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!

haven't been online in a few days. saving money. wednesday i went with Kelly and Vlad to the Walnut Fortress (although he told us it was the Walnut Forest and we were confused until we got there). it was awesome. don't feel like typing much here for some reason. yes i'm alive. tonight i take the night train to Moskva so i won't be online until next week. be patient. my cold is still running strong... i think i'm allergic to city pollution.

well downloading AIM....not working well. each of these computers has different programs on it, and i happened to get the one that does have it. i am going to have to leave earlier in the morning... the 9am crowd is too big. i had to wait for a few trains to go by before i got up in line to get on...and then i was jammed in there. lovely scents in the morning.

this cold is kicking my butt still. at least i found out one of the girls has sudafed. :) it's not fun coughing when you are too smashed up other people to move your hand to your mouth.

last night i watched a program filmed in Moscow....all these mothers were on with with pictures of their sons and daughters that had disappeared recently. there were dozens of women on the show. it was depressing, to say the least, but in one instance, the wife and husband were rejoined. they found him in Chechnya. you can guess how he got there.

there is always so much i plan on saying...but when i get here i forget.
oh yeah. the disk drive on this computer isn't working. whenever i finally do send out pics there will be a lot of them.

they say the American students that come here like it the first week, are bored the second week, and can't wait to go home by the third week. when we were told this yesterday we were shocked. it's true that this week isn't as "exciting" -- but we're more comfortable. i seriously doubt i'll be chomping at the bit by next week. this place still has too many secrets.

hmm finally getting AIM to download. it's only about time for me to head to class...

funny when i read over my previous posts and recognize all the typos. when i'm in a hurry i don't care about the little mistakes.
i will be here around 8:15 tomorrow morning...that is 11:15 for all you "central" people. hopefully there will be people online. not that i'm lonely or bored or anything. there are plenty of people in this city.

and how is my language study going? it is amazing how much i am beginning to understand. i still have problems communicating, but listening is the first to master. tv shows are making sense.

wow! aim is working. and i'm talking to people! :) oh my lord it's a holiday!

what a few days it has been since i last posted. saturday night we got together and went to the Tikhoff again to listen to some Russian jazz. it was pretty good. sunday i went to Puskhin (Tsakoe Selo) and Pavlovsk. i took pictures but can't email them out b/c i brought the wrong disk. then we went to the Sting concert....that's right, boys...i listened to Sting in St. Petersburg!!! it was awesome. he is an incredible musician. after that, i went with Denis, Shaun, and their hostesses to a real Russian diskoteka. i wore my paisley silk dress... the ladied did me up...complete with lots of make up and poofy hair. we got there at one am... and left around five. i had to pay 200 rubles for a taxi to get home b/c the metro was closed and i didn't want to wait until 6am... it was convenient. the diskoteka was very fun... cleaner, brighter, cheaper... but all russian dance music. :) then i woke up at 8:30 (sorry if anyone was waiting to talk to me online) and came to school... eto vsyo (that's all).

saturday afternoon...it's 5:15pm... i didn't do much yesterday..except, oh --- visit the Hermitage! they said it would take over nine years of constant walking to see all of the exhibitions. imagine that. i saw several old mosaics, gold-leaf hallways...i wonder how Russia would have done if the Tzars had fed the people instead of spending millions of Rubles to decorate their summer palaces. "it's for show only...for the diplomats of other countries." ah. that's disgusting. no wonder the Revolution began there.

last night we were going to go to a Diskoteka (dance club) but when we all got to our homes and had dinner, no one felt like going back out again. i personally was feeling like crap. i have this terrible cold, and Aleve just doesn't cut it. oh-- and they don't have tissues here. i've been using the card-board toilet paper and napkins i've taken from the cafes. considering it is finally warming up, the cold might go away.

oh---here's some interesting new i forgot to mention yesterday : the city is turning off the hot water in our district from the 5th of june to the 27th. for "testing" purposes. to make sure the hot water will work in january, i suppose. imagine if they told st. louis residents this. what a riot!

the gypsies have arrived. when i walked through a tourist district today (i won't do that again) i saw them everywhere... the women carry babies and ask for money... the men are no where to be seen. it makes me wonder what mischief they are up to. Vladimir Petrovich told me to never look at them and walk quickly by. if they stop me, ignore them. and yell at them in Russian. never English. however, if i am attacked, i must scream loudly in English and the police will come. i've heard that many times the children will surround tourists, and poke them with needles so that they'll let go of their bags/wallets. sounds fun, doesn't it?

if anyone wants to get pictures, let me know. i have been emailling several out to people who've asked. Paka~~