multiple days

Sorry this is soo long...have a limited amount of wifi at mickdonalds and didn't have this typed outbefore I came here :) will next time

love to all

Saturday
Went to the Political History museum. It covers from 1917 to Sputnik era. It was a really cool exhibition that was in the house of Nick the 2nd’s mistress (the house was built by two other grand dukes. It had a lot of Lenin’s personal belongings and different things from the 1917 Revolutions. It then moved on the “Atrocious War” or the battles between the Red and White armies soon after the Bolsheviks took over the government. After that there was an area dedicated to how horrible Stalin was and what he did to people. They had interesting Communist posters (even ones that you could buy). After the museum Rachel and I went to Peter’s Cabin (the oldest building inm St. Petersburg). And when they say that Catherine the Great “inclosed the building in brick” they literally mean that give a space of 4 feet, they placed another house made of brick over the old cabin.

Sunday.

Moved into the homestay with Rita in the poring rain. Got settled in and then she showed me around the area. There are three grocery stores near buy.

Monday
Rita made me a GINORMAOUS omelet for breakfast and provided nesquick, apple juice and yogurt. It was sooo good. At 5pm, AIFS went to a hockey game (SP vs. Moscow: 4 to 1) The game was really cool. You can’t bring food from the food court into the game and the riot police enclose the other teams happy fans. And these fans (on both sides) were like gigantic student sections at college football games: they were loud, and very very excited (with organized chants and a drum and huge flags!). Since we won, I got a scarf. Walking back from the metro for the first time in the dark was fine, not even really scary.

Tuesday/today
Had lots of fun adventures trying to get train tickets for Haleigh and I for break when we are going to Vladimir and Suzdal. Was going to try to find internet then brave the Russian train station, but decided to trade our return tickets first. Which was fun because what Katherine told us to look for was not there. Finally got those exchanged and then went looking for internet, but realized that once I had it would be too late to go to travel agencies. So I went to a travel agency instead. That was fun. They couldn’t buy the Moscow-Vladimir-Moscow ticket because it is a fast train and you can only get those at the train station. So the agent gave me a typed piece of paper in Russian telling the ticket agent what I wanted to buy. However, they were able to get the return train ticket from Moscow to St. P. However, we do have to stay an extra night in Vladimir due to the train schedule (have not tried to call the hotel to extend our stay yet). Now I am using wifi at micky D’s in which I got a large fry and small drink for 3 bucks to calm my conscious. The frys taste the same (this really did shock me). I tried to order in Russian and then he gave me a multi language menu and I pointed. When he asked me a question I responded in Russian and he didn’t understand me, so I switched back to English. I really didn’t get why saying “small” in Russian in response to “big or little” in English didn’t get comprehended, but oh well…