Russian Red - Hair, and sore feet

Russian red - the hair color

There is a hair color here I just have to call Russian red. I don't think it is completely virulent, but it is slightly noxious. I don't find it entirely offensive, just obnoxiously electrically amazingly red. Kinda like Kool-Aid, it just ain't a natural color folks. Amazingly to me, it is quite popular. I find it humorous - otherwise Russian women show reasonably good taste. The best way to describe this color is to say that it would look good somebody styling punk, or a goth type. However, the ladies who use it here seem to think it is natural in appearance. A-maazin'.

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Sore feet

I've got to put one other minutiae in here - my feet. They are killin' me. My feet and calves are just not tuffening up to the demands of walking everywhere. Maybe it will take a year or so, but for the short term, they are in pretty regular discomfort. Enough so that I am being careful how I exert myself. It really kinda burns me, coz like the most I've walked is 6k.This is not that far folks! What is that, 4 miles? Dang, that is nuthing!!!!!!! Pitiful. That's what, just p-i-t-i-f-u-l.

Playing Runescape - A "normal" activity

Aleluja. A nice evening spent doing more or less normal activities. Judging from tonite, I have to say that has been a major part of my blues. I hate not having time to enjoy myself, and not being able to do things I can lose myself in. That usually means a good game of some sort, cards work. Poker is better. Computer games do the trick for a while too. I played Runescape for a few hours tonight, and found some new stuff to entertain me on the map. AND, nobody was at work to make me feel like I was at work. Everybody else went home, so I had the place to myself. Damn good, thank you very much. Y'all just go away now and leave me alone! Heha!

Graeme and Aaron were both on rs too. Good times. Graeme gave me a bunch of red and black dragon armor for my birthday, better than any real life present! And meanieweanie (Aaron) gave me a bunch of runes and some dragon hides. Woohoo!

It really was nice being able to do something "normal" for me. I have been getting more and more stressed over being in a city, in a strange city, not speaking the language, and having little or no opportunity to get the hell out of town. O, I could get out of town, but everywhere I go I am a non-native, non-speaker.

Homesick

Ah well. It had to happen sooner or later. I have just got the blues from traveling, dealing with traveling problems, missing all the conveniences of home, etc etc.

Moscow is a lot of fun, and nothing like what I expected, but I am still a long way from home in a place where I don't speak the language. So, problems are bigger, movement is restricted, and nights are lonelier. Moscow is also still a big city, and I will have to move again - out to "the site" in the next couple of weeks. I'm tired of traffic noise all night, and not having my "stuff" set up the way I like it. Not to mention the heat and humidity. Of course, I have seen much much worse, but 80' and humid is enough to make things less enjoyable, and that's a fact. In my opinion. Ha ha.

I went to visit the campus of Moscow State U, and nearby - the site of the Moscow Olympics. Would have been a great venue to watch the ski jumping for sure. Right in the city, and on a hill next to the banks of the Moscow River. Went to a major church that was rebuilt after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Huge, beautiful, real bells. Nice.