I finally purchased my airline tickets to Moscow.  I will be flying Air Freedom (some of you unpatriotic Americans might still refer to it as Air France…only kidding of course!).  I’m leaving June 23 out of LAX, then connecting to Atlanta, then Paris, and then finally arriving in Moscow the evening of the 24th.  Yay, almost 20 hours of traveling.  It would have been faster for me to take a direct flight from LA to Moscow, but the only carrier that offered that was Aeroflot, the airline best known for its less than stellar safety record and grim faced flight attendants (their former slogan: “We don’t smile, because we’re serious about making you happy.”).  No thanks, Aeroflot, I’ll fly with the French.

The bureaucrats at the Foreign Ministry came through with the visa invitation (and I didn’t even have to bribe them!) so I’ve sent that off to the Russian Embassy and will hopefully receive a visa back in 1 – 2 weeks.  Hopefully being the key word there…

On Thursday I got a new surfboard down in Oceanside.  It’s a 6’10″ high performance egg shaped by Tropical Visions.  It’s made with epoxy resin, which makes the board far stronger and lighter than its polyester resin counterparts.

Other specs:
Height: 6′ 10″
Nose: 17 1/2″
Waist: 22″
Tail: 16″
Thickness: 2 3/4″

Some pics: The front, the back, the fins

…from getting on the plane to California.  Spring semester is over, thank God, and tomorrow I leave this wonderful city for the great state of California.

Finals were alright…still waiting for a few grades.  My last final was Math010 on Monday – last math class I will ever have to take!  Best of all, though, I’m only 13 credits away from earning my degree.  One more semester…just one more semester…

My birthday was May 9, and it was awesome.  We ate at Mimi’s and afterwards went to Brickskeller and then the perennial GW hangout, Lindy’s Red Lion.  Thanks to all my DC friends for coming out – you guys are great.

I can’t wait to get back to California.  I’m looking forward to some sunshine (always a shortage of sun on the east coast), some good Mexican food (practically non-existent here), and some In-N-Out (definitely non-existent outside of CA, AZ, and NV).  I’m also going to try and get in some time at the beach, perhaps buy a new surfboard…I’m looking at an egg or fun shape, a little over 7 feet.  That would be perrrfect.  My other boards are too short (Nectar 5’10″ and a BZ 6″), considering I bought them in 4th and 5th grade.

Hopefully I’ll be going to Moscow for 5 – 6 weeks to take some language classes at Moscow State University.  I’m just waiting for the Ministry of Education to send me an invitation to enter the country so I can apply for my visa…an extremely annoying process.  If Moscow doesn’t work out, I’ll most likely be taking Russian at UCLA (8 straight weeks of classes, 4 hours a day…ugh).

Guess I should start packing…