Trying to get to church, getting a slight blister instead

August 24

This morning I got up intending to go to church. I had seen an advertisement in the English language paper “The Moscow Times” for an English-speaking Anglican church on the metro line, and that seemed like my best bet. My host, however, was surprised that I was up so early and so breakfast was a little later than I had hoped, though it was good. The other days she had given me cucumber with my breakfast, but today it was tomato. As I also had a banana I feel it is fairly easy here to get in five fruits and vegetables each day. We also had a nice chat about church. It turns out that my host normally goes to church as well and that she had been baptized as a child thanks to a grandmother who felt baptism to be more important than soviet law.

After this I was kind of running late, and misreading the metro map meant that I was impossibly late. At first I didn’t realize I had gone to the wrong stop and so walked around, hoping to see the church and slip in the back. After I realized my mistake, I decided that while I was out, I might as well see more of the city. This decision led to my walking around, somewhat aimlessly, for about two and a half hours. It would have been better if I had been wearing walking shoes, but I did enjoy it. Of course, I didn’t really know what I was looking at a lot of the time, but I did see a traditional-looking market, a market that looked as though it catered to immigrants from the south of Russia, a monument to Lenin, some parks, a really big, Soviet-looking building, and the river. I also took a break in the middle to enjoy a Coke at McDonalds. Partly this was so I could see if it was true that McDonalds has wireless. According to a sign inside, it does. There is one right near my apartment that has the same sign, so I think I’m going to go there tonight and try to post this. I may also get something to eat. One of the interns who has spent time in Russia before says that McDonalds has higher quality food here than it does in America. Still, I haven’t had much of an appetite since getting here. I keep eating breakfast and then either drinking milk or eating bread and cheese or a salad or something like that throughout the day at regular-seeming meal times. The milk seems to do well, but it tastes strange, kind of goat-y. I suppose the cows eat something different here.

The difference in milk is just one of the small strange things here in Russia. The coke was also way sweeter. One strange thing is that though not that many people speak English, there are lots of random things written in English. Like the electronic lock to get into the apartment building reads “open” when the fob is pressed to it and it unlocks. Likewise, the toilet seat cover has a warning that it is not a stepstool. This is written first in English, then in German and French, but nowhere is it written in Russian. Another little oddity is scented toilet paper. Maybe we have that in America, too, but I’ve never experienced it before and it took me awhile to figure out why my hands smelled like soap before I’d even washed them.

Tomorrow I’ll begin my training, and then my days will have far more structure and less free time. While I enjoy being able to relax, it feels very odd not having anything to do and not really just wanting to sit around the house of a woman I do not know. I look forward to being able to get to know people during training. While I met people at the getting-to-know-you supper, it was a pretty awkward evening for everyone. I have now met the two girls who are going to Volgograd with me and both seem very nice. We’ve decided to look into splitting the cost of internet when we get there, which would be very much more convenient than carting my computer around in hopes of a signal. Hopefully I will be successful in that endeavor when I go out this evening to get one.