from the looks of it, I've only got about two weeks or so left in Moscow before packing up and shipping off to summer camp. I haven't actually bought my train ticket to Kiev, but am currently looking at the РЖД website and contemplating which button to push. I'm quite relieved that it seems I've found someone to sublet my room for the summer, and she's eager to move in at the beginning of June, so the onus is on me to get out as soon as possible in that regard. Further, getting out of my shell and changing locations could also be a great motivator. On the flip side, however, every day between now and then should be chock-full of rowing up my ducks, which doesn't particularly bode well with my lackadaisical procrastination-station current speed of life. Ultimately, life at turtle speed probably isn't such a good thing in the first place, and getting out of it is likely long overdue. As much as I love to proclaim that I'm some sort of free-falling spirit who doesn't need boundaries of any kind, I'd be lying through my teeth if I didn't admit to appreciating a bit of routine. Furthermore, I reckon it's something I could actually rather embrace having before me every day. They say it takes 28 days of something to make it a habit--I'm not completely sure whether or not my time at camp will be that completely routine (or even if I'd want it to), but I guess I'll find out.
In a way, I'm also somewhat excited at the prospect of being closer to "The Europe" (Nurse Betty quote) and its influences. For the same reasons some out here decry the faults of "The West" out here, others salivate at the idea. I don't know if it's about culture, proximity to creature comforts or some vague and twisted sense of prestige, but I am somewhat intrigued. I don't necessarily expect it to be any more home-like, nor would I want it to be. Also, I've spent so much more time in Russia than western Europe (the actual timelines are all but impossible to compare) that I likely even find life & culture more relatable here than there. Perhaps there's something to the whole "Eurotrip" mentality young Americans seem to embrace, but I'm not so sure it's something I can quite relate to.
Recent experiences with friends have gotten me thinking about ideas of an "east-west" paradigm of comfort and familiarity, and perhaps how it could relate to exoticism and choice juxtaposition of social power. Nobody's above personal prejudices--least of all, me. That being said the lines of "us/them" "inside/outside"identities are rather blurry to me.
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