Dear America:

I miss your clean drinking water, fresh air, and friendly customer service.
I'll see you in ten days.
love,

Sara

The Captain's Daughter

Today I went to Pushkin, a town about 25km outside of St. Petersburg, where Tsarkoe Selo (Tsar's Village) is - it's another summer palace, favored by Catherine the Great.

I got up at 9 and went down to Gostiny Dvor, a metro station on Nevsky Prospect, hoping to be able to join an excursion for the trip. You have to take the metro, and then two buses to get their on your own and can only enter the palace without a tour group at certain hours, so I decided to fork over the 1800 roubles (60 dollars) to go with an excursion. It was in English! and for sure worth it! It was nice to be around other English speakers and our guide's accent could rival Cassie's Russian accent. Classic.

main gate

We left at 2 and arrived after about an hour drive. The palace is really beautiful and enormous, but only certain rooms are open for tour groups. They are still doing a lot of restoration on the rest of it.

the fancy dining room

I can't remember what this room was for, but my first thought was Mom would've loved it since it was all green and pink!

the main hall

Catherine's study

Mostly what I've decided from traveling to these palaces is that I need a summer palace. With about 100 acre park to wander around in and have parties. So the main reason Tsarkoe Selo is so cool is because of the Amber Room (which, of course, is the one room you can't take pictures in). The Amber Room was given to Peter the Great from Germany, but not installed in the Palace until Empress Elizabeth. Like most of everything cool in Russia, the Nazis stole the Amber Room and re-installed it in a castle in Germany. That castle was bombed though, so apparently someone dismantled the Amber Room and put it somewhere safe. Now it's "lost." Yep. Lost. Anyway, after looking for it for many years, the Soviet government finally gave up and started building a new amber room in the 1970s. Well, they didn't get that many years of work in before the Soviet Union collapsed. Point is, it only reopened 7 years ago. Anyway, the entire walls are made of Amber and it looks really really cool. Here's a picture I found from the internet, I don't know who that person is..

Apparently it's called the 8th Wonder of the World, but I can't really confirm that. I can confirm that it's really pretty, though!

I got back around 7 and now I'm completely exhausted! I have class tomorrow and on Saturday I'm going to another museum and then to see Romeo and Juliet! I think it's a ballet, but I got my tickets only speaking Russian, so I'm not 100%. I'm excited either way!

Russian Randomness #13-17

13. I've seen Hare Krishnas several times since I've been here, which led me to look up Hare Krishnas on wikipedia and it turns out that the movement is pretty big in post-Soviet countries. who knew?

14. Tom and I enjoy a "business lunch" (see #15) at an Indian restaurant every Friday. Now every Friday and Monday because they changed our class schedule. It is unbelievably delicious and I look forward to enjoying my multi-course meal and bollywood videos all week.

15. The Business Lunch. Бусинесс Ланч in Russian. Pronounced "bizniz lanch." This is one thing I find particularly interesting. Most of the world I think uses English words for things dealing with computers or the internet, etc. But Russia uses English words for all things dealing with capitalism.

16. Although a beautiful city, St. Petersburg is not one of beautiful smells. However, there are about a million Lush stores throughout the city that emit probably one of the only smells I recognize. Also, I buy my fruit from these stands set up on the street in the summer and every time I walk buy one I take in a big deep breath of fresh produce. Otherwise, I breathe through my mouth.

17. This is what Tom's lunch looks like every day from the school cafeteria. He never knows what the meat is...

Catching Up

Ok. Catching Up isn't the title of a Russian book, but its what I'm doing, since I haven't written here in a while....

So last Tuesday, Tom and I went to the Mariinsky Theater to see an Opera. How high class of us. We say La Traviata, obviously Italian, and they had subtitles which were obviously in Russian, needless to say, Tom and I had NO idea what was going on at all. I know this much - two lovers cannot be together for some unknown reason, then they are together, then she dies. Nonetheless, it was very pleasant to sit in our little box and listen to the music. Here's a not very good picture:
Obviously, the Mariinsky is known for ballet, but they are closed the last part of July and all of August, so we only made it in time to see an opera. I might try to go to the ballet this weekend if I can find tickets available at another theater.

On Thursday, I intended to go to the Summer Palace, but ironically it's closed this summer. So instead I went to the Marble Palace, which was about a 10 minute walk away. And you can get to like 5 more palaces within 10 more minutes probably. There are a lot of palaces... The Marble Palace now houses some exhibitions for the Russian Museum - mostly contemporary art. And they had a cool section of advertising posters from the 1900-1920s. Out front of the palace is a statue of Alexander III, notable only for how stout the Tsar and the horse look.On Saturday, I didn't do anything particularly interesting. But Sunday, I went to the Museum of Russian Political History. Now, I had marked this off my list of things to do, but boy am I glad I still went. I thought there wouldn't be anything in English, but in each exhibition a museum lady gave me a little booklet that explained everything! The museum was really cool, especially the sections on the revolution and Stalin, obviously. I'm happy to report that the museum was highly critical of Stalin. That may not surprise you, but since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Stalin has again risen in popularity. People seem to think it's permissible to starve the Ukraine to have a powerful Russia... There were lots of cool propaganda posters:

I realize you can't see this that well - but at the top it says "We have..." and the bottom says "They have..." It's comparing Soviet life to life under the Nazis. I just thought it was funny how clean and sparkling the Soviet life looks... It could be 1940s America!

This one says "Lenin - Sunshine of the Future"

So far this week I've just been to classes, mostly. There are some French people now staying at my apartment. Which means they are in my room, I'm in Magdalena's room, and Magdalena is sleeping on the tiny sofa thing in the kitchen... I'm trying to stay out of the apartment as much as possible. Less than two weeks!

One Day in the Life of Sara Ashley Nichols

You guys. I was so proud of the title for this post. I've been planning it for a while and all the time I've been very pleased with my own cleverness. Well, Brian assured me that no one else would appreciate it because no one else has ever read the book I'm copying - One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. I guess that's what I deserve.

Anyway, here follows a tale of one day of my life. There isn't as much hard labor as ol' Ivan had to deal with. Also, I'm not in Siberia in the middle of winter, but you know... I am in Russia.

So I go to class at St. Petersburg State University, the "faculty" I'm in is located in the Smolniy Institute. I go to school here:


OK, so I don't really go to class inside the Cathedral, but I do go to class in the same complex, in a building about 50 meters from the Cathedral. Every day when I walk to class there bus loads of tourists taking photos, so I'm all like - excuse me, I'm so important, I need to get through to my classes in this historical landmark.

The Smolniy was built as a convent under Empress Elizabeth, but Catherine the Great converted it to the "Smolniy Institute for Young Noblewomen." (like me). So I go to class right by the convent, but a hop away is the Smolniy Institute, which was built in the early 1800s. A school for noblewomen is kind of boring, but don't you worry, Russian history is never boring! (sometimes it is). In the fall of 1917, the Petrograd Soviet moved to the Smolniy from the Tauride Palace. The Petrograd Soviet was an important supporter of the Bolshevik party, and so on October 25, 1917, as the revolution began, the second All-Russian Congress of the Soviets met at the Smolniy to get their revolution on!

The Convent is pretty cool, it's an icy blue color if you can't tell from the pictures. It looks cooler in pictures though, cause its kind of tacky up close... Anyway, I live about a 35 minute walk from school and spend some quality time there.

After school I usually go for a run in the Tauride gardens, which aren't too far from my apartment. There are a surprising number of gardens and parks in this city, and St. Petersburgers are always sunbathing on the warm days. Lots of times in just their underwear. I guess they have to get their years worth of Vitamin D in about 2 months, so they really go for it.

So then I either study some or go to a museum if I have time. I also eat out most of the time for dinner cause its just awkward to cook at Magdelena's. On Wednesdays Tom and I have been going out with some other people we met at school - an Australian, a New Zealander, an Italian, some Frenchies, and a Spaniard. Quite a diverse group - we speak in English. Ok, so my days aren't that fascinating. I really just wanted to talk about Smolniy. Here are some other pictures:

Neva River. St. Isaac's is on the right

Nevsky Prospect at night.

N

Here are a few interesting articles about Russia:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/weekinreview/11levy.html?pagewanted=1

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/17/world/europe/17rocker.html

War and Peace

Well, ladies and gentlemen, it had to happen again. I thought Magdelena and I had reached a peaceful coexistence. Boy was I wrong. This morning as I'm getting ready to head out to a museum, Magdelena comes in and immediately starts in on one of her rants. This time it's that I have too much stuff. Some of you may recall my sheer pride and joy at only bringing one bag?? So I ignore her and continue to get ready as she says over and over "you have too much!" She pulls open the closet and says "there's too much!" (I have four hangers). She pulls open my three tiny drawers and says "there's too much" and slams them shut.

She's out of her mind. And then she started going through my bag of running clothes (four t-shirts, two pairs of shorts) and that's when I lost it. For some reason, I can understand her Russian when she goes on like this, but I can never form responses in Russian. So I just say in english "So? what do you want me to do about it?" and then when I got really mad I said "Do you want to talk about how dirty this apartment is?" Maybe not the most mature response, but I like speaking in English because I feel like it gives me the upper hand - she has no idea what I'm saying! Ha! Take that! Also I just think its funnier....

Anyway, I left in a huff and she left this afternoon to go to her Dacha, so at least she's gone. She should be back on Tuesday, ugh. By then I'll only have 2.5 more weeks of her and at this rate, there's a major blowout every two weeks, so hopefully I'll only have one left. She sucks.

Then in my bad mood I went to eat a way overpriced lunch, that was delicious, and tried to go to the Russian Museum. However, the 20th Century section is closed until August 5th and I don't really care to see a bunch of Russian icons, so I'll just wait until my last day to go.

But I did go to the Engineer's Castle today. It was a palace built by Tsar Paul I, son of Catherine the Great. Tsar Paul I was kind of a little punk. Pretty much everyone hated him for not being as cool as Catherine, so he had a rough start. He was super paranoid about getting off-ed like his father did, so he built this palace and put a moat around it to keep him safe. Ironically, he was only in the palace for a few months before some conspirators came to assassinate him. And so Alexander I, his oldest son, became Tsar.

So after Paul was murdered, they used the palace for the Engineer's school, hence the new name.

Tsar Paul I. This is a pretty new addition

The Engineer's Castle is technically part of the Russian Museum. There was some art and such inside, but I wasn't really impressed. I was more interested in just seeing the palace. They've only recently restored it to a palace, though, so I think they're working on a lot still.

I wasn't really inspired to do much more the rest of the day. Oh Mother Russia, you're so up and down. Just yesterday I was telling Tom how much happier I've been here and how I've started to like the city more...... maybe I'll be back there tomorrow?? Wish me luck!

Russian Randomness #8-12

8. Why I have only ever made oatmeal with water is beyond me. It's so much more delicious with milk.

9. I'm sure some stereotypes about Russia aren't true. However, there really are a surprising number of drunks stumbling around all the time. And rollerbladers.

10. I've been to Pizza Hut once a week since coming here. I'm not ashamed. It's delicious.

11. The hot water has been turned off in the whole city for the past two weeks for "repairs." I'm lucky that Magdelena has a special heater for her shower (Tom is not so lucky). Also, the water is now a pale yellow color all the time. I'm not sure how they're are repairing that.

12. I wish this wasn't a frequent sight. It is.

Crime and Punishment*

Boy, oh boy. Do I have a treat for you?! Today was my day off from class. I woke up super unmotivated to do anything, but eventually rallied and went to try out a new restaurant - a vegetarian restaurant! And it's not too far from my apartment! And it's not too expensive! And it was delicious! After that great success, I was feeling up for some sightseeing, so I headed over to the Peter and Paul Fortress, which is on a little island in the Neva. But first! I walked over to the see the Aurora!!Guys, this was one of those times when I wished I wasn't by myself because I was giggling with excitement and I think I might've scared some other tourists. Anyway, what is so great about the Aurora anyway?? Well, let me take you back a few years to October 25, 1917, the night of the Bolshevik Revolution. At 9:40, the Aurora moved down river and fired a blank shot at the Winter Palace, where the Provisional Government was located. Blank? That doesn't sound like it would do much damage. It didn't. In fact, the entire evening was a little anti-climatic. A few women defended the Winter Palace, but pretty much no one else did. I'm leaving out a lot... but the point is - the Bolsheviks did a hell of a job the next day, and for the next 75 years, pretending that there was a super dramatic night of fighting and revolting to put them in power.

THE cannon!

This video was made by a super famous director, Sergei Eisenstein, about the October Revolution. Prof. Lohr said more people were injured in the making of the film than in the actual revolution, although I can't confirm that...


And the Aurora played such an important part in the show! Fact of the matter is, there really was no equivalent to the storming of the Bastille for Russia, but post-revolution, they modified history so much that people thought there was! Crazy, right? Isn't Russian history cool?!
Ok, anyway, so then I went to the fortress, which was built in the early 1700s to secure the Neva river. It was first used as a prison in 1718 to torture Peter the Great's son, who died a few days later. Don't commit treason. Don't get tortured. It's as easy as that.

So the main sight at the fortress is the Peter and Paul Cathedral, where all the Romanovs, from Peter the Great until Nicholas II are buried. I think a few are missing, but the main guys (and gals) are there.

Also, interesting fact. During WWII, Alpinists scaled the golden spire and camouflaged it, so the Luftwaffe couldn't see it when they were flying over!

This is Peter's tomb.

This room houses the remains of the last Romanov family. They were placed here in 1998, 80 years after they were killed by the Bolsheviks.

Sure was pretty!

Then I went to the prison museum. The prison was mostly used during Tsarist times to house revolutionaries (like the People's Will, the Decembrists, etc., Russia's got a good mix of revolutionaries) before executing them or sending them off to Siberia. It was used as a prison after the Bolsheviks took over to hold Tsarist officials, but only until 1924 I think, when it was turned into a museum.

This is the room that Maxim Gorky, the father of Socialist Realism, was kept in the years before the Bolshevik revolution. Also, this is the same room Trotsky was kept in under the Tsar! How cool!! The room looks pretty nice, but the prison was notoriously awful. And also, I saw the punishment cell and it was too scary to go in... and too dark to take a picture!

They had some info on the "Prisoner's alphabet" a type of Morse code that they would tap on the floor and walls to their neighbors. This picture probably doesn't mean much to anyone, but in Darkness at Noon, the main character talk about sending messages like this. I don't know if you can tell by the picture, but there are 5 columns and 6 rows and for each letter you'd tap two numbers, 1 for the column, 1 for the row. Clever, huh?

So, all in all, it was a day full of Russian history. Which is a good day in my book! I have class again tomorrow and then the weekend! Hope everyone is doing well at home! I'm almost down to three weeks!

*I should've been using titles of Russian stories to title my posts this whole time! What was I thinking? I wasn't! I won't make that mistake again.

The Weekend

So it's been a pretty good weekend. On Friday, Lauren, Tom and I went to a really cool bar off Nevsky Prospect. It was very cozy and two guys played spanish guitars and I had the most delicious mojito ever! Then we went to watch the bridges on the Neva rise. They open the bridges around 2am during the summer to let the ships pass through, and everyone goes down to the water to watch. It's quite the sight.My pictures don't really show how cool it is...

This is the Peter and Paul Fortress, which is on an island right across the river from where we were. Please note how dark the sky is at 2am. It's by far the darkest I've seen it since I've been here. We walked past the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood and it looked super cool at night. Again, the picture doesn't do it justice.

We were enjoying our mojitos a little too long, so we had to rush down to the water, but we got there in time to see one bridge open. It was lovely.

Today, I went to see the Church of St. Nicholas, which is really pretty.
And then I went to the Yusupov Palace. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of it, but it is supposed to be one of the loveliest palaces in St. Petersburg, and I have to agree. Everything was opulent, for sure, but managed to look classier than a lot of other palaces. Plus, there was a tiny sized theater for private performances, and it just looked like a miniature of a big fancy theater house. It was awesome. They still have performances there, but I'm pretty sure you have to be more important than I am to go. I tried to buy a pack of postcards with pictures of the different rooms so I could show everyone, but the woman wouldn't sell it to me because I didn't have exact change.... She wasn't really in a problem solving mode I don't think. Maybe I can find them somewhere else.

Anyway, tonight I'm headed out with Lauren and Tom again. Lauren leaves tomorrow and I have to say I will be very sad to see her go! This city could use a few more Americans. I'm going to study a bunch tomorrow. The Italians in my class have left now, so it will just be Tom, a Japanese kid, and I, so it will be way more obvious that I have no idea what's going on a lot of the time... Wish me luck!

Oh, also - Magdelena wants to make me have more color, right? Well her idea of a hearty breakfast turns out to be Cocoa Puffs, which she fed me the next morning! Ew! My milk turned into chocolate milk! So I told her I preferred oatmeal, and this morning I had oatmeal and cherry chocolate yogurt! Ew! Why? Why must I eat chocolate things for breakfast? I told her I didn't like it very much though, so hopefully she won't buy anymore. We'll see..

Peterhof

So today Lauren, Tom and I ventured out to Peterhof. It's a palace about 20km outside the city on the Gulf of Finland. After a pretty quick ferry ride to get there, we went to see the Great Palace. Peterhof was started by Peter the Great; he designed a lot of it and worked on it some himself, but even so, the Great Palace as it is now wasn't finished until Empress Elizabeth's reign. A lot of it was modeled on Versailles, so you can imagine similar opulence.
We had to wait to get our tickets because, as you can see, the ticket office is closed to foreigners for 2.5 hours. I thought that sign must be wrong so I walked up to the window and handed the lady my money. Nope, she wouldn't give me a ticket until 2:30. Not only did I have to pay almost $20 to get in, while Russians get in for about $5, but I also couldn't buy a ticket when I wanted to. Gotta love the double standards.
The palace was really beautiful, but a lot of it isn't what was here originally. The palace took quite the beating during WWII, as did most of Russia... but its been restored pretty remarkably.

After the palace, we went to the Lower Park to see a bunch of fountains. The palace grounds are enormous, so we barely just covered them even though it felt like we were walking forever.There are a few "joke" fountains, like this one, above, which looks like a spruce tree. There are some secret fountains hidden behind some benches near the tree that go off when you step on certain rocks apparently.
All of the fountains in Peterhof are gravity fed by water from some hills a bit away, which seems to be a pretty remarkable feat.
Also, interestingly, Catherine the Great (prior to being great) lived at Peterhof with her husband Peter III in a smaller home called Montplaisir (pictured below). She was hanging out there in 1762 when she got the news from her lover, Alexei Orlov, that her coup against Peter III was being carried out. So she quickly headed for St. Petersburg to rally her supporters and by the end of the day, she was in charge! (Peter III soon met his end).
After looking at the fountains, we caught a bus to a metro station. It was about a 45 minute ride in ridiculous heat, but the metro station was so beautiful it was worth it. Stalin was super into building really elaborate metro stations, so a lot of them are very pretty, but this was by the far the best. I don't think you're allowed to take pictures, but I snapped one real quick because I'm so dedicated to my readers... That Stalin really had his priorities the right place - starve the Ukraine, build pretty metro stations. Good work.On another note, Magdelena returned from her Dacha today and kindly told me that I'm too pale and I need to eat more so I'm redder. I wish I had a picture of her so I could show you, but you'll just have to take my (and Tom's) word for it, but she is far from a picture of health. It bothers her so much that I want to eat yogurt and oatmeal for breakfast, but the only other stuff she's given me have been frozen bliny (like a pancakey roll) filled with potatoes and fried in butter. Not really a healthy start to the day.

Anyway, I think she's leaving again tomorrow or the next day. I hope so. But hey - at least I'm getting better at understanding her when she's insulting me!

Random Russian things #1-7

1. I would likely kill for peanut butter right now.

2. The water here smells remarkably awful. Besides the giardia that makes us foreigners sick, it also has high levels of heavy metals, like lead. Oh yea, I know lead is awful for you, turns out Russians don't. (I've been brushing my teeth with bottled water)

3. I bought olive oil from the grocery store and it came with a security sensor like I had just bought a $100 sweater from the Gap?

4. I mostly sing this song to myself as I walk to school....

5. I've only been harassed by drunks before noon.

6. I live with this cat:7. Its super popular here to take wedding photos in front of memorials, monuments, churches, etc., so not a day has gone by that I haven't seen at least 1 wedding party. They favor hoop skirt dresses, shiny suits, and hummer limos as well.

The weekend

My weekend got off to a good start, came to a screeching halt Friday night, and then picked up again. I went to a blues bar with some people from the Center friday night. It was surprisingly good. They played all American songs, even threw in a little Alicia Keys. Then we went to another bar and mingled with some Russians, but they wanted to practice their English, which I can't say I really opposed...But then, I got back around 2am to my apartment (disclaimer: that's not actually that late here, since its daylight all the time people stay up all the time). And try to sneak quietly to my room. Nope, my host comes in to yell at me! When I left the power had been off at the apartment for 3 hours, and apparently I left my lights "on" even though they weren't on when I left, they came on when the power came back on, you get me? Anyway, instead of being a little accident, this was the biggest problem in ALL of history. Magdelena was to say the least. I was very unhappy with her reaction and had it all planned out in my mind how I would go to the school and demand to be switched to a nicer lady.

However, in the morning, I get up still in a bad mood and go into breakfast. Magdelena pulls out her English/Russian dictionary (who knew she had this the whole time?) and tells me "not to take offense" at last night (clearly she has to show me this verb in said dictionary). Ha! And then she said my Russian is so much better and made me snacks in the afternoon and soup for dinner! Maybe she's chemically unstable?? Anyway, I'll try to remember in the future to not "take offense" when she's being rude. We'll see. I guess I just don't have thick Russian skin.

So Saturday, I had planned to go to the Peter and Paul Fortress, but I was slow getting ready after my run and lunch, etc. that I didn't have much time. So instead I went to the Museum of the Defense of Leningrad - about the 900 day siege during WWII (called the "Blockade" to Russians), when about (depending on who you ask) 600,000-1 million people died. The museum was pretty small, but really interesting. A docent woman talked to me when I got there in a very weird mix of Russian/English, but then I roamed around on my own - there were placards in English. They had a lot of cool propaganda posters, in which the Nazis looked remarkably like these guys:
It was a good museum though and did a good job of mixing the military goings-on with the tragedy of life of the average folk in Leningrad. I did notice one thing a bit off: A lot of historians fault Stalin for not being prepared to the war even though he knew it was coming. Same with the siege of Leningrad. Hilter was not quiet about wanting to take the city, but Stalin did not start to prepare the city until just a few days before the Nazis were almost there! There was one placard that pretty well glossed over that whole fact and just said "they weren't that prepared...." Some historians add the deaths during the Siege to Stalin's tally, making him a much worse guy than Hilter in final count.
On a lighter note.... after the museum, I went to this market area where they sell all kinds of crafts and souvenirs to check things out. I now know what I'm going to get everyone. Matryoshka dolls. But not matryoshka dolls like you'd think.
One like this:
Or this:Don't worry. I will customize based on personal preference.
For instance, Brian is getting one of Osama Bin Laden that says "Wanted: Dead or Alive." Classy.

Harry Potter count: 3 (also can we talk about how Harry, Ron, and Hermione have the wrong colors on! Freaking Amateurs!)

I didn't really take many pictures this weekend, but here's one of the Fontanka (a river that runs through the city)

Also - my friend and former roommate Lauren, from DC, (also Tom's girlfriend) arrived last night to visit for a week! Yay!

So this week has gone ok. After I got a stomach virus or something, it got a lot better. On Thursday, I had another day off and did a bit of sightseeing. I went to the AdmiraltyThere's not much to report on it, built in the 1820s (as it is now) as a fortified shipyard. It was pretty though, and more notably, the statute The Bronze Horseman, of Peter the Great is in the surrounding gardens.
Maybe you've heard of it from Pushkin's poem of the same name? I've never read it, but it's kind of a big deal. The statute was commissioned by Catherine the Great as a symbol of "enlightened absolutism," ideals she shared with Peter. The rock that the is the base was brought from a village outside of St. Petersburg, that Peter stood on to survey the land for the city.

Right across the way from the statue is St. Isaac's Cathedral. St. Isaac is a patron saint of Peter, who was born on his feast day. Wikipedia tells me the design of the dome of the Cathedral influenced the design of the Capital in DC! Also, I heard some tour guide say it is the fourth largest dome in Europe, but I can't find anywhere to confirm that...
Anyway, the inside was really beautiful - decorated with 14 different types of marble! My pictures don't really do it any justice, per usual, but here's one anyway. I climbed the colonnade to take a gander at the city. In this picture you can see the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood on the left, and in the right, very, very tiny in the back is the Winter Palace, which I haven't been to yet, but is the highlight of Saint Petersburg.

Here's some less lovely skyline. I call this picture Empire State of Mind (those are oil rigs, if you can't tell).Later, I walked around some and went to the bookstore again to get a pocket dictionary. Also (this is big, get ready), I bought Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Or should I say: Гарри Поттер И философский камен. That's right, Harry Potter in Russian.

Now let's recap:
Age: 22
Number of blog spots about Russia: 7
Number of blog posts that have mentioned Harry Potter: 2
(don't worry, there's more to come)