So, where did I leave off?

Right, we had dinner with Nana, it was all very nice. So then on Thursday I'm meeting with this girl Anya again. So she meets me at the bus stop and we go into this building and room with a ton of college-aged Russians. I have no idea what's going on, and freak out even more when I realize that we're all going around the room saying our name and talking about ourselves. But, everyone else is not, in fact, talking about themselves, they're hip and cool and talking about other things somehow related to themselves but not actually about themselves, since they all already know each other, and everyone is laughing and smiling and I'm going to be the loser American who talks about studying in the international department. They also talk about why they're interested in this group, Phoenix. Since I, at the time, completely blank out, I did not say that I was interested in working at a children's home. I said I was here because I knew Anya and Alyona. While true, it made it seem as if I had no idea where I was (which was more or less true, but it wasn't supposed to actually SEEM like that). So the meeting goes on for about an hour, then there's a short break, and it's GAME TIME. For like, half an hour we just played games. One of them included running up to a blindfolded person and touching them, then running away and freezing when he said "stop". Then when said person encountered one of the "frozen" people, they had to figure out who it was. This usually involved everyone else running over and putting their hands or hair all over the "frozen" person in order to disguise them. Although I don't really know what that did, because no one has six hands. The last 15 mins we (well, they) sang songs in a circle. Afterwards we all met outside and they had this chant and everyone said goodbye, see you monday.

This was actually amazing. Everyone was SO nice, a lot of them are studying English, and it was just awesome. I went back on Monday and was greeted with a million hugs and "Hi! How was your weekend?!"s. Ivan came with me on Monday, I think he's going to come to meetings with me in general. It was excellent. I've exchanged phone numbers and email addresses and have gulyalled (walked with no particular direction).

Also, when we were in our mainstream on Wednesday, these two girls came up to us and started talking to us. We eventually exchanged phone numbers and said we would meet up to gulyat. Ivan and Eddie sat and made fun of me for a very long time, because I guess I go into hyper friendly mode when Russians approach us trying to become friends. But, joke's on them, because I actually have like 15,000 new Russian friends and they don't, so there. We met up with Tanya again on Thursday, Anya and I SMS (text) each other like every other day, and so on, and so forth. HA. I win.

Also Nikolai came out of the class before our mainstream acting very suave, and started talking to Sonya and me. We talked about nothing for about 5 minutes, exchanged phone numbers ("so, do you have cell phones? Here, give me your numbers, I'll call you. We can talk about Russian history."), and talked about nothing for another 5 minutes. He, being very slick and cool, was skipping our next class. His head hurt or something. I then thought about how he is at least 2, maybe 3 years younger than us, and laugh at the whole situation. He also completely ignored Ivan and Eddie, as he is only interested in the female Americans.

Friday marked our first night where we ACTUALLY did something. We decided we can't just sit around after dark and watch Russian soap operas (or, in Eddie's case, on the internet....which he will do regardless) and we went out to a bar. Eddie and Joseph had already been there the week before. This was incredibly convenient for me, as it was literally 3 minutes from where I live. Anyway, we drank and ate and generally had a good time. It was one of the few times we actually just got to hang out with each other, and just really good for the group dynamic in general. It also came out that I had met up with Zhenia, but only AFTER I found out that Ilana had met up with Sasha. Whoa. Crazy situation. Except my situation isn't quite so sketchy, as Zhenia isn't married with children.

Saturday I broke down and went to the uber-expensive gym near where I live. Although Alex Gym is cheap, it is also a 35 min ride on the marshrutka and has very little aside from a bench press, some free weights, a bike, and the treadmill of death (which I can't actually use it's so awful). Oh, and a lot of sawdust, and no walls. So I went to this upscale gym, where they also have an unlimited monthly pass (I can go anytime I want! Of course, as long as it's between 9 and 5...or not on Sundays....anyway). I can take aerobics and pilates (of course, during these times I'm in class....but whatever, the opportunity is there). Evidently I did EVERYTHING wrong as I got there. I wore my tennis shoes to the gym, which is clearly not okay. They gave me new ones to wear because mine had been outside and were clearly too dirty. I also didn't bring any shampoo with me (because I planned on showering at home); this also merited a number of disapproving looks. How could I go out onto the streets like that? A 10 minute walk! Anyway, I then went to work out, and was greeted by this tall Russian trainer. When I work out, I want to put on my headphones and just tune out. I, in general, am at the gym like 6 days a week. I know what I'm doing. So he asks what I want to do, I point to the elliptical and say "I'm just going to go on the elliptical for awhile" (all in Russian, with the exception of the word "elliptical", which was why the pointed was required.) He then leads me over and explains to me that all I have to do is act like I'm running, and breathe. I realize that he's just being nice and doing his job, but I've seen an elliptical before. Also it makes me uncomfortable when people are watching me work out (which he did, I think, trying to look for flaws in my form so he could offer advice). The whole experience was pretty painful.

But when I returned on monday everything was better. I DIDN'T wear my tennis shoes there, I brought my shampoo, there was a female trainer who simply ignored me after she asked whether or not I knew how to use the machines (yes!). Excellent.

Monday night's meeting with SPO Phoenix was also excellent. I'm sure they're all wondering what I'm doing there (since I'm only going to be here for a couple months) but they're all very enthusiastic, which is nice. I also correctly learned how to conjugate the verb "to crawl" in the imperfective as well as the word for "tail", since we played a game about a snake. Excellent.

Also I know I've talked about the ice cream kiosks before, but is it really necessary to have an ice cream kiosk next to an ice cream kiosk? I mean, seriously? I also saw an ice cream kiosk 3 kiosks over from another one, which makes a LITTLE bit more sense, but not much. I don't think the 2 kiosk distance does much. Sonya said something about some law where similar businesses need to be near each other, which I guess would explain the warehouse of shoe stores nearby, but seriously? What IS this?