Sorry it's been so long!

We took our 22 hour train ride from Moscow down to Volgograd, and arrived in the morning to be registered at the school. In Russia you must register whenever you change locations for an extended stay. So we had to have all of our papers checked and we recieved new ones saying we're allowed to be here legally.

The city is very beautiful. Its usually very sunny, although its been drizzling today. The Volga River is huge! We walked down near it yesterday and I couldn't believe how big it was. Our school is just a few blocks from the river. The side we are on has docks and such. On the opposite side is where people own cottages and there are public beaches. We all want to go swimming while we're here. I'm sure we'll have plenty of hot weather to do so.

I live in a little apartment in the suburbs. I have to take a "marshrutka" in the morning to school. It's basically a van with a bunch of seats that you get in and a pay a set amount for your destination. When you see where you want to stop you have to yell at the driver to pull over (in russian of course!) When its really busy the drivers sometimes pick up too many people and people stand up by the door leaning on a railing. It would definitely not fly in America.

I have a mom Olga and a dad Kolya. Olga stays at home with their daughters Katya and Sasha. Kolya is a prison guard and he was in the Chechnyan war. Sasha is 7 and in school. She starts learning English in the fall so she's very interested in our alphabet and simple words. She laughs all the time at them. Katya is going on 2 and she cannot talk yet. We are very good friends since no one can understand us! No on in the house speaks English so its a constant struggle. Its been getting progressively better just this week so I'm sure it will get even better.

Our school has a computer lab, and my family also has internet. The School is very small. There are 9 of us and we were split into two groups. I am in the first group with some of the upper level students and one other person from my 200 level classes. So far we've had conversation, phonetics, and grammer. We have culture classes this week as well. I really don't like grammer, but I enjoy conversation. After class we all go out for lunch and hang out down town before going back to our houses.

The first couple of days our "parents" picked us up and dropped us off at school so we didn't really get time to explore the city or hang out after class. It made the week go by really slow having to be at home. I'm sure the next 4 weeks will fly by now that we'll be doing class and hanging out and going on some excursions in the city.

I'm definitely craving American food already, but I do like a lot of the food I've had here. Everyone is addicted to green apple Fanta, which is just as good as it sounds. I want to fill up my suitcase with it and leave all my clothes!!! They eat a lot more often than we do, but they are smaller portions. Except for breakfast, which is usually pretty big to my standards. I usually get fed yogurt, oatmeal, tea, and bread with butter or cheese. I'm getting more used to the eating schedule though.

I will try and post photos later this week from Moscow and here. Hopefully this nice long post satisfies everyone! miss you!

In the past two days we have covered a vast amount of Russian history in not so vast amount of time.

Yesterday we went to Peterhof Palace, which is on the Bay of Finland in the Baltic Sea. It was built by Peter the Great and expanded by Empress Elizabeth. It is called the "Russian Versailles" for good reason. It was absolutely huge as well as being ornate, and full of everything a royal could need for the summer months. There are also extensive grounds with other buildings and a smaller Marly Palace much like the Petite Trianon at Versailles. There are also some trick fountains that are pretty funny and technologically advanced for that time. We spent a couple of hours just wandering the grounds as well as an hour on a tour of the palace itself. We took a boat back to St.Petersburg, which after all that walking we all fell asleep on.

Today we went first to the museum/memorial for the Siege of Leningrad. It was very beautiful but also very typical of the soviet union taste for arcitecture. Lots of dark colors and low lighting, along with music glorifying Russia. I had no idea how long they were under siege - 900 days and nights starting May 9, 1941. We just missed the big anniversary parade and rememberance ceremony that they have every year.

After that we went to whats called the Hermitage. It is the Winter palace built by Catherine the Great, which she filled with artwork from all over the world. We spent about 2 hours trying to see as much of it as possible. Along with paintings, there were also ancient antiquities, furniture, sculptures, and the palace rooms themselves. I was so busy looking at the rooms most of the time I didn't absorb most of the art. The floors were all inlaid wood, and the rooms were all so grand and each had its different little theme. We spent most of our time looking through the Western European Art and the palace furnishings, along with other Russian culture things.

We also went to the ballet tonight where we had AMAZING seats. We sat in one of the boxes right by the stage that would have been used by the aristocrates of the czarist times. We saw a sequence of Strivinsky composed ballets, each a little different but all based on Russian folk lore. I really enjoyed the last story about a bird that the prince has to capture, and by pursuing it goes on a little adventure. The costumes and props were phenominal.

Tomorrow we are going to the Russian Museum (yay another one!) and for a boat ride on the canals. After that we leave by train for Moscow, where I do not know if I will have internet, so you may have to wait until I figure out the internet situation in Volgograd. I'm really excited for my first real train ride.

I currently cannot feel my feet! We walked everywhere today!! We started the day around 9:30am walking around St. Petersburg to see lots of historical buildings and such. We saw St. Issac's Cathedral, which was amazing. Its absolutely huge! I took a lot of pictures there too. There is a walkway around the top dome, so we got to see an aerial view of the city.

It really does look like the Venice of the North. The River is a lot larger than I expected. We also went to Peter and Paul Fortress, which was one of the first establishments in St. Petersburg. All of the Czars since Peter the Great are buried there, including the last Romanov family. Their bodies were transferred there and buried together with a separate chapel to honor them. They are considered martyrs in the Russian Church now.

We were blessed to have gorgeous weather today, which made the day even more enjoyable. We met up with one of Dr. Merrill's friends, Liza, who is about our age and a local. She took us out to lunch at (you won't believe this...) PIZZA HUT! It was a lot different than our one at home though. They had a full bar, and many more choices besides pizza, and they had a desert menu. It was nice to be able to order food that we knew what we were getting. It made everyone feel a little more at ease today. I think we're all getting a little more used to the overwhelming signs and people talking to us. We haven't seen very many American tourists - but its not really summer yet.

It only took almost 24 hours to do it, but we finally arrived in Russia. Culture Shock set in pretty quickly at the airport and on the drive to town. All of the crazy signs and words that we don't know were really throwing us for a loop. I was surprised how many English signs there were outside of the airport. Some of the shop signs even have the English translation.

We already had a struggle trying to order dinner, but I think everyone ended up with something they could eat. The restaurant staff thought it was pretty funny that we didn't know exactly what we were ordering. It really didn't help that we're all running on about 4 hours of sleep.

Tomorrow we are in for a long day, seeing as much as possible with Dr. Merrill and Lena to guide us. Our hotel is right downtown so we all went for a stroll after dinner, but we have no idea what we were seeing, so hopefully Dr. Merrill can fill us in tomorrow.