Meeting the Host family

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When I first met my host mother she hugged me and kissed me on the cheek. She wanted to know all about me, my family, and America. She speaks very little English so I had to talk with her completely in Russian. She's such a warm person. Russians are so different when you're in their home as opposed to when they are on the street.

I have a big and antiquated looking room with a huge balcony overlooking what they call a children's garden. It's an area with a lot of trees and a small playground. I was so happy when I saw my room, it is much better than I expected.

Nikolaevna, my host mother, was born in the same appartment in which she lives now. She said that her relatives have lived there since Lenin directed that the appartment complex be built. We talked about American homes vs. Russian homes. She said that the American homes are like paper. Beatiful, but they don't last. The appartment complex in which she lives was built with longevity in mind. All the walls are about a foot thick. It's one of the sturdiest homes I have seen.

She made me a wonderful dinner of cabbage and tomatoe soup, a cucumber tomatoe salad, kasha, and beef. For desert we ate the best watermelon I have ever tasted. Vegetables and fruits taste so much better here. I think it is because they aren't transported as far and don't have chemicals. The tomatoes were also some of the best tomatoes I have ever had. Only tomatoes from my mom's garden can compete.

I haven't met my host mom's daughter yet. She's a lawyer and has to work like 10 hours a day so I don't think I'll be seeing her much. Her husband was around today though and he was nice. He knows a lot of English, so that helped sometimes in the conversaton at dinner. We spoke mostly in Russian though.
The husband's father was also over today. When I first saw him I thought for a second that he was Stephan, a Russian friend from the U.S. He looks exactly like him but 20 years older. From a distance though it would be impossible to tell them appart.

I'm sort of sad though because my former roommate decided to withdraw from the study abroad program. Russia is definitely one of the harder places to study abroad, particularly if you're the type of person who doesn't like plans to change. Things rarely turn out as you expect in Russia. My roommate was having a big problem with panic attacks and was getting really stressed out all the time. It's probably best for her that she's leaving, but I will miss her.

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[Genna]

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I should also note that I love getting comments from all of you. I miss all of you a lot and I love hearing from you. Often though I only have enough time to write a journal entry and review comments. So if I don't respond to a question for a long time don't think I don't care or didn't get it. I just have a very limited time in which I can use the internet.