Sorry Nicole if this one is too long... you can take it in chunks :)

I again didn’t get out of bed at the time I had hoped for, but I wasn’t trying too very hard since I am still in the healing process and I had my big interview today. I ate more pasta and macaroni for breakfast and got ready for the day.
SKIPPING AHEAD…

OK. So I get to the Academy at like 2:30 PM. I show the secretary my Diploma and stuff and say I am early but that I am there for my Interview and I don’t know who I am supposed to give my paperwork to. She seems very surprised that I think I have an interview and tells me to wait in the hall for the vice-rector. I wait… and wait. When he finally comes there are many people waiting for him and it doesn’t seem to matter much to him what order he sees them in. The Secretary unfortunately lost my application so she is running around looking all over the world trying to find it, the poor lady. Finally at like 3:30 she tells me to come into the inner waiting room. After a short time there she tells me to go in and see the vice-rector.
I hand him my papers and act awkward and forget to say hello. I recover and he calls the rector (I only found out who it was later) and says he has the American he had talked about previously and wants to know if they have time for an interview at 4:00. The person on the other end agrees and they say they need to get someone from the Psychology department to come too. I then am told to keep my papers and go to inner waiting room again. He tells the secretary that there will be an interview today and her jaw just about drops clear to the floor and she says “TODAY???” (in Russian obviously) and he then makes sure there is a clear room to so it in. Then while he is seeing like 5 other students in record time, the secretary somewhat apologetically asks me to fill out the application again… grrrr… I mean I understand the error and all I just hate filling out official Russian document that always have plenty of words I don’t know and it is clear that time is of the essence. The Vice-rector comes out and asks if I am ready when I haven’t finished the form but am done with just about everything I understand… so I stall for a few minutes and then say I am ready.
I enter the room to realize I am having a personal interview with the rector, the vice-rector, and the head of the Psychology Department. Yes. In Russian. And so they look at my transcript but they don’t really seem to take much stock in it and even ask if it is a highschool transcript… I dunno. I think we’ll have to have words about that later, but they seem to think that since the process here is so different that I will have to do the full 5 years. The head of the Psychology department seemed very interested in a more detailed list of what I’d learned, but the vice-rector didn’t so much. I think I’d rather have that than the other way around… anyways, they asked where I would live and I said I’d need to live in a dorm, and then the rector called somebody… he was actually on the phone most of the conversation, but as soon as he would get off the phone he would jump right back into the conversation without missing a beat. When they found out I wanted a dorm for the summer and the school year they said I’d probably have to get one out by Peterhof, which is hella far away, just because all the dorms fill up in the summer. But then after one of the Rector’s phone calls he said I might be able to stay in these Baptist dorms and that they usually don’t even ask them, but since I am foreign and Baptist it should work out and that I need to go ask them… (they never actually gave me a number.. or address or anything… and I don’t know the official name… hmm, tomorrow is another day). Anyways everyone seemed very excited about that, including me. So they asked about my visa situation and they seemed to feel absolutely moved by my need for a visa. They gave me a speech about how everyone is equal at the school, whether Baptist, Orthodox, or non-believers and seemed to think this was a very grave and maybe even radical speech. *aside**Oh, kids, I’m from America REMEMBER!*
After the interview the vice-rector took me to this other office to get my visa info started. The guy had already left , so I am to go back tomorrow… the guy will only be in tomorrow from 10:00-13:00 so I think I’ll have to go right after class. As I left I was like flying, and almost forgot that I am weak and in poor health, but on the metro it caught up to me.
On the way home I went and got my pictures done for my official documents tomorrow.
When I got home Ira and her fiancée Roma were home and they said the pasta was really good and thanked me for making it, and didn’t understand how half of it was gone so they asked if Paige had come over. Heheh. Nope I am just a master at eating… and I eat it like 3 meals a day…. Haha.

GUESS WHAT!!! Ira found some chocolate-chip cookies at a local grocery store!!!! THAT IS LIKE AN ANSWER TO PRAYER. They were just sitting on the kitchen and she’d written “IT’S FOR YOU” (in English!!) on them! She is SUCH A SWEETY!! SO I ate so many of them and my pasta and now I am so full I am about ready for a food coma… but it might be an exhaustion coma.

And Both Helene and Kristina said they were praying for me and checked in with me after my interview! HOW WONDERFUL!! :)))))))
I LOVE THESE COOKIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, Anecdote. The other day I was waiting for Paige outside Pizza&Pasta.com and as many of you know, when I zone out I do slightly strange things… especially if I am in a good mood. One of these things is standing on my tip-toes. I was doing this very thing absent mindedly when I was noticed by a quite shnackered bystander. The exact date of this happening was May 10th… the day after Victory and while it was about 1 pm I am fairly confident this fine fellow was still up and participating in the previous night’s festivities. He was perfectly harmless and quite jovial. He noticed my standing on my tippy-toes and quite naturally assumed I was doing so out of a longing for high-heels. He was kind enough to try to rectify the matter for me. HE walked up to me and bent over and placed his lighter under my left heel. It worked quite well I must say, and I thanked him kindly for his good deed. He told me he had another one if I wanted it. I nodded so he searched his pockets only to find a cigarette pack, so making do with what he had he placed it under my right foot. This was not entirely helpful, because I was afraid of smashing his cigarettes which wouldn’t be a very kind way of repaying his favor. I came down off of my toes in an awkward manner and told him I wasn’t able. He assured me that I only couldn’t because the objects were different heights this making me stand at different angles. I agreed and appreciated his attempt to cover-up my un-lady-likeness for being unable to stand in these high-heels we had constructed. He then wished me a happy holiday. I wished him one right back. He asked if I was waiting for my man, presumably a soldier. I nodded… I guess in a way Paige I is kind of my soldier… but really I realized I was lucky for him not yet realizing that I was foreign and while I was enjoying our conversation thoroughly I’ve found that is it wise to keep such chance meetings brief just to be on the safe-side. He jovially saluted with both of his hands and informed me he too was a military man. HE asked me if my man was a General, and then proceeded down the rank. As he was going further down I realized I was going to have to say yes eventually or create a distraction, so I pretended I was getting a call. HE continued to talk to me for a while and I occasionally responded. He waited a couple of time even though the walk light was green in his direction, but he eventually walked off, just as Paige was coming too… I don’t think he would have considered her much of a soldier. But am glad for that chance meeting. It brightened my stay.