Goodbye foggy New York, Hello Smoggy Moscow, How I Love Thee...

Oh. My. Goodness. The end. Sorry in advance if this isn't coherent.

First things first, it was SO hard to say goodbye to my Mommy and Jared. I cried. And cute little Kaelin sitting there waving only added to the tears.  Once I made it through security at MSP it was a very short wait until boarding.  The flight was uneventful, I sat across from an engineer on his way to Ghana.  He was super nice and very helpful.  Unfortunately we both realized that we were catching connecting flights at JFK but had failed to inform the Delta ticket desk at MSP of this... therefore we had to exit AND pick up our baggage AND re-check it.  You should have seen me.  I suppose I was quite a sight, carrying two fifty pound suitcases, one of which was large enough for me to fit, a backpack, purse, jacket, and pillow through JFK International Airport... through two terminals. UGH.  When I finally made it to my terminal it was 2:30 and I was informed that the Aeroflot ticket counter would not open until 4:30... so I had my luggage for another two hours.  It ended up only being a half hour (there is a God) and this man (who ended up being from my airline) helped me carry my luggage back to the ticket counter (thank goodness).  I made it to the gate and sat... and sat... and sat some more. BUT... at least I was in the gate and free of my suitcases.  I had borak (or however you spell it) for lunch, a Turkish croussaint type dough with beef and cheese in side.. mmmmm.  When I went to get on the plane, I handed the lady my passport and she looked at another attendant and asked if "he" was suppose to look at this.  The next thing I knew she was handing it to a guy coming up behind me and I turned and say it was the man who had helped me with my luggage earlier.  He told me he had just walked the length of the line looking for me because he was going to let me board early.  It made me feel not so alone.  I also met a man from India, who now lives in Manhattan.  We talked for awhile in the terminal and than sat next to eachother on the half - full Airbus.  His name is Deepak (cool, huh?) and he was on his way to New Dehli.  Because the plane was only half full, I was able to take a whole middle row of four seats to myself, although I still didn't sleep VERY well.  The recycled air in economy really gets to you after approx. 34 minutes, let alone 8 hours (yay tailwind).  The landing, customs, and the road trip back to the Embassy compound were very uneventful...

My work sponsor, Amy, is from Green Bay and super, super amazing.  She's really nice and supportive and even took me grocery shopping.  Most of my initial orientation stuff will start tomorrow.  So far today I have only had time to move in.  When my roommate, Olivia, got off work around 6 pm, we headed out to New Arbat, the modern version of Old Arbat (yes it's true), the famous historical Moscow main street.  We walked FOREVER looking for a bank to hit an ATM for Rubles and then turned back to a restaurant we had picked out.  Come to find out there were about five banks on the other side of the street, but New Arbat is IMPOSSIBLE to cross above ground so we had to wait for an underground crossing anyway.  We ended up eating at an Uzbeki restaraunt and the food was wonderful.  I was forced to use Russian for the first time, although I kind of let Olivia lead the way since she's a little more used to it.  We had these chicken skewers with seasoned onions and a tortilla/blini like dough, this chicken appetizer that was a lot like a pot pie only different seasonings, and a rice dish with some type of beef... I think lol. 

Now I'm here... falling asleep... so I will bid you farewell until tomorrow!

Спокойной ночь!  Good night!