Excerpt from a letter to my RSP Семья

To those I miss most in the world,

It’s about 9:15pm here, which means the sky won’t be completely dark for another 2 hours. Eleven ‘o’clock walks with my dog have become a favorite part of my day. I appreciate this letter writing thing we’ve started, so here’s my take, although you will have to judge of whether or not it lives up to the epistle we’ve already received.

I don’t know if you all have heard, but Moscow is sweltering! The temperature on my birthday was the highest in over a century, according to The Moscow Times. It’s not even what they consider summer yet! And let me tell you, this is not a country prepared for a heat wave. It was 90*F all week, but it’s supposed to be like 69*F this weekend. Some guys have been riding the metro bez shirt lately. Ew…

I’ve been taking 4 hours of Russian group lessons at a place here for the past two weeks. Next week I’m going to take some 3-hour private lessons. There are 7 people in my class and they are hilarious. We range in age from Charlotte from France who got to come to Russia for 2 weeks for her 20th birthday, to Amir a businessman from Israel in his 60’s, there’s also Georg a lawyer from Germany who likes to argue about grammar rules, and Annabel from who just moved in January from Texas because her husband does consulting with oil companies. There’s Patrik who is dating a Russian girl and he’s here for a month. I said it was nice of him to learn Russian for her and he said that she has to take German when she comes to see him in Switzerland in July. And then there’s Martin who must be in his late 40’s, speaks 6 languages already and has given himself 5 months in Moscow to learn Russian. My ocheteal is Andrei who used to teach refugee kids from Kazakhstan Russian. He’s a brown belt in karate. To get to class every day I take a free shuttle, usually with all the US Embassy guys, to a metro stop and go about 3 stops to where my classes are held. With all these hours you’d think I might be getting good at Russian or something, but I have basically NO friends to talk to in Russian! I’ve been going up to the guards at the international school and trying to strike up conversations, but eta MockBa, tak they just answer me pa-Englussky.

I should back up a bit and tell you about this alter-universe I’ve found myself in. It’s called Pokrovsky Hills- a neighborhood where children play in the streets until 11pm and ride their little scooter things to the international school every morning, and soccer moms have drivers take them to sight seeing tours in the city, and even high school seniors aren’t allowed to ride the metro. It’s crazy to be honest. And it’s a little sad too, because you get this sense that people here are very fearful of things outside the gates. I really can’t blame people for not diving into something like we did if it wasn’t even their decision to move here, but I think it’s sad that people seem so afraid. I’ve been thinking about it a lot, but I won’t bore you with the details, at least in this letter.

Thoughts on Summer books, and I do plan to read a few: I just finished “The Return of the Prodigal Son;” it was a gift for me before I left for Russia again. I was so excited to get it, because of how highly Harley praised it. I plan on reading Crime and Punishment as well, but in between the two, I’ve begun something a little different. I picked up something from the genre “Chick lit,” and not only chick lit, its Christian chick lit. It’s a novel called “Everything’s Coming Up Josey” about a journalist from Minnesota whose ex-boyfriend marries her sister, so she goes to Russia to teach English and to find herself. So far, it has given a pretty humorous but accurate descriptions of things like the airport, metro, etc.

Again, thank you so much for letting me know what’s going on in your lives! Thank you for the best semester! If you ever feel like calling Russia (via a number in Iowa), I can be reached at (###)###-####.

Love,
Amy