До свидания!

Luckily I have made time to write again. I hope people will read! Mainly, because tomorrow is my last full day in Russia, at least this time around. My hands are absolutely frozen from walking a long way in the winter air, so I type slowly, but surely…

I was discussing with our student coordinator about my overall feelings of this experience. She said to me that she hopes I will come back and that lightning never strikes the same person twice, among other things! I feel appreciative of this because, she is right. What have I learned from all of this? As I sit in this Russian version of an American style café, watching the snowfall out the window and the cars pass by, what have I learned? First of all:

1. Life is process. Process, process, process until the end. Even when you die, you have started the decomposition process and it continues all over again. I will always carry this. I am in process…. process… process…

2. Men are stupid; all of them. Just some men are more stupid than others. This is cross-cultural. This concept knows no boundaries and speaks all languages. I continue on my movement towards finding the least stupid of them all!

3. I conquered about 100 fears while in Russia. This includes my fear of skinheads and racism, being a foreigner and having a serious language barrier, not being perfect, not being liked by everyone, getting lost (because I did more than once), the metro, getting my heart broken in more ways than one, etc… thus I can and will continue conquering more. Свобода!

4. I need to read more books.

5. Life is much more than reading books. (Too bad people are so much more difficult than books to read)

6. I need to always save my work or some guy might accidentally unplug my computer from the wall and I could have to write this whole thing all over again. (Process)

7. Sometimes all you need is to get punched, bruised, and the wind knocked out of you at the best concert of your life to relieve physical stress. Music is a beautiful thing.

8. Tears are not an indication of a lack in strength of character. They are just sometimes part of the process.

9. The concept of the “mysterious Russian soul” is really just bull. We all have soul, some more than others. Any Russian who tries to pull the “Russia has so much soul” crap on you as a foreigner, ignore it. It, by in large is used now as a complex. Believe me, one can find “soul” in Gogol and Twain (even though I like Gogol better). One can also find soul in Washington D.C., Berlin, Mexico City, Sidney, the whole state of KENTUCKY, as well as in Moscow. The point is, depth of “cultural soul”  is not somehow especially reserved for Russia.

10.I’ve gained much more than I’ve lost.

11.I am going to keep my head up forever. As long as I live…I also will return to Russia. Who knows when? But for now… До свидания!

P.S. Thanks for all the support from back home. I love you and miss you all.