Monday, June 25, 2001
Tuesday, June 26, 2001
Wednesday, June 27, 2001
Thursday, June 28, 2001
Friday, June 29, 2001
Saturday, June 30, 2001
Sunday, July 1, 2001

Pre-Trip Journal Week One Week Two Week Three Week Four Week Five Week Six Week Seven Week Eight Week Nine Week Ten Week Eleven Week Twelve Week Thirteen Week Fourteen Week Fifteen

Monday, June 25, 2001
Happy Half-Birthday to me! In celebration, Olga and I walked up to Kupchino to buy a tort yozhik. (It's a cake that is shaped like a little hedgehog, complete with mushrooms growing out of it's back.) When we got back to the building, I joined Olga at her apartment to share some stew that her grandmother made. It was delicious. Afterwards we decided to go upstairs to my place to study together. Olga was going to do her English homework, and I was going to do my Russian. We had barely been there two minutes when Yulia, Lena and Yulia's father walked in the door. Our plans to study were foiled.

Yulia's sunburn has turned into a very dark tan. She looks great, after spending two weeks on the beach in Cyprus. She had lots of pictures to show us. Cyprus is beautiful, but very rocky. Yulia has some cuts and scrapes on her arms and legs from climbing around on the cliffs.

Later in the evening Natasha and Ilya came up to visit. This time there was no interpreting; the conversation took place completely in Russian. I understood the main gist of most of it, but I did not catch most of the details. Even so, it's progress, and considering that Yulia is absolutely sick and tired of speaking English, I guess it's a good thing.

Tuesday, June 26, 2001
Not feeling well again today. (I don't think I ever 100% got rid of that cold). I have a pretty nasty sinus infection that is giving me a bad headache. I started taking some antibiotics, so I hope that will do the trick. Still, I'm not feeling anywhere nearly as bad as I did a couple of weeks ago.

Yulia went to the dacha to get Vanya today. Her mother claims that he has really mellowed out, but he seems pretty much the same to me. Still biting, anyway. I just stayed in bed and slept all day. I'm afraid that I will be up all night because I slept too much.

Wednesday, June 27, 2001
Feeling better, but still sick. I slept through the whole night, and woke up around 9 this morning. I am starting to go really crazy just sitting in my room, but every time I get out of bed, Yulia orders me back in. I downloaded some little computer games from the Internet, and those have been keeping me busy, along with reading American short stories.

Vanya has been pretty nice to me today. I think he's stopped seeing me as a threat because all I do is lay in bed. He came in and visited me for a while, but as soon as he thinks Yulia is doing something interesting, he runs away.

Thursday, June 28, 2001
So much for Vanya being nice. He just bit me so hard on the palm of my hand, he broke the skin. Yulia thinks it's because I sat on his bed. She yelled at him, and he seemed to understand he did something wrong, so this might be the last time. I sure hope so, because it hurt!

I went to my second class today. Unfortunately, I was very smelly! When I tried to take a shower, there was no water, hot or cold. Yulia says they will turn the cold water back on later today, but that didn't do me any good at the time!

When I arrived at the University, I discovered that we have three new students: two Koreans and a guy from Switzerland named Anders. I don't know the names of the guy and the girl from Korea. I also discovered that today was Jarrod's last day of class. So I was very glad that I climbed out of bed in order to go to class.

After class we walked to Pelikan. The guys were very disappointed that I wouldn't drink beer with them, but they understood under the circumstances. We had a nice time, as usual. I will really miss Jarrod, he is a very kind and interesting man. We said good-bye at the nearest Metro station after exchanging addresses.

I am so exhausted. This was a very big day for me, considering I haven't left the apartment in three days. I bet I'll sleep well tonight!

Friday, June 29, 2001
Yesterday just wore me out. I stayed home and slept most of the day today. I am feeling much better, but still tired. I think that by tomorrow I will be able to go do a little sightseeing, but nothing too strenuous. So I decided to go to the Zoological Museum on Saturday, if I'm feeling up to it.

This evening, Yulia and I walked to the market and bought 500 rubles worth of groceries. I'm glad, but it was a lot to carry home. One of the neighbors commented on our numerous sacks and she explained that it was "breakfast." We came home, put our groceries away, and then took Vanya for a walk.

While we were out with Vanya, we ran into Ilya and Natasha. They had planned to come up to visit tonight, but they were still hosting a party for Natasha's father's birthday. They invited us in, and I met Natasha's parents and sister, Ilya's parents, and Kolya's parents from across the hall. It was quite a fun time.

Saturday, June 30, 2001
Big news today. I had asked my dad to look into changing my tickets home because I decided that I didn't want to spend 6 days in Amsterdam by myself. (My friend Lindsey was supposed to meet me there, but she bought a house instead.) So now I will return on Sunday, September 16.

I did go to the Zoological Museum today. It was pretty strange. Lots of old, ratty stuffed animals in cases. Some of the specimens were from Peter the Great's collection, which makes them about 300 years old. The newer ones are much better preserved. They had lots of dioramas, and they seem to like to show animals with their kills.

They have a world-famous collection of mammoth remains at the museum, some of which still have their fur. They even had a nearly complete carcass, with about half of it's trunk missing. Mammoths were really big, as I could see from some of the skeletons. It was pretty interesting to see, because I watched the mammoth special on the Discovery channel this spring.

I also saw some animals that I had never even heard of before, called saiga. They live in what was the Southeastern European portion of the USSR, which would be Kazakhstan, I guess. They sort of look like a cross between a goat and a tapir. I also saw a small deer with fangs, which I thought was sort of creepy. Why does a deer need fangs? All and all, it was interesting, but I still prefer the Field Museum in Chicago.

See the photos

Sunday, July 1, 2001
It was so incredibly hot today. It must have been in the upper 80's (Ok, I know, everyone in Minnesota is recovering from a heat wave. You're all scoffing at me, but remember, it's only been in the mid-70's here!) and humid. Yulia, Lena and I went to the dacha to get out of the city heat. When we got there, Yulia's dad suggested that we go swimming in the quarry, which sounded like a great plan to me. We bought a bunch of cherries and nectarines at the market, changed into our bathing suits, and we were off.

There were many, many people at the quarry, but it was just fine. We laid out our towels, and then made a beeline for the water. Since it's a quarry, the water is really deep, which also means that it is really cold! But after the initial shock, it was a lovely place to swim. And I was happy because there were no fish to bite me. (Every time I swim in a lake, I get bit by a fish. I think my pale skin glows under the water and looks tasty to them.)

After spending about 3 hours at the quarry, we returned to the dacha to go to the banya. The banya is basically a sauna, but after steaming for a while, you beat each other with leafy branches. It was quite nice actually. I was quite surprised at how comfortable I felt with Yulia and Lena. I think that maybe the big beer I had at the beach helped, though.

It was very hot and crowded on the way home. We had to stand on the train nearly the entire way. I felt very ill, so I was extremely glad when we finally got off the train. It was like stepping out of an oven! Once we got home, I drank a lot of water. Now I'm going to bed because I have to get up and go to class tomorrow.