The terrorist bombings in Moscow are on everybody's mind right now here in Russia. We had a few minutes of solemn silence in my house to dwell on what had happened. Politicians are angry and have vowed to wipe out every last person involved in the attack. The metro is still fully operational; only the segments directly damaged have been closed down. The people of Moscow have decided not to let the attack affect their daily lives in any major way, because that is giving the terrorists what they want. Most people took the very same metro home the same day. I admire the courage and fortitude of these people.

The scary thing is that I almost went to Moscow for the holidays last. I would have been in the city at the time had I gone. There was a very expensive AFS camp and the few people who actually went said that they "heard the blast". Luckily they were in a different section of the city and they are fine, of course.