GUESS WHERE I AM?

In Erin's apartment! Using her internet because ours has still been down!

And I just Skyped with Mom and Dad and Gwen even. Gwen was not very interested.

Anyway, I've also been crazybusy with things so even if the internet was working I wouldn't have had time to write much.

On Thursday we had another Cultural Excursion after class -- we went to Peter & Paul's Fortress and then wandered around the park that is near it. My friends and I got some coffee afterwards and began talking to some German psychologists who were doing an experiment that involved team work. So that was interesting.

And then yesterday, well, yesterday was crazy. All the schools in Russia end on the same day, which was yesterday, so there is a big holiday celebrating the students who just graduated from high school. So there are all these kids running around the city wearing red, blue and white sashes. There were also boys who looked like they were 13 drinking beer and smoking cigarettes. I met up with Erin last night and met two of her friends -- Masha and Alexis -- and we walked around the city in the chaos. They shut down all of the major streets, so Nevskii Prospect is just full of people and broken beer bottles. It's total madness and typical Russian chaos. They had fireworks later and this ship with red sails, something patriotic or something, but Erin and I missed that because by that point we had met up with my Smolny friends at a bar near the Church on Spilled Blood. We then just hung out for a bit and watched the end of the Turkey vs. Croatia football (sorry, soccer) match, and then even when I was walking home with Grace (who leaves right near me on Marata) it was bright out. I witnessed the "night" briefly -- when it gets kind of dusky but at the same time looks like it is getting light out again, like very early in the morning. It's like 7pm and 7am in one moment.

So that was all good and fun and then today Erin and I had coffee again and met up and just walked around Nevskii and such. She's given me a list of places to check out.

Also, Malina arrives today with the Yale program, which will be good. And Abby is going to visit from Moscow next weekend, so the three of us and Erin are going to have a little Wellesley-in-Russia outing.

That is all. Keep sending me updates of life at home. I love hearing what is going on even if I can't respond right away.