The sun is shining for me!

Today is the day I became a kayaker. So let it be written, so let it be did. After an unsuccessful trip in a canoe last week (my coach put me in their biggest canoe on a windy day. I thought I was pretty hot stuff until I tried to come back and realized it was the wind that steered me the whole way) I wasn't sure if I'd ever graduate to the elevated ranks of kayakism. However, today I took a huge step in that direction. Evgenii Mikhailovich (my coach) entrusted me with a much smaller/narrower canoe and his ugliest, most-beat-up kayak paddle. With great trepidation he watched me climb into the canoe and take my first timid strokes.

I have to admit, once I climbed in I thought the canoe would make pretty quick work of me, but that wasn't the case! I turned out to be a natural! That is, if you call not hitting any other boats/people, not tipping over, and being able to turn the boat around natural. In fact, my coach was so pleased that he immediately told me to go down to the end of pond and back. I am proud to report that my maiden voyage was 4 kilometers round trip without incidence (other than that creepy guy sunbathing who kept calling me "his joy" and asked wouldn't I like to take a rest, to which I of course answered no and then ignored him). That's right, I paddled 4 kilometers (which sounds so much more impressive than whatever that is in miles)! I'm pretty proud of myself and so is my coach :) He even promised that after I do another day or two in the little canoe he'll find a kayak they use for children and let me do that, possibly without the training balasts!

Life is good in Moscow, I hope it's nearly as good for you wherever it is "you" are. In other news, I still haven't found a soccer team, but today I should be finding out about an English interview and I might start working/living at a children's camp. More about those later if they actually pan out.