http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Meagan-King/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Meagan King en-us Wed, 06 Jan 2010 04:53:44 +0000 Wed, 06 Jan 2010 04:53:44 +0000 Hello AllSorry for taking so long to write anything I stopped writing after the car accident. For those of you who do not know I was in an accident with my friends while coming home from a weekend trip in Nizhny Kamsk. One friend was in the hospital for a month and I was in bed with a compressed spine. All is ok though and everyone lived thankfully. Thanks mom for always making me wear http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Volga/Kazan/blog-266743.html I have a brandnew theory about life in Russia. Itrsquos called ldquoDonrsquot Look Down.rdquo Yes it is exactly how it sounds. Irsquove found while living here that this country requires a certain amount of looking the other way even if that means up. As a literal example the streets here are awful full of holes covered in trash puddles and spit and are in a fair amount of http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Tver/blog-216113.html It all started as a fairly normal day. Mike and I had Russian conversation Russian grammar and then lunch. After lunch we went to Tatar class and worked on conditionals. We then proceeded to McDonaldrsquos for some of their awesome eightruble ice cream cones. We happened to see Aygul and Dilyara there and hung out with them for a while before going to the groupsing. There is a teacher http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Tver/blog-216112.html My first day in Russia was intense to say the least. It started with a flight from Germany to Russia on Lufthansa the best airline ever made. After enduring a horribly cramped eight and a half hour flight on United I was delighted to find that Lufthansa knows how to do things right even if you are in coach. The seats are bigger there is more leg room and surprisingly English announcements http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Tver/blog-207247.html Culture Shock it happens. People tell you how to adapt and ways to cope but seriously I still feel like screaming every time people start honking because the car in front of them didnrsquot start to go five seconds before the light turned green. It doesnrsquot help and I want to kick their cars. Plus they all try to hit you. Navigating this city is like a giant liveaction version of F http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Tver/blog-207245.html Hello EveryoneWell I have managed to get all my ducks in a row. I have my passport visa vaccinations a purse that can't be slit with a razor blade thermal underwear lots of scarves and some nice warm sweaters. All that's left is to fly around the globe and make a home on the other side of the planet. Wish me luck I love you allLoveMeagan http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Indiana/Evansville/blog-195519.html Here is the update. On Friday I went to see MOngol about Ginghis Kahn in the theaters with Aygul Ildar Mike and Nathan. It was dubbed in Russian and I understood it well most of it. We went to the late show so it was past 230 in the morning before we got back to their apartment. The buses don't run past 10pm and I didn't want to hitchike home alone that late at night so I stayed t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Centre/Tver/blog-205063.html