Wednesday, June 1, 2005 9:17 pm

Yesterday I was in a bad mood and couldn't write.

We had our first day of class. I had no problem on the bus, and there was no guard to ask for my ID. I am in the 3rd class (out of four, and the 1st being the beginners), with Megan, Bill, and Marshelle. Our teacher's name is Natalia Vladimirovna. She seems firm and fair.

We were in class until nearly 2:00 (having started at 10:00), except for a twenty-minute break about noon. Next week, we start class at 9:00.

We studied vocabulary and grammar, mainly the prepositional case. It was not new or very exciting, but it was a subject on which I could use review.

We ate in the cafeteria for lunch. It looks as though the unpalatable watered-down juice is a permanent fixture. I also had some very good, plain chicken, and something foul that Dasha dtold us was oats. However, I did discover some kind of gingerbread muffin with raisins that was delicious.

Erin, McKenna, Sasha, and I decided to go downtown to the internet cafe and money exchange. However, we got off too early and then began walking in the wrong direction. It was raining a little and very muddy. We were walking in a very old part of the city, with ancient buildings and narrow streets. The sidewalks were unbelievably narrow, as well. It was so crowded that traffic was completely stopped and we had to walk in the stret. I have noticed that Moscow curbs are very high, about 8 inches above the streets.

We eventually realized that we were lost and turned around. By the time we reached Red Square, it was 4:15. We were supposed to meet Megan, Bill, Joe, Tom, and Dasha at 4:00 at the Coffee Bean. We got there before Dasha, anyway--she had taken Joe to do a job interview--and I ordered lemonade and raspberry cheesecake. I paid with my creidt card for my order anD Erin's, and she gave me 69 rubles in cash. The blue ice lemonade was very strong--we loved it. However, it is worth eating at the Coffee Bean just for the Western restrooms--the ones at the school are actually frightening.

Another frightening phenomenon are the large, red bugs we discovered on the subway. The girl sitting at my feet (I was standing, naturally) pointed out one crawling up my leg. Erin found one on Sasha's back.

After Dasha arrived at the Coffee Bean, she gave Sasha directions to a small theater where she was supposed to meet her friends. We had inexplicably run into them earlier while wandering about beneath the city. (Moscow's underground is ominously omnipresent.)

Then, the four of us plus Joe when to exhange money. Sasha is the only one who needed it, and while we sat on a bench waiting for her, I realized that we were sitting in front of the Moscow Art Theater, complete with seagull! No one else knew why I was excited, so I gave a mini-history lesson. I also think we walked by Scriabin's house, although I can't be sure because I'm a slow reader.

We finally made it to the internet cafe, where I found that Mom had learned my PIN, but was reluctant to sent it via email. She requested that I call, which was frustrating, as I didn't have the money to buy a phone card! But... Erin lent me 600 rubles.

McKenna and I rode the metro home together. It was nearly 7:00, and I probably should have taken the yellow line to Novogireevno, but I wanted to stop at the store buy the school to buy a phone card. The metro was still fairly crowded at 6:1% pm, although not quite as bad as the day before at 5:00.

At the store, I had a small conversation with the girl selling cards; between my Russian and her English I bought a $10 card. (That's about 280 rubles, although I paid over 300, and by my calculation, about 8 Euros. The worth of the Euro is dropping fast, thanks to the French vote against the E.U. Constitution. This is the first time in a while that I've been enthusiastically in favor of the French!)

By the time I made it to the bus stop, I was very tired, and the foot with tendonitis hurt a lot. I finally made it home at about 7:45, ate supper, and did my homework.

Then I tried to call Mom. But... no matter what we did, Nina and I could not get it to work! I was very frustrated!sk Dasha tomorrow about it and, I think, scolded me a bit for not buying a card in Pushkinskaya, where the directions are in English.

I read the newpaper for a while, which did nothing to improve my mood. It seems that Putin is a huge baby and a poor loser, and I feel very sorry for Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who, although he is probably guilty of tax evasion, is being targeted as a scapegoat, possibly because he is Jewish, and definitely because he is a political threat to the forces that be.

I managed to stay awake until 10:30, and I slept--more or less--until 8:00.

This morning was normal. It rained a bit. Kelly has observed that Muscovites seem afraid of getting their hair wet, and I think I agree. They also wear very, very pointy elf shoes.

In school today we discussed more or the prepositional case, as well as learning vocabulary to talk about how people look. Dasha shoed me how to use my phone card after she figured it out. It seems that all the numbers must be dialed quickly, with no pauses, as well as interspersed with various asterisks and pound signs. (Why is it called a pound sign?)

Lunch was of course in the cafeteria. There were no choices today, except to eat or not, and I ended up with some kind of edible chicken and rice with unidentified spices, dry rye bread, and the last gingerbread muffin.

Kelly was excited because her suitcase finally arrived. The rest of us commiserated abuot our disillusionment. Apparently, the students on the Arizona program have only two meals a day provided--those in the dorm buy their supper at the store every night, while those in the homestays have been skipping lunch. Erin and I realized that I don't have lunch and she doesn't have any food on the weekends (she lives in the dorm). We also learned that nobody's transportation is provided, for which is clearly against what Carlos told me (and Erin separately). We also discussed our intense longing for pizza and burritos, and the pathos thereof.

Dasha took several people to the Space Museum this afternoon, but I was exhausted and went home instead. I got home about 2:45, did my homework, and called Mom. She was in the hospital with Dad, who is having surgery done on his knee and his back. She remembered my PIN, though--hopefully correctly--so I should be able to pay Nina and Erin back. She is going to call again in the morning to tell me how Dad is doing. Maybe I should call her first.

After talking to Mom, I took a two-hour nap; when I woke up, Nina was home. We ate together--borsht, macaroni with some kind of fish ("flot"), more apple juice, bread, and a sort of sweet salsa. I asked Nina if we had any butter, and she was surprised. She said that she thought that Americans didn't like butter and that I was the first one who had asked for it! She doesn't spread butter; sheslices it like cheese and lays it on top of the bread. It tastes really, really good, better than margarine, I think.

After supper, I spent a couple of hours reading the paper. I like the Moscow Times, although I'm no sure where to get it besides the Coffee Bean. I can't tell whether it is British or American. I think American, but every so often I see something very British. Prostitution must be legal here, because the classifieds are full of girls advertising that they speak Chinese, German, French, English, etc. Some of them call themselves "escorts"; they advertise in a section called "introductions". The personals are disgusting; they are mostly from Western businessmen in their forties who are looking for twenty-something, beautiful, English-speaking wives who are willing to relocate.

I think I will take a shower tonight, so that if Mom calls in the morning, I will have time to talk to her. Yes, I know, my life here consists of eating, sleeping, bathing, and transportation...