Okay, so I apologize for the blog delay, if anyone is still reading this. Anyhow, if you haven't already heard, I was unable to go to Budapest because I had a staph infection. I was waiting for the plane to leave (it kept getting delayed; fog in Hungary) when I started feeling very feverish and my throat swelling. I decided to make for the first aid place when my muscles started tensing of their own accord. Once I got through the passport control (it took some insistance), it was smooth sailing. The feldchers at the airport were all great, though no English. They called the American hospital for me, and took me to a nice dark room to sleep for awhile while I waited for the ambulance (about an hour, maybe). It was quite a ride, but I was a little out of it, so not scared. And it was a controlled crazy driving, probably like my own which led Laura to say I was "scary, but safe." Anyways, the American hospital was quite luxurious (but please, everyone going abroad, get travel insurance. I paid 50 bucks for my hospital stay, but it could have been $25,000). About half the people or so spoke English, and I had a flat-screen TV in my room with Discovery Science and Civilization, and more Georgian food than I could eat. After two nights they let me out, which was a bit of a shock, so I went to my relatives' for a couple of days.

I wasn't able to go to Samara either; the doctor said I still needed to take it easy. When I went in five days after I got out of the hospital, I had been doing pretty much like normal, except a little scared to get on the metro. But they freaked me out a little, took some blood and a throat culture. So I stayed in Moscow. After that, there were only about two weeks of school left, and I had a couple of papers and exams to work on. Lydia Grigorevna (Mongolian teacher) gave me one of her books (on Mongolian astrology... I think I'll have to translate the system and give it to Rob, nice calendar junk. Mongolians run on a lunar and solar at the same time, it seems, and combine Chinese with Tibetan stuff) when I left, so I'm really glad that I got her a rose and some chocolates. So that all went well, I got my souveneirs all bought (went back to VDNKh, and it was a bitch to find some nice stuff I actually wanted to buy; birch boxes and a couple of hand-painted lacquer boxes, cloth from Kyrgystan), and even met up with Dima the day before I left, which was great, because I hadn't heard from him for awhile and didn't think I would see him again. Before that, I caught the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, very amazing, and the Roerich Museum, a bummer because half of it was closed, and Roerich was way more of a mystic than I thought, and that was the part that was open. But it was still interesting. I think I would have been better off to have used the time at the Oriental Museum, though.

It was a bit of a pain getting to my dad's in Denver though, we were about a half-hour from Denver when we turned around for Chicago because of the snow. It turned out good though, Lufthansa gave us suites for the first night near my friend Jordana's place, so the second night I slept at her house and went to her friend's and hung out with some people I met with her this summer. So that's that, I guess. I'm not feeling too much of a shock being back here, and people are asking me questions and willing to hear about Russia, so that's nice. Meeting up with Gavin from CLS here in a few days I hope, so I think I will get my fill of talking about Russia for a few days, maybe.