Today, Hannah and I went two years back in time.

Well, not exactly, but it felt that way, going back to Vuikhino, a place so familiar and yet so foreign. Hannah and I crossed this market once or twice a day for four months, and neither of us had been back since. It’s at the end of the purple line, not a place I’ve had any reason to go. But because Hannah was around, we decided to visit her host mother.

Tanya welcomed us into her home like family, and truly Hannah had been family for those four months. Tanya and I’d had a little exchange going. One day, she sent me some borscht, because she’s the kind of host mom who asks her students how they spend their time, when she learned that “Myra, the friend who lives in the dorm” had to cook for herself, I think she became concerned. I sent the container back with some lentil soup I’d made and I think that convinced her that I wouldn’t starve, though I’m not sure if she ate it. Later, for Easter, she gave me a decorate egg. I didn’t actually meet her until near the end of the trip, but even then it felt like we already knew each other.

Today Tanya fed us and entertained us with stories of traveling to Egypt with her daughter (a relative works as a travel agent and advised her to snatch up these package trips while they were affordable) and updates on how family members are doing (her son’s job is directly affected by the crisis. His company is closing for the month of January and may or may not reopen in February, but the workforce will be decimated either way and those that remain will take pay cuts).

In the evening we had a little reunion with Ksenia, a very kind Russian girl who spent many evenings at the dorm while we studied abroad.

I wish we’d had more time to just walk around the neighborhood. It was a good place to take walks. Now I live in the center of the city, where buildings, sidewalks, and roads have no spacers between each other. Farther out, there is often a line of trees or swatches of grass (snow this time of year) to break things up.