welcome back

So I am writing to you from Russia once again. I flew home for Christmas and am already back in the crazy city of Moscow. Being home was great. I left my apartment here in Moscow at 2am. I trudged through the snow and ice for almost a mile with my suitcase to catch my ride to the airport. My mom was very worried about me walking in the middle of the night with my suitcase, but I made it safely. I shared a ride with my friend Jeff whose flight was leaving at 7am. Later, I found this to be a very bad idea. I stayed awake all night to get to the airport at 4am, to be left by Jeff at 5am as he went through security, and then had to wait until 7am for my airline's desk to open, and then wait another 3 hours for my flight to leave at 10am. It was TORTURE. Ugh, I usually like being in airports but I was SO tired and just wanted to be in Minnesota. My exhaustion got the best of me when I was going through security. I had put my things on the xray machine thing. Then I had to go through the body scan (the same body scans that are in the news right now. My personal opinion is that airports should get them. Why not? They are fast, make us safer, and are way better then getting patted down.) But anyway, I was ready to do my body scan and the lady started saying something to me in Russian. I didn't know what she was saying! I was tired and crabby and thought, "Isn't this an international airport, and isn't this the international terminal? why don't you speak English?? Shouldn't these people speak English??!" Which may or may not to true...But that's what I thought. I just looked at her and said, "I - don't - speak - Russian!!" I was holding up the line all because this woman didn't speak English..haha. Ok...all because I couldn't understand Russian. Another passenger ended up telling me what she wanted and I proceeded to get scanned and headed to my gate where I had to wait 3 more hours.
My plan was to stay up all night and then fall asleep right when I got on the plane. My plan was to ultimately "beat" the jet lag. My plan failed miserably. When I got on the plane I decided to stay up until I ate lunch. So I ate but I couldn't fall asleep! Why? I have no idea. I should have been out right away. So I watched some movies and by the time we got to Houston, I had maybe dozed an hour or two. My next flight was delayed, making my next connection in Detriot a really close one. Once I got off the plane in Detriot I stopped at the desk for my next gate number and I heard, "Kristin Boyd, please come to gate A13 within the next 10 minutes for a timely departure." As I ran through the airport for the next 7 minutes, I pretended that I was on Amazing Race and I had to make it to this plane so that I could win the million! I made it just in time. I was all out of breath and red in the face but I made it. At about 11pm I made it to Minnesota. It was a relief and I slept all the way home.
My time home was great. I saw a lot of people and heard no Russia at all. Some highlights were: coffee time with my best friends, coffee time with my mom and sister, going to a hockey game with my brother (and seeing a brawl, you know the fight the everyone goes to the hockey game for, and all the players on the ice were put in the penalty box. 5 players in each box! I've never seen that), taking a crazy family photo, driving through a blizzard to Duluth, playing with Slinkies with Dexter, and celebrating Christmas with family. I was a nice break but it is also nice to be back. I feel like I will always be torn between two places and like I'm scattered throughout the world. So, I said goodbye to family at 7am on Thursday. Once through security, I had to wait a while for the plane to come in from Iowa. Once on the plane, we had to wait in line to be de-iced. That took a long time. But soon, I was on my way to Houston. Security did seem a little tighter since all the Christmas stuff that went on. Houston was really slow. I even got pulled aside and had to stand up against a wall while a dog sniffed my bag for drugs and bombs. Good thing I didn't bring any of mine...just kidding. I found my friend Julie, who happened to be on the same flight as me back to Russia. Then we boarded the plane and were on our way back to Mother Russia. The flight was not my best. I usually don't get sick but I did this time. I didn't have to throw up in front of anyone but I did in the tiny bathroom. It was not a fun flight. Once we got to the airport, we were welcomed by dozens of cameras and press people. I'm not sure who they were waiting for. We didn't stay to find out but I probably wouldn't have known them anyway. Once we found our driver, we got in the car and thought we would be home soon. That's what we thought. But never think in Russia. Your thoughts never turn out like what you thought they were going to be. When we left the airport, I saw that it was 2:37pm. At about 2:40, I started to feel sick again. I was trying to hard not to feel that way. Mind over matter, right? I tried praying about it, I tried thinking about school, I even tried thinking about what I was going to write in my blog. But it didn't help and I had to make the driver pull over. It didn't help that it was snowing really hard. So we pulled over and it was a false alarm. My stomach changed its mind. So we were on our way again. Traffic started to build up and I made sure my door was unlocked just in case I needed to lean out and puke. Just then, a car tries to sneak out in front of us. Our driver tried to stop but we ended up hitting the other car. Great, I thought. Actually it did help because I now had time to throw up and calm my stomach before we started to drive again. The Russian procedure for car accidents is as follows: once you've been hit or hit someone else, turn on the hazard lights and look to see what damage was caused. Do not move the cars, leave them in the middle of the street blocking everyone else so that the police can come and look at the scene of the accident. So then, you wait for the police to come. This can take a long time! Our accident happened around 3pm. The police came around 4:30. The driver filled out papers and then we drove to the police department so the driver could fill out more paperwork. It's so ineffecient. That's why traffic in Moscow is so horrible. People get in accidents and have to block the road for hours. So we left the airport at 2:37 and didn't get home until 7pm! So now, here I sit, back in my soviet apartment. A friend of mine just walked in and told us that he was pick-pocketed. "Welcome back," I can hear Russia quietly saying, "Welcome back."