October 17 – Day 30

“Only in Russia!” This is the feeling that I live with day in and day out here. It is the feeling that unites the American students and causes an endless fluctuation between hilarity and exasperation. Today started off as just another day in Moscow; going to class, preparing scenes, straining to accomplish as much as possible in the few minutes of down-time we have. We had just wrapped up our acting class and were scrambling to make it to an evening meeting before breaking up to see various plays, but before we could all exit the building, several random Russian students came chasing after us yelling that we needed to hurry back to the American Studio. We filed in thinking that we were about to get another warning about our safety with the evening’s much anticipated Russia vs. England soccer game. Marianna finally busted in the room and screamed at us all to be quite – which does not happen, ever. We quickly understood her panic. There had been a mix-up with our train tickets and the train that was supposed take us to St. Petersburg on Thursday night was actually set to leave tonight - in three hours. Okay, things like this happen. Sometimes mix-ups are unavoidable but in Russia it is kind of a way of life. Maybe it is not knowing the language, maybe it is having every moment of the day planned out in detail but whatever the reason, I spend ninety percent of my time having no idea what is going on. So tonight I booked it home on the subway and joked with Kolia about the importance of letting go. If Moscow has given me anything in the month I have been here, it is the freedom that comes with knowing that most things in life are beyond my control, so why fret. Live like Russians - grab a bag, grab your passport and just go.