Moscow

First day of school. Not in Kansas anymore.

The scale of life in Moscow feels epic, larger than life. I have never lived in such a large metropolitan area and I find it overwhelming: massive monuments around every corner, streets extending 20 lanes wide packed with traffic, buildings the scale of which you have to see to believe, and an extensive never-ending metro system that somehow connects it all.

We arrived just in time to start up at the Lycée Française de Moscou. I am pleased to say that we slipped into a nice rhythm from our very first moments of life on what we lovingly refer to as "the compound", a little American enclave in the heart of Moscow. We are surrounded by kind and generous neighbors, the likes of which I have probably never known, and they all have children who immediately absorbed ours into their packs that roam the enclosed area with a sort of free-range ethic.  My parental heart is set at ease.

The skies are blue, the air is crisp and cool, school is in session, and we are getting settled.

We have started to explore the city.  I realize intuitively that this is a place where I could lose myself, a place I will not be able to know intimately, as I did Tbilisi. This is both exciting and terrifying. Luckily the language is nothing new. In Georgia they speak Russian as a secondary language and I took a beginner course there which gave me a boost of confidence to start out. I will be continuing with language instruction here and look forward with great excitement to developing that ability.