Tying up loose ends

So, to catch up on yesterday before I start in on todays adventures...

Asya and I bought my metro pass (90 days unlimited!!!), and then went to a mall in the center of Moscow to find a gift for some of those leaving the office soon. We then decided to grab a bite to eat, and ended up with borscht with sour cream (nod to Paul on this one) and delicious blini! (Swedish pancakes)--I got mine with apple and some other fruit, and Asya had hers covered with raspberry syrup/jam. The schwarma yesterday (which they say sharuma here--they don't have the 'w' sound) was great! Very satisfied with my Russian food experiences so far! I hadn't eaten Shwarma since the mission, until I found a place in Los Angeles about a month ago--I have to say, I prefer the Russian version yummm.

Asya and I took the metro part way together, then I was on my own to find my way home. I got off at my stop, and realized I didn't really know where my apartment was from there--I had never gone there from the metro. So I set off in a direction, found a cross street, and pulled out my pocket map (that Irina was so kind to give me my first day here). I went off in the direction that seemed to be the best way to go. Suddenly things started looking familiar, and I found my way back--or almost back. I found a building with my address, went up to the 13th floor, to apartment 115, and thought--hmmm, I swear my door has two locks. But I tried anyway--after all, this was my address. No luck on the locks, though. Tried for a few minutes, then decided I would head back downstairs and onto the street. Then I remembered--there was one little part of my address I hadn't paid attention to--korpus 1 (building 1). I went to the next building and tried there--sure enough, two locks. I made it home!

I wasn't awake for long, still recovering from jet lag. I ended up falling asleep around 9, 9:30. It was great--until I woke up at 4:00 am. I read a few pages from a book, then watched part of Breach, which I didn't know until today was on my iPod. I then realized, this would probably be a good time to write my paper for my Eastern Europe PD class. I got a good piece of it done and will dedicate the rest of tonight and tomorrow morning to writing that (funny how long this blog posting is with that much writing to do...but hey, it's for posterity).

To finish up what all went on yesterday, I should mention what the translation was about. President Uchtdorf is going to be speaking here in Moscow in June!!! I'm really hoping I get to go to that--he is my favorite speaker! So the letter I translated was one to the the government in Moscow, informing them that he would be visiting, as arranged by the Russian ambassador to the US, and inviting them to attend.

I also went over different public affairs powerpoints for the Europe East Area of the Church, and I think Elena and I will go over special projects that I can work on this summer.