Priviet Everyone! I am alive, and i believe it has been a record...not being online for five days! anyway...
I WAS IN MOSCOW!!! can you believe that? and to tell you the truth, i was excited the entire time. even though it rained. hailed. dropped in temperature.

and yet... (i am going to make this as brief as i can) Moscow just wasn't St. Petersburg. it was a gigantic city that just happened to have onion domes on the churches. and the body of a man who changed history. St. Pete is more like St. Louis and Moscow more like Chicago, i decided. it is ironic that the city built to be "european" is more Russian than the first and current Russian capital. still...i was in the Kremlin. i saw Lenin's body (he seemed less real than Ramses II in Cairo did). i went into the church where the Tsars were corronated (before they went to St. Pete). i saw the White House. i saw the Moscow River, the Bolshoi theater i had to ask directions to my first year in Russian class.... and i took picture after picture and bought many things (i did it all in Russian! you try to barter in another language!) ...

and monday we went to class as soon as we got off the train. then yesterday i slept b/c it was a holiday and it was raining...it's been raining a lot the past week. i'm sure i needed the sleep too. my cold is slowly, bit-by-bit fading... but not gone.

i am finally looking more Russian...i walk around with a plastic shopping bag carrying my items instead of my backpack. my bag is a big advertisement for Winston cigarettes, but i don't care. people don't immediately think i'm foreign anymore and the gypsies bother me less. no one carried backpacks, and everyone has a plastic bag (they don't give you one when you shop-- you need to have your own). also since i've washed my clothing here...they're not as bright. my white handkerchief was pure white and came out of the washing machine yellow. i can't wait to wash this stuff at home. makes you understand why no one drinks the water. it's the color of urine.

and yet-- i love St. Petersburg! i feel almost like i'm in Japan...city with the rain.... i remember when i was little and always had my umbrella with me. and i have to relearn to avoid cars... i got splashed pretty badly last week.

i bought some Russian CDs. i had to get the pop one of all the songs i hear over and over in the stores, metro, stations, kiosks, discoteks.... i know all the pop songs now... you would too, if you were here 2.5 weeks.

that's right. i leave St. Petersburg next Friday at 7pm. then i spend the night in Frankfurt (that should be fun). then to DC, then to Charelston. then i'm sure i'll sleep for a bit. ;)

well i must head off to class. Paka!