May 15th - Present (Last Week So Far)

Okay, so I'm only in Russia for another 4ish days, and in the last 2 weeks or so I've realized that I don't really feel like leaving yet. Maybe it's better that I leave when I don't really want to.

Let's do a quick day-by-day recap before my next final...

15th: We went to Peterhoff and saw the Fontana! Better yet, we went there on a hydrofoil! It was really really cool and I even got to meet and talk to Irina Borisovna's husband, who is a shipmaker. He knows his way around an ocean breeze.

When we got there, we saw the Fontana right away and it was absolutely amazing! I don't have my pictures up yet, but later today or maybe tomorrow I can defer you to facebook. Anyways we had a tour guide for a while, who basically just showed us fountains and was nice enough to not stop me when I went splashing around. I even ran through the fountain that was a street! My hair got wet and crazy. Later we saw the Tsar's bath houses, which were cool, as they had a big fountain INDOORS that you take a bath in! Sweet.

After the tour, most of us split up or left, but Brenna (Thompson) and I hung out there for a couple more hours before taking a Marshrutka back to Petersburg.

That night, a bunch of us met up to go to the beach at Primorskaya. We were there for a long time, and even made a bonfire out of driftwood. Some Russian girls joined us at one point and we all sang songs together, some Russian, some english. Then they disappeared. It rained for a little while, but instead of leaving we just all huddled together around the fire.

Eventually we headed out and got shaverma. Brenna (T) left, and we took gypsy cabs to Dvortsovaya Ploshad, where we saw the bridges while they were up! Of course, that meant I was on Vasilievsky Ostrov, and couldn't go home until they went down. So, I didn't get back home until about 5:30am. Jeez.

May 16th: I slept until 1! Then studied for my Literature exam! Of course, eventually Brenna (T) text messaged me telling me to come to the beach at Peter and Paul Fortress, so I did. There was live music and it was warm and nice and relaxing. We eventually went on a walk, and ended up getting strawberry milkshakes. Afterwards, we both went our ways, and I studied more.

May 17th: School until 5! Afterwards I met with my conversation partner for the last time. We talked about differences between Russian and American school systems and military. She thought it was amazing that American men aren't required to be in the military.

Then I went home and studied for culture!

May 18th: School again! A really easy final! Afterwards, I went on a walk, and ran into Brenna (T) at the park. How do we keep running into each other? After checking herself for homing devices, she told me to sit down. I did. We sat in the park doing NOTHING for like 4 1/2 hours and it was AWESOME. Relaxing = Great. Then we got pizza on Chernachevskaya, and judged each other's tastes in pizza and waffles.

Afterwards, studying all night for grammar!

That brings us to today. I'm going to be taking my grammar final in about 10 minutes, and here I am not actually studying for it. Afterwards, I'm done for the day. I'm going to go to the beach with whoever wants, and I have my guitar, so some serenading will be in order.

I'm having a good week! Yes!

-Э