All by myself

"When I was young, I never needed anyone, and making love was just for fun, those days are done. Sitting alone, I think of all the friends I've known, but when I dial the telephone, nobody's home"

Wise words, once again, Celine. I have been spending a lot of time alone because my host mom left me her apartment for a month. More so than ever before in my life, and there are times I am surprised that I actually do enjoy some alone time. I realize, though, that I need to be careful. I am a social person, an extrovert, and I don't want to be alone too much. And, it's nice to speak outloud. My sitemates will leave me to the city in November, and a large part of me is scared and wants to make sure I have some friends before then! So, I was getting a little lonely. I don't have the amazing group of friends I have at home. I am extremely close to my high school and my college friends. They are two large, supportive, and consistent groups of people. And so I have MANY close friends. I have been spoiled, and I miss them dearly. So.... I want that here! But plane tickets are expensive. I put a somewhat sad facebook status up (somethign about being "adna"--alone) and got 2 invitations from local friends for this weekend! I am going iceskating at 3 today and tomorrow I am having a friend over for tea and a movie. I think I have spent too much of my life playing hard to get; I need to be more openly desperate!

I am so eager to have friends here that I agree to things I do not want to do. My host family recently asked me to crochet hats and scarves for them. I agreed to the hats, but did NOT want to make three scarves. Well, I made them all too well and too quickly. Because now my host mom's daughter in law's mother wants a set. So, just when I thought I was done with their hats and scarves, they called me up to order another set. Seriously? And what did I say? "Oh, Da da. Kanishna! Ne trudna; ne dolga! Bashalasta" Oh yes, of course! Not hard, doesn't take long! This is the last set.... at least until they call again.

I just bought myself a jar of pickles from the Babushka on the street. It is so delicious, and definitely worth the 2-grapefruit price. If I were president, my currency would be grapefruit. One of the girls in my English club wants to be president, and we talked about how the country would be different if we were each president, or if a woman was president. I would trade in grapefruit