Gostiny Dvor

This past weekend was pretty relaxing. Friday went by so quickly. I started the day with an individual lesson, then I headed to a coffee shop for my Russian language lesson. Afterwards, Anya, my tutor, Elizabeth, and I headed to Izum for lunch. It was my third time there and every time I'm amazed how good the food is. I ordered the chicken kabobs with cous cous, and I was given the most tender chicken I've ever eaten. The portions are fairly large too. By the time we finished, it was already 5 o'clock! I couldn't believe the day was almost over. I walked home, and spent the rest of the night lesson planning.

On Privacy and Sharing Photos

Over the last month or so I had several people ask me what happened to A. They were concerned whether or not we had broken up because I haven't talked about him much. Don't worry! We are still together. He was back in his hometown for almost two months visiting his family for New Years.

During that time my blog kind of exploded here in Russia. I felt bad that his picture was being shared and people were leaving comments and mentioning him in them (they were mostly comments about how he should break up with me because I won't make a "good wife"). After reading them I felt guilty he was being dragged into comments made by online trolls. The negative remarks about me didn't bother me so much as the comments about him did. Even though they saying mean things about him he didn't ask to be put in the blog. The dread ate at me for a little while. I immediately went to old blog posts and changed his name and removed some pictures. I needed to respect his privacy, which is why I will be referring to him as 'A' from now on. I don't know how much that will help. I'm not taking him out of this blog completely, but I'm just going to be more conscious about what I share.

Snow Mountains

It's been snowing like crazy here lately. I swear, for what felt like two weeks straight it snowed every day. For a few days it would start at 4 pm and just snow through the night. One downside to this snow is the fact that a 15 minute bus ride can take up to 40 minutes! For example, I left for work at 2:30 today and didn't get there until around 3:15. That's absolutely crazy, in my opinion. Luckily, I just had to be at a work meeting so the education of children was not harmed by my late arrival.

When You Meet an Online Blogger in the Real World

Things are getting better since last week. I miss Macy a ton, but my crying has shortened. This past weekend I made it up to several stores to buy more succulents and cacti to pot. I put it off until the weather was nice because I didn’t want to deal with the dirt and stuff in the cold weather. On a whim I also picked up a cilantro plant since I love cilantro, but I never really eat it fast enough when I buy it at the grocery store (Any tips on how to trim and use the cilantro would be appreciated!).
New additions and old plants!

I went to Lowes on my third stop of the day. I was looking for the succulents and they had some, but nothing I really wanted. Then I looked over at the area I had seen them in months before and realized they had more of what I wanted. I walked over and looked at them but there were two people already standing there. I looked at them and realized that the girl was Kaylah from The Dainty Squid. She is one of my favorite bloggers, and I was kind of in shock when I saw her.

Now, being me, I was too nervous to say anything. I kept dueling it out in my head on whether or not I should say anything. But alas, I didn’t. They left and I was stuck kicking myself. I’m one of those people who believe “celebrities” should be left alone, but it was still cool to see a real life blogger. As I waited in line to check out I hoped she would get in line behind me, but they didn’t.

I headed over to Target afterwards and as I was walking into the store I saw them pull in. It was like a sign that I should have said something, but again, I was too scared. Eventually, I did e-mail her telling her I saw her at Lowes. She responded telling me she thinks she saw me walking into Target! This world is so small. Part of me feels like I came in contact with a celebrity.
Blogging friends, have you ever met or seen a popular blogger out and about in the real world? Who was it? How did you react?

Glimpses

My grandma has lived in her current house my entire life. I have never known her to live anywhere else. As I was dog sitting the past week I was just looking around at everything and having such strong images of spending time at her house. I took decided I wanted to take pictures of some of the things I don’t want to forget, like little windows and nooks and dogs… and this giant green electrical box I used to lay on as a kid which will probably cause me to have cancer when I’m older. Oh well.