Where in the World is Cat?

Hello everyone! So sorry for the long absence from my blog. This semester picked up very quickly, unexpectedly actually, and well, it caught me a little offguard. That, and there were a lot of changes in the last few weeks.

First, I moved rooms in the dorm. At first, this doesn't sound like such a big deal - all rooms are practically idenitical in a dorm, right? Oh, but you've forgotten this is Russia! I was enticed to the first floor by the housing administration. They're remodeling the dorm rooms on the 12th floor (below my old room on the 13th) and wanted to move students from the 12th to the 13th to keep things easy. They convinced me to move by offering me a large room away from the noise on the 12th on the first floor (no elevator wait), and threw in a fridge, tv with cable - plus the first floor gets a cleaning service once a week. The room is bigger, and I did get all of those, however, I can't help but feel a little gipped. Unfortunately, no one has taught Russia's best how to properly dispose of their trash yet. There is a large dumpster located about 20 feet from my window (which, by the way - has a view that doesn't hold a candle to the view I had on the 13th). Well, the students located on the 12 floors above me seem to have made a hobby out of trying to get their garbage into this dumpster by aiming from their bedroom windows. Needless to stay, my new roommate Christine and I get an intermittent rain of garbage constantly...gets real fun on weekends when beer bottles start flying out of the window. They must have learned it from the construction workers on the 12th floor, who instead of constructing a garbage chute to clear out old materials from the reconstruction, simply do the same...huge bucketsful at a time. Oh, how I love a civilized country.

Oh a better note, the weather has gotten considerably better here in Moscow. We had a sunny 50 degree day yesterday, and are looking at much of the same for the remainder of the week. Classmates and teachers seem to be just amazed when I tell them that New York got over 2 feet of snow just a week ago. It's as if they themselves believed the myth that Russia gets the most snow in the winter.

Let's see, what else is new? Oh yes, school! That's important. I have a staggering 13 classes this semester, and a few short seminars (20 hours squeezed into a week and a half). It's really crazy and eats up my entire day, whereas last semester I was finished with most of my classes by 3-4pm and had time to explore in the city most days of the week. (Though, with schoolwork, I was lucky to do this once a week.) This semester is a different story, and I'm trying to find time just to wash my clothes!

I've got lots more I want to update you all on, but will do that soon. Things with the presidential election are heating up, and I'm (fingers crossed) hoping to get some travel in before the end of the semester. I will have photos of Moscow in the spring soon, but until then...I'm leaving you with some photos of friends and I at a recent dinner party. (Very informal.) A former student of mine and friend just succeeded in moving out of the dorm and is renting an apartment nearby. To celebrate, she made a typical Korean dinner.