Day 1: I have arrived!

Word of the day: здравствуйте! [zdras-tvooy-tyeh], Hello! (polite and official way to say hello, formally. Literally means "Be healthy")

I have arrived! The trip was mostly nerve wrecking exciting! For a Friday, the Houston airport was very calm, which allowed me to get to the gate with much time to spare. The night before, when I checked in for my flight, I changed my seat because I did not want to have the wing blocking my view at the window. When I boarded the flight, I realized that I actually moved my seat to that exact spot I was trying to avoid. Ironic, yet funny. As the plane took off I looked back at Texas and realized how green it is. There are so many trees! On the flight I watched The Hobbit, Pitch Perfect, and a few episodes of Friends. They fed us dinner and breakfast and before I knew it the long eleven hour flight was over! I got off the flight and proceeded to customs and baggage claim. Once I got my bags, I realized Max and I knew exactly where to meet hadn't made plans at all of where we were going to meet. At this point, I became very nervous and decided the best way to make sure I didn't become a victim of a new movie, Taken 3, was to act very serious and tough. I walked around the airport looking for Max, but did not see him. I headed back to baggage claim hoping he would be there. When I got there, I spotted him right away! At this point, I was still a little tense, but relieved for sure.  As we left, we had to exit through this gate.  When I walked though, the gate closed on me, literally on me, and sirens went off. I almost cried, don't ask me why, I was just tense and freaked out I guess. We got into the car and drove to our new little apartment in Moscow.  On our way there, I took a bunch of pictures and as I was taking everything in, I saw something I soon learned to expect. I saw a lady squat right by the road and begin to go either number 1 or number 2. I didn't look long enough to care which one. Her significant other tried to block her, but failed horribly. Man was that a culture shock to me.  When we arrived at our apartment building, we unloaded the car and took the elevator up to the 7th floor. The first floor smelled like sewage, so I was glad to be far away from it. We opened the door to our new apartment, brought our luggage in, and then I realized just how small it was. Max had talked to the realtor before I arrived and discussed moving to a new apartment because it was not worth what the company was paying for it. So, it will only be our apartment for a week. It is so little that there is even a little portable sized fridge and an "oven" which is actually just a toaster oven. The apartment also smells like smoke, which is basically what Russia smells like. They smoke A LOT here and they start young. The toilet paper in the apartment and everywhere here is like sand paper. No more Charmin ultra softness. We even have the nicer brand. Still no difference. When we got everything all settled in the apartment we went on an adventure. We left our apartment and decided to go grocery shopping. We went to the store, got everything we thought we needed, went to check out, and our card was rejected for some odd reason. The guy behind us surprisingly offered to pay for all of our groceries, but we kindly declined because it was a fairly expensive grocery trip. So, we had to put everything back. Since we were unable to buy groceries, or anything for that matter, we needed to find a place to exchange currency. We searched through the subway and the metro, but found nothing. A Russian guy noticed our predicament and offered to show us where the currency exchange place was for a little bit of money. He showed us and we paid him 50 cents because that was all we had. Once we were able to get rubles, we went into another grocery store. This one was a lot more fancy than the last, but still just as little. We tested out our card with a candy bar and it went through! We could finally get groceries. We stocked up, and I of course grabbed a bag of popcorn because what's a girl to do without her popcorn. It is kind of my comfort food. We left and since we hadn't eaten the whole day, we shared a little sandwich. Notice how I say little so much. EVERYTHING here is little. We walked home with our groceries and up seven flights of stairs. We were definitely out of breath, but by the end of this trip, we will be in great shape. I am hoping...So that was my first day here with Max. I am loving Russia so far. It is such a mysterious place to me. It is so old and dirty, but the houses are colorful and the architecture so different. I can't wait to learn more about Russia and share it with you, but for now, до свидания! 

But before you leave, here are some pictures:

Airplane food and The Hobbit. They ran out of Dr. Pepper :,(

MOSCOW: I have arrived!

Moscow, Russia sign

Our driver told us that this was Santa Claus' summer home! 

McDonald's is EVERYWHERE!

                            

The view from our window. We are right by the Moscow River

Our kitchen

Max gave this to me when I got there. They love their baby face chocolate here. I see it everywhere. 

There are a bunch of these around our apartment building when you are walking down the stairs.  They  LOVE their smokes!

Walking down the stairs of our apartment building.

Their garages. How they park their cars. It is crazy how little space they have to get in there.

Our apartment building

Where the children play.

One of the train stations in Moscow. 

Where Max works on the 22nd floor.

View from our window at night