Things I like about living in Russia: A List in No Particular Order

• Once I've gotten past their serious-faced rarely-smiling exteriors, I've found the Russians I know to be some of the most earnestly friendly people I've ever met. I love my Russian friends.
• The enormous forests of tower blocks that comprise this city make me perpetually feel like I'm walking around on the bottom of the ocean.
• People park anywhere. Literally anywhere. As long as you leave your phone number on your dash you seem to be able to block in as many other cars as you need too. On the sidewalk no less.
• The way people are so often shocked and even oddly grateful that a foreigner from such an exotic place as America (where so much pop culture comes from) not only lives here but is actually interested in everything Russian and LIKES it here. It makes me happy to be able to show half the people I meet that all Americans are not terrible people, and the other half the people I meet that some Americans actually know about and care about Russia.
• Russians applaud in a rhythm after some performances. It really confused me at first. And when a slow song comes on, even at a club, couples often partner dance like twelve-year-olds at a middle school prom. 
• Not understanding what most of the people around me are saying, most of the time. It's actually kind of a relief not having to listen to everyone else's inanities--with that distraction gone I can much more easily listen to my own internal inanities. On the other hand...
• Trying to learn Russian is super fun. It gives me an enormous sense of accomplishment when I splutter through an entire conversation with a taxi driver or stranger, or actually manage to read and understand an entire poster.
• The fact that it's more or less just like living anywhere else, which is relieving in an interesting sense: yes, humans basically are the same everywhere. Not, actually, that surprising. 
• Riding the metro every day. It's dirty and loud, though the stations are extravaganzas of marble and chandeliers and Soviet art. Honestly I think the reason it doesn't get old is that I spent so much of my life in a tiny cornfield town that it's still pretty damn exciting to get on a train.
• Ice skating is a serious thing here. My favorite park now has a rink that's not even just a big space, it is almost trail-like areas that take you to little coffee huts where you can stop and have tea or mulled wine. 
• They have hedgehogs here. Yeah, that's right. HEDGEHOGS.