The Post You've been waiting for

This year I got the best birthday present I could've ever asked for, well actually three unforgettable presents.

1) I know understand the meaning of the term culture shock.  It's not every day you get the chance to wake up in a country almost completely opposite of your own. It also isn't every day when you place your order at McDonald's, you need to use the picture menu.

 

Story time, and this leads into my second birthday present. This morning I was supposed to meet with a Language Link rep at 10:15am. I left the apartment a little before 9:00 to make sure I had plenty of time to get where I was going. Well I got on the metro, a little tentatively I may add. Without a cell phone I was traveling into the depths of the Moscow Underground (More on my bricked iPhone later). So I started at the end of the purple line, and had to transfer to the gray line, then get off a Novoslobodskya Station. Well low and behold, I missed me transfer stations a couple times. I finally got to  Novoslobodskya, which is beautiful I might add...here's some pictures 

This looked really cool

 There were ten of these, all different

Well I got to the station, and the company rep was gone. So at this point, I was beyond stressed and I just decided to go home. On the trip home I finally started to get the hang of the metro. It's neat to see all of the different people that come onto the metro and how differently they all dress. In America, we all dress somewhat similarly, but in Russia, it's as if everyone went to Marden's at came back with something different. I'll have to take a picture next time I'm on the metro so you can understand. The ride home was uneventful, but I was still totally fried, and starving...then in the distance, my salvation:

So yeah, I had to order off the picture menu, because apparently a Quarter Pounder with Cheese has another name here. Yeah, I was that homesick the only thing that could help me was the golden arches. So I finished my walk home to my building. Well I got home and my host Nataliya told me Language Link called wanting to know where I had been. So I called the company and had to turn right back around to get to my meeting. This time around, it went much more smoothly....Sort of. I got to the right station, but I couldn't find anyone that looked like they were waiting for me. I must've spent a half hour looking, and finally I decided to call the company on the pay phone. Well, turns out the pay phones only take calling cards, good news was; there was a kiosk right out front the sold them...however the girl didn't speak a lick of English. So I spent about 15 minutes asking people if they spoke English and could help be buy a phone card. So I bought my phone card and called the school, the company rep had been downstairs waiting for me. So the rest of that trip was totally uneventful, and I made it home in one piece with a new found understanding of why Russians looks so downtrodden on the metro.  

At this point I forgot what the 3rd birthday present was, it might be my iPhone not getting any service because it needs to get unlocked again, but it won't restore. So I have to wait until tomorrow to get a working phone. Tomorrow I'm going sight-seeing, so that should be awesome. 

Here's some more pictures I took today:

Sunrise from my room

 Novoslobodskya

 The escalator up from Novoslobodskya, it's probably 300 feet 

 A cool picture of the lights going down the escalator at Novoslobodskya

 

Here's a Start

Well I created the blog back in April, and now less than a week before I leave I can make my first real post.

6 months ago when I signed a piece of paper, that I electronically sent to Language Link in Moscow, it never dawned on me that I was just mere months away from moving to the other side of the world. Well...now we're less then a week away, and I've finally had my 'Oh Shit!" moment. Until today, when I had my last shift at work I understood...I'm leaving everything I know and love to literally move to the other side of the world in less than a week. You know what else I didn't realize? How expensive it is to do such a thing. First you need a plane ticket, that was $632, then the Visa...another $270, on top of that I'm paying for my first month of housing out of pocket...so another $600. So there we have $1502 for an initial investment, and I'm not even counting living expenses, or the junk I need to buy before I leave. Happily, I'm getting reimbursed for all but the $600 of housing at the end of my contract, however this is still a nice chunk of change out of pocket. Adding all of that up just led to a second "Oh Shit!" moment, that it really is expensive to move to the other side of the world.

Well with that said, I still need to pack. Now may I ask, how to do you pack to move to Russia? I certainly haven't figured it out yet. Honestly I probably won't until Tuesday night, after all, that's how I packed for all four years of college. The only difference is that I can't drive down to Bangor to meet my parents and pick up whatever it is I forgot.  Every one says, "Pack warm, you're going to need it!" The only issue with that, is when I land in Moscow it's going to be 75, and this week Moscow was in the 90's. So shorts or a parka? I think I'm going to be packing mostly Summer/Fall clothes, I can always buy new Winter clothes (or have them sent to me). Oh and I need to bring some peanut butter, they don't have peanut butter in Russia. When you think of Russia, can't you just imagine some old Babushka cutting the crusts of a PB&J for her grandson? Well apparently not.

I think that's enough to write for today. Don't forget to come to my party on Saturday 3:30-whenever.


-Kyle