My host mom's granddaughter, Nastya, and her boyfriend came over for dinner last night. They were about two hours late, which greatly infringed upon my hopes to go to sleep early and awaken only when my brain had been replaced by that of a fluent Russian speaker. However, I'm glad I stayed up because they were so cool and well-dressed and friendly and beautiful. Nastya's boyfriend, Sergei, immediately complimented my Russian which was very kind and a bit unwarranted, due to the fact that all I had said was "hello", "my name is Aubrey", and "nice to meet you". After we sat down, they told me about an interactive art exhibit in Moscow and wrote down the name and website for me (http://centermars.com/ -- if you want to check it out!), and reccommended that I go see it. I think my exhaustion maybe helped break some barriers in my brain because I spoke a lot more Russian without being too self-conscious about my grammar. At my host mom's request, I showed them both a video of her cat playing with the toys I had brought as a gift, and then I took a picture of them both together. After the evening was over, my host mom thanked me for making a good impression and proceeded to tell me about her granddaughter's modeling career and how she met Sergei. It was a nice bonding moment for us. I didn't get to bed until around 1 AM (which is really late considering the jet lag, I think!), and I slept well aside from waking up screaming around 4 AM because I dreamed that I saw a spider.. That was genuinely upsetting and confusing.
In other news, today I navigated the metro all by myself and didn't need any help getting home! This is a big improvement from yesterday, when Irina insisted on accompanying me to my metro stop and then, when it was clear that I was about to turn the wrong way and subsequently walk out the wrong exit, she got off the metro herself and walked me all the way to the outside of the station, stopping every few feet so I would memorize my surroundings. After we were outside, she said, "Do you remember your way home from here?" and I enthusiastically responded, "Yeah!", but she just placed her hand on my shoulder and said she would call me in five minutes to check if I was home. I really couldn't blame her lack of trust at that point, considering my track record.
These first three days have been truly challenging and, at points, extremely discouraging. However, there have been quite a few promising moments of hope and happiness as well, such as meeting Sergei and Nastya and making eye contact with incredibly good looking guys while waiting for the metro... I wish I could think of more examples right now, because I know there are more, but my head hurts from its expended effort on understanding kindergarten-level Russian vocabulary all day, so I'm just going to go ahead and stop while I'm ahead.