Thank you, blog, for getting me out of looking through countless books with Vlad. Writing ‘letters’ seemed to be the only excuse he would take for me leaving all the fun and excitement that was leafing through dinosaur book and family photo albums. So here I am, telling you all about my adventurous life in Vladimir (though I’m sure all of you would rather being reading a dinosaur book instead as well).

Classes are going pretty well so far, I’ve only got one letter of the Cyrillic alphabet left to learn! My one-on-one teacher time runs from 10 to 2:30 with a little break for lunch, so about 16 hours a week plus time outside of class with my tutor. So with all that Russian love, I’m getting pretty darn good at rolling my R’s and my teacher says my tongue is becoming much more adventurous. Some of the sounds, however, I have found that I can only do when using a deep, and slightly handicapped voice. Just trying making the D, T, and L sounds by touching your tongue to you teeth, instead of the top of your mouth. Hopefully you sound as dumb as I do. (Let me know if you don’t, you will be my hero.)
As for the weather, this week a heat wave has hit Vladimir, and temperatures have soared to anywhere from –20 to –10 (and yes, we are getting ready to open the town pool in celebration!). This means that I have been to walk to and from school on most days, which is quiet a treat, seeing how many calories I now consume on a daily basis (I’ve calculated it out to about 7,500). I’ve only fallen down due to the ice once, so I’m pretty proud of myself. The walk to school takes about half an hour, during which I try my best to look ‘Russian’ i.e. looking at the ground, wearing my scarf outside my jacket, and never smiling. Crossing the streets has been something of an ordeal, as pedestrians are certainly not given the right of way (or as a friend told me, Russians do not value life). So I, of course, act as my mother taught me, and look both ways before crossing the street. But when you’re wearing 15 layers of clothing, you can’t exactly pivot your head to look the way I’ve taken for granted all these years. No, in Russia looking both ways is more of a full body pivot, doing it slowly enough so as not to slip on the ice. It takes about 5 seconds to look one-way, and another 10 to double back the other direction. This has resulted in many miscalculations and mid-road sprints. I’ve only been honked at one, another accomplishment I’m quite proud of.
Some of the other Americans and I are renting out a sauna/bana today, so I’ll let you know how that goes. Other plans include a trip to the market to get a good looking Russian fur hat, meeting some Russians on Sunday, and of course, my continued study of the most bizarre and throaty language in the world. Vlad has, in the course of writing this, naturally come into the room and is now playing Ages of Empire where a little voice with a British accent keeps saying, “Ye can’t build that there, sire.” Greeeeat