Another One Left on a Jet Plane!

So Navina went home too! She left Moscow yesterday afternoon to fly home to see her family in Arkansas. I wish her a great Christmas vacation, and I look forward to those Resees peanut butter cups when she comes back! Oh, and pumpkin pie mix too :)

She is a Sophomore from Andrews Univ. and has been here since last summer... she plans to live here indefinitely (at least for now). It is always a trip to see her so bubbling over with happiness about life in Russia. She loves this place. It is really awesome, but I think she's too much in love to see anything wrong with this place. I'll stop talking about her now, since she just might read this.

Don't get me wrong, Russia is awesome, and there are great people here. I've enjoyed almost every minute of it myself. I don't think I'd opt for being here more than a year though. I'd hate to live in a small apartment with 10,000 other people per square kilometer. Also, the economy is bad here, and the police and government are notoriously corrupt. I think it's just a case of bad management, myself -- but in a government, the quality of management makes the difference between prosperity and abject poverty and instability. Not saying that my own country is governed by the most competent administration, either. If things get too much worse, maybe living abroad wouldn't be such a bad idea. If I did, though, I think I'd opt for Europe or Australia.

Speaking of Australia, in my classes last Thursday, and last night, we watched 2 parts of a BBC documentary about the continent. I also was chatting with a friend from home about how nice it would be to have a warm, sunny holiday to Australia. What an awesome place, with so much unusual wildlife, mountains, deserts, monoliths, and reefs. Lets not forget about the vegemite too :)

Well, its off to work now. I guess I'll have to bask in the half foot (15cm) of snow that fell last night, and imagine it's white sand. I also decided that I am going downhill skiing for Christmas this Sunday.