1.5.12 I repeated a walk today that I did last week for the first time. I found a metro station that had eluded my travels thusfar, even last week I passed it without noticing. The avenue I walked along was called Komsomolskaya, a name which was often heard in Russia in its past, and now, outside of old movies, only in names of streets and squares. Strangely enough, the avenue is on the other side of town from the square of the same name, where three train stations are located, but the metro station it crosses is on the red metro line, as is the station on the square, and Komsomolskaya was about as red as could be, so in a way it makes sense. I was debating whether or not I should go to different branch of Ashan which was within my walking distance (but I've become such a walker that there's not much outside of my walking distance, if you give me enough time, some good weather and provisions) - the branch next to Moscow State Univerisity, which was not far away, but I decided to continue repeating the route I had done a week before, especially considering that it went through Sparrow Hills park, which makes for a walk worth repeating. I didn't regret it. The trees were blooming today, more so than a week ago. There's nothing like a forest on a hill in the spring that lets you see so many shades of green, from the lightest tones, almost verging on yellow, through dark tourquoise all the way to the brown of the trees that aren't early risers in the season. Just as delightful to me is the number of people you see out walking, enjoying the warmer weather in spite of a rather bitter spring wind. They weren't only walking, but riding bikes and roller blades, skateboards and two-wheeled scooters. I tried to think, as I walked on the side of a paved road without any cars, but which was busy with the traffic of people exercising, if there were any places like this in America, where people enjoy being outside for the sake of moving around or enjoying the fresh air. Central Park in New York comes to mind, but when I was there last, allbeit at this time of year, while there were people running and jogging, it didn't compare to what I've seen here in the past few weeks. National Parks in America also come to mind. There are places there for people crazy about hiking, such as myself, big enough to last a whole summer without the hiker seeing any one place twice. I guess that's something to be proud of. I don't think they have national parks in Russia, and if they do, I doubt they're as well kept as the ones in the states. 8.7.12 Oh! I haven't written here in such a long time. I've been writing, sure, either in my other journals, or in replies to students, but it's been quite a while since I took the time to write entirely for myself (whereby I include whoever reads this as a part of myself). The biggest change since my last entry is that I've been seeing a girl. I guess I can blame her for not having the time to read or write as much as I would like, but on the other hand, I guess you can measure how much you care about someone else by the things you're willing to sacrifice from your own life. For me, that might not be that much. I was telling Sasha - that's my girl - the other day, after hearing that her mother had complained about a newfound stench of garlic, explainable only by her contact with me and whatever I eat, that if I had to choose between a girl and garlic, I think I might have to show that girl the door. Poor Sasha couldn't have been happy to hear this, but she's understood how much I appreciate what I consider to be good food, and that she can't hope to compete with it after such a short time. We've only been seeing each other for a few weeks. Other than that I've started working at the central school in Moscow three days a week. They were going to give me another group, so that I would have been working there five days, but they were merciful and gave that group to someone else. They understand, it seems, that the commute is a bit of a pain. Round trip, I'm on the road (by foot) or on the tracks for over two hours to and from central Moscow. It would be tough to do that every day. I'm still working at the printing company in Dolgoprudny, which I guess is why they didn't ask me to move to another apartment and make me more available for other lessons. I should be thankful for my students at the company, even if one of them is rather lazy and evidently sees me only for the prestige of having lessons with a native speaker. I still enjoy walking there every day. While I at first found the timing inconvenient, those walks have given my working day some backbone, some structure around and during which I can plan the rest of the day. Among other things, the experience of walking ninety minutes (round trip) to and from the company hasn't at all lead to the desire to own a car. On the contrary, it's further strengthened my wish never to own a car, but to constantly live close enough to wherever I work to reach my workplace on foot. Spending ninety minutes in a car or private transport can be very stressful, but walking for ninety minutes is often the best part of my day, which isn't to say that lessons don't go well. In fact, it's walking that puts me in a good enough mood to walk into class day after day ready to teach some people some English, or at least make them feel like a million dollars about attending lessons with a native speaker. Without those walks, I'd be sunk. To be fair, I'd probably take the extra time to run some more, but the effect would be the same. In short, I don't see how people live without exercise. It can make the difference between a hellish, stressful day of the same old work, and a day where, despite any bad weather there may be, the sun shines from within.