Sushi? In Moscow?

Hello again!

Well, I officially finished my second week here in Moscow. My classmates and I went out for sushi to celebrate (ok, so we weren’t celebrating my being here, we just wanted sushi…). Was absolutely delicious. I guess it doesn’t hurt that we were at our Japanese friends’ favorite Japanese restaurant… They basically ordered the entire menu. Seriously. Tea, two boat-loads of sushi, three types of tempura, shrimp spring rolls, tempura sushi, more sushi, sashimi, miso soup, sake (the best sake I’ve ever had, not that I have had lots), and, to top it all off, green tea ice cream with sweet rice balls and red soy beans. That may sound weird to you, but it was awesome. (sigh) So tasty. They treated us all as a “cultural exchange.” It was a blast. Oh yeah, and the name of the Japanese restaurant? - Japanese Restaurant. Appropriate, no?

I start individual classes on Monday. Do not quite know the schedule, or how it will work, or where I’m supposed to go…but I’ve come to expect a lack of information. I am looking forward to it, but will miss my current class. I will probably ask if I can sit in on it at least once a week. They were far too advanced for poor, little me, and it was hard to learn, but my listening comprehension has improved rapidly and it’s been a lot of fun. As Jason aptly put it, there gets a point where it stops being a challenge and starts becoming impossible to learn. I wonder if I could do a mixture of both…

That’s it for now. I still don’t have any bananas and I fear to go back to the store. Am doing some sightseeing this weekend and went out with Joe. More on that later.

Oh yeah, that reminds me. Apparently, it’s supposed to get really cold in February. Really cold. As in cars stop working cold. Now, when I came, I thought it was cold. You stick a Florida girl in negative degrees and she’s going to think it’s cold. Being a Florida girl, I have an ingrained hate of clothing (really, jeans and a t-shirt is about all you are going to get out of me) which proved to be stronger than my fear of the cold. I have barely forced myself into a hat and gloves, let alone scarves and layers. That, I presume, is going to change. It’s supposed to get -38 degrees Celsius. I don’t want to even figure out what that will be in Fahrenheit. Blech. Thus, I am going to try to get my sightseeing out of the way when I can. Wish me luck!

Loves to all!