In Washington DC at Dan's

So we finally, after traveling constantly from 5:00 am PST to now (about 2:43 am PST), we finally got to Washington DC and met up with Derek's friend Dan, who is really nice and cool and is letting us crash the night at his house tonight. 

I got an email today about my host family, which I am going to post excerpts from below:

"You will be staying with Nina Petrovna Kondrashova.  Nina (50s) lives with her husband Gennady Petrovich (50s) and their son Denis (20s).  They also have a dog.  Their daughter Yulia (20s) lives separately.  Nina works in sales while Gennady is a mechanic.  They enjoy fishing and being in the country.  Denis is a student and enjoys playing the guitar and biking.  They are all very excited about meeting you.  Their home is close to the metro station "Akademicheskaya" from where you will board each day to commute to the university."

It sounds cool and I am glad for the assignment.  I am thinking now about what kind of presents I can get for them and am trying to brainstorm a little in my head.  I was thinking for the son, either a cool guitar pick (which might be kind of a cheap present) or a classic American Rock album or something. I am not sure if I can assume he likes rock from knowing he plays the guitar though.  For the dad, I was thinking some type of cool book about American old cars or Hot Rods or something because he is a mechanic.  For the mom, I have no idea... "sales" it says but I have no idea what that really means lol. 

I am excited that they like being in the country because I definitely want to spend time in the country and that means they for sure have a dacha.  I am also excited about them having a dog because it will be cool to see how Russians speak to animals, might sound minimal but it could be weird for a foreigner. A boy my age sounds cool too, will be easier to relate to than a girl and could teach me all the internet and chat lingo like "lol" and "tyvm" and things, which I have been DYING to find out. Most importantly, he will be able to tell me if there is a shorthand way to type "Спасибо" ("spasiba" == thank you) over the internet, similar to typing "ty" instead of "thank you" because it would be way faster. 


I think we are going to take it pretty easy today, hang out here, there was mention of going to an Irish or English Pub tonight in Bethesda (that's for you Seabolt and Elinor!) and then Derek and I are going to try and check out some sights tomorrow before we check-in for orientation at 4 pm. 


Thanks for reading everyone, I'll try and keep the posts coming.


I haven't decided about how often I'm going to post pictures and what not but I think I will leave out the few I took today, cuz there was nothing that interesting.