moscow...the final weeks

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And now, the end is near;
And so I face the final curtain.
My friend, Ill say it clear,
Ill state my case, of which Im certain.

Ive lived a life thats full.
Ive traveled each and evry highway;
And more, much more than this,
I did it my way.

Regrets, Ive had a few;
But then again, too few to mention.
I did what I had to do
And saw it through without exemption.

I planned each charted course;
Each careful step along the byway,
But more, much more than this,
I did it my way.

Yes, there were times, Im sure you knew
When I bit off more than I could chew.
But through it all, when there was doubt,
I ate it up and spit it out.
I faced it all and I stood tall;
And did it my way.

Ive loved, Ive laughed and cried.
Ive had my fill; my share of losing.
And now, as tears subside,
I find it all so amusing.

To think I did all that;
And may I say - not in a shy way,
No, oh no not me,
I did it my way.

For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself, then he has naught.
To say the things he truly feels;
And not the words of one who kneels.
The record shows I took the blows -
And did it my way!



ok so maybe sinatra is a little dramatic when it comes to summing up my study abroad experience. but u know what, i did it my way lol. and so my journey through the motherland is coming to an end 😞 i cant believe it. i will never forget my first hours in moscow, ever. we were on the bus and there was the kremlin and st. basils lit up in the night sky. when i say lit up, i dont mean on fire, i mean lights were shinign on it. (jsut in case u think it was on fire, because it wasn't). that memory will stay withe me forever. the time really has flown by. has it really been 4 months? im going to be sad to leave. i know i complain about russia-the smell of urine, drunk people, pick pocketers, no heat, no hot water., but i really do love moscow. maybe its because russia is still my "motherland" but i do feel a connection with the place that i dont think the other american kids have. i dunno. this could all be in my head.
ok so enough with the cheesiness, back to life in moscow and the final weeks that lay ahead. but first ill write about this past week. school has been alright. by 4 o'clock its already dark so when im still in class i just want to sleep and go home. it can kind of be depressing. the nice thing is that its colder and im hoping it will snow this week. tahts what my hozaika heard. but who knows. today it was 10c, which is pretty warm, but it was raining, but hten the sun came out. aaaaaah, this is global warming in action! i just want it to snow. i have all this winter gear that i bought, and needs to be used to the max because it never snows in irvine. but in all honesty, the boots have come in handy and they keep my little toes nice toasty (thanks Mama 😊) "finals" are coming up in the next 2 weeks, whatever that means, lol. our literature teacher, bless his soul, told us that because we had already turned in several written assignments, it was equivalent to a final, so we wont have one. yay lit teacher! hoepfully no one from teh eap administration reads this and changes the program next year. but the thing is, maybe i dont have a lot of hw or tests while im on this program but i have learned so much, its unbelievable. ive learned the language, culture, history etc. russia isnt what i was expecting. it was much better to tell u the truth. so maybe its good that i didnt expect much because i was genuinely surprised.
ok so back to this weekend. on friday. i went to the mayakovskiy museum. he was a soviet writer etc. i dont know too much about him or his work but the museum was cool. the lay out was interesting too. we latched on to an ongoign tour but then left because hte man was just talking TOO much. so i must confess, i did buy some soviet propaganda postcards. they are just interesting and some are funny, i had to. i usually one who does not support anything soviet, but ive learned here that as a russian i have to embrace or at least accept all parts of my "motherland's" history. so that was that. afterwards, we went to the "museum of contemporary russian history" formerly known as the "museum of the revolution". rooms were dedicated to parts of russian history. it was actually interesting. but it was kind of long. everytime we thought we were done wiht the museum the docent would take us into another room. we were int eh ww2 room and i new we had at least 6 to go! (cuz its been roughly 60 years since ww2..., get it, 1-2 rooms/decade) ok anywyas, at the end of the day it was a cool museum and i learned some interesting information. i cant remember anythign off the top of my head though haha. but when i do, i will make sure to tell u all about it 😊
after the museum, we went to my friends house and attempted to make cookies. seeing as how we "winged' it, i would like to say that they turned out much better than expected. see marina, i can cook-and i did. "anyone can cook!"-o shoot, i forgot the characters name, o wait i remember, chef gusteu (sp?)take that haha

ok so saturday i decided to finally buy some souvenirs for everyone. well apparantly the place i went to is where everyone goes. its like the chinatown of moscow. so many tourists were all there. i was surprised to hear so much "american" english. well i thought everything woul dbe cheap. i was wrong. it was expensive, but i was able to bargain a little and get some stuff. the thing is that a lot the stuff being sold is hand made, so i can see y they charge a lot. and i mean afterall, there is a financial crisis and i think theres is a lot worse than ours. my hozaika hasnt been paid since october. the amazing thing is that ppl still go to work and life goes on. they know that they will get paid, eventually. she said that someone from her work went ot the bank to et money, but it was closed....sounds like the depression to me. but ppl in russia need to be rpotected from this info or else there would be a madhouse. my lit teacher,hes a genius, told us that when the US stockmarket dropped, it dropped 15%, russias fell around 60% i think, i dont know. the point is russias fell a lot more than ours. but on the news, all they talked about was how americas econ was bad. they didnt even mention their own woes. i guess thats to prevent those riots etc. and i guess thats y the news is government run...o, russia, how i will miss u.
so i bought some gifts, which u fine folks have to wait just a little longer to get 😊 and i also bought a pirated movie. it was like $3usd. i watched it yesterday with my hozaika. it was really good. i think the ppl that i plan on showing it too, will like it.
today i didnt do much, in fact i havent left the house. it was raining all day. and then there was a rainbow. in fact the highlight of my day was showering. now showerins is somethign russians should do more often. i often find myself on the brink of death while on the metro because some ppl smell so bad. for the love man kind, can they pleeeease take a shower? it will benefit the human race. however, i dotn see that happening anytime soon. its just not in the cards for russians to shower often. its a cultural thing. and this is a prime example of my love/hate relationship with moscow. i love it because nowhere else would this be interesting and entertainging and cultural. and i hate it because it just smells bad. but at the end of the day, i know when im back in america, at home, clean from just showerign, iw ill miss the smell of the moscow metro. as i will miss moscow! 😞 i havent left yet and im already missing it. and im gonna miss my hozaika. i love her. on that note, i bid u all farewell, tootles. i miss u all and will see u soon.
this weekend we are going to vladamir and the golden ring. should be fun miss u all xoxo



shot shot

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