Четыре

The sweet card from Brian that I found in my luggage.
Yeah... he's kinda the best.

So... I have arrived in Moscow for the fourth time.  WHAT THE WHAT?!?!  It was a long travel day, but we got through it without any noteworthy events... which is sort of exactly how I like my travel days.  We started off in Detroit with many a tearful goodbye (I am so bad at leaving... which is strange, since I seem to do it so often), connected through Amsterdam with some fairly notable jetlag, and then finally made it to Moscow - all our luggage on hand to greet us!  We were met by our new contact Katya, who loaded us on a bus through Moscow traffic and over to the dorm.  Once here, we got everyone settled for a while before braving the mean streets to do some changing of currency and buying of groceries.  Then a bunch of us hopped over to Corner Burger for a delicious (if a bit pricey) first dinner in Russia.  The servers were super friendly and patient with our limited English... and I'm finding that I'm still able to navigate a lot of conversations with a healthy dose of nodding and gesturing... peppered with key Russian words for effect.  After dinner, we headed back to the dorm for a little orientation, which basically involved me leading the group in a few exercises to prep them for the days ahead, a little Q&A, and then we retreated to the dorms and are currently in the process of turning into exhausted little pumpkins.