Crystal in Russia

Six Days

I've been collecting postcards to give to my host family. I think I'm going to try to put them together with some pictures I've taken to make a collage of America. I've been reading my Russian literature anthology and Crime and Punishment. I've always disagreed when people say this, but Russian people can be depressing. Most of the fiction I've been reading have involved someone dying or their heart getting broken! On the other hand, authors tend to write more about strong emotions than happy little everyday incidents.

We had our Russia party on Sunday. Everyone liked the food, and it was pretty good. We had (here's a test of Russian font) щи, пасха, пирожки, and пончики. That is, cabbage soup (with beef), Easter cheesecake/pudding, little meat pies, and doughnuts. It took about two hours to cook stuff, and since I'm not the family cook, we had some near disasters. A lot of the cabbage didn't make it into the soup. I showed my orientation video which hopefully answered most of their questions. One thing I found out while preparing the video was that 14 people have died from racially motivated attacks in 2006. Now, I knew I would get some extra attention, but I feel like I will have to be extra careful. No clubs, I guess! I'm going to get a video on self-defense at the library.

posted by Crystal @ 6:10 AM