Brave New World

College seems to have me up to my feet, I love it no doubt about it, but it can be a pain. But now I understand why they say college is so much fun. At our school we have an exchange program in which I wanted to be part of. Sadly when I signed up there was no room, so I had to wait for the next semester. Well it was second semester and I was on my way to Moscow Russia.

“Hey Courtney you have everything?” my best friend Alexandra asked me as I left our apartment for Moscow.

Me and Alexandra had been friends since preschool, and had been neighbours. I could never imagine my life without her. When we both got accepted to the same college we both had the biggest party just to celebrate. Now I was the one leaving her, but I’d be back.

“I should have everything” I replied as we both did a quick look around the apartment.

“I’ve got everything”

“Passport?”

“Yup”

“Then I guess your set, I’m going to miss you, it’ll be lonely here without you” she said as her arms flew around my neck.

“Hey, it’ll only be for 4 months, and then I’ll be back”

“What if you like it there and decide to live there and never come back?”

“I doubt that will ever happen” I said as I dragged my last suitcase out of the apartment.

“Well still it’s a possibility” she said as she helped me down to lobby.
I flagged down a taxi as I said goodbye to my best friend.

“Bye, don’t have too much fun without me” she called as I got into the car.

“I promise not to” I called as I shut the door.

“Where to miss?” the driver asked.

“Airport please” I said as he started to drive away. A tear started to roll down my check; this would be the longest I’ve been away from Alexandra.

“That girl your best friend?” the driver asked trying to make conversation.

“Yes” I said wiping the tear away.

“It’s always hard to say good bye to them” he said as I nodded, looking back as I did I still saw her standing there. I looked until I couldn’t see her anymore. I decided to just lay back and relax as the ride was about an hour long to the airport, also depending on traffic.

As I looked out the window I knew I was going to miss New York, no matter how noisy or how crowed it tented to be at times.
And as we drove I could feel my eyelids getting heavier and heavier. I knew I shouldn’t have stayed up all night, but I couldn’t sleep.

“Miss, miss” I could hear, but I didn’t know where it was coming from. I opened my eyes, and then realized I had fallen asleep in the taxi.

“Oh, sorry”

“It’s alright” he said and smiled.

I gave the driver the money and got out. I started grabbing my bags, and headed out to the airport. I always hated going through security, but it had to be done.
I was heading to terminal 6, and it was on the other side of the airport. Great! I had to walk quickly I was already running a little behind.

I finally arrived with 10 minutes to spare.

“Flight 285439 to Moscow Russia is now boarding” I heard as people from everywhere started moving around. I grabbed my bags and started moving to board the plane.

I got a comfortable seat, but I got stuck beside this old man who loved to talk a whole lot, but once the plane was off and in the air he was asleep- leaving me to my music.

About an hour into the flight I could feel my eyelids getting heavy again and I began to drift off.

“Would everyone please do up there seat belts, the plane is about to land” I could hear it and then they repeated it in Russian.

“Каждое угодило бы поднимает там ремни безопасности, плоскость должно около приземлиться”

I grabbed my carry on bag as we landed.

“Thank you for flying with us” the pilot said as we moved off the plane.

“Welcome to Russia” was the first thing I heard as I stepped foot into the airport.
I hated this part- trying to find your bag, but this time it was easy for me, when I got there it was sitting right there. I guess someone was nice enough to take it out for me. I grabbed it and began to walk to find a taxi.

I would be living with a family for my stay here, but I never got any notification on who lived in the family. I was just simply sent the address of the house. I didn’t even know how to speak Russian, I had no idea how I was getting around.

I finally did flag down a taxi, and the driver spoke English.

“Where you go to?” he asked. Well I didn’t say his English was perfect.

“Uhm, here” I said as I showed him the piece of paper with the address on it.

“Oh ok” he said as he handed me the paper back and started to drive.
“It is long drive to go where you want to go” he said as he turned down a street. I just nodded.

After about an hour and a half of driving, we arrived in front of a little white house.

“Here we is” he said as he parked and helped me with my bags.

“Thank you” I said as I paid him, and started walking up to the door.