From Russia With Love

If you go on a Year Abroad and don't blog about it, are you even really there?

Well, I'm here, in Moscow, and I'm going to write about. Oooh, Russia, I hear you say, this should be good. There'll be lots of in-depth analysis of the current political climate and condemnation of Putin's foreign policy. Nope. Think again. 

I used to think that I knew something about politics. Then, two years ago, I started studying at Cambridge, where I discovered that everyone thinks they know something about politics, and nobody really knows anything. So, dear friend, if you are looking for political gossip from inside the Motherland, look elsewhere. I am not going to be writing about politics, and I am not going to be making any sweeping statements about this vast, varied and complex country, because I have accepted that I know nothing about either of those things. Instead, I am going to write about my daily life here, and all the tiny differences which I notice on a daily basis. It's going to be rambling, it's going to be messy, it's going to be filled with anecdotes which I find absolutely hilarious and nobody else will understand. But most of all, it's going to be real. Real, everyday observations from a terrified Northern Irish girl who has been shipped off to a country where, as we were warned in advance, you only smile at people you're romantically interested in. 

It's the little differences you notice. And it's the little things that count.