winter nights.

Which brings me to the subject of winter. I do recall complaining last semester about the Russian winter's lack-luster performance. Well I guess I was wrong. Apparently this thing doesn't get going until January, but when it does, oh man. The day I got in it was about -30 C currently it is hovering around -20 C, this is very cold. I mean I really never imagined how cold this actually is. Basically my legs start to freeze if I am outside for more than 5 minutes, hello long johns. I must say that my winter wear is well prepared. My big coat, hats, gloves, scraffs, and boots, all very good and all very warm. So in other words I love this, it's sooo! cold it's great. I've never been this cold before and it's kinda fun to experience (of course I say this with the knowledge that when I do get cold I have a nice warm apartment to retreat to).

Well, classes have begun again and I'm doing my best to start out on the right foot (you know paying attention even when it's really really really boring) and it's seems to be working. 2 days into classes and I'm doing good, no problems, I really like my new group too. The classes were switched around a bit and I think the one I am now in will be fun. Of courses 2 days doesn't give me a huge perspective, but I've got good feelings about this.

So everything is back to the same old same old. I'm only 2 days out of vacation and I already want it to be summer. But in two weeks we'll be heading to Moscow for 3 days, which will be much fun. I've got a real good travel schedule lined up this semester. Moscow, Yaraslavl, Suzdal (yeah!), Petersburg, and Sochi (which is on the black sea and supposedly has palm trees!). Sochi is our big 10 day trip (although that's 35 hours on a train) and it's in May (nice and warm), something to look forward to.

Well that's it for now, I'm back to blogging so stay tuned.