"I think interacting with the students might be easier than with the teachers. I really don't want to disappoint any of them. But I've talked to a couple of the students here and they seem really nice, so it's already a very different atmosphere from back home. Less competitive - and that's not a Russian government thing, that's just a Russian thing, I think." It's a little hard to figure out how to work with that, with an acute lack of subtle or outright jabs and undercutting, but he could definitely get used to it. Better that than the fearful way SHIELD agents who weren't that much older looking than him acted around him.

"SHIELD went over it a lot. I guess they're worried about lingering effects. And I do have nightmares where I'm drowning in the Omolon River, or where I'm falling through the snow, so they're not wrong. I just hope I don't bother my room mate if I wake them up like that." He bites his lip, picturing his reputation sinking when it got out he was some kind of nutjob who couldn't get through the night without muttering to himself. Sure, it wasn't actually that common of an occurrence, but it couldn't be pleasant to live with.