3 Days...

It's Monday. I leave for Russia on Friday morning. Friday! I have three and a half days until I need to be packed and on a plane headed to Moscow, and I have had no time at all to mentally prepare myself. I'm used to there being a huge amount of excitement and build up before a trip abroad. In the past my trips to Europe have always happened in the summer when not much else was going on, and I've always had plenty of time to pack and research the places that I'm visiting and just generally get all excited and hyped up. This time, though, I'm very much in School Mode and so instead of my brain going, "RussiaRussiaRussiaRussia" my thought process is more like "Laundry, write midterm, study for other midterm, write response paper, prepare presentation, study Spanish, go to Russia, write response paper, finish work for Dr. AMP, schedule Spanish exam, make book list..." It still doesn't feel real. I can't believe that at this time next week I'll be on a train on my way to St. Petersburg, although I know I will.
When I have a second to actually think about it, though, I am very excited. I got my Russian visa last week, and every time I walk into my home office I pick it up and stare at it because it has my name written in Russian and I can't get over how cool it looks.
I'll be happy when I'm on the plane on Friday morning. Right now, though, the excitement is definitely tempered by all the stuff I have to finish between now and Thursday night. I think I'm just barely going to get everything done. As it is I'm not even going to think about packing until Thursday night, so here's hoping I don't realize I need something at the last minute. I think the excitement is also tempered by the fact that Penn isn't going with me. We both like traveling so much and he's such a good travel partner that it seems unfair that I get to have this experience but I have to do it without him. Now in the time we've been dating he's been abroad once without me and now I'm going without him. I know eventually we'll manage to cross an ocean together, I just wish he was able to come with me this time, too.

I really don't even have time to be writing right now, except I felt obligated to say I was still alive before I disappear to the arctic for ten days. I may try to blog a bit from Russia, although nobody I go to school with knows that I blog and I'd like to try to keep it that way (with the exception of Penn and my parents--who I think know this exists, although I don't think they generally read it--my general rule is that I use this blog to keep in touch with people only when they're no longer a part of my day-to-day life. That's why I started it in the first place, just to update the people I don't get to talk to regularly. I don't really like the idea of people I interact with on a daily basis reading about themselves on here. Not that I say much that I would really mind other people discovering, it just seems weird). So yeah, unless I can temporarily sneak away from everyone else in my group and/or figure out a way to post quickly and secretly, I don't know that I'll write again until I get home. I'm not taking my computer or cell phone to Russia, and I'm actually excited about breaking away from them for a week and a half. But I'll try to find time to talk about the trip when I get back.

In other news, we had houseguests this weekend (one of my friends from college and her husband, who came down to visit another one of our mutual friends from college who also happens to live here now), I managed to see another play, and Penn and I went skiing for the last time this season. We went to the mountain an hour from here with Nicole and her boyfriend. She'd never skied before, and I was impressed with how well she did. The mountain wasn't particularly challenging, but it was fun and because it wasn't all that challenging I got past some of my mental blocks and did some things I'd never done before: a few jumps, a slope with moguls, and Penn tricked me into barreling pretty much straight down one of the slopes without turning so I picked up some crazy speed, but it was fun. Oh, and we did night skiing, which was also new to me but cool. Being on the chairlifts at night was very peaceful. The only downside was that it was about 70 degrees outside (seriously) so the snow was really slushy, but skiing is kind of like sex: even when conditions aren't ideal, it's still really damn fun.

Alright, I need to get back to work so I don't have to be up all night for the next couple of nights. Keep your fingers crossed that I have a safe trip and that Penn and the pets and everyone back here stays safe while I'm gone (also, keep your fingers crossed that there are fun stories to tell when I get home).