Tuesday, we finished the day by going shopping. I got a cute, grey hoodie dress. We came home and finished homework and ran to McDonald's for dinner. You have to pay extra here for condiments. I got 3 ketchups, and Branden gave me his mustard. As soon as the mustard touched my tongue, it made this tingly sensation. I thought it was just spicy. Shortly after, it continued tingling and my throat starting swelling. Making it hard to breath, swallow, etc. The only other time I had a food allergy was with Tim at KFC. We went to try this fritos chicken thing. Later on, it tingled and started swelling. I still don't know what spices in both of these things I am having a reaction to. I wish I knew though but at least I know it is a spice. Luckily, a few others and I have allergy stuff. So we combined forces and luckily my throat was only a little swollen in the morning and still sore. Wednesday, we had classes for the first time in a while. It was so hard! I don't know if it was because we didn't have it for 5 days because of the holidays or if it was because they made it harder- or both! But afterwards I was so tired, and sadly, Branden head butted me so my head started obnoxiously hurting since I'm still recovering from my concussion. But I took medicine and proceeded through my day. We went back to Red Square and did a tour of the outside of the Kremlin. We are doing the inside later on in the week. We got a group assignment there that I'm actually kinda excited to do. We have to look up historical information on this city and draw analysis from it. After the Kremlin, the girls and guys split up. The guys went back to the dorms, and us girls went shopping. We had to wait for Dr. Kourova's cousin to join us for shopping. So the girls sat down on the stone stairs again. They don't believe in the Russian superstition about not getting pregnant. So, I didn't sit down because it just rained and I was wearing a cotton thing. Not even 5 minutes passed and a really cute Russian guy came over to tell the girls to get up because they won't get pregnant and they "need babies in their future." lol and then he started talking to us. He was so nice and funny. After he left, another Russian came over to talk to us... hahaha. It was so funny. They were so concerned about them sitting on the stone floor. This incited some interesting conversations. Tassie told me that maybe my head hurt so badly because I have a lot of hair and if any strands fell out and someone stepped on them, then it creates a headache (another Russian belief). It’s kinda like step on a crack, break your mother’s back. Don’t leave empty bottles on the table-it’s bad luck. There were more superstitions that she told us... but I sadly can’t remember them! All I can remember is that I totally agreed with some of them! Thursday, we had class of course. Afterwards we quickly headed downtown. We met a class of high school students from a local school. They did a mini tour of Moscow for us in English and had McDonald’s with us (they insisted-I didn’t want to feed into the stereotype though -.- ). They were nice and the tour was actually interesting. We got some of their emails and contact info. We plan to stay in touch with our only Moscow friends. (: hahaha. That night, we got back too late. The store was closed and so were most restaurants. We had this Japanese restaurant which is located very close to our dorms. I had this pumpkin crab soup. It was pretty good. Not amazing but good. I’d like to try to some sushi while I’m here. The guys already went to a different sushi place and can’t stop raving about it. So I’ll have to try that! Today, class as usual and then I took a nap since I’m now sick. The rest went to talk to the vice president of our school about history of the school and get a tour of the museums inside our school. Then, they woke me up and we went on a limo tour around Moscow. The tour was free since Dr. Kourova had the hook up! haha It was a lot of fun and very pretty (of course)! All of these things I’ve seen and learned just make me understand more why I have always been so drawn to this country. The people here walk fast, which people in the US always complained to me about. They have awesome food- a lot of different meats. They are very superstitious (I already said there’s more I agree with I just can’t remember right now). On the students’ tour, I learned that the Swan Princess is a fairy tale from them. That movie was my favoriteeee growing up- wasn’t it mom!? Everyday, I come to understand more and more why I was drawn to this country and why I love it so much. Maybe I was Russian in a past life... lol Anyway, so much has been going on, and all of us are just constantly moving and trying to make the most of this trip. I’m sorry I haven’t been posting that often. But I’m doing my best!!! Until next time! Love you all! Xoxo