What a great break! I traveled to visit some of my Russian friends in the little town of Zaraisk, which is located in Moscow Oblast about 160km away from Moscow and 60km from Ryazan. I was last there a year and a half ago, and so it was good to see my friends. Unfortunately it rained the whole time, so we didn't get outside and do much, but we had a good time nevertheless. On the way to and from Zaraisk, I stopped in Moscow. 

On the way there, I met up with a group of Americans who work in the embassy. I have a mutual Facebook friend with one of the girls in the group, and that is how we knew about each other. We visited a main souvenir market and then went to a really good Georgian restaurant that I remembered from when I was in Moscow in the spring of 2010. The Americans were very, well, American, and most of them spoke absolutely no Russian, so it was challenging to get them to try the "weird" food in the restaurant.   

On the way back, I had two options. There was a train to Vladimir at 14:23 and another at 18:06. I was at the train station about ten minutes before that first train left, but I decided to take the opportunity to just be in Moscow for a few hours and bought a ticket for the later train. I got a delicious lunch of borshch, a pork chop, and grechka at a cafe on the Arbat, got a coffee at Starbucks (Starbucks has exactly the same smell in Moscow as it does in Chagrin Falls, Ohio), and set off for the New Tretyakov Gallery--one of Russia's foremost museums of modern art. My dirty self (going on 72 hours without a shower or a shave) slogged through the pouring rain and stumbled into the museum exactly as the grand opening of a festival commemorating the museum's 80th anniversary was beginning. I was suddenly a part of the sophisticated, educated, artistic intelligentsia, who were sipping champagne as they wandered through the galleries, meeting a greeting old friends and discussing art. Maybe they thought my scruffiness was part of my artistic personality. Regardless, it was a perfect way to spend an hour and half waiting for a train in Moscow. 

And, to top it all off, I got up this morning and turned on the TV just in time to see Mitt Romney's concession speech. I'll keep my political allegiances under wraps, but I can say that the vast majority of Russians are happy to hear that Obama will remain president. I'll post some pictures of my trip soon!