What is Russia? Part 2

It's your friend telling you he's given up drinking every time he sees you/talks to you, it's the weather warming up and getting to start removing layers, it's spending a good part of the day walking, it's really tasty yogurt, and awesome juice. It's your dictionary falling apart, and not having english class because your teacher is in moscow again. It's having another american occasionally show up and you not feeling american. It's telling the woman at the kiosk you want a small sprite. It's drinks without ice, and fighting a loosing battle with the governmental beauraucracy. IT's listening to the Rotarians talk about everything from health fairs, to what they're going to do with you, and understanding. It's chewing gum that quickly loses its flavor and feeling good everytime you have personal contact with someone. It's forgetting that in russian nouns and adjectives have genders and making your tutor laugh. It's finding time to use the internet. It's laughing while your non-yakutian school mates speak yakutian even though you don't understand a word of it. It's your computer teacher randomly showing you pictures of her family and trip to paris and you actually enjoying the look into her personal life. It's the little kids staring at you as you type quickly in english and waiting for you to move so they can have the computer. It's feeling happy and at home in a country that didn't start out as your own.