I'd like to say I've been busy for the last week or so, but the truth is I've just been lazy. I have a few pictures I want to throw on here, but again: lazy. I'll do it some other time.

The weather here has gotten unseasonably warm. Our 9 inches of snow have all but melted, and it's not even slushy on the streets anymore. It feels like late april in Vermont, when there are just a few patches of snow left in the shadows, and the ground is largely dry. Kind of sucks, I'm not going to lie. I was kind of looking forward to getting my ass kicked by the Russian winter. I suppose I still have plenty of time for that though. It is, however, seasonably cold in Siberia still; the last I heard it was -20 degrees Celsius in Irkutsk.

My birthday is this weekend. The realities of turning 21 in Russia have hit me and taken a fair amount of the wind out of my sails, but I shall do my best to overcome. A birthday is a birthday I suppose, though this one is somewhat more landmark than most. Such is life I suppose.

Other realities that have struck me recently include the fact that I won't be home for Christmas for the first time ever, and that I won't see America for a further 6 months. It's not an upsetting thought or anything, but it does give one pause. Still, I consider it a test of my own mental and emotional fortitude, one that I know I will pass, which gives me confidence for the rest of my time here. Or something.

My SLC friends are probably entering, what I would lovingly refer to as, "the shit." I'm not going to lie, I kind of miss pulling the all-nighter, busting out a conference paper, then sitting outside at about 8am drinking tea and smoking cigarettes with shaking hands from sleep deprivation and sore typing hands, watching the good people of Sadie Lou pass on their way to the gym or wherever the hell Sarah Lawrence students could possibly be going at that ungodly hour (Dance rehearsals?). Holy shit, that was a long sentence. Is it run-on? I hope not.

I guess that's it for now. I'll get some pictures up here tomorrow, I hope, and then probably some after my birthday. This is going to be a long weekend. I'm going to кутить a lot, and if you study Russian, look that word up, you will always make Russian people laugh if you use it, it's absurd.

My party will be at the banya, the very same one as last time. I'm making a concerted effort to remember it this time.