Monday, July 9, 2001
Tuesday, July 10, 2001
Wednesday, July 11, 2001
Thursday, July 12, 2001
Friday, July 13, 2001
Saturday, July 14, 2001
Sunday, July 15, 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, July 9, 2001
Getting used to this new school schedule is going to be difficult. We had two hours of Grammar this morning, followed by a Reading lesson. It was a lot to digest in one day, and I'm glad it's over. I'm also very glad that I went to bed early last night, because I think I would have been extremely tired otherwise.

After class, I went to Gostiny Dvor with Hatori. He had some photos he wanted to develop, so I waited with him, rather than going straight home. We had a nice time, and I'm glad he put up with me stopping every five minutes to look at things in the stands.

Once I got to Kupchino, I decided to look for a CD by an artist I saw on MTV. When I got home (CD in hand) I found Yulia lying on the couch, feeling sick. She had a fever and looked flushed, and I was a little concerned, but a few hours later, she was feeling much better. I wish I could get over these things so quickly!

I'm excited, because tonight we are going to watch the Jackie Chan movie Shanghai Noon. It will be dubbed into Russian, but fortunately I have seen it already.

Tuesday, July 10, 2001
I was so tired today. Yulia and I were up late watching the movie last night, and when I went to bed I couldn't fall asleep. So I didn't really accomplish that much today, but I did get some laundry and ironing done.

We went to a small cafe next to the grocery store for dinner. I had Chicken Kiev and potatoes, which were very tasty. Then we stopped at the grocery store, got some milk and bread, and rented Road Trip. It was completely dubbed into Russian, which was good on the one hand, because I had to listen to the Russian, but I really would have liked to hear the English slang.

Wednesday, July 11, 2001
We have three new students. A Korean girl, who said her name so fast I didn't catch it, and Alice and David from France. They will only study with us for two weeks. I realized that although I can still understand French perfectly, the part of my brain that knows how to speak it has been completely overrun with Russian. I managed to say to Alice that I studied French for 6 years, but I haven't spoken it for four, so have I forgotten everything. Still, I think she was glad for the attempt.

I had to rewrite my article for the International Student Magazine today, which pretty much consumed my evening. Olga came over and we cemented plans to go to Peterhof on Friday. I hope the weather will be good!

Thursday, July 12, 2001
I was so bored in class today. I didn't like the stories we read very much, so I had a hard time concentrating. Then our new phonetics teacher had us practice hard and soft consonant sounds. Phonetics is never very exciting, but when you just repeat "ta, to, ti -- tya, tyo, tyi" for a couple of hours, it's really tedious.

After class, Alice, Anders and I made plans to meet at a small island park at 5 p.m. In the meantime, Alice and I went to Dom Knigi to look around. I found some sets of old Russian posters that I thought were pretty interesting, so I bought them. Then we met Anders at the park and had quite a nice time just wandering through the tree lined paths.

I finally got home around 8:30 and Yulia said Olga was on her way up. We sat in the kitchen and talked for a while, but Olga was very tired, so she went home. Yulia started to bake a cake for her mother's birthday tomorrow. She tried three times, but each attempt ended in disaster. By the time she was done, the entire apartment was filled with smoke! So I guess she will buy a cake at the bakery tomorrow before she goes to the dacha.

Friday, July 13, 2001
Olga drove me to the edge of frustration today. I will not get into the details, but let's just say that now I understand what Yulia means when she says she can't go out with her.

Peterhof is a lot closer to the city than I thought it was. It only took 35 minutes on the electric train to get there, and we started from a station right in the city. It was only a few more minutes by Marshrutka to get to the palace from the train station.

Peter the Great's summer palace has been compared to Versailles for it's beautiful gardens and numerous fountains. It's located right off the Gulf of Finland; there is a fountain-lined canal that runs from the palace to the sea. Each fountain in the park is natural -- no pumps required!

I only had an opportunity to walk through the park today, so I will have to return at some point to see the inside of the palace.

See the photos

Saturday, July 14, 2001
Yulia and I decided to go see Pearl Harbor today. We got to the theater at about 6:30 p.m., and the next show didn't start until 8:30. We bought our tickets, which was interesting because they have reserved seating, and decided to get something to eat.

We walked down Nevsky Prospekt to a small cafe which is themed on a popular Russian comedy show on TV. There were televisions all over the restaurant playing episodes from the TV show. Some of it was pretty funny, but other parts were not. Regardless, the food was good!

After eating we sat in front of Kazansky Cathedral for a while, and then went to the theater. On the way there, we ran into Ashot and Lena, who had just caught the last showing of the movie. We laughed a bit about the coincidence, and then continued on our way. I bought a box of popcorn even though I was still pretty full from dinner. The theater was beautiful inside, Yulia thinks that it used to be a formal dining room in some aristocrat's home.

As for the movie, well, I won't go into much detail about that! I had a very hard time understanding the dialog, but I got the basic plot just fine. We both decided that we saw each and every one of the 3,000 people die, the battle scene was so long.

Sunday, July 15, 2001
Today Yulia and I went on an outing with Ilya and Natasha. After my less than terrific experience at Peterhof on Friday, Yulia had asked Ilya and Natasha if they wanted to go there Sunday with us. (They laughed, because they know how Olga is!) In the meantime, Yulia and I had decided to go a little farther along the Gulf of Finland to another palace at Oranienbaum. We decided to do both.

We wandered slowly through the gardens at Peterhof, but it was extremely crowded. The first stop we made was at the "water road" where Peter had trick fountains edging the path. I got completely drenched! Then we continued through the western portion of the park for another hour or two.

After stopping at Peterhof, we decided to get some food at a cafe, which was not very good. Then we drove the 7 miles to Oranienbaum. The poor palace is really falling apart. We walked through the overgrown garden, and decided to take a paddleboat onto the pond behind the palace. It was pretty rickety, but it didn't sink. While we were in the middle of the pond, Yulia's cell phone rang; it was Kyle. We all just started to laugh, because the circumstances were just so ridiculous. Ilya and I had to stop pedaling because Yulia wouldn't have been able to hear over the squeaking from the paddles.

On the way back to the city, we stopped to look at a neo-gothic church that was built sometime in the last century. It was incredible; each portion was covered with elaborate detail.

See the photos