Holiday Greetings from Rip the Squirrel

You all should take a look at this and you will understand why I miss Ripon so much!

http://www.youtube.com/user/MoreTogether#p/a/u/0/44EzNX89VQg

Back in the USA

So the trip home was interesting. Flew from Russia to London and spent the last night with my awesome friends at a pretty nice hotel in London. We massacred a buffet-- which was amazing. The next morning I said goodbye to some friends and Emily, Andrew, and I headed off to the airport together. We flew from London to Chicago on a plane full of crying children, but on the bright side our TVs worked and we watched a LOT of movies! :) Yay for that! We arrived in Chicago to find Emily and my flights where canceled. We waited in the customer service line for FOREVER and then got our options to get home. I ended up having to fly to St. Louis and then wait for another flight up to Minneapolis. When I arrived in St. Louis my flight to Minneapolis was canceled, and so the airline gave me a free night in a hotel. :) I spent a whopping 4 hours in the hotel before heading back to the airport to wait in another line to get a different ticket to Minneapolis. That flight wasn't canceled and I made it back to Minneapolis by 9 AM on Monday. I started traveling Saturday at noon Russia time and was home in my house at 5:30 PM Monday WI time. So it was a long weekend.

I did get to enjoy a trip to WALMART! which was oh so very exciting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) My mom laughed at me- because I was so excited and giggling about things all being in one store. Then yesterday I got to babysit my sweetheart of a 2 year old- which kept me very busy.

My adventure in Russia is over, but I will treasure the experience forever!

Preparing for Goodbye

It is my last week in Russia... and the end is bitter sweet. I am going to be the first and only student from my school to complete this program. (My school is eliminating it...). Life here has been amazing. It is so laid back... a lot less American style of go go go! That being said you can still be all but carried by the wave of people trying to get on the metro or the bus at the same time you are. Rush hour is rush hour in any country I guess. 

I remember the day I took off-- I got a call from my mom while I was sitting in the Minneapolis airport waiting to take off- she told me Jean had committed suicide. I cried in the airport. I couldn't go the funeral- and I haven't been able to give TC a hug-- Jean always gave the best hugs. I got to London and I was so SCARED! A man approached me and asked if I was Megan. This was a little creepy- I said yes... who are you? He kind of chuckled and told me was with AIFS. We walked to his car, and he helped me load my stuff and drove me to the hotel. I got there and was in a daze-- I found Lindsey in the hall- a group of us went to breakfast, we sight saw the next day... then it was off to Russia. 

Our bus driver took a cigarette break, and the customs lady scared me. The airport was like one out of a 1960s movie. Welcome to Russia. It has been an amazing journey. One full of ups and downs, sideways, and all ways: especially the Russian way. I've learned how to blend in with the crowd, I apparently look Russian because I get asked questions by strangers and tourists about the location of things. It seems strange calling other Americans tourists... but I've been here for three and a half months. This city has become my home. This city of dirty water, cigarettes, beggars, homeless dogs, five and a half million people, stilettos and mini skirts, vodka, beer, rain, snow... its has become my second home. I love it so much- and for so many reasons. It has grown on me, I've become attached. This city that Peter the Great designed, where the Hermitage is situated, where The Church Built on Spilled Blood is towering over other buildings, this city where you are always in such rich history. This is the city the Nazis sieged for 900 days and 900 nights-- this is a city that hasn't forgotten its past, but rather embraced it. 

I will never forget or regret my life here. It has been so incredible. Simple things are adventures. Everything is exciting. You go to the grocery store and can tell at least 2 funny stories about what occurred on your trip. It is all so different from life in the states. I am so excited to be going home. I miss Wisconsin so much. But at the same time I'm going to miss Saint Petersburg and the amazing friends I have made here. 

IMOP where I have lived for 3.5 months now

A normal Russian family in the park. 

And now for those of you who don't know me too well I love quotes so here are some amazing ones that I have found that I think do my experiences here justice:

I met a lot of people in [Russia].  I even encountered myself.  ~James Baldwin

To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.  ~Aldous Huxley

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine

“Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things – air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky – all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.” – Cesare Pavese

“Adventure is a path. Real adventure – self-determined, self-motivated, often risky – forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.” – Mark Jenkins

"I get by with a little help from my friends." 

- John Lennon

"If you judge people, you have no time to love them." 

- Mother Teresa