Soaking up Moscow

Today has been such a great day! I came into work so happy, and everything since then has been really good. Marina and I decided to make our ever-fashionable Greek salad, even though it was just the two of us at lunch. We had a really great chat. I will miss her so much! I just found out she is leaving Saturday for Cyprus and Israel with her family, so tomorrow is the last day that I will get to see her. She has a trip in mind for Utah next spring, however, so I am hoping to see her again! She thinks I should just come back here for another internship or to work :) It's been great working with her on translating and other aspects of the Liahona (an LDS magazine that has to be translated and geared to all of the different languages in the Europe East Area), and I am glad that she let me be a part of the process. We sat and talked about books and Russian authors that we both like as we finished up our lunch today. I am just sad that my mom won't get to meet her when she comes.

I also finished the Russia country profile ahead of schedule, thanks to some helpful advice from Andrey, so that project is done! Just in the winding down stages of work, and I can't believe I've been here for almost three months already. The time has really gone so quickly!

The day only promises to get better, as I will be heading over to Tyler and Ryan's to make pumpkin pies with Nastya for Svetlana (their landlady).

Met up with Tyler, Chandler, and McKenzie last night to go to a lecture on US-Russian relations. We were to meet the Stanford people at 6:00 pm at the stop Universitet. We were there 15 minutes early, but somehow never saw them. So we decided to go for a walk around the area. I'm sure the lecture would have been great, but I think I preferred the alternative. We ended up hanging out down by the university, listening to a street band, and then sitting by the river talking. Such a beautiful view!! I love the "sun fades," as I call them, because it isn't quite a sunset, as you never see the sun go beyond the horizon. It is more like the sun is no longer visible, and then the day starts to stretch into night, with hints of pink and red in the sky. The closest to a sunset is when the sun is sinking away, and you catch a glimpse of the retreating firey globe through a grove of trees. I tried to take a picture, but it just doesn't quite do it justice. I do love a good Moscow evening.