Russia

When its quiet at work I'll chat with my coworkers about where we'll all end up. With a chunk of us graduating, these conversations turn to travel and joe-jobs and things to keep us occupied until we summon up the courage to go to grad school. A few weeks ago, I commented that I really wanted to go to Russia. Couldn't really explain why, just that I wanted to go. A girl from Lithuania argued that it wasn't a good idea: Russia is really dangerous and especially so if I don't speak Russian (of course, I don't, although that could be remedied). The third cashier stood up for me: I don't know this girl very well, she said, but she seems tough, she could handle it. The conversation ended, I didn't want to get into an argument over something I knew I was going to do if I decided I wanted to do it. I'm crazy that way.

Today I'm ringing through when my Lithuanian coworker comes down the stairs. On her way out into the blizzard, she stops.
"When are you working next?" Now this is a fairly common question. Its like joe-job pleasantries: along with 'how are you' and 'what's new', and the student pleasantries 'how are your classes/midterms going', we have 'when are you working next' and 'hey when is payday'.
"I don't know, I have a lot of midterms... not until next Wednesday... how about you?" I am pleasantry-ing along here.
"I'm working almost every day next week, mornings, but I wanted to talk to you about something."
My ears prick up. "Oh yeah?"
"Yeah, I know someone in Russia who wants someone to go there and teach english to his son, they'd be live-in, he'd pay all expenses, you'd have time to travel. I thought you might be interested."
I swear my heart stopped. I froze. Smiled. Told her I would drop by next week to talk about it.

Then the fear started setting in. My God, Russia, for a long time, living with a Russian family, learning Russian... teaching... Traveling... my god. So I got scared. Yes I know I'm jumping the gun, but can you imagine how amazing and terrifying that would be? I've got goosebumps just thinking about it. And you know? I'm just crazy enough to think that's an amazing idea. Will definitely keep you all posted.

Funny, I was reading over some posts from my old blog and thinking how I had been with someone much less crazy than I was. Then wondered if I was as crazy as I thought I was. This clinched it: only a headcase would be so thrilled at the opportunity ;)