School: I enrolled in intensive french courses for the month of May. I also enrolled in prep classes for the DELF, which is the fluency test that I was scheduled to take at the end of May. My first month back I had up to 6 hours of classes a day and studying in my spare time. I took the test 3 1/2 weeks ago and I still don't know my results. They will me mailed to me within 4-6 weeks, typical french.
Traveling: Since the test we've been traveling non-stop and its still not over. 2 hours after I finished I headed out to Milan to join Adam who was there on business. 3 days after getting back I flew to Russia for 10 days. From Russia we went straight to London and then to Paris. This week we go to Switzerland to look for apartments. Next week we go to India! My rain curse has proven to be more real than ever before. Each time I arrived in a new city the weather was fine but rains moved in that same day and didn't leave until literally the day I left. Every. single. time.
Russia:
The more I travel and learn about each city I'm in, the more I love history and want to learn about different cultures. Russia is so huge with such a vast history and culture so its been high on my list for a while. So when Adam said he had a meeting in Moscow I was very excited. Getting a Russian visa was a pain in the butt and very expensive. 2 days before our trip Adam found out his visa was being held for extra controls and wouldn't be ready for another week. So I went without him.
I signed up for a bunch of tours and stayed in hostels to try to meet people so I wouldn't be alone too much. Moscow was great, very pretty, very clean, very safe, all around nice city. But not really made for foreign tourists. There were very few foreign tourists at all, only Russians. Nobody speaks English. Every meal was an adventure because I just pointed at things not always knowing what I was getting or how much it would cost. Even the museum exhibits were written only in Russian. The subway (which I used often and is absolutely beautiful) was only in Russian. But I navigated it very well. I learned the alphabet so that helped.
St. Petersburg was very different than Moscow, just as pretty but in a different way, and much more touristy. Finally, English options for everything. Adam met me there after 8 days of traveling solo. The architecture in both cities is very pretty and very European looking. The orthodox churches were a nice change from the standard European gothic cathedral. In Moscow I learned a lot of Soviet history. One of these days I'll upload my pictures.
The weather in both cities was terrible, many days it was only 46 degrees, luckily I packed warm but that was way colder than I expected.
I gotta say, when it comes to certain countries, like Russia, don't always pay attention to the American media. They paint Russia in a very bad light, on purpose, and the Russians know this. Adam met a Russian girl who said Americans who come visit Russia are heroes because they want to see Russia for themselves instead of always believing what the media says. I almost got scared into not going because of this and I'm very glad I went. I saw 2 beautiful cities, no different than any other major city, with great people and had a great time. I hope to go back someday and take the trans-siberian railroad all the way across the country.
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Wedding planning is going smoothly. All the major stuff is booked. The wedding is so far off I don't need to pick the planning back up until the fall. Which is when we wanted to have the wedding in the first place. Then Switzerland happened so we figured early spring would be better, then because spring = spring break in Florida we had to push it back more. Oy, the year will fly by I'm sure.
We are counting down our last weeks in France. Our move to Switzerland is scheduled for July 15th. Its crazy expensive there so I'll need to find a job asap. I'll be sad to leave France but Switzerland should be a fun adventure.
