Rossiya

This summer I have had almsot no time to be on teh Internet. Oh well. Now, I have full days to be online, adn I will use those days to my liking. Yesh. Yesh I will.



So. I have been here, in the Moscow area, since June 14th. It was rainy, adn cold, and humid, adn I LOVED it. Now, the hot weather front has come, and its dry. Arizona dry. So it doesnt mater whether I'm at home or at my relatives, its hot everywhere. Joy. The grass in front of my building is all cracked adn yellow, similar to our cry, crackly, horrible Arizona grass. Its so hot that even the little creek that ran by my grands' dacha (forest vacation-home thing. similar to cabin in flagstaff)! So now, even out of the city its deathly.



So tahts wh I sit inside. Earlier this summer, my grandma got furious seing how freaking PALE I was. I like being pale. I dont want to ahve a tan, I like myself the way I am. And also, I dont play sports, so I have no excuse for being outside back home. So basically, I'm shut inside all teh time, adn to be honst, it suits me. I like being inside. And my grandma doesnt enjoy that. In the beginning of summer, we had so many fights ; clothes, tans, shopping, videogames, books. She obviosly forgot who I was over those 2 years we didnt see eachn other, or maybe I just changed so much.



When I lat saw her, I came out of my horrible 5th grade year, drained adn hopeless, but determinded to refill my awesomeinator adn dominate 6th grade. or at least get some god friends. And Grandma helped me then. She brought me back onto my feet, and pushed me so that I can soar. Now, its been two years. In those two years, Ive changed schools, changed voiews, changed friends, changed interests. Instead of that downridden preteen, I am now a confident teenager, determinded to make war (which I did. it was awesome. But later. >:D). You guys knolw Ive ahd a tough year. I got used to ahving friends all around me, adn now, in class, I was in the minority. I had the hyenas and my out-of-class-friends next to me, and their friendship carried me through. Thanks guys. So maybe I was a little down, but in all, I was faring much better than in teh summer of 6th. And I wanted to take Russia by teh horns. Too bad that didnt wrk out.



I came to Russia with an enflamed and somewhat-secret Harry Potter obsession (no, you guys really dont know how much stuff is hidden from everyone at home adn how open I am at school), a huge ego, and a stubbornness to do things MY way. Because that is how things will be. Thats the reason for my many fights with Grandma. I refused to do things the Russian way: I refused to eat at times (because I'm used to hunger: you guys know that I forgot my lunch most of the time at school), I wore what I wanted (no, Grandma, I will NOT wear that dress!!), and stuff like that. I'm used to being low-budget: I would not have my relatives buy stuff for me. So that started a little war. I just couldnt eat a lot, I cant stand wearing uncomfortable (for me) clothes, I cant look at people buying stuff for me. Its not what Im used to.



On top of that, not only have these fights been scattering in my brain, but also, Ive noticed things that have been in the background in my previous visits. Now, I can barely fit my head under the swing when I swing standing at the dacha. Has it been that long already? Everyone on the streets wears the same frown, same serious expression. Is it that bad here? Every second person smokes a cigarette, holds a beer bottle, or looks as if they'll break down any second. Do you know theres something else to live for? Those sunny individuals, those white ravens, pop out like stains on sheets. They look so alone, but everytime I see one of those rare smiles, I too smile. Those smiling people make my day. So far I have only seen one. People dont talk on the phone rapidly, laughing or gninning. They just walk to their next destination, focused, their brows wrinkled from worry. Its almost as if their personal troubles have to be forced onto someone else. Maybe thats just me. I'm used to something called 'customer service', where to get a higher rating you need a positive attitude. Im used to people pushing away their personal troubles to do their work well and cheery. Those ladies who sell vegetables at the market want to kill me with their hopeless stare. 'Why is that girl smiling so much?' My heartful 'thank you' slipped by their ears. I know for sure, that when my brother and I go to teh Yogurt Bar during teh weekend, we always smile and say hello to the cashier and she smiles and says hello back. Maybe she even waves. And when we leave, she says 'goodbye! have a nice day!' and my brother waves back, 'you too!' and both of us look as if we mean it. we want each other to have a good day. I am propelling her business; i want her employers to prosper, and she wants me to enjoy my frozen yogurt and come for more. Here, I smile, say hello, ask for what I want, pay, and expect at least a glance in return, but my thank you and gratefulness is forgotten. The cashier doesnt even look at her buyer. Talk about sad.



And there is a constant case of child corruption. I have met this great person. Shes fifteen, volenteers at a hospital, gets good grades... But she smokes. Shes a really awesome person. But she smokes. At fifteen. Her parents dont know, and she expects me to give in to her secret. Ive met the daughter of my moms cousin, Katya (Kate, translated). Now, this girl is gone. Shes way beyond the barrier and theres nohope of bringing her back, into teh world of logic and reasoning. Why do you wear so much makeup? The human being is already beatiful, already perfect. Do you really need that sweater? Or those flip flops? Or those jeans? In addition to that, she cusses like a maniac, poses like a model on Victoria's Secret posters (which isnt a compliment for those who are wondering) and dreams about a 'prince on a white horse'. She should meet Link sometime adn fall abck onto Earth. her brother, Andrei (Andrew, translated), is a great kid. We had this huge talk with him, his mom, my moma dn me, which was 4 fours long. We wanted to go to sleep, Katya fell asleep on teh couch-bed, Ludya (the mom) adn my mom (on an inflatable bed on the floor) started talking, adn since neither Andrei nor I could sleep, we joined into teh conversation. We talked about intelectuals, corrupted youth, worms that live in your eyes, the awesomeness of internet, those awesome things that awesome peopel talk about. So that night I made good friends with Andrei. Hes an really good kid. Except when hes with his sister. He becomes catty, rude, unpleasant, and then, they (Katya adn Andrei) ask me why I wont talk to them and hide behind "Battle of the Labyrinth" (which, at that time, I didnt finish and was desperate to get to the end, because now, I too ahve a soft spot for Percy and his friends in my heart). But that night, we talked for 4 hours. Until 4 in teh morning. It was AWESOME. At the end, the moms were going crazy, acting like me during an obsession-fit. Falling over, laughing, not making intelligent sounds, and the like. They were drinking WATER. I went over to Andrei adn whispered, "Imagine what theyll be like on alchahol!!"



*rereads her words adn laughs * I love you guys. I love each and every one of you. You, my dearest Basis-friends, have shaped me to become this person. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you thank you thank you thank you (ow my hand....) Yes I typed that all up by hand. Becuase I'm just awesome like that.



And onto otehr news: My awesomeinator is getting filled up. I got bitten by a dog, learned how to bake bread, and hummed "Buckbeak's Flight" while on my bike, cruising in circles around the village where my grands' dacha is. I love that song :) Now, onto happier news, or just news ("It changes every day, you see?" XD Sorry guys, I spent half the day today on Mugglenet. XD)



Erm, I went to summer boarding camp. Its kinda like summer camp but in boarding school. And I had so mcuh fun!! I learned how to weave friendship bracelets, found out weird facts about myself that I didnt know (thanks, psychologist!!), and got a virus. And a big one. I lay in bed for a couple days after the first week (I was in camp for 2 weeks) and it got ahrd for me to swallow. I got this infection in my throat, at one point, swallowing became so painful I was crying. I had my grandparents pick me up (their dacha isnt far away from the camp) and they called... er... how is it in english? When the person is so sick, they need emergency care...? Well, I lay in bed, with a huge temperature, crying, my throat was like needles were being pressed into it. I could barely sleep that night. I got better, slopped crying (my grandma was fighting to put my hair up in pigtails, so that my hair wouldnt mess wiht my breathing and i didnt like that because i wear loose ponytails. but i was too weak to argue, i just gave in.) afterwards sleeping was a pain because the pigtails were high adn i sleep on my side. so much for breathing. I got so many weird dreams that night. I dont even remmber them, but I remmber screaming out adn thrashing in bed so much that it woke up Grandpa. The next day, I read HP5 in Russian for nearly the whole day, as there was nothing else I could do. To my relief, I finished it nearly a week ago adn started HP2 (which is just plain hilarious, by the way.) Did you know that there is no translation in Russian for "chamber" so they used "room"? So basically, teh title is "HP and the Secret Room." My God. What a fail. I only have a couple pages to go before I finish it. Afterwards, I have no idea what I'll read. But my Russian vocabulary ahs picked up so well that English is becoming somewhat tough!!!



More: There is no known translation for "epic" or "fail" or "epic fail". When people ask me what it means, I say "no translation is nessessary for these epically failing words." Loooove me.



Oh yeah! I want to show you guys what a Gryff I am:: at camp, every day has a theme, and one of the days was "Halloween Day." Later, I corrected the camp managers, saying that there is no Halloween Day, there is just Halloween. As usual, none of them listened to me. oh well. But there was a Tropa Straha (translated: Path of Fright, But I like to call it teh Haunted walk. Because Haunted Walk just sounds better.) And so, my town (in teh camp, there is the camp, which is seperated into buildings, which is seperated by towns. My town was called "Tonicity." and it was 10 people + our leader, Lady Slavija) headed out to the small lake-thing by teh forest. In he dead of night. In teh cold. I had an excuse to wear my jeans (with teh blue pineapple belt!!) my keds, a long-sleeved shirt (it felt good to be wearing one) and my Hogwarts Jacket (which is just a black hoodie that has two oversized buttons and sleeves that end at my elbows. i want it to ahve a Gryff badge!!) And so, the 6 normal girls in our town (there are seven but shes a tomboy so she just ahngs with teh three guys) were told to go into teh walk first, into teh forest, lit by candles. No one wanted to go first, adn since no one wanted to, I just went first. I was chilled to teh bone and dreading whatll come, but I'm glad I went first. The person behind me went so slow, I felt like I was dragging her through the walk. Literally dragging. Anyways, the camp managers dressed up into weird costumes, lept out of bushes and literally tried to drag you into teh bushes. And if you went off the path of the candles, you got ------

\i ahve to run and go meet my Grandma at the metro station.I will continue this post later. For now, keep on rereading this. Turns out that my life is worth reading. :) Tchao/.