Monday, July 23, 2001
Tuesday, July 24, 2001
Wednesday, July 25, 2001
Thursday, July 26, 2001
Friday, July 27, 2001
Saturday, July 28, 2001
Sunday, July 29, 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 23, 2001
I am really worn out from this weekend. I woke up this morning, and every part of my body ached. The soreness was solved by a warm bath, but I am still pretty tired. I took the day off, relaxing until about 3 p.m.

I tried to connect to the Internet and discovered that we had run out of time. I had to go out anyway, so I looked in the mall for a Russia Online card. No such luck. I went down to their offices on Nevsky to pay in person, and then went to Sever (North) to buy a cake. (Sara wanted to give Yulia a present for all her help, and we both decided that a cake was just the thing.) I had no idea what to get, so I finally settled on Tort Ideal. I picked up some flowers on the way home, so I was well armed with gifts. Yulia kept telling me that I shouldn't have let Sara buy her a gift, but I told her to stop complaining and eat some cake.

Tuesday, July 24, 2001
Today was Ilya's birthday. We had a small party for him downstairs, with Natasha, her mother, Kolya's mom (because she was locked out of her apartment), Yulia and I. The food was delicious: we had salads, fried chicken, potatoes and a cake.

Lindsey, my best friend, called me this evening. It was pretty exciting to talk to her on the phone. Neither of us had much time to talk, because she had to go to work, and I had to go to Ilya's birthday party, but she said she will call tomorrow morning.

Wednesday, July 25, 2001
I talked to Lindsey a bit more today. She still didn't have a lot of time, but that was Ok. Our conversation was slightly awkward because we haven't talked to each other in two months, but that's probably to be expected. It sounds like everything is pretty normal at home. She did tell me I should come home early, though. I told her that I've already been through enough trouble changing my ticket once. I'm not going to do it again!

Yulia's boss let her go today, with full pay until the 31st, when her job was supposed to end. She is very happy about not having to get up early to go to work anymore. I guess I would be, too!

Thursday, July 26, 2001
I think this week's journal entries have been pretty boring. I apologize, but nothing very interesting has happened.

Vanya is my friend now. He slept with me last night, and he gets pretty excited when I play with him. He only bites me when we are "wrestling." I still can't get him to go for a walk with me, though.

I've been working at translating a Russian fairy tale. Yulia has been laughing at me; she keeps telling me to translate something modern like the newspaper. I did learn a new English word today, though: besom. Apparently it's synonymous with "broom." (Yulia had no idea what the Russian word was, either.)

I think tomorrow I'm going to try to get a haircut. This could be really interesting...

Friday, July 27, 2001
After I wrote my journal yesterday, Yulia asked me to go for a walk with her. It was about 1 a.m., and she couldn't sleep because she had a cup of coffee earlier in the evening when she met with her friend. It was a gorgeous night, so I agreed.

I was surprised at how dark it was outside. The white nights are slowly winding down, and I hadn't really noticed how much darker the evenings have become. We walked for almost two hours with Vanya, including a stop to get shaverma. It's an interesting food made with gyro-like meat, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions and seasoned mayonnaise wrapped in a pita.

We were both pretty tired today due to our late-night walk. I made spaghetti for dinner. Then we walked to the grocery store, got some treats from the bakery section, and rented an old Michael J. Fox movie. Now we're going to bed fairly early.

Saturday, July 28, 2001
I slept pretty late today. Yulia came to wake me and asked me if I wanted to go to the beach on the Gulf of Finland with Lena and Ashot. I thought it was a great idea, so we rushed to get ready. We met at the Finlandsky Train Station, and had just enough time to buy our tickets, some popcorn, and some really great ice cream before getting on the train.

The place we got off was gorgeous. It was an old resort on the coast which they are working to renovate. Since it is on the north side of the Gulf, the beach was full of sun and soft, white sand. The water was perfect, but very shallow -- which is probably why it's so warm. I had to go a long distance out from shore before I could actually swim, but I didn't mind. The big surprise, for me, was that the water is not salty. Apparently there are enough rivers opening out into the Gulf that the water is still fresh here.

The funniest moment of the day was when Vanya decided to help me dig a hole in the sand to put my bottle of pop into to keep it cool. He was a good digger, and got very into his task -- to the point where he bit my hand (not hard) when I tried to move some of the sand away. Needless to say, he was a big help. He saved me a lot of time at my task.

Sunday, July 29, 2001
Today was another day spent at the beach. This time we (Yulia, Lena and I) decided to take the Metro to Ozerki (Lakes). The beach was dirty and crowded, and the sand was pretty rocky. But we stayed for a few hours anyway. There were some interesting characters around, which made for some good laughs.

After the beach we decided to get some dinner at the McDonald's in Petrogradskaya, the oldest residential area in St. Petersburg. I can't believe I've been in this city for nine weeks, and I had never been to this part of town. It's stunning! We walked all over Petrogradskaya, and finally ended up on the bank of the Neva. To our surprise, and my frustration, we discovered it was Navy Day today.

I was a little disappointed that we had spent the day at the lake when I could have seen the Naval parade on the river. (Navy Day is really important to St. Petersburg, because the city was founded by Peter the Great as the home of his Russian Navy.) Still,we walked through the Fortress, and then over to the Naval Museum, where there was a live concert. The first group was pretty good, but the next woman to get on the stage drove everyone home.