Real Shoes

I recently joined the world of grown up people who own a pair of real shoes. For the past 3 years I've been wearing sandals...chacos, tevas, reefs, cute sandals, fancy sandals, house sandals, flip flops, etc. I lived in the desert and it was really hot and I wore sandals every single day. There were the few random times where I went on vacation to a colder place and had to borrow closed-toed shoes but really it's just been all about the sandals.

Sidenote: I did own a pair of tennis shoes and I wore them when I was working out but even then I wore flip flops until the last minute and then took off the tennis shoes the first chance I got. And those didn't make the 1 suitcase cut and got left behind for a refugee to enjoy.

Anyways. So this morning it was 40 degrees in Moscow. Another sidenote that I feel necessary to point out: it was 115 the day I left Sudan...that's a 75 degree difference. My body is in shock!!

I am staying with a friend who has 2 roommates and, while I can borrow every other item of warm clothing, my feet are too small for any of their shoes. And it's gotten to the point where even the Russians have put away their sandals and I really can't handle the cold.

But real shoes are hurting my feet. It's not the typical kind of pain, the rubbing on the back of the heel or anything. It's the tops of my toes and in between my toes that hurt just from being squished together all day. These toes are used to freedom and socks and shoes are proving to be a little too much for them! Plus the bottoms of my feet are being rubbed raw from wearing socks? I don't know how that is possible but it's happening.

My friend was like 'did you buy the right size? Did you do the toe press thing like your mom used to do?' Ughhhh. Of course I did. I may not have bought a pair of real shoes in a really really long time but I know the toe press thing and I did that. I even sprung for the more expensive but more comfortable ones in hopes that they would help with this whole toe rubbing thing but, apparently, it's just shoes in general that don't agree with me.

I'm not really sure what I'm going to do. I have to wear shoes. It's really cold and you walk outside a lot in Moscow. So here I am.

A little reverse culture shock advice for all my friends in the Sandbox: Chacos are great for day to day desert life but try to give your feet a little practice with the real shoes or else you'll really pay for it later.