I am alive and well
First off, I'm fine. The fire you may have heard about was not at my school and I wasn't even in Moscow when it happened. I finally made it to Kazan this weekend. It was awesome. Except for the train ride. Mike and I left on Thursday evening and found our seats on the train which turned out to be the crappiest beds on the train. I couldn't even stretch out and it was so freakin hot and stuffy. Thankfully it was only a 12 hour train ride. We met Elina and her friend Olga at the station and they showed us around Kazan. Kazan is the capital of Tatarstan which is about 10 hours by car due west of Moscow. About half the population in Muslim so there are quite a few Mosques. They had recently built a Mosque in their Kremlin(which just means a fortress) that was really impressive. I took lots of pictures and I know everyone wants to see them now but it is just too much of a hassle so you will have to wait. It was a great trip and I learned lots of Russian. I highly recommend Kazan to anyone who is in the area. Chad, Elina says hi. Great food also, try the Chak Chak. It's honey covered goodness. We left Kazan on Sunday around 4 pm and arrived in Moscow around 5:15 in the morning. A ton of snow had fallen in front of our school and since no one was around I decided to make a snow angel. It is probably the best that has ever been made. I've got proof.