I'm here!! The place I'm living in in really pretty, too, though the buildings always look really run down on the outside.

I'm living with a girl named Kamila. She is about three years older
than me and she is GREAT! "Vegetarain" in that she doesn't eat
chicken and fish, but totally fine with what I want to eat, just
concerned that she doesn't already know. She is short, long dark
curly hair, totally gorgeous, really fun and smiley. Her parents
immigrated from Uzbekistan and her parents and brother live in the
city. Her sister and niece live in Moscow. Yesterday she got about
15 phone calls in my first two hours there, everyone wanting to know
how things were going and when they could meet me. I'm excited to
meet her friends, but probably wont until Sunday because my friend Ben
is in Vladimir for the next two days only. I was out walking with
Kamila last night and just randomly found him on the street, so that
was really exciting, and fortunate, since I don't have a cell yet.

By the way, don't worry at all about the weather here. The air is
super clear and the heat is a lot less than it was; even in Moscow a
mask wasn't necessary at all.

I also love my the other teachers and the people at the American Home. (We went bowling today, and it surprisingly wasn't awful.) They take care of everything for us, which is really nice.

I'll end with a few random observations:
1. The toilet paper here is the quality of cheap paper towels (at best)
2. Russian bus drivers are not the most chatty people. I asked if the bus when to the golden gate this morning, and his face either twitched or he was saying yes. :P
3. I think I'm really going to like switching back and forth from Russian to English multiple times a day :)